Give Us More Time? I Don’t Think So

I think Malaysians are fed up with the PM’s continuing request for more time. After 3 years at the helm with a so-called overwhelming victory at the polls he appears to be unable to get out of the “give me more time” rut.

Time is a precious commodity we cannot squander for it is priceless. Malaysia cannot afford to dither with ineffective leaders who want to achieve grand goals but cannot share their plans and invigorate their followers with their passion.
(And I don’t mean passion of the bedroom kind)

I believe the nation spent about nine months deliberating on the Royal Commission on the police and even today after about 18 months after the report was published; we still are waiting for the IPCMC to be set up. If the periods are not exact it is a long time ago.

So give me more time? I don’t think so.

We have just witnessed the UMNO Assembly where speakers were allowed to deliver speeches that would have been quite appropriate 30 years ago at an apartheid rally in South Africa or the Ku Klux Klan in the deep south.

After 49 years of nationhood give us more time to inculcate the proper racial values? I don’t think so.

Already other countries in Asean are fast developing and I estimate even Indonesia has become a more progressive nation during the past decade than Malaysia has in the past 50 years.
Give us more time to restore local elections? I don’t think so.

The NEP was for a fixed schedule and now some people want to perpetuate this crony capitalism tool to enjoy the benefits of easy money in the equity pipeline. Give us more time to enjoy the leakages? I don’t think so.

We now have this great economic thingamajig called the 9MP that is a step towards achieving Vision2020.

Has anyone seen how all this is going to be achieved?
The saying “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” applies to our vision of a progressive nation.

In order to achieve great goals there must be definite signposts to mark progress so that we can make alterations in the direction or even discard practices that are not helping towards that goal.

Just take education for starters.
Do we have targets like:

25% of all Malaysians in national schools by 2010

50% of all Malaysians in national schools by 2015

75% of all Malaysians in national schools by 2020

This should be applied to all ministries and then it will make any request for time to be justified. I hope the PM will not come out with a request for a second term if the present “give us more time” mantra continues with no discernible results.