The Malaysian Insight

THIS October 2020 is when the chickens come home to roost in Malaysia. Where the mistakes of all these years and everything that can go wrong unsurprisingly does go wrong.

A minister is let off the hook for breaching Covid-19 quarantine because he was not handed the quarantine order form. It took more than a 100 days of police investigations for the Attorney-General’s Chambers to stamp “NO FURTHER ACTION” on the file.

The International Trade and Industry Ministry issues guidelines to restrict the number of workers with the hours and days of working in stricter locked down zones due to the Covid-19 pandemic with no rationale for the limits.

The Finance Ministry unveils a logo for the coming Budget 2021 to publicise a budget by a government under threat of collapse by angry allies.

The government of the day refuses to prove its majority in parliament, ignoring the slew of no-confidence motions let alone the fact that one would suffice to give doubts to the ruling coalition’s majority.

This is 2020. The year Malaysia was to achieve all nine points of its Vision 2020 set out by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his Way Forward speech in 1991. But not many remember those nine points.

Surprisingly, Dr Mahathir is prime minister again, only to resign in February and be replaced by a government without a mandate from the people. Instead his replacement is Muhyiddin Yassin, who proudly says he has a mandate from the king.

This in 2020, in a country that is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy but with a prime minister who soldiers on without any electoral mandate.

Instead of being a developed nation where everyone is equal and has equity in the nation, we now have a government that would only thrive and prosper in a feudal system.

Is it any surprise then a minister can be so ignorant of quarantine rules set by his own palace-endorsed government? Is it a surprise that civil servants can ignore or bend the rules for ministers?

After all, this is feudalism. The rich and powerful are above the rules while the poor and underclass suffer.

Is it any surprise the government enact rules for the public and private sector workers where the management stays at home while the underclass works?

With working hours and limits that have no logical explanation except being plucked from nowhere and now set in stone?

Are viruses active on alternate days but not between 10am and 2pm daily? Is there a lesser chance at the golf courses, gymnasiums and restaurants due to stricter procedures there?

Is this all easier than actually implementing and enforcing rules for hygiene and safe distancing in workplaces? Or is everything a divine revelation and by fiat?

And what can a logo do to make things better? It is a harbinger of good news? Do we console ourselves with the colours and font and wait for the news weeks later?

Will this government even exist by the time Budget 2021 is slated to be tabled?

Perhaps it will while we quibble about all this and forget the wider scheme of things.

That we have a government that came into being without any manifesto and is not answerable to the people.

That we have a government refusing to prove its majority or right to run the country.

That we have a government of the people and above the people.

And in 2020, we finally realise what losing honesty and integrity means. It means no further action. – October 21, 2020.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.