Malaysia: Transformation Incomplete?

The rakyat can finally breathe a sigh of relief as the Pengkalan Kubor by-election and the Selangor Menteri Besar crisis are finally over. A positive statement from our former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir over the new MB of Selangor, shows that we unanimously want the political fun-fair and telenovela to end. All those theatrics didn’t bring any benefits and hence let us pray that the politicians get back to their actual task of keeping the nation on track, and forward.

Even after all the nauseas politicking, there is no doubt that the nation keeps moving forward.  However, whether it is moving on the right track is something that the people are a little skeptical, even critical about.

Those who sided with the government often defended the actions taken by the current administration and insisted that any arising matters are dealt with efficiently. They even insisted that the abolishment of ISA and the consideration of seeing an end to the Sedition Act as demanded by the oppositions are the right thing to do. Any complaints and opposing opinions against the eradication of these Acts are taken as the voices from extremists, racists and conservatives who are unaware that in the end, the government is just trying to provide better lives to the rakyat.

They believe that this is definitely a step in the right direction as proven by the positive numbers shown in foreign assessment indexs, charts highlighting consistent economic growth, reports showing Malaysia remaining on the top rank of global competitiveness and graphs plotting increase in household income.  

These are evident that the Government Transformation Programme works, so, they tell us.

Unfortunately all those numbers and charts and index or graphs are meaningless to the general population. The government’s actions continue to be questioned.

Unemployment rate is increasing by the day, despite the economic growth.  Jobs offerings, if there are any, are limited to only a few with certain skills.  It is also said that some foreign investment attracted through the Transformation Programme had only caused the bumiputera to lose their share/land.  

The introduction of minimum wage policy didn’t help either as it resulted in an increase in price to our everyday necessities in order for the retailers to keep their margins.

Simply put, the Transformation Programme may technically spelled ‘success’ on papers and beautiful PowerPoints presentations, but the people are practically living its failure.

Today, we see an increase in numbers of Malaysians who can afford a vacation, shopping and even buying properties overseas, but sadly many more is finding it increasingly difficult to get a job, what more buying a house, here. 

As the number of rich people increases, the crime rate increases too and this could only mean one thing; that the economic gap is expanding.   

The hectic economic activities in the metropolitans, the government’s investment overseas has proven to have enriches the already rich, while the medium and low income groups are only given short-term and very basic aids that could never change or improve their lives significantly. 

Should nothing be done to narrow the economic gap soon, the situations will definitely worsen.

Thus from this it is no wonder that the rakyat doubt whether all the reports about the successfulness of the National Transformation Programme presented are true or merely folklores.  If it really is successful, wouldn’t we have felt it already?

Besides the economic issues, the nation is also facing a major issue of losing direction altogether. 

Let’s not talk about the losers or the street demonstrators who are obviously lost and hopeless, but let’s talk about our university graduates who happen to be just as lost. 

Lately, Universities and Colleges seem to be producing hundreds of thousands of graduates with good grades but no intellectuality and no maturity.  Most of them have no idea who they are, where they are going or what life is all about.  Some are so lost that they are not fit for any job - as if getting a job is not hard enough.    

Some are suffering from inferiority complex, while the rest are suffering from superiority complex that instead of being confident, these graduates are arrogant.  They think just because they have the paper qualification then they should not be going through hardship and challenges in their working life.  They are too eager to be recognized, rich and successful but dare not work their hearts and brains out from the bottom. 

When they failed to make it big, fast, they tend to get angry and blame everybody and everything.  These angry young souls are easy target for seditions, easily influenced and readily become racists, extremists, liberals and…corrupt. 

Having a Youth Leader representing the ruling government who is busy working on projecting an image of a publicity-craze, glamour-seeking, party-goer certainly is not going to help our youngsters or graduates to become intelligent and mature. His already tainted reputation for being involved in money-politics only makes things worse.   

Needless to say, Malaysia cannot expect the next generation to be mature and intelligent until we have a mature and intelligent Youth Leader. 

The youths are the pillars of the nation.  A weak pillar means a collapsed nation.   Hence, the issues facing the youths should not be taken lightly but to be treated just as important as the economic issues. 

These two issues are key factors that determine whether or not the nation is on the right track.  As far as we are concerned, Malaysia seems to have derailed from the right path while it is going through the ‘Transformation’ process.  Now, the unending political fun-fairs and telenovelas has ‘transformed’ the nation into a self-destructive monster.

If the current leadership is too concerned over winning the next General Election, then the government must first get the country back on track.  Leave the publicity-seeking and the fighting to the politicians. 

Make the Transformation’s success felt by the people and lead the youths back to reality.