Leadership, political stability, corruption and weakening ringgit – J. D. Lovrenciear

Let us not kid ourselves. Let us not take cover under some seeming global trends. Let us not even try to pull wool over everybody’s eyes just to keep some personal obligations.

The fact is that not only is the ringgit sliding but even all our Asean neighbours’ currencies are doing better than us, seriously.

That itself should set alarm bells and bring forth the courage to stop our known and sinfully patronising behaviour.

We need to take stock and serious inventory of three parameters.

First, whether we like it or not the fact is the nation’s leadership is suffering. Let us not just blame the opposition for the leadership failures; let us not lump it on Tun Dr Mahathir’s assaults on 1MDB; let us not – as we always do in the past, seek cover by blaming online news portals for the weakening ringgit.

The fact is, under Datuk Seri Najib Razak, we are witnessing his own weaknesses growing larger by the weeks as a leader; and the statements that his cabinet makes on all current developments and issues or concerns, further expose the leadership weaknesses.

Despite having all the artillery of mainstream print and electronic media spins, the ringgit is getting weaker. So do not blame the on-line news portals or whip the social media transgressions.

Second, we have to have the humility to admit that there is much instability on the political circuits of the various political parties.

The DAP-PAS war is an affirmation of Dr Mahathir’s earlier concerns that the Pakatan Rakyat marriage was one born out of convenience and therefore will not work.

At a time when the Pakatan Rakyat’s sworn enemy the Barisan Nasional coalition is at its weakest point, the opposition political leaders have chosen to arrow each other within the turf of their unholy alliance.

The fallouts from this DAP-PAS debacle are not going to make DAP or PAS any stronger. Even if by some awakening, they U-turn to patch up, the damage has been done.

Do not try to go for risk management using public relations like how the Najib administering is doing for you will soon discover that public relations cannot serve as a fairy’s wand.

Likewise Umno is facing a mountain of backlog sins. And the 1MDB is taking the wind out of the Barisan sails.

In short, the world community of investors as well as our own business communities is watching with great and cautious intent the political instability in the country.

Added to these embroiled political party battles is the emerging nightmare that the country is in acute short supply of an able, rising and promising leader who can be a national saviour – someone, for analogy purposes, in the likes of Modi or Jokowi.

Third, our blindness to long years of corruption has now surfaced as the compounding factor.

This is a subject that needs no in-depth explanation. Suffice to say that when even our thoughts and feelings are corrupt, when our relationships are corrupt, when our trust is corrupted – we have reached the cliff’s edge.

Add also to this list of corruption the long years of reliance on cheap, compromised foreign labour – legal and illegal, all in the name of making more profits-through-shortcuts.

We chose to ignore the long years of currency flight leaving the country as the millions of migrants expatriated their money back.

Meanwhile let us not forget that we have borrowed and borrowed and keep on borrowing under the claim of ‘nation development’. Now with the weakening ringgit who shall we blame? The world?

As much as we engage in preaching feel good news and keep propping up hope against hopes, we must also now also be equally prepared to face up to a future that could only get worse given all the above three fundamentals that do not seem to be going right in Malaysia.

* J. D. Lovrenciear reads The Malaysian Insider.