How do we explain our failings?

Our system of government is supposed to provide built-in checks and balances to minimise concentration and abuse of power. But where did that built-in mechanism go?

COMMENT

By TK Chua

In Malaysia, the degree of sensibility and the amount of intelligence is very much inversely proportionate to one’s position.

The moment they are bestowed with positions of substance, all “sense of compass” seems to elude them.They will justify the impossible and provide the most bizarre and ridiculous explanations we could ever imagine.

However, the moment they are out of office, rationality and intelligence would return to them.

Our system of government is supposed to defend and protect the public – the citizens, the weak, the marginalised and the downtrodden. Public institutions and leaders are supposed to work for us. But this is not to be. How do we explain the total failure of almost every one of them?

Not only our public institutions and leaders do not hold the wrongdoers to account, they seem to be protecting them from investigation and prosecution.

How did all these happen? I know wise men and women have provided reasons on why we are in this hole. Corruption, incompetence, deceitful leadership, lack of transparency, and abuse of power are the favourite themes.

But how did corruption become so endemic and pervasive? How did it possibly affect everyone helming our public institutions? Where did our principles, values, cultures and religions vanish to? How did everyone become corrupt at the same time and if they were not, how did they become so feeble as if they are beholden to someone? We need to discuss deeper on this.

Our system of government is supposed to provide built-in checks and balances to minimise concentration and abuse of power. But where did that built-in mechanism go? Where did the separation of power go? How is it possible that everyone is succumbing and yielding to the “powers that be” at the same time?

How is it possible that almost everyone is abandoning the constitution and the oaths of public office they have sworn to protect? I just don’t understand.

We are supposed to appoint people of qualifications and character to public office. Many of these people have professional, postgraduate and doctorate qualifications, some even with high CGPA. Many of them have religious credentials and have often preached hauntingly about integrity, public service and morality. But in action, why is competence lacking? Why is everyone displaying the most bizarre and senseless mentality we can ever fathom, like for example, suggesting that marriage is a solution to child rape. Do you think tribal cavemen would suggest the same?

We are supposed to have the fourth and the fifth estates under our system of government. But why is our situation so suffocating and stifling? Why is seeking information from the authorities becoming so difficult? Why is seeking explanations on malfeasance almost impossible? How is it possible that everyone with authority is seeing, hearing and speaking no evil at the same time? Why is everyone falling in line and how?

How is it possible that almost all our leaders are lacking in leadership? How is it possible that so many of them have become deceitful and treacherous at one go? While not all leaders are good, certainly neither can they be all bad. In Malaysia, our leaders are defying the law of statistics –somehow they will mutually support, protect and reinforce each other to do the wrong things. Why?

I have no solutions to the predicaments we are in. I am just asking. Maybe we need to think a little harder and deeper.

TK Chua is an FMT reader