Malaysia is NOT a failed state or “kerajaan gagal”
The anti-government elements are hoodwinking Malaysians into believing that Malaysia is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. It is not. Malaysia does not even come close to being a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. If you think Malaysia is blundering in its handling of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, and in handling the economic fallout, go see how the UK and US are blundering even worse.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Every year, I take a three-month course in Oxford and/or Cambridge. I have taken no less than 10 courses since I came here back in 2009. The courses I have taken are mainly in history, politics, philosophy, and religion (history of religions and comparative religions).
Anyway, from what Oxford and Cambridge taught me, Malaysia is NOT a failed state or “kerajaan gagal”, unless my professors do not know what they are talking about.
This is how Encyclopaedia Britannica defines a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL:
Failed state: a state that is unable to perform the two fundamental functions of the sovereign nation-state in the modern world system: it cannot project authority over its territory and peoples, and it cannot protect its national boundaries. The governing capacity of a failed state is attenuated such that it is unable to fulfil the administrative and organisational tasks required to control people and resources and can provide only minimal public services. Its citizens no longer believe that their government is legitimate, and the state becomes illegitimate in the eyes of the international community.
A failed state is composed of feeble and flawed institutions. Often, the executive barely functions, while the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, and armed forces have lost their capacity and professional independence. A failed state suffers from crumbling infrastructures, faltering utility supplies and educational and health facilities, and deteriorating basic human-development indicators, such as infant mortality and literacy rates. Failed states create an environment of flourishing corruption and negative growth rates, where honest economic activity cannot flourish.
The dynamics leading to and compounding a state failure are many and varied, including civil war, ethnic violence or genocide, and predatory government and bureaucratic behaviour. State failure comes in degrees and is often a function of both the collapse of state institutions and societal collapse. A strong state provides core guarantees to its citizens and others under its jurisdiction in the three interrelated realms of security, economics, and politics. A failed state cannot maintain a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence and minimize internal conflict. It cannot formulate or implement public policies to effectively build infrastructure and deliver services or effective and equitable economic policies. In addition, it cannot provide for the representation and political empowerment of its citizens or protect civil liberties and fundamental human rights. Thus, state failure manifests itself when a state can no longer deliver physical security, a productive economic environment, and a stable political system for its people.
Okay, that is the very long definition of a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. And Malaysia does not even come close to it. Malaysia’s FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL status is merely in the minds of Lim Kit Siang and the DAP Chinese. And now that virus has spread to Umno people as well. Orang Melayu sudah kena jangkit virus dari orang Cina DAP (macam juga Covid-19 dari China).
This Malaysia is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL campaign is exaggerated. It is just like how Pakatan Harapan alleged that Najib Tun Razak had bankrupted Malaysia, which is why the government had to sell off all the Malay assets. It was all a lie to justify selling off assets belonging to Malay trust agencies and sabotage the New Economic Policy (and then blame Umno for it).
Okay, there are weaknesses in the government, granted. But then there are weaknesses in ALL governments everywhere in the world. All governments have shortcomings. If Malaysia is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL, then every country in the world is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL.
Some argue they are specifically referring to how the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic is being handled (and the impact to the economy because of it) to declare Malaysia a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL.
You cannot take one issue out of 100 issues and use that one issue to declare Malaysia a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. Can we say the United States is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL based on the number of African Americans who have been killed by “white” police officers? What about the high number of homeless who sleep on the streets? The US has more homeless than the number of Malaysians who voted in GE14. Is the US not a failed state then?
The anti-government elements are hoodwinking Malaysians into believing that Malaysia is a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. It is not. Malaysia does not even come close to being a FAILED STATE or KERAJAAN GAGAL. If you think Malaysia is blundering in its handling of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, and in handling the economic fallout, go see how the UK and US are blundering even worse.
And the policies the UK has adopted is going to cost future generations for the next 30 years to come. The next generation is going to still be paying for what the government is spending today. Malaysians scream about this, that and the other. Sure, the government can do what the opposition demands just to be popular with the voters. But your children will be paying for your selfish demands. There is no free lunch. Someone, somewhere, must pay.
