BRAVO to those millionaire candidates vying to win in the 15th General Election (GE15). Credit must be given for going public with their wealth accumulated over the years.
We shall not question or speculate to qualify their millions in assets but rather applaud their daring move; making such a declaration is akin to playing with a double-edged sword.
Voters may have many questions on their minds as to how these politicians have accumulated such amounts while they still go round crowdfunding their political endeavours.
Basically, the public is forking their own money to provide the platform to these politicians when they can well sustain such activities themselves.
Anyway, that is up to the public where they want to “invest”.
Having said that, why is only a certain party in Pakatan Harapan (PH) making their millions known to the public? Should not all under the PH umbrella be singing the same song and agenda?
By right, all the candidates standing under this umbrella should declare their assets and liabilities if they are indeed united in one say. But on the contrary, this is not what is seen.
If they have a differing take on an issue like this, then how are we to trust that these parties under PH will also not have different takes on national policies and issues if they come into power?
Don’t be a hypocrite
They should walk their talk in projecting a united front and not cast hypocrisy.
PH chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be bold enough to show that he has the might to get all DAP, Amanah and UPKO candidates to make similar public declarations.
If even this is not possible, how can we have the confidence that he can manage them if he becomes the next prime minister?
This is a very serious matter as we need a leader that can first ensure all his men under his umbrella toe the line – otherwise, there is a very high probability that there could be damaging inconsistencies among PH leaders when it comes to running the country.
A leader must be seen and perceived as having the respect of his own battalion before he can be made a leader of a country.
Anwar should make it compulsory for all in PH to emulate his party first (PKR) and then maybe we can have the confidence that he will be able to gel them all if they win Putrajaya.
If he cannot do that, then there could be doubts about his capabilities of ensuring all the political parties under the PH umbrella will tango to the same music on policy making.
While there are calls by various organisations for all parties’ candidates to make declarations, they should first ask all PH candidates to do first since it was PKR that got the ball rolling. – Nov 12, 2022
Narinder Pal Singh is the communications chief for Warisan’s Selangor and Kuala Lumpur chapters.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: Malay Mail
