The people are watching the govt

BN leaders have got to bear in mind that people are getting smarter these days and we will be monitoring their every move.

COMMENT

No one can comprehend why some top officials are fond of making contradictory or confusing statements. One such instance is the statement concerning the indelible ink.

An English daily dated July 14, 2013 reported Lembah Pantai MP, Nurul Izzah Anwar’s comments on the Election Commission’s (EC) statements regarding the silver nitrate content in the indelible ink. She was reported as saying, “You cannot keep changing your statements regarding the silver nitrate content from 5 to 7 percent; then to 1 percent and later say it is akin to food colouring.”

The second example that comes to mind is the Retirement at 60 policy. Almost 300 companies including big government-linked companies (GLCs) have yet to implement this policy, reported an English daily dated July 9, 2013.

A definite deadline must be given once and for all to all organisations to comply and there should be no more elastic extensions after this final deadline as too much flip-flopping causes uncertainty. The same goes for the minimum wage policy.

There should also be no flip-flops concerning the education policy (wherein the teaching of science and maths in English is one example) and the reduction in car prices.

Too much flip-flopping by the government is unhealthy as it confuses the citizens. In addition to that, being ambiguous as in the case of the implementation of the Goods & Services Tax (GST) is also annoying.

The Government Transformation Programme (GTP) put in place by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is for a smooth, transparent and efficient administration to move the nation forward in an effort to achieving developed nation status by year 2020.

In fact PM Najib has announced that Malaysia might even achieve Vision 2020 in year 2018 due to ongoing efforts to raise the citizens’ income level.

However what the GTP has not envisaged is the indecisiveness of the people in Najib’s administration who are flip-flopping in their statements now and then. So is the Prime Minister aware of this malaise?

But we go back to the EC as the biggest flip-flopper of them all. From the issue of fair media coverage to cleaning up of the electoral rolls right down to the simple indelible ink, EC has shown that they are the masters of the flip-flop game.

They have said that there will be fair media coverage for all the contesting parties but there was none. They have said that they will clean up the electoral rolls but as everyone knows, this was not done.

And of course the indelible ink did not stay indelible for long and therefore now the latest move starting with the Kuala Besut by-election this month is to have all the voters dip their finger into the ink.

So far, the EC has just talked and talked but did nothing concrete in regard to bolstering the rakyat’s confidence for free and fair elections.

Boundaries without geographical logic

Pertaining to the re-delineation of the electoral boundaries, the EC has said that they will put up the new boundaries for all to view and if there are objections, they will re-draw the boundaries.

This is a good idea to engage the rakyat and let us hope that this idea will be implemented and there must be no flip-flips on this.

However the EC must adhere to the rakyat’s input regarding the re-delineation of the boundaries and not just put up a show of listening to the rakyat but in the end rejecting the rakyat’s input.

They must not hoodwink the citizens and simply draw the boundaries to suit certain parties. They must serve the citizens and be 100% neutral. Otherwise the whole exercise will reduce the idea of engaging the rakyat as just an eyewash and a pretense that there is transparency.

Listed below are examples of three electoral boundaries (although there are many more) that are drawn without any geographical logic, rhyme or reason applied to it:

1. KL parliamentary seat of Batu – extends from Sentul in KL to Taman Selayang Jaya in Selangor;

2. KL parliamentary seat of Titiwangsa – extends from Kampung Baru in KL to Taman Cempaka in Cheras, Selangor; and

3. KL parliamentary seat of Segambut – extends from Jalan Kuching in KL to Taman Tun Dr. Ismail but also encroaches into Kepong.

In addition to the re-delineation of the electoral boundaries, the EC must reject suspicious names and those without proper/complete addresses and put into order those bulk names under one address.

Malaysia in its efforts to move forward to developed nation status cannot afford to have a dodgy electoral roll. The EC officials must work for the good of the rakyat.

We as citizens together with Pakatan Rakyat as the opposition want to work with the government for the good of the nation but the government must be clear on what they want to do.

The best thing would be to propose the idea to the citizens first to gather feedback before drawing up the policy taking into account the citizens’ feedback so that it will be a win-win situation for all concerned. There must be transparency and good governance all round.

On the commuter trains there are pictures of PM Najib with the words ‘Kami Mendengar’ (‘We are listening’). This shows that the Prime Minister wants to listen to the pulse of the nation.

Together with his ‘Janji Ditepati’ (‘Promises Fulfilled’) and ‘Rakyat Didahulukan’ (‘People First’) slogans, we should expect good ideas to be implemented to benefit the rakyat and flip-flops to come to an end soon enough.

BN leaders have got to bear in mind that people are getting smarter these days and we will be monitoring their every move.

We the citizens have to be the watchdog in this process of working together for the good of the nation. And citizens-watchdog will bark, growl and snarl to sound out the government if they make a wrong move.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.