Refreshing new politics for Malaysia

The country’s politics has gone to a new phase that political parties will only worry about their own interests, often at the expense of the country’s future.

Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily

As Kim Jong-nam’s assassination takes precedence, domestic politics has retreated to a low of late. The killing has successfully diverted the public’s attention from the fact that the country’s politics is about to move into a crucial phase.

Umno sent the minister in charge of religious affairs Jamil Khir Baharom to PAS’ rally in support of RUU355 on February 18, showing that the government is indeed serious about taking over PAS president Hadi Awang’s amendment bill.

Dewan Rakyat will resume its session on March 6 but so far we still do not have the details of the proposed amendments. This has invariably caused the local non-Muslim community and religious organizations to be worried.

Although both PAS and Umno have promised that this is not going to be hudud and the rights of non-Muslims will not be violated, RUU355 nevertheless entails duality in the country’s criminal and judicial systems, and will inevitably have a negative bearing on national solidarity.

The cooperation between Umno and PAS in the RUU355 amendments is a kind of “political deal” whereby both sides get what they want: Umno can keep its administration unchallenged, and PAS can have its ultimate religious objectives fulfilled.

Such a deal illustrates the fact that the country’s politics has gone to a new phase that political parties will only worry about their own interests, often at the expense of the country’s future.

As a matter of fact, Umno and PAS are not the only ones to play such a trick; the same applies to the opposition, too. This kind of narrow-minded politics is outright disappointing, and has been the main contributing factor for the political apathy among more and more Malaysians.

A study shows that only 13% of young Chinese Malaysians aged between 21 and 29 have registered themselves as voters, while 80% of Malays in the same age bracket have done so.

For all these years Malaysian politics has been a repetition of frustrating wars of words and political gimmicks.

For example, Mahathir slammed BR1M as a form of corruption but later changed his mind, and PM Najib consequently called him “U-turn champion”.

Mahathir also said DAP had requested the post of DPM if the opposition were to win the next general elections. He later said it was MCA, not DAP, that wanted the DPM post. Najib called Mahathir a liar.

Former minister in the PM’s Dept Zaid Ibrahim, who has just joined DAP, claimed that Mahathir was the de facto leader of the opposition pact, which DAP subsequently rebuked, while Najib tweeted that Lim Kit Siang was the actual de facto leader instead.

All these wars of words and stupidities prove that our politicians are devoid of new progressive political ideas, and are not going to take the country out of the current doldrums anytime.

We have also seen opposition leaders demonizing Chinese investments. Many Malaysians will be out of jobs if investors stay away!

The opposition has also failed to offer their new governing policies and democratic philosophies. They are not going anywhere far if they cannot come up with something more positive.

Meanwhile, our government leaders can no longer bask in the “feel good” atmosphere, completely ignorant of the presence of our problems.

Following the ringgit devaluation and petrol price hike, the CPI rose 3.2% in January. While Malaysians in general feel the pinch, our ministers only see the rosy picture of 4.5% GDP growth in the last quarter of 2016.

8,277,391 individuals have applied for BR1M, and this is not something we should take pride in. This only shows that many in this country are still making very little every month. With the ringgit continuously on the slide, we are getting further and further from the ultimate goal of a high-income status. It is imperative that the government come up with some strategies to stabilize the ringgit exchange rates.

Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, former president of the Malaysian Economic Association, recently proposed to trim the country’s civil service in a bid to shrink the budgetary deficit, which the government has largely ignored.

Without crushing the old politics and establishing the new one, this country will continue to stay stagnant forever.