Only when politicised

By MT Webmaster On Nov 13, 2013

I sometimes wonder whether Malaysians are really concerned about corruption, abuse of power, wastage of public funds, and whatnot, or whether they just want to politicise issues to gain votes and win elections. Is this really about improving the country or about making the other person look bad so that you can get into power?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Act now or we’ll be left high and dry again,” said The Star editorial today (READ HERE). Also read Billions of ringgit and 20 years needed to replace pipes (HERE), a news item by The Star.

Actually, I have been talking about this issue since the 1990s. I even gave a talk to the JKR engineers and directors, arranged by the then Works Minister. (My good friend, Syed Mohd Alhabshi, will remember this because he escorted me to the meeting and was amazed that a non-water engineer like me had the gall/balls to give a talk to water engineers and JKR directors).

I have also written about this matter a number of times but I bet most of you either do not know or cannot remember.

Anyway, what I said back then was that Malaysia’s NRW (non-revenue water) is roughly an average of 45% whereas the accepted NRW according to UN-WHO is only 20%. In some parts of Malaysia, such as PJ Old Town, Kota Bharu, Alor Setar, etc., the NRW is as high as 70%.

I also said that it would take 20-30 years and billions of Ringgit to replace all those old and deteriorated AC pipes (which cause stomach cancer anyway — as proven in Woodstock, USA, in 1985) with ductile iron pipes. Nevertheless, it has to be done because Malaysia is going to lose billions anyway due to the very high NRW. Hence, either way, Malaysia is going to have to spend this money.

I added that if the NRW problem is not arrested then Malaysia would have to spend billions on water treatment plants, reservoirs and pumping stations or else one day the country would face a water shortage.

Today, 25 years later, The Star talks about this same matter. Nevertheless, unless someone from the opposition jumps onto the bandwagon and makes an issue out of it, this matter is going to die off. Only when it is politicised will everyone get hot and bothered about the matter.

The same goes for the Bernas issue that Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim started talking about a day ago (read the news item below). Ten years ago, in August 2003, I had written a series of articles concerning this matter — Pagar makan padi: The Bernas story and How the Shahidan clan acquired the Bernas cash cow. That was long before Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary appeared onto the scene.

Yes, that was ten years ago and, again, nothing was done then. But now that Anwar has chosen to turn this very important social issue into a political issue, the whole country is going to be outraged and will demand that something be done about this matter.

This is why I no longer have confidence in politicians whether they are from the opposition or the government. Must we fight for change only when it can help us gain votes and win elections and ignore problems when they have no ‘vote value’?

So, the NRW is an old problem that I highlighted 25 years ago while Bernas is a problem that I highlighted 10 years ago. However, only today has it become an ‘important issue’ to the opposition because only today can the opposition see that it can get political mileage out of the issue.

The opposition is chewing on the RM250 million NFC matter like a dog with a bone. I really don’t bother much about this issue and that is why you may have noticed that I have not written about the matter. And why have I ignored this issue?

Simple! That is because I already wrote about the issue long before NFC came along and the matter was basically ignored.

What I wrote about many years ago was regarding Majuikan and Majuternak. In that expose I talked about the hundreds of millions (or maybe even billions) wasted on failed Majuikan and Majuternak projects. Do you Malaysians who were already around in the 1960s and 1970s remember Majuikan and Majuternak? And do you remember the millions or billions that were spent over decades financing these two agencies, which came to naught in the end?

Yes, so long ago this matter had been highlighted — back in the days when Anwar Ibrahim was the Agriculture Minister and even before that, when Manan Othman of opposition party Semangat 46 was the Agriculture Minister.

In fact, Majuikan and Majuternak were already around in the 1970s, long before Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became Prime Minister in 1981. They continued into the days when those people, who today are in the opposition, were still in the government and were in charge. Maybe that is why they do not want to talk about Majuikan and Majuternak, which cost much, much more money than the NFC.

So you see, these matters will gain prominence only when politicised. Only when the opposition can see that the matter can gain votes and win elections will they talk about it. They will scream, rant and rave about something only if they think there is political mileage in doing so. If not, the opposition will just ignore the matter like they did the NFC when it was not yet called NFC.

Yes, there were many other things that disturbed me 10, 20, or 30 years ago and which I talked about and which the opposition has been ignoring. And they will continue to ignore these issues unless and until they can see that by raising these issues they can gain votes and win elections. Then — 10, 20 or 30 years later — it will become the latest hot issue.

Let’s see how long it will be before the opposition talks about the high divorce rate amongst the Malays in the Malay heartland, about young girls with children being abandoned and having to resort to prostitution to support their children, about AIDS being highest amongst the Malays in states that are predominantly Malay, and so on (matters I spoke about more than 20 or 20 years ago).

We cannot fight for change only when it can gain votes and help us win elections. Change is not just about the ballot box. Change is about seeing a better society and about seeing good governance. There are so many things we need to change to see this better society and good governance. But the opposition will only fight for change if they can see that this will put them into power.

And this is why the opposition’s so-called fight for change is not my fight for change. I fight for change not to gain votes or win elections. I fight for change even when those issues I fight for will not gain votes or win elections. And that is why I raise issues 10, 20, or 30 years before the opposition does.

Some time ago I spoke about non-Muslims not being allowed to use not only the Allah word but also a long list of other ‘Islamic’ words and phrases that had been ‘officially banned’ — even by Pakatan Rakyat states. Today, the Allah word (kalimah Allah) is a hot issue that is threatening to tear the country apart. But do you think Allah is the only word that is the issue?

Wait until the long list of other ‘Islamic’ words and phrases surface and become a problem. Then the opposition will jump onto the bandwagon and try to gain political mileage from the matter. And that is when an old issue of 10 or 20 years ago will suddenly become a latest hot issue.

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Isu Bernas lebih berkesan dari isu GST

(FMT) – Pakatan Rakyat kali ini mensasarkan serangan terhadap monopoli syarikat Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas) untuk memenangi hati pengundi Melayu golongan bawahan khususnya di sektor pertanian.

Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata, Bernas mampu menjadi isu besar kerana ia memberi kesan kepada ramai golongan berpendapatan rendah dan nasib mereka perlu dibela.

Ini katanya berikutan keuntungan berjuta ringgit yang dikaut taikun Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary ekoran dasar penswastaan Bernas, namun tidak membela nasib petani dan usahawan Bumiputera sebaliknya terus memerah keringat orang Melayu miskin demi mengkayakan kroni Barisan Nasional (BN).

“GST, TPPA juga isu penting tapi impaknya tak besar sama seperti pendedahan kes lembu (NFC).

“Pakatan Rakyat kena ambil peluang tangani dan pertahankan isu Bernas ini secara berterusan supaya mendapat tempat dihati orang Melayu termasuk petani Cina di Sekinchan,” katanya di hadapan kira-kira 100 pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat dalam satu majlis makan malam, malam tadi.

Syed Mokhtar memiliki 53.7% saham Bernas selain menguasai lesen AP import beras dengan memperoleh keuntungan sebanyak RM3.6 bilion sehingga tahun 2012 dan dijangka meningkat hingga RM3.9 bilion pada 2015.

Malah kerajaan turut memanjangkan monopoli Bernas terhadap pengurusan bekalan beras negara dan monopoli pengimportan beras sehingga 10 Januari 2021.

Pada masa yang sama, Ketua Umum PKR itu berkata isu yang melibatkan kaum lain termasuk minoriti di Sabah dan Sarawak juga tidak boleh diabaikan.

Beliau turut menyeru pemimpin lain menunjukkan komitmen yang tinggi supaya terus kekal relevan dalam Pakatan Rakyat.

Anwar juga sempat berterima kasih kepada Menteri Besar Selangor Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim kerana mampu menangani sentimen dalam masa sama mengekalkan prestasi urus tadbir negeri dengan baik tanpa sebarang kompromi.

Sementara itu, Khalid sebagai tuan rumah majlis berkata, kepimpinannya bersedia untuk bekerja lebih keras dan mahu membuktikan peluang yang diberikan kepada rakyat sebagai pemegang amanah sebelum ini diteruskan.

“Walaupun mereka tahu bukan senang nak dapat projek daripada saya tetapi mereka masih menyokong…satu perkara yang tak perlu takut kita akan kekal bekerjasama dan terus bersikap amanah menguruskan wang rakyat,” katanya.