I am utterly shocked at the government of Malaysia. We tend to build the tallest this and the longest that, but we don’t have the most basic necessities like clean air, water and air space security.

The government seems so preoccupied with keeping up with the Joneses and showing off to the world that it has forgotten to give basic necessities to the rakyat. It is hard to believe that Malaysia, especially the capital, is having a severe problem with water considering that in a mere six years in 2020 we are supposed to be a ‘developed’ nation.

We should not even be in such a state of so-called emergency because water is a basic necessity and a basic right of a citizen in a fairly developed country. Why build big projects like the proposed Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), costing billions, when we should be building more dams and reservoirs. That is more important.

In fact, even projects with cost-overruns like KLIA2 are not really that important when Malaysia’s own rakyat don’t have the basic water flow given to households.

Then there is clean air. We can blame Indonesia all we want but we all know the open burning and peat fires in Malaysia is the cause of all the haze problems. But even if Indonesia is a contributory cause, it has been happening for so many years, it should have been sorted out by the Malaysian government by now. But the Malaysian government is more concerned about building the tallest this and biggest that and awarding mega projects here and there to its favoured people.

What is more important is that the Malaysian government award big projects to build more dams and reservoirs as that is a critical necessity.

Then there is the fact that security is compromised. That is the biggest joke ever. An airliner can enter our space and no military jets were sent to ensure Malaysia’s safety. In Singapore, any aircraft entering its airspace will be intercepted by military jets.

If the Malaysian military cannot do basic defence, what about if there is an attack on Malaysia? I reiterate, if the military cannot detect a basic ‘unidentified’ aircraft, what would happen if a nuclear submarine enters our waters and shoots a nuclear missile at us? What an utter disgrace. Spend billions on all sorts of aircrafts and submarines but not being able to do basic defence.

Getting back to my earlier issue, I hope the Malaysian government can give us basic water. Don’t blame the dry spell. In Middle Eastern countries, the weather is even hotter. But they have constant water all the time. We should have seen this coming long ago and should have planned for more dams and reservoirs. After all Malaysia has ample land to build lakes, ponds and dams.

As a citizen of a country, we expect our government to give us basic necessities and basic security. If this the government of Malaysia cannot do, it is an utter shame.

We don't want huge megamalls, we don’t want all the latest technology, we don’t want all the nicely cultured gardens and plants by the roadside, what we want is just mere water to bathe and drink. Get your priorities right.