When Azmi Sharom made the point, I felt that he has highlighted the situation succinctly - a situation that the government seems to be either ignorant of or simply playing stupid. And hope that the rakyat are dumb enough to believe them.
The local media, i.e. the government's boot-lickers, have been helping with the propaganda non-stop - spinning the news, giving biased coverage, putting opposition parties in a bad light - what else have they not done in the name of serving their political masters? Well, I'm fed up with reading and watching these sort of reporting and I'm sure a lot of us are as well.
The latest piece of spin is of course on the topic of development and economic prosperity. Well, maybe it has always been one of their key spins - since the current government really has nothing much to shout about, so they have no choice but keep beating same dead horse over and over again. But even when we talk about development and the economy, what do we really see? I see a failure to balance the need to raise the standard of living of the poor and the requirement to ensure that rest of the population keeps progressing.
Taking "fishes" from the wealthy and simply giving them freely to the poor might be acceptable to some. But taking the "fishes" from those who are far from being wealthy and then pocketing them for their own benefit (and their cronies as well) is what the government is really doing.
It's time to put a stop to all this bullshit about the economy being strong because of Barisan Nasional. The country is so-called "economically strong" because of the people's hard work and the used-to-be-abundant natural resources. If these so-called people in the Barisan Nasional made better policies and had better foresight - two prerequisites to becoming a good leader - we should be far better off now. And this is true for everybody, regardless of race, religion or creed. There would not be rallies like the Hindraf, the people would not need to be worrying about rising prices and we certainly would not be talking about the stupidly low rankings of our national universities - IF they have done their jobs well.
And they have not. Of course. we have had some successes. And it might have been enough to appease the people then. But the world is no longer about just you and me. It's about making a better future for our children, and their children, and so on. It's about living in a country where standards of living is high and yet its people can still afford to pay for it, without needing to "steal" from the wealthy. And it's about having policies, which are just, fair and colour blind. It's about transparency and accountability of those people in power - power that the people has given them.
No. Being able to put food on the table is no longer sufficient. We need more from our government. And if they cannot provide what the people is asking for, then they would do well to retire in grace. If not, then it would do well for us to vote them out.
Do check out Azmi's interview with Malaysiakini:
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