For a better year ahead, we need a better govt

For this coming year Malaysians should not only rely on prayers. Instead we should kick BN out altogether and elect a new government at the quickest opportunity we have.

COMMENT

By Koon Yew Yin

Our Prime Minister is said to have had a “annus horribilis”. He will probably be very happy when this stressful year for him comes to an end.

Malaysians who are not familiar with this Latin term may have dirty thoughts when hearing the term for the first time. They should be excused for thinking of rude or four letter words when cursing the BN government for making the lives of so many Malaysians so hard and miserable.

It is safe to say that our Prime Minister is not alone in his year of disaster and misfortune. Millions of Malaysians are having it worse – much worse. At least the PM’s personal bank account has increased by RM2.6 billion. But pity him – let’s not forget that much of this money has had to be distributed to UMNO leaders including members of parliament, state assemblymen, supreme council members, division leaders, bloggers, media experts, etc. Much of it has also gone to various consultants, and even more to CON-SULTANTS such as Jho Low.

As for the ordinary rakyat, the list of complaints against the government will run into several pages and is getting longer by the day. Every day it appears that there is a new scandal or case of corruption.

Meanwhile our Minister of Integrity in the PM’s Department, Senator Paul Low Seng Kuan has said that he would be out of a job if Malaysians were “god-fearing” and held themselves accountable for their own actions.

The minister, who holds the portfolio of promoting governance and integrity, said that if all Malaysians possess that trait, even Cabinet members would not dare abuse the power entrusted in them and would instead practice good governance.

That to me is one of the most stupid statements of the year!

Taxpayers like me and readers are paying big bucks for Paul Low’s salary, car and driver allowance, local and overseas travel, medical, pension entitlement, etc so that he takes his job seriously and works hard at catching the crooks, especially the big time ones. But he seems to be able to catch only small or baby crocs. The big crocs seem to be able to get away with lots of cash.

And what can he come up with to explain his inability to do his job properly – Malaysians are not god fearing!

He seems to be implying that since Muslims are god-fearing, Christians are god-fearing and Hindus are god-fearing therefore all other Malaysians such as Taoists or Buddhists or others who do not believe in god are the ones responsible for corrupt activities.

Corruption has nothing to do with whether one is god-fearing or not. Ask any ordinary Malaysian who or what is the cause of corruption and I am sure you will hear an earful about “condos for cows”, “submarines which cannot dive”, “MARA property fraud in Melbourne”, and many more which have been kept out of the news headlines. If absence of “god fearing” Malaysians is Paul Low’s reasoning, he should close shop, resign from his position asap and save taxpayers from having to bear the cost of keeping a PM, UMNO and BN fearing ministers in the cabinet.

But we have bigger problems than Paul Low.

As if the pain of having to pay GST to make up for the big hole in our national finances caused by 1MDB and other scams is not bad enough, our oil, gas, palm oil and commodity exports are doing badly. Plus our ringgit has been dropping like a stone. Maybe it is because the whole nation is not God fearing.

Thank God the ringgit has steadied somewhat during the last month. Let’s pray together with Paul Low that the cabinet ministers practice good governance and do not abuse the trust and power entrusted to them. Those with children studying abroad must pray harder as their ringgit shrinks in foreign currency terms.

Oftentimes prayer is not enough. What we need to do is kick the responsible party in the backside. But even that does not seem to be working.

So for this coming year I urge Malaysians to not only  rely on prayers or on delivering the government and authorities a kick in the backside.

I suggest we kick BN out altogether and elect a new government the quickest opportunity we have.

For a better year, we need a better government – that is a change of government.

Koon Yew Yin is a retired chartered civil engineer and one of the founders of IJM Corporation Bhd and Gamuda Bhd.