1. The great powers of the world have spent trillions of dollars to develop sophisticated weapons with improved killing power. They are sure that in a war they would be able to kill more of their enemies than their own warriors.
2. But as they produce newer and better weapons, their enemies come up with better defensive and offensive weapons. And more billions had to be spent to overcome the defence while new offensive weapons are invented, produced and deployed.
3. Already they are overjoyed with their capacities to wipe out whole cities and their inhabitants, including the babies who might grow up to become warriors.
4. The array of weapons is impressive. On the ground there would be tanks and armoured vehicles, rocket launchers and guided missiles of different ranges, radars and lasers and many others yet undisclosed.
5. In the air there would be a variety of war planes, some invisible to radar, equipped with rockets and missiles, manned and unmanned, drones, capable of taking out individuals or reducing to ashes whole towns. Satellites high above have eyes to detect ants moving on the ground, recognise faces with fantastic cameras.
6. At sea, new battleship carry all kinds of rockets, surface to surface, surface to air, short range, long range, invisible to radar, floating and submerged, manned and unmanned, nuclear powered and nuclear armed etc. etc.
7. They, the great powers are still researching, developing, training and arming, glorifying in their capacities to destroy their enemies and other collaterals.
8. More and more funds are allocated for upgrading the capacity to make this world uninhabitable by living creature. Each of these powers would be beating their chests like gorillas, roaring in their destructive and killing power. And still they would spend.
9. Then the enemy struck. The enemy had no weapons of any kind. But so powerful is the enemy that Kings and Presidents, Generals and strategists ran helter-skelter for refuge in their homes. They dare not come out.
10. All those powerful weapons afford them no protection. They are totally useless to protect their lives, their health and their wealth. Nowhere in the world can they be safe. They cannot even be near each other. They have to hide their beautiful faces behind masks. The ugly ones rejoiced.
11. And the enemy, which defeated these great powers cannot even be seen. They are so small that they can only be seen through a microscope. Yet, they can send the most powerful people shivering with fear.
12. That is the Nouvelle Coronavirus. It is capable of wiping out all humans in the world. The only defensive weapons are soap and water, gloves and mask, social distances, and stopping work and stopping making money. Many will starve to death as access to food is cut off.
13. The great civilisation we have built, the fantastic technologies we have developed, the great wealth of individuals, the luxurious life-style of private yachts and private planes, the palaces and holiday homes, the speed of travel, the connectivity, all these would change if not disappear.
14. A new life will develop, a life constrained by the fear of pandemics, the sudden painful death, the limitation on travel and holiday will replace the norm. In everything there will be new normals.
15. The enemy is microscopic but the effect is massive, more than the wars of the world. The great powers will be helpless before these microscopic creatures. Power no longer belongs to the rich and the developed. All those weapons of mass destruction cannot match the destruction by these microscopic creatures.
16. There is definitely a lesson to be learnt here. What the lesson will be is left to each and everyone of us.
SIKAP
1. Rupa-rupanya ramai juga orang Malaysia yang sanggup menerima pemimpin yang telah curi berbillion duit Kerajaan.
2. Di antara mereka ialah pemimpin dan ahli Parti Bersatu yang dahulu menyertai Bersatu konon kerana berhasrat menjatuhkan Perdana Menteri yang curi berbillion duit Kerajaan.
3. Mereka bekerjasama dengan parti pembangkang dahulu yang mempunyai tujuan yang sama. Dan rakyat pun beri kemenangan kepada mereka kerana percaya keikhlasan janji parti-parti ini sertai pemimpin mereka.
4. Apabila menang Presiden Parti Bersatu rancang bersama parti yang kalah untuk keluar dari Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan supaya jatuhlah Kerajaan Pakatan Harapan.
5. Dengan sokongan pemimpin pencuri, Presiden Bersatu menjadi Perdana Menteri gabungan bersama parti yang kalah yang diberi nama Perikatan Nasional.
6. Apa kata pemimpin lain dalam Bersatu. Apakah mereka sanggup menerima pencuri sebagai pemimpin.
7. Okaylah – asal dapat nikmat.
8. Apa jadi kepada ikrar dahulu untuk lawan dan jatuhkan pemimpin kleptokrat?
9. Oh. Itu ikrar sahaja untuk dapat sokongan pengundi. Sekarang sudah dapat lupakan sahaja.
10. Dengan ini Bersatu akan hancur!! Dengan itu perjuangan untuk selamatkan orang Melayu dari pemimpin kleptokrat jadi apa?
11. Itu masalah Bersatulah. Asalkan kita dapat nikmat okaylah.
12. Di masa hadapan orang tidak lagi akan percaya kita – tak apakah?
13. Itu masa depan.
14. Demikian sikap beberapa pemimpin dan ahli Bersatu.
PLEA – BARGAIN
1. Malaysia had never accepted nor practiced the concept of plea- bargain in which a criminal suspect would offer to help the Government in return for some concession to his advantage.
2. Plea-bargain is practiced in the United States of America. Even then it is about information which will give bigger gains to the Government. It is not about returning stolen money. Most certainly it is not about returning less than half the money stolen.
3. The concession given to Riza Aziz is unique. He will source it from the money seized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the United States of America.
4. Now this money would, by agreement with the previous Attorney General (AG), be returned to Malaysia upon proof that it belongs to Malaysia.
5. So what Riza Aziz is willing to return is less than half of the money which will be seized by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which the department is going to return to Malaysia.
6. The bigger chunk of the money stolen by Riza would be retained by him. In other words, he is going to retain money stolen by him and be acquitted as well.
7. All the people involved in making this decision are protesting that they did not make the decision. Obviously, they know that the decision is wrong.
8. The public is disgusted and angry. Is this the kind of justice practiced in Malaysia?
9. There is a new Government in Malaysia. This Government is in place because it has the support of people presently being tried for stealing money, for money laundering and for corruption.
10. We, in fact, have a Government backed by people with criminal background. We cannot feel sure that justice will be upheld in this country, because of the power and influence of these criminals.
11. Already we are seeing Parliament being silenced. Democracy is dead.
12. But it is okay. Your chosen representative support the muzzling of the representative of the people.
13. The whole world is laughing at Malaysia. The world labelled Malaysia as a kleptocracy (government of thieves) when Najib was the Prime Minister.
14. There was recovery of the respect of the world when the people chose the coalition of opposition parties to form the Government.
15. But now the kleptocrats are back because the president of the party which pledged to overthrow Najib has brought him back.
16. And now that the kleptocrat is back, a practice unheard of in Malaysia has been used and is likely to offer to withdraw charges against other thieves if they would return a fraction of the money they had stolen.
17. Najib campaigns with the slogan “Why be ashamed of your boss being a thief”. And those Malaysians who now brought him back are truly not ashamed of bringing back a thief to be in the Government.
KENYATAAN MEDIA
1. Saya hairan dengan kenyataan media Pejabat Perdana Menteri yang menjelaskan YAB Perdana Menteri tidak terlibat dengan melepas Riza Aziz.
2. Setakat yang saya tahu tiada sesiapa pun yang menuduh Perdana Menteri.
3. Ini sama dengan dakwaan berkali-kali bahawa ia Tan Sri Muhyiddin tidak hendak jadi Perdana Menteri. Tidak perlu protes kerana tidak ada siapa yang mencadang Tan Sri Muhyiddin menjadi Perdana Menteri. Tetapi akhirnya biar rosak parti asal dapat jadi Perdana Menteri.
DAP HANCUR MELAYU
1. Saya amat malu apabila ramai orang Melayu percaya DAP akan hancurkan kita orang Melayu jika ia berada dalam Kerajaan Malaysia.
2. Ya. Saya mengaku orang Melayu mempunyai banyak kelemahan. Mereka tidak berjaya dalam bidang perniagaan dan perusahaan. Kita dapati ramai juga orang Melayu yang miskin, yang terlibat dengan dadah, jenayah-jenayah tertentu dan rasuah. Dalam penjara pun terdapat ramai banduan Melayu.
3. Tetapi benarkah orang Melayu begitu lemah sehingga sebuah parti politik boleh hancur mereka?
4. Ya. Dahulu kita dijajah oleh British. Tetapi negara sebesar India pun dijajah oleh British juga. Kita (negeri-negeri Melayu) tidak ditawan oleh British, walaupun Melaka jatuh ke tangan Portugis dan kemudian Belanda.
5. Kita jemput British untuk nasihat kita dalam bidang pentadbiran. Tetapi seperti di lain-lain tempat. British ambil alih pentadbiran seolah-olah kita sudah jadi jajahan takluk mereka.
6. Lepas Perang Dunia II, British kembali ke Malaya dan merancang untuk benar-benar menjadikan negeri-negeri Melayu milik mereka. Mereka mencadang menubuh Malayan Union yang ditadbir secara langsung dari Whitehall London. Raja-raja Melayu akan hanya menjadi pentadbir agama Islam dan adat istiadat Melayu. MacMichael paksa Raja-Raja Melayu serah negeri-negeri mereka kepada British.
7. Tidak ada rundingan dengan orang Melayu sama sekali. Tetapi kita tahu, orang Melayu bangun dan menentang Malayan Union. Ringkasnya British, suatu kuasa dunia yang baru menang perang terpaksa tunduk kepada orang Melayu, terpaksa batal Malayan Union hanya dua tahun selepas diisytihar.
8. British ingat mudah untuk rampas negeri Melayu seperti mereka rampas Palestin untuk diberi kepada Yahudi. Percubaan untuk rampas negeri Melayu, untuk sebenarnya hancurkan bangsa Melayu gagal. Gagal kerana orang Melayu menentang.
9. Mungkin sekarang ada Melayu bacul. Tetapi Melayu dahulu berani. Susulan kepada penolakan Malayan Union, Melayu tuntut kemerdekaan. Pemuda Melayu tuntut kemerdekaan pada 1957. British bersetuju kemerdekaan diberi pada 1959.
10. Melayu tolak dan tetapkan kemerdekaan pada 1957. Dan 1957 menjadi tarikh kemerdekaan. Banyak syarat yang cuba dikenakan tetapi Melayu tolak.
11. Apabila British terbang pesawat Concorde tanpa izin dari Malaysia, Kerajaan pimpinan Melayu perkenal dasar “Buy British Last”. Kita beli Syarikat Guthrie milik British dalam satu “Dawn Raid” yang tidak pernah dilakukan oleh mana-mana negara di dunia. Semua syarikat penjajah dibeli oleh Malaysia kerana diarah oleh pemimpin Melayu.
12. Demikian juga dengan kuasa besar yang lain. Biasanya tiap pemimpin baru negara-negara kecil di dunia, apabila dilantik akan minta untuk pergi mengadap Presiden Amerika. Kita tidak. Perdana Menteri Malaysia yang menjadi Perdana Menteri pada tahun 1981, hanya pergi Amerika Syarikat (US) tiga tahun selepas dilantik walaupun duta Amerika Syarikat cuba mendapat temujanji sesudah sahaja Perdana Menteri baru Malaysia mengambil alih.
13. Pemimpin Melayu Malaysia sering menegur kuasa-kuasa besar apabila mereka melaku kezaliman ke atas negara yang lemah. Suara pemimpin Melayulah yang lantang menegur selewengan kuasa besar kepada Israel.
14. Percubaan dibuat oleh penyangak matawang untuk Kerajaan pimpinan Melayu Malaysia mengemis bantuan International Monetary Fund (IMF) dan World Bank. Badan-badan ini menawar pinjaman jika Malaysia letak ekonomi Malaysia dibawah mereka.
15. Kita tolak. Kita cipta cara kita sendiri untuk mengatasi masalah keturunan nilai Ringgit. Maka pakar-pakar kewangan dunia pun berkata kita akan muflis – bankrap. Tetapi tidak. Kita pulih semula dengan cepat walaupun pemimpin Malaysia ini orang Melayu, jentera pentadbiran Melayu.
16. Dan banyak lagilah peristiwa yang menunjuk orang Melayu tidak mudah dihancurkan.
17. Tetapi orang Melayu boleh hancur. Mereka akan hancur apabila membenar penyangak jadi pemimpin. Pemimpin seperti ini walaupun Melayu akan hancurkan orang Melayu.
18. Kita tubuh sebuah Parti Melayu untuk memperjuang nasib orang Melayu. Parti ini berjaya; berjaya kalahkan British, capai kemerdekaan, bangun negara sehingga menjadi Harimau Asia.
19. Parti ini tidak pernah kalah. Tetapi pada 9 May 2018, parti ini kalah.
20. Kenapa? Kerana parti bertuah ini mendapat penyamun sebagai pemimpin. Saya tak payah ulang apa yang pemimpin penyangak ini buat. Dari sebuah negara yang dihormati, negara ini menjadi kleptokrasi – negara yang diperintah oleh pencuri.
21. Maka hancurlah parti ini kerana ahlinya sedia disogok dan tidak lagi utama perjuangan orang Melayu.
22. Maka dimomok orang Melayu sehingga ada yang begitu takut kepada DAP. Orang Melayu dan pemerintahan Melayu yang berani melawan British, kuasa-kuasa besar IMF dan Bank Dunia sekarang takut kepada DAP, takut dihancur oleh DAP. Takut kepada Guan Eng. Orang Melayu takut kepada Guan Eng.
23. Dari mana datang bacul ini. Nak dapat perlindungan dari siapa? Dari Najib? Dari Kerajaan Melayu Islam pimpinan penyangak?
24. Ada yang kata, walaupun penjenayah, dia Melayu. Semasa dia memimpin dia lindung Melayukah? Dia kalah kerana melindung Melayukah?
25. Tepuk dada, tanya selera. Boleh main golf dengan Trump adalah bukti kekuatan untuk lindung Melayukah?
26. Pemuda Melayu dahulu lawan dengan British. Tak takut. Pemuda yang sokong Najib ini mencari perlindungan dari Najib. Sudah jadi baculkah?
27. Saya malu. Amat malu.
28. Rupa-rupanya ada orang Melayu yang begitu takut kepada DAP sehingga sanggup mengkhianati rakyat yang beri mandat kepada mereka.
29. DAP tidak mungkin hancur Melayu tetapi mereka akan hancur kerana orang Melayu memilih penyangak sebagai pemimpin.
ROHINGYA
2.Dahulu mereka benci kepada pelarian dari Vietnam. Pada mulanya orang Melayu bersimpati dengan orang Rohingya. Dan orang Rohingya pun pilih untuk datang ke Malaysia kerana simpati dari kita.
3.Tetapi apabila jumlah menjadi begitu ramai dan ada perbuatan pelarian ini yang menyentuh perasaan orang Melayu, maka simpati bertukar jadi benci.
4.Sesungguhnya kita telah beri terlalu banyak suaka kepada pelarian. Mereka sepatutnya pergi ke negara lain. Dan negara lain juga perlu buka pintu mereka.
5.Tetapi menghalau bot berisi 400 pelarian sehingga mereka berada di laut sampai 2 bulan adalah tindakan yang tidak berperikemanusiaan.
6.Apa yang patut dilakukan ialah membekal mereka dengan makanan dan minyak supaya mereka dapat pergi ke negara lain atau balik ke Myanmar.
7.Kita sepatutnya kecam Myanmar dan Aung San Suu Kyi kerana kezaliman mereka dan bertindak menolak dagangan dengan mereka.
8.Kita juga perlu meminta Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu mengambil tindakan terhadap Myanmar. Kita juga perlu dedahkan kezaliman Myanmar kepada dunia.
9.Janganlah kita benci kepada orang Rohingya yang menjadi mangsa kezaliman. Negara-Negara Islam dan OIC perlu bertindak untuk menghentikan kezaliman oleh Myanmar.
QUARANTINE
1. Today is 23 March. I am at home. I have been quarantined, required to stay at home because the Government has ordered a partial lock-down, to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
2. On the 12th of March, I met a group of young members of Parliament of Pakatan Harapan (PH), to explain what happened. At the end, before leaving they requested to have a picture with me. I did not think much of it. I did not think they would be infected. They crowded around me, closely so as to be in the photo.
3. On 17th March my assistant Sufi, showed the photo and told me one of the MP from Sarawak had proven positive when tested for Covid-19.
4. I did not think much of it. I was feeling well.Indeed, many visitors remarked on how well I looked. But the authorities thought differently. A team of doctors and nurses had arrived at the Perdana Leadership Foundation where I was working and stopped me as I was going home for lunch.
5. They took a swab and told me I had to be quarantined for 14 days from date of contact.
6. And so here I am, home-quarantined. I had been talking to people to be serious about this pandemic. I have even done a video clip. Now I must be serious and accept being quarantined.
7. This Coronavirus is something that we never had before. It is easily infectious or contagiousand in a number of cases it is fatal. We have no medicine or vaccine to counter it. All we can do is to treat symptoms like fever, cough, breathlessness and if there is lung infection and you are old, you may die. I am old, 94 years old.
8. The threat posed by Covid-19 is due to ease of infection and possible death. To manage the infection or contagion, it is necessary to isolate people. They must avoid being close to each other. Since we usually do not know who has the virus, everyone has to be far apart from each other.
9. Since men by nature are gregarious, keeping millions of people apart from each other is extremely difficult. When we work, travel, play, watch games or at the cinemas we would come together.
10. When we travel, almost always we would be confined in vehicles close together. To avoid this, we have to stop travelling. This affectsthe tourist industry greatly. In many cases there is a 70% decline.
11. The airlines would suffer. The tourist industry would suffer. The hotels ground transport, restaurants would suffer. Employees would suffer as they may be laid off. Their employers will not be earning money enough to pay them.
12. For Malaysia the tourist industry is the secondbiggest foreign exchange earner, after Petronas. The Government would lose a lot of revenue.
13. People working in the tourist industry would lose jobs and income. This would be terrible because these people need food and drink.
14. In Malaysia the Petroleum industry is not big. But it’s a big contribution to Government revenue. At times Petronas paid to the Government as much as 80 billion Ringgit. The budgeted price of one barrel of crude for 2020 was fixed at USD63 per barrel. It is now selling at less than 50% of the budgeted price. Government revenue may go down to 30 billion.
15. The stimulus package involved an increase in Government expenditure and a decrease in taxes. Meeting this extra expenditure withdecreased Government revenue would be challenging.
16. In the meantime, even a partial lock down would reduce business and profits. Again,Government revenue would be affected.
17. For the small enterprises, the loss would be terrible. These people earn today for today. Even if they are able to do some business it would not be sufficient to pay for their food. The Government may have to give them financial support.
18. What is happening in Malaysia is happening to the rest of the world also. Industries may have to stop or at least reduce production. Exports and imports would be affected. Economies would go into recession worldwide. Even the richest countries would suffer.
19. Truly we all are faced with a terrible catastrophe.
KRISIS POLITIK
1. Perdana Menteri mendakwa krisis politik bermula apabila saya, Mahathir Mohamad letak jawatan sebagai Perdana Menteri.
2. Benarkah, tiba-tiba tanpa sebab saya letak jawatan? Saya yang kononnya disokong oleh parti Kerajaan dan parti lawan, termasuk Najib Tun Razak dan beberapa lagi yang sedang dibicara atas tuduhan rasuah menyokong saya? Ini tidak masuk akal.
3. Yang benar ialah saya letak jawatan kerana dalam pengakuan di hadapan Duli Yang Maha Mulia Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong saya tidak dapat sokongan dari penyokong saya. Saya tidak dapat majoriti dan tidak lagi layak menjadi Perdana Menteri.
4. Di Istana peletakan jawatan saya diterima. Saya diarah pegang jawatan Perdana Menteri buat sementara.
5. Siapa yang akan ganti saya. Rakyat bosan dengan orang politik yang lebih utama politik dari pentadbiran yang baik. Saya cadang diadakan satu Kerajaan Nasional yang bukan orang politik yang berpengetahuan juga akan menyertai Kerajaan. Orang parti juga akan menyertai Kerajaan tetapi sebagai orang biasa yang tidak tertakluk kepada agenda parti mereka.
6. Tetapi cadangan saya ditolak. Saya pun letak jawatan. Dan berlarutanlah krisis ini. Saya tidak tahu bila ia akan tamat??
A REMINDER
1. The United States of America (USA) is the greatest power in the history of mankind. Certainly it is the most powerful military power in the world today. It has the capacity to wipe off the whole of humanity if it chooses to do so.
2. But the Americans must remember the Vietnam War. The great power, employing all its military might, all its technology and huge sums of money was defeated by the black pajama-clad unimpressive undersized Vietnamese.
3. Tens of thousands of American soldiers died. Many more seriously wounded both in body and mind. For all these sacrifices what has America gained? Nothing, truly nothing that could not be gained by peaceful means.
4. The Vietnamese fought and died for their country. Such passionate patriotism is totally justified. That too will be the passion of other countries attacked by America or other powers. Defense and the sacrifices made for one’s country is to be expected. But those who sacrifice their lives in aggressive wars die for nothing.
5. Remember Iraq also. It was supposed to be over in three months. But it is still on today almost 18 years later. Saddam is dead but is Iraq much better than Saddam’s times? I do not think autocracy is right. But if democracy is the answer, expecting it to perform miracles overnight is stupid.
6. Iranian military chief, General Suleimani was assassinated in Iraq by the very people who condemned the killing of Khashoggi. Is there any diffirence between the killing of Suleimani and that of Khashoggi?
P.S.
The fire raging in Australia is not an Australian affair. It affects the whole world. It is an international catastrophe. The whole world should help Australia put out the fire. Unfortunately, this is not being done.
KERAJAAN PAKATAN HARAPAN
1. When a new party takes over as a Government, it would be a miracle if it were to execute all its plans and promises overnight. Certainly, when PH took over from BN which had ruled the country for the past 60 years, it would be an even greater miracle if it can implement its plans and agenda immediately. It is not taking over just any Government. It took over from a kleptocratic Government which had raped the nation for years, destroyed its finances, undermined its administrative agencies, abused its laws, borrowed well beyond the ceiling permitted, placed the country on the path to bankruptcy, made the people dependent on the Government with bribes and generally undermined the moral of the people.
2. Of course, a lot of people were happy to enjoy corrupt money and many illegal favours. They would like these bad practices to continue. But the majority of the people knew the sad state of the country and ensured that the corrupt Government was overthrown.
3. This was a miracle of sorts. A “hodge-podge” coalition of 4 parties, together with another party outside the coalition and even a person not linked in any way to the parties, took over.
4. They were united only in the desire to bring down the kleptocratic Government. Otherwise they each had their own ideology and agenda. In other countries when a common objective is achieved, the fragile unity would break up as each party would try to take over. A bitter struggle would ensue. In the end the coalition would break up. In one Middle Eastern country, the ensuing struggles ended up with the military seizing power. It was back to square one.
5. This did not happen in Malaysia. The fragile opposition coalition was sustained, even with the inclusion of a non-member party as well as an independent individual who joined the cabinet. They formed a Government. And they seem to be working together, having formed a cabinet without any written agreement as to who takes what. This is the 2nd miracle. The cabinet seems to work. At least they can meet, discuss and make decisions. Of course, many criticised their decisions. This is normal. No Government can have the approval of everyone every time. The important thing is that this fragile cabinet is still functioning.
6. But many would say, this Government is directionless. Is it? Let’s look at what it has done. Despite a huge debt of well over a trillion Ringgit, it apparently has been able to retain the solvency of the country. The creditors are not suing the Government. Indeed, some are even keen to lend more money at low rates. The Government is clearly credit worthy. The debt has been reduced.
7. Politically the country is stable. Yes, there are some disturbances in a member of the ruling coalition. But this is normal. No one has tried to overthrow the Government by a vote of non-confidence. They know it will not succeed.
8. Then the economy. It is still growing at a good rate for a country at this stage of development. Yes, there is an outflow of funds and the currency has been devalued. This is a function of the market. Malaysia still has the biggest savings. Bank Negara Reserve is very high – RM400 billion plus. Other funds, such as PNB, KWSP, and some smaller funds add up to over RM1.5 trillion. Foreign assets are big. National Oil Company Petronas is doing well with more than 100 billion income. It is 100% Government owned. Yes, the Ringgit is depreciating. In many other countries, reserves of this size would guarantee the strength of the national currency. But the market apparently cannot believe this strength of the Malaysian finances and its currency.
9. The fact is that the Malaysian economy and its currency are strong. The market and the detractors may not think so. But the Government has faith in its financial and economic policies. And so do foreign and local investors.
10. Socially, the Government has launched the Shared Prosperity scheme. For our detractors this does not indicate clear direction. But for the Government the direction is clear. We don’t want just to recover and be prosperous. We want to share our wealth equitably.
11. Towards this end we have initiated a new industrial plan, complemented by a new agricultural plan. I will not elaborate. But we know the direction we are going. Outsiders may not. But we do.
12. We are clear as to what we want to do and how we will do it. Plans may take a week or so to create but implementation will take much longer, at least two years or more. But the work has already begun. For the observers it would seem that nothing is moving. Rome was not built in one day. When Malaysia was switching from an agro-based economy to an industrial economy, it also took time. But most of us could not remember and the young never saw the transition. Most were born when the transition was accomplished. It is difficult to imagine an agricultural Malaysia today.
13. The same will happen now. The transition will take time – perhaps two years or more from now. But believe me it will happen. Indeed in some ways it is already happening. We are going paperless and soon there will be cashless. Digitalisation is already happening and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is contributing towards increasing speed of work and transaction.
14. Even for me it is frustrating to wait. But wait we must. The machinery of Government has been cleansed and is rapidly adapting to the new ways of working. Even the Ministers are adjusting to being in the Government instead of the opposition.
15. The accusation that this PH Government is directionless is made by those who refuse to acknowledge reality. Are we really the same as the Malaysia under the previous Government? Or are they saying they prefer the kleptocratic Government better.
16. We don’t steal money nor raise loans so as to have money for bribing people. We spend what we have. What we have is less money. We cannot afford to give free money to people. Our way is to increase or create jobs. But the people must be willing to take up the jobs or the business opportunities created.
17. We are doing all these. But we are not attracting attention to them. In time they will become clear contribution to the country’s economy.
18. The world today is in a state of turmoil. No one is really doing well. Look at what is happening in Latin America, the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, even Australia. Only China, Japan, and South Korea are doing relatively well, but even the countries of Northeast Asia are having intractable problems.
19. Then look at Malaysia. We are stable, peaceful and the Government respects the law. We are removing draconian laws or suspending them pending abolishment or amendment. People feel safe travelling anywhere in the country. During the celebration of the new year 60 to 80 thousand people gathered to enjoy the shows. This cannot happen even in some developed countries.
20. I will not talk about natural disasters. We have been spared though we are not quite grateful.
21. Yes. Malaysia is recovering from the disasters caused by the previous Kleptoctatic Government. Even now we are enjoying better governance.
22. Give the Government a little bit of time and participate fully in the Shared Prosperity Policies, and in two years time you will realise that the direction of the Government is right.