YOURSAY | ‘We hoped too much and they delivered too little.’
The Harapan gov't is failing - and we need to focus on that
The Wakandan: This subject has been flogged to death in Malaysiakini but yes, it needs to be repeated, and yes, Bukit Gelugor MP Ramkarpal Singh, you are right.
The increased price of eggs perhaps is a good place to start. Of course, nobody is saying that because of the eggs, we’re going to the dogs. It is what we see today, and it is not good. In other words, it is not the Pakatan Harapan that we wanted.
Why the hell has the old DNA of Umno and BN started to become the image of Harapan? You know what we mean; looking at Harapan now is like looking at the previous BN where things were seen through the lens of racial and religious bigotry.
The cause is obvious – when we begin to accommodate Umno and its politics, everything else will fall into its place. In other words, we have become Umno but in name.
If the price of the eggs is not contained and if we are into a second stage of inflation, the people may not be too kind and patient with Harapan.
Maybe the media can help us by highlighting the good work of people like Energy, Technology, Science, Climate Change and Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin, who seems to be the one quietly busy with her job. The people need something to cheer them up.
Jasmine: It’s all about personal and private agendas. Not about the people’s future. That so-called agenda for the people in the form of the grand manifesto went out the window even before the citizens had any whiff of what it was.
Being a government now run by personal and hidden agendas, it has become one of divide and rule.
Not a far cry from the immediate past.
The race card especially is frequently used - no, abused - by the greatest Machiavellian in the cabinet to cast aside any genuine efforts at reforms promised.
The fact that Merdeka Centre statistics reveal that only about 30 percent of the Malay electorate supported Harapan in GE14 has become an elaborate and useful weapon against those clamouring for the promised changes. Fear-mongering is now official propaganda.
That attitude is not leadership but cowardice, in fact more so devious and calculative to disguise the real intentions of one man and his party.
With PKR having reached a high degree of shambles and infighting, DAP silenced by the fear of the race and religious stigma constantly thrown at it, it’s all about a smaller race-based party controlling the cabinet and the government. Doesn’t it sound and smell familiar?
Worse is the fact that previously the Umno government could justify its race and religious-based policies merely by flaunting its numbers in elected representatives, but now Bersatu?
I think Malaysians have been taken for a ride. So far that’s how one feels.
Anonymous 2485051503021733: Ram, with all due respect, I fail to see what the lunch has got to do with the price of eggs.
Former PKR vice-presidents Nurul Izzah Anwar and Rafizi Ramli and Rembau MP Khairy Jamaluddin are entitled to do as they like during their free time and who they decided to have lunch with is their prerogative.
I voted for Harapan for a change of government, not for Anwar Ibrahim to be prime minister. Sorry, but to me, he is irrelevant.
As for your question on how to reduce the price of eggs, I think the right person to answer your question is the agriculture minister.
Drngsc: We hoped too much and they delivered too little. They would rather play politics than take care of the people.
I must say that much blame must be put on Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Harapan without him may have done better.
His choice of cabinet (all politics), his announcement on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Icerd) (all politics), his willingness to accept frogs (all politics), his severe pursuit of the "Malay agenda" at the neglect of the "new Malaysia" agenda, must certainly be major contributors towards a failing Harapan government.
We expected a new dawn for a new Malaysia, and what we are getting is Umno 2.0. What is happening?
Salvage Malaysia: The Harapan presidential council needs to be vocal and stop Mahathir’s toxic politics. Whilst it’s very effective, it destroys many things along the way.
And where do you think the Umno leaders learnt the way of politics? Who was the master of all this?
Granted, the out-of-control kleptocracy and rampant corruption eventually destroyed Umno. But blind loyalty, an iron-fist leadership where you should not question the president, et cetera - where do you think all these came from?
Mahathir has done his part to clean out the previous regime but seriously, it’s time to start planning handing it to Anwar, as promised. We voted based on that promise.
Unspin: Considering that we inherited a messy set of accounts from Najib's government, it would take two to three years before we can right the ship.
I think the biggest weakness of the fledging Harapan government is not that they are unable to deliver on the economic front, but more of poor communication skills.
For instance, the price of eggs went up recently not because of bad management but due to bird flu that affected the poultry industry.
Another example is Icerd. Instead of educating the public first, we went ahead to try to ratify it without calculating the impact it had on the Malays. And that is not even talking about the foot-in-the-mouth education minister.
Lone_Star: Okay Ram, the rakyat knows where you are coming from, but what about where you are going to?
Trying to change the constitution and getting a no-hopping law passed is a no-no with the present majority which Harapan has.
Those Umno chaps who are now jumping are the ones voted in by a portion of the rakyat and they were not those voted out like others who lost in GE14. The present "politikataks" are actually wanted by a portion of the rakyat.
Anonymous #33227154: We need a government who is sincere in reforming Malaysia against corruption, racism and religious extremism, maintaining the rule of law, saving our economy and helping the people to have a better life.
We don't want a government which is only interested in expanding its power base and winning elections only.
After winning, it's time for Mahathir and the Harapan government to focus on doing the right things for the country and people instead of wasting time playing political games with Umno defectors.
Bersatu should not take advantage and use Harapan to expand its power base. Mahathir should not repeat his past mistakes.
Quo Vadis: Yesterday I had to pay RM20 for a medical item for which I had paid RM12.80 just a month ago. I was told that it was the new price, I could take it or leave it. Fair enough.
You mention that eggs have gone up in price. Pray, tell me, sir, what has not gone up in price these last few months?
What has gone down most certainly is the faith that getting rid of the corrupt, lawless BN government would inaugurate a clean, transparent, moral government with integrity, with the interest of the people at heart.
No, sir, see how mistaken we have been, how our hopes are mocked, how our trust betrayed. Our hopes deflated, devastated, we say sadly "Oh, no, yet again".
You see frogs today occupying the centre stage of discourse, getting set to rule in the day, not very different from holding court in the darkness of the night erstwhile.
“Thank you for your vote but to hell with you. I have my own plans,” says it all succinctly, in a nutshell.
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