It’s OK for the former PM to criticize the current PM for the social rot he had brought about, it is also rather difficult for the former PM to escape responsibility for planting the seeds of that rot.
Maybe I do know enough sociology to realize that such a level of social rot cannot possibly be built in a short period – although a competent social reformer can arrest, and eliminate it rather rapidly.
Perhaps twenty-three years of near dictatorial rule, very competent but also very corrupt, would be quite enough to put the social rot in place. But, alas, we have only had an incompetent – as rightly described by Dr. M – to take over the government and to right all the rot that was put in place by the previous government.
Dr M’s remarks about the rot appear to agree with the summary I have made in my posting (11 August 2007) on this site on conversations I had with people at the Republic of Singapore 42nd National Day Reception at Hotel Shangri-La on August 9.
The conversations were not structured social research interviews, but I can safely say that the majority of my “informants” were prominent and knowledgeable people in their respective fields: academicians, professionals, businessmen, administrators, diplomats – and even their spouses.
As the posting was in Malay (my blogging friend James Wong had to call me while I was driving to ask me to explain the meaning of the word dirgahayu that I used in the title), let me translate the summary:
The current socio-political atmosphere of the nation is definitely sombre – far from the bright and glorious picture that the spin doctors in the employ of government are trying to paint for us.
Almost every strategic social institutions of the nation is experiencing rot and decay. This is the impression that I get from talking to different categories of people: lawyers (on the rot in the judiciary); businessmen (on the economy); academicians (on higher education); even housewives (on corruption among policemen and on the lack of personal security).
Chronic corruption and cronyism, according to the same set of “informants”, has infected all social institutions without exception. There are no categories of people in this society that cannot be lured by corruption – from policemen right up to court judges.
All those who spoke to me that evening seem to agree on the source and origin of the social rot and decay – i.e. the former PM Dr. M and his period of rule that lasted more than two decades.
What is even more lamentable for Malaysia is the fact that the Mahathir period was taken over by a new PM who totally lacks in integrity, let alone competence and ability, to put in place a credible government – one that is able to dismantle the excesses of the Mahathir era.
Worse still, the current Abdullah Badawi’s government is not supported by a group of government apparatus (cabinet ministers, for example) who are able, credible and in possession of special talents. And so are the next generation of successors, even though some claim to have been educated in august centres of learning, such as Oxford.
According to fellow blogger Rocky, Dr. M has described the Abdullah Badawi government as characterised by “corruption, incompetence”. I totally agree with him there. It is, however, a pity that the current corrupt and incompetent government had taken over from a government that was also corrupt, and competently so.
Rustam A. Sani
Suara Rakyat
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