Get down to serious work, Mr PM
Malaysiakini.com
Jul 8, 2008
Yow Lop Siaw 

The message is loud and clear – stop politicking and get on with your job, and this is the reality of the current economic health of the country. The PM must crack the whip and direct his ministers to get down to serious work before the pending economic
MCPX
tsunami hits us. Many countries are already badly hit and it won’t be long before the effect reaches us.

To the rakyat, to the man-in-the-street, what matters most is to make ends meet. And this is further aggravated by the recent petrol price increase. The government should look more seriously at securing more revenue and jobs for the people via foreign investments and businesses rather than seeking the easiest way out – increasing taxes and prices of goods.

Merely priming domestic consumption is not good enough for the long term. Since the petrol price increase, prices of food and other daily household goods have increased considerably.

The drastic increase in the prices of construction materials has grounded contractors and it would not be surprising to see more abandoned projects.

The crime rate is on the increase and all we get from the police is the lame excuse, ‘we are shorthanded’, but we don’t see this shortage of manpower during rallies and protest gatherings.

Almost all residential areas experience at least one robbery or theft every week, and we have no choice but to organise our own security arrangements to protect our families and property. And this is again, an increased expense item.

Get down to serious work, Mr. PM. Talking alone does not bring about results. You keep telling us that you will not step down as you have work to do but we merely hear what you said but not see what you do. Act immediately in order to stop the rot.

When you announced the petrol price increase, you believed that such a harsh decision would not be popular. Why don’t you apply the same principle and crack your whip – whip your ministers to get down to serious work !

Unless you do that, I won’t be surprised to see more and more protests – a manifestation of unbearable living costs. When the rakyat has enough food and is comfortable, they don’t resort to the streets.

On another note, it is also time that the whole populace starts to change their mindset – we need each other in order to prosper. It is time for the various races to move away from harbouring racial sentiments and shouting racial slogans as these will do more harm than good.

We have come a long way and what we see today is the combined effort of all races. Development transcends racial lines, so must sentiments.

We have erred in the past – let these be the past. The current socio-political scenario demands adjustments in various policies and the rakyat must wake up to face this new reality.

Shouting racial slogans and waving racial banners may bring about tremendous support from one race but it angers others. On one hand, we spend millions to inculcate national unity and racial integration, only to be nullified by just a single shout of racial slogan.

We have lost hundreds of thousand talents to other countries – Malaysians who are highly qualified and trained. The brain drain again is the manifestation of unjust policies and biased implementation of policies.

Most of these talents were either rejected by our very own government or they were disappointed with the country’s policies. Have the political will to put right what had been done wrongly and be magnanimous about working for all the races.

Malaysia is blessed with an abundance of natural resources as well as good fertile soil and favourable climate for rubber, oil palm and many other crops. With such endowment, it should be much more prosperous than many other nations but what we see is the contrary. We also have the talents but we choose to lose them.

It is time to take a serious view of things and review policies – be politically brave enough to replace the obsolete and irrelevant policies with relevant ones. Change is vital. 

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