Saturday, June 10, 2006

Look Around You

Over the last few days, splattered all over the front pages of our local newspapers, are news and updates of the verbal spat between Pak Lah and Dr. M(or more like Dr. M against Pak Lah). These 2 gentlemen, we Malaysians refer to them as 2 of the most powerful figures in the country at this point of time. Now this phenomenon is not something Malaysians are used to. For one, Dr. M has been in office for 22 years before 2003 as the longest serving prime minister since independence and throughout his term, who ever dared to stand up to Mr PM, challenging him of his decisions openly? Even if a certain Mr. Braveheart stood against the wind and openly challenged him, which local press would dare to openly publish his thoughts? Without attention, Mr. Braveheart's challenges will wither away very quickly with the wind. Opposition parties? Which opposition party in this country, (I’m not talking about any country, but this country, Malaysia) thinks deep in their heart that they can afford to make a serious point-of-no-return accusation against the Prime Minister or the government and end up winning the next elections? The answer is none. Allegations made in press funded by the opposition parties like ‘Harakah’ are read by minority groups. People like me read it for a good laugh sometimes. Ofcourse, there are heroes like JeffOoi's blog and Malaysiakini.com (who's been said to be funded by Soros, the same person who caused the downfall of the sharemarkets in Malaysia some years back). But then, these channels are only limited to those who's on the net. Key word, 'limited'.

I bet all over the country right now, people are taking sides. Politicians are openly renewing their loyalty pledges with Pak Lah. Seize the opportunity! If not now, then when is the best time to win some brownie points with the prime minister?

It is no doubt that Dr. M has done a lot for the country. I respect him for putting Malaysia on the world map. The twin towers, the Multimedia Super Corridor, the KLIA, the Sepang race tracks, the KL tower, the KL Sentral, all these built by a visionary who knows that taking a step forward is first, by giving the best first impression. And not forgetting the times when Dr.M speaks out in international channels. How do we put a small meager country like Malaysia on the world map if we don’t brave the silence and sometimes speak the unspoken? Grab some attention. See us, Malaysians, who don’t live in trees. See us Malaysians, who has more sky scrapers than both the city of Melbourne and Perth combined, some say the whole of Europe combined. For this, I thank you, Dr. M.

But now, perhaps it is time to start mopping up the water from the running tap again. Life is always a good balance of 2 sides of everything. After years and year of working towards Malaysia to be known as part of this thing we call the global community, perhaps it’s time we take a look at ourselves and start improving ourselves again as a growing nation. And that is exactly what Pak Lah has been doing. Within weeks of being sworn into office, he initiated programs to recover the country’s financial stigmas. In the past, too much money has been spent on boisterous projects to prove that Malaysia boleh! Now, the effort to recover slowly begins. Collection of traffic fines, recovering school loans, increased petrol and diesel prices lashes out at the citizens one by one. Pak Lah’s popularity starts to landslide but could he be a misunderstood man? Take Thaksin for example. Everyone in the world shouts for the downfall of Thaksin. Yet how many really knows that corruption has decreased 10 fold ever since he entered office in Thailand? Yes, he is a very rich man, probably and maybe from corruption but under his reign, the taxi man instead of paying 10 times to different authorities passing from one road to another, now only pays once. Wouldn’t you call that an improvement? Shouldn’t you give him some credit at least for doing something good for his people?

Now it is very wrong of me to put Pak Lah next to Thaksin because they are nothing like each other but I was trying to illustrate something very simple. Just like the taxi man in Thailand, we don’t have to look too far or too wide to prove the effectiveness of a prime minister, just look around us and see how the experience of going to a government office (though sometimes still painful) is seemingly better than before. Look at the decision made to build that 2nd bridge to Penang, somewhere where it is REALLY needed. Look at the improved relationships with Singapore. Look at how lives have improved at rural areas of the country. Look at how much lesser the enforcement parties are asking for bribes. Look at how the power charges have been increased without affecting the poorer folks. Look around you. Look.

posted by Miki-C @ 11:30 AM 3 comments