ACCORDING to the 2024 Smart City Index, Kuala Lumpur is now the world’s 73rd smartest city out of a total of 142 cities on its radar.

With the majority of young people now being IT savvy, it is time for politicians who are still running around with their Flintstone broken records to cut off their old narratives that were once the records played by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

If these narratives had been effective, BN would not be where it is today. The game once played by the perpetrators of race and religion is over.

For over 50 years, my generation has been duped to think that May 13 was a racial riot between two major races in Malaysia. Instead, we now know that there were only clashes between supporters of a few political parties while the rest of the country was peaceful,

Therefore, using May 13 as a bogeyman no longer works for the younger generation. People already know it is the politicians and their paid cybertroopers who are trying to create tension between the people of different races so that it could cause unrest.

People also know that with the recent development, a few political leaders from the past are now facing the heat from the long arm of the law.

We also know that a Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) has been set up to investigate how the sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh was lost in 2008 after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the island belongs to Singapore.

Enough is enough

These leaders are not going to surrender that easily. Therefore, the negativity that is being spewed out through their supporters is nothing but comparable to the poison pen letter once penned by a young UMNO turk, who later became Malaysia’s fourth and seventh prime minister.

My generation has seen enough of the charades in the past that for any young political leader to rise in the political circle, they must be swear by the sword or keris. Of two of the past leaders who did similar stunt, one is still serving his prison term while the other is neither here nor there.

Even though it is never spoken, such a pose on the social media would almost certainly evoke a strong negative feeling against such leaders.

For this reason, my suggestion is for politicians who want to lead the country in the future to follow the advice of the His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim King of Malaysia “to set an example for harmonious relations by working to bridge religious, racial and cultural differences instead of adding to the division”.

Views on religious and racial issues expressed by these leaders should not be “extreme” as it will further tear down the social fabrics which we have worked hard to foster.

Instead, if politicians want our votes, it is time that they learn to read the pulses of the people. The people expect these politicians to solve problems on the ground or at least come out with better solutions.

The Parliament is the place for quality debates over issues that affect the lives and livelihood of Malaysians, not for clowns to hurl foul language at each other. Therefore, lawmakers must show that they are capable of doing a good job by having pragmatic ideas that can make Malaysia a better country.

How, perhaps, by climbing the rank to being the 73^rd smartest city in the world, how can Kuala Lumpur folks earn a higher family income? How can Malaysian farmers enhance their productivity especially since we are blessed with plenty of sunlight and water. - April 12, 2024

Stephen Ng
Kuala Lumpur

The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia. 

https://focusmalaysia.my/throw-away-the-old-broken-records-and-fulfil-peoples-vision-for-a-better-malaysia/