May the force be with you

May the force be with you Malaysiakini Madhatter Nov 1, 07 5:53pm

Democracy and freedom of the media went out the door when Commercial Crime Investigation Department director Ramli Yusuff requested Malaysiakini journalists to leave his press conference. It is strange that a man who wants the truth to be known should pick on the very people who have been getting the truth out into the public space. He may rue the day he did that when he desperately needs an avenue to defend himself in future, as one infamous opponent of Malaysiakini, now a critic of the government, discovered. The latest police scandals, the apparent tit-for-tat actions of the parties involved, including factions in the police force and Anti-Corruption Agency are reason why the IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) is long overdue. Pak Lah has been derelict in his duty and appears to be incompetent. He should relinquish his role and take on the portfolio of foreign minister since he likes to travel abroad when business at home demands his attention. It is okay for him to take his new bride for a ride but not the people. Judging the comments of ministers in response to the judiciary fiasco, one can't avoid concluding that incompetence and the lack of honesty are behind the government's reluctance to quickly resolve the Lingam video intrigue. It is the only credible explanation when the views of the government are so divergent from ours on something so obvious as the Lingam video. Trying to defend the indefensible when the monkey has been caught with his hands in the coconut is another stroke of pure stupidity and self-delusion for which the government is renowned. Current events in Malaysia speak of a government that is out of control because of Pak Lah's lack of leadership. Each time something of major public concern occurs, he hides behind the scene and lets his ministers or some other person manage the problem. Then he appears when the damage has been done by his ministers and appears the nice guy making all the right moves, correcting his ministers and taking the high moral ground. This is leadership by dereliction and deceit. A good leader will come out in the open and lead from the front not the back. But this backpedaling method of Pak Lah happens too often. Perhaps Malaysiakini may dig its archives and list the litany of Pak Lah's backpedaling ways, and each time it is some bureaucrat who did not understand the government's stand and did the wrong thing, not Pak Lah's government. Members of the royal family have better things to do than comment on the country's management. But for the Sultan of Perak, once the country's top judge to openly comment on the judiciary in response to the Lingam video scandal, manifests the growing impatience of Malaysians with the government's recalcitrance in forming a royal commission to sort out the judiciary. The government is only digging a larger hole for itself. A royal commission should clean out the rotten apples in the judiciary. Lingam's video is a symbolic expose of what really occurs behind the scenes. Multiply it and the people can peer into how business is conducted by the corrupt in tandem with their links in the administration. In typical style, the prime minister lambasted the Bar Council, whose lame response to his criticism of their actions also leaves much to be desired. The premier does not know how to do his job and has no reason to preach to the Bar Council which must show more backbone in dealing with the government. It is not proper for the government to tell the Bar Council, the country's best legal brains, what to do when its so-called law minister does not even understand the basic notion of natural justice. The time has come when Malaysians have enough of government nonsense. Those elected goons acting like rajahs and dictators, overruling and stemming public debate on every important major issue of public concern have got to be stopped. Another disgraceful politician is the speaker of the House. This man is supposed to uphold the Constitution and ensure there is proper parliamentary debate but his obscenely biased clamping down of opposition members is beyond belief. It has brought disrepute to the august house of the people and the speaker should himself be referred to a disciplinary board. The Election Commission is another tool of the government when it is supposed to be neutral and fair. How can it claim to be an election commission when everyone knows that the electoral boundaries are so biased and skewed against democracy? Is it any wonder that the Barisan always wins the elections? An analysis of the voting results of past years will tell you that if the electoral boundaries were fairly delineated, as they should be if the EC has done its job fairly and professionally, Umno in particular would not have won as many seats as it has done. The other crucial factor is the bureaucracy, those public servants who are under the people's payroll. Instead of performing their duties according to the highest code of conduct and professionalism and being above politics they act as if they are the servants and sycophants of the politicians. They simply have failed to understand that being a government servant is not the same as being a stooge of the ruling political party. In Japan, for example, you see this separation of the politicians and the bureaucrats clearly. So no matter who forms the Japanese government, the bureaucracy is able to function smoothly and effectively and in fact there is even a joke that you don’t need the politicians to run the country in Japan. Also in developed countries, heads of departments and public servants have taken the politicians, including their ministers, to task if they are forced to do something that is unethical or unconstitutional. But in Malaysia, the pengarahs (directors) are in bed with the politicians and is it any wonder that so many of them receive datukships and fancy titles. So how can the country progress with this sort of mentality - that all you have to do is be a good servant, not of the public but the politicians, and all will be well. This shallowness of the bureaucracy has been around for a long time and now the judiciary is in danger of falling into the same quagmire. The government is so used to doublespeak and deceit that it is unable to think straight and that is why it is full of contradictions. Either the warlords in the Umno fiefdom are flexing their muscles more boldly or they are pathetically schizoid. Take for example, the shameful keris waving matter. Now they are coming out and saying that it will be a permanent part of their political culture. Shish! It shows their duplicitous nature. The keris we all know is held in high regard as a symbol of Malay militancy. It is acceptable to use it decoratively in formal cultural attire. But when young political turks start waving it in the air accompanied by aggressive chanting and intimidating postures, you'd have to be an idiot not to get the message. The keris should be banned for any other use than cultural and when used like it was at the Umno assembly, should be deemed a provocative act. Western kings and princes have a ceremonial sword as part of their attire but we don’t see their politicians waving swords at their political meetings do we? Well, they are simply more civilised and honest. But please politicians, spare us your dishonesty. If you want to wave a weapon at anyone and intimidate them and commit a felony, don't pretend and make dishonest excuses. In a civilised country, someone who makes a verbal assault on another in a threatening manner can be charged in court. But in Malaysia, only the government's youth party, reminiscent of Hitler's Nazi youth groups, can do it and we know the outcome of such behaviour years later. The country spends untold sums of money on religion, building mosques at taxpayers' expense, spending millions and millions on religious schools, yet corruption is so rampant and it affects every echelon of the economy. For years, every Malaysian knows that the traffic police are corrupt. Yet the government has not done anything to stop the corruption. It has not explained why religion has not bitten into the moral conscience of the police. The government has indeed failed the religious test. The rift in the police force is denied but the proof is in the pudding. If there is no rift why is CCID director Ramli Yusuff being accused of amassing a whopping 27 million ringgit? Why is he alleging that he is being picked on because his officers exposed the collusion of other police officers with a top gangster? Who needs soap operas when the Malaysian police, judge-fixing lawyers and politicians provide so much entertainment? Let's face it. Call an ace an ace and a spade a spade. The Malaysian government has been in power for too long and lost its moral compass. It is lost in the jungle of greed. Politics is the short route to personal power and riches and what they bring. The Zakaria Derios mansion is a monument of such obscenity. The only thing worse than a corrupt government official is the people who support him. I am not suggesting Zakaria is guilty of corruption but I would like to know the secret of his success. The government should ask him to conduct seminars for the Malay business people whom Pak Lah has recently chided for their lack of success. It is strange and no coincidence that every time the elections are near that the prime minister picks on the Malays. It all started with Mohamad Mahathir. But this time, the non-Malays and the Malays can't be fooled. The non-Malays know that Pak Lah and his cronies tell them one thing and another to their own people. They are masters of doublespeak and politicians are renowned for speaking with a forked-tongue. Even the Red Indians knew that, how much more clever the Malaysians. More and more Malays now know that only a handful of cronies take the lion's share of the nation's wealth which is meant to be distributed among them more evenly. Mahathir duped them with his plan to establish a few super rich Malay tycoons. And Malaysians all fell for it. How silly. It is like the man who wants to satisfy his lust and says he married another woman to keep her from getting poor. Why? Couldn’t charity help her in this modern age? And why are the needy women all young and sweet? How many men have married old and frail women, to help them out of poverty? Alas, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick! The state of the nation is not healthy. Pak Lah's administration has failed the moral test. He himself has failed the test that he established himself. Judged by his own words and standards, he has failed. Tell me the truth, work with me, yak, yak, yak, but what do we get? The opposite! And now that the Bar Council has told him the truth - he scolds them. Shish. Let’s face the truth. Politicians are not royalty, born to lead. They are given the chance to lead. Take away Pak Lah's role and what is he? Look at the high and mighty Mahathir. Where is he now? He is battling to stay alive and let's hope long enough to redeem himself. He is the architect, engineer, developer, real estate agent - the consummate maestro of the Malaysian Dilemma. He lived by it and now leaves this legacy for us. The Malay Dilemma was a myth created by Mahathir to exploit the psyche of a victim's complex innate in the Malays of yesteryears. Under the British, only Mother England's interest mattered. Everyone else had to make a go of it. But cunning Mahathir made it out that the Chinese and the British put the Malays at a disadvantage. And after 50 years of Umno rule, what have changed? Malaysians are stupid if they allow their country to be run like a mafia country. Now the gangsters are so bold. They gun down the police. But has anyone investigated if it was an inside job? Were the police walking into a trap? Were the crooks tipped off and the police sacrificed to warn off other honest cops? We have spent millions to send a Malaysian to celebrate Hari Raya in space. Yet we couldn’t find enough money to provide the police who were involved in the drugs raid without the proper attire. Shish! Here is a government trying to join the space race but can't do a simple thing like providing bullet proof vests to its policemen on a dangerous raid. Why wasn’t this raised in Parliament? Malaysians should not be stupid but angry that their country is being exploited by the people they elected to benefit them. The masses need to get the message out to the common folks everywhere. It took a long time to get 5,000 people to sign the petition to the King. It should have taken five minutes! Or five days. What's wrong with Malaysians? But if I announce a free porn video, be sure I will have 500,000 people sign up. The young in Malaysia had better wake up and start to do something about their country, about their future. Don't be an idiot and think that because you know so and so and enjoy some benefits now that everything will be okay. Talk to those who once were Mahathir's cronies. Where are they now? So you want to postpone the nation's problems to your grandchildren? Don't make the mistake of your parents and grandparents who did nothing. See what their inaction has caused them. The time is ripe now to rid the country of all those corrupt politicians who should not be allowed to get away with murder and having a great time at the people's expense. Don't be fooled by the politicians who say the Chinese are the enemy, the Malays are the enemy, the Indians are the enemy. There is only one enemy. The one who is corrupt. Everyone else is your friend. Save Malaysia and vote out the corrupt politicians and take part in every activity that you can to make your country a better place. Surely there must be some honest and decent politicians left in the government. Support them also because it is not the party that counts but the people whom you entrust to lead you. Remember your future is in your hands and don't blame anyone if you suffer because you made the wrong choice. The last time many of us were fooled - but once bitten, twice shy. Do I need to say more?