Tuesday 24 June 2008

100 Days in Power

The newly elected federal and respective state governments marked their first 100 days in power recently. On one hand, the government of PM Dato Seri' Abdullah has been bogged by questions of defections, internal squabbling, component party problems and most recently, a threat of a no-confidence vote. Well, at least the last one fizzled out to be nothing eventually, for now at least.

On the other hand, many Malaysians were looking eagerly at the Pakatan Rakyat state governments. Quite frankly, in my personal observation, nothing much has changed. A lot was spoken, but few things translated into action. Yes, we have an indian Deputy Chief Minister, an indian State Assembly Speaker, but so what? Has there been any benefit to the indian community so far? How many temples have been allocated land? How many Tamil schools given funds?

Instead, we have our first case of alleged corruption, right here in Selangor. Wow, and it has only been a hundred days! We have pre-election promises quietly shelved in the filing cabinets. Where is the money promised to Selangor residents? Is the free water deal on or off? Has the Kampung Jawa temple been rebuilt? Pakatan Rakyat promised a whole lot of goodies before the elections. Now, when it is time to deliver, all seems quiet.

Yes, I know I will get the usual rebuke that the previous government was also corrupted. I know some will say the indian community didn't get the things mentioned above previously anyway. But THAT is the point. Pakatan Rakyat came to power promising change. What change? Change in the identity of cronies? Change in the bank accounts for corruptions? Talk is cheap.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, the much awaited post is here. Rome wasn't built in a day, sincerely i do not expect Indians to immediately be awarded the Bumiputera status just because the PR denied the rulling coalition Government a 2/3 majority in parliament.We have given MIC 50 years, so why should Indians start doubting the PR run states after only 100 days in office? Demolition of temples have stopped, AND THATS A GOOD START,something even MIC failed to surcease. Yes, we do have an Indian deputy chief Minister in Penang, and an Indian state Assembly speaker, they were voted by Indians and Non Indians alike therefore they serve everybody. As long as they have curtailed the marginalisation of Indians in the PR states, IMO, they've done their job, i need not see thm start sending a Malaysian Indian to the Moon to start believing in their capabilities. Furthermore, they DO NOT represent some kind of 'OPPOSITION INDIAN' party or something, unlike the MALAYSIAN INDIAN CONGRESS, which is suppose to specifically cater the needs and hear the plights of Indians in Malaysia since Independence. OK, so after MIC lost a lot of seats, Samy Vellu claimed MIC would do whatever it takes to regain the confidence of the Indian minority, and you guys probably think that PR are doing rubbish of a job at the moment, so what is MIC's comeback? Indeed, talk is cheap.

BMahendran said...

uish Prem..u have blog ;)

neway, as u said and rightly sum up by the previous commentator, "Talk is cheap."