Soon we will all be going to the polls (12th Elections since Independence). We will be discharging our duty as citizens of Malaysia. In exercising this fundamental right, we must act rationally on the basis of a careful evaluation of what the UMNO-BN coalition under the leadership of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi has done for our country since we gave him a resounding mandate in 2004.
Badawi made big promises and raised our expectations. He also capitalised on negative sentiments against the long authoritarian rule of Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. Those sentiments were in part the result of actions taken by the former Prime Minister against Tun Salleh Abbas (1988), and his Deputy Prime Minister Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim (1998). Badawi’s spinners blacked out the achievements of Tun Dr. Mahathir in his handling of the East Asian Economic Crisis, the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s and tried to create a “Mr Clean Image” for their man. The way they did this was to denigrate the achievements of the Tun, a very competent, hardworking, and gutsy leader. This is politics at the gutter level.
Badawi said that he would fight corruption, manage our national finances prudently by cutting off mega projects which were initiated by his predecessor, and take our country forward into an era of “cemerlang, gemilang dan terbilang”. What he meant to do was to create a first world mind-set on the back of Tun Mahathir’s first world infrastructure. He appealed to us to “work with me, not for me”. Four years have gone and we are in 2008 and on the basis of all economic and social indicators, we have become laggards, no longer respected as we once were under the leadership of Tun Dr. Mahathir. The Badawi administration in 2008 is a dismal failure.
For all his warts and all, Tun Dr. Mahathir— I admire and respect him a lot —ensured that we had jobs and opportunities by his pro-growth economic policies. During his 22 year rule, Malaysia’s real GDP growth averaged 8.5 per cent per annum. We had strong foreign direct investment inflows, a bouyant manufacturing sector, and our stock market (until 1998 when the East Asian economic contagion hits our shores) in terms of market capitalisation was the highest in the region. Inflation was low.
The Tun and his then colleague, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance did not raise the petrol price and kept our finances sound. The crime rate too was under control. Inter-ethnic and religious tensions were very much contained. Our economy recovered quickly by the end of 1999 because our economic fundamentals were strong.
In just four years, Badawi created one big mess.I do not need to elaborate on his policy and leadership failures. Now he wants another term purportedly to finish his mission. In truth, he needs additional 5 years to consolidate his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin’s political future, and the business and financial interests of his son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, and his cronies.
What mission is he talking about? Frankly, he has no mission. He is the very epitome of confusion, or muddled thinking, incompetence and indecision. He has lost control over his own party, UMNO, which is now fractious and increasingly rapacious, his Cabinet, and over the management of the political economy of our country.
Throughout my nearly 40 years of service for our country in my various capacities in the public and private sectors, I have been a strong supporter and, in fact, an apologist of the government from the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad. I had also high hopes for Abdullah Badawi. I was in Jitra, Kubang Pasu on March 13, 2004 with Tun Dr.Mahathir and Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah binti Mohamed Ali to support the nomination of Dato Johari Baharum (and what a disappointment this man is today) as the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Kubang Pasu Parliamentary constituency.
In four years I became a changed man. I am a political activist with Parti KeADILan Rakyat. I see Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim as my leader who will be bring a new dawn for Malaysia. Badawi is to me a big letdown, long on talk and promises, very short indeed on political will, courage and action.
Everything turned to be just Penang Boria and he is the very antithesis of what he had promised in his 2004 Election Manifesto. As far as I am concerned, Badawi has had his chance. It is now time for me to vote for an alternative government, which is about democratic governance—openness, transparency and accountability in public affairs.
Din Merican
PEOPLE'S POWER
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