Trainers, strainers, and drainers of swamps represent three major political parties.
– Native American chief Seattle
While draining the swamp is the ideal, the ordeal caused by those dedicated to straining the swamp is optically awkward and morally reprehensible. To separate the drainers from the strainers, just watch proponents and opponents of whether the government must poke its nose in the nation’s economy absent professional advice and counsel.
Malaysians have denied themselves their inalienable right to drain the swamp despite GE-14/15. Meanwhile, the 4-R (race, religion, region, ringgit) rages on to cause the nation to fall apart. Legislation, like the proposed FTPA (Fixed-Term Parliament Act), advanced by swamp strainers offers no solution.
Royalty, and the judiciary, must hammer home the point that the Federal Constitution is not for sale or barter despite insidious extra-judicial interpretations. It is a non-fungible and non-negotiable instrument. The rule of law is an empty rhetoric if law and justice are counter-productive and at cross-purposes with each other.
There is an old adage that when you are up to your neck in crocodiles it’s hard to remember that your initial objective was to drain the swamp. That explains the swamp strainers who keep feeding the crocodiles lurking beneath in the stench and filth.
Uncaught crocodiles like the BMF-Carrian Group scam, Bank Negara’s forex losses, Maminco, Perwaja Steel, UEM-Renong and the North-South highway project, and the recent LCS fiasco, etc., threatened the swamp strainers to do three-fifths of nothing. Citizen’s arrests under section 27(1) CPC hardly ever happens.
As novelist Ayn Rand warned, letting the fire go out with the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all state of mind is a passing-the-buck tactic. Concerned Malaysians must not stop pointing accusing fingers at the swamp strainers.
MACC, like the Cabinet, the PDRM and the Armed Forces, must take its instructions and orders from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong with a consensus id idem mindset. Checks and balances articulated by His Majesty is constitutionally entrenched in the interests of the rule of law, and is not tantamount to dabbling in politics.
The clutter and chatter of frogs in our unhealthy political swamp needs revisiting and revamping of Article 114 Federal Constitution. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s appointment of the Election Commission, and other royal appointments, are checks and balances, and not just ceremonial acts. Therefore, our system of constitutional monarchy is a uniquely different stamp of authority and responsibility.
It’s been said that concealment makes the soul a swamp. Confession is how you drain it. The recent seizure of a commercial building owned by a former tycoon- politician has drained the swamp revealing the monsters lurking beneath. Crimes are not time-barred. Hopefully, the constable will not bungle this time. And, there’s no known legislation for a political witch-hunt.
The stench from the education swamp remains an unbearable national tragedy. Education is about brain-storming and not brain-washing. Parents, teachers and students, with their rights to associate moored in Article 10 Federal Constitution, must not entrust the grooming of our future leaders into unworthy hands.
Another stinky swamp – GLCs and GLICs – defines the merger between state and corporate powers. Benito Mussolini called this fascism. We call it cronyism and nepotism that encourages unfettered corruption.
PMX must consecrate policies for a vast national food-producing programme. Are our micro and macro-economists swimming with the crocodiles? Why are we importing over fifty billion ringgits worth of foodstuff annually with verdant soil and ideal weather conditions for food production? What’s this – malaiseanomics?
State and federal governments are elected, but Malaysian local government municipal councils, and judges, are appointed, not elected. This is undemocratic, unconscionable, unjust, unfair, unconstitutional and culturally unacceptable. These two institutions should not be relegated to the stature of undrained swamps.
The legitimate interests of all Malaysians enumerated in Article 153 Federal Constitution is a failsafe mechanism to drain many filthy swamps. If politicians are unwilling to act, Malaysians have every right to petition the Yang di-Pertuan Agong for appropriate action. Our National Anthem contains multiple gems as to the meaning of Malaysians (‘Negara ku’), and not Negara ‘any particular race’.
PMX should not worry about GE-16. The Defenders of the Faith (Agong and the Rulers) know how to put a damper on religious extremism. The so-called ‘green wave’ does not mean the end of the monarchy’s control over Islam. PMX should instead focus on making Malaysia’s an economic powerhouse.
Malaysia’s prosperity hinges on the revamping and rewriting of the rules, regulations, laws and policies that immunize corruption and sustain fossilised education. Providentially, the 4-R fever will sink into permanent oblivion.
PMX needs constant reminders that nobody is threatening our national security except for corruption. Our swamps must morph into catacombs of reinforced concrete to obviate draining that evokes memories of putrid stench and filth.
James Bovard noted that “people are so docile right now. It’s almost as if good government means when the politicians lie to us for our own good, for the public good, and bad government is when politicians lie for their own self-interests.” Being docile is synonymous with being facile. Major awakening is happening.
There is still genuine hope in the next Yang di-Pertuan Agong, said to be of sterner stuff, highly knowledgeable, and generally known to be a no-nonsense leader. Malaysia is in desperate need for such checks and balances to prevent autocratic tyranny or an autocratic mob mentality.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
