A Better Malaysia Assembly, not just a new PM, please – Nazir Razak

[superadmin]

IN the next few days, Malaysia will see the swearing in of its ninth prime minister, and a few days or maybe weeks later, a whole new cabinet of ministers will be sworn in, too. They will have a good honeymoon because, during this period, the pandemic will subside; it has to given our world-beating rate of vaccinations and the number of people already infected. Then, the new government will start facing up to business as usual of governing Malaysia. Will they prove materially different to past governments? Or will they be substantially just as frustrating for the rakyat? If so, Malaysians will turn to GE15 and hope that it will bring us the good government we desperately need. But what are the chances of that, given the electoral system is substantially the same (even with the possible addition of the 18 to 20 year olds)? What are the chances that we end up roughly back where we are today?

We are in a system where no one party or coalition has a comfortable majority to govern properly. Where deals are being cut, not by trading policies but durians (apparently the codeword for cash) and positions. Where the PM is so powerful, he (so far only he) can use the enforcement powers to his advantage. Where good people go into politics and turn bad in order to stay in the game. Where reforms are racially labelled so as to stop them in their tracks. Where we don’t have an economy but only a “political economy”; every business seems to rely on the government for licences, permits, contracts, regulations or ownership rules or for government companies to give way. Where our best talents want to work overseas, yet we all know that, in the Industrial Revolution 4.0, it is entrepreneurship and innovation that drives success. Where our social safety net has been found so wanting by the pandemic.


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