Mar 21, 2008

A Letter To The Prime Minister


Congratulations to you for having just concluded a successful election.

I would like to express my sincere thanks for an incident free election and also allowing democracy to take its place.

As the euphoria and sadness of post election are slowly subsiding, I am sure you must be wondering, like many of us ,what actually happened and what really 'hit' BN so hard that it was denied a two-third majority by the people.
As was headlined by the newspaper, it was a political tsunami !

Please allow me to tell you, the reasons are many.

In actual fact, the writings were already on the wall during the election campaigns by the opposition parties and which your political advisers failed to see.
During the ceramahs, the attendance of the opposition parties was a sea of people, whilst the BN sides was almost deserted.
Almost everyone was talking about voting for the opposition parties.It was truly a political revolt!
The people are basically more interested to know about the contentious issues rather than the rhetoric of politics.

I am very sure that you must have realized that your party, UMNO has hurt the feelings of the non-Malays far too often.
The keris wielding, threats of May 13, drumming of the ketuanan Melayu have certainly built-up the egoism of the Malays to an extent that the other races seem irrelevant.
How do you feel if you are like me, a non-Malay?
Doesn't this country belong to all Malaysians?
As the non-Malays felt threatened, the government,UMNO to be precise, seems oblivious to these threats.

You have vowed to fight corruptions during the last election which you won by a vast majority.
And what we see now instead is a government that is full of corruptions with the Zakaria case of Port Klang as a classic example.
It is with astonishment that no case is being filed against him.
The Lingam tape controversy and the Mongolian murder case have further add to the already tardiness of the judiciary system.
How then can we have an efficient government that has declared to advocate transparency?

The NEP is always been deemed sensitive to UMNO, so much so that the mere mention of it for discussion can provoke the Malays.
What a stupendous level of intelligence-if not for the wrong reason.
For far too wrong the Malays have been depending on the NEP, without which they seemed to be doomed to fail.
How then, can they be successful when half the battle is already lost?
If you want to talk about a level playing field, whether it is economic or education, then you must not be afraid to allow all the races to compete freely and along the way, can learn the art of survival from one another.
Free handouts will certainly impede a person's intelligence.

The continued escalating cost of living had created a deep sense of frustrations among the people.The increased price of petrol, among others, had set a chain reaction in the overall cost of living.
Malaysia is a bless country, having many natural resources, with petroleum being the most important one and which we also export.
With the price of oil hovering around USD100 a barrel, we would have reaped in billions of ringgit in profits.

Transparency in governance is one of the most important yardsticks to measure against corruptions.

In this aspect, we would like to know many millions or billions of ringgit in business and study loans that are given under the NEP that have been written off or not repaid.
Furthermore, we would also like to know how many millions of ringgit more that has been paid to companies that are been set-up under the NEP as suppliers to the government agencies.
Another classic example is Pharmaniaga, a company which monopolizes the supply of pharmaceuticals to all government hospitals.
This company which acts like a middleman will just increase the cost of supplies to the government,without the hard work as usual.And God knows how much is the marked-up price.
And there are many more such companies !
One can just imagine the amount of money that can be saved if the government deals directly with the suppliers.
Remember the Auditor-General's Report?
At the end of the day, semua-nya OK.
Therefore, your constant arguments that the government cannot afford to continue subsidize the cost of petrol do not hold true.
It is the prudence in governance that goes a long way in benefiting the people.

We have been reading far too many reports of crimes everyday so much so that the people do not have a sense of security.
Although you have pledged to increase the police force, its presence in public places is hardly felt.
The increased in the crime rates, whether committed by the locals, illegal immigrants or the infamous mat rempits have strike fear as if there is no law and order in the country.

In many countries, the standard of education is of paramount importance.It is with an educated workforce that a country can be developed into prosperity.
Although we have placed equal importance in education, the standard of our universities are constantly going down as per the international rankings.
What is actually wrong with our education system?
To add salt to injury, every year there have been reports of leaked questions during examinations.
So, is there any wonder why the ranking of our universities are going down?
The education ministry needs to halt the further decline in our ranking before we are left far behind other countries.
Thus, I would like to propose that our Education Minister use more of the pen rather than the keris.

In a nutshell, the fundamentals of good governance, ie. transparency, efficiency prudence are sorely lacking and to put it bluntly, the people are simply getting fed-up!

Mr.Prime Minister, you have been given another mandate to govern the country without the two-third majority, which means you have won the battle but not the war.
To win the war, you must have a solid backing of the people,without which this war can never be won.

I, like my fellow Malaysians love our country very much.
Please make us love you more.

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