Anwar’s not important, good governance is

A good government is constituted by good people and the Umno-BN regime falls very short on 'goodness'.

COMMENT

This coming general election is not about the culmination of efforts to make Anwar Ibrahim a prime minister.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his followers would want us to believe in that big lie. But it’s a lie that we must politely refuse if we still can do so politely.

Making Anwar a prime minister is secondary. The primary purpose is to install a good government.

Now, a good government is constituted by good people. That is the fundamental requirement.

We need good people, qualified, dedicated and selfless who work the system to make the country better.

When we say that, it is easy for people like Mahathir and Chandra Muzaffar (president of the International Movement for a Just World) to pour scorn and ridicule.

Mahathir in politics and Chandra in intellectual-dom cannot understand the contradiction.

It is as such not hard to reconcile the contradicting nature of people in Umno and people represented by Chandra.

They think and believe that ONLY they are capable of doing good and are unable to bring themselves to accepting that they can do wrong.

In order to “disbelieve” that “good” people like them can deteriorate into evil-doers requires a longer and indirect thinking process. It requires them to subordinate their emotions to rational thinking.

Mahathir has no time for that and it seems Chandra doesn’t want to do that either.

They prefer to continue believing that it’s ONLY them who can do good and it is impossible for good people like them to do “no good”.

Clean voting system

To believe that they, too, are fallible requires subordinating self-praise to rational analysis. Mahathir, we know, wallows in self-flattery and cannot comprehend why people want to limit his politics.

When Chandra said “it’s only people like us who can fulfil promises and who have the experience to govern”, he was representing a section of the thinking crowd who can never reconcile to the fact and reality that others beside themselves are capable of ruling this country.

So, what do we mean by good people working the system?

We mean a government that will preserve and strengthen the institutions that make a democracy strong.

We mean a clean system of voting process, the supremacy of Parliament, an independent judiciary, an efficient civil service, an incorruptible executive part of the government.

We mean institutions that safeguard our security – the police and military – who will be professional and act with full integrity and accountability.

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz is a former Umno assemblyman and is now a DAP member. He is a FMT columnist.