OUTGOING national police chief Abdul Hamid Bador did not mince his words in his last days as the inspector-general of police (IGP) – blasting away at politicians as if both his hands wielded machine guns.

And frustrations reflect that of a population having spent a year under some kind of lockdown and at least 100 days of a state of emergency that has not brought down the pandemic infection numbers or raised the people’s finances.

Instead, the numbers are trending near 4,000 a day for a 32 million population, almost double that of the United Kingdom’s daily figures among its 66 million population.

The reality is the number of unenviable firsts Malaysians have seen under this Perikatan Nasional (PN) administration is astounding – from being the back-door government, proclaiming a state of emergency, opaque settlements in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad cases, revelations of a cartel in the police force and now the astounding disclosure of alleged shenanigans by the home minister from the IGP.

Has there ever been a time when so much evidence of a Malaysia being run to the ground has been made so visible?

Has there ever been a time when this much nonsense and excesses was shovelled at Malaysia without a care, or without any fear of recriminations?

Perhaps in the recent past of the last Barisan Nasional government, but even they did not stoop so low to proclaim an emergency or engage in talk of fixing people for top posts as Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin admitted today.

Really, has this government even reached the proverbial bottom of the barrel or are they still plumbing new depths?

Why is it that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s telephone conversations are being bugged and the subject of police investigations but not the home minister’s? 

Why is political caricaturist Fahmi Reza such a threat to society unlike those who openly flout lockdown rules across the country and are let off with just a slap on the wrist, even less than a poor burger flipper eking out a living?

Why is this government allowing opaque settlements by banks and auditors in the 1MDB cases rather than throwing the book and taking these entities to court? 

What about the board of directors who allowed such deals to go through? How is it that the government and 1MDB are going after the 1MDB bankers, auditors and lawyers but not former board directors and managers? 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is right that this is not an elected government although he says he cares for Malaysians. Perhaps he can match deeds to his words by getting to the bottom of Hamid’s denouncements today.

The IGP’s words are part of the growing sentiment that this government is just interested in its own ends rather than the people at large. But that’s what one gets from a government that has no manifesto or mandate to fulfil.

The PN government needs to do better if it wants to be elected to power in an election. It can start by checking on the complaints and frustrations of the IGP and the people of Malaysia. – April 30, 2021.