IMPLEMENT CHANGE IN STAGES

WARREN Buffet’s Rule No. 1 for successful investment has never been about making money, but to never lose money instead.

And, make no mistake, the American business magnate, investor and philanthropist’s Rule No. 2 is to never forget Rule No. 1.

The rule with its core idea fits the recent political development in Malaysia.

“Rule No. 1: Never draw controversy. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule No. 1.”

A case in point — one of the cabinet ministers in the new government has “drawn controversy” and then “drew fire”. Next, he showed no sign of backing down and stood his ground firmly. Then, he came out with more aggressive statements and the situation just went south.

I understand that the practice of issuing multilingual statements has long been standard fare at the Penang government level.

However, I am also aware that the practice did not draw much controversy and attention because we were once an opposition-led state government and the social demography of Penang is different from Malaysia as a whole.

There are so many good initiatives from the Penang government that perhaps we would like to adopt and implement in the federal administration.

Yet, we must be reminded that what works for a state may not be applicable at the national level.

Being the new administration, so much so that after Barisan Nasional’s 60-year grip on power, all eyes from stakeholders have inevitably fallen on how Penang was administered.

The government, especially the top brass, should duly acclimatise to the new environment, and be tactful and deliberate when it comes to sensitive and crucial issues.

What experience and history have taught us is that people and governments have never learnt anything from history or acted upon principles deduced from it.

This is seen when Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had a sudden change in approach to the High-Speed Rail project and Human Resources Minister M. Kulasegaran did an aboutturn on his “no more foreign cooks” announcement.

Of course, we can always do so as long as it is not formalised, but wouldn’t that make us not much different from the previous regime?

As a proud Malaysian, I would like to see “sweeping transformations” brought about to our beloved country.

Having said that, they must be implemented stage by stage, after serious and comprehensive deliberation, reflection and consideration of all the consequences.

Here’s to a better Malaysia!