Rebuilding the nation
The past has set us back. The present government must do all it can to put us on a new course
IF Malaysia were a website you will get this message: New Malaysia under construction. A rebuilding of the nation, no doubt. The Pakatan Harapan government has spent the better part of the last 10 months in this mode fixing institutions. Understandably so. For the last six decades or so we have been operating under some institutions that were creaking under the strain of a failed trust system. Chumocracy didn’t help. On many international rankings we have performed poorly.
Take Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2018. Malaysia was placed 61 out of 180 countries while our southern neighbour Singapore was ranked as the third least corrupt in the world. Some of the criteria Transparency International uses to measure public-sector corruption include rates of bribery, diversion of public funds and conflicts of interest. Unsurprisingly, 1Malaysia Development Bhd has done quite a bit of damage. Ease of doing business in Malaysia, too, needs fixing. Our overall ranking in easeof-doing-business may be a decent 15 in the world, but starting a business here is mired in bureaucracy. Malaysia is ranked a pitiful 122 in this category. The reason is plain to see: there are close to 10 procedures to follow before we can get a business registered. And it takes 13.5 days to get through this maze. Investors may not be too pleased. Our bureaucrats must be told that there is a better clime just across the Johor Causeway where two procedures and 1.5 days later a business is registered for good.
On press freedom, too, our rank is dismal. In 2018, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Malaysia 145 out of 180 countries in the 2018 World Press Freedom Index. This is a one-rank drop from 2017. Understandably, Singapore was ranked 150. We may think this something to write home about, but stop and think. Even India where journalists are killed is ranked 138, though not a placement to be proud of. We must aim higher. If we can’t be like Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland or Switzerland (the top five in the index), we must at least be like Costa Rica, ranked 10th. RSF said it has the best record in Latin America on respecting human rights and free expression. Costa Rica is known for having an enlightened media legislation that affords significant level of freedom. This we must emulate. To get there we need to abolish or amend some laws. Not because they are there; but because it will do us great good. Among them are the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
Rebuilding the nation isn’t just the work of the government, though a bulk of it is its responsibility. We, who people Malaysia, have a role, too. Writing in the New Straits Times oped piece on March 20 titled Building A Place Called Trust, Datuk Dr Anis Yusal Yusoff, the deputy director-general of the National Centre for Governance, Integrity & Anti-Corruption in the Prime Minister’s Department, says we each have to develop a right mindset in the little areas we are in charge of in our daily lives. Because the real engine to any delivery is mindset. We cannot agree more.
Rebuilding the nation isn’t just the work of the government, though a bulk of it is its responsibility.