Banking on Najib

Najib must lead the nation out of the current malaise and we have no choice except to place our hopes on him.

COMMENT

Last month was very bad for the nation as a whole – shootings here and there, gun racket, drug cartels, jewellery heists, fatal road accidents and of course rape and human trafficking.

You could be forgiven if you are thinking this is happening in a Third World nation but it is happening right here in Malaysia who is aspiring to be a First World nation by 2018. Especially serious are the issues concerning crime and economy.

Of course the government has said that they will take steps to rectify the situation especially pertaining to the recent crime wave. But it is silly of them to blame the opposition on this as the opposition has offered ideas such as the setting up of an auxiliary police force only to be ignored by the government. Moreover, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is not the government of the day.

However, kudos to the police for busting a number of drug cartels although they are short-handed.

“The government must realise that this current crime spree will scare away potential foreign investors and tourists,” said Ustaz Abu Bakar Hussain, the PAS state assemblyman for Titi Serong in Perak.

And it is generally bad for business. Even our own citizens are feeling scared to dine alfresco in the wee hours of the morning for fear of being set upon by robbers or being hit by a stray bullet from a shooting.

The BN government seems to lack the drive for putting things in order and has ignored the call made by PAS Pokok Sena MP, Mahfuz Omar to convene an emergency Parliament session before Hari Raya Aidil Fitri to discuss the crime situation.

Mahfuz has thus labelled the government as “sombong, angkuh dan bongkak” (proud, arrogant and too full of themselves) for refusing to accept any suggestions or ideas put forward by Pakatan’s lawmakers.

Seems like the days of ‘the government knows best’ is back in vogue because the government intends to go it alone even if the citizens want to offer ideas.

Another area where we have hit a low point is none other than race relations. Is it due to the brainwashing carried out by certain agencies?

It is obvious now that the 1Malaysia harmony call to all races has failed.

Said Nizar Jamaluddin, PAS state assemblyman for Changkat Jering: “Those who tell our own citizens to ‘go back to China, go back to India’ are challenging the Federal Constitution and this statement of theirs also disrupts harmony between the races.”

Those who are prone to making this statement should therefore immediately cease and desist because this is an insult to the Chinese and the Indians.

Added Nizar, “Those who uttered the racist statement are ignorant about the universal teachings of Islam as mentioned in the Holy Quran, chapter 49 verse 13 wherein it is stated that God had created mankind from one man and a woman and to respect one another; only those who fear Allah most are the most pious!

“Therefore these Umno goons who said ‘balik China, balik India’ are violating the teachings of the Holy Quran. Moreover there are many millions more Muslims in China and India than the Muslims in Malaysia.”

Off the investors’ radar
Next is the economy: Is everything going well? The stock market is fine but is it a reliable indicator?

Hopefully foreign investments are still pouring in and Malaysia is still a favourable destination for foreign investors due to the modern infrastructure and our people being able to converse in English although the downgrade of the nation’s credit rating from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ by Fitch Rating Agency recently is of no help.

Together with the recent spate of shootings, Malaysia will soon be off the investors’ radar if the crime situation continues to deteriorate.

Also a bothersome issue is the large influx of foreign workers arriving daily on our shores. The negative aspect of this is that a majority of them are unskilled or low/skilled.

Many of them can be seen loitering in groups near Central Market, Jalan Hang Lekiu and Jalan Tun Tan Siew Sin in Kuala Lumpur.

Many of them too have already set up shops and business premises in these areas. This is certainly not right. Business opportunities should be given to our own citizens.

Most of these shop premises are now mini-markets and mobile phone repair shops. These type of businesses can surely be easily undertaken by our own locals and certainly there is no reason to allocate shoplot space to a foreign worker to repair mobile phones.

Our nation is definitely weird in implementing policies to help our own citizens! Where is the government policy of ‘People First’? Does this not apply to our rakyat?

Has our nation become Third World? The government seems to lack a sense of urgency to put things right.

Although less than 50% have given BN the mandate to govern, they must govern well because the taxpayers are paying their salary. The 51% of the citizens who have voted for Pakatan Rakyat now have no choice except to bear with the situation at hand and to try to whip the BN government into shape by molding them to conform to the general principles of good governance.

This is called nation-building and this task must be executed by civil society.

But currently the nation seems to be on autopilot.

“The prime minister must wake up. We are flying way too low and we must regain the proper altitude before it is too late,” said PAS Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad.

All Malaysians are now placing our hopes on Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to put things right again. In line with the spirit of ‘Malaysia Boleh’ surely PM Najib ‘boleh’.

He must lead the nation out of the current malaise and we have no choice except to place our hopes on him. After all, he is the leader of the nation and there is no one else we can turn to.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.