OUR society is facing twin crises in the form of a health crisis and an economic crisis.
The right-wing elite politicians are responsible for a third crisis – a political one. This clash of power is not to serve the 99% of the people but to amass wealth through patronage and cronyism for themselves.
After the 14th General Election (GE14), many leaders and members of Barisan Nasional (BN) jumped over to Pakatan Harapan (PH) in search of positions and projects.
Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, too, used the patronage system to entice UMNO MPs to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).
Today, many PH MPs and assemblymen, too, have made the leap over to Perikatan Nasional (PN) for similar purposes.
Citing high costs, Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz previously refused to end the contract system for public hospital workers such as doctors, hospital cleaners and pharmacists.
However, the disgraced former Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu was recently appointed a minister-ranked advisor with annual salary and perks amounting to hundreds of thousands ringgit.
Race-based parties, too, have been giving out several hundreds of thousands of patronage positions ranging from directors of government-owned companies (GLCs) to city councillors to ketua kampung (village heads).
Hundreds of Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and redundant government agencies were set up to create director positions for political patronage.
These positions come with salaries, pensions, and perks worth tens of billions of ringgit per annum.
Meanwhile salaries for civil servants have not been reviewed for the past 20 years. This financial burden from patronage and cronyism has reduced funds to improve our hospitals, abolish National Higher Education Fund Corporation (PTPTN) and increase salaries of the country’s civil servants.
In Malaysia, people continue to be disappointed by the new prime minister as the incoming elites are unlikely to destroy any system that thoroughly benefits them.
Any criticism and threat to their ‘curi makan’ ways will be clamped using 3R – race, religion and royalty.
This 3R card needs to be destroyed from our political sphere as well. In fact, the entire patronage and cronyism system can be destroyed by instituting democracy at all levels.
The positions such as village heads and city councillors must go for elections while the GLCs’ and government agencies’ leadership positions must be allocated to representatives from respective workers’ unions.
Meanwhile, the state and federal election systems, too, must change from the ‘first-past-the-post’ (FPTP) principle to proportional representation to better represent the fabric of our society.
In other words, not just Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin – the whole patronage and cronyism-based political system must be destroyed as well. – Aug 15, 2021.
Sharan Raj is a human rights activist, environmentalist and infrastructure policy analyst. He is also the central committee member for Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
