LETTER | People’s power to a better Malaysia

LETTER | With 10 more days to go before we cast our votes for the next government, the media has been abuzz with campaign speeches and the streets adorned with colourful flags and buntings of various political parties.

We have had three sets of ministers led by as many prime ministers, an experience Malaysia never had before.

It is high time that we deserve something better, more stable and more so, in a post-pandemic scenario, we need a government with vision and strategies to steer the country to better economic well-being.

Simply put, we need real economic skills to alleviate the hardship of the bottom half of the population.

This election is exceedingly important on the basis of a few key issues.

Voting for the wrong party might see a serious compromise on the rule of law.

Malaysian politics is such that the government of the day has the prerogative to appoint the attorney-general, the inspector-general of police.

Hence, our votes are very important in ensuring that the rule of law rules supreme.

Corruption has never been so rampant before. We need a government that is determined to eradicate or at least reduce this cancerous disease without fear or favour.

And the rule of law is extremely pertinent here. Otherwise, it will spell doom for the nation.

The last two decades had witnessed extreme religious practices and elements slowly but surely percolating and permeating into our peaceful co-existence.

We co-existed, lived side by side, worked side by side, played together, and visited each other during festivities with these extreme religious beliefs for the first 50 years post-independent period.

We helped each other in times of need, regardless of race and religion, with zero suspicion. Why the need for the introduction of such elements into our way of living now?

Even the public school curriculum is not spared this influence.

Our education standard used to be on par with the best in the world. Private schools in the olden days were for those who could not qualify to gain entrance into public schools.

And these were exceedingly few. The last two decades saw a mushrooming of private and international schools, as the deterioration of our public school system provided a strong push factor.

This deterioration is a combination of inferior curriculum, interior quality of teaching staff, poor lesson delivery, poor supervision and overall attitude towards the teaching profession.

For the sake of the future of our children and grandchildren, all of us should exercise our constitutional right and put our vote to good use - let us all go all out to vote for a party that will ensure a good future for our younger generation.

Vote for the party and not individuals as the party with the required number of seats will get to form the government.

However good an individual politician is, if he is from a party whose leaders are corrupt and visionless, we should not vote for him as he condones their corrupt practices. If he is part of the team, it simply means he abets them.

Let’s look forward to a new dawn.

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