By R Paneir Selvam
ALMOST thirty years ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had a dream to make Malaysia a developed nation by 2020.
He named that dream as Vision 2020. Now, we are at the end road about 2020.
What, we as the people of this nation had achieved?
What are our contributions to make this country great?
Regrettably, we always blamed others especially, our leaders for any shortcomings.
Then, who actually supported and elected these devious leaders??
We as the citizens and voters of this country, always elect leaders who are corrupted and misuse their powers.
Should we have blamed these leaders or ourselves for the failure of this nation?
A few days ago, in Penang, a family of three young kids stayed in a car for eight months. When the media highlighted this family’s deplorable state then only steps had been taken to remedy the situation.
Further, we have seen recently that our graduates are working as garbage collectors in our neighbouring country. There is nothing wrong working in that sector during COVID-19 pandemic but the biggest question is why are they unable to get a proper job in Malaysia?
Even though Malaysia has gained independence from the UK more than 60 years ago, our leaders are still indulged with race and religion as the main themes to colonise our minds. Certain quarters from us still bait these issues without realising the real agenda of these unscrupulous politicians.
We used to have great leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Dr Ismail, Tun Ghazali Shafie and Tok Guru Nik Aziz who always fight for the rights of us.
Unfortunately, now our leaders are more interested to gain popularity for the wrong set of reasons.
This country doesn’t only belong to leaders alone, but it’s also to us as the ordinary folks of this nation. In case these leaders are fizzled to fulfil their obligations at that point it is our obligation to let them know what these obligations are.
By observing the current situation, we are profoundly suspicious that the current crops of leaders had failed in their fundamental duties as the peoples’ representatives.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in Malaysia rose to 4.7% in July 2020, according to tradingeconomics.com. The number of unemployed grew 42% from a year ago.
In addition, the Department of Statistics of Malaysia (DOSM) reports that the number of unemployed people in this country has risen by 47,300 to 826,100 people, the highest in 27 years.
The recent Khazanah Research Institute (KRI) study showed that this year, many households in Malaysia are very vulnerable to falling into poverty.
Further, the National Housing Department (JPN) data reported that more than 65% of national household leaders earn below RM2,000. They live in People’s Housing Projects (PPRs). They are considered to be the urban poor.
These statistics indicate that many people have lost their jobs especially from the B40 group, and now the question is how these families with the young children can survive and what kind of the support that they can seek from the current administration for their survival.
Presently, Malaysia is facing the vacuum of good leaders. Leaders are elected to serve people not otherwise. They are people’s representatives.
We, Malaysians still fondly remember the contribution made by our founding fathers to this nation. They sacrificed themselves for the betterment of this country. They live their life for this nation.
Unfortunately, we hardly ever find such a form of stature leader with such a current cluster of leaders. The aim of both state and national elections is to elect good and capable representatives. These leaders were expected to selflessly serve this nation and its people.
In a nutshell, we have waited long enough for the advent of these forms of leaders. As the people of this country, we have to play our part meritoriously in the coming election to recognise and elect noble leaders who will be our voices in Parliament. Such leaders’ primary duty is to take care of our welfare and not theirs at all.
As a precursor for us to observe how the British people are compelling their politicians, ie leaders, to toe the line with their wishes, the Brexit Saga in the UK, even if they have to replace three prime ministers in the course of it
The leaders must respond to the needs of the electorate in a democratic country, not otherwise. – Dec 30, 2020
R Paneir Selvam is from Puchong, Selangor.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
