HOW DO WE CREATE A BETTER COUNTRY

Our country is in tatters.  There is corruption and abuse of power, croynism and nepotism everywhere.  All these have resulted in untold suffering of the Rakyat, especially the B40 and M40 groups, and probably to a lesser extent the T20 group as well.

We want a country that is safe and comfortable.  Where people can leave their homes open without fear of stealing or robbery.  We want a comfortable environment where there is love, tolerance and mutual respect among all citizens regardless of race, religion, culture and beliefs.  Where people who deserve a chance at life will actually get it.  A country where we can be proud of and display all the natural beauty for ourselves as well as visitors from other countries.

In order to build a new and better country and to reduce or eradicate the problems mentioned above we need the following ingredients:-

1.  Political power.  There are lots of NGOs and capable people who dream about a better country everyday.  They even give plenty of suggestions on how to run the country better.  But all these good people will not be able to achieve anything because their expertise and professionalism will not be put to good use, due to the problems mentioned earlier.  Capable people do not get the chance to show their strengths.  We must first achieve and attain political power in order to put all our strengths to good use for the benefit of the Rakyat.

The method to obtain political power will be discussed later.

2.  Cooperation of the army, police, judiciary and the media.  These are extremely powerful institutions that can prosper or ruin a country.  Positive efforts to build a better country will not succeed without the cooperation and joint efforts of these institutions.

3.  Honest leader and executive personnel.  If a leader is corrupted it would not be surprising if his subordinates are equally corrupted and dishonest.  Having crooks to run a country will only result in disaster and hardship for the Rakyat.

4.  Capable leader and executive personnel.  A leader must not only be honest person with integrity that is beyond question.  He must also be capable and not a clueless guy.  The same goes for people running every ministry and department of the country.

THE DANGER OF SHORT CUTS

A common mistake made by Malaysians is to expect change overnight or in the next election.  They feel that the only way is to choose the best political party or best politician available.  This always means compromising on their criteria of selecting someone who is not a crook, and someone who is capable.  A lot of our country's problems today are because DAP chose short cut, and MCA's strategy of just folding their hands and following the Malay majority.  Both these parties have given up hope right from the first day.  They never believed they can have a significant influence on the country's destiny because the Chinese are a minority.

Pakistan is a country that has seen a successful transition in politics where a former criketer and captain of the national criket team took fifteen years for his new political party to win the elections and for him to become prime minister.  He initiated reforms and reduced corruption in Pakistan.

China is able to bring about change to their country because of the political power of the Communist Party there.  It is rumored that Xi Jinping is able to fight corruption because he is fully backed by the military, unlike his earlier counterparts who didn't have this privilege.  Democratic countries with weak majority face a lot of opposition in implementing government policies.  The Covid situation lately highlighted this problem where Western countries find it difficult to get some of their citizens to wear masks or go for vaccination.  This is a striking difference between them and China who is undoubtedly one of the best performers in controlling Covid deaths.

The two criteria of having honest and capable people to run the country were first expounded by Robert Kuok, richest man in Malaysia and southeast Asia.  Sadly, he was not able to bring about this change when he was younger.  I believe his formula is still relevant today as well as for the future.  Without this formula a country cannot progress and excel.