No way Malaysia can transform unless the failure of Mahathirism is admitted & addressed

There was a time in the sixties when the public amenities and services were provided for by institutions under the government.

That was a period where not only did citizens find meaningful employment but also took great pride and ownership in these institutions that were created and left with us by the British legacy.

From water supply to rubbish collection, from the bucket latrine collection and disposal to bus and train networks, from road building to cable laying – we enjoyed dedicated services even though technology was light years behind.

For certain, as many senior citizens will attest, the stage buses arrived and departed on time all across the nation; the night soil workers never left your family in the lurch, thunderstorm or not; the rubbish bins were never spilling and oozing; the water – even from the public stand-pipe was crystal clear and many drank straight from the tap; public phones were always there when you needed one; roads were mended and sometimes you never realize that it needed repair; and many more track record excellence.

What we had were the reliable institutions - Public Water Works, Telecoms, Malayan Railways, Jabatan Kerja Raya, National Electricity Board, and the Sri Jaya Transport together with the many private operators like Len Seng, Omnibus, etc to name a few. All these organizations had tremendous opportunity to keep transforming as they built on their legacy of dedicated service to society and nation and King.

But then came along an overdrive modernization conquest under the cloak of the now infamous ‘mathiristic agenda’ that swept all of the legacy institutions. Everything was privatized. Not only privatized but it became a standard procedure to contract and sub-contract and sub-contract these services.

Cronies first, citizens last

And today, we need foreign workers at a quarter of the pay because the profit margin could not be sacrificed any more. It left Malaysians without career jobs.

The rent-seeking agenda seeped in making the privatization schemes even more intricate and spun tightly with shrouded corruption. The Official Secrets Act kept the rakyat and concerned citizens at bay, giving immense concentrations of power for all kinds of scheming deals.

We could have had the Malayan Railways as a huge corporation with the rakyat as stakeholders, with shares in a service provider across the nation, taking on the LRT, MRT and ERL services and even having a stake in the Asian rail potential. With all their cumulative expertise, we could well be venturing in exporting our knowledge and track record across the globe.

Likewise, the National Electricity Board could have capitalized on its lead advantage of being a well managed institution left behind by the British and gone on to become another corporatized entity with the rakyat holding the share capital. If the Kingdom of Bhutan is exporting electricity to India, we could have been doing the same in the region – in all likelihood.

We would not have seen the need for all kinds of consortiums or rather private individuals, ranging from water to waste management, rail to road, telecommunications to electricity - that were all privatized, sub-contracted and re-contracted and what have you like there was going to be no tomorrow.

We were asked to shut up when the roadways were privatized with a select few tolling the cash collected all the way to their bank accounts. Our Jabatan Kerja Raya was so experienced and dedicated that we built great roads that withstood our monsoon seasons with ease. But that was not good enough for the money makers.

Mahathirism

The powers that be under the single-handed, iron-fisted leadership of the then prime minister sold us a dream that eventually robbed us of our capability to keep excelling in all these public service and amenity organizations.

Anyone who raised the alarm had the Internal Security Act bracing them. We were accused of anti-nationalists. We were branded as traitors of the nation.

But see what we are left with today after fifty five years of BN governance? The damage done in the last thirty years is all around us to shoulder.

Our public transport system is a washout. Just take a look at our ‘bas sekolah’ all over the nation. Worn and dangerously maintained yellow busses with the owner-drivers hardly able to manage.

Or how about all those blue ‘bas kilang’ ? Never mind about recalling the infamous mini-busses that we survived with.

The rubbish collection services; the water supply; the ever escalating electricity bills; the breakdown of the Telekoms services – all of these were ripped off from the hands of the rakyat and given to cronies and those well connected to the mahathir-regime.

Or how about the non-revenue water loss registering at 33 percent when even Bangladesh has only 29% - never mind the fact that Singapore registeterd 5%.

In a nutshell, we were robbed; if not robbed, at least badly short-changed. The privatization agenda was a failure, yes or no?

So the question to ask is where is the transformation, BN? And if your Mahathiristic mantra has failed, why is your GE-13 manifesto not addressing it?

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