AUGUST 12th D-Day

June 4th 1944 marked the massive D-Day marine landings by the Allied armies on the French coast across from England and the beginning of the liberation of France from Nazi Germany. That was only 79 years ago. There are millions of people alive today who are older than that. Meaning it is part of our living history.

On the same day June 4th, 1944 at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, the Allied troops had already liberated the city of Rome in Italy. Basically Italy was liberated the day before the Allies crossed the English Channel. 

On July 4th 1944 Soviet Russian troops were barreling across Belarus to liberate Minsk from the Nazis.  Throughout July 1944 the Soviets bulldozed through to liberate Poland from the Nazis. 70 years later by 2014 the Nazis would make a reappearance in neighbouring Ukraine.

July 4th 2023 (three days ago) was also the 242nd independence day of the United States of America. A great country without a doubt. A great society. A country that has contributed so much to influence the progress and development of the rest of the world - todate. However there are waxes and wanes, ebbs and flows. Maybe they will become great again.

August 12, 2023 shall be polling day in six states here - Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.

(I hear that the DAP has taken some umbrage at my post yesterday which suggested that the PH will lose Selangor. My friend Dr Ong Kian Ming has protested that the survey was conducted by a local outfit and not by ISEAS. The survey was commissioned by ISEAS Singapore. They published the survey on their letterhead.)

August 12th would also have seen the end of the five year term since the BN-UMNO was defeated in the 14th GE in May 2018. Where Tun Dr Mahathir made history by becoming prime minister of Malaysia for the second time. A radio station from South Africa called and interviewed me on the phone about Dr M's second shot at the prime ministership. I guess my voice was heard on the air in South Africa. Waxes and wanes, ebbs and flows.

If Dr M had not messed up, if he had remained as prime minister, I dont think he would have handed over the prime ministership to X-man. Would the country be in a better situation today? Possibly yes. 

Say what you want (or say what I want) but Dr M was a far superior administrator. His economic policies have always been wanting but he could hold the country together.

Dont forget Dr M had appointed Latheefa Koya our first female Chief Commissioner of the MACC. He also appointed Tommy Thomas (now Tan Sri) as the Attorney General. 

In a country where corruption was and still is Item no 1 on the Main Menu, Dr M appointed two people who were identifiable with the anti-corruption crusade in the country to head perhaps the two most important institutions that have the authority to do something about seriously tackling corruption in the country.

Latheefa Koya wasted little time and made public those voice recordings which showed that the real ex-prime minister wore skirts and spoke with a witch's  shrill. 

Tommy Thomas began the series of 1MDB prosecutions including Malaysia becoming the first (or only) country to launch criminal proceedings against Goldman Sachs. 

What could have been. If Dr Mahathir had remained as prime minister, that 47 counts fellow would probably be behind 47 iron bars in jail by now.  We would have recovered much more money from Goldman Sachs and all the other culprits involved in the 1MDB thievery. What could have been.

But there are good things happening in the country. The country saw the first change in government after 63 very long years (1955 to 2018).

Sadly Malaysia was late to make changes in the political power structure in the country. Late compared to our neighbours Indonesia and the Philippines.

In 1986 the Philippines threw out the 30 year old Marcos dictatorship. To avoid the threats  of future dictatorships the Filipinos have restricted their president for ONE TERM only of six years. I think this is a great idea and we should follow it too. So since 1986, the Philippines has had SEVEN presidents ie C Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo, B Aquino, Duterte and B Marcos. Each serving six years only.

Each of the seven presidents has brought changes, new blood and new thinking to the Philippines. The Philippines is a far better place now than it was before and 42 years after throwing out the Marcos dictatorship they are looking forward to a better future. 

Same with Indonesia. In 1998 Indonesia kicked out the Suharto dictatorship that had lasted almost 32 years (from 1967). To avoid future dictatorships the Indonesians too changed their laws and limited their presidents to a maximum of two terms of five years each.

Since the 25 years after Suharto was kicked out the Indonesians have elected SIX presidents ie Habibie, Gus Dur, Megawati, Bambang and Jokowi. They will be choosing another president again soon. And these SIX changes of presidents has brought the much delayed change and new thinking inside Indonesia. Each president brought new ideas and new approaches to advancing Indonesia forward.

So we are late. After 63 years we made our first change in government just five years ago in 2018.  In the five years we have had FOUR prime ministers. The longest lasting 22 months. The present one may also be on the clock.

Why are our prime ministers so short lived. Two main reasons. Ours is a party based parliamentary democracy - like the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Israel, Australia and many of the Commonwealth countries.  Parties usually form coalitions to rule. If they cannot form a coalition or keep it together Humpty Dumpty will fall. Next prime minister please. 

Reason No 2 is that since 2018 the people of Malaysia obviously do not identify overwhelmingly with any one political party as representing their interests. Hence no single political party can win a large majority to safely form and hold the government. 

In other words the people of Malaysia generally do not like what the political parties have to offer them. They do not see the political parties as looking out for the peoples' welfare. The people of Malaysia cannot see any benefit from overwhelmingly supporting this party or that party. Hence their support is splintered and distributed over a wide spectrum of political parties.

In brief what I am saying is that there will be more changes in government and there will be more changes in the prime ministers. 

Indonesia has already undertaken change for 25 years - since 1998. The Philippines has been changing things for 37 years now - since 1986.

Malaysia has just started - for five years now since 2018. So we have a long way to go.

How long will it take before the next Malaysian prime minister can serve a full five year term? Another 20 years ? Another 30 years?

The next Malaysian prime minister can only serve a full five years if he pays close attention to the welfare of ALL the Malaysian people.  It has to be all the Malaysian people. 

This simply means ALL the same, failed policies that saw the BN-UMNO, Dr M 2.0, TS Muhyiddin, Ismail Sabri, X-man get kicked out will have to be thrown into the bin.

You change you get to stay as PM.

You no change, then you will get changed.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.