KHOO KAY PENG
Dr. Malcolm Puthucherry
In a political climate increasingly polluted by scams, a debate has arisen about the honesty of Prime Minister his supporters extol his much-vaunted personal honesty as though it were some sort of magical talisman which will ward off the evil influence of the all-pervasive corruption which bedevils not only the his fans as being a singular rock of honesty in a treacherous sea of dishonesty.
The fight against corruption is slowly being realized as one to secure life – equity and socio-economic mobility of the masses.
When individuals will remain prone to discretionary interpretations and tendencies an absolute power cannot be vested in their hands.
By attributing superhuman cleansing virtues in ending all evils to political leaders who have emerged on the basis of consensus of those very people, tainted by cases of graft, would be nothing but fallacy or running further away from the truth.
The great challenge to bell this cat of corruption will have to be collaborative and in the form of well framed and sustainable institutions of technology and operation.
Recent unearthing of dozens of scam cases only highlights the prevalence of poor governance that has enabled this venom to manifest in diverse forms and spread to endemic proportions.
The modus operandi for open loot among the top and lower-end power wielding functionaries endorses the urgent need for a grand battle to ferret out corruption and in this there is the prerequisite is to identify opportunities that have encouraged and favored corrupt practices in the very first place.First it was Najib asked PR to reveal its shadow cabinet. Then Dr. Putu and now you. Looks like you guys are following BN's agenda and we have no reason to be kind to you both. Do you agree the present Idiotology cabinet this is a school of thinking that is particularly appealing todumb asses. No matter what happens is almost the same as the one which Mamathir called the "half cabinet past six"cabinet.
Remember how Teoh Beng Hock died
Remember how Teoh Beng Hock died
These educated people Drs and what-nots are so stupid to follow text-book style of a truly democratic society when the reality on the ground is far from democratic with so much sabotage going on daily. Don't they know in war-fare it is more appropriate to apply Sun Tzu Art of War? you guys are all good critics without a doubt. While you guys want an ideal solution, the political situation and scenarios in Malaysia is hardly ideal. Look at all the crap thrown at the PR state governments and politicians, especially DSAI. Any politician less than DSAi would have long ago thrown in the towel. We should be appreciative that he is still around to keep PR going and keep up the good fight. If not for him, we would not be looking at an alternative government and a 2 party system next GE. Yes he may have made some mistakes and what not, but still we should look at the forest instead of just the trees. Everybody wants something from him, and it requires tremendous and herculean effort for him to juggle all the forces around him. While it is ideal to have a shadow cabinet, we must also beware of the Malaysia crab mentality. Once that person is identified, the sore losers will gang up and pull him/her down. This is not the UK political scenario which has a few hundred years of history and convention. This is Malaysia , we have not even had any alternative Federal government since Independence. So it would be good to temper your constructive criticisms with a dose of reality ala Malaysia
The fight against corruption is slowly being realized as one to secure life – equity and socio-economic mobility of the masses.
When individuals will remain prone to discretionary interpretations and tendencies an absolute power cannot be vested in their hands.
By attributing superhuman cleansing virtues in ending all evils to political leaders who have emerged on the basis of consensus of those very people, tainted by cases of graft, would be nothing but fallacy or running further away from the truth.The great challenge to bell this cat of corruption will have to be collaborative and in the form of well framed and sustainable institutions of technology and operation.Recent unearthing of dozens of scam cases only highlights the prevalence of poor governance that has enabled this venom to manifest in diverse forms and spread to endemic proportions.The modus operandi for open loot among the top and lower-end power wielding functionaries endorses the urgent need for a grand battle to ferret out corruption and in this there is the prerequisite is to identify opportunities that have encouraged and favored corrupt practices in the very first place.
Remember how Teoh Beng Hock died
The PM's critics, on the other hand, ask how this much-lauded honesty can survive contamination by association with indicted scamsters. A man is known by the company he keeps. Which in this case is another way of saying how 'honest' can an honest man be if he wilfully turns a blind eye to the dishonesty of his associates? You might be an honest person yourself. But if you see me commit a crime and don't report it, what good - how honest - is your honesty?
This debate needs to be enlarged so as to go beyond its limited reference to a single individual. Never mind how honest or otherwise is said to be. What exactly is honesty and what role does it play in political life today?
The prospect of an honest politician is like a tantalising mirage in a parched desert of thirst. The taint of corruption that infects all spheres of public life, starting with the political, is seen as the single biggest internal threat to Malaysia's success story, more than lack of infrastructure or any other bottleneck. But though they are its most visible symptoms, graft and bribery are not the only manifestations of dishonesty.
While economic dishonesty is relatively easy to spot, as our scams show, ideological dishonesty is less easy to detect but is equally, if not more, ruinous for the country. Economic dishonesty can lead to financial bankruptcy; ideological dishonesty leads to moral bankruptcy.
The graft that we see in public life today, and which is common to UMNO-Barisan political parties , reflects this ideological dishonesty. Whether it is the so-called Left in sarawak which unleashed a reign of terror on small farmers unwilling to surrender their land and way of life to capitalist industry, or the UMNO which in the name of secularism exploits and further entrenches captive vote banks, or the Perkasa which hails UMNO even as it seeks to sweep the carnage of the may13 riots under the carpet of economic progress - and groups in malaysia are suffering from a serious credibility deficit.
PKR vice president Tian Chua ticked off Prime Minister Najib Razak for ignorance and for trying to mislead the public when he recently challenged the Pakatan Rakyat to form a shadow Cabinet.
“This is one guy who doesn’t know what he is talking about, he is simply shooting his mouth off. A shadow Cabinet such as those practised in the advanced democracies like U.K. are formalized structures recognized by the ruling coalition," Tian, who is also the Batu MP, told Malaysia Chronicle.
"When a certain Bill is due to be debated, the relevant shadow ministry is invited to give its views and expected to challenge or support the Bill in Parliament. In other words, a two-party system is recognized as a norm. Can Najib look Malaysians in the eye and say that he and BN recognise a two-party system here?”
Treated like enemies, not fellow citizens
But shallow though the PM's arguments may have been and despite his usual refusal to take into account important facts that did not favour him, his Cabinet colleagues and several pro-Umno bloggers rushed to cheer him on.
Over the weekend , Najib had actually hailed the advantages a shadow Cabinet could reap for the country. “In Malaysia we only have a government Cabinet. The opposition is incapable of forming one and does not know how to distribute portfolios to the rightfigures among its ranks,” Bernama reported him as saying.
But according to Tian, Najib omitted to tell the crowd that his BN coalition treated opposition MPs as enemies, rather than as fellow citizens working for the betterment of the country.
The Najib administration has even banned extending any form of financial allocation to the opposition. So extreme has the BN government been that Sungai Siput MP Michael Jeyaraj Devakumar filed a lawsuit to compel it to provide financing for essential repairs and development projects at constituencies that did not cote for them
Recently, in a move condemned by foreign parliamentarians, Najib even hammered through resolutions suspending Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, Karpal Singh, Azmin Ali and Sivarasa Rasiah. The four men had persisted on asking him to reveal details of a shadowy public relations and strategic communications contract he signed with APCO, a New York based firm whose top management has links to the Israeli secret service including Shin Bet.
“This is the reality of the existing Malaysian parliamentary system. To hide these facts just to attack Pakatan shows smalless and desperation. Malaysia’s deserves a prime minister with greater intellectual and spiritual depth, a man who doesn’t lie but confronts the truth and works out solutions,” said Tian.
People's dream team
Tian also said Pakatan Rakyat took a shadow Cabinet very seriously.
“It is actually a promise to the people. Say for example, if we were to make Tony Pua the Finance minister and Tony wins his seat, then we should honor it because that is what we told the people. Not like now when the BN makes a mockery of the entire system. Have you ever seen in any of their manifesto who would form the team to lead Malaysia if they won? What happens now is BN only chooses after the elections are over and then it’s completely up to UMNO. There is a huge amount of horse trading involved and in the end the people never get to see their dream team,” he said.
While it has not been able to run a proper shadow Cabinet, Pakatan has actually already established a committee of shadow portfolios. At least one lawmaker from each of the three Pakatan parties DAP, PAS and PKR sit in each portfolio.
They track various national issues and developments as well as proposed Bills. For example, when the Defence ministry recently proposed buying six patrol warships for an exorbitant RM6billion, representatives of the Pakatan defense group issued press statements to alert the public of what they perceived to be gross overpricing.
“We really wish we could formalize into a more concrete shadow Cabinet but until Najib and BN changes their tune, we have to stick with our steering committees. These have actually been quite successful in raising awareness. It is just the mainstream press that doesn’t report our efforts or reports them negatively,” Tian said.
You first draw blood, leave the cannula in, and let the fluid flow from the bottle. Everyone gathers that the treatment has started. If you have not seen or experienced this, you probably have seen enough emergency room ads to understand that medical due diligence is on. What is proverbially “a shot in the arm” has a lesser meaning if denoted as being “on a drip”. What is conveyed now is a sort of dependency on a mysterious trickle, which in some way is someone’s lifeline. No one is really curious about the diagnosis, seeing enough well-intended medical action. The final outcome? That’s a long haul. Evidence of a good initial attempt should ensure the rest
Malaysia’s weakened competitiveness in the region overshadowed its growth rate of 7.2 percent in 2010, said Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.
The former Finance minister said the growth rate of 7.2 percent as announced by the government should not be viewed in vacuum, pointing out that neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia had outperformed Malaysia’s growth.
“Singapore and Indonesia registered a growth of 14.5 percent and 6.1 percent respectively in 2010. Both outperform Malaysia’s growth especially considering that Indonesia’s 6.1 percent growth was calculated on a higher base as Indonesia did not face economic contraction in 2009 unlike Malaysia or Singapore,” said Anwar.
Anwar said Singapore’s 14.5 percent growth had been achieved against a backdrop of a strong rebound in manufacturing sector, recording an annual growth of 29.7 percent.
“(Malaysia’s) growth is half of what Singapore achieved while the growth in manufacturing sector was only 11.4 percent for 2010, nearly a third of Singapore’s manufacturing growth.
“There is big contrast in the ways each government explains this in spite of the fact that both countries are export oriented and highly dependent on the global economy – while Singapore cites a strong external demand for its manufacturing products, Malaysia claims the opposite,” explained Anwar.
‘Najib’s economic plans in isolation’
Anwar stressed that Malaysia’s manufacturing sector was steadily losing competitiveness in the global market, saying it continued to be among lower rung of the value chain while Singapore upgraded its value chain.
“This was pointed out a decade ago, yet nothing effective has been put in place to stem this decline apart from continuous rhetoric paid for by taxpayers’ money.
“The relatively lower manufacturing growth is compounded by contractions in the fourth quarter of 2010 in two fundamental sectors of the economy,” said Anwar, adding that both mining and agriculture which formed a significant revenue earner for the government had registered contractions of 1.3 percent and 4.3 percent respectively in the fourth quarter.
“The annual growth of only 0.2 percent and 1.7 percent in mining and agricultural sectors respectively is another symptom of stagnation plaguing the economy,” he added.
Anwar said the figures were correlated by key indices used to gauge the sentiment of business community and the public on the direction of the economy, citing the Business Condition Index published by the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER), which lost 5.4 points quarter-to-quarter in the last quarter of 2010, settling to below 100 points for the first time in nearly two years.
“In fact, the business community’s confidence on the overall outlook of the economy has been on the decline since the beginning of 2010. As for the public sentiment, while the Consumer Sentiments Index did improve to 117.2 points in the fourth quarter, it has not recovered to the level of 2007 prior to the fuel price hike of 2008,” said Anwar.
On Indonesia, Anwar pointed that the fiscal management of the economy also revealed a stark difference between the two countries as Indonesia had managed to avoid recession in 2009.
“Unlike Malaysia, Indonesia has managed to avoid recession in 2009 and continued to register a strong growth of 6.1 percent in 2010 in spite of the higher growth base, making it one of the best performing economies among the world’s top 20 rich and developing countries,” he said.
In contrast, Anwar pointed out that Malaysia’s government debt had ballooned to RM407 billion as at the end of 2010, representing 53.1 percent of the country’s GDP.
Anwar said prime minister Najib Razak’s economic plans were severed from the current realities faced by the business community, describing the series of announcements on the economy as “smokescreen” that only benefited a section of elites.
“No amount of glossing and public relations campaigns can confuse the public of the urgency to undertake vital economic reforms to reverse the slide,” he warned.
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