Is a failed state our 64th Merdeka gift?

 

he news in recent days has been sad and crazy. If we read that about any other country, we’d think it was some failed state in Africa led by some power-crazy general. Have we come down to that level on the eve of our 64th Merdeka?

We hoped that our long national horror movie might end when Umno leader Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced his 11 MPs were finally going to unsheath their magic keris to repel the backdoor goblins. Everyone thought, OK this was it, game over. But no, the gremlins came screeching back with a vengeance.

Why must Parliament wait till September? Will the delay buy time for the embattled backdoor gang to entice more frogs over? What if another excuse is cooked up then to postpone it again?

The Agong can easily solve this mess in just two days by interviewing all MPs to determine who has the majority. This, in fact, is exactly what he did back in 2020 during the Sheraton Move, after Bersatu declared that it was leaving Pakatan Harapan. One wonders why it’s not being done now?

Some 11 Umno MPs have declared they are withdrawing support for Perikatan Nasional, leaving “the numbers” for the backdoor jokers clearly below the magic number of 111 MPs (for majority support). Surely, it’s crucial to quickly determine whether this government is still legitimate?

Delaying that till September will only create more uncertainty in this country when what we need so urgently now are firm decisions and clear directions. How can this government focus on the job at hand when it’s constantly looking over its shoulder at the next Parliament session?

Given how critical our triple health-economic-political crisis is, the process can even be speeded up through virtual video meetings. After all, this is how the Agong discussed the very revocation of the emergency with the law minister and attorney-general in late July.

Crisis of trust

Malaysia is facing a crisis of trust in all its national institutions. During the 1MDB scandal, the MACC seemed more like “Mana Ada Corruption Case” rather than being the “Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission”. Meanwhile, former IGP Abdul Hamid Bador has revealed that the police themselves are covering up high-level corruption within the force.

But at least people could still have faith in the director-general of health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. But now, even he looks tainted by the virus of politics. It’s rather sad how he has fallen so fast from “hero” to “zero”. Why did he stop Parliament with the excuse of a few Covid cases but allow dozens of people to enter and leave the prime minister’s house, asked Lembah Pantai MP Fahmi Fadzil?

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye gave four good reasons why Parliament should have been kept open (on Monday). This includes the fact that any building will be free of virus within 72 hours (the last session was last Thursday) - with or without sanitation. Just to be sure, we can always get Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin to stop wasting taxpayers’ money spraying disinfectant on roads and spray the hell out of Parliament instead.

And what about online meetings? Many of us are working from home with Zoom meetings, but Parliament is strangely unable, or not allowed to do so. This is such a sad joke for a country which used to claim “technological innovation” with the MSC or Multimedia Super Corridor.

It’s as clear as air suam (warm water) that the closure of Parliament (physically and virtually) is being done to prevent crucial debate. Will MPs be forced to convene under a tree as they did in Ipoh, when the state assembly building was locked during the immoral takeover of Perak in 2009?

But oh shoot, even that can’t be done. Because it has become so ridiculous that police deem even a gathering of MPs at Dataran Merdeka (“Freedom Square”) as an “illegal assembly”. Is this how we celebrate our 64th anniversary of “independence” this August?

In truth, Parliament can be safely reconvened tomorrow. There’s no good reason to have it only in September. Even if we do wait, who’s to say that the backdoor jokers won’t find another excuse to postpone again if the political ‘feng shui’ doesn’t look good for them?

For example, they can just get one of their macai (errand boys) to make a phone call claiming there’s a vague “terrorist threat” to Parliament. How will the police respond?

Or they can claim that the whole cabinet ate some rotten nasi lemak at the prime minister’s house and are having uncontrollable cirit-birit (diarrhoea) - this is the same pretext that employees use to get MCs at clinics!

Tainted motives

So what is the real reason for delaying Parliament? Is it to buy some breathing space? To enable more backroom deals to be made? To entice more frogs to jump? As a joke on WhatsApp goes, what is the price of meat in Malaysia now? It’s RM32 per kilo of beef, but perhaps RM32 million just for one frog!

The fundamental problem with the backdoor gang is a lack of sincere motives. It’s not just that they didn’t even believe their own SOPs while they happily went on with their durian and joget parties. It’s that politics may have affected everything they do.

Here’s a simple example. Medical expert Dr Musa Mohd Nordin pointed out that 18 months ago, he had already asked the authorities to reduce the price of Covid test kits from several hundred ringgit (at that time) so that we could keep track of infections. Sadly, he claims this was not done because some “cronies” were “laughing all the way to the bank” with the high test kit prices.

Is this true? If so, perhaps the MACC should investigate.

Then there was the slow vaccine rollout. Was this just because of incompetence in securing vaccine supplies? Minister Khairy Jamaluddin cleverly tried to divert blame for this by making a big show of accusing Western countries of “hoarding vaccines”.

Yet after the Agong first spoke up about the need for Parliament to meet and discuss the national recovery plan, lo and behold, we saw vaccinations being speeded up! So, is it unreasonable to ask if there was a hidden political agenda to delay herd immunity? To prolong emergency rule?

And of course, there’s the money. The government’s use of emergency powers to access RM19.2 billion from the National Trust Fund (Kwan) for vaccines (and related costs) has raised questions about who will benefit from this. Why was this done when Budget 2021 had already allocated money for vaccines?

Unlike in Norway, where every citizen is a millionaire because their government has carefully kept part of oil revenues in a pension fund, we have seen our trust funds like 1MDB being plundered. Since Parliament is being blocked, who is to provide any checks and balances for Kwan, which is supposed to be kept for future generations? Will there be any overpriced contracts to benefit certain people? To build up “war chests” to fight the next elections?

Even though the emergency itself expired on Aug 1, the emergency ordinances continue to be in force for another six months, till February 2022. This includes an amendment to Treasury rules that allows the government to raise as much money as it likes on the excuse of tackling Covid.

The horror movie of a government already proven to be incompetent (and maybe corrupt) continues, even though steps can be taken to stop them. As the triple health-economic-political crisis continues, we are losing trust in all our national institutions.

Are we destined to become a failed state? Is this how we celebrate our 64th Merdeka? - Mkini

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ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.