AS the dark-coloured ink on Malaysians’ fingers wears off with the passing of time after a historic 14th general election, so, too, the goodwill towards the new government, and the unusual level of tolerance that goodwill affords it.

While early guffaws and slip-ups are more easily forgivable, PR gaffes, and policy flip-flops and U-turns at this late stage of the game are unacceptable. Especially with a body of eminent individuals, government machinery and 61 years of watching your opponents make similar blunders, even then, not all at once.

Harapan Tracker, an application to keep track of the promises made by the new government, has recorded 11 broken promises so far.

This is understandable for promises that are costly, or difficult to implement. The new government may have overestimated itself, underestimated costs or erred in its judgment of how much money was actually in the government’s coffers when it made those promises.

However, most of those being “studied” are categorised as “in progress”, accounting for most of the promises made prior to, or just upon winning, GE14. The ones “broken” were mainly due to policy decisions, such as the creation of an office of the public prosecutor, appointment of only members of the House as speaker, and so on.

Many of these promises were supposed to be implemented within 100 days – barely 18 days away. The number of broken promises looks ready to hit 25 by then.

If, for some valid reason, such promises need to be put on hold, or cannot be executed at all, an explanation should be given to the people. That is why the Information Department, under the Communications and Multimedia Ministry, exists, not solely to play patriotic songs or block pornographic sites.

Some practices, such as retaining the prime minister as Khazanah Nasional Bhd chairman and appointing ministers as board directors, should not be continued, in accordance with the Pakatan Harapan manifesto.

“It was done before” should not cut it as a valid excuse. The cabinet already wields executive control over state companies and funds, either through shareholding or direct operational control, or via provisions built into the Acts of Parliament that incorporated those bodies to life.

There are more than enough capable people, willing to serve for little to no compensation, to clear up any mess at these bodies. They answer to the executive, or in some rare, but hopefully, increasing number of cases, the legislative branch of the government, both controlled by PH. Hence, the question of “hanky panky” should not arise. Let’s not get warped into the semantics of what a government-linked company technically is, or if a manifesto is really a promise. Such feeble arguments should have been buried with the previous government.

The once-strong political will to do the right thing in issues such as separation of powers, removing political interference in GLCs and government-linked investment companies, and legal reform needs to keep its momentum, and not be “reconsidered”. These are the issues that had led to abuse of power, which then led to a mega scandal that brought down the previous government.

The helplessness felt during the rule of previous governments, over issues like child marriage, body snatching, unilateral conversion and so on, hiding behind the guise of sensitivity, should be turned into empowerment for both sides, as allowing such issues to ferment not only leaves them unresolved, but denies justice to all parties concerned. Attempting to please all parties might leave everyone dissatisfied.

It was the daring spirit of PH in taking political risks that got the pact into Putrajaya in the first place. Ironically, the fear of doing the same might cost it the comfort of that hard-won seat. – August 1, 2018.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.