Give peacocks a different tune to dance to

THERE are many efforts to push for reforms. 

See how systemic is the corruption culture in the country. Even though the Madani government and MACC has stepped up its raids like never before on immigrations, customs, border patrols, there are still people daring to be involved in corruption. It is good that agents are on the ground to investigate. 

Depending on whistleblowers alone won’t always work. That is why PMX gave more budget to beef up the MACC. 

Plus, MACC and Auditor General’s Chamber (AGC) have a collaboration now. Most cases require forensic auditors to trace the money trails in order to build up a strong case. 

This, along with yesterday’s PAC hearing on escalating costs insurance and hospitalisation are positive reforms I see, promised by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

This will answer many of your concerns when you were led to think there were no reforms within the first two years of the Madani government.

Local Government / Local Authority(PBT) Reforms 

For your information, our DPM Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof is in charge of the reforms to the PBT. Many of you know what it is like to live in a city with poor facilities. 

You have also complained how some council officers gave you all sorts of problems just to see if they can squeeze some money out of you.

I am trying to show Datuk Seri Fadillah examples of how council staff behave like little Napoleons ( borrowing a very apt description coined by Pak Lah). 

A number of you know how a district engineer issued a letter in his personal capacity setting a date close to Christmas last year, knowing it would create a mess despite the instruction issued by our deputy prime minister for both parties to meet first.

A lot of times, these ‘yes’ men will show the good side of themselves; so unless we show our ministers, PM and DPMs what ordinary Malaysians experience, they may not immediately see or believe it. Every word from them, civil servants will execute almost immediately.

This is a top-down culture. To transform civil servants culture into a customer-focused one, with fewer layers in the hierarchy, it will eventually turn our civil servants into darlings, not officers (usually involving those in the middle to the lower hierarchy) whom we have to contend with. No amount of common sense and discussion will work with these civil servants who behave like Little Napoleons. They either have to dance to a different tune 🎵 or face the axe.

My point of contention is simple: no one has so much time to complain if the civil servants do a good job. Why do things a second time and waste so much public funds? I see this a lot in my local council.

For nearly 5 years I have been complaining about a few humps that hit the bottom decks of cars like Kancil, Honda and BMW. This was my sore point as I initiated a series of complaints from one level to another in the hierarchy just to show how the local council needs to be revamped, having dealt with it for 30 years. 

It ended up giving up hope on Pakatan Harapan in Selangor. But I hope they have — and I am still wondering— at least done something to improve the performance of local councils. 

Having attended so many meetings over 30 years, the only time I felt exhilarated was when I came out of a small meeting at the local council, chaired by a gentleman whom I believe to be a member of the so-called Panel with representatives from a couple of government agencies. 

They understood my concerns how things are run in our housing estate over the years haphazardly by the resident association. 

The humps, for example, the Bomba representative after did not meet the specs after he saw the video we recorded. A certain road was designed -and meant to be a two-way road and there is no need to turn it into one-way since the traffic throughout the day is not heavy. 

Yet I had a tough time trying to convince the new YDP even about some problematic humps. To me, this is basically ignoring what the Bomba man had said about the two-way and the humps when he saw the video I recorded and heard my view about the two-way changed to one-way, when this creates a lot of inconvenience for lorries having to make a u-turn. 

A 2-tonne lorry that delivered my books had to do just that. I did not have my mobile phone with me when this happened, or else it would be a good example of how many visitors go through when they find the exit is suddenly made one-way. The only way will be one ridiculously longer journey out, instead of dispersing the traffic effectively like what we see in a number of one-way streets.

Reforms

I was chatting with some “green” people today after a talk by an aborist friend of mine. They also noticed the multiculturalism in the Sarung Batik music run 2025. I believe this is a prelude of the participation of multicultural groups in Hari Merdeka and hopefully Hari Malaysia, which means more to our East Malaysian brothers and sisters, will be celebrated across the country in a spirit of unity. 

Thank you Dr Zaliha Mustafa, I believe you and Unity Minister Aaron Ago Dagang have a role to play in this. I really miss this event and I wish our ASEAN heads of states can also have a chance to feel the atmosphere in KL when such an event happens again. I complained that KL has lost its soul as a city and now we have something that is Moomba-like in Melbourne. I really miss this event!

We have a role to play 

Fellow Malaysians, your job and my job is only to sing a different tune and reject racism. 

Those politicians you know are a problem in our country will suddenly perform a different peacock 🦚 dance. You may have seen that attempt being made recently…if you have been following the news. I laughed when I saw this title. I hardly read Malaysiakini these days as I have a tight budget.

I have said this repeatedly: If we continue to let our raw nerves be touched and place all the blame solely on Anwar, we will end up back at square one.

Please give time. My formula is to give 2+1 terms. Two terms to clean up, then things will take off to a new dimension like what we are seeing in Penang but unfortunately not in Selangor.

So, now you can see I don’t work for Pakatan Harapan. I will continue to expose the shortcomings in the Selangor administration that is affecting many of us. A few of its state assembly persons are prone to block their critics (heard this from many others), because all they want to hear are from their Yes men. 

If the PM has advised his cabinet to listen to criticisms, I wonder why Selangor state exco and assembly persons are insulated or deaf to complaints. If they are more open to engage with their critics to find a solution together, many of their critics will have a lot of good things to say about them. I have shed some light about how to turn angry customers to be your friends.