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The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

Posted: 06 Dec 2011 04:15 PM PST

DEC 7 — Dear YBs,

I hope that you are all in good health. I write to you as an ordinary Malaysian citizen who wants to see this country back in its glory.

I know it is hard to believe but we are not the only ones who determine the rise and fall of Malaysia. You too have a role to play. You are after all our "leaders", no?

In the spirit of Christmas and New Year's, I've decided to be a good citizen by helping to make your wish come true. I'm not exactly sure what they are, but people have been telling me that you really want to win the next general election.

I wanted to buy you reading materials as presents to improve your leadership skills, but as my purchasing power is small, and whatever's left of my salary goes to paying your salaries, building bigger palaces, hiring expensive economic consultants, I was not able to buy so many books.

But in the spirit of a true blue Malaysian I've decided to write you a list of what we Malaysians want before the next general election. This is after all a win-win situation.

You grant our wishes, and we may just grant you yours.

Besides, I don't think you keep books for company anymore.

1. Read more please

There is a reason why those who read more get better jobs. They make good, solid, well thought out and impressive statements. Have you listened to the statements your colleagues made in the last few weeks?

MCA, for instance, does not wish to allow Malaysians abroad to vote, questioning their loyalty and relevance to the future of Malaysia.

Is that how we measure loyalty these days? To be physically present in Malaysia? Does that mean the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Indonesians here are more loyal than our citizens working, studying abroad?

Maybe we should make it compulsory for our YBs to sit for an IQ test before running for office?

2. Get rid of corruption

Perception is everything in politics. You may be squeaky clean but it doesn't matter if the people believe otherwise. Please remove your Cabinet ministers, deputy ministers who appear to be corrupt.

It is guilty until proven innocent in public office. Can't accept that? Well, you can always resign and let someone else take over.

3. Be fair

Please avoid double standards when awarding contracts or meting out punishments. I read in The Star that civil servants who cause the government to lose money due to their negligence will be made to repay a portion of the lost revenue and they may even be sacked.

What about politicians, ex-prime ministers, deputy prime ministers, ministers, the heads of GLCs? Don't they need to repay the lost revenues too? We have yet to forget about Port Klang Free Zone or the double tracking rail project when we were served with the latest lembu fiasco.

4. Learn these phrases

Please look up a dictionary and familiarise yourself with these terms:

i) Conflict of interest

Father, mother, husband, wife, sons-in-law should not benefit or be seen to benefit from your post. Taking them into office is at your peril. Try not to get them to lead the youth wing, tend to your cows, or help you register the foreign workers. This is all about perception and doing it secretly will make it even more suspicious.

Remember, cameras are following your every step, including your trips to Thailand.

ii) Transparency and accountability

Please show us what you have done with our money. We want to know how the experiment in space has benefitted us, or how the tender for KLIA2 was awarded. What about the Auditor-General's report, why aren't heads rolling away yet?

What happened to the two oil blocks in Sarawak and Limbang? Are they Brunei's, or as Tun Abdullah Badawi said, ours?

Gone were the days where silence is golden, or elegant. Keep mum and the country will scream at you for answers.

5. Great Losing Companies (GLCs)

TNB, MAS, Petronas, Proton issues need to be addressed, fast. It is baffling to see why TNB is losing money to the tune of hundreds of millions of ringgit when we are all buying electricity from them. They say it is due to gas shortages from Petronas, necessitating them to use a more expensive alternate fuel. Why is that so?

Depleting reserves is one thing, but an acute shortage is usually due to sudden and severe loses. Hey Petronas, are your pipes leaking, or the decrease in production is because of poorly-maintained platforms etc?

Please also address the MAS issue. It is getting really boring for them to blame expensive fuel when the other airlines are making money. I am not comparing MAS with Garuda, Thai, or the Pakistani Airlines. Since we aim to be number one in Asia by 2015, we should benchmark ourselves against SIA, Cathay Pacific and Emirates, which all recorded profits in 2011.

Emulate them, please.

6. Education, education and education

I read that we are one of the big spenders in education.

Really?

Pardon my disbelief but have you met, or spoken to, an average graduate in English or Malay lately? Do they seem like the product of an expensive investment to you?

You should get your IQ checked if you say yes.

7. Slimmer and meaner civil service

We have 1,076,761 civil servants serving a population of about 26 million. We spend about RM40 billion on their salaries and other remunerations alone. Our population to civil servant ratio is one of the highest in the world. The Koreans, Japanese, Singaporeans and Thais have better ratios than ours.

Malaysians are already importing so many foreigners to do hard labour, are we really that lazy to have so many in the civil service doing what the other countries are doing at half the number?

Trim the numbers down please, and make them more efficient.

8. Better enforcement agencies

We are losing our sand, illegal logging is depleting our rainforest, and we are home to some two million illegal immigrants.

Is everyone sleeping? We already have too many civil servants and don't need to employ new ones to get the job done. Get the existing ones to wake up and do some real work. Give them KPIs in the number of arrests and summonses issued please, before our borders shrink and jungles and forests disappear.

9. Better public transport and toilets please

We want good roads to drive on and not ones with numerous potholes. Between road taxes and tolls, where are the good roads? Our cars are already expensive thanks to the AP system, and those which are not expensive cannot last long on our roads.

Even the tolled roads are not that good anymore. Have you driven to Kuantan on the East Coast Expressway lately? The operator should be ashamed of the current road condition.

And please stop the civil servants from going around rating the toilets, it is a futile effort. When one has to go, one has to go no matter the number of stars awarded.

Where are the commuter trains? Get them back on track and on time. It sounds like a broken record when the Transport Ministry keeps harping on how they are waiting for new commuters to start service.

10. Stop pitting us against each other

Stop with the racial rhetorics. We know they are just cheap political shots to gain political mileage. We Malaysians hate them and loath the politicians that make them. Consider yourself warned.

I have more on my list but fulfilling these should be enough to win our hearts and minds for now. You don't need to go walking around asking for opinions, instead save your time and make these happen.

Remember, the whole nation is watching you and if I counted correctly, you are running out of time.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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The oxymoronic world of Umno’s politics

Posted: 06 Dec 2011 04:06 PM PST

DEC 7 — Oxymoron.

That's the word that has been on my mind of late. Why? Because that's exactly what we, Joe Public, are being fed on a daily basis.

Etymologically speaking, the word is derived from the fifth century Latin "oxymoron", which in itself is derived from the ancient Greek to mean "sharp, dull," according to Wikipedia. The noun describes "a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction."

And therein lies the connection — such is the frequency of contradictory ideas and terms used in today's local political sphere that it's almost as if our government has nothing else to worry about.

Case in point: The highly controversial Peaceful Assembly Bill passed last week in Parliament, and our Prime Minister's declaration that the Bill is "revolutionary," and that the amendments follow international norms. That's oxymoronic.

Also, the war cries of one Umno leader last week that labelled those who support opposition parties as "bangsat" (bastards) and that a vote for DAP is a vote for the destruction of Islam. Hmm... that's another one.

And finally the PM's quote in his closing speech, "When I started 1 Malaysia, I did not say — let's neglect the Malay agenda."

I can go on, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Granted. One might argue that some of these oxymoronic statements are part and parcel of the ongoing political rhetoric and that they might have been uttered recently in the context of a recently concluded party convention.

But rhetoric or not, still, it all seems contradictory, doesn't it?

What isn't the diff?

Umno's strategy, for one. Come election time, Umno's war cries invariably include all the usual suspects — elements that touch on the two "Rs" in this country's political landscape: race and religion.

After all, doesn't anyone remember what happened a few years ago when certain Umno leaders waved the keris at its general assembly, thumping their chest and shouting about "Ketuanan Melayu?" (Malay supremacy).

Given the proclivity of the dominant party ruling the current government to do such things, I'm not at all surprised that their fairly predictable playbook, has gone something like this:

The non-Malay opposition is the tyranny and enemy of Islam and the Malay opposition doesn't practise true Islam. The non-Malay opposition doesn't care for Malays and is undermining the religion, the Malay way of life, and the national language, Bahasa Melayu. Therefore, a vote for the opposition is a vote against the Malay race, culture and Islam. Umno is the only protector of Malay rights. QED.

After 54 years of independence, is this the best the "big brother" in the ruling coalition can think of? Scare tactics and the endless vilification of the opposition, in hopes that the electorate will be taken in by all these claims?

As Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin, the former mufti of Perlis noted in a news report last week, a nervous Umno has failed to bring new ideas to voters ahead of the expected general election. "Umno is talking among themselves. I see Umno is now anxious and has no idea what will happen in the coming elections."

What other strategy isn't different? The doling out of cash and incentives, that's what. Right now, it's still early days as campaigning for the ruling coalition has yet to start. Come that day, expect more "incentives" in the form of cash or kind to be given out.

But is this what the rakyat (people) want?

Perhaps it's poignant to note what Asri had to say, "The current generation is different from those in the past. They will not be attracted by just cash and handouts."

And what's the diff?

The most obvious one is the fact that this is the first election after the one where Barisan Nasional got hammered and lost its two-thirds majority in Parliament, which has prompted the deputy prime minister to say that GE13 is the "mother of all elections."

This sets the tone for GE13, and already, Umno leaders acknowledge that the opposition could be a formidable opponent this time around. But shouldn't that be what an election is all about? The Constitutionally guaranteed right for the people to choose one party over another, and their choice of their representative to form a government? It should be, since the last I checked, we are still a democracy, of sorts, I think.

Secondly, the world has changed, and so have the people that occupy it. In the last 18 months alone, we've seen how other countries have demanded change in their own nations, holding their respective governments accountable for their actions, or the lack thereof, in what is today known as the Arab Spring.

Gone are the days where repressive regimes rule over the people as if they were puppets as citizens begin to decry and dismantle the tyranny of democracy.

Thirdly, the social landscape and global connectivity have changed. In the days before Twitter, Facebook and many other social media channels, repressive regimes could control the flow of information and limit the damage any opposition can mount. Today, that is no longer true. Thankfully, we have alternative sources of media to which we can turn to judge for ourselves who is telling the truth.

Interestingly, before 2008, I asked opposition politicians if they thought new media would play a part in the GE12. They responded saying that it can play a part but conceded back then that it had its limitations.

But in 2012, these limitations are fewer and further in between. More people will read news updates via alternative channels; smartphones, tablets and laptops will be the preferred choice to access these updates; higher broadband penetration will ensure that news will be delivered faster and more visually impactful via videos.

And for those who aren't connected, there is the spectre of the influence that urban folks will hopefully bring back to their respective senior communities, convincing them that the current ruling coalition isn't up to the mark anymore.

So what could be the diff?

Of course, all this does not necessarily mean that the opposition will take Putrajaya in GE13. But perhaps what is important is that the rakyat is at the cusp of experiencing a new level of participation in their right to choose the government by the people, for the people.

This is especially true for the thousands of first-time voters who hopefully will flood the voting stations on polling day and choose wisely. Whatever the outcome, Malaysians, in my humble opinion, have awakened to a new level of political sensitivity, thanks to the aforementioned changes in the socio-political-economic landscape.

I, for one, look forward to change, where hopefully the rakyat will choose a better class of representatives that will govern the country equitably, justly and according to the rule of law — regardless of race, creed, gender or religion.

That these representatives will deal with bread and butter issues of economic reform, reduction in corruption, stemming the brain drain and to instil excellence and meritocracy and everything they do thereby ensuring that the future of all Malaysians will be protected, instead of wading in rhetorical, race- and hate-based politics.

That, I hope, would not turn out to be an oxymoronic wish.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Rabu, 7 Disember 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion

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