Civil Society versus Bureaucracy

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Aug 14, 2010

It seems that whatever has to do with civil society, people become even greater victims of authority – as if unwed mothers don’t already have enough problems on their hands while fat and greedy bureaucrats sitting in their comfortable offices decide on whether they live or die.

By batsman

Recently it was announced that mothers who abandon their newborn will be charged with murder. I see this as an opportunistic act by a corrupt and abusive bureaucracy to take advantage of the repugnance felt by civil society of the crime of abandoning newborns.

Why is it opportunistic and abusive? Firstly it is ill-considered and rushed. Only 2 scenarios are given serious consideration – whether the newborn lives or dies after being abandoned. What if it were still-born? Will a murder charge be appropriate? How can it be proven and who should prove this? What about abortions when the foetus is still inside the mother? Will this also be considered murder? At what stage of the development of the foetus will an abortion be considered murder? Will the doctor who performs the abortion be considered a murderer? What about the judge who orders an abortion because the mother was an under-aged rape victim of her grandfather? Will such a judge be considered a murderer? There are so many complex scenarios that the decision to rush prosecution of unwed mothers who abandon their newborns for murder can only be done by opportunistic and abusive bureaucrats who are themselves not much more ethical than the mothers who abandon their babies.

Therefore it can only be one of the issues that surround the eternal struggle between civil society and abusive and corrupt bureaucrats. In this case the bureaucrats have used the repugnance of civil society towards such a crime to ramp up their power over life and death. To have such immoral persons empowered with life and death decisions in their hands – how much better is it compared to unwed mothers abandoning their newborn?

Let us now examine the situation with regards to bureaucrats. They are now so arrogant and so powerful that they can be publicly rude and abusive to a sitting Chief Minister. Their power grows by leaps and bounds while their incompetence and carelessness grows even more alarmingly. Apparently it is reported that case notes of crimes investigated are being sold as old newspapers by the police. The MACC is only now introducing “new” evidence which should have been in their possession ever since TBH died.

There are thousands of such cases of incompetence and abuse of power, yet bureaucrats are not held to account. In most cases they are not even given warnings. Cases are just dragged on forever until civil society forgets there is an issue in the first place. Can such incompetence and abuse of power be tolerated?

If they are, then bureaucrats will have life and death power over civil society and these bureaucrats are even not elected in the first place. The politicians who ARE elected seem to be protecting these bureaucrats, so it is such politicians who must answer to civil society.

This is because such politicians are themselves role models of incompetence and abuse of power and they need the abusive and corrupt bureaucrats to protect them in return. It is like a mutual love society.

Take for example some old politicians who still insist on using racial arguments to keep themselves in power. Even if they are no longer ministers, they try to increase their power and influence over civil society by having a big mouth and dominating mass media space. These old politicians use the insecurity and fear of civil society to increase their power, so it now becomes a struggle of civil society with corrupt and abusive bureaucrats repeated again and again. This struggle seems to be never ending.

In the past, civil society had some real racial issues to resolve and bureaucrats were empowered to solve them. It is now over 50 years and the issues have not even become any better. In fact they have become worse. It would seem that the bureaucrats are actually prolonging these issues with old shop worn arguments and provoking more new episodes just to keep their power over civil society at a high level even to the point of deciding over life and death issues.

For example the old arguments that the Chinese control the economy are repeated again and again. In the meantime over the course of 50 years, some Malays have become extremely rich. This fact is ignored and the old arguments are repeated again and again. There is even fierce denial and threats to use the ISA when the Chinese complain that all these arguments are obsolete and some Malays have become very rich. The bureaucrats suppress all complaints and if the ISA is not enough, they use the threat of another May 13. They even promote racial superiority with the concept of Ketuanan Melayu and openly declare with extreme arrogance that if they want, they can even take 60% of the economy.

What is the real truth? Does anybody know? With suppression of the truth, it is doubtful that anybody knows for certain, therefore civil society has to rely on suspicions and vague clues.

For example, Daim is infamously rich. Everybody seems to know that, yet he does not even appear in the 40 richest Malaysians list. In addition, the mass media keeps harping on the fact that most of the names of the 20 richest Malaysians are Chinese names. This is intended to show that the Chinese still control the economy, yet by going down the list between the 20th richest and the 40th richest, the number of Chinese names and Malay names are about 50-50. (malaysia’s richest)

It is actually very sad to have to resort to using race to analyse the economy, but the scene has already been set by the Ketuanan Melayu types and TDM himself who obsess over the matter.

The Chinese tycoons are already feeling the heat. Not only is there roughly 50-50 ratio in Chinese to Malays names in the 20th to 40th richest Malaysians, the Chinese names among the top 20 richest Malaysians seem to be divesting and pulling their investments out of Malaysia. This can only mean that they are feeling the heat and know for certain that their positions are no longer tenable in Malaysia – yet the old arguments that the Chinese control the economy are repeated ad nauseum for political purposes and to trigger racial animosity forever and ever.

The Chinese are being lumped together to target them as the victims by making them all appear to be exploitative and greedy businessmen depriving Malays of a livelihood.

This is actually no different from the US politicians who lump all Muslims together as terrorists so that Muslims can be targeted as the victims. Read the article in the link (ground-zero-mosque-islamophobia) and decide for yourself. I think you are intelligent adults with some decency, so your conclusions cannot be too far off from mine.

It is time to move away from old racial arguments and silly racial fights over the economy when the bureaucrats already have life and death control over civil society. It is time for civil society to reclaim some of that control so that there is a healthier balance and Malaysia becomes a better place to live in.

The assumption is that as long as bureaucrats keep the power of life or death over civil society, there is no improvement in the maturity and empowerment of civil society. Civil society is still treated as babies who cannot make any decisions for themselves and therefore can be thrown away and abandoned if it suits the power hungry motives of the corrupt and abusive bureaucrats.

Bureaucrats therefore need to be treated in the same manner as unwed mothers who abandon their newborn and be charged with a serious crime if there is death in custody cases. MACC top bureaucrats should therefore be charged with serious crimes for TBH’s death in custody? Some big shot police inspector must pay for Kugan’s death in custody not just a scapegoat policeman? Make these some of the issues in Project 1805?

What do you think?