Call Me A Fool, I Am Worried

FOR the Muslims, the holy months of Ramadan and Syawal are a time for reflection. Time that they pause to remember the blessings of Allah and to be grateful for His bounty. For the older ones, it’s time to recall the time that had gone by.

Parents are hopeful that their children will be thankful for the sacrifices they had made and to cherish their legacies.

It was on this note and premise that the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s second Prime Minister (1971-76), laid the foundation for the Internal Security Act (ISA).

In his speech to the Dewan Rakyat, when debating the bill on June 22, 1960, Tun Abdul Razak, among other things, said:

“Sir, no one can predict the future, history alone can tell; but I am of the firm conviction that if we pass this Bill today our children and grandchildren will be very thankful for our foresight, our forethought, for taking measures to protect our young nation and our new State and for taking measures to make democracy safe in this country and taking measures to make this country a healthy place for them to live in the years to come.”(Read more)

Tun Abdul Razak: Great Foresight and Forethought

Yes, I am very thankful to Tun Razak’s foresight and forethought. The ISA made democracy safe and Malaysia a healthier place to live in.

But not everybody shares Tun Abdul Razak’s hope and aspiration. Not every child and grandchild is thankful to his foresight and forethought.

Or maybe he or she does not even know what this great man had said and done for him and her. Malaysians don’t particularly care about history, heritage and legacy. Sad.

Mohd Najib: He has a different idea

Just a thought and a reminder that there are so many things the successors to the past leaders don’t know or don’t care about.

I wonder what role the Lembaga Penasihat Jabatan Perdana Menteri plays these days since preventive detention laws have all been done away with and as Malaysia becomes increasingly unsafe and unhealthy.

Yes, there is an advisory board at the Prime Minister Department on these matters. But all of us know that the current PM has the largest number of advisors, special and not so special.

Advisors vs Hangers-On

IT will not surprise me a bit if more will be appointed, not so much for the value of their contribution, but to keep them happy, to neutralise them and to empower the PM by having one advisor cancelling the other. A brilliant strategy, if indeed it is one.

The many million ringgit question is, who are paying these men and women their “taraf menteri” salaries and do they really contribute?

No wonder our budget deficits under the PM as Finance Minister is growing bigger and are attracting negative international ratings.

And we should all be worried about the spectre of the 1997/98 Asian Financial Crises staring at us once again.

China has slowed down. Thailand has gone into recession. The ringgit is weakening against major currencies.

But do the advisors to the PM care that the rupiah had slid to its lowest in four years on Aug. 19 and Indonesia’s share prices fell the most in 22 months and government bonds slumped on concerns over a much wider current-account deficits?

Here in Southeast Asia, the crisis of 1997/98 started in Thailand and Indonesia. Are we not worried? Are we prepaared? Do we have a contingency plan?

The PM was a junior minister when the recession hit in 1997/98. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin worked hard to rescue the economy. Are they the PM’s penasihat bertaraf menteri? I have not heard of it.

Maybe I am deaf. Wallahualam.