JULY 1 — Pakatan Harapan supporters, such as myself, just got another slap in the face as the public was handed an additional proof, now by the World Bank report, that our government is failing us in too many important ways.
The report, coined The Malaysian Economic Monitor series, gave us an analytical perspective on all the challenges our country is facing. I am not too analytically inclined; spreading through an eighty-page report would bore me to death. But I can do the colourful graphs, and looking at the depressing, declining, blood red lines indicating ‘Government effectiveness ranking’, my heart sank (just as much as it soured back on May 9, 2018.)
The report made one thing clear – when it comes to the government’s accountability impartiality, transparency and openness of its public services, we are lagging far behind. How depressing it is, that with regards to government effectiveness, the performance as of 2018 is lower than it was between 1991 and 2014 – a time when a rottenly corrupt government ran our country!
World Bank’s lead public sector specialist, Rajni Bajpai, did not mince her words when she stated, “recruitment of the civil service is not fair and neutral (with) Malaysia scoring very poorly on the indicators for impartiality in the government.”[1]
Another specialist on the subject, the director of research at Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs painted an even blander picture after this report came out, claiming, “the cumulative cost of corruption, lack of competition, in both appointments and procurement, and low levels of openness are taking their toll and holding back Malaysia’s development.”[2]
Am I the only one that is beyond disheartened by this? Yes, it is by no means the first time I have been disappointed by PH... There was the government’s refusal to release the report by the CEP to the public after promises to be more transparent, there was Mahathir’s going back on his promise of consulting the cabinet before making big decisions when he independently appointed the head of MACC, there was the abandoning of his pledge to adopt a UN treaty against racial discrimination, and I can go on and on.
However, for some reason all these individual disappointments are not quite the same as reading an official report, and seeing those red lines displaying Malaysia’s continued deterioration when it comes to public sector’s utter deficiency. Isn’t this exactly what PH promised to fight against?
As Todd summarized, “Recent appointments being made behind closed-doors and refusal to share key government documents, such as the report by the Council of the Eminent Persons, have damaged confidence that the government is committed to doing things differently.” I agree with Todd for the most part, but in all honesty, at this point, my faith in Pakatan Harapan is not damaged- it has quite literally been destroyed.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
