DECEMBER 25 — The year-end season is often a great time to sum up the achievements registered throughout the year, but is also the time we inspect our deficiencies and shortfalls.

In a recent pubic forum by the Malaysian Bar’s constitutional law committee, a conclusion was drawn on the performance of the country’s judiciary over the past one year. Retired Court of Appeals judges Mohamad Ariff bin Md Yusof and Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus both agreed that the aura and accomplishments of the country’s judiciary were fast fading, and the recent controversial verdicts handed down by the Federal Court were signaling a crisis of retrogression in the country’s judicial system.

Such retrogression could be traced back to the 1988 judicial crisis that marked the beginning of the decline of the country’s judicial status. More controversial cases popped up in recent years, including the cross-dressing case in Negeri Sembilan, the Peaceful Assembly Act 2012 and the prosecution of UM law lecturer Azmi Sharom for sedition, among others. All these have deepened public concerns of the future of the country’s judiciary.

The double standards on prosecution has further tainted the image of the judiciary, while the expansion of the power of the executive branch has proportionately eroded the power of the judicial branch.

The passing of the National Security Council Bill 2015 has enlarged the power of the authorities. When the powers of two of the three branches of government are dwindling, we cannot expect the judiciary to effectively exert its democratic functionality of checks and balances.

The judicial system is not the only that is underperforming. Other sectors are equally lackluster. For example. the country’s economy for 2015 has been rather disappointing. The implementation of 6% GST, the depreciation of the local currency, sharp increases in highway tolls and public transport fares and goods prices that have significantly raised the living cost of ordinary citizens, have all made life much tougher for the people.

Politicians can always argue that all these have come at the wrong timing: plunging crude prices that coincide with a falling ringgit and the Fed’s interest rate hike. What Malaysians fail to understand is why our government lacks some effective contingency plan to deal with such emergency.

When oil prices were high, the government should have kept some of the oil profits as reserve, like the enormous sovereign fund established by Norway from its oil revenue. We have instead spent our oil money on operating costs, salaries and political expenses. With less money at our disposal now, the government has no choice but to slash subsidies.

The government has failed to come up with some sort of economic stimulus package or new economic policies. Given the exchange rate today, we are getting further and further away from the goal of so-called “high income” status.

We have had a fair deal of issues associated with money this year. The 1MDB scandal and the RM2.6 billion political donation issue have plagued the country for much of 2015, but so far there is hardly any outcome from our public inquiries.

We still have no idea who donated RM2.6 billion to our PM, while the Auditor-General has postponed the final 1MDB probe report.

Without displaying a good level of efficiency in the probe of these two major issues, how are we going to restore foreign investors’ confidence in this country?

Where religious and ethnic relations are concerned, 2015 is yet another year of retrogression. The lack of communication, dialogues and interactions among people embracing different religious faiths has been a critical factor for entrenched misunderstanding, a classical example being the anti-Christian seminar at UiTM’s Melaka campus.

Meanwhile, we have also seen some “segregation” policies of late. For instance, the Mara Digital mall that has been set up exclusively for Malay and bumiputra traders, as well as the halal classification of shopping mall trolleys.

The “grand unity plan” advocated by some Malay politicians has not been able to address the current religious and racial issues..If we don’t do anything to stop such polarization and human-induced segregation policies, we will only further estrange our own citizens, pushing the nation closer to the brink of disintegration.

Our social atmosphere has been equally pathetic over the past one year. After the Low Yat Plaza incident in July, a similar brawl was repeated merely days ago at Kota Raya Complex. If it were a mere sale scam, the case should have been referred to the police. Once we take the law into our own hands and sensationalize pure commercial conflicts into sensitive racial issues, we are dangerously heightening community emotions.

Suicide cases are also on the rise, showing that Malaysian families and society are indeed becoming increasingly distressed.

The uninspiring showing of various sectors this year could be blamed on the country’s political situation. Alarmingly the political crisis coupled with an economic downfall, ringgit devaluation and crumbling confidence have all conspired together to develop a create a prefect storm à la Malaysia.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.