Malaysians Get the Government They Deserve
Before the 1999 general elections, there were warnings from enlightened souls that it would be devastating for the Barisan Nasional government to be returned to power with 2/3 majority in parliament. It was pointed out by Kim Quek and other writers that such an event would equal to renewing a license for the BN to continue plundering the economic wealth of the nation and hasten the erosion of civil rights. Unfortunately this message was lost among the millions of voters who tragically returned BN to power with a 3/4 majority.
Two years after the elections, Malaysians are getting a bitter taste of the government they voted in. There has never been such contempt for public opinion that massive daylight robbery of public money occur with impunity and with ludicrous explanations that treat the public as simple-minded fools, if indeed the politicians feel that they need to explain at all. On the issue of civil rights, we have witnessed how opposition leaders and supporters are subjected to police harassment and unjustified detention that should be anything but legal.
Let us give a few examples to put this in perspective. In the case of MAS, Tajudin Ramli the failed crony-businessman was bailed out of his investment by a government willing to pay an exorbitant price of RM8.00 a share for his 29% stake in MAS which is more than twice the market price then. What is more galling is that this bailout with public funds was despite the fact that Tajudin's mismanagement and skimming off the national carrier had all but run MAS into the ground. Yet our finance minister Daim defended the purchase on the basis that the market price of MAS shares did not reflect its real value as the KLSE was at a low point. This may be true if funds are injected in and new management established to manage the airline properly, but it is the duty of the government to get the best possible price for the public based on the current market value and the state of the debt-ridden money losing airline at the time of purchase. It is not for the finance minister to speculate on the future value of MAS and set a high price accordingly.
Other ludicrous justifications followed until it became almost surreal. "The block of MAS shares was worth a premium because it includes management rights". But the fact was that the government holds a golden share in MAS with management rights. Is the public so stupid that their intelligence can be insulted with the obvious? "MAS had to bailed out because it was a strategic business of national interest and a matter of national pride". But how does paying a high price for the MAS shares benefit the airline? It only benefited the seller who laughed all the way to the bank. To add insult to injury, Daim claimed that Tajudin was a reluctant seller who had wanted RM15 a share. Bearing in mind that Tajudin was at his last leg and could no longer pump funds into the airline to service its debts or run MAS much longer, such a statement must be the height of absurdity. With no other buyer in sight, the government could have any price it dictated to the failed businessman, but it chose to bail him out of an intractable position with taxpayers funds.
Another act of contempt for the public was the way EPF and KWAP came to be the owner of unwanted Time Dotcom shares when its IPO flopped dismally with only 25% subscription. It was a puzzle that the massive IPO to raise RM1.89 billion was fully underwritten despite market perception that the offer price of RM3.30 was unrealistically high and strong general perception that it would be under-subscribed. But the failure of the IPO showed up the charade that the real underwriters where not the ten banks which were mere fronts but trustees of public money who had to pick up the unsubscribed shares with guaranteed massive losses. This by itself is an abuse of public institutions by a government bent on helping another crony businessman out of dire financial straits.
The EPF head tried to mollify the public by saying that EPF did not pay cash for the Time Dotcom shares as it merely converted half of the loan owed by parent Time Engineering to equity. He did not mention that the original agreement was for EPF to be repaid from the proceeds of the IPO in cash. And justifying the conversion to equity on the basis that EPF did not pay cash for it is a simple-minded attempt to hoodwink the public. Oh yes, the money was paid…it was paid way back in 1996 when a loan of RM500 million was given to Time Engineering which is a scandal in itself that a public institution legally bound to invest only in low risk instruments should hand over a huge amount of cash to a risky venture on nothing more than a corporate guarantee.
As for how KWAP came to commit RM902 million of the civil servants pension money to buy the biggest block of Time Dotcom's unwanted shares and in doing so became the biggest loser, no lame explanation was forthcoming from the pension fund. It was not a creditor of Time Engineering, neither was it in the business of financing venture capitalists. But why bother with lame excuses when the public outcry can be safely ignored with no avenue for public action - not in the subservient press, the rubber stamp parliament, the police running dogs nor the leashed Anti-Corruption Agency.
Yet another act of economic plunder and utter disregard for public interest is the decision to proceed with the controversial Bakun Dam. Malaysia can ill afford to build a hugely expensive multi-billion ringgit dam in the thinly populated jungles of Sarawak with no capacity to utilize much of the power generated, but this did not stop prime minister Dr. Mahathir from pushing the project through as a monument to his megalomania. True to form, the government rode rough-shod over objections from the public on the environmental damage and the senseless economics of the project. Mahathir even said that the people of Sarawak and Sabah would benefit by paying less for electricity but time will bore out the lies of this foul-mouthed dictator when the public will be made to pay a shockingly higher cost for electricity in a hopeless attempt to recoup construction cost
What about the buyback of money losing light rail transit owners Star and Putra at a staggering cost of RM6 billion? How is it possible to explain the brazen monopoly by Pos Malaysia and a company from nowhere, Odasaja who just has to take a cut of each computer purchased using EPF funds by doing nothing? Do we have to be reminded of the buyback of failed sewerage privateer Indah Water Konsortium who had to be bailed out because crony companies must not lose money at all cost? All these constitute an abuse of public funds where the financial salvation of cronies come before public interest.
The government's arrogance and contempt for the public is not limited to economic plunder of hapless public institutions but also extend to sodomizing the rule of law. We have also seen a rise in police harassment and selective prosecution of opposition figures on ridiculous charges which would be laughed out of any decent court. We have Keadilan Youth Chief Mohamed Ezam's unwarranted detention and charged with sedition on nothing more than the strength of a disreputable and rabidly pro-government newspaper's claim of his intention to overthrow the government which he has denied. After the Lunas by-election defeat of BN, opposition supporters were rounded up and charged with "rioting" when there was no hint of any disturbance in the peaceful by-election. Police have also harassed and arrested citizens who sought to garner support to stay the ministry of education's decision to close the SRJK (C) Damansara school in a blatant abuse of power.
In yet another overwhelming display of contempt for public opinion, the controversial former Attorney-General Mohtar Abdullah was appointed a High Court judge. To say he was controversial is being generous, he was a disgraceful, louse-ridden hatchet man of the prime minister who applied the law selectively to people depending on which side of the political fence they were on. His scandal tainted term was notorious not only for the innocents he prosecuted, but also for the guilty he did not prosecute. True to his form, he marked his inauguration with a shocking statement that "he was prepared to serve the government to the best of his ability". Judges do not serve governments, they serve as an independent check on the executive, but then again we cannot expect this morally repugnant ex-hatchet man to know the difference.
On the political scene, the deluded Chinese voters who voted BN and provided critical support to help BN win power with a handsome majority must be looking at the fruits of a bitter harvest. Suiqui's reasonable appeal for more equitable treatment for all races were shouted down by Umno Youth and humiliatingly forced to withdraw those appeals under threats and pressure. Suiqui itself was likened to 'communists' and 'extremists' by the prime minister himself who seemed to have forgotten how much he depended on the Chinese to win the election. Mahathir went one step further by using the Chinese as political punching bags whom Malays must unite against to "safeguard their rights". Nobody was threatening those rights which were guaranteed by the constitution, but this did not stop the wily old man from trying to use racial sentiment to regain lost Malay support.
Why has a government which must stand elections every five years grown to be so arrogant and contemptuous of public opinion? The fact that the press is shackled has much to do with it. Not only shackled but also turned over into a propaganda machine singing undeserved praises of the corrupt government and justifying the indefensible. Without a free press it is not easy to galvanize public support against acts of betrayal of public interest and this fact is not lost on a government which holds the monopoly of information in an iron grip.
An insidious side effect of a controlled press is to starve the government of vital feedback from the masses. There is much anger in the land over the crony bailouts and economic abuses but with a fawning press which portray a one sided view of issues and allow no critical debate, political leaders are lulled into a false sense of complacency that everything is fine and dandy. Mistakes are repeated again and again and the anger builds with each act of public contempt until the tide of popular discontent sweeps away their false illusions in a day of reckoning.
The lack of strong parliamentary representation by the opposition means that critical issues never get a chance to be debated in parliament. Opposition politicians have a feeble voice which seldom gets heard with the Speaker bulldozing away any attempt to introduce any uncomfortable issues that puts the government on the defensive. Parliament has become a rubber stamp to endorse whatever abuses and anti-public practices of the ruling clique.
We cannot underestimate Mahathir's personal role in inflicting acts after acts of economic plunder and social injustice on the public as if Malaysia is his personal feudal kingdom. Mahathir is a despot at heart, an iron fist in a velvet glove and a man who never fights fair. Authoritarian methods are used to avoid elections in Umno which challenge his position for he would rather not risk a test of his popularity if he can help it. Mahathir's supreme confidence that he can ride through any political or public storm means that he does not hesitate to shaft any scandal down the public throat no matter how outrageous.
Also a party has never lost an election becomes arrogant and begins to think it is invincible. The fall of the Kuomintang party in Taiwan and the fall of Suharto's pseudo democracy must have shaken this confidence to an extent but old ways die hard. And this is perhaps the most important reason - Umno and BN politics have become so corrupt, self-serving and money-tainted over decades of the feudalistic patronage system that it could hardly reform itself even when faced with its own destruction.
Do Malaysians deserve this sort of government? Only if we continue to elect BN in with a 2/3 majority election after election. Power ultimately belongs to the people and Malaysians must look up and take stock of what they deserve. They must ask themselves the hard question, "Do we really want to be ruled by a corrupt, arrogant government with no respect for public resources and even less respect for our intelligence?"
Kevin Gan