RM8.4m on flag pins will not make students patriotic

 

“It is a popular delusion that the government wastes vast amounts of money through inefficiency and sloth. Enormous effort and elaborate planning are required to waste this much money.”

- P J O'Rourke (Parliament of Whores)

When questioned on why the government was spending millions of ringgit on flag pins for school students, Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek talked about nurturing patriotism, love of country and this being part of a holistic approach to some government scheme to make patriotic citizens.

Now this type of governmental thinking is not new. In 2013, former social affairs and cultural adviser to the government at the time, lamenting the fact that people were not keen on flag waving, said this: “The problem is the lack of such feelings among the people, especially those in urban areas.

“We also find students not imbued with love for the nation, which is symbolised by the national flag. The flag is the simplest and cheapest symbol, and for the cost of eight cigarettes, we can buy and wave the flag.”

I know folks are wondering why waste time on something like this. Why waste time on another government scheme to inculcate in students not any kind of critical thinking, but rather indoctrinating them into thinking that government and country are not mutually exclusive.

Here is the thing. All these instances where our tax ringgit is being used in dumb schemes like this add up. A couple of million here, a couple of million there and soon those millions add up. Who benefits from these schemes? The answer to that is who knows, because folks do not really pay attention to this kind of petty financial sleight of hand.

The MCA questioned the transparency of this scheme, and all the prime minister said was, “What’s so hard? The badge is given for free. Just put it on”, and this is an important point. According to the prime minister, he said, “I made a decision, and the cabinet agreed (for the proposal) to be implemented immediately, with the badges to be given for free.”

There is nothing a government gives its citizens which is free. Everything the government gives us is funded by our tax ringgit, and most times, we do not have a say in how such money is spent. Hence, claiming something is “free” is not only factually incorrect; it displays a remarkable disdain for the rakyat.

Transparency is crucial here because in schemes like these on the face of it appears legitimate. The government is telling you exactly how they spent your tax ringgit.

The government says that the rakyat benefits from such a scheme because students will become patriotic by wearing these flag pins, but never says who benefits financially from such schemes.

Govt corruption

Last year, Mahathir Rais, a former Bersatu operative who has joined PKR, made two important points in an essay he wrote about government corruption.

The first: Politicians take the blame, but bureaucracy breeds real corruption. Many civil servants misuse their authority to grant contracts and manipulate procurement decisions. The question arises - how can an officer earning a fixed government salary amass wealth in the millions?

And the second point: Procurement corruption is particularly dangerous because it operates under the guise of legitimacy. On paper, the process appears fair - tenders are announced, companies submit bids, and evaluations take place. In reality, the results are predetermined long before the first bid is even placed.

So, when the government spends millions of ringgit on a fashion accessory for schoolchildren (do not get offended, a symbol loses its totemic potency when it is commercialised or used by the state for propagandistic purposes), when the money could have been used for a whole host of issues, it should tell us something about the issues the government of the day prioritises, but more importantly, how they spend our tax ringgit.

When it comes to education, for instance, it is important to understand that local communities have been disenfranchised by the current political system.

When it comes to making meaningful choices of financial expenditure for their schools, the rakyat must rely on elected representatives who, for decades, have been invested in securing political power for their respective parties.

Local council polls

This would be a manageable issue if we had local council elections, as former lawmaker Kua Kia Soong reminds us: "Few Malaysians have noticed, for example, that the all-important role of local education authorities in the Education Act 1961 is no longer mentioned in the Education Act 1996.

“Local education authorities serve to allocate funds and other facilities to needy sectors, and can serve to dissipate politicisation of education."

The rakyat may have different political allegiances, but all politics are local, and most parents want their children to go to school which has the proper facilities and environment to ensure that their children are safe and receive an education.

So, when someone says that this RM8 million could have been better spent on more pressing concerns, local council elections could be a mechanism to ensure this. But we cannot have local council elections because this would put power in the hands of the people, which is something the political class abhors.

Keep in mind that Madani has got its priorities right when it comes to the budget, with healthcare and education being top of the list. However, with such large budgets, this means accountability and transparency become even more important.

Unfortunately for rational Malaysians, politicians always win because they distract the rakyat with other juicier issues.

This makes it easier for some in the bureaucracy to pick a pocket or two. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT