the one year old PM

well, the media had been talking all about it here and there, and also a number of bloggers had blog on it, so i guess not to be left out, i’d better talk about it too. what am i talking about? well, none other than our PM’s 365 days. yep, yesterday was our PM’s first anniversary of being on the job as a PM.

so how well did he fare? according to a few critics, not well at all. stevan gan malaysiakini editor will not give him an A for his first-year report card. he gave pak lah a B+ for effort and a C for substance. mgg pillai, veteran journalist, in his usual hard hitting style right in the beginning of his article sounds harsh with:
THE PRIME MINISTER, DATO Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, ends his first year in officer weaker than he began.
read his article and find out why he thinks so.

remember, when pak lah first became PM, he had vowed to fight corruption? the public went “oh yay! he did it” when the first big fish (i.e. a big fish if consider not under ‘cabinet ministers’) was hauled up i.e. business man (and good friend of ex PM), eric chia. that was followed by a cabinet minister from sabah (forgot his name). hmmm… not a very big fish considering him under ‘cabinet ministers’. people were expecting him to haul up, or at least put under investigation those really BIG fish in his cabinet line-up (like the one whose name began with S and R), but he didn’t. so the public was disappointed. including my friend, martin jalleh, who thinks that the crackdown on corruption was only a charade.

i guess majority of the public feel that his crackdown on corruption was nothing to shout about at all. if so, he should continue to give priority to this area. as he goes into the 2nd year, he should beef up more on his effort to fight corruption. however, it seems that, according to him, now in his second year, his priority is on ‘mindset change’.

“Changes in mindset and attitude are very important matters.If attitudes do not change, work procedures do not change. Then what we want to implement will not be successful.” so said the PM.

he was talking about changing the mindset the mindset of the people in implementing projects and decisions.

change mindset of people? how does he propose to do that, i wonder, and how long will he give himself to do that? it would take years, mind you! yes, it’s not easy to change people’s mindset. oh and instead of concentrating on changing the mindset of those involve in implementing projects and decisions, he should concentrate on changing the mindsets of those bumiputeras who feel so superior with thier ‘ketuanan melayu’ and look to the others as ‘pendatang’. oh and stop them from always talking about their special privileges, AND especially on liking to accuse (then gave them a big warning) non bumis of questioning their special rights. in fact, he should do away with the special rights. oops! i am now questioning their special rights. better take it back in case fingers started to point at me and i’ll end up in bukit aman.

how in the world can the special rights be done away when the PM himself when talking about changing mindset, said the following:
“For example, I plan to turn agriculture into a very important programme, involving lots of Malays in the rural area. It has to do with creating new wealth resources as additional income.”

btw, for those interested to read further on so much say say on our 1 year old PM, thestar has a good section on it here, including a profile of him.