OCTOBER 20 — The MM letter “Water supply disruption: The lack of accountability and responsibility — Dharm Navaratnam" is spot on! There must be greater accountability with public services that impact the rakyat!
As I write this (midnight, October 20, 2020), I'm so frustrated and angry that we're once again deprived of one of the bare necessities of life. Is this new sudden water disruption the 6 or 7 times this past year itself?!
Especially so, now that we have the stay at-home directives, the Covid-19 lockdowns, the mandated social distancing.
We're supposed to practise greater personal hygiene i.e. shower once we're home from work, we're to wash our hands frequently, but how now?!
I “showered” washed with 10 small “cedok” scoops of hastily stored water this evening! The taps and showers in our house are totally dry! We ordered pizza for dinner because there was no kitchen water to cook!
We're already stressed out. Those B40s, living in smaller houses and apartments, with families, stay at home school kids, must feel even worse, more unhinged, with changing regulations, threats of fines, jail times, even corporal punishment!
They were earlier told not to leave their homes unless absolutely necessary... then it's ok for groceries, eateries, for exercise, to the parks, the golf course... these are all very confusing, frustrating wishy-washy arbitrary directives...
Our M40s aren't faring much better of, many have uncertain bleak job futures. The surging pandemic numbers are scary, more of us would be taken ill, some would die, families have been and will be torn apart, some upended. Covid-19 promises greater hardships ahead, with no clear end in sight.
Now we have the added repeated nonsense of water cuts and disruptions, days! not hours! With no thought about alternative supplies or arrangements--just summary short notices, all at the whims and fancies of a totally incompetent water authority!
Of course, we don't want to have dangerously polluted water, but 'no water' for days is simply ridiculous!!! How are we, 1+ millions of folks and thousands of businesses to function, to live, to bathe, to cook, to wash, to perform toilet, etc???!!! Just standstill and stop these basic routines??!!!
Those who are at fault must be punished, but not just the polluters. This must include the lackadaisical managers and incompetent executives who treat the rakyat like dirt and with arrogant disdain!
Enough is enough! Cut this banana-republic basket-case mentality, so unbefitting of Malaysia!!! What we once were, a proud most dynamic progressive exemplary tiger nation, has faded, especially during the past 10 years of meandering patronage rent-seeking policies...
Now we're the laughing stock of being labelled the most corrupt, most politically unstable, most defined by extremist racist-religious bigotry, least favoured in terms of FDI, the worst performing currency, and evidently the least competent even in providing basic human services!
Our educational standards have stalled. Our tens of thousands of college graduates are unemployed, maybe unemployable, because of poor choices, policy misdirections, mismatched for industry or real life!
Even medical graduates are experiencing a predicted glut. Many newly doctors are waiting months to find jobs, even for houseman training or short term employment contracts.
Worse, our educational funding has been severely truncated, public moneys shifted toward pandering political patronage projects. Many postgraduate research jobs have been eliminated for lack of funds. Hence, our listless R&D is going nowhere, our talents have chosen to emigrating elsewhere...
Yet, we're building ever taller phallic symbols of self-aggrandising towers, even when we have a humongous surfeit of unaffordable, inflated unoccupied, millions of square feet of office and housing spaces... with nary a thought about their need or realistic potential returns...
Our national debt has ballooned to more than a trillion ringgit! We're impoverishing our children's future, thoroughly senseless shameless gifting of sinecures and projects to bolster wavering political alliances!
Many fellow Malaysians and I are rapidly losing faith in this once proud nation, so lost in its political direction and development focus and ambition... We're desperately angry, frustrated and many have given up hope. I refuse to, yet...
Wake up Malaysia! Or we'll be lost and bypassed as a notable nation, forever! Our competitive neighbours are advancing aggressively and some have overtaken us, already. We cannot afford to continue to fall behind.
Please let's collectively rebuild this nation! Leave ugly wasteful political baggage behind... Can we try and do this, soon? Maybe... but we do need new bold forward-thinking leaders who dare buck the trend of our murky ethno-religious quagmire and paralysis!
We need a new paradigm shift away from being perpetually-defined and obsessed by race and religion, politically-driven disunity and interethnic rift and suspicions, and yes, politically-engineered ugly senseless orchestrated hatred!
Let's move together as one United family! We can, but do we want to?
* Dr David KL Quek is a disillusioned concerned citizen and medical doctor.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer(s) or organisation(s) and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
