Bricks, mortar, steel and glass cannot transform our daily living
Today, despite all those billions of Ringgit worth of bricks, mortar, steel and glass we have come to a stage where people are complaining about being able to stretch their Ringgit each day.
By J. D. Lovrenciear
The Prime Minister of Malaysia at a recent Conference on ‘Invest Malaysia – Working together is success’ is reported to have said in his concluding remarks that investors should ‘see for themselves in Kuala Lumpur the bricks and mortar and steel and glass (and) how our programmes and policies are transforming our country day by day.’
The Deputy PM also, at a Sarawak campaign sojourn, upheld that BN is committed to bring about transformation and not just change as propagated by his opponents.
Throughout the reign and rule of Tun Dr M2, the drum beat was one of progress through development. And development was translated to mega and super structures of bricks and mortar and steel and glass.
But today Malaysians are screaming at the high cost of living that keeps spiralling unendingly week after week. The price of fish and food at the marketplace is a clear indicator that this is a reality. Citizens are facing nightmares in meeting daily life expenditures let alone servicing loans that have them on a lifetime hook.
And despite all the development and the transformation that leaders parade and proclaim, the citizens are further trapped in a race and religious dichotomy that threatens to rip the nation into shredded pathways.
Yes there was time and season when visitors from foreign lands and our neighbouring countries would look at us in awe and proclaim ‘Malaysians are rich’.
But today many tourists and investors are pouring their money more in these neighbouring countries. They have huge factories that are foreign owned and dedicated to meeting world market demands – be it automobiles, raw and processed materials, IT, crops and even education.
Tourists find that they get their money’s worth many times over by not only frolicking in the sunny and pristine beaches in other Asian countries but are even spending long term stays here. They have public safety, hassle free conveniences and services and above all they do not get to be frightened by race and religious politicising in the daily news. There is even no news of threats of ‘dead bodies and crushed bones’.
Even Asians are unable to come to Malaysia for a holiday because it has become far too costly for them. Even a simple breakfast can be as much as ten times more than what they would spend in their own countries.
Lest we forget Malaysia has been blessed with black gold, rubber, tin and palm oil. The nation had a higher literacy rate doing well as a bilingual population. It had comparatively predictable climatic conditions and people of differing creeds and stock had no issue about their differences.
Today, despite all those billions of Ringgit worth of bricks, mortar, steel and glass we have come to a stage where people are complaining about being able to stretch their Ringgit each day. Whereas even our immediate neighbours up north have no difficulty in eating out almost every night. In the villages and the cities, everyone does not complain about food bills to begin with.
That in summary is the reality on the ground.
Foreign workers who have been coming by the droves in the past to Malaysia are also growing disillusioned with the rainbow in the sky picture painted by profiteering recruiting agents. The wages they earn and the cost of staying un-hassled and having three square meals is becoming a nightmarish juggling act for them too.
We have to be courageous to review, appraise and accept salient truths. If we have failed with all our grandiose plans, we simply have failed.
The sooner we can come to terms with how, where and when and in what ways we have gone wrong with our chosen pathway and quest for progress and development the better the nation can take corrective measures.
For a nation like Malaysia that has been blessed with two oil sources – petroleum and palm oil, there is no way it could end up with the citizenry struggling to make ends meet. Unless of course if we have mismanaged.
What is most frightening is despite all the signs on the global economic charts of the future, despite all the rising cost of living in Malaysia, we are still proclaiming and endorsing that the benchmark of transformation is having more grandiose bricks and mortar and steel and glass.
We have forgotten to take stock of the spiritual, emotional, intellectual, social well being of the citizenry. We have in essence forgotten about the micro-economic demands of the working class while we remain gung-ho about the meta-economic grandiose that in all likelihood enriches the very rich. And so we are fighting battles between ourselves along racial, economic and religious parameters. That in itself is a clear sign that the nation is not transforming but is sliding fast into dangerous gutters.
When will we ever or will we ever save ourselves from a drowning situation? If we are not already drowning then why is it that at the slightest sneeze of a global economic or financial situation change, immediately the citizens get the brunt of the wave and are admonished instead to tighten their belts?
Perhaps the time has come to have open debates with economic and financial wizards who can tell us without fear or favour whether we are heading in the safe direction simply because the humble rakyat’s cries and reservations have been sidelined.
