Politics in this country has become a daily "conflict game", dominated by career politicians whose objective is to win points against the other side, rather than on developing and delivering good public policy and good government.
Important issues are left to drift, or in some cases compounded by short-term, populist responses, so that important problems remain unresolved, all having a negative impact on the wellbeing of the ordinary rakyat let alone the legacies being left to their future generation.
Minor parties and independents - mostly opportunistic - are attracting support in protest, rarely or perpetually failed to drive the government and opposition to better economic and social outcomes.
Without experience and the requisite skills, these minor parties and independents may soon be absorbed or defeated by the system.
The skill sets and experience of most of these politicians essentially make them incompetent to govern effectively.
Their career path is often from university, community politics, through local government or political party engagement, perhaps serving as a ministerial staffer, to pre-selection, then election, and so on.
Those that make it are mostly qualified just to play the "game", but not to govern.
As can be seen, it is not easy to come from outside.
Few, if we use the fingers on 2 hands there would be a surplus, have ever had a real job or a significant career, before entering politics, and even then that may not qualify them to be a competent minister.
Yet, many end up as ministers responsible for significant government portfolio, and large budgets with little or no relevant experience or skills or commitment to that area, let alone in management.
If we were to advertise the ministerial posts to attract those with the necessary competence with the abilities, commitments, knowledge, experience and skills to do the job well, very few indeed, if any, of the current lot would be appointed.
In the present times unlike 10 years ago, the ordinary rakyat can recognise incompetence.
Their dissatisfaction and frustration is heightened by every example of abuse and excess by politicians with their perks and practices sucking out from the tax payers while mostly ignoring the issues that challenge their daily lives.
Government incompetence has left many really struggling, living from hand to mouth, with insecurity about their job and health and having to meet ever-rising costs of housing, childcare, medicines, insurance, power, phones and data and more, at a time of record household and student debt, inadequate transport, congestion, slow internet and other infrastructure failures and so on.
Tthe bureaucracy is heavily politicised, by both appointments and processes.
Many have become part of the political game, seeking to ingratiate themselves with ministers, by telling them what they want to hear, or even by promoting only initiatives that they think they can get up. Many in the media, too, now also see themselves as players in the game, less likely to be as investigative as they should.
All up, the political system is now feeding on itself, promising even poorer government.
While the likes of Fahmi, Rafizi Hamzah, Hadi or Sanusi may certainly shake things up for a time, it is unlikely that they too have the core competencies to deliver and sustain better government.
Reform is all talk only.
Perhaps we could draw from the US system where key cabinet posts for key policy reform would be appointed from outside on the basis of their expertise and competence.
The ordinary rakyat wants politics to focus on competence, to deliver good public policy rather than on personalities and their careers, and cheap point scoring.
Now, some 60 years later, the dissatisfaction of the ordinary rakyat with our politicians and the political system is fundamental to why they drift away from the major parties, a fact which none of the major parties would admit honestly but blame it on others.
How difficult are the problems facing the country today?
On important political issues, both sides i.e PH, BN, GPS and PN see their side losing more often than winning.
This feeling that one’s side has been losing on the issues is widespread across political parties in this country.
And the majority race in this country is constantly reminded by their leaders that their side is losing on important issues.
Those who say their side has been losing more are angrier at government.
FLK 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!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
