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.   

MH370: They Rest in Peace, We Live in Pieces?

The word ‘ended’ was chosen carefully by the PM as there is no better explaination to offer on what really happened. Nobody knows whether the flight crashed or glided and sunk into the ocean. There is also no way to tell whether it exploded or hit into something at mid air.

What is confirmed is that, the flight ended right in the middle of nowhere and went into the water. Taking into consideration of the time, the depth and location of the ocean where the 'debris' was detected , it is only logical to say that there are no survivors.

The only favouring news is that the search team now knows where to look for the wreckage. Finding the black box, however, could take years or perhaps, forever - which means that we may never find the answer.

The world mourns for MH370 but somehow, there are some who just don’t have the empathy or humanity to feel sad or sorry. I can understand frustration in times like this, but not rage. Not to the extent that you will make placards and t-shirts and curse the people who have done all they can to help.

Unfortunately, this is what happened in the case of MH370. The Chinese relatives of the passengers of the flight are now calling the Malaysian government, murderer. Talk about ungrateful people…

We were not born yesterday to not notice the obvious. We have seen too much of people marching down the streets to condemn the government. We have seen how the western media and our Oppositions have been consistent in turning the issue into the ‘weakness of the Malaysian government’ rather than the ‘whereabouts of the flight’.

If we had earlier brushed-off any suspicion towards the Malaysian Oppositions in the case of the missing flight, we may need to rub it on again because what we are looking at here smells so much like the work of the Oppositions.

Why would the families of the chinese passengers be accusing the Malaysian government of any hidden agenda for something that is handled wide-openly, with 26 countries involved? Why would they come to such conclusion when the government and every party involved is doing all they can to help – catering to their every needs when it was really not necessary? The MAS can always say no to bringing the families to Malaysia but it did, regardless of the cost and the ‘burden’ that they have become.

Why would Malaysia go through all the trouble if we are heartless murderers?

These people must have obviously been persuaded, manipulated or lied to, to be able to stage such a stunt when they are supposed to be mourning and praying. Who in the right mind would be thinking about placards and t-shirts and slogans in times like this?

Well, the Oppositions can, just look what Kit Siang and Khalid Samad have to say:

Kit Siang must point fingers to the government even though the investigation is done by the international team of experts. And can you believe it? Kit Siang is demanding for some evidence! How stupid can this guy be? Maybe the search and investigation team should throw Kit Siang into the Indian Ocean to grab the evidence for them. That way, there will be no more complains.

The AAIB, NTSB and the Australians are the ones doing the real search and investigation and whatever the PM announced was only based on their advice and information.

But I’m sure Kit Siang and Khalid Samad knows this as well. They pretended not to know simply because they breathe on hatred and aim for destruction.

Anyway, it is still Anwar who said it the loudest. It almost seems as if he is calling all western media to bash the Malaysian government. ‘Weak’ is the word of the day.

So, it is just too obvious that the Oppositions are the ones putting all sorts of negative ideas into the heads of the relatives of the passengers. Every word they say only hinting that Malaysian government has something to do with the missing flight.

But, why would the Malaysian government put itself in such a mess and gave the bullet to the Oppositions? Motive? None.

It would be more logical to look at it the other way around, that is: The missing of MH370 is the Opposition’s doing. Motive? To gain political mileage and foreign support to put the government under pressure. Why now? Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction.

Now, do we see foreign support and the pressure it is giving the government? Yes.

Therefore, things are going the Oppositions’ way, no? There…if we want to point fingers on this matter, it makes more sense to point it at the Oppositions, isn’t it?

Even though the western media is persistent in trying to show otherwise, MH370 has shown us the worst of the Oppositions, and the best of our Government.

I hereby would like to record my highest respect and gratitude to all Ministers, Officers and all that are involved in SAR and my deepest condolences to the families of passengers and crews of MH370.

While they rest in peace, we too, must be at peace and accept the closure.

Do not let the Malaysians Oppositions drive us overboard and don’t ask me why our Oppositions must do what they do because that is just what devils do; they will not let us be at peace, they want to tear us into pieces.