Today’s Malaysians hate corruption, says LDP Youth
KOTA KINABALU: Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) Youth leader Tsang Hieng Yee has urged all LDP members, especially its youth members, to be brave and righteous and to speak up constructively from time to time in order to ensure an effective governance of the country.
Tsang said LDP Youth should be outspoken and not be a ‘yes-man’ to ensure that LDP will remain relevant in the present era and among the younger generations.
Since the 12th General Election in 2008, Tsang said, the party has seen the decline of support for BN not only from the Chinese community, but also from other bumiputra communities.
“We must be very careful in this respect for there are certain groups of people who want us to believe that only the Chinese have withheld their support for BN.
“This is not true. If one were to discern carefully, one would see that in actual fact, the decline of support for BN since 2008 is not race based but is urban and rural based,” Tsang said, at the joint LDP Youth and Women annual general meeting ( AGM) here yesterday.
Tsang opined that BN lost its support in most of the urban areas because Malaysians have become more intellectual, sophisticated and demanding.
He said Malaysians no longer harboured the belief that their leaders know best and to surrender their fate entirely to their leaders.
“Today, Malaysians will question the justification and rationale behind every policies of the Government and most of all, today’s Malaysians hate corruption.
“The mindset of the people now is that the country belongs to all the people and the Government, which is elected by the people, is accountable to the people.”
Tsang said this was a good sign as it showed that Malaysia was developing and the mentality of the people was maturing.
Hence, he believed that the methodology of governance and the political culture in the country ought to be tuned to be in tandem with the present era in order to be relevant and popular to the people.
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin once said, the present generation was called the Y generation because they simply ask ‘why’ in everything.
“The Y generations simply do not take things dictated or given to them just like that like they used to. They will question and consider the rationale and justification behind anything.”
Tsang said being outspoken and not a ‘yes-man’ did not mean to act like the opposition, but to speak out constructively.
“Instead of making baseless and misleading criticism, we ought to make constructive criticism responsibly and whenever necessary, not simply making it in order to achieve a personal agenda.
“It is very i mportant that whenever we speak out and criticise, we must make sure that what we are about to say is something useful and is intended to help and improve something, rather than to humiliate, slander, create hatred or to create havoc and disorder.”
Tsang declared that LDP Youth would not be a yes-man in any matters concerning the welfare of the people and the governance of the country.
“We will always speak up in the name of justice, righteousness and fairness. When we speak up, we will also always bear in mind the doctrine of moderation and mutual respect among the different ethnic and religious background of multi cultural Malaysians.”
Conversely, Tsang said, the people also wants the government to walk the talk. This includes providing a better education system for our children, a better economy that provides more job opportunities, better infrastructure, more foreign investments, a secured environment to live in, a fairer distribution of welfare and more tourists arrivals to our country.
Tsang said the government would naturally garner the support from the people if they did all these things right.
“It is impossible to demand support from the people nowadays because they are more matured now.”
Tsang also stressed on the importance of working closely with other BN component parties and to treat all component parties fairly and equally.
“There were times when leaders on the same divide were sabotaging each other which eventually brought the downfall of everybody. No one will benefit from such internal tussle except our opponents on the other side of the divide.”
Tsang pointed out that there should not be any oppression whatsoever by any component party on other component parties.
“I believe that the formula of power sharing within BN must always be upheld. It is not sufficient for a party to merely claim that it is fair to other component parties, but the party must also walk the talk.”
Tsang said the people would reject a political party which could not even treat its own comrades with fairness and respect.
On that note, Tsang vowed that LDP Youth would work with all BN component parties sincerely and honestly, to give and be given due fairness and respect, especially during the general election in order to secure the best result for BN.
“We also hoped that all component parties in BN would adopt the same spirit in order to preserve and promote the continued relevance of BN.”
He strongly urged the people to shun away from racial and religious extremism and embrace the original diversity of Malaysia.
During the AGM, LDP Youth resolved to urge the government to release the finding of the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants in Sabah as soon as possible and without any delay so that the matter could progress further. Without the announcement of the findings, be it positive or negative, no further action could be taken and the matter would be stalled indefinitely.
LDP Youth also resolved to urge the police force to pay serious attention in view of the deteriorating security situation in Sabah and to take stern actions against the perpetrators. The Youth Movement said many robbery cases have been reported recently and they believed that increasing the patrols of police officers at various hotspots may deter the occurrence of crime.
Additionally, LDP Youth resolved that the country’s New Economic Programs ought to switch its focus to equal competition and meritocracy across all Malaysians considering it was a tested and proven formula to promote competitiveness and improvement.