LETTER: We have a long political history that indicates severe issues degrading the sanctity of the judiciary and a poor separation of power.
Our political history has also set a political culture that persists until today – party-based and individual-based, instead of value-based leadership.
Clearly, this is the result of: 1) an artefact of our political history where the people no longer trust the independence of institutions and 2) the prevailing culture of party-based/individual-based politics instead of value-based leadership.
Whichever party/coalition helms the government will be subjected to never-ending mistrust and accusations by the other side and its supporters.
Increasing Covid-19 cases, lockdowns, a state of emergency, royal decrees, national budget, clear-cut criminal cases, water disruptions and water pollution, cancellation and/or award of projects and many others are all politicised and are subject to conspiracy theories and accusations.
We need to return trust to the people and we start by ensuring that the governance of our institutions, particularly the judiciary, law enforcement and the bodies involved in oversights and elections are trustworthy.
Trust is gained by hard actions and only through reformative changes like these do political figures from either side gain trust from one another and from the public. Are we surprised then that this translates into a significant trust-deficit to the authority?
Understandably people (and politicians) take time to change, so we'll have to start with institutional reformations first.
In the near term, proper adoption of technology and systems together with institutional reformations can help prevent corrupt practices. Hard reformations taken by the government is a catalytic exemplary value-based leadership that would start a new culture from the top.
That is why we need a new vision of a society deeply integrated with technology, governed by inclusive and equitable principles and practices. We don't have to start from zero and we can take lessons from other advance nations.
Japan's "Society 5.0" vision is a good futuristic societal model that puts the people at the heart of inter-connected 4IR technologies and through what Japan refers to as a 'super-smart' society, people's problems can be addressed. It also promotes the segregation of power and opportunities instead of concentrating it.
This forms the basis of the new "Malaysia 5.0" national strategy vision, which takes the inspiration from Society 5.0 and integrates Malaysia-specific circumstances and goals (such as those outlined under Shared Prosperity Vision 2030).
Malaysia 5.0 goes beyond 'super-smart' as it recognises the often underestimated and overlooked human transformation that must accompany technological revolutions and institutional reformations.
Through these virtues, it promotes equitable sharing of the envisioned increased prosperity as well as socio-economic burdens.
It is only under these transformations and hard changes can we solve society's problems, give back trust to the people and therefore, find our way back to a united and ethical society.
AMEEN KAMAL
EMIR Research
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times