Dear Malaysians, the country needs you … to pay its debts

The country needs your help. In a more specific sense, the country needs your money to pay its debts. Debts generated due to poor and bad governance, due to mismanagement of the country’s wealth and revenue, and due to unqualified leadership.

By ViewAct

Just this morning, an announcement came over the radio about the change in traffic summons policy – that there would be no discount, and no appeals. Well, not that I am against good driving manners, but I can’t help thinking of the link this may have to the many millions used in by-elections and defections.

The government of the day has wasted much of the country’s monies in defection plans, with trips, “rewards” and whatnot. And in the recent by-election, millions of ringgit were given out like water gushing out from a fully opened tap. Money was borrowed at short notice from tycoons to finance the event and as repayment, projects, permits and licenses are to be given to them.

The country’s revenue is slowly being given away by the government. It’s like selling shares of an organization. When their share value reaches over 50%, they will literally own the organization. So, Perkasa, who is really causing the country to fall into the hands of “Pendatangs”?

The government is broke, the country is about to go broke too. In these desperate times, they have to think of something to channel the rakyat’s money to fill the hole. But I can tell you that they are too greedy. Not only do they want to cover the hole, they want to fill their own pockets up too. And unfortunately, the latter is more important than the former.

There are no big projects brewing at the moment, and it takes time to come up with one. So they resorted to giving out licenses and permits to the very thing they supposedly oppose – the things they loathe on the surface, but love from the bottom of their hearts – gambling, liquor, and probably vice too. Well, put aside the physical enjoyment; they like it because it gives them good money. Well, isn’t it always those illegal things that generate the greatest profit? Other than the trading of arms, drugs, and human trafficking, I think gambling and vice would be next on top of the list.

Thus the country needs your help. In a more specific sense, the country needs your money to pay its debts. Debts generated due to poor and bad governance, due to mismanagement of country’s wealth and revenue, and due to unqualified leadership.

Now, coming back to the strictness of traffic summons announced this morning. Not that I do not support good driving manners and better driving attitudes but we have flip-flop policies, with blurry and unclear guidelines. We have rulings about backseat seatbelts, and we now wonder if it is still enforced. We have unclear rules and regulations. We have a parking box with a yellow line on the roadside, meaning you can park but you cannot park. We have summons issued on cars parked at the roadside without any yellow or even white lines, etc, etc. At the end of the day, people get a ticket without knowing for sure if they deserved it or not, and there is no way they can appeal. So this means traffic police can now issue summons at will and no questions asked.

More often than not, we see people breaking the traffic rules like queue jumping right in front of a junction, road hogging, reckless driving, speeding at highways etc and there is nothing done by the traffic police. Instead, normal law abiding citizens who make simple and small mistakes are being issued summons. To add salt to injury, you see cars with police logo stickers (especially those with the word “Penyiasat”) breaking the traffic rules more often than others. And there are no sirens, nor any indication that they are in a rush to solve any crime. So the law does not apply to law officers? How about the children of ministers and children of royals? How do they drive and how often are they issued summons?

Now, no questions asked and no discounts. On top of that, no clear guidelines. So people do not know for sure if they are getting a ticket for an offence they had really committed or it was an excuse to get “duit kopi”. With the integrity of the police force in question, and with the many bad experiences people have had, wouldn’t it make people more eager to bribe police officers the moment they are stopped for an alleged offence?

So, unless the implementation of policies are made with clear guidelines, the whole thing is just another motivator for corruption. And this is more money from the people to subsidize the government’s crooked plans.