Politics: A Bunch of Bananas for the Monkeys?
Malaysia has always been a peaceful country so far,
compared to many developing countries. I am indeed thankful. The fact that I am going to serve almost my entire life here does not hamper me, for I know the idealism of people who had the thoughts of migration are no better. I had an aunt who worked as a stock broker in Singapore. She claimed that Singapore is not good enough for her, so she brought her family with her to New Zealand, rather tending on the cows and work in a coffee shop, or sometimes feeding on the unemployment benefits from the government. She boasted it as a good life. Is it really that good, if all these while she had been spendthrift in Singapore? Or perhaps, a lot of old folks came back to Malaysia after emigrating for years, from Canada, Australia, and even England? I have countless stories to share, but I'll just let it be here. However, the politics here is definitely commendable. I mean, the opposition. I am not really pro-government, but the opposition definitely amuse me every time. They bark for the sake of barking?
Malaysia has been infamous for its corrupted
system. I myself would not deny that I am not, but I am just stating the fact. But let's try picturing this: In US, there are lobbying efforts done to gain favoritism from the government and policy-makers. This is actually, what they call official corruption. In fact, lobbyists are present in all levels of government, in most countries especially the European Union and US, in order to differentiate themselves from being branded corrupted. As a matter of opinion, I just think that they are just high-class corrupted countries. Without corruption, there is no 'extra push' given to move the country.
Alright, let's look at another example in Malaysia. A young
man was caught speeding on a country road. He 'bribed' the officer to let him go and the police officer consented to it. I'm sure this would cause uproar among citizens of Malaysia as usual, while if they themselves are involved, they would be dying to pay the bribe rather than the summonses. This is seen as unethical conduct and opposed for the sake of morality and the so-called safety of the public. While this is true, is this the absolute judgment of what is right and wrong? On another perspective, let's look at the scenario again. The police officer is being underpaid for his work, and the government is too poor to pay them more. Even if the summonses are monetary contributions to the government, I doubt if the police officer will gain any extra income from there. So, this "bribery" acted as an extra income for them, and the traffic offender pay a lower fees for his offense. Plus, if you think the offender really paid less, think again. An offender receiving a summonses rarely settle it. I know of many youngsters keeping a stash of the tickets as their trophies of honor. So, what the police officer really did was to make sure that the offender paid for his offenses! And here's a disclaimer: I am not advising you readers to commit more traffic offenses, but I'm just trying to let you see from another perspective. In life, it is different from textbooks. There is no absolute right or wrong. All solutions always seem possible.
Moving on the main topic again. I still find that our
country's opposition party is still lacking. They point fingers and blame the government for everything, but it is also the opposition's job to give positive criticism to propel the government to move forward, and not instead, just trying to bring down the government's credibility by pointing fingers. The opposition could barely see through the problems in the government's administration. Perhaps, there is also a need to reform the opposition and not dominated by the old-timers and their spoiled children. Regarding to the post on Lim Kit Siang's blog querying the inability of the government to make any arrests on any senior police officers who are claimed to be corrupted. Since there are around 40% of them, any attempt to arrest all of them will cause a vacuum in the police organization and the there will definitely be a security threat due to lack of manpower. And what makes you think that there are definitely better replacements? This is indeed a tricky problem which if I could find the solution, I would be rising up the ranks in MCA perhaps. Let's look at another perspective again. These senior officers, apart from accepting 'bribes', are very able to handle other security matters very efficiently. Being capable and having so much experience, arrresting or firing them will lead to more problems and everything crumples.
And the post on the Bukit Gantang road carnage does
not help. Although Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy was 'blamed' for pointing fingers at everyone but himself, the best thing to be done was to find a solution to all these problems, not by pointing the fingers at the government to take better care of the administration of the roads. Specific details and solutions would have to come up. General ideas like the one posted in the blog can be raised by a 12 year old kid in his UPSR exams. Then the blames can be put on both sides, the government and the opposition if we have to. But of course, a solution is needed, and research needed to be done. If the opposition is really that capable, they could form their own research team into this matter and present it to the government. This would bring better credibility to the opposition. But of course, the equally-as-selfish opposition would not do such time and money-wasting effort because "it is the government's job".
And the best part was, the post on how to emulate
the effort done by China. Being totally different, we would not be able to do such things. Plus, he has not made any research on the economic policy of China. The true cause and effect of China's economic policy and trend is not really as promising as it was thought. Cultural values, family ties and moral ethics had been left out in the development sense. The new generation of China's city folks had been so far mostly branded spoiled brats, indulging in expensive brands and had an exquisite taste for anything..expensive. Being a big country, it would not fall that easily (hopefully), but one have to foresee what that will happen through the course of time. So, we would not want to simply emulate any feat done by other countries without studying them beforehand.
The last comment was done on the Lim Kit Siang blog
as a whole. I would not say that it is a totally-waste-of-time blog, but rather some idea-generating blog for youngsters and oldsters (whatever you wanna call them) alike. The best part was the one complaining about how his car was being clamped for parking at unsuitable places. He did not blame himself, but instead, cause a furore on the rights on a certain company to clamp his car. Now, would this be so government-like as commented by the opposition? *Wink* In the end, it's just the pot calling the kettle black. So, no fret. Go on with life. Reformation has to be done in both parties, at least, that one day we would have an official opposition just like the one in UK, the Conservative Party against the Labour Party.
This pic can't spin..click on it to be directed to the website..
