Where are the evidence that the Barisan Nasional government has learnt the lessons of the March 8 political tsunami and has begun to be more an unifier than divider of Malaysians, more Malaysian-centric and less communalistic, more democratic, fair and just to be a government of all Malaysians than just half the population in the country?
In other words, a government that inspires unity rather than foments disunity among Malaysians of diverse races, languages, cultures and religions.
The Ninth Malaysia Plan Mid-Term Review is a good illustration. The 120-page 9MP MTR is the slimmest of all Five-Year Plan mid-term review documents, with some previous Mid-Term Reviews like that of the Eighth Malaysia Plan review running into four times the length of the 9MP MTR of over 500 pages. Is it because there is very little to say and inspire Malaysians in the 9MP MTR?
When the Ninth Malaysia Plan was launched in Parliament in March 2006, it was hailed as a historic document finally delivering the Prime Minister’s reform pledge and programme which at the time had been stalled for 30 months – or to quote the words of an MP in the present Parliament, “a blueprint not merely for the next five years, but for the next few decades”, and that the Prime Minister “has set in motion reforms that will reverberate for generations to come”.
In the event, the Ninth Malaysia Plan had not “reverberated” for a single day! This person had even written in the article “From short-term lucre to long-term wealth” that the Ninth Malaysia Plan would not see “the return of the gravy train” but I do not think there would be much disagreement if he is described as the “driver” of the RM220 billion (now increased to RM250 billion under the MTR) “gravy train” as to become the world’s richest unemployed – creating a new class of the bumiputra wealthy at the expense of both the bumiputra and non-bumiputra poor. Continue reading “Indian and the snake…”