The Malaysian Insight

MOMENTOUS. That was 2018 for Malaysia, and it will likely be the same for 2019.

Malaysians made a historic change in 55 years when they booted out the Barisan Nasional government by either voting Pakatan Harapan or abstaining from voting on May 9. That choice was made easier because of two men: Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Najib Razak.

Dr Mahathir made the Malaysia, Umno and BN that Najib unmade. Umno, the lynchpin that negotiated Merdeka, the formation of Malaysia, industrialisation, modernisation and prosperity, and made Alliance/BN the longest-ruling government in the world.

In Dr Mahathir’s time, many made money by creaming off profits, and almost everyone was happy. In Najib’s time, it was from the debts that still have to be paid – now and almost forever, and almost everyone is angry.

But the people’s choice on May 9 brought us back to 1998 – the uneasy tension of a visionary prime minister limited by time, and a successor seen to be personally flawed despite talking the walk on Asian values and democracy.

And, the realisation that Malaysians kicked out an incompetent and sycophantic cabinet for one that is inchoate, and unable to form and see the bigger picture that change demands.

The main idea of Malaysia is prosperity and development for all, and not at the expense of the environment that has made the country one of the most fertile and beautiful lands untouched by natural disasters that blight the planet, except one.

Man.

We are responsible for all that is wrong in Malaysia. The government might have changed on May 9, but it still believes the world must buy palm oil to ensure smallholders make enough.

Perhaps, there are other crops? Perhaps, the world thinks palm oil is unhealthy not just for humans, but the economic cost does not justify filling in mangroves, and cutting hills and jungles tens of thousands of years old that host the most diverse flora and fauna in the world.

And, do we follow the world in banning smoking in public places, such as food courts and eateries, yet allow these same places to offer the most unhealthy meals 24 hours a day?

What is is our priority? Clear lungs with clogged arteries in diabetic bodies?

Do we still have to keep subsidies, rebates and handouts in a region where countries like Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia join Thailand to race ahead economically without much help from their governments?

We want a high-income nation, but with that comes higher prices for almost everything. And taxes. Nothing is free, nothing is an entitlement, and this government needs to reinforce that point.

And should we even bother to discuss education from the primary to tertiary levels or vocational/technical options in the 21st century, when the powers that be focus on religious studies?

See, the people who made that change on May 9 have the best opportunity to keep this new government honest and accountable. To question its every move, to ensure transparency, and to eliminate corruption and the tendency to pry into and run the private lives of citizens.

Otherwise, the only change was to throw out a government that took too much for one that talks too much.

And Malaysia will just be old whine in a new bottle. – January 1, 2019.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.