[MGG] A buffoon comes to the rescue

THE HEALTH MINISTER, DATO' Chua Soi Lek, is the latest buffoon in the
Malaysian cabinet. He says statements he does not believe in or mean,
and blames others for the state of affairs for which the National
Front government, of which he is a member, is responsible. He blames
government scholars, especially in medicine, for staying put in their
country of study after graduation. Does he really mean that? Those on
government scholarship has to have a gurantor, usually the father or
a blood relative. Instead of saying how many Malaysians are staying
put overseas, why does he not tell us how he has made guarantors pay,
or how much he has collected, or how many doctors have been excused
from working in Malaysia? Why does Eire give leave of absence for up
to two years, doctors returning home after studying at Malaysian
government expense. Most of these scholarship or bursary holders are
Malay, usually those in the lower category, and the government would
only ask them to pay only if the guarantor is in the Opposition
party, usually PAS. How can the National Front ask Malay guarantors
to pay what they had promised to do if their chap who got the
guarantee does not return? Especially when the Malay ground is, at
the moment, split three ways. It is UMNO which runs the National
Front, and what UMNO says goes.

The guarantors are usually UMNO members, whom it does not want to go
the Opposition. So, the guarantors are usually let free. The Malays
stay overseas because most of them had returned home after their
studies, waited six to eight months for a government call. They are
given the right to work in the private sector, when they inquire why
they have not been called. If the ordinary man knows who or why they
are overseas, the National Front government should as well. Are they
children or relatives of those in power, and so excused so that their
guarantors do not have to pay back? There is more to it than
Malaysian newspapers, radio and television, and the Minister's press
conferences and press statements say. It is unfair to put the blame
on those who received a government grant. One farmer's son, having
graduated returned. He was left cooling his heels unemployed. He was
allowed by the authorities to return when he inquired why he had not
been asked to join government service. In the past, this runaround
was given to non-Malays. The MCA minister is now worried that it
affects Malays too.

He is a medical doctor, but he has not praticed medicine in recent
years. He is a full time politician, and busy going up the National
Front and MCA heirarcy. He is where he is because he plays politics.
He does not ask his civil servants, so it seems from his recent
actions. He is afraid of the Malay civil servant. He is like most
politicians, in Malaysia of the National Front especially, when he
gets verbal diarrhea whenever he gets a chance to be reported by the
in radio, television or news media. So he says what comes of his
mind, and he is usually wrong. He takes the view, as does many in his
position, but especially when he is a non-Malay, and believes what he
says is cast in stone, but his words are cast on shifting rafters
floating in the sea. They mean nothing. The people do not believe
what he, and others of his ilk, says. These statements are made for
what he thinks is effect, mainly to ensure he remains in the cabinet,
is well regarded in the MCA, is returned in the next election. So he
say things that make him a buffoon but mean nothing to the people to
whom he addresses these statements. The Malaysian newspapers and news
media praise him to the skies for his 'statesman' like statements,
but most people, even MCA and UMNO members, despise him.

His latest statement suggests that a policy decision taken in secret
by civil servants and announced with great fanfare should never be
challenged. The "Tak Nal" anti-smoking campaign is the National Front
Government's answer to smoking, especially by children. He now says
that the tobacco companies, which loses out if the campaign is a
success, had found creative ways to beat the ban. And blames tobacco
companies for fighting back. The National Front government wants
money from the tobacco companies, even if these companies find it
difficult to advertise that fact. The tobacco companies are prepared
to fall in line with all this. But now the National Front is
confused. It is under pressure from the anti-smoking lobby, and it
wants to be the hero to all, it acts as if it is an enemy of the
tobacco industry. But if the National Front government has taken a
policy decision, as it obviously has, he says no one should query it,
least of all those directly affected. He is unhappy that the tobbaco
company has decided to beat the government's "Tak Nak!" policy. But
that the what companies do.

The water privatisation in Selangor, for instance, is a problem. The
company that was given the privatisation fixed it such that the
consumer paid ten times and more for their water. When the consumers
complained. the government insisted that it was all legitimate. But
when the complaints continued, including that made by UMNO members,
the government solved the problem by giving it to the same group of
people but under a different company, and a new computerised sysem.
For the moment, it is all right, but it will be a matter of time
because the over charging becomes company policy. But no government
minister has come public with this gouging of the consumer. This UMNO
company has done worse than the tobacco companies. But it is done in
secret, and the tobacco companies damned for defying the government's
policy. The government cannot expect others to follow its policies
meant for the public to be challenged, if its own companies do not
have the people in mind when it rises prices arbitrarily or bills
people more than they should pay, and does nothing about it.

That is why the National Front asks ministers other than UMNO to
becomes buffoons like Dato' Chua Soi Lek. This is how it thinks it
can stay in power. But it would not be so. More than half the
population were born after Merdeka in 1957, but most of the younger
Malaysians do not accept the National Front though their parents do.
Policies take a generation to fruit. A generation is usually 30-35
years. Policies the government took after the racial riots of 1969
begin fruiting now. And the policies taken now will fruit 35 years or
so from now. But unless UMNO takes the lead in attacking the people
rather than asking the other party leaders in the National Front to
do so, it would be in the opposition by a few years before 2020. The
2020 vision was taken to remain in power, and its policies
disappeared with the retirement two years ago of the former prime
minister, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. Today's policies are thought through
by Malays. The non-Malay is ignored or kept away when possible. That
is why buffons from the non-UMNO parties are asked defend the
undefensible.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx,com

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