About the next government

 

This is not about whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat is worse. This is about doing the honest thing. When you do party work the rakyat must not be made to pay for it. And when Parliament and the State Assemblies have been dissolved you are committing criminal breach of trust by continuing to use the government facilities for your personal political campaigns and party work.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

First have a look at the Google Analytical graphic below. Those are Malaysia Today’s figures for the pre-Raya, Raya, and post-Raya period.

On Friday, 17th August 2012, Malays began to leave town to return to theirkampung. That was when the figures started declining. By Saturday, more people left town (even many non-Malays) and the figures dropped even further.

The non-Malays did not return to work until Wednesday last week, and that was when the figures started to increase again. Most Malays, however, stayed away the entire week until Sunday. On Monday this week, the figures returned to normal when everyone was back in town.

Now, while the figures over last week were down quite a bit because many people were still back in their kampung, the comments, however, did not suffer. And even when the figures went up again this week, the comments more or less remained the same.

From these figures I can only assume two things. First is that Malaysia Today’s Malay readership is quite large. And that is why the figures drop when the Malays are away. Secondly is that most of those who comment are non-Malays. And that is why while the Malay readership declines the comments do not.

Of course, thirdly, based on the type of comments posted, we can also assume that most of those who comment are not yet of the age of maturity. And that is why many comments are very childish. (You should read the ones we deleted. They will shock you).

Anyway, what I want to talk about today is regarding the next government. You see, when Parliament is dissolved to make way for the next general election, in principle Malaysia no longer has a government. What we have is merely a caretaker government and a caretaker Prime Minister.

Now, even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this back in 2006. Dr Mahathir explained that in principle there is no longer any government but just a caretaker Prime Minister. But he could not understand, Dr Mahathir said, why no one realises this and never challenged it.

In short, the Cabinet no longer exists, as everyone would have already been ‘sacked’, so to speak. Parliament has been dissolved so technically we no longer have any Members of Parliament. Hence, if we no longer have any Members of Parliament, then we no longer have a Prime Minister or Ministers.

Can the Prime Minister still use his office and other facilities such as the private jet, helicopter, etc., which are for the use of the Prime Minister? What about all those Ministers who still use their office, government car, etc?

Many Malays regard our First Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, as fasiq (bad Muslim) because of his drinking and gambling. But did you know that the Tunku took six months no-pay leave to campaign for the general election? He handed the government to his Deputy, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, to take over as Acting Prime Minister.

Whatever you might say about the Tunku, at least he was honest enough to separate his party post from his government post and he did not abuse his government post to do party work. Has any Prime Minister since then taken no-pay leave when they campaign for their party? Even the Merdeka celebration is treated as a party campaign.

And please don’t start screaming ‘that is why we need to get rid of Umno’. Many now in the opposition -- not only from Umno but also from MCA, Gerakan and MIC as well -- did the same thing when they were in government. They talk only now that they are with the opposition. When they were in government serupa saja.

Take the Menteris Besar from the Pakatan Rakyat states, as an example. Would these MBs take no-pay leave whenever they are campaigning for their party or would they use their post as MB to campaign for Pakatan Rakyat? Of course Umno also does this. That, I don’t deny. But do two wrongs make a right?

Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the MB of Kelantan, switches of the ‘government’ light when he prays (which is a personal duty and has nothing to do with the government). And how much electricity does his light bulb consume when he prays?

This is not about whether Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat is worse. This is about doing the honest thing. When you do party work the rakyat must not be made to pay for it. And when Parliament and the State Assemblies have been dissolved you are committing criminal breach of trust by continuing to use the government facilities for your personal political campaigns and party work.

Do you remember when Datuk Ramli Yussuf, the Director of the CCID, faced charges in Sabah for using a police plane to fly over his land? He was alleged to have taken a detour while on official duty to fly over his land. Just a slight detour in a government plane and he was arrested and charged.

No doubt he was eventually acquitted of that charge but the fact he could he sacked, arrested and charged for taking a ‘joyride’ in a police plane was enough to show the difference between personal and official work. What makes the Prime Minister or Ministers immune from this same ‘crime’? Once Parliament is dissolved it should be hands-off all public property. No more using public facilities for your personal or party work and campaigns.

I do not know how better to explain this point without sounding cheong hei but understand one thing: once Parliament is dissolved you are now sacked from your job. Hence we no longer have a government and you can no longer use what belongs to the government -- meaning, of course, what belongs to the rakyat.

Now, in that same spirit, since we no longer have a government, when we go to the polls we are choosing a new government. Whether we choose Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat does not matter. Both are new governments. The old government no longer exists. Everyone has been sacked from his/her job.

Okay, so we no longer have a government and we go to the polls to choose a government. Never mind that Barisan Nasional has ruled Malaysia for 55 years. That was before. For all intents and purposes, if they win the election they are going to be a new government, jut like how Pakatan Rakyat would be if they win the election.

Hence we need to ask both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat what type of new government they are going to be. We do not care what they did in the past. Don’t try to impress us with what you have been doing over the last 55 years (actually it’s 53 years because the First General Election was in 1959, not 1957). That government no longer exists. We are about to choose a new government so we want to know what type of new government we are going to choose.

Let’s look at it this way. We wipe the slate clean and start from scratch (not to include any corrupt acts, of course, which should still be on the slate). Then we are giving both a level playing field (or else Barisan Nasional can boast about what they have done over 55 years compared to Pakatan Rakyat who never ruled at federal level). Let’s assume Malaysia never had a government before. So now tell us why we should vote for you.

And that would mean we would need to look at so many unresolved issues and hear from both sides what they have to offer us. As I said, there are just so many issues but maybe for purposes of this article we can talk about some of the more pressing ones. And my list is certainly not in order of priority. And I am addressing this list to both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

1. Will Malaysia adopt in its entirety the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations on 10th December 1948?

2. Will Malaysia practice meritocracy to replace the system of quotas and preferential treatment and will Article 153 in the Constitution be abrogated?

3. Will fundamental liberties be respected and will it include the right to choose your religion, the right to have no religion, the right to your sexual preference, the right to a civil partnership, and much more?

4. Will Malaysia remain a Constitutional Monarchy or will it opt to become a Republic?

5. Will the oil royalty for those states that have oil and gas be increased to 20% or more or will it remain at 5%.

6. Will Sabah and Sarawak be given autonomy and will Federalisation in those states be reduced/limited in line with the 20- and 18-Point Agreements?

7. Will the Human Rights Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission, Police Force Commission, Judicial Commission, Election Commission, etc., be restructured so that the appointments can be made by Parliament and so that they can be responsible to Parliament and will include Commissioners from both sides of the political fence in equal numbers?

8. Will the Constitution be amended to make Malaysia more Secular with the removal of Islam as the religion of the Federation?

9. What is the position of the Sharia -- Hudud included, of course -- and which legal system will be supreme and will Malaysia remove the dual system, which appears to be running parallel, in favour of a single legal system?

10. Will the anti-hopping act, freedom of information act, freedom of association act (to include students), anti-discrimination act, anti-racism act, freedom of religion act, etc., be introduced and will the death sentence be abolished?

Those are just ten points that both sides need to tell us about. Of course there are many more and some of you may want to add to that list. The bottom line, however, is that we want to hear from all those who are going to offer themselves for election what their position about all these issues are. We can’t accept the ‘vote first and talk later’ argument. We need to know before we go to the polls the stand of all these people who want our vote. Hence no shocks and surprises later once we choose our new government.