Deafening silence from Muhyiddin Yassin

Dear Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin,

On April 18 I wrote to you, saying it’s time to stand up again for the good of the nation, identifying problems and issues needing your attention and offering some unsolicited advice.

I concluded: “Are you going to contain this disorder by standing up, speaking up and making the right decisions? Or are you going to allow this government to operate on autopilot or remote control until there is no time to retreat?”

Sixteen days have since passed and during this period, the silence has not only been deafening, but the situation has got worse - the issues have been exacerbating, impairing and intensifying.

It leaves us, the citizens, to ask if you have the ears to the ground and if your aides and minders are telling you what is really happening.

Or, are they telling you what they think you would like to hear? Maybe you may not even be aware that you are called the “backdoor PM” and the ruling people are referred to as the “backdoor government”.

These questions are being asked because you don’t seem to have a grasp of the happenings around you and your body language on TV suggests that you are under siege or something like that. But while you battle your problems (the rakyat feel they are self-inflicted) to survive politically, we hope you look after your health as well. After all, you must practise what you preach.

Sir, the coronavirus crisis and the movement control order (MCO) have brought both the best and worst of Malaysians. The latter category is infested with politicians – most of them who are on your side, supposedly or pretending to be your allies.

The problems they have caused and the embarrassing situations they put themselves into also affect us – the citizens and this beloved country. If there are gaffes by one or two, we can claim that the slip of the tongue is no fault of the mind.

We could laugh at the Doraemon minister and “500 countries” “air suam” (warm water) minister, but this has become contagious – more ministers being inflicted with the latest threat of “you will be sued”.

The Penang chief minister has thrown down the gauntlet and in the process told Malaysians of the haphazard and disorganised manner in which the preamble to the (partial) lifting of the CMO was discussed. To use the word “slipshod” would be an understatement. The decision to make a U-turn on the decision to allow pubs to operate in Kuala Lumpur is just one small example.

Nine of the 13 states have rejected your plans and some of them are from your own coalition. They are acting “independently” to protect the interests of their people. Yes, we have to kick-start the economy by opening up. We have to return to normalcy – but at whose expense?

The proper way of doing it

Penang and Selangor are showing the proper way of doing it – systematic, methodical and disciplined. With a heavy-weight cabinet of 72 ministers and deputies, much more was expected from the federal government to show the way. Yes, they showed, but way off the beaten track.

If that was not bad enough, one minister’s aides and advisers are going around shamelessly soliciting for support from trade bodies and associations to say that “the boss has done the right thing”.

Is there a competition among ministers to make the news? Is there someone keeping track on the number of column inches and air time for each? Or is there petty jealousy that one is hogging the limelight?

Can we detect some form of blackmail in the form of demands for positions? Have you shown your weakness by handing out positions akin to appeasing kids asking for candy or a new pair of shoes?

A man of your knowledge and experience would have come across the phrase “fit and proper test”. This is used to evaluate senior managers and directors of companies, especially their ability to fulfil their duties (fitness) – and their integrity and suitability (propriety) are also examined.

How many of the appointees will pass this test, which is used by Bank Negara when it comes to appointments of senior bankers? Are you risking another scandal a’ la 1MDB or PKFZ in the years to come?

The war drums are beating and if you can’t hear them, blame your aides for putting you in a sound-proof atmosphere and compelling you to wear earplugs.

Mr Prime Minister, the end game is not mere positions and the supplementary perks. If you had played Monopoly in your younger days, you will know what is meant.

The coveted prize, reward, trophy or whatever you call it are from the board – is the “Get out of jail” card. Everyone is trying to get you to help to – overtly and covertly – land on “Chance” or “Community Chest” where this escape route from Sungei Buloh is found.

Mr Prime Minister, enough was said in my earlier letter, but perhaps you did not read it. Let it be reiterated that you have to restore the people’s confidence in your government. You are being seen as weak, pathetic and feeble. Hence, even the minutest of chieftains are making demands. Even those defeated at the last hustings have suddenly found their voices.

We are in troubled times. Running away from them is not the answer. We need strong leadership to pull us through. I don’t intend to make comparisons. Look around you.

Go out to the people. Take a drive (without your assistants and minders). Talk to the people who are queuing up at the pawnshop or talk to Mak Cik Kiah. Talk to motorists – Ahmad or Ah Beng or Samy – who feel short-changed by the banks on their hire purchase repayments.

Talk to those who live on the streets and those operating soup kitchens – not the bankers and the industrialists who do not know what hardship is.

You will receive excellent feedback and feel the pulse of the nation and its people. Is that asking too much of our prime minister?

---

R NADESWARAN continues to hope that the prime minister will take the bull by its horns and call the bluff of the “looking-for-a-fight” politicians. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com - Mkini