LETTER | Perikatan’s Jenga politics

LETTER | In the classic board game Jenga, the objective is to remove individual blocks from a tower and placing them on top, which in turn causes the tower to become more and more unstable. A player loses when the tower crumbles as they remove a block.

This Jenga-esque scenario is being played right before our eyes following the seizure of Putrajaya by the Perikatan Nasional coalition through the backdoor.

In the midst of the war of attrition against Covid-19, the fledgeling Perikatan government has started to reveal its true colours, and it is no surprise that they are reminiscent of the old BN regime.

In this article, I intend to place on record some of the regressive policymaking by the ruling coalition and the subsequent uninspiring policies that have replaced the old.

Backward nepotistic appointments

During the Pakatan Harapan era, one cause the coalition advocated with a passion was the emphasis on meritocratic governance.

The term “meritocracy” was coined by famed British sociologist Michael Young in 1958, in his book The Rise of the Meritocracy, published during a period of society when status could not be attained and was solely ascribed at birth.

While many democracies have progressed in making status more attainable through social mobility, unfortunately, the same could not be said about Malaysian society which is still constrained by the cuffs of race-based politics.

One side effect of race-based politics is the unmeritocratic act of making nepotistic appointments and consequently cronyism, a scourge that has debilitated our nation for so many years to the extent that The Economist had in 2016 named Malaysia as second in the world for crony capitalism.

This trend of partiality was experienced in the past few weeks with Perikatan’s ever-expanding list of cabinet and GLC appointments. In fact, so brazenly was this done that a PAS minister had proudly announced that all its MPs who did not receive government appointments would be given GLC posts.

Previous appointments that had been made based on qualifications and experience have been undone. Particular appointments such as Shahul Hameed Dawood as CEO of the Human Resources Development Fund are being questioned due to his familial and personal connections to the component parties and individuals linked to the governing coalition.

This is in contrast to Harapan’s culture of cooperating with opposing voices to work for the better good. This can be seen with former transport minister Anthony Loke letting professionals and non-politicians serve till the end of their term in the ministry. Further, an interesting case in point during Loke’s tenure was the appointment of former Bar Council chairperson and staunch Harapan critic Ragunath Kesavan to the board of the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia. With Loke desiring an individual with a strong legal background, Loke appointed Ragunath through a meritocratic lens rather than a political scope.

As government agencies and GLCs serve the public’s best interest, would it not be desirable to have a proportionate representation of the critical voices who can create productive discourse in the search for effective policies and decisions?

Pork-barrel allocations

As the MCO marked its fourth week in effect, the rakyat’s dependency on aid increases evermore. With full knowledge of this, it is with great shame that the federal government still has the decency to delay and in some cases the gall to withhold aid to constituencies who elected Harapan representatives.

Even today, the youngest serving MP in Parliament, P Prabakaran claimed that he has received calls from constituents on not receiving aid and food in Taman Sri Murni.

It is during crises such as this when the country ought to unite as one. Unfortunately, pork-barrel politicking seems to be the modus operandi when determining who receives what aid.

Pork-barrel politics, which is the allocation of government resources and funds in areas to please voters is both ethically and morally wrong, especially during a period of social and economic unrest.

This is yet again in contrast to the previous government. In the 14th general election, the Harapan coalition won no parliamentary or state seats in Kelantan, effectively making it an opposition heartland. Despite this, former finance minister Lim Guan Eng did not treat the state as an alien entity and in fact increased federal spending in the state. This came in the form of increased development expenditure and ensuring the state’s civil servants received their salaries due to the financial mismanagement of PAS governance. Unfortunately, some of this assistance was used to purchase Mercedes-Benz cars and to award bonuses to the state excos, but that is another story.

The Jenga tower

The impact of Harapan’s progressive and democratic policies over two years have been internationally recognised through the country’s improvements in global rankings. In the recently published Reporters Without Borders’ 2020 World Press Freedom Index, Malaysia recorded a score improvement of 33.12, which translates to a ranking improvement of 22 places.

The Perikatan coup via the "Sheraton Move" will, of course, pose a real threat to Malaysia’s encouraging performances in these rankings. In just his first month as prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin has already failed to follow through on many of his pledges. In fact, many of the policies Perikatan are implementing are simply regressive reversals of the progressive policies introduced by Harapan.

This scenario is akin to the game of Jenga, where the ruling coalition is removing the building blocks of Harapan’s tower of progress. When too many blocks are removed, the tower loses stability and will end up crashing down. That would be a dreaded day indeed for all Malaysians.

The writer is political secretary to Zairil Khir Johari, state assemblyperson for Tanjong Bunga.

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