The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| The water crisis shows Malaysia’s lack of true leaders Posted: 01 May 2014 04:13 PM PDT Ask Lord Bobo is a weekly column by LoyarBurok where all your profound, abstruse, erudite, hermetic, recondite, sagacious, and other thesaurus-described queries are answered. Free Your Mind! The water rationing in the Klang Valley has ended! It was so stressful keeping track of which days I could go to the toilet, and which days I had to hold it in. Shouldn't someone be resigning? (Much Relieved, via email) Yes, indeed, at the time that this article is being written (or more accurately, at the time that His Supreme Eminenceness is mind-controlling one of his loyal minions to channel our thoughts and infinite wisdom and type them up on a computer), the official news is that the water rationing in the Klang Valley has come to an end. News of the cessation of the water rationing exercise came as a surprise to many, as in the most recent days and weeks all talk seemed to be of prolonged drought and the ineffectiveness of the water rationing. Which all seemed a bit silly to ordinary Malaysians who had to contend with daily thunderstorms and flooding. Unfortunately for Klang Valley residents, the many questions regarding the cause (or causes) of the water crisis seem destined to remain forever unanswered. All the parties involved seem intent on indulging in the hobby which has been consistently practiced by all Malaysian leaders and politicians – the art of taichi, also known as blame-shifting or finger-pointing. Some Malaysians (yourself included, probably) have been talking about resignations in relation to the water crisis and the handling of the MH370 tragedy-mystery. No doubt you have been inspired to do so by the resignation of the South Korean Prime Minister in the wake of the ferry disaster there. There is positive thinking, there is over-optimism, there is blind faith, and then there is sheer delusion. Anyone expecting a Malaysian leader or politician to resign as a matter of principle or as a sign of responsibility is very clearly in the "sheer delusion" zone. So, finger-pointing it is then. The water concessionaires point the finger at the Selangor state government, who point the finger at the water concessionaires and the federal government, who point the finger at the state government. There has also been a recent (and unfortunately it looks like it will be a continuing) series of "opinion pieces" by politicians and political commentators gleefully sticking their pointy-fingers into the scene. Brace yourselves for more of these in the coming days and weeks. As far as Lord Bobo is concerned, the politicians should be ashamed of themselves (yes, we mean those in the Federal and State administrations). In a supposedly democratic nation like Malaysia, the people are entitled to expect their elected representatives to have their best interests at heart. The water rationing which Klang Valley residents have had to endure is nothing short of embarrassing. Water is a basic life necessity, and to have this basic need made unavailable for two-day cycles in the capital of what is supposed to be a developed nation is undeniably shocking. It was a crisis in every sense of the word. And in a time of crisis, where were Malaysia's leaders? Does Malaysia even have true leaders? Politicians (who are supposed to be leaders) should be taking full responsibility, and being very public in assuring the people of the facts, and the steps that are being taken to ensure that the problems are solved as quickly as possible. There was a very obvious absence of any semblance of leadership. Taking responsibility and exhibiting leadership qualities are two things which seem alien to Malaysian politicians. If anything, all of them seemed most keen to avoid being associated with the water crisis, as it may place them in a negative light. Disappointingly for many Malaysians, it seemed to show that perhaps the country wouldn't be that much different under opposition rule. To answer your question, His Supreme Eminenceness does not expect anyone to be resigning anytime soon over this issue. Although Lord Bobo already knows your question before you even knew you had a question, as a practical display of your true desire to have your query answered, His Supreme Eminenceness has graciously allowed you to communicate your questions by either emailing asklordbobo@loyarburok.com or tweeting your question, mentioning @LoyarBurok and using the hashtag #AskLordBobo. Now, what the hell are you waiting for? Hear This and Tremblingly Obey (although trembling is optional if you are somewhere very warm)! – May 2, 2014. *This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. | |
| Street demos are meant to disrupt Posted: 01 May 2014 03:57 PM PDT
Sometimes I think many in the country don't seem to get the concept of a street assembly, rally or demonstration. I was watching a local television news programme two days ago and they had a news story whereby they interviewed the public regarding street demonstrations. It was amusing to see the reactions of the people who were being interviewed. All of them seemed to have the opinion that street demonstrations caused trouble and disrupted daily lives. They felt annoyed that traffic will be affected, businesses will be disrupted and whatnot. It seemed like they didn't appreciate the trouble it would cause them for that few hours. Don't they realise that street demonstrations aim to do exactly that? They intentionally want to stop traffic, cause chaos to businesses and put a stop to daily operations. They do this to attract attention to their activities, and more specifically, attract attention to whatever cause they are fighting for, so society and the authorities will do something about it. But this will only happen if a big enough disruption is achieved. It won't work if only fifteen people turn up in the middle of the city to voice out their dissatisfactions. How big of an impact would it be if only a handful of people stood on the sidewalk by the streets chanting and holding slogans as everyone else just walked by? It needs a whole lot of people. Preferably in the tune of about 50,000 people or more. That would be a nice crowd to stop cars from driving on the streets and from work to go on as usual. It will hopefully even attract some nice attention from the press, so more people would actually know what is happening and more awareness could be created. But it isn't easy to galvanise such an enormous amount of people to come out at one time. Large successful street demonstrations happen very rarely. It happens not because of any individual or group requested for it to happen. It happens because people actually want it to happen. And for so many people to want it, it must be due to a strong reason. I doubt 50,000 or more people would suddenly want to gather together at the same time for a street demonstration without any strong reason at all. So the next time people want to complain that street demonstrations aren't our "culture" or that these people just want to cause chaos in the country, think again really hard. There must be something that pushed them to do what they are doing. You may or may not agree, but you can't deny that they have a voice and they have a right to use it. – May 2, 2014. *This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider. |
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