|  The past six months have been exciting times in Malaysia. General elections in Malaysia usually become the focus of media attention and analysis, and to some extent the concern of citizens, for say two weeks before and two weeks after the event. Thereafter, it would dissipate from the radar only to reappear as a blip in the History Channel sometime in the future. In this regard no one thought that the 12th General Election would be any different.
No one and I mean not a single soul thought that this election would turn out to be what it has become - a “mega serial” with interesting plots and sub-plots twisting and turning at every opportunity; keeping Malaysians opiate, mesmerised and enthralled by the politics of the day. Nothing else seems be of concern to the governors and the governed. Just look at the amount of space devoted in the media to cover politics as compared to social, educational and economic events. One cannot be faulted for thinking that Malaysians live on politics.
The fact that the global economy is in such precarious state with the impending meltdown of the US banking sector seems to take second stage to domestic politics and its attendant intrigues and power play. Sometimes, I get the feeling that the country is hurtling in space like the Starship Enterprise without a captain, taking its chances against the asteroids and like perils in dangerous uncharted territory.
This is very disturbing. We must move to get our priorities right and get it right very soon. We can ill afford to allow this mega serial to run without an end in sight. This is no Dallas or Coronation Street. Nor is this the reality Survival. It is the real survival, period. We must wake up and realize that this is truly the reality show and not some soap opera from which we get our daily fix. We must reassign 916 to the gold content in 22k gold and not to some fictional date of ambitious politicians.
The time has come to refocus on governance. To the politicians I would say, “You have had your day at the hustings and the elections. It is now time for you take on your respective roles either in His Majesty’s Government or the Opposition and perform the tasks that you had solemnly promised and agreed to undertake.” Let us citizens judge you for the next five years or so. We will then pass judgment on your performance at the next general election. That would be reflective of true a democracy at work. After 51 hard years of nation building, we need to move on and strive to strengthen the institutions of state and not weaken them. The judiciary is one such institution and by all accounts is in desperate need for reform.
Unfortunately, the reform agenda of the government seems to have been lost in space. We have to regain the initiative. I attended the Malaysian Bar Dinner in April this year where the Right Honourable Prime Minister announced to a standing ovation that judicial reform would be one of his government’s priorities. In fact the Prime Minister laid down several aspects of that reform proposal and told the crowd that the maverick Zaid Ibrahim as the de facto Law Minister would drive the initiative. The initial euphoria of the announcement and the high expectation of the legal fraternity that followed it, have all fizzled out. We are left disappointed, to say the least. Frankly, I feel more than disappointed. I feel somewhat cheated. I feel that I ought not to have been too quick to stand up and applaud the Prime Minister. I should have waited for the words to translate to action. Indeed very little of what was said has been transformed into action. It seems like I too had unwittingly become an actor in this mega serial.
Of course as events of the mega serial would have it Zaid Ibrahim is no longer in cabinet and the mantle has been passed on Nazri Aziz, who apart from saying that he would be meeting the stakeholders has not made any other pronouncement as to how he would be taking this task further. How the Prime Minister’s judicial reform initiative henceforth unfolds is eagerly awaited by all concerned citizens.
In the meantime, I shall continue to have hope that change will come; I shall continue to hope that good sense will prevail among our politicians; I shall continue to have hope that there will be a fitting end to the serial, very soon. Until that day, and to borrow from Barrack Hussain Obama, I shall have the audacity of hope. |
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