Let’s celebrate change with new hope!

We all thank the Almighty for the glorious GE14 and the blessed results. The BN government ruled us for 61 years and did us proud initially and in the early years.

But then it declined in its contribution to nation-building in recent years. Like selfish shepherds, they slowly failed to look after the sheep but gradually cared more and more for themselves becoming increasingly exclusively. Hence we mostly worked together, as patriotic Malaysians, to change our shepherds and our leaders.

Finally and shockingly, the wonderful will of the people prevailed and courageously overthrew the government peacefully. The reward to us and to our beloved Malaysia is that the rakyat has triumphed and won the GE14 - and thank God for the victory!

We have changed the BN government to the Pakatan Harapan government under our new Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was previously our PM for 22 years, 15 years ago! This is historic and perhaps unprecedented, even worldwide, especially since Mahathir is now the oldest and most resilient leader in the world.

Malaysia’s dramatic and drastic change in government at the federal level and also in so many state governments, with security and stability and so smoothly, is a source of great pride and gratitude as well.

It’s also a tribute to the deep sense of unity, loyalty, harmony and strong religious and moral values of all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or geography. Congratulations are due therefore to all Malaysians who fought for justice and fairness and nationalism.

Our collective hope is that the wrongs will be put right by the new government and that Malaysian money that has been illegally taken away from Malaysians must be returned to all Malaysians soon.

Indeed, we cannot afford to repeat our past mistakes of unfairness to our rakyat. There must be more policies, based on the rakyat’s basic needs and human rights and the 17 UN Sustainable Goals in the way ahead.

We must ensure that our future planning and implementation and all our national institutions adhere more closely to our sacred Federal Constitution, both in word and especially in the spirit of our Constitution and our founding fathers.

It’s the very deviation and defiance of many of our constitutional rights that created the “tsunami of resentment” against the government that had built up over recent times.

The first hundred days after the GE14 must therefore address the above issues and weaknesses that in one way or another eroded public confidence in the previous government.

Hence we look forward to the new government under our new PM to bring about change, to initiate and to realise real, structural change in the leadership, style, policies, practices and governance for the better of our beloved Malaysia.

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The writer is chairperson, Asli Center of Public Policy Studies. -Mkini