Happy Birthday Malaysia

Years before the 12th and 13th general elections, I was part of that populace that could see how the corrupt BN regime was slowly but surely turning my beloved country into a failing state, with worsening race relations and unfair practices in almost every aspect of life.

The national educational system, which had nurtured me and my wife so well, had deteriorated so badly that I had to take my three children outside it.

I saw cronyism in the commercial affairs of the country where those connected were rewarded with cushy sweetheart deals to operate highways, import foreign labour, procure medicine and drugs and rice and other prerequisites of life.

Civil servants and politicians in high places had become conduits and commissioner agents for the provision of defence materials and related goods and services.

Many lived lifestyles totally out of sync with the income from their positions in government and the civil service. It was like free-for-all pillage and plunder of the country's coffers.

The continual gerrymandering of the Election Commission was a brazen, blatant and barefaced scheme to ensure BN would continue to rule forever. Repressive laws were enacted to silence the opposition.

And in the middle of it all was the horrendous story of the biggest heist in world history, the 1MDB saga, that continues to unravel...

So, on that day in May, when Dr Mahathir Mohamad (photo) was sworn in as prime minister, millions of us sighed with relief that salvation was at hand. 

We now had hope, and not just in the name of the Pakatan Harapan that formed the government. What a country to look forward to – a New Malaysia, free from corruption, and where people are treated as Malaysians, and not as Malays, Chinese or Indians.

That euphoria seemed to live on for weeks until, little by little, the early optimism was slowly chipped away.

'We cannot afford to abolish the highway tolls,' 'We never thought we would win,' 'We cannot ratify the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,' 'We would spook the Malays if educational opportunities are made fairer,' 'The Unified Examination Certificate recognition needs more study,' 'Local elections? We need to study this further,' ad nauseam.

Then my wife, a government pensioner, came back from Universiti Malaya Medical Centre and told me she now has to buy her 'bone supplement', something that had been prescribed to her years ago. 

What? By stopping the procurement of drugs and medicine through cronies, the government must be saving millions every month, so why is the supply of medicine to government pensioners being curtailed? Can anyone help me understand why this is so?

Then it transpired that there are federal ministers who professed to have academic qualifications, which proved bogus. But unlike, say, in Japan or the United Kingdom, where the culprit would either commit harakiri or resign, our ministers stayed on and chipped away more of my 'harapan' for integrity.

We hear of renegotiation of BN-initiated agreements and how much has been saved; but what about the highway concession agreements? Are we allowing the unfair contracts to go on and the rakyat continue to pay?

In my view, it would be so easy to impose a 95 percent tax on all income derived from the operations of highways to bring all the concessionaires to heel. It should be easy to abolish tolls in accordance with the Harapan manifesto.

Then I remember my peribahasa, "Mahu sa'ribu daya, ta'mahu sa'ribu dalek" (If you want, a thousand reasons, if you don't, a thousand excuses).

We had read of mysterious deaths and disappearances during the days of the Najib Abdul Razak regime, and reasonably expected immediate action to uncover the truth behind the death of Teoh Beng Hock or the disappearance of pastor Raymond Koh or the whereabouts of M Indira Gandhi's daughter, Prasana Diksa.

But the horrifying truth is seeping out that elements of the police may well be culpable. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (Who will watch the watchmen)?

We read of rehabilitation of discredited politicians and their absorption into one of the parties in the ruling coalition, and soon had to endure talks of the Bumiputera Agenda. Race-based rather than needs-based – a total antithesis of the aspiration of the touted New Malaysia.

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