Top Quality Government and High Standards of Governance. Searching for Competence.

When the idea that a unity government between UMNO and PAS is seen as the missing link needed to rebuild Kelantan post-flood was re-floated, to me that isn’t the real question. This idea of a unity government between the two largest Malay political parties has always remained an undercurrent, simmering just below the surface. It has become an attractive idea to some PAS leaders lately (let me be blunt about this) as the less talented leaders eager for quick-fix solutions gained dominance in the party. That is for PAS people to sort it out.

Of course to many UMNO leaders, eager to save UMNO itself, the idea of a unity government between the two is always cultivated. UMNO needs to survive.

The recent thinking by Kadir Jasin on UMNO’s need to replace its leader mentioned nothing about a unity government between PAS and UMNO. Perhaps it did not cross his mind as his focus was on UMNO alone. The message is, for UMNO to survive and to govern Malaysia, it needed to have a top quality leadership. To Kadir Jasin, Najib is obviously not wagyu material.

It follows from that, once you have top quality leadership, UMNO will have a core of top quality leadership.  If UMNO has these, it does not need PAS.

What’s needed is not a government capable enough to govern Malay interests only- what’s sorely needed is a top quality government capable of taking care of the interests of ALL Malaysians. The idea of a union of minds between PAS and UMNO mooted and articulated by a business leader in Kelantan recently was for what purpose? So that a government emerging as enforcer of Malay interests come into being? That’s right up UMNO’s alley. Then it will do what? Govern a country made up of entirely Malays?

The real question and the real need, is for the presence of a top quality government. There’s no doubt in my mind, the response and therefore management of the flood situation in Kelantan or elsewhere for that matter would have been tackled appropriately by a top quality government. Things won’t get better if two mediocre factions unite. A top quality government with high standards of governance is better than a union of mediocres. Sorry to be blunt.

We have all the structures to deal with the floods. We have committees at state, district and ground levels. What we seemed to lack is direction, leadership at operational levels with sufficient authority to mobilise resources. At the operational levels, we need trained personnel, who ought to know what do without waiting for instructions from elsewhere.  In order to have this quality of leadership at operational levels, the leadership at the top must be top notch. This is what I mean when I say the Najib leadership is incompetent. I am less interested in assessing Najib in a politically correct way of saying it- that can be done by so many of his image building minders.

We must not be side-tracked into peripheral and incidental issues; for instance, while it is true that income distribution is important it should be evidently clear that a lopsided income distribution arises from a bad government with low standards of governance. If our leaders believe for instance that the government is the enforcer of the interests of particular ethnic groups, then we are doomed. If we have ministers cavorting with known criminals, then I find his leadership talent questionable. If we are willing to embarrass ourselves at the international level by confirming that we used the services of criminals to sort out some security matters, then the credibility of the entire government is questionable. When we have ministers in the Najib government giving credence to the idea that Malays, their religion and the Malay rulers are under siege, then we have a government which is nothing but the enforcer of the rights of one particular group of Malaysians.

Where will it stop? Will we see the emergence of a government that becomes the mouthpiece and enforcer of the business elite, isolating the majority of the population?

Think about it. What’s needed is a top quality government with high standards of governance.