Time to call a spade a spade: Harapan no different from BN

LETTER | The moderates and middle Malaysia won the 14th general election. But since then, the aftermath has been very different.

What really is the Pakatan Harapan government today? By any measure, it is no better than Umno/BN government.

Other than bringing some former Umno/BN leaders to trial for corruption and abuse of power, I see nothing happening. In fact, in terms of policies, some could be worse.

For more than one and the half-year now we have been waiting for more moderate and inclusive policies. But the longer we waited, the clearer we saw our hopes and aspirations fade away. At first, we kept telling ourselves to be patient. But the patience has since become a disappointment, frustration, and now annoyance.

For how long more we want to blame the “deep state” for the predicament caused? I think the deep state is just an excuse, nothing more. We just fail to admit it – the policies of the Harapan government have shifted and changed, period. Harapan government is now just like Umno/BN government. 

At least in the past, there were vociferous voices against Umno/BN. Now, we have almost none.

Before GE14, I had always harbored the idea that lots of country’s problems, ranging from unsolved high profile cases, blatant discrimination, selective persecution and prosecution, seditious and hateful rhetoric, corruption, to idiotic public policies would be resolved once the federal government changed hand.

But the more I look at the situation today, the more the problems stay the same. In fact, in some areas, they have become worse.

What does it mean when we have senior cabinet ministers claiming that the police did not act fairly to certain minority groups? Is this police’s fault or is this due to change in core policies and intent of the government?

When the police fail to act against those who threatened others with chaos and harm, what do we do? We just blame the police or should we also blame the home minister and the government? Who really is the government of Malaysia, the police and IGP?

When we have a state employee earning his livelihood from the state coffer openly stated that “racial friction will persist as long as vernacular schools exist”, what do we do? 

Did the government ask this employee for empirical evidence that formed his conclusion? Did the government also ask him to explain the existence of other single race institutions in the country?

Seriously, if we are not happy with the situation in our country today, please don’t just blame the police, the state employees or the “deep state”. 

Blame the government and the government is PM, his cabinet, and the ruling MPs in the Parliament. They could have traded our rights and interests.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.