MAY 20 — Oh, the sweet euphoria of being caught up in the birth of a new thing. Many are still adjusting to the winds of change blowing across Malaysia since May 10, 2018, when a motley group of politicians led by, of all people, a 92-year old ex-PM, claimed victory in GE14, appropriately termed the ‘mother’ of all elections. Despite his own chequered past, the ‘grand old man’ turned hero of the hour, proving to be the successful X-factor capable enough to unify Malaysians across the board to overwhelmingly vote out a government that had ruled for 3 decades. It reminds me of a question in the Bible — Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Well, I guess it’s certainly been a long time coming — the birth of a truly 1Malaysia ‘baby’ which truth be told, hardly anybody really expected.
So now with all that talk about people power, everyone suddenly realises they are the boss and the government is our servant. And like all bosses, we start telling the servant all the things we think the servant must do. We waste no time putting the servant in its place, when we don’t like how this or that duty is being done. Hey, we are the boss after all. From lengthy to-do and not-to-do lists, well-intentioned suggestions to online petitions, we are all so eager to put our finger in to bake up a nice Malaysian ‘pie’. Which is all well and good, since we all have an equal and irrefutable share in the end-product. And we don’t want to make the same old mistake of letting 1 ‘baker’ do his own thing and swipe the pie all for himself and his cronies. However it seems to me we run the danger of having too many bosses simply throwing their weight around, trying to chuck in all kinds of ‘ingredients’ of their own taste and choosing into the melting pot ; the idiom ‘too many cooks spoil the soup’ springs to my mind. Or we swing to the other extreme of the pendulum and idol-worship mere man as geniuses, applauding every move that resonates with our own pet ideas/causes.
A couple of days after the historic election, I got a long (anything above a 1cm scroll on WhatsApp is long, and this one was at least a 25cm scroll down) 21-point to-do/not-to-do list on how to be a rakyat of the new Malaysia, ‘to make it a better place.’ It was posted on 2 different chat-groups I am in (which only serves to make me want to quit being socially connected). It was purportedly sent by Hannah Yeoh (whom if you don’t know, means you are either not a Malaysian or really really can’t be bothered about politics), who subsequently issued a statement denying it was from her. Actually, to me at least, it was pretty obvious it couldn’t have been from her, because I am sure she’s got many other (more essential) things to do than sit around, penning a 21-pointer list for folks like me.
The 21 points suggested a whole range of ordinary actions that we should be doing — like stand on the left side of escalators, clear your own trays at McD/KFC, use signals when turning/switching lanes whilst driving, stop putting up canopies that block up the whole street when we throw a party in our house, say please, hi, thank you to bus-drivers, cashiers and restaurant-workers, (I could add more to that one), be punctual, flush toilets, don’t smoke in the presence of non-smokers, (I guess by extension then, we can include refrain from eating in front of Muslims who are fasting?) The list ended by saying ‘No point having a new government if old habits don’t die. Change starts from you...’
The list irked me, not so much because of its length or its ‘preach-iness’, but because it was attributed to Hannah Yeoh, since that’s an outright lie. Surely we don’t need politicians to exhort us to be tolerant, sensitive to and respect other Malaysians who profess different faiths, who engage in different customs and traditions? Does a politician’s name carry more ‘weight’ to turn us into nicer, more polite, considerate and caring folks? Or is it that a politician’s words will make us more inclined to sacrifice our precious rights to favour someone else? Why can’t we just say it like it should be said, do what we should know what to do, as one Malaysian to another? Since when do we need to invoke a ‘famous’ name to justify a stand for responsible decent conduct, Malaysian or not?
Having said that, actually I understand perfectly where the author is coming from. And it’s absolutely correct — change starts with the person staring back at us in the mirror. Instead of just harping on every one of the government’s actions, can we be mindful to watch ourselves first — how are we treating others in our attitudes, words and deeds in our daily interactions? Perhaps instead of bossing the government around so much, it would do us good to take stock of how we behave as members of the society we live in. What’s the point of arguing about who should be this or that minister, if we can’t do simple things like stop littering, recycle household waste or take time to report pot-holes and faulty street-lights? Why talk about democracy and equality when we — the bosses — hesitate to employ certain races or refuse to rent out our nice apartments to certain people? All that has got nothing to do with governing the nation, and everything to do with us personally, individually as a citizen of Malaysia. If we can’t even do the little things right ourselves, how do we expect the government to do bigger things? It’s like I get myself brand new clothes, but don’t bother to bathe when I change into them... I would still stink.
So whilst I laud the post-election freedom that’s so refreshing, let’s not kid ourselves Malaysia will be a better place just because we have a new government, who should listen to us. Certainly they better do their job well, because we put them up there, and we can fire them if they don’t perform, after 5 years. By all means, contribute new ideas, give feedback, constructive criticism and engage in meaningful discourse. But let’s remember when we elected them to be leaders, we gave them the power and authority to act in good governance. To do their job effectively, they need the freedom we gave them to make decisions, set the direction, implement policies. If every one of us want to be leaders to call the shots, there will be no followers. Then all we get is a mass of noisy leaders, all intent on getting their way, because everyone has the right. The end result is a government which will not be able to function as it’s supposed to — because the servant is too busy having to listen to the bosses, no work gets done.
So, can we — the bosses — let go the reins a bit for the servant to move, and let the government do its job as it should be done, drawing from the expertise of professionals, mindful of its mandate and responsibilities to deliver on promises made? And we ourselves do what we should be doing on our turf, working together, as co-builders of a new, maturing Malaysia.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
