We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.
. Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist
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Undoing things once done is not impossible, but a veritable challenge to sanity.
In the business of politics, law and government, unscrambling the omelette, un-ringing of the bell, pushing the genie back into the bottle, and shoving toothpaste back into the tube become an agonising vocation.
As crystal ball gazing voting citizens, we must keep asking the government why they insist in doing things that are obviously silly, wrong and unworkable. A rhetorical answer and a series of inconsistent responses is the normal expectation.
When trying to understand this recurring nightmare, the political landscape reveals a terrain of unfinished business. This is the agenda of every government that gets appointed or elected.
Many of our laws have design and structural flaws. The Prevention of Crime Act 1959 (Act 297) with its lofty promise is a daily reminder of the lack of enforcement strategies. There are many such thorns in our statute books.
Chapter 4, Articles 83-91 of the Federal Constitution (FC) relates and refers to land which will baffle semanticists, grammarians, and phonologists, and drive them up the wall when it comes to encoding or deciphering its actual intent and purpose. The key question is always centred on who actually owns the land – the people, the government, or both? Constitutional silence can be bellicose.
To add masala to the mess, non-jury courts dish out oracular judgments that scramble right-thinking people to unscramble the omelette. In this day and age, we desperately need the jury system re-established. The fact-finder and the justice dispenser cannot be one and the same person. Our law reformers are dedicated benchwarmers in Parliament.
Yes, the jury system was abolished on 1 January 1995 following the Mona Fandey case in 1993. But were the voting citizens consulted? It was Parliament that decided for all the relevant reasons. But, was the purpose debated?
We have to continue to shoot torpedoes into this growing mess that uncaring voting citizens have left in the hands of career politicians. The targeted victims are the people who remain uncommitted.
Albert Einstein’s observation is telling. What exactly are we doing, as responsible and accountable citizens, to right these horrid wrongs? Complaining through media letters of opinions and street protests will not solve anything.
The politicians meet us citizens once in five years, and not once a month in the much-needed monthly meetings. Or, as Henry David Thoreau advocated, do we unleash civil disobedience? Nobody goes to work or schools for several weeks? Shut down the motor of society, as Ayn Rand talked about?
Unscrambling the omelette becomes a citizen’s duty if the government actors and agents refuse to deliver. Citizens have one duty and that is to even the score. Become victors instead of wearing the victim mask.
Being the inevitable selfish citizenry means power to the powerless. This is democracy at full pitch.
Watching the political terrain in Malaysia, it is very obvious that people rather worry about bread-and-butter issues than concern themselves with the political wilderness where entry, endurance and exit are equally fraught with unfamiliar dangers.
Which brings us back to the basic question: how do you get the government’s attention? Parliament and the judiciary certainly don’t deliver. The executive remains committed to staying in power.
The people have a God-given right to rewrite the rulebook. Every major theological text as quoted scripture is a clarion call at the unjust and unconscionable conduct of those in power although the ancients endorsed the divine power in the monarchy.
Where does government go to learn and study better policy-making skills? Who should they turn to for direction, instruction and correction? The obvious resource is the voting citizens who are seldom if not ever consulted.
Since we became a nation, there is absolutely no known record, proof or evidence of the government turning to its own People for crossing the t’s, dotting the i’s and looping the l’s and the p’s.
So, to undo things that don’t work for Malaysians, should we voting citizens just leave it to elected MPs and state legislators? And do the legislators deliver? The answer is painfully obvious.
Government is here to stay. Government will continue to affect our lives totally until a better system is discovered if ever un-ringing the bell is possible. We the people have a significant role to play. When we quit our calling, we quit being responsible and accountable. Our ability to stop wrongdoing should not become a liability or a disability.
When the voting citizens do nothing, the voted-into-power will do everything unchecked, untested, unnecessary and unwelcome. The time has come to abandon the imported rule of law and stick with the local rule of lore. Certainly more rewarding and meaningful for all Malaysians, investors and visitors.
To maintain sanity in this maddening wilderness, our nation needs more unemployed politicians who pay homage to the belief that the most reliable friend in politics is ready money.
Charles de Gaulle was obviously sipping a very unusual wine when he straddled satire, comedy, parody and tragedy: “In politics it is necessary either to betray one’s country or the electorate. I prefer to betray the electorate.”
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
