A Changing Malaysia

After ruling this country for 50 years, the ruling coalition found themselves with a government without a two-thirds majority! How could this have happened? Dare we dream that the leadership is actually taking stock to learn from all this? I am not so sure.

I am sceptical because most of the previous Ministers were not of quality material. They came into power playing the race and religious platforms. They have been doing this for so long they don’t know anything else or even care about anything else besides making money for themselves. When the people went to the streets in protest, they didn’t get the hint. It is certainly not our culture to protest or even to strike! In all my 36 years in government service, I remember only once when the union called us to picket in K.L. Of course we took leave to stand by the roadside carrying our placards. We were demanding for better pay then.

The demonstrators in K.L. last year were demanding for a decent livelihood. They were asking the government to look into their welfare. It was about jobs, education, freedom to worship, places to worship, rising cost of fuel, food etc... They were not terrorists as they were made out to be by some politicians who were in power then. If the leadership had been smart, they would have studied the situation and assigned the right persons to provide solutions to the problem rather than lock up the protesters using the Internal Security Act. The election results might have been different. The coalition might not have lost 5 states! That’s just my opinion.

I guess it was not just the demonstrations alone that caused the change. There was too much corruption. Our No. 1 enemy is not “Drugs”. It is CORRUPTION! The whole nation can go bankrupt if it is left unchecked. We will end up carrying sack loads of our money just to buy a packet of ‘nasi lemak’, while the corrupt politicians and their cronies are enjoying their ill gotten gains in some Polynesian island!

I think the change came at the right time. My only hope is that the government will learn from the change and do what it is supposed to do – take care of the people. The dust has finally settled and the opposition that has claimed the 5 states are now in the limelight. Lets hope they will do a better job. We do not need a moral police. We only want good governance. Is that too much to ask?