Just own up when the responsibility is yours

This country urgently needs a return to normalcy and an end to the Covid-19 pandemic threat.

Just as urgently required are politicians and decision-makers with courage who are willing to accept responsibility and be held accountable for their actions.

The blame game should never become part of our culture. To lead the nation, you must stand up and be counted. As it is, though, the daily blame game continues to manifest with the Perikatan Nasional government as it did with the Pakatan Harapan administration.

The people have plenty of time on their hands to make up their minds about who is responsible for what and where the buck stops. There is no need to score points or obtain political mileage from your inadequacies by trying to shirk your responsibilities.

You can talk about the waste of funds by the Barisan Nasional government and why the economy is in the doldrums. You can try and shift the blame for the appointment of key personnel to lead GLCs and government departments to former or current leaders. You can blame certain personalities for the fall of the PH government. You can even blame this person or that for Covid-19 and the shelved hot air balloon programme.

But my question remains: when are you going to stand up and be counted?

Despite whatever errors of judgment he has made, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has at least had the courage to admit to his mistakes. I believe this is the hallmark of a leader taking responsibility for his actions. Perhaps this has in some way influenced his “Look East” policy as Japanese politicians practise true responsibility and resign as a matter of principle when accountability is called to the fore. This is based on the premise of the buck stops here.

It doesn’t matter if you are a minister, deputy minister or state executive councillor. The point is, you went against the movement control order (MCO) which is an offence in the eyes of the law, therefore action must be taken against you.

After all, over 5,000 Malaysians have been punished in one way or the other for defying the MCO. What are two more?

Be responsible for your actions and subject yourself to the laws of this land. Mahathir has said it. Anwar Ibrahim has said it. Senior minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has said it. In the eyes of the law, we are all equals. The police too have a responsibility to charge all those who flout the law. So stand up to it. Otherwise, it will be apparent that there exist different strokes for different folks.

Ahmad Said, the Kijal assemblyman and former Terengganu menteri besar, has assumed full responsibility for not observing the MCO along with the volunteers at his house who were there to help distribute food packages. I salute him for his courage. He did not attempt to justify his actions unlike a certain state executive councillor from Perak who said he needed to check on mobile toilets for those manning roadblocks. Why? What happened to the officers in your constituency office whose salaries are paid by us taxpayers? Are they not functioning? Shouldn’t they be looking into such matters since they are directly under your command? What happened to your chain of command?

Shakespeare said in the Julius Caesar play that “Cowards die many times before their death and the valiant taste death but once”.

It is time the powers that be decide on which category they belong.

Clement Stanley is an FMT reader.