Academic warns govt against fast, radical reforms

Asila Jalil Asila Jalil Updated 8 years ago · Published on 2 Jun 2018 9:50PM · 5 Comments

Nottingham University's Prof William Case is warning the government to not be too eager and fast in reforms as it is risking authoritarian backlash. – The Malaysian Insight pic by Nazir Sufari, June 2, 2018.

A NEW government that comes into power through a bottom up process might be tempted to go too far and too fast in their reforms, said an academic today.

Nottingham University Politics school and International Relations head Prof William Case said abrupt, radical reforms might trigger authoritarian backlash.

“Sack all the civil servants, cancel stake contracts, dismantle NEP and turn back on China. Do all these things, do it quickly and see what happens,” he said at a Post-GE14 conference titled Making Democracy Deliver at University Malaya today.

The bottom up transition refers to the upwards progress of an organisation from the lowest levels.

Case said the transition of power to the new Pakatan Harapan (PH) government had been “encouraging and peacefully executed”.

However, he stressed that things may go south for PH if the government is too abrupt with their actions and decision-making.

The new PH government had recently scrapped projects that were initiated by the previous government, such as the MRT3 line and the Malaysian-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.

The PH government is currently trying to fulfill 10 policy pledges which the coalition promised to accomplish within 100 days in power.

However, some had told the public to give PH time.

Rev Clarence Devadass, director at the Catholic Research Centre in Kuala Lumpur had told Malaysians to be patient with the new government while Umno veteran Rafidah Aziz had also advised PH to discard the 100 days timeline, saying that it is not practical.

Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad also said it would take more than 100 days for PH to fulfil the 10 promises as the coalition did not know the damage that had taken place in the country.

Meanwhile, Case also said other factors that could go wrong for the PH government is if PH falls apart and fails to undertake reforms.

“The third reason, which is much more dangerous, is if BN (Barisan Nasional) grows aggressively nativist. They may also team up with PAS and unleashes right-wing populism,” he added. – June 2, 2018.

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Comments

  • True!!! Rome was not built in a day. PH just be open and show sincerity. Rakyat understand if there is a real fight to improve the country after the bad mangling within such a short frame by Najib scandulous regime. To destroy it takes just a blink of an eye but to restore it might takes generations but fortunately Malysia slide was caught half way but still it takes time to rebuild.

    Posted 8 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

  • Similarly so with rampant obesity in our society! It took time to pack on the pounds, so it will take time and right effort to get the flab off. New Health Minister, do you realise that obesity will kill off the Malaysian people, not Umno, or En. Najib, or the 1MDB scandal? You, Dr. Mahathir and everyone else need to step on the gas and accelerate steps to rugby-tackle obesity (which could lead to type-2 diabetes, and then to possible kidney failure later on. End stage kidney failure results in sweet death!). IMMEDIATELY SET UP & CONVENE A TOP-LEVEL TASK FORCE OR COMMITTEE AS A 1ST STEP TO REVIEW ALL MEASURES NECESSARY TO QUICKLY COME TO GRIPS & ALLEVIATE THIS BURGEONING DISASTER IN OUR MIDST. I have a Singapore Sports Council certified Fitness qualification, and would be pleased to help by giving some ideas. DRASTIC ACTION WITH POSSIBLE NEW LAWS, RULES & REGULATIONS ARE REQUIRED TO CURB THE SITUATION. So now over to you & Dr. Mahathir for speedy results. Tell me, who doesn't want to die? ..

    Posted 8 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

  • True. The 30% malay voters who voted for PH is watching. They voted purposely to overthrow Najib and not anything else. If you cut too deep they will retaliate.

    Posted 8 years ago by Ahmad Safuan Mokhtar · Reply

  • Also (if this can be the right place to say this) please ensure that the needs and fears of our Malay friends are continuously addressed (as they may appear to have more to lose). All must be sensitive to everyone else, if at all possible. Like in BN's case, India's Congress Party lost the elections after 5O years of continuous rule on grounds of alleged corruption, and was in the opposition for 2 more elections but succeeded in the very next election because apparently the govt was not seen as any better. But that's India. Malaysia could see a revamped BN back sooner (if Pakatan were to bungle a bit), for BN won over 4 million votes compared to Pakatan's 5 million..

    Posted 8 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

  • People still think this is about REFORM. Its not, its about KLEPTOCRACY..The 30% Malay voters did not vote against entitlement, in fact they followed Mahathir and PPBM because they trust their entitlement, meaning UiTM, civil servants, religion will be protected.

    Posted 8 years ago by Bigjoe Lam · Reply