On Feb 15, I penned an opinion piece headlined “The wheels are creaking and may come off at any time”. For a good measure, I explained: “The events and incidents – sometimes bizarre – reflect the state of affairs and the situation of hopelessness that the prime minister finds himself in these days.”
Less than four months later, to say that the wheels have come off and the system is kaputt (broken) would be an understatement. The ministers falling all over themselves in implementing the latest round of the movement control order (MCO 3.0) and the national vaccination programme only paints a more accurate picture – the wheels can’t be found to put the system back on the road.
Even the quadruple XL cabinet hasn’t been able to come up with anything except grandiose agendas, which can only be viewed as poor publicity stunts.
You can no longer use the old bogeyman – the opposition – no one buys that overused and misused cliché. It’s not just those on the other side who are seething over the policies and procedures. The anger and frustration of the ordinary folk are mounting over the continued non-delivery of their needs – but they have not pulled their punches.
If you thought that you had placated the people by getting your ministers and their deputies to take a pay cut for three months, you are certainly wrong. The people know better – the other allowances make up for more than double of what they are forgoing.
Day by day, the mistakes, the about turns and specious statements further fan the flames of anger. The hundreds if not thousands of views expressed on social media supported by real-time visuals (video clips, cartoons and photographs) seem to justify the stand.
To be honest, in all my 50 years of journalism, I have never witnessed such resentment of the government. The antipathy is not couched but expressed unambiguously by ordinary citizens. They no longer fear the law and have learnt to work within the tough constraints of some pieces of legislation. It would be difficult to throw the “causing disorder” card at them because their words and actions make little difference to what is before them. In short, they are justified in making them.
Without going into micro issues, the threats of arrest and hefty fines are not working with video clips of incidents of mass breaking of the law being circulated almost on a daily basis. To many of us, there are double standards that do not bode well and speak little for the enforcement of laws.
The proclamation of the emergency, you claimed, was to control the spread of Covid-19, but what do you have to show? You suspended Parliament and gazetted new laws. What have they achieved? The numbers keep increasing and the warnings are ominous.
According to World Health Organization (WHO) Science Council member Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, a study has found that the Covid-19 death toll in Malaysia may reach up to a staggering 26,000 by September. Based on the current trajectory, Mr Prime Minister, this may be a rude awakening but your ministers have started playing the old blame game, pointing fingers at each other. Their refusal to take responsibility and refusal to admit mistakes has become contagious.
Sir, if their incompetence and ineffectiveness are showing, it is you who should take the blame because you accepted mediocre people in your set-up. For political expediency, you did horse-trading and you have to bear the consequences.
In your eagerness for a Malay-Muslim government (and to re-emphasise that you are Malay first), you forgot or chose to ignore key components in the appointment of your ministers. It would not be far from the truth to say that we have a half-past-six cabinet.
Shouldn’t you stand up and say: “The buck stops with me”, take charge and wield the big stick? Shouldn’t you be telling them to stop pussyfooting and get down to real work? The housing and local government minister defied expert advice and spent millions on a sanitisation exercise that brought no benefits. Could you not have stopped the wanton waste of money?
Do you think anyone is thrilled or proud that Malaysia has been selected to the World Health Organization executive board? It’s no big deal and shouldn’t we be worried that a man who suggested air suam (warm water) as a cure for Covid-19 is going to occupy the hot seat?
Former French president Charles de Gaulle famously said: “Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.”
Mr Prime Minister, it is not too late to get your act together and pull this country out of the rut. If you can’t find good people within, there’s nothing wrong with summoning help from the outside. - Mkini
R NADESWARAN says the government should put the health and welfare of the citizens first and prevent politicking in the implementation of policies and procedures. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.
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