When the government smiles, the rattlesnakes run for cover.
— Sitting Bull, Lakota Sioux Native American chief
The baring of fangs is usually an expected event when the recipient of the naked truth, bereft of embellishments and improvisations, is unable to agree or accede to the demands for reform and resolution.
Lee Kuan Yew saw the fangs of the Tunku when the latter expelled Singapore. Some Malaysian social clubs must learn that some expulsions are endearing and enduring blessings.
The sole author of the Constitution of India, by default, B. R. Ambedkar scorned M. K. Gandhi and said he would never call him “mahatma’ because he bared his fangs over the Dalit issue (Untouchables) which was Ambedkar’s sole occupassion. He quipped that ‘it is hard enough to be a man, but to be a saint may require a superman. . . ‘
We suffered a chief executive who was constantly baring his fangs for 22 years. He’s still at it after stepping down, and continues to expel his venom which proved impotent as evidenced by the GE15 voters when his party was rejected, and all his candidates lost their deposits.
That baring of fangs is a good sign for Malaysian politics since it speaks volumes for the benighting of a has-been politician who made it a national policy to do things ‘his way.’
No. 10 has of late not been spared his own forays into the baring of fangs on several occasions concerning the death wish heaped upon two politicians, the silencing of a state chief minister for claiming real estate belonging to another state, and an immigration department’s alleged corruption at KLIA. He needs to keep baring his fangs to stem the green tide as well.
But the baring of fangs with deadly venom is best aimed at decapitating corruption, shoring the ringgit, fighting inflation, and solving the chronic labor shortages, green tide notwithstanding. Too many things have gone awry and remain painfully awful.
The leadership’s fangs must be applied to the jugular veins of fraud, corruption and the forces that force socio-economic ills upon the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised. Like clockwork, a new kind of evil emerges with the dedication of a virus requiring a new set of fangs and a more potent venom.
Government smiles instead of baring its fangs to frighten the living daylights of corrupted and dishonest public servants. They must be ready to draw blood when legislation fails.
Judicial fangs sharpened by Article 162(6) Federal Constitution (FC) must put the fear of God into callous scofflaws holding positions of power and authority where plea bargains are outlawed, procedural law abbreviated, and mercy is shelved.
Government must constantly bare its fangs without devotion to unjust and unconscionable political theories birthed during the European Enlightenment.
Enforcement has neither fangs nor venom. It’s merely an ineffective paper threat that is quietly, and swiftly, offset by temptations of paper-money. We cannot afford to accept and tolerate this ugly state of affairs.
The media is saturated with tales of crooked public servants but hardly a story of anyone who was rewarded for his or her honest services. ‘MACC: 60% of high-profile corruption cases involve politicians’, screamed a local newspaper this week. This deadly virus has no known antidote except the death penalty which has recently been elevated to inglorious history.
Many with smiling gums insist that it’s our culture to ‘forgive and forget.’ Small wonder most of their teeth are missing while forgiving and forgetting. And it wasn’t the dentists’ fault. One courageous judge vented righteous indignation, fortitude, and bared his judicial fangs in PP v Dato’ Yap Peng [1987] 2 MLJ 311 when he condemned ‘legislative and executive intromission’ into the judicial power of the Federation.
He sent the venom deep with brilliant prose, noting that Article 121(1) FC, concerning judicial power, was ‘no more than a teasing illusion, like a munificent bequest in a pauper’s will.’
The late 1980s were toxic times for the Malaysian judiciary when it was in the crosshairs of the executive whose continuous baring of fangs led to the infamous and ignoble judicial putsch. The chaos continued till January 2004, when a five–member panel of the Federal Court in Danaharta Urus Sdn Bhd v Kekatong Sdn Bhd [2004] 2 MLJ 257 struck down one of the most revolutionary decisions to emerge from the judiciary for a long time.
This executive intromission has remained in our jurisprudence as the “God-provision” where no court of law was allowed to interfere with Danaharta’s policies and modus operandi!
The baring of fangs by the rakyat to service and overhaul government is more than a nationalistic and patriotic call. The range, rule and role of the FC must be given more biting power and medicinal venom as it is not effective with the old fangs operating in illusory enthusiasm.
The rakyat is a powerful and potent force in and of government. Voters and those eligible for voting come GE16 must be ready to take the reins through their precious suffrage.
Use your votes, do not misuse or abuse it by casting them upon unworthy and unqualified candidates with artificial smiles, a bagful of ringgits, and a litany of false promises. We can do better.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
