Lee Kuan Yew’s observations about the unprecedented crisis of credibility faced by the Malaysian government should be given serious attention by  Mahathir and his Cabinet

(Petaling Jaya, Friday): In his four-day visit to Malaysia, the most pertinent observations made by the Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew on Malaysian politics referred to  the unprecedented crisis of credibility faced by the Malaysian government which should be given serious attention by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and his Cabinet.

Although  Lee never used the words "crisis of credibility", his various comments directly or indirectly point to his concern about the worst credibility gap suffered by any government in the 43-year Malaysian nationhood, as illustrated by the following observations:

• His remark that although he was impressed with the "tremendous strides in infrastructure",  but "on the political side", he was leaving Malaysia a little more "bewildered" than when he came.
• "A lot of cynicism and skeptism" on the ground in the country as "gleaned after meeting with senior journalists of local newspapers" (which are mainly  Barisan mainstream media).
• His "bewilderment" over the need to re-enact the Grik arms heists to placate cynics when "surely no government in this world would go and stage a seizure of arms and recover those arms at the cost of its officers being killed and cruelly mutilated".
• The "unmitigated disaster" in the Anwar Ibrahim sacking and persecution. 

At the tail-end of  the question-and-answer session of his address to the Institute of Strategic and International Studies (Isis) Malaysia Forum on Wednesday, Lee took several questions posed by members of the  audience together  who  wanted to know whether the new economy was  compatible with the old political structure and  the threat of the Internet and globalisation for governments.

Lee  said that the Internet and information technology will, in the next  five, 10 or 15 years, change the nature of society. There will be a  plethora of information and people will be more discerning about what  they want to read.

He noted that many of the 12 million people in China with access to  the Internet were not reading the People's Daily, preferring instead  Chinese newspapers from all over the world.

"When that happens, the government's monopoly and how you shape opinion is lost. That is a fact of life. So what do we do in Singapore? If  we are not credible and we talk rubbish and nonsense, nobody is  going to listen. Then we are in deep trouble.''

Lee could be describing the Malaysian scenario, for increasingly, more and more Malaysians find the government not "credible" with one  Cabinet Minister after another   talking "rubbish and nonsense" which  nobody want to listen.

The question is whether Mahathir and the Cabinet are prepared to admit that the Barisan Nasional government  is facing the worst credibility crisis suffered by any government in the nation’s history and take bold and courageous steps to resolve the credibility crisis, which must include the restoration of national and international confidence in the independence, impartiality and integrity of the judiciary and the undoing of the "unmitigated disaster" as represented by the cruel and unjust Anwar Ibrahim persecution.

 
(18/8/2000)