Last month, we had a bad thunderstorm that detached one of the internet cables right in front of my house. Thankfully it didn’t disrupt my phone and internet connections, but it was dangling dangerously low and the wires at the end of the cable were exposed.
If another thunderstorm befell us and one of my family members happened to pass closely by this cable, they could get injured from a potential big electric discharge.
Fearing such an incident, I reported the issue to my telecommunications/internet provider and requested them to repair the cable ASAP…that was a month ago and until now, the cable is STILL unrepaired! About two weeks from my first complaint, I called and reported a second time, expressing my disappointment.
When I enquired why it was taking such a long time for the repairs given the danger, the agent explained that it takes time scheduling dates with their contractors to handle such problems. Sometimes the contractors lack the necessary equipment for repairs, hence the long wait.
This isn’t an isolated case, but yet another example of poor-quality essential services in Malaysia. These services’ umbrella is huge, encompassing electric cables’ repair, road resurfacing, faulty streetlights’ repair, grass cutting, drain cleaning, weekly waste collections, restoring uneven walkways, etc.
It’s been a common occurrence ever since the government a few decades ago irresponsibly decided to hire private contractors for such important services, instead of keeping it firmly under government purview.
The government’s excuse was that it lacked funds to continue providing them themselves. This excuse however is absolutely unacceptable for two huge reasons:
Firstly, essential services should ALWAYS be under the government’s jurisdiction. Being essential for the public’s wellbeing, the government should rightfully treat these services with the highest priority and care. That’s the bare minimum any government should do, instead of practically loaning them out to the private sector!
In a strongly capitalist system, the private sector’s main goals will inadvertently be not to help society as best they can or serve the greater good, but instead to maximize their profits however they can, which includes performing subpar work.
Malaysians (and other populations I’m sure) routinely experience this, whereby whatever essential service conducted by private contractors is of poor quality and hence isn’t long-lasting. Thus, the original problem recurs, once again affecting public safety and wellbeing.
The second reason dives into the root cause of this problem (and indeed many other problems in modern society), that is the erosion of government funds thanks to corruption and neoliberal capitalist policies. If the government lacks funds to continue providing essential services themselves, it’s ultimately their own fault!
They should’ve responsibly ensured their funds would always available be for these services from the get-go, instead of:
- misusing those funds to enrich themselves and their cronies, and
- denying the natural increase of those funds by keeping corporate taxes low and refusing to impose progressive taxes like wealth and inheritance taxes, all to appease the corporate sector and investors.
The contracting out of essential services to contractors is a betrayal to the common people. We deserve to receive good quality, routine as well as affordable essential services provided ONLY by the government. No compromise.
Some may argue that the government can’t be trusted to ensure such services are delivered with high quality and that only the private sector is efficient enough to fulfil this. But as mentioned earlier, this clearly isn’t the case. Indeed, in Malaysia, a few decades prior, when essential services were fully run by the government, good quality and regular routines were ensured, unlike nowadays.
In any case, if the quality of government-run services is subpar, then it’s up to the common people to unite and collectively push their authorities to step-up their work. In a strongly capitalist system, people’s power remains the best avenue to force the system to enact any meaningful change.
Essential services must be treated with the utmost respect and responsibility, rather than something to be trivialized. We must push the government to bring these services firmly under its control again and end the irresponsible practice of contracting them out to private companies.
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Raveen (raveen.veerasenan@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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