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Sleaze and incompetence

the renationalisation of certain industries, the
enactment of regulations to “rectify” the free
market and entrusting funds or programmes to
Silent majority certain government-appointed bodies or com-
panies (often characterised as “privatisation”
must act even though the necessary transparency and

THERE is a strong sharing of ideals in the
noble thoughts of His Majesty’s Address to
Parliament on Feb 16 and Citizen Nades’s
concerns on behalf of the rakyat and
the silent majority, on the future of our
beloved country.
Some of our political leaders and
other extremists have been pushing the
racial and religious cards for their narrow
vested interests for too long. Many have
got away with bad and shameful parlia-
mentary behaviour and seditious shouts
of pendatang.
Therefore, in response to the King’s
speech and Nades’s request for the
moderates to speak up against bigots
and racists, we should all resolve to isolate
the bigots and alienate them from public
office. The authorities should take stronger
action to bring them to court, so that the
rule of law gains ground and takes deeper
root in our society.
The rakyat should monitor the perform-
ance and remarks of all representatives of
the people and identify the bigots to reject
them at the polls.
Unless we the people exercise our
rights as citizens and fulfil our responsibili-
ties, we have no basis to just complain and
grumble all the time. About four million
eligible voters have not even registered
to vote. Surely, we all have a duty to get
them to register and to vote at the next
polls. That’s the least we can do, if noth-
ing else. So let’s do our part in serving our
country in positive and constructive ways
instead of denigrating our country and our
people.
Ramon Navaratnam
Kuala Lumpur
hurt everyone
competition that proper privatisation requires
is absent). But there are also economic liberals
in the government who see the crisis as an op-
portunity to rid Malaysia of stifling guidelines
that damage our competitiveness, too.
In a policy briefing that the Malaysia Think
Tank is distributing to MPs as part of our pro-
IN THE nineties, before their landslide nisms like primaries and caucuses, gramme to strengthen backbench MPs by giving
victory in the British general election Abiding the usual method of selection in them independent sources of research, some
of 1997, New Labour campaigned Malaysia is through lists drawn up by specific measures are suggested, including the
extensively to highlight “Tory sleaze”. Times party headquarters. It is not the local cutting of transaction costs so that consumers
This encompassed allegations of sexual by Tunku ‘Abidin branch of the party that announces get more for their ringgit and businesses operate
misbehaviour and financial impropri- Muhriz who their candidate will be, but party more effectively, and cutting EPF contribution
ety, and it was extremely effective. Up leaders at the federal level. Inevitably, rates to give workers more money to take home
until today, the Conservative Party is instead of thanking the electorate for and lower employment costs. This is especially
still caricatured as the “nasty party”, although the privilege of contesting, representatives are relevant to the long-term survival of SMEs with
activists have come up with publications such more likely to be swayed by party leaders – and whom a majority of the Malaysian workforce
as The Little Red Book of New Labour Sleaze to their competitors. is employed. Regardless of how transparent
expose the misdeeds of the politicians on the And it is because of incompetence that the upcoming stimulus package will be, it will
government side. Even in sexually liberated instead of deliberating in their own chamber to almost certainly be financed by future hikes
Britain, where a thirteen-year-old can be up for determine the true balance of power, they sought in income taxes, and that is why a permanent
a paternity test against other boys under the age audiences in the royal court in an attempt to reduction in individual and business tax rates is
of consent, associating politicians with sleaze absolve themselves of responsibility over their a superior way of raising Malaysians’ long-term
continues to be an effective tactic in bringing own mistakes and to enable blame or gratitude future income, as opposed to illusory temporary
them down, so it is no wonder that Malaysians to be placed upon the monarch. It is grotesque measures and subsidies.
are fast becoming connoisseurs of sleaze – even that the sultan has been blamed for “flawed It is in such times that the Malaysia Think
if the criteria are somewhat hazy (sleeping naked intervention” (as if the palace initiated this mess) Tank announces the formation of our Cross Party
in one’s own bed is reportedly a common prefer- and it is desperate that the judgment of the Advisory Group comprising politicians from the
ence). Encouragingly there has been some cross- nation’s most esteemed former Lord President is five biggest parties in the Dewan Rakyat. They
party support for Elizabeth Wong, in response to being condemned. are (in order of the number of seats held by their
a recognition that these episodes are damaging to The reams of coverage given to sleaze and party): Datuk Nur Jazlan, Yusmadi Yusoff, Tunku
both sides – and an acknowledgement that there incompetence have relegated the economic Aziz Ibrahim, Datuk Kamaruddin Jaafar and
may be many other actors at work. crisis to the footnotes. Before the effects of the Wong Nai Chee. We invited them to afternoon
These episodes divert attention from cases infrastructure-oriented stimulus package of tea recently, and the spirited discussion that
where the political parties ought to be blamed November 2008 have been proven to work, we ensued gave hope that sleaze and incompetence
for incompetence, like in Perak. Let us be clear await details of a second, larger, package. No could be replaced by useful debates on ideology
that the primary perpetrators of the “subversion government should be allowed to get away with and policy.
of democracy” and the ongoing drama are the spending (current and future) taxpayers’ money
political parties themselves. It is because of willy-nilly, and here it would help if there were
incompetence that unreliable candidates were a proper shadow ministry. Already the support- Tunku ’Abidin Muhriz is director of the Malaysia
fielded in the first place: instead of choosing ers of government intervention are clamouring Think Tank (waubebas.org, from which the afore-
candidates from the grassroots through mecha- for classically protectionist measures such as mentioned policy briefing can be downloaded).