PEOPLE generally have a high threshold of tolerance for their leaders. The fact that we have given many of them chance after chance after chance, despite their lacklustre performance, is evident of this.
For many decades, the idea of a non-Barisan Nasional (BN) government was unimaginable.
However, the changes that started happening in 1999 and then in 2008, which saw the loss of the two-thirds majority, was a realisation that democracy was alive and well in Malaysia – warts and all.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s iron-fisted administration and rule by division – economically, communally and racially – continued to garner support in spite of it because the economy was thriving for the majority in the peninsula.
Malaysians turned a blind eye to this in 2018 because they wanted Datuk Seri Najib Razak out.
The thievery of people’s money in the Najib administration through the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) financial scandal may have seen the unprecedented jailing of a prime minister, but two years on, the calls for his pardon and release have been deafening.
Even the current leadership is treading gingerly, referring the matter to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, saying it is his majesty’s sole prerogative.
With the economy in its current state, of course, the people are looking for someone to blame. And suddenly “Najib was not so bad” starts becoming a strange and troubling narrative.
Yes, Malaysians can be a fickle lot.
The current administration is on the receiving end of a lot of dissatisfaction. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a premiership 25 years in the making, hence he has the donkey luck of shouldering the highest expectations.
Granted the unity government is not the government that he had in mind, but this is the card he has been dealt with and he has to play.
The two-day cabinet retreat that concluded yesterday focused on the economy.
The prime minister has secured RM200 billion in investments from 17 overseas trips since he took office on November 24, 2022.
However, this needs to be translated into tangible revenue, illustrated by the opening of manufacturing plants, vibrant job recruitment exercises and busy ports with crane handles in motion.
The cabinet retreat, one understands, also discussed getting the buy-in of the civil service to help implement the Madani policies.
No government can function or even survive without a supportive civil service. The days of “saya yang menurut perintah” are long gone.
Today, civil servants are known to frustrate their ministers by bureaucracy. Death by red tape is the order of the day which one suspects could also be the cause for the somewhat sluggish pace of implementation of certain policies.
The last election has indicated that a large section of the country’s 1.7 million civil servants are partial towards Perikatan Nasional (PN).
This could reflect years of frustration with governance issues endemic with the BN administration or not getting a piece of the pie; then spooked by the dictatorial and exclusionary style of Dr Mahathir’s second coming, coupled with an enthusiastic DAP.
What is evident is that this government has its work cut out. However, the prime minister not wavering from his stand of good governance and anti-corruption will go a long way in returning confidence to the country and among the people.
Granted, many are sceptics as BN and Pakatan Harapan make strange bedfellows.
But the silver lining is the maturing of our politics which in turn translates to a stable country where foes can work together. Even if it is in the interests of self-preservation and not anything noble. – January 19, 2024
Terence Fernandez is group editor in chief of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop
