THE new Federal Government has its hands more than full; firstly in transitioning from its previous and long-accustomed role as the opposition and, now that it has a couple of months to settle into its new role and function, in dirtying its hands with the nuts and bolts of actually governing the nation.
By the looks of the start of the new parliamentary session with Pakatan Harapan (PH) in charge, it can be a pretty rough ride going forward. This is perhaps as it should be: the government proposes, the opposition opposes and parliament disposes at the end of the day.
The robust functioning of our political system on display now shows it is performing as our founding fathers had intended. It should, above all, remind us all that nothing in government is permanent. Each sitting government has a maximum of five years to fulfil its promises, following which voters will again be called upon to review its report card and decide if, on balance, it deserves a renewal of its mandate.
The new government has, unsurprisingly, started out with popular goodwill and each of its pronouncements met with gushing approval, particularly from its supporters. As with any new government anywhere, political honeymoons, nevertheless, are not meant to last. Any government will be irresponsible if it believes it can sustain its popularity indefinitely acting only on what it perceives to be popular. All democratically elected governments may be susceptible to populism to a larger or lesser extent. But they should never take voters for fools.
Sooner or later, electorally unpopular but necessary measures and policies will have to be adopted. Political capital will have to be expended and before we know it, the political landscape may start to hit a rough patch for any government.
It is thus incumbent on the PH government to as quickly as possible get the necessary house-sweeping chores behind it and get on with actual governing. Even as popular euphoria over a new government has not faded, businesses are mostly still on a holding pattern. This simply cannot go on for much longer without some damage showing up eventually in the real economy.
The Federal Government is, of course, correct to keep emphasising the imperatives of public accountability and transparency. But it must, at the same time, watch that stressing these at every opportunity does not end up turning them into merely a cover for inaction, leading to the wheels of both government and business grinding slowly but inevitably to a screeching halt.
We all live in the real world where it is nigh impossible to command everyone and everything like an orchestra conductor does to bring all under his charge to perform in a perfect symphony. A balance thus needs to be struck between what is ideal and what is possible and really achievable.
Given the mammoth collective task confronting the new national government, it does appear to be somewhat disconcertingly prone to distractions, both large and small. This shows up very clearly in the perhaps understandable desire to unravel the 1MDB saga and the Goods and Services Tax versus the Sales and Services Tax. The government may be needlessly complicating matters for itself over this when it would probably have been far simpler to revamp the former instead of replacing it with the latter. Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Dr Ong Kian Ming might also have been unwittingly distracted from pressing matters by picking a quarrel with former minister Datuk Seri Idris Jala after the latter was recently reported in the Vietnamese media to be a visiting “Malaysian official”.
A vibrant democracy is surely a good thing but if carried to excess as in the United States, Great Britain or, in our neighbourhood, the Philippines, it can become problematic, even dysfunctional, giving rise to more unpredictable leaders such as Donald Trump and Rodrigo Duterte.
Voters everywhere can easily grow tired if they see that their governments are too easily distracted and not being more fully focused on solving the everyday issues that matter most to them. Commendable policies are worth little if the follow-through is too ineffectual.
Popular consultations before policies are made or amended may be necessary, but cannot be ends in themselves lest they end in little or nothing changed. Form should never substitute for real substance with any government initiative.
John Teo views developments in the nation, the region and the wider world from his vantage point in Kuching, Sarawak. He can be reached via johnteo808@gmail.com