YOURSAY | ‘The country has to be given a bitter prescription before it gets better.’

We want a system change - Rafizi’s condition for Dr M

Kim Quek: I commend PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli for his shrewd and matured perspective of the current unprecedented crisis of confidence of the Malaysian political leadership precipitated by PM Najib Abdul Razak’s worsening mega corruption scandals.

Kicking Najib out without addressing the root cause, which is the evil system that produces such abominable leadership in the first place, may be counter-productive. This is because replacement of a failed leader from the same system may end up sweeping the bad sores (that causes the disease) under the carpet, thus allowing both the failed system and the disease to perpetuate.

What is imperative now is the full and truthful of exposure of the entire scandals so that the Malay masses who are Umno’s traditional supporters could be fully enlightened of the extent of decadence and failure of the current abhorrent political system perpetrated through Umno’s hegemony. The awakening of the Malays would lead to a change of national leadership, which in turn would bring sweeping reforms to give this nation a new lease of life.

FellowMalaysian: Rafizi needs to be a little more realistic than what he is hoping or expecting from Dr Mahathir Mohamad before Pakatan Harapan agrees to accept the latter in their folds in a joint bid to replace Najib. Mahathir has so far failed in his effort to gather strength and support in his campaign among Umno leaders and ordinary members to remove Najib.

Rafizi has now upped the angst against the expectations from Mahathir by urging 'systemic reform' within Umno. Mahathir could only stare in disbelief when his own son was ousted recently from his menteri besar post in Kedah. He stepped down as the prime minister 13 years ago and his influence now in the political arena is very much confined within the 'has-beens' in the Umno circle.

Expecting Mahathir to 'commit' the party to reforms against entrenched and systemic abuses of position and power appears farcical as the nonagenarian could not even defend his own family from attack within the same party.

Clever voter: Changing the country's premiership is no simple matter. We need a strong, courageous and resilient leader who can unite the nation’s diverse population.

Change involves getting rid of the patronage system. Reforms across the judiciary, security and financial systems are a must. The country has to be given a bitter prescription before it gets better.

Proarte: "Rafizi stressed that PKR always advocated a system, and not personality change." Really, Rafizi? Why then has PKR been essentially about one man, Anwar Ibrahim? What real 'reforms' has the bogus 'Reformasi' icon instituted or advocated? What systemic change did Anwar advocate for the past 18 years other than presenting himself as the candidate for PM?

In reality, Anwar and PKR have been so careful not to rock the 'ketuanan Melayu' and 'ketuanan Islam' boat and essentially have been advocating 'business as usual' Umno-style politics but in better packaging. Anwar Ibrahim has defrauded the Malaysian public with his empty talk of 'reformasi' which has no real substance.

Will Rafizi be advocating equal rights for each citizen with a rejection of the notion of 'special privileges' for Malays?

Will Rafizi be urging reforms in the state constitutions which deny non-Malays and non-Muslim the right to be CM despite commanding an overwhelming majority in the state assembly? Surely Rafizi will agree that racism and religious bigotry should not be tolerated.

Rafizi should not give us claptrap like 'system change' without defining exactly what he means. We are sick and tired of sound bites and 'all things to all men' politicians like Rafizi's mentor Anwar Ibrahim.

Righteous: “If you want to render an endangered species extinct, the first thing to do is to deprive it of the ‘ecosystem’ that sustains it, otherwise it will morph.” Rafizi is 101 percent right. Sun Tzu in ‘The Art of War’ - "You want to overrun your enemy, win over their traitors, cut their supply/succession chain." Wasalaam.

Anonymous #68344860: Rafizi is right. Dr M's objective is to get Najib replaced with someone else aligned to him in Umno. There won't be much difference if there is no systemic reform as the next PM will most like end up like Najib 2 or Najib 3. Umno will make sure that they are governing Malaysia forever by whatever methods available, such as alleged gerrymandering, etc.

Shanandoah: Rafizi, what system change are you talking about? Isn't there a constitution to follow? You are very vague in what you are saying. Just ask all citizens to be treated equally and fairly. Only the DAP can bring about a system change to satisfy everybody if they get into power. All other parties have race, religion and personal interests that bind them.

Join them if you are sincere in your quest for a system change if you are honest and sincere. Otherwise tell us what's wrong with the DAP!

Headhunter: Rafizi is quite correct and we all must support his view. No point changing a leader and replace him with another but who still is able to play the same rules. What is to stop Mahathir in choosing another Kim Jong-un to be the new PM? After all, he did make a wrong choice, twice.

We need to change the rules. Najib would not have gone astray had he been restrained by rules. But he broke them all and those who were supposed to be our guardians failed in their responsibilities either because of the greed for money and power or just being misplaced by their loyalty to him by being complicit and acting in cahoots.

Too much power is concentrated in the hands of one man and that, in essence, is the one single reason for the change from a democratic system to a dictatorship. It's all premeditated.

Mohican: Rafizi, we should begin with the personality change, which is now a thorn in the flesh of Malaysians - once this is achieved, then go for a system change otherwise we will be forever floating in limbo and have to put up with a whole load of baloney meted out to us by an ineffective and corrupt system.

Justice for Malaysia: Get rid of a devil to replaced by another devil. What a joke. Dr M is the greatest joker ever - get rid of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to be replaced by Najib, and get rid of Najib to be replaced by Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Joke of the century.

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