By: DL
JOHN Lo brought up an interesting issue on the capabilities of Malaysian representatives to make effective contributions to the welfare of the people and state (Forum Dec 9).
I actually touched on this subject exactly 10 years ago in this Forum.
It is not that they have no brains. In fact, some of them have lots of grey matter.
Some have law degrees and one or two even have PhDs.
Yet, as JL said, they have not risen above the level of kampong politics.
If they can keep their seat one election after another, that is all they aim for.
Why crack your brains creating master plans of this and that when the kampong folks do not demand for it?
The poor quality of the debate and the small numbers of representatives taking part in debates in state assemblies and in parliament is an indication that they are not doing their job or they have not learned the skills that the job demands.
An elected representative has only four or five years to do a job.
If a YB is left alone he might take three or four years to pick up the courage to take part in any debate or contribute any useful ideas to better his/her constituency.
What we do not want from our YBs and MPs are the acts of trading insults, inflammatory remarks, vendetta and mug slinging in Parliament and Assembly. Of that we already have in abundance.
We can encounter people dispensing such acts on the street, in coffeeshops, in the market place.
YBs and MPs are now considered professional service providers.
Other professionals like engineers, doctors nurses and lawyers have to go to a university or college for four to six years to learn their respective professions. The high pay they get is justifiable.
Our YBs and MPs are highly paid, too. But they never had to go to a school to be trained in the field of their service.
As soon as they are elected they go sit in the Assembly or Parliament.
Some of them could be sitting there for a year and not have uttered one word.
And they get paid every month like senior government professionals-doctors and engineers.
The odd time they visit their constituency they were treated by the people like VIPs.
What did they do to deserve the high pay?
In order to upgrade the quality of our YBs and MPs on a fast track, I suggest that they go through an intensive training course to be conducted by a private training institute.
It should be made compulsory for new representatives to go through such course.
They should pay for it like students have to pay to get their degrees.
Elected representatives are highly paid workers.
They are paid because they are expected to do a job.
It is sad to say that most of them do not even know what their job specifications are.
Neither the party leaders nor the Government issues them letter of appointment detailing the nature of their job.
They may be doctors or lawyers who know their profession very well, but not necessarily know the job of a representative.
Before a politician can put up any plan or raise any issues that affect his constituency he must first be knowledgeable on all aspects of his constituency. He must know the geography of his constituency, cultures, population, racial composition, what crops are best grown in his area, what natural resources are available for development and exploitation, etc.
I suspect most of our YBs don't know much of anything on the above subjects with respect on their constituency.
That is why they just sit in the Assembly not being able to contribute anything meaningful in any debate on any subject.
The proposed institute should be staffed with experienced professionals like engineers, economists, surveyors, lawyers, accountants, geologists, foresters, agriculturists, service providers and people like J. Lo and others.
If a YB doesn't know a thing about agriculture how would he advice his electorates to improve food production? If a YB doesn't know a thing about economy how would he advice his voters to produce things that can sell in the market place?
If they know nothing about simple engineering work, how would he get the kampong folk to fix up broken suspension bridges and roads in his kampong.
The rural people remain poor and kampong roads and bridges remain unattended even though the people have chose representatives after representatives for 50 years.
A former PM's idea of rewarding political cronies in the form of five concessionaires with several hundred millions of ringgit in allocations yearly to repair roads and bridges also did not help as they tend to wait for complaints in the Daily Express before acting strangely, when cornered, these concessionaires' standard excuse is that they do not know under whose jurisdiction the problem road or bridge that need repair falls under.
Such is the heavy price Sabahans have to pay for being a "fixed deposit" State.
The people are made to suffer, making them ripe pickings for the opposition while millions in tax payers' money goes towards enriching the proxy shareholdres of these concessionaires.
John Lo suggested that corruption may be the root of all problems.
That may be part of the problem. Even corrupt YBs and other officials can contribute ideas, dispense advice and perform their duties if they are informed and equipped with the necessary knowledge.
Officials in China are among the most corrupt in the world.
Yet its economic growth is among the highest in the world.
It must have been driven by these corrupt officials.
I am not condoning corruption. Corruption is an age-old problem.
It is rooted in money. So there is no way to get rid of it all together in this money-driven political system.
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