Is it time to change your government?

As promised in my last article, let’s objectively look at what constitutes good governance of a country and then evaluate our previous (now the caretaker) government performance in terms of these characteristics.

There is an extremely important pre-requisite to having a good government before any of the following characteristics can even be considered. There must be a true separation of powers where the government, judiciary and legislation are independent and free from interference. Without this true separation of powers, good governance is but a dream.

The foremost important characteristic of good governance is involvement and participation of the people in the country. This is done ideally through direct election of people representatives (as in many democratic countries) or less ideally through appointment of people who represent some ethnic or social-political groups (as in some countries that still practise monarchy system). The bottom line is, everyone is given equal right to participate in the government or represented by people they choose. As such, a fair and clean election system is essential.

Rule of law is the second most important feature of good governance. It is imperative to have fair and just laws that are enforced impartially on everyone, including those who walk the corridor of power.

The third most important quality in good governance is to promote, observe and implement equity in all government policies. This feature ensures everyone in the country is treated equally and free from any form of discriminations due to difference in skin colour, age, gender, religion, sexual orientation and political affiliation.

Next, we have the C.A.T, competency, accountability and transparency in governance. A competent government is effective in carrying out its duties as well as efficient in managing the available resources of the country. A good government will have systems in place to make sure members of the government are accountable to the people in the country while performing their duties. Information on government processes, utilisation of country resource, policies and laws etc must be freely available and accessible to anyone in the country who wants to know. This is called transparency of governance.

For example, an independent evaluation system is required to monitor the measurable performance of various operational branches of the government. The evaluation results must be made available and accessible to the people of the country.

Last but not least, a good government has positive visions and long term objectives in the development of the country.

In a nut shell, a good government has positive visions, and supports active participations of the people, implements rule of law and practises equity in its policies. It is competent, accountable and transparent in its operations.

Now, how many of the above qualities does our Malaysian government have? Is calling for a change of government justified in this coming 13^th general election?

    1.    Participation. We have a democratic system to elect the government. However, fair and clean election being an essential part to ensure equal right of participation is missing from the equation. So, I would say they failed this test.

     2.    Rule of law. We have a legal framework that is based on the common law. However, with the domination of the government over the judiciary, impartial application of rule of law is hardly seen in the country when it involved the powers that be. So, they failed this test.

     3.   Equity. With so many discriminatory and preferential policies such as the NEP, quota system etc, Malaysians are constantly being discriminated by their race, gender, religion and probably the choice of their pet. It’s definitely a fail.

    4.    C.A.T. When jet engines were smuggled out from a military based and sold in South America; when government departments procured everything at severely inflated prices; when armed militants entered the country and occupied a village but strangely nobody was accountable for it; when the MRT project costing billions of ringgit was awarded to a company without any track records, without an open tender process; what C.A.T are you talking about. Hence, it is another resounding failure.

     5.     Vision. You actually mean vision and long term development objectives? Hahaha. Please don’t make me laugh. From vision 2020, Islam Hadhari to 1Malaysia, our national vision changed whenever we have a new prime minister. We didn’t even have a national day slogan in 2012. They failed badly on this one as well.

The previous (now the caretaker) government of Malaysia has failed in all the tests that characterise good governance. Is changing government justified? You make your own judgement, my dear Malaysians.