YOURSAY | ‘Part of that rotten diet is poor public policy.'

'Malaysians can even get tired of good nasi lemak'

Abasir: Yes, Centre of Public Policy Studies (CPPS) chairperson Ramon Navaratnam, we have a "democratic system that is already in place" - one which is sustained by blatant gerrymandering, where one urban seat is equivalent to five rural ones, and one which ensures that the prime minister is never ever directly elected by all the people, but by a cabal, and one where the Election Commission is answerable only to the leader of the regime.

And lest you forget, the democratic system already in place has unfettered powers to remove at will judges, attorney-generals, investigators, and anyone else deemed a threat to its existence.

And more importantly, regardless of how many billions one may accidentally discover in the The Chosen One's accounts, the "democratic system that is already in place" ensures that he is never challenged. Now that is good nasi lemak.

One Malaysia: With the chief minister of Malacca calling openly for gerrymandering, even the most conscientious in the voting population will find it easier to vote with their feet. The BN government has hijacked our institutions of law and order.

Who does the attorney-general take his orders from? Even the rulers’ view on the 1MDB investigation is ignored.

If we fail to walk in unity, and protest with one voice against all the corruption in our system in the next general election, Malaysia will end up like Zimbabwe.

GE14Now!: Actually, I do believe that Singapore has also been ruled by the same party since independence, but the folks there are not looking for the sort of change that we are looking for here.

The difference between Singapore and Malaysia is that the former is world-renowned for being squeaky clean, while we have a global reputation for grand corruption and the whole world (except those in Umno) know who MO1 is and how much he has stolen.

To borrow the nasi lemak example, well, the one we have been served has become contaminated and the food is stinking to the high heavens.

It is time for a change of government, and not just a simple change of PM. We cannot have a different PM who is cut from the same corrupt Umno fabric.

Hang Babeuf: Good nasi lemak? Gawd, what an idiotic comparison. What existed and was provided in 1957 may or may not have been wholesome, nourishing.

But now the nation and people are force-fed on the equivalent not of good nasi lemak, but of a daily diet that ensures food poisoning, endlessly.

Part of that rotten diet is poor public policy; another key part are idiotic public comments by the veteran experts of the officially licenced/tolerated "commentariat". Time to lift your game, Tan Sri.

Existential Turd: "Why do people tolerate these kinds of politicians? Despite the abuse (of power) they still get voted. People who are religious bigots, racists, corrupt. Money politics is the root of all evils. Why do we tolerate this?" asked Ramon.

Indeed, why? Well, the rural folks don't care about human rights, justice and equality as long as they get their fixes every five years. Those who yearn for change, sometimes support the lesser of two evils, as the supporters of Bersatu have demonstrated.

That's how we keep voting racists, bigots and the corrupt into power. Bit by bit, the goalposts get shifted with every generation, with the worst in the previous generation becoming the model for the next.

OneVoice: Ramon, you don't change for the sake of changing, and you don't change against the democratic system that is already in place.

Next, you only change when there are capable parties which constitute an even two-party system, so that the rakyat knows what to expect from the other party.

You don't change your election system to another one unless you have Parliament agreeing, after many years of analysis and recommendations, that the new system is workable and we have the resources to carry it out.

In Malaysia, it may be a change to the republic system, but alas, we have already in place the monarchical system, and these monarchs have been historically much longer in their states than the system we want to change it to.

Do you see Britain change? No, but they have not two, but three parties capable of taking over, and at least one has a shadow cabinet. Malaysia is maybe 50-100 years from getting there.     

The Analyser: You do not need a new PM, because a new PM will have the same philosophy as the old one. To think that a new PM is the answer to anything is naive and simplistic.

What you need is a new philosophy, and that can only come from the youth of the country. Their elders have shown, and continue to show, they do not have the capacity to change their mindsets. And a change in mindset is the only way forward.

There is no question that democracy is anathema to the authoritarian models of both the Islamic and Chinese societies. There is no question that selfishness, incompetence and corruption are common, right across Malaysian society - whether anyone will admit that, is another question.

There is a widespread lack of intelligent thinking in this country, as there is a widespread lack of common sense.

Decision making is a poorly developed skill so that decisions are inclined to be made on the basis of greed and selfishness. And all three of these failures can be directly traced back to the repressive way that Malaysian children are raised.

One only has to take an objective look at the way Malaysians drive to understand where the real Malaysian problems lie. It's behind the wheels of their cars where Malaysians shed all their delusions about themselves and become the people they really are.

So in short, Malaysians do get the governments they deserve - BN or opposition.

The problem is that there is no valid alternative government, and there never has been. That is a great wonder to me. Why is this so?

Is it because Malaysians have lived under the same regime of poor governance for so long that they know no different? I doubt that is so.

The influences of TV and the Internet, the number of students who have studied overseas, and the number of Malaysians who have lived and travelled overseas, suggest there is a massive resource of what else might be possible within this society.

Then what? The only conclusion that I can reach why Malaysians have tolerated BN for so long and why the alternatives to BN are so like the BN government itself, is because the BN format is the format that Malaysians themselves have created, and it's the format they prefer.

1 M Robber Hood: We need Malaysian warriors who feed the rakyat, and not some corrupted Bugis warrior who feed the rakyat with kangkung, but eats broccoli himself.

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