'History repeating, Harapan heading in same direction as BN'
Pakatan Harapan is repeating the history of the BN government and heading in the same direction, Universiti Malaya professor of political economy Terence Gomez warned today.
According to him, this was because it was emulating policies similar to those when Malaysia was being governed by BN.
Pakatan Harapan is repeating the history of the BN government and heading in the same direction, Universiti Malaya professor of political economy Terence Gomez warned today.
According to him, this was because it was emulating policies similar to those when Malaysia was being governed by BN.
Gomez told a forum in Kuala Lumpur today that Harapan had backtracked on its own promise to disallow politicians from holding positions in government-linked companies and to do away with a bumiputera-centric economic agenda.
"If you look at the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP), it clearly states that politicians can be director of GLCs. They are repeating the same thing (as what BN did). And they are justifying it too.
"It is a conflict of interest. Didn't they speak against this when they were the opposition? Why are they repeating it? (It is) because of political financing," he said.
Gomez was one of the panellists speaking at the forum held during the “Conflict of Interest” conference organised by NGO Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) in Kuala Lumpur today.
Also present was Youth and Sports minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who is also Bersatu Youth chief.
Gomez, known for his strong criticism of Malaysian governments during the BN era, also pointed out that key figures in today's governing coalition were the same ones the country had in the 1990s.
Prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his confidante Daim Zainuddin and PKR president Anwar Ibrahim had been the subjects at the centre of his two books in the 1990s that discussed the politics of business and funding, he reminded.
"Today, the problem is that we have a change of government, but the key leaders are the same ones we had in the 1990s. Why is this problematic? I look at the political discourses (then) and the current political discourses.
"Soon after they came into power, after saying very clearly that politicians should not be involved in GLCs [...] in their manifesto they (Harapan) said there will be no more race-based policies. Now they say that a bumiputera policy will be in place, again.
"It is a repeat of discourses used in the past. And we have seen the abuse of policies, including the New Economic Policy (NEP), or the bumiputera agenda, to serve vested interests," he said.
Gomez said the vested interest could be seen through the views of Bersatu delegates at its annual general meeting recently who called for the bumiputera agenda to be continued and projects to be channelled through politicians.
Aiya, who can dispute Old Man ? He said we need two thirds majority now in order to see reforms. So we need the froggies to achieve two thirds majority to ensure no politicians are allowed to hold positions in GLCs and to do away with Bumiputra-centric economic agenda. Simply love these politicians...they do have a way with words to get out of every situation and if words don't do the job, then the gloves are off and we will see ISA, hehehehe
Just give PH 5 years. No point complaining now. At least they stop most of the corruptions at the TOP level. We can’t simply have a leader that steals. We can’t really afford that. As everyone knows, corruptions happen in all ministries. It takes time to heal. No short cut. Our judiciary department needs to clean up too and we can’t just sack all judges. We needs time to educate our future generations. It is not easy to change someone’s mindset of those think that stealing is not as bad or lying to cover their bad intentions is alright. There are so many stuff to take care of. And I agree that there are some policies need to be changed slowly like Malay privileges. Frankly to say, I don’t even bother about the manifestos. I just want the corrupters to be stopped and put into trial. PH did that and I fine with that. I know some Malaysians aren’t satisfy with PH for not abolishing tolls, cost of living issue, housing etc etc. There might be issue to do some of them. As a totally new cabinet with almost all green inexperienced minister, it is quite difficult to govern where all the mess done by previous crooks. They will never know how messy it is until they start looking at it. And again, they need the existing civil servants to help, there’s no one man show. And I believe there’re lots of hiccups. During our country recovery period, Malaysians need to understand that we need to sacrifice. Things will not be resolved overnight or a year or two, especially this year. I would rather let PH has the time to govern than to give those crooks back and steal again. For what I see, those crooks still behave like nothing happen. Who are they to judge the current government when they are the one that should be blamed. Did they repent? No. They don’t even govern the country well. Remember those arrogant and dumb ministers responded to our queries. They were elected to serve tax payers and NOT the other way round. Do they really qualify to be ministers? They are just a bunch of shoe polishers and followed their bosses around like a dog especially MCA and MIC. Zero credibility. What else they know other than I’m not sure, I can’t remember or I don’t know. And to give advice to PH, I find that very amusing. Comes GE 15, I will look into the results done by PH and decide who to vote. I may give another 5 years to PH if they have truly tried to revive the country but needs more time. Who knows what after 5 years. Do have patience, my beloved fellow Malaysians.
Only 9 months of rule. Please give PH chance to rule. Its not easy to get rid of all BN'S SHIT. For political reasons some policys have to stay but with a different approach.
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