KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 25 — Malaysians have only one democratic and constitutional recourse left to show their dissatisfaction against the incumbent government and that is through participation in peaceful assemblies on the street, veteran newsman Datuk A. Kadir Jasin said today as Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy is buffeted by political and economic uncertainties.
The former News Straits Times (NST) group chief editor noted that other “conventional” options open to government dissenters previously, by wielding the power of the pen, has become constricted and added that some writers have become influenced by money and power.
“In a situation where the pen is in battle with power and money, the pen will be likely to lose. What more when the pen is coloured by power and money.
“The people are forced to use other conventional means allowed by the constitution and which are democratic like assembling peacefully to show their feelings,” Kadir said in his latest blog post today.
He added that “politicians who care about the being of the state and the people’s welfare” should be quick to act by pushing for democratic changes to the government through a vote of no-confidence in Parliament, instead of waiting for the next general elections, due only in 2018.
“Politicians who care about the being of the state and the people’s welfare should think of conventional methods which have been used by their friends in other countries like toppling the government via a vote of no confidence and forming a national unity government.
“If there is no immediate change, the people will continue to suffer waiting for the next general election which is in two to three more years to make a change in leadership,” Kadir added.
He went on to explain that the people were losing their trust in the current government over various issues including the controversies surrounding debt-riddled state-owned 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) and the ongoing economic troubles brought about by the lowered ringgit against the US dollar.
“The government is desperate and suffering because of the terrible trust deficit is no longer able to handle the multiple economic issues one after the other.
Kadir noted that the ringgit has breached the “psychological” RM4 to the US dollar threshold, which was spooking both local and foreign investors into pulling out their investments from Malaysia.
He added that “the rich people are changing the ringgit into foreign currency to protect their hedging, the consumers are afraid to spend and the price of import goods have increased due to the ringgit drop”.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his government have received much criticism from the opposition and even former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on the way the country is run.
Among the latest to call attention to the ringgit slide and its impact on the country was the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar, who today urged the Barisan Nasional (BN) federal government to resolve the current political and economic problems hampering the country’s growth.
