At the end of the day, politicians are all the same

 

As Malaysians, what have we learnt about politicians, through their track record? Apparently, not much. See, they get away with saying one thing, and doing the complete opposite. Yet, even after falling for their rhetoric umpteen times, we still get upset and start a national dialogue about what they said and then did.

The government raised the price of diesel this week by removing the subsidy they were giving. The move was to save the nation RM4.5 billion.

From a national economy stand-point, it seems like a good idea, on paper. There seem to be many earnest supporters of this initiative. The Prime Minister, whilst announcing the decision to remove the diesel subsidy, said that it should not benefit the rich, and foreigners. He argued that now, only targeted sectors would truly benefit, and that the government will not be subsidising fuel for those who do not deserve it.

The opponents of this initiative argue that the increase will not actually affect the well-to-do. People with means will continue to consume fuel even at a higher cost. But smallholders, who must go through complex hurdles to qualify for the rebates, are the ones who, ultimately, will be the losers.

I seem to find myself relating to this argument. In the immediate aftermath of the rise in diesel prices as a small business owner. The ice supplier to my restaurant raised the price by 30 sen per bag the very next day after the hike took effect. This means I now have to pay about RM100 per month more for ice. This is only for ice. I’m eagerly anticipating new prices from my other suppliers. So much for “the right sectors benefiting.”

In any case, I’m not a developmental economist to comment on the wisdom of this decision. Let’s just pray that the RM4.5 billion goes into national coffers, and not elsewhere.

But here’s the thing. I can’t get this narrative out of my head. I distinctly remember what our Prime Minister said, so emotionally and eloquently, on numerous occasions, as the opposition leader. He vowed to us, his beloved electorate, that the very next day after he is elected to lead the nation, fuel prices will go down.

What’s the lesson here? Clearly, it’s that you cannot and must not believe anything a politician says. Right? Everything they say is done for political expediency, and immediate effect, to curry favour with the voting public.

The meme I’ve seen most this week on social media is a picture of a wolf speaking to a bunch of sheep, declaring that once elected, it swears to become a vegetarian. Don’t Malaysians now feel like that herd of sheep?

In a sense, it baffles me that Malaysians still debate and get irked with this government. Even after a year and half of broken promises, and regularly ignoring the reforms they assured us, we still get wound up with this government. We vent out our frustrations. But does anything ever happen after our lamentations?

Perhaps it’s time to accept that this government is a product of the political system that we employ in Malaysia. And, at the end of the day, they are no different from previous administrations. Whoever comes into power will face impossible decisions that are linked with our parochial need to kowtow to the ultra-racially charged nature of the country.

All politicians and parties seem doomed to go down the same road because intrinsically, our system is entrenched with fault lines that need to be navigated deftly. Unlike other countries, our divide is neither ideological or philosophical. It is purely racial, peppered with a healthy and heady dose of populism.

For example, thinking that he might appease one section of our society, the Prime Minister announced during the recent visit of his counterpart from Singapore that they had discussed the possibility of sending Singaporean teachers to Malaysia.

Apparently, they spoke about the possibility of Singapore considering our Prime Minister’s “humble submission” of sending their teachers to us to teach English and some other subjects. But we all know that our education system is largely dependent on our national policy, which is driven by special privileges to the majority community.

Say, one thousand teachers from Singapore came to Malaysia, what do you expect them to achieve and deliver? Singapore’s education system is acknowledged to be world class, and is completely meritocratic. Ours is fraught with parochial racism. Their teachers would be flabbergasted with our practices.

In fact, our Prime Minister didn’t address the “elephant in the room.” So many of Singapore’s teachers in their school system are actually Malaysian!

So, what do we learn once again from our politicians? It is that they think populist platitudes will get them everywhere.

Voters actually need to realise that nothing politicians say can be held as “sacred.” And really, there are no permanent principles that anyone or any political party actually holds on to.

Voting in our country has literally become a crapshoot. It really doesn’t matter who we choose. We’ll just end up with the “same lot.” - FMT

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