Sleeping PM pressured to step down

Ever since the previous PM has taken the administration of the country in control, Malaysia had not showed any significant progress in development. Thanks for the great contribution, Pak Lah. In the subsequent General Election after Tun Mahathir shocked resignation, he has received overwhelming supports from the people. His theme was ‘bekerja bukan untuk saya, tetapi bekerja bersama-sama saya’ and ‘cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang’. For the people, they voted him as they predicted that he can make some changes to the country especially to a government free from corruption. Indeed, I was once believed he was ‘Mr. Clean’ as he made stern warning for corrupted acts and made some reform in the administration. At the very first few years, everything seems ok and progress smoothly. Based on his background, one should understand the reasons why he emphasized a lot in agriculture. He was not from science stream related graduate nor having sufficient knowledge on science and technology. For many, agriculture was the agenda back in Tun Hussein and Tun Abdul Razak era. (Remember the buku hijau?) The re-adoption of agriculture was totally against Tun Mahathir main policy towards turning the country to Vision 2020, a developing country which emphasizes modern technology at the same par like Japan. As for me, it was totally a laidback policy to concentrate of agriculture although it is also an important element to be focused. Well, by the time Pak Lah took over the government, we already have Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, smart schools, MSC and etc. These projects need further development and research as well as enhancement but they seemed to be abandoned by the previous PM. Quoted from one of my teachers those days; ‘Those days, we focused on agriculture. Tun Mahathir focused on science & technology. When we built cars, we can do export and import. When there is a rain or climate change, we can store our cars inside the factory under the roof. But, when do plantation, how are we able to protect our yield from the destruction. We can’t shelter the plants under the roof. And this is the major difference between a think tanker whose vision is far beyond a normal people’

Next, our proud national cars, Protons and MAS performance dropped drastically under the governance of Pak Lah. We had difficulty in finding partners for Protons and the sales dropped sharply. For MAS, retrenchment of foreign workers was implemented and many lost confidence to MAS although they bagged many awards about every year. In addition, Tun Mahathir made a comeback ever since the AP issue was raised. He has then started to criticize the government openly after received a setback criticism from ‘budak kurang ajar’ namely some of the newly elected ministers and government officers. It was so sad to see that in a fast turnover, the people showed no mercy in giving their stupid opinions and views in order to gain publicity and started to stab on Tun Mahathir in that particular issue. Tun Mahathir may had make wrong stuffs or may not but the way we should encountered or response back shall be in within the ‘adat orang Timur’. It was so shocked to see newspapers articles and TV bombarded him saying that it was his fault as the AP issue happened during his time and not Pak Lah. Whatever the truth is, my opinion is that WE SHOULD RESPECT the SENIOR, the ELDERS and our parents and showed courtesy when we talked or argued with them.

Alright, we can forgive for his weakness in above issues but not the construction of bridge linking JB and Singapore. This bridge issue showed how weak Pak Lah in becoming the head of the government and since then, he has being labeled with ‘the flip flop PM”. One great comment made by Tun Mahathir was that when he (Malaysia) decided to build a bridge, he didn’t ask the permission from Singapore, We only acknowledge them but not to seek permission from them. It is our own land and our rights to do so. Even, Lee Kuan Yew can’t make any objections. However, things turned out to be very badly that showed the inferiority of our government and adversely affect the relationship with Singapore. The initial plan by Tun Mahathir to build a straight bridge was diverted into a ‘jambatan bengkok’ by Pak Lah. When he agreed on the new plan and when the materials for construction have been brought and even the construction had started, he changed his mind and cancelled off the plan. OMG.. Can you imagine the amount of compensation that our government needed to pay to the respective construction company and others for the cancellation? A simple example is when we pay deposit to purchase a house, we can’t get any refund should cancellation is made and we even need to pay the double amount for compensation. Gone all the money. The outcome was a new CIQ ( is that correct abbreviation) complex. Wow.. what a great job! Then, we have another issue of son-in-law. This issue is quite sensitive and I will only write what the people especially the opposition CLAIMED. Hey.. not only that.. even Tun Mahathir had openly criticize the son in law (SIL) saying that he was the man behind every major decisions made by the Pak Lah government. KJ was known as the fourth floor boy in which claimed to has control on as mentioned decisions made and any meetings or handover of documents must passed through him for approval and checking before reaching to Pak Lah hands. (Again.. people CLAIMED not me). Although Pak Lah, image was initially Mr. Clean, it had been totally tarnished by the SIL. People claimed that SIL practices corruption and he became the youngest billionaire in Malaysia at the tender age of 30+. Even Tun Mahathir had said that SIL has too strong influence that many scared of him. How truth it is depends on your judgment. He has become the second main cause of defeat of the previous general election after the main, which no other than Pak Lah. Do you notice that in previous GE, you can’t see the slogan of ‘Cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang’ and even the posters of Pak Lah? People know that problems had occurred and people had lost confidence on him but what can we do as he is still the head who controlled everything. However, the people has showed their wisdom in choosing the right government that they believed that can bring development and more importantly boosting up the economics. On another side, Pak Lah has created a history in Malaysia Records to become the first UMNO president and PM that causes the defeat in less than 2/3 of majority in Parliament. No one can imagine that this could ever happened in our country. After the defeat, he still seemed made no changes. Another issue in his governance is the petrol price. We are the producer of the oil but we do not enjoy the privileges on that. DSAI once said ‘macam mana nak banding harga durian di Japan dengan harga durian di Malaysia. Kita export mereka import. Pakai otak sikit’’. It is very true. After 50 years of independence, we have never miss to enjoy subsidy in petrol price. You can say that this pampered the people but it is the right of every Malaysians to enjoy the privileges. When the crude oil price increases, we as the producer also enjoyed the same profit margin from the increase. It is the matter of how the government uses the revenue and managed the revenue to appropriate agency or target. Even when the country faced recession in 1997, we faced no problem under the governance of Tun Mahathir. The super hike increase from RM 1.92 to RM 2.72 (if not mistaken) was totally insane. OMG..why the government do not reduce slowly or review the price weekly like in Singapore. What’s wrong with the government? It’s killing the people. Policy made during Pak Lah time was never made permanent. Examples are the bridge construction and the newly introduced rebate systems. Cars were given rebate of RM 625 per year in order to counter with the hike increment. This is totally useless and helped nothing for the people in facing this global issue. When the petrol price increased, the daily necessaries also increased. The price of wantan mee has gone up from RM 3.50 to RM 3.80 to RM 4.00 for SMALL plate. Roti canai price increased from usual RM 0.80 - 0.90 to RM 1.00 - RM 1.20. When the government notices their mistakes, Pak Lah wil said ‘ Kita faham akan masalah rakyat. Rakyat harus belajar menghadapi masalah ini’. The rebate system overturned and was abolished after the price of crude oil stabilized but yet we do not receive any subsidy. The main point to brought up is when the prices such as foods increases, it will never get down back. Even though the price of petrol now is RM 1.80 per litre, the price of wantan mee is still the SAME. The people are the one who suffered from this poor management and again what can we do? It was so pity to see our Consumers and Trade Minister, Datuk Shahrir needed to beg those big supermarkets to lower down the prices. And I do not think that he was acknowledged when the government particularly Pak Lah decided for the increment of petrol price. Those who followed the media should know that Datuk Shahrir had made many controversial statements in which he said there will be no increment but the next day, Pak Lah made the announcement. What an efficient government! Remember Ahmad Ismail saying that Chinese are immigrants? UMNO brilliant move to just suspend him for just 3 years if not mistaken has become another major weakness. The reporter who reported the truth was being held under ISA and even Teresa Kok who done nothing wrong was also detained without any investigation to claims made on her and was told due to her security reason. I didn’t know that the police can nabbed a person under ISA without first doing investigation. For the reporter, Home Minister said he didn’t know on the detention. During the Pengajian Am studies, everyone know that ISA is under jurisdiction of Home Ministry. Weird? There are many more weaknesses under the administration of Pak Lah. Due to time constraint, I limit my writing till here. But, none of us in this world who are PERFECT in every single thing. Even Tun Mahathir made a mistake too.. in choosing Pak Lah.. hahaha… Now. Let’s see the good side of Pak Lah. First and foremost, he is a gentleman, no doubt. He allowed people to openly criticize him and yet did not counter back. He allowed bad and good comments but he just never takes the comments. So far, we had never seen any leaders who allowed people to criticize them openly. Want example? Eg. Dato Seri Nazri. On agriculture, he had helped in improving the poor who are more into the agriculture industry. Many researches are not done on the science but only the plants. No doubt it is good as we need foods supply. For many, he had been labeled as soft and courtesy. It is good in terms of we are easily approached him if we got problems as some leaders nowadays are very cocky. But, the issue of whether you are able to meet him or not depend on the 4th floor as claimed. On corruption, let’s not talk about SIL. He made a judicial reform by appointing a Law Minister who later backstabbed him. He proposed for the MACC which claimed as good as ICAC in Hong Kong. Whether or not the MACC is fully independent from government influence, times will tell and you judge it by yourself, Remember Lingam Case and the UMNO leaders corruption? He finally admitted his own mistakes. That's good, he awake. And that’s why he agreed to resign and hand over to newly elected PM, Dato Seri Najib. Time is really not permitting. Whatever it is, this is just my opinion. You may think differently and have different views. As for now, we need to look forward in bringing changes to our beloved country. Question is can Dato Seri Najib bring changes to the country? I deeply hoped so if we put aside the scandals claimed made on him. Whatever it is, Tun Mahathir will rejoin UMNO and will again guide his mentee to success. I believe in Tun Mahathir, how about you?