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The meltdown of Malaysian institutions

COMMENTARY BY THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER
April 15, 2014

There was a time when Malaysia was known for its institutions – a civil service that facilitated rapid development from an agrarian economy to an industrialised one, a judiciary that was held in high esteem of the Commonwealth, and a military that defeated a communist insurgency.

Today, more than 50 years as a nation spanning from Perlis to Sabah, we see ineptitude and incompetency, a complete meltdown of Malaysian institutions.

The Attorney-General now farms out cases to an Umno lawyer; the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) leads an organisation which does not act when a High Court rules; the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) suffers a credibility deficit; and the air force has not covered itself with any glory.

So who do Malaysians turn to in time of need?

Not any of the above, it appears. Sad but true.

The saga of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which disappeared with 239 people on board on March 8, has confirmed what Malaysians have suspected for a long time. That there is not much meritocracy and thinking going on in the civil service.

The authorities, from the minister downwards, have yet to explain what happened in the crucial hours after MH370 was found missing. A CNN and BBC television report yesterday showed Defence Minister and Acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein avoiding the question.

Can the civil aviation sector trust the DCA to do the right thing immediately after a flight vanishes from the radar screens? Why wasn’t the air force told that a jet was missing? Why wasn’t plane maker Boeing told immediately? Why didn’t the air traffic control respond to their Vietnamese counterparts when told that there was no contact with the Boeing 777-200ER that was on its way to Beijing?

Why the silence?

The Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) also has to explain how it defends the country’s airspace throughout the day. Yes, we have brave men and women in uniform keeping watch but a mysterious blip on the radar moving east to west was left unmolested.

Not even hailed by radio, let alone scrambling jets to check on the blip. Or even to ask the DCA and air traffic control if they were also seeing the blip.

Does the RMAF have fighter jets on standby? How many can fly these days apart from those used for parades, air shows and F1 races?

The IGP has decided to play marriage counsellor to a divorced couple rather than enforce the law after the ex-husband forcibly took away his son from the ex-wife’s legal custody.

Does the IGP or anyone else in the police force know the law and the offence that was committed, or do they assume there is a conflict in the civil and Shariah law that they cannot take any action?

Can anyone cite religion and get away with a crime? How can people trust the police to enforce the law passed by lawmakers elected by the people?

Where is the Attorney-General in all of this? Is it more important for him to go to London to figure out who will have custody of the MH370 black box, once found, rather than stay back in the country and decide on whether to prosecute or take action against a man for abducting his child from his ex-wife’s legal custody?

Or just outsource some jobs to an Umno lawyer – from defending the Registrar of Societies (RoS) in a judicial review brought by the DAP to prosecuting opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in his sodomy appeal.

Is the Attorney-General’s decision to outsource some work a tacit confirmation and acknowledgment that there is no talent left in the A-G Chambers to do the work?

And is there any talent also left in the civil service, police force and military?

Malaysia’s civil service was the envy of many – from working on poverty eradication and affirmative action policies to industrialisation and a respected judiciary and prosecution.

They did more with fewer resources and lesser people then. But they had quality talent back then.

These days, Malaysia just has bad jokes passing off as the civil service, police force, military and the public prosecutor. This is the meltdown of institutions that had shaped the country from its formative years to the Asian tiger that it once was.

It might take a generation to possibly set things right with these institutions.

Or is that just a hope that is fading as fast as the chance of hearing another ping in the southern Indian Ocean? – April 15, 2014.

9 Replies to “The meltdown of Malaysian institutions”

  3. In dis meltdown, utterly confused 1DERful land, U R “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”

    Recent headline: “Muslim NGO not happy with use of national language by Seremban church”

    A church in Seremban used Bahasa Malaysia 2 promote its Easter musical

    WHAT’s WRONG with using BM? Perkosa-UmnoB/BN kaki should b happy rakyat using BM, our national language
    Furthermore, all rakyat educated in BM n proficient in BM rather than in England language

    However, d Muslim NGO NOT happy n want 2 dictate d church NOT 2 use BM, what lah, betul ka

    Looks like d Muslim NGO more POWER than Perkosa-UmnoB/BN n behaves like it now RULEs d 1DERful land 1

  4. WHY? Really? For over 20 years we got led by a HACK! An amateur pretending to be a saviour – We treated an amateur like a GOD – because he broke one thing after another in the name of ‘practical’ and ‘ends-justify-the-means’, rewarding the mediocre with unimaginable success – AND gleefully recklessly train-wrecked his way to success, BUT in-the-end mostly HIS own and still does – leaving US to pick up the pieces.

  5. This issue is actually relevant to the “melayu tak akan hilang dari muka dunia” claim.

    On top of the meltdown mentioned in the article, we are also undergoing a meltdown of the following:

    (1) schools and universities performance / standard;
    (2) sports standard;
    (3) security against criminals and armed intruders;
    (4) road safety;
    (5) religious and racial tolerance particularly on the part of umno and gang;
    (6) and many more.

    Sure, malaysia and hence “melayu tak akan hilang dari muka dunia.” But at the rate things are sliding the reality we would be facing sometime soon is actually going to be no different. Malaysia and therefore “melayu” under umno will languish in oblivion.

    Of course everyone would suffer. Chinese too. But thanks to umno’s perverse policies chinese were compelled to look outside the country for survival. A lot of them (not all of them but a significant number, I dare say) actually have a ready network of family members, friends, neighbours and ex-colleagues now living and working overseas. They will surely suffer if malaysia were to slip further down but unlike the melayus they are less likely to languish in oblivion and hence “hilang dari muka dunia”.

    1. apa apa kaum pun tak akan hilang dari muka dunia. if there is the majority around, it should be the minority that will disappear. But if the minority does not disappear, why should the majority disappear first ? in fact, everyone regardless of the race is found outside Malaysia. All work and no play makes a dull person. Therefore, eat, play, love make the institutions social clubs to hang around

  6. Our RMAF simply did not have the clue what was happening on the radar or what his men has react on the radar. It was simply bad and very bad start on the missing MH370. As days go by many conflicting news surfaced and many many of the answers given or at least from the tune it were sound convincing enough. Thus as days go by more people get more suspicious that the authorities are hiding something. Even they may not have anything to hide but the knew they have not know enough and they have done too little when they first known the MH370 has lost its first contact.
    Immigration, there was different story on the false pass port and on DCA chief has given different story on the passengers check in and not boarded. The Police Chief was sound too confident by saying that “based on our investigation all check in all boarded ” he was sound a little too confident or rather too arrogance from his usual tune. Why can’t they have some consensus on the same issue before they come to the Press Conference. While at most of the PC the DCA and MAS CEO just simply look shaky when ever they face journalist questions.

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