I was fetching a Malaysian friend of mine, who currently resides in Singapore when we passed through the Kerinchi Link. He was wondering why we need to pay the toll even though the route is so short?
"Is this a trend of paying toll shuffling around Klang Valley?" he asked.
My instant response to him: I’m going to pay extra for the toll starting from Year 2007!
Indeed, I was welcomed by a total silence for a few minutes before I continued my sentence.
I told him, look at Malaysia, toll rate is going to increase soon, Consumer Price Index (CPI) is going upward, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flow into Malaysia doesn’t look good (even Indonesia had overtaken us in drawing FDIs), Corruption Perception Index (CPI) continues to slide, a big bunch of people are preparing to move out from Malaysia and yet we’re still fighting over the 18.9% or 45% New Economic Policy (NEP). The best part is, the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is complacent about his achievement.
Call me someone who is so blind to patriotism or call me someone with idiosyncratic mind, despite all the worsening indicators, the fact is, I still love Malaysia.
What I hope is that, this country isn’t going to be ruined one day, to an extent that we’ll continue to plunge to a stage of unrecoverable.
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I’m just staying put because of family and friends and the food. Everything else I do (work, business, network) has a global outlook. There’s no other choice. Like you, I love Malaysia, and I can’t imagine staying anywhere else. But our country is being ruined by incompetent nitwits who continue holding the trump cards for one reason or another.
Mate, I do understand where you are coming from about Malaysia. Don’t we all love Malaysia and that is why there is so much angst, rant and rave in the Malaysian blogosphere.
The thing is, it is up to us to do something about it. Whether it is agitating for a change, voting for a change, protesting for a change and ensuring a change, it is up to us.
Some of the worsening indicators – so to speak – are legacies of excesses of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition from the time of Mahathir Mohamad. Yet, the voters gave a thumping majority to Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in the last polls.
What can be done now as he enters his third year of his personal mandate from the voters?
Can we ask for a strengthening of the ringgit – which will reduce our CPI but get all the manufacturers howling about cost of labour and lack of advantages in exporting their products? Won’t that lead to a further deterioration of FDI?
And why do we still need to depend on FDI? In what industries are we looking for FDI? Is it still in manufacturing? Or should we concentrate on the services sectors?
How about corruption? What can we do about it? Mumble and grumble but still pay off the policeman when we are caught for not wearing a seatbelt, crossing a double line, parking illegally or drinking and speeding way above the limit? How about the clerk in any government office who with a wink and some coffee money, allow us to jump queues and cut red-tape?
And what do we do about people who migrate? It is their choice but it is our choice to stay on and fight such injustices as the continuation of the NEP as a source of income for the coterie of cronies from the ruling coalition instead of helping to eradicate poverty and enabling those like the Bumiputeras of Sabah, Sarawak and Orang Aslis in Peninsular Malaysia to have a better standard of education and life.
Sensual Sophia has a point. But beyond family, friends and food, we can all make that change!
Abdullah can be our Gorbachev and free us from the bumblings and fumblings of the ruling Barisan Nasional and their corrupt and inept ways.
So give Malaysia a chance. Vote for the Siber Party of Malaysia (M)!
gorbachev alright….so u say malaysia will split into 13/14 countries?
[...] It’s Christmas today, so I send him a Christmas greeting on SMS. He did reply. May the faith and promise of Christmas bless you with Joy and Peace. MERRY CHRISTMAS. Samyvellu My reply to him. Thanks, Datuk Seri. Too bad that Santa is not coming to Malaysia next year coz toll hike for his deers. No reply since then. [...]