Option

The recent hullabaloo about a BN component party wanting to pull out of the new Cabinet because of some perceived dissatisfactions must not be allowed to overshadow the country's future. The PM has the full prerogative to appoint whoever he wants and people should not hold him to ransom by raisng related issues in public. If the PM has to bow to all quarters, the country would sooner or later end up in the garbage heap. The PM should ask these quarters to attend night classes on the 1Malaysia concept instead. Some component parties did very badly in the March 2008 general elections and even in the recent by-elections and therefore they should be doing some very badly needed soul-searching right now instead of sulking like overgrown babies. To such component parties, the PM and the rest of the Cabinet must remind them (again) that failure is never an option. You are working for the country and therefore you must be focused on success unless of course you happen to be working for your own personal benefit. In which case, the MACC should be called in. The country at present is facing a lot of problems, yet many of our politicians are wallowing in the good life. The case of the East Malaysian politician who used someone else's identity card to obtain a loan is surely not something that would surprise the public. Our politicians have learnt to make good use of their high status to benefit themselves personally ever since Dr M took power nearly 30 years back. And it has continued since. The PM must tell those politicians who are now seen as failures to buck up or be shipped out. Tell them to retire and let the younger people take over. Take a good look around. Many of our local youths prefer to either have nothing to do or resort to the use of 'fast and easy' ways to get money rather than seek proper employment. That's why we have so much crime nowadays and why restaurants, farms, factories and businesses are clamouring for lower levies on foreign labour. In my residential area, many youths ride around without helmets and often against traffic flow in the evenings and there seems to be no government in existence by the looks of it. There is a police station about less than a kilometre away but there is suspicion that the police have a tacit agreement to allow these youths to rule the area and do pretty much what they like. It is most puzzling why the authorities are unable to clamp down on those who seemed to have nothing to do but ride around on motorcycles and enjoying the invigorating evening air. Perhaps petrol is so cheap and plentiful and we need to maintain our national consumption levels of the commodity. Otherwise a lot of petrol stations might go bust. The BN ruling class should do something about this starting now unless they wish to see the next gen elections full of Bt Gantang type results where the silent blocs preferred to vote for the PR.

The secondary schools in the country are a messy lot due to the poor work performance of the Education Ministry and the ruling BN politicians. Politicians encourage parents to besiege schools if a pupil came home complaining about certain teachers and the (former) Education Minister allowed the schools to rot just so that he could continue to remain popular. And in many housing estates, we always hear about problems of poorly kept high-rises and apartments. Lifts are not working and there are lots of rubbish lying around. The authorites have never paid much attention to the long-suffering residents. A lot of problems occur because some people refuse to pay their maintenance bills. The building management often retaliate by either raising the amount to be paid or stop providing service altogether to the residents. Meanwhile, those who refused to pay their bills often could afford to purchase expensive stereos and play loud blaring music to entertain themselves at the expense of their neighbours. Why can't our politicians summon the courage to deal with such direly vexing problems ? Is it that they are too comfortable in their own private castles to bother at all ? The politicians ought to introduce laws to cut off electricity supply to those who refuse to pay their bills but, to be fair, they should also control the building management offices to prevent them from raising the amount to be paid as they wished. Our politicians have failed to do both and they have failed in many other areas as well. That's why they failed to keep their seats in the last elections. So, they should not sulk and put up tantrums but instead they should get down on their knees and do penitence. Then, perhaps, the PM might want to hear their noises or grievances. Until then, they should cease their bad tendency to shyly blackmail the government. It won't work.