Malaysia needs to change a series of laws and regulations that are hampering its entry into the global world but it also need to consolidate its gains and enhance its capacity before it jumps full heartedly in the global world.
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi raised the stake a week ago when he attacked his detractors and opponents, setting a new agenda for his new government and indicating that changes will come for the judiciary in particular. Observers now believe the PM must press harder with new laws and fresh regulations. However, he faces tougher challenges in his attempts at reviewing laws that brought his regime to the brink of defeat in 2008.
It was a long wait before the Prime Minister literally shocked his opponents, including former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad with scathing attacks on their motives, at times questioning their hidden agendas. Is it operation ‘shock and awe’ starting with the PM’s criticism?
The PM raised three major points starting with the ‘misuse’ of power by Tun Mahathir while he was Prime Minister. Asked whether he would call for an investigation into Dr Mahathir on his past actions, Abdullah said that would be left to the government agencies."If the matter needs to be investigated then it will be done." Is a statement that indicates possible future actions against his opponents within the Umno. Future actions could involve the opening of cases that are piling up against Tun Mahathir in the country’s courts. The Prime Minister also said the judiciary was not trusted by locals and foreign investors, possibly linking the rot in the judiciary system with the misuse of power by former leaders of the party and of the country.
Abdullah’s attacks on Mahathir will now force the latter to be more active in his attempts at dislodging the PM from the Presidency of the party, the United Malays National Organization (Umno). Mahathir will surely attempt to rally more support outside and inside the party in order to call for an immediate vote on the party’s presidency.
A change of leadership will salvage Mahathir from the threats made by the PM on the possibility of looking into past abuses by former leaders of the country. Indeed, any investigation in the judiciary’s rotting system could lead to the influence exerted by former leaders on the judges and this may open the doors to prosecution and even arrests soon.
WorldFutures believe that the Prime Minister’s agenda is very clear. It is one in which he want to bring Islam closer to the public realm, giving it a role playing position rather than the private and low profile hence absent state in which Islam was under Tun Mahathir’s rule.
This alone is enough to put the two leaders at daggers drawn, with pro-Mahathir and opposition stalwarts claiming it is ‘Islam Hadari’ that has caused the fault line that cracked the Barisan National (BN) during the last polls.
Malaysia needs to change a series of laws and regulations that are hampering its entry into the global world but it also need to consolidate its gains and enhance its capacity before it jumps full heartedly in the global world. Nevertheless, the country needs to change laws that are needed to bring in small and medium investors from across the world, particularly the Islamic world.
Laws pertaining to investment, immigration and the rights of locals and migrants as well as expats must be amended or changed completely in order to reflect the true nature of the Malaysian state today. Malaysia is now made of a large population of foreign investors – who invests in the local Islamic Capital Market (ICM) as well as in small and medium enterprises – and this is linked to the status of the foreigners in the country.
Malaysia as a state cannot continue ignoring the rights of the new breed of foreigners living in the country through their marriage to locals. This include men and women who are living in Malaysia because of their marital status, being married to locals and having children of Malaysian birth. The Immigration Department of Malaysia and the Internal Affairs Ministry has been against such migrants for decades and there are very few relaxations of the harsh laws and rules that guide the presence of such migrants in Malaysia.
The country’s leaders are adamant that they are protecting the nation from foreign influence when they refuse to grant ‘Permanent Residence’ or PR to foreigners who have been living here for years. This is the attitude that has not been cautioned by the population in the 12th General Elections and it is unfortunate that such attitudes will continue eroding the support for the current government altogether.
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has gone further in his assessment of the debacle by the BN in the elections, saying that reforms are needed not only in large institutions like the judiciary but also in the thinking and manner of government officials who deal with the grassroots. He added that reforms in the public administration were needed too and that should include the way people are treated and their cases and grouses handled.
Under the Mahathir leadership, the grouses of the people were treated like tertiary matters that did not need immediate action, forcing the ‘rakyat’ to have resort to ‘rayuan’ letters in which – as the name suggests – the public was subjected to kowtowing and bowing while pleading to the officials to get their grouses heard or granted.
It was worst for the ‘foreign legion’ in the country, which was almost always subjected to a tirade of abuse and curse from immigration officers at border controls or within the immigration departments across the country.
In the event the Deputy Prime Minister is referring to such abuses, then the reforms he mentioned as well as the attitude change in the public administration would be in the right direction. Malaysia needs an administration that follows the leadership of the country, not one that puts a stick in the wheels of the government, said an observer who spoke to WFOL on the issue.
Besides the immigration, investment and rights laws the current regime of Abdullah Badawi must be brave to do without the Internal Security Act (ISA) and replace it with a Public Order Act (POA) that would allow the police to control riots and disasters across the country. The POA must take into consideration the needs of the people to be protected rather than the need of the police or the authorities to use baton and tear gas against its own people.
Malaysia has developed to such an extent that it cannot afford to keep ‘dinosaurs’ in its administration or use draconian and outdated laws to maintain law and order in the streets. All these laws must be amended, destroyed or replaced in order to give a clean, fair and just image to the government of the current Prime Minister.
While the Malaysian population does not want the return to the Mahathir era, they surely do not want to see a regime that would follow Tun Mahathir’s own principles be put in place after the 12th General Elections. Thus it is salient for the government to get to work and withdraw draconian laws and impose new just and fair laws to ensure that Malaysia enters the new world with success.
The Newspapers and Periodicals Act must also be amended to allow more freedom of the press and of the media. As such, the government will definitely earn the praise and support of the population if it takes the course that the 12th GE has showed.
It was a long wait before the Prime Minister literally shocked his opponents, including former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohammad with scathing attacks on their motives, at times questioning their hidden agendas. Is it operation ‘shock and awe’ starting with the PM’s criticism?
The PM raised three major points starting with the ‘misuse’ of power by Tun Mahathir while he was Prime Minister. Asked whether he would call for an investigation into Dr Mahathir on his past actions, Abdullah said that would be left to the government agencies."If the matter needs to be investigated then it will be done." Is a statement that indicates possible future actions against his opponents within the Umno. Future actions could involve the opening of cases that are piling up against Tun Mahathir in the country’s courts. The Prime Minister also said the judiciary was not trusted by locals and foreign investors, possibly linking the rot in the judiciary system with the misuse of power by former leaders of the party and of the country.
Abdullah’s attacks on Mahathir will now force the latter to be more active in his attempts at dislodging the PM from the Presidency of the party, the United Malays National Organization (Umno). Mahathir will surely attempt to rally more support outside and inside the party in order to call for an immediate vote on the party’s presidency.
A change of leadership will salvage Mahathir from the threats made by the PM on the possibility of looking into past abuses by former leaders of the country. Indeed, any investigation in the judiciary’s rotting system could lead to the influence exerted by former leaders on the judges and this may open the doors to prosecution and even arrests soon.
WorldFutures believe that the Prime Minister’s agenda is very clear. It is one in which he want to bring Islam closer to the public realm, giving it a role playing position rather than the private and low profile hence absent state in which Islam was under Tun Mahathir’s rule.
This alone is enough to put the two leaders at daggers drawn, with pro-Mahathir and opposition stalwarts claiming it is ‘Islam Hadari’ that has caused the fault line that cracked the Barisan National (BN) during the last polls.
Malaysia needs to change a series of laws and regulations that are hampering its entry into the global world but it also need to consolidate its gains and enhance its capacity before it jumps full heartedly in the global world. Nevertheless, the country needs to change laws that are needed to bring in small and medium investors from across the world, particularly the Islamic world.
Laws pertaining to investment, immigration and the rights of locals and migrants as well as expats must be amended or changed completely in order to reflect the true nature of the Malaysian state today. Malaysia is now made of a large population of foreign investors – who invests in the local Islamic Capital Market (ICM) as well as in small and medium enterprises – and this is linked to the status of the foreigners in the country.
Malaysia as a state cannot continue ignoring the rights of the new breed of foreigners living in the country through their marriage to locals. This include men and women who are living in Malaysia because of their marital status, being married to locals and having children of Malaysian birth. The Immigration Department of Malaysia and the Internal Affairs Ministry has been against such migrants for decades and there are very few relaxations of the harsh laws and rules that guide the presence of such migrants in Malaysia.
The country’s leaders are adamant that they are protecting the nation from foreign influence when they refuse to grant ‘Permanent Residence’ or PR to foreigners who have been living here for years. This is the attitude that has not been cautioned by the population in the 12th General Elections and it is unfortunate that such attitudes will continue eroding the support for the current government altogether.
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has gone further in his assessment of the debacle by the BN in the elections, saying that reforms are needed not only in large institutions like the judiciary but also in the thinking and manner of government officials who deal with the grassroots. He added that reforms in the public administration were needed too and that should include the way people are treated and their cases and grouses handled.
Under the Mahathir leadership, the grouses of the people were treated like tertiary matters that did not need immediate action, forcing the ‘rakyat’ to have resort to ‘rayuan’ letters in which – as the name suggests – the public was subjected to kowtowing and bowing while pleading to the officials to get their grouses heard or granted.
It was worst for the ‘foreign legion’ in the country, which was almost always subjected to a tirade of abuse and curse from immigration officers at border controls or within the immigration departments across the country.
In the event the Deputy Prime Minister is referring to such abuses, then the reforms he mentioned as well as the attitude change in the public administration would be in the right direction. Malaysia needs an administration that follows the leadership of the country, not one that puts a stick in the wheels of the government, said an observer who spoke to WFOL on the issue.
Besides the immigration, investment and rights laws the current regime of Abdullah Badawi must be brave to do without the Internal Security Act (ISA) and replace it with a Public Order Act (POA) that would allow the police to control riots and disasters across the country. The POA must take into consideration the needs of the people to be protected rather than the need of the police or the authorities to use baton and tear gas against its own people.
Malaysia has developed to such an extent that it cannot afford to keep ‘dinosaurs’ in its administration or use draconian and outdated laws to maintain law and order in the streets. All these laws must be amended, destroyed or replaced in order to give a clean, fair and just image to the government of the current Prime Minister.
While the Malaysian population does not want the return to the Mahathir era, they surely do not want to see a regime that would follow Tun Mahathir’s own principles be put in place after the 12th General Elections. Thus it is salient for the government to get to work and withdraw draconian laws and impose new just and fair laws to ensure that Malaysia enters the new world with success.
The Newspapers and Periodicals Act must also be amended to allow more freedom of the press and of the media. As such, the government will definitely earn the praise and support of the population if it takes the course that the 12th GE has showed.
No comments:
Post a Comment