The proof of the pudding!

The Prime Minister should be applauded for admitting the past mistakes of BN and apologising for them. Aren’t we taught in schools that humans are follible and that we should apologise for our mistakes?  PM has certainly been taught well.

He did not mention what are the past mistakes, though it would probably takes a book as thick as Barry Wain’s to just list them down.

Offhand I can think of so many, but most of them are the results of these:  rampant corruptions ( and a culture of you-help-me-i-help-you), compromising the integrity and independence of various institution especially that of the Judiciary, abuse of power, double standards in enforcing laws, compromising the standards of most fields including that of education, adoption of policies that lead to polarisation of race relations.

The end result is what we are today. While we see many of our comtemporaries have joined the rank of the First world, we are still struggling to try to get out of the middle income trap.

While before, many of us of different colours could sit in a coffee shop tegother and chat, this is now a rarity rather than the norm.

While before, a middle income person can possess a car and a simple house, nowadays, itt would take more than just middle income to do the same.

While before, corruptions were mainly individualised, now it has become institutionalised, with kick backs and mark-ups leading to leakages amounting to hefty amounts of money, which could have been better utilised to improve the infracstructure and living standards.

While before, Malaysians excelled in many fields, now we see mediocrity everywhere, the existence of which has led to a tidak-apa culture of the workforce, the result of which is increasing incompetitiveness.

These are just tip of the iceberg.

Most of you can easily name many more mistakes which cumulatively have led to what we are today.

PM did well to apologise for all these, even though his deputy was less eager to look back – forgetting that   apologising is in fact a strength and not weakness and realising past mistakes would do anyone well in future –for reasons that all of us have already known.

PM must be desperate and has taken a leaf out of our Southern neighbour. PM Lee’s apology just before the republic’s election did swing many percentage points back to the ruling party, and help cushioned the more rebellious young voters’ impact in the republic’s last election.

But apologising alone is not enough. Words must be seen to be translated into action, otherwise it would just be words. Promises (to change) that are not fullfilled would just be like the cry-wolf boy;  Malaysians have seen so many flip flops that we are now one of the most suspicious people.  Without solid changes, words and rhetoric would not be enough to earn back the trust that we have given for so long in the past .

We want actions, after the apology. We want corruptions at the highest levels to be weeded out. We want education be improved. We want economic policies that translate to more disposable income in our pockets. We want better policing. We want more level playing fields. We want improvement in existing healthcare and not just another scheme to tax us. We want hazardous projects like the Rare Earth plant to be put on hold. We want better human rights treatment.

Can this apology be translated into action, and action into policies and policies into better living standard?

Or is this apology just a mean to lure people to vote for the Big Brother again after which things will be back to usual?

We don’t know.

Nevertheless, we know that the proof of the pudding is  in the eating!