SEVERAL days ago, I came across a statement from Finance Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz expressing his hope that ‘”anity will prevail over the madness of politics.” (Saya mendoakan agar kewarasan mengatasi kegilaan berpolitik).
In my mid-50s now, and as a rakyat who have seen political drama since the 1980s, frankly it is getting tiresome to see the same players dominating the stage for the past four decades. Dominating is not so much the problem as seeing them now trying to take political advantage of the current crisis and causing instability to the country.
Even in the maddening intrigue of politics, there is, I believe a thing as being “too much”.
The fresh-faced finance minister hit the nail right on the head when he called for sanity to prevail. I am not a political scientist with an empirical pulse on the nation’s sentiments, but I am sure a considerable segment of the rakyat would agree: politics should take a pause in a critical time such as this.
As it stands, we have seen massive gains in the national vaccination process and there is a lot of chatter from policymakers about opening up the economy very soon. Three states (Sarawak, Perlis and Federal Territory of Labuan) have moved into Phase 3 under the National Recovery Plan (NRP). It would seem that for now, the powers-that-be are slowly but surely taking the country out of the crisis.
Make no mistake, there is a need for improvements in many areas, the Government needs to look into improving our standard operating procedure (SOP) and ensure consistent messaging. The people have questions about the reasoning behind some SOPs and many are grumbling about the shutting down of certain public offices and business sectors.
Here, I believe our MPs should take the proactive lead into making sure these questions are answered and improvements do take place.
After months of seeing our Opposition criticise the Government’s handling of the pandemic, we are left wondering where is the Opposition’s own COVID-19 “blueprint” for the Government to consider? We did see in the news that representatives from several political parties had submitted their respective memorandums to the finance minister.
I do not believe, however, that there is a unified blueprint or alternative plan from the Opposition regarding the way forward out of the pandemic.
Oppostion offering no alternative
The only consistent message we get from our Opposition MPs and politicians are useless tirades and calls for the prime minister to step down. Yet, I wonder what is the alternative? Till today, we have seen none.
Hence, when Umno president announced that several of their MPs have pulled support from the Government, no Malaysian could speculate with certainty on who can form the next Government.
There has always been claims of “numbers” by certain politicians, so many times that it has become a meme and punchline to jokes, but in all seriousness—the people know that there is no faction out there with a “strong, formidable and convincing” majority.
So, we have no alternative COVID-19 national plan or do we see the opposing faction with a “formidable” majority to form the next Government. This obsession by some politicians to dethrone the current Government is leading our country into instability.
On behalf of the rakyat and my fellow elderly “warga emas” who are at grave risk from COVID-19—I seek our politicians and MPs to stop rocking the boat—do not sink this ship when you yourselves offer us no other better vessel for escape.
The sensible thing to do right now, if our politicians have the rakyat’s wellbeing at heart, is to work together with the Government especially when there is an invitation to do so under the NRP.
Stop the blame game and repeated attempts to bring down the Government; instead help fix the country. Surely, the politicking can take a breather, at least for a while.
COVID-19 is a war like any other, and in times like this, we cannot just depend on the Government and civil servants to fight it for us. Every Malaysian have to contribute in any way we can.
Let this political insanity stop. It is the month of Merdeka and let us cease hostilities and get through this pandemic together. – Aug 8, 2021.
Zainul Mustaffar is a contributor to FocusM.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
