I am probably going to just blabber on and regurgitate what already been said elsewhere but allow me to summarise my outlook on recent regressive developments in our nation.

Due to continuous Umno (not BN which is just a facade) rule of Malaysia, everyone has forgotten that party and government is separate. When I say everyone, this not only includes politician but the media and public alike.

Let’s say that we all agree that the country belongs to only Malays (don’t beat me up, this is just an illustration), but this does not mean that it belongs to Umno; they only have 4 million members as reported here . So the rest of the Malays must belong to other parties or are without parties. So it’s incorrect to say that Umno represents all Malays and by extension they can’t speak for the country, although they are given the parliamentary and incumbent powers.

Party meetings have been held at the PM’s Office and in Parliament, this is clearly not correct as part matters should be left in party buildings. Ministers and officers have been announcing party matters when opening government functions, sometime even at school-related activities. This must stop.

I have never seen or read the American president or Britain’s prime minister announcing party matters at government functions, this is always kept separate. Please educate me if I have missed this in the media somehow.

How come the Perak state speaker is holding a party position? Convention mandates that the speaker must be seen to be neutral, even though we in Malaysia do not follow many of the Whitehall parliamentary norms, there still must be some decorum for the position.

Remember how many eons ago when a politician used government letterhead for personal matters, it was a big deal. Nowadays, no one cares. Government vehicles are used during elections and many other transgressions that do not bat an eyelid these days.

Coming on to my next point, there is a new excuse in town. When questioned on why certain expenditures are incurred which is excessive and unnecessary, the replies received on occasions are that no taxpayers monies were involved which is really pushing accounting to Neverland.

Many many years ago, when the Selangor exco villas were revealed in The Star , the response given by the then-MB was that no taxpayers’ monies were used as these were built from profits of state economic corporations. No! All revenue no matter how it is derived, from tax collection, from government-linked companies’ (GLCs) profits, from selling confiscated properties, are all taxpayers’ monies. There should be no confusion about this.

Fast forward to 2015, the Federal Territories minister said that the new DBKL building is not going to be funded from ratepayers’ monies but from DBKL’s accumulated funds. Hello! Those accumulated funds originated from either government grants or previous ratepayers monies that have not been used.

In the latest news, the Malaysian Islamic Economic Development Foundation (Yapeim) claimed that the golf simulator was bought from their profits. Hilarious or what? Yapeim is funded by government grants and people’s contribution and all profits are attributable to the same group.

Can you imagine if a CEO of a public listed company builds a nice house for himself in Damansara Heights and when questioned by members at the AGM, he turns around and says that the purchase was not from shareholders’ share subscriptions but from the company’s profits? He will be chased out of the AGM, together with the door gift that they normally hand out.

Rakyat taking the last number in the line

My third point is there seems to be no initiative or action on behalf of the rakyat any more. Everything being done seems to be about strengthening government power. The rakyat take the last number in the line. Legislation protecting the rakyat and consumer interest takes ages to be introduced in Parliament but legislation useful for the government are introduced and approved straight away.

Politicians’ answer to people’s suffering are by mocking them to take two jobs and setting-up even more committees. There is no need for more outfits or committees, which is the job of the cabinet and Parliament and the relevant ministries. We already have an abundance of them, no need to set more up and incur even more expenses.

The main fault in this mis governance is mainly due to our parliamentary candidates not being chosen by party members but by the party leadership. This results in zero accountability to the constituency’s voters. Allegiances are to the top leadership.

In other countries that practice parliamentary government (the good ones that is), candidates are chosen by parliamentary constituency parties, these allow for local accountability and better check and balance on government in power.

Lastly, our government spending is increasingly alarmingly and our revenue is falling , however everyone in charge has just buried his or her head in the sand, with the standard reply that our deficit is still within the law. That is not the answer. Immediate action is needed to reduce government spending, to move spending from supplies to development.

There is an urgent need to have a comprehensive spending review to target balancing the budget at some point like what the UK chancellor did recently .

Just cutting funding for education and other crucial sectors is not the answer.