Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The siege of Abdullah & possible outcomes

Since the political situation persists as reported in MALAYSIAKINI read here and here, let's see who the possible Prime Ministerial candidates are:-
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1. Pak Lah stays in power even after December
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2. Najib takes over
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3. Ku Li comes through
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4. Muhyiddin pushes through
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5. Frogs jump across the aisle paving the way for Anwar (I know! I know! Wan Azizah takes PM-ship first. But we all know that she'll be warming the seat for Anwar.)
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Frankly, I have stopped biting my nails over this. Our main concern should be whether any one or more of these leaders can be agents of true economic reform?
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Because I believe that our economic situation is increasingly dire. Rome is burning! Yet, there's so much fiddling around.

4 comments:

dano said...

As Sinatra sang so beautifully, "And now the END is NEAR!"

Jonas Lee said...

Let us not confuse good policy making with the personalities of the policy makers. I think AAB is under pressure from the rakyat to walk the talk and if he is wise, get good, non-partisan, long-term thinking economic advisors.

Based on the usual list of suspects, do we really need another powerful/charismatic prime minister (whether from the incumbent Barisan Nasional or from Pakatan Rakyat) in office?

Once the political system and the judiciary are cleaned up and reformed to become more transparent and accountable institutions, what we need are fairly intelligent, wise and responsible leaders who are able to steer the country out of the past and into a new future based on mutual respect and shared goals.

The new status quo which every Malaysian citizen has to realise is that Malaysia today no longer needs a strongman or great leader to lead her when there is a God that cares for her people.

In fact, putting our total faith and loyalty in another powerful leader who steamrolls his way through the wishes of the citizens will be an unmitigated disaster, leading to more resistence from the Rakyat and ultimately real political turmoil.

Without putting hope in powerful and supreme leaders, we only have our goodwill, faith and intelligence to guide us.

May William Shakespeare's prayer be fulfilled each day: "God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet."

Anonymous said...

Who should we trust People or System as written by etheorist ? I concur with that System is more trustworthy and reliable. The System belongs to all Rakyat and should only be tweaked to improve any defects and not hijacked by individuals for their self-interest.

If we have a good System in place, then we can even put a monkey as a PM, the country will continue to run smoothly.

Jeremiah, you're right we dont need another machiavellian leader. Whether it's BN or PR, the Rakyat should push the ruling legislators to focus on System instead of individual, communal or political party interest.

It's like our body which needs detoxification from time to time, similarly for Malaysia, she needs to detox all her excesses accumulated over 50 years.

de minimis said...

Jeremiah, I agree that personality politics is something we have to be rid of forever. But humankind tends to have this fixation with the one man that can change things.

Also, if you look at the M'sian constitution, a lot of power is vested in the person of the Prime Minister.

If we want to take it further, we would need a major constitutional reform to institute even more checks and balances to limit the powers of the PM's Office. Now that is a thesis that I may want to take on later on.

Bu thanks for your excellent input.