JUNE 7 — It has been almost a month since the new Government of Pakatan Harapan has been in power and what a month it has been.

Almost immediately we have seen sweeping changes. For a start, meritocracy seems to have made a startling comeback.

The initial cabinet of 10 has seen a multiracial makeup, where even such important portfolios of Finance and Communication and Multimedia, have been given based on merit and not on racial or religious makeup.

The position of Attorney General is also held by a non-Malay, the first time in more than 40 years. So while many have assumed that certain positions must be filled by a particular race, nothing in our Constitution alludes to that.

Corruption or perhaps I should say alleged corruption is being dealt with swiftly.

Many prominent civil servants have been removed. The once toothless MACC seems to have found their teeth and are carrying out investigations on many prominent personalities including our former Prime Minister as well as his wife.

The level of alleged corruption is almost stupefying with new details of billions of ringgit squandered being announced with alarming frequency. It has been said before but bears repeating that what is indeed almost sickening is the fact that every hierarchy of the previous Barisan Nasional government did nothing to stop this corruption.

Were they all in cahoots or were they just too afraid of their own rice bowl? Was there really not even an iota of integrity in these politicians’ bones?  How much money did members of our previous government siphon off?

There has been a massive shakeup in government institutions with the most recent being the resignation of the Governor of Bank Negara. Transfers or resignations include the Treasury Secretary General, the chairman of Felda, the chairman of Tabung Haji, the Chief Commissioner of the MACC and the chairman of the Higher Education fund. These resignations lend credo to the assumption that there was definitely corruption of some form or fashion going on.

The former Prime Minister is crying political revenge which is really ironic when you consider the sacking of the then DPM, four ministers and also AG Gani Patail when questions were raised about 1MDB back in July 2015.

To compound this further, some previous ministers are still trying to defend the alleged corruption. The fact that there are people still trying to justify and defend it is even more scary as they must brazenly think that we, the rakyat, are stupid.

You even have previous ministers accusing the current government of politics of hate when they were the ones that used to brandish a ‘keris’ in the air and never took action when threats of another May 13th were announced but their party members. So really, who was playing hate politics?

The dominoes have started to fall in the corporate world as well where the CEO of Telekom Malaysia has resigned.  You have to wonder what is going through the minds of all the other CEOs of GLCs that made a video where they were singing the BN election slogan.

Freedom of the media has suddenly taken centre stage and I believe many newspapers and alternative media are having trouble coping with the amount of information that our Ministers are giving out.

There seems to be openness, honest and transparency.  There also seems to be a willingness to accept criticism.  Something that was sorely missing before. I am sure that many reporters are having trouble digesting and filing reports with sufficient detail.

Such has been the level of reporting over the years that has been so controlled and so biased that many editors must surely be scratching their heads wondering how to report on certain issues.  The Government controlled media of TV1, TV2 and TV3 must also be going through a culture shock as those that were previously maligned or ignored are now part of the ruling party.

And the news is really happening fast and furious.  It’s almost a full time job following the news these days.  This seems to show that the new powers that be are doing their job.  With the availability of a much more free media, the Rakyat is closely monitoring the government. This is a good thing.

The downside however is that almost overnight, everyone, especially on social media, seems to have become a financial expert, a political analyst, a Harapan Manifesto expert and a Constitutional expert, among others.

This is where the state of our disunity springs to fore.  While everyone may be entitled to their own opinion, it has become a case where everyone believes that they are a subject matter expert when they are clearly not.  Certain parties also seem to think that only their opinion is right.  When there is disagreement of opinion, then caustic and vulgar language is used.  This only goes to show how immature and uncivilised we can be when we cannot respectfully have a difference in opinion.

There has been the usual racial and religious vitriol except this time it is coming from members of the Rakyat and not the government. Why have a Chinese Minister of Finance?  How can a supposed Islamist be the Education Minister?  How can the AG be a non-Malay?

The Government has also stressed the importance of English especially when dealing on the global stage. I wait for the cry from detractors that Bahasa Malaysia should be the one and only language used.

To take it a step further, we have champions of race and religion calling for the defence of their rights. While these supposed champions are purportedly defending these rights, we have videos of some people calling for the death of members of their own religion just because they have a differing opinion. Death threats? Really? In the holy month of Ramadan?

Finally, there are police reports being made against every slight criticism or opinion that goes against the norm.  The police surely have more important things to do than investigate people for sedition. It is after all an archaic law that does nothing but stifle independent and free thought.

So while we have made great strides in changing our government through the ballot box, these are still early days.  The biggest problem is sometimes not with our government but with ourselves. We are partially to blame for all the excesses and mismanagement that has happened because it is us that never demanded accountability.

We have been so caught up with defending our own perceived rights based on racial and religious lines. We have been so busy looking at our own individual needs that we are happy to stay as "frogs under a coconut shell”.

It is time for all of us to get rid of our disunity and to focus on what we really are. Malaysians. Until and unless we can do that, we will never get very far.

It is really up to us.  You can’t blame the government for this anymore.

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