When an explanation becomes an excuse

 

Selayang MP William Leong argues that non-Malay frustration with the government is understandable, but ultimately misplaced, and that voters should not allow disappointment to turn into disengagement.

He is entitled to his opinion, but his argument is incomplete.

Leong explains why people are frustrated, but not why they remain frustrated. Like many political arguments these days, there are plenty of explanations and very few results.

There is a difference between an explanation and an excuse, or spin.

An explanation tells you why the car broke down. An excuse tells you why it is still sitting on the driveway three years later, still unfixed.

And that is where many Malaysians find themselves today. Not short of explanations, but short of results.

Why turn it into racial issue?

The first problem is that this is not a non-Malay issue. Malays are frustrated too, as are Chinese, Indians, Sabahans, and Sarawakians.

The cost of living does not ask your race before emptying your wallet. Corruption does not ask your race before damaging public trust. Poor governance does not ask for your race before affecting your daily life.

So why are we still talking about frustration through racial lenses? Leong should know better.

For decades, politicians told us that we are one nation. Yet whenever problems arise, we are immediately divided into Malay concerns, Chinese concerns, Indian concerns, and non-Malay concerns.

Perhaps one reason Malaysia struggles to move beyond race is that our politics keeps dragging us back into it.

Then there is the economy. Leong points to gross domestic product (GDP) growth, foreign investment, a stronger ringgit, and record tourist arrivals. Good to know these, but ordinary Malaysians do not live inside GDP statistics.

They live in the space between payday and the next bill. They see the economy every time they buy groceries, pay rent, settle their utility bills, or wonder whether their income will stretch to the end of the month.

A mother buying groceries cannot pay with GDP growth. A retiree cannot settle his electricity bill with foreign investment figures.

Always getting there but not quite there

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His article also asks for patience, that reforms take time, coalitions are complicated, bureaucracies are slow, and institutions resist change.

All true, but Malaysians did not elect a government to explain obstacles with endless spin. They elected a government to overcome them.

Coalition politics may explain the delay. They do not excuse it. Institutional constraints may explain the difficulty. They do not replace delivery.

At some point, a reason stops being a reason. It becomes an excuse, and that is why many voters are asking a simple question: Where are the reforms?

We don’t need the endless speeches, announcements, and promises of reform because reform cannot permanently exist in the future tense. It cannot always be “coming soon”.

Madani’s reforms are like a bus that is always about to reach the next stop, but never does.

Pussyfooting around racial issues

The same applies to religious and cultural issues. Citizens are told these matters are sensitive. We know they are, but sensitivity cannot become a substitute for fairness.

When temples are relocated, when non-Muslim places of worship face restrictions,and when questions arise over whether a church or temple should be lower than a mosque, citizens have every right to ask why.

Why should the height of another person’s building threaten the strength of one’s faith? A confident faith does not require a tape measure.

Right to ask questions

And while we are on the subject of questions, citizens also have every right to question government decisions, especially about public spending, procurement, governance, or competence.

That is not extremism. That is simply citizenship.

Democracy is not strengthened when people stop asking questions. It is strengthened by answers and facts, not debates, police reports, and enforcement language.

Take the littoral combat ships project. Billions of ringgit were spent, years passed, deadlines missed, explanations offered, and then even more explanations followed.

The public kept asking the same question: Where are the ships? Unsurprisingly, the answers have always been more “explanations”.

A US Navy LCS

Then there is Boustead Naval Shipyard Sdn Bhd. Taxpayers’ money is not a bottomless pit of bailout money. Citizens are entitled to ask why money intended for national defence appears entangled with corporate rescue exercises and debt problems.

We are justified in asking at what point does public money stop serving the public and start serving institutional failure?

Then there is corruption. Ordinary Malaysians are repeatedly told nobody is above the law, but high-profile cases often seem to end with acquittals, discharge not amounting to acquittals (DNAA), reduced sentences, reduced fines, compounds, or pardons.

Each case may have its own legal explanation, but public trust is built on consistency, which many people feel is missing.

The same applies to concerns about powerful networks operating behind the scenes. Take your pick: Corporate interests, political patronage, procurement ecosystems, cartels, and cases that fade away.

Whether these concerns are justified or not, they exist, and ignoring them will not make them disappear.

Silence rarely builds confidence. Transparency does.

Bogeyman tactics

Finally, Leong warned about the Green Wave.

Many Malaysians share legitimate concerns about extremism, but fear cannot become a government’s permanent campaign strategy.

A government cannot endlessly ask voters to support it because the alternative may be worse.

So we will ask this question: “What have you done with the opportunity we already gave you?”

We deserve an answer, and we do not need another warning from politicians, because the biggest mistake they make is assuming public frustration comes from misunderstanding.

More often, it comes from understanding perfectly well. We understand what was promised, what was delivered, and the gap in between.

Explanations are not achievements, and when the same explanations are repeated year after year, they stop sounding like explanations. They are excuses.

Leong said that we are voting for ourselves and our children, and that not voting means surrendering our power to those who may not have our best interests at heart.

That is the theory, because our experience is simple: votes are repeatedly used to return to power people who later prove they do not have our best interests at heart. - Mkini

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Find her on her website and on X.

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