This keynote address was delivered by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah  at a public forum on “Reforms for a Progressive Malaysia”, organised by the G25 group of prominent retired Malay civil servants at the Ideal Convention Centre in Shah Alam today.

LADIES and gentlemen; I would like to thank G25 for inviting me to this forum. I might add that this is the second time I am so honoured. Please know that I accept this invitation, from a group of illustrious Malaysians acting as a public conscience, in all humility. Thank you.

Indeed this invitation is timely and provides an apt platform for me to think aloud and share my thoughts on the goings on that is making the man in the street hot under the collar. The public – so I have been told – perceives the country’s leadership, rightly or wrongly, to be bogged down by gargantuan financial scandals involving public funds. Many are under the impression that the preoccupation of the national leaders with this development has tarnished the country that, for a very long time, had been well respected by the world at large.

Whenever I meet the ordinary people, they would gripe about their ever growing financial burden that they have to cope with while, at the same time, grumbling about the increasing cost of food and other necessities. Many lay the blame for this state of affairs on the leaders. They complain to me time is being unproductively spent by the leaders in trying to make problems surrounding the financial issues go away. They grumble that as a result, no serious attention has been given to addressing the issues and problems affecting their lives, such as the escalating cost of living.

In view of the foregoing, I would say, at the risk of stating the obvious, that our political leadership needs to be sensitive to and care for the economic well-being of the masses. This has to be measured against a certain standard of comfort in their daily lives. Their collective future must not be compromised. At the same time, a minimum level of comfort, which is now universally accepted as basic to modern living, needs to be guaranteed as a quid pro quo for the people’s support in voting a government into office.

This level of comfort is to ensure that the people are not unnecessarily burdened by financial pressures that are out of proportion to the national ability to handle and manage. In this regard, the sad reality is that our leadership has failed to keep in check the national debt that our country is in. As of September 2017, our sovereign debt stands at RM687.43 billion, a 7-and-a-half-fold rise against the amount of RM91 billion in 1997. I should like to add that getting the country into debt to service old ones does not benefit the people. However raising debt as a means to finance economic growth is justifiable. In view of this and perhaps, in the future, any investment by the government must be approved as an item in the Annual Budget after its Resolution had previously obtained approval of the Dewan Rakyat. Similarly, an investment by a statutory body or a government agency must go through the same process so that these bodies will be accountable for every cent invested or expended after Parliament has given its approval.

The rippling effect of unbridled sovereign debts could create a negative impact on the people’s lives. It could stagnate income. Additionally, there is the probability of capital flight because of the general perception that investment opportunities are curtailed. On the other hand, our household debt – currently the highest in Asia – continues to rise. Some people have asked how this situation about our sovereign debt had come about. Others have tried to provide the answer by saying that this is partly due to the collusion between business and politics wherein the former would turn to the latter for help when it is in dire straits.

The foregoing notwithstanding, the public, especially the young, is in reality, restless about the state of the national economic wellbeing. Graduate unemployment is rampant and this is especially so among those who are without skills. On the other hand, we are overly relying on cheap foreign labour to avoid facing the reality of labour cost. In turn, this will stagnate income and condemn our workers to earnings below the level enjoyed by the first world. The net effect is that we will be trapped in the middle income category for an unnecessarily long time.

At this time it is perhaps opportune for me to share with you my thought on good leadership. To my mind, a good leader must essentially be an ethical person of high integrity, imbued with honesty and sincerity. Good leadership dictates that services rendered must always be for the benefit of the followers and, in so rendered, must be above self. Such qualities must also be present in a near absolute state. It therefore follows that such a view as “but our leaders are cleaner that those from some other countries” is unacceptable. It should be “our leaders are clean”, full stop.

The credence of good leadership demands that all leaders in the public and private sectors, including their nominees and trustees, must subject themselves to public scrutiny. This is important because politics and business have a habit of feeding off each other. In our case, this scrutiny and examination should be across the board. It must be done by Parliament through the setting up of a permanent independent multi-party commission responsible only to Parliament to cover the period September 1957 onwards. The commission should be given wide powers to investigate and confiscate assets and properties illegally obtained including those where the transfer of ownership were effected earlier on. Everyone who was vested with executive authority must be subjected to this examination. Personally I would freely offer and submit myself to this examination.

There are two elements governing the right to lead in a constitutional democracy. The first is the physical right. For instance, a political party must win a fairly contested election in order that it may govern a country. Should that election be run on the principle of victory as reflected by being first past the post, then a political grouping without a majority of popular votes but having the majority of elected seats will be on a sticky wicket. This would amount to a lack of moral right to lead. I would consider moral right as the second element to leadership right.

The reality is that this moral right to leadership is, more often than not, dismissed or not given enough weight in democracies of lesser maturity. Ethical practice, guided by integrity, honesty and sincerity, is undoubtedly the determinant of moral right. A morally upright leader would have a strong moral high ground as his leadership base. Conversely, once that high ground is lost, the right to remain in office becomes ticklish. In this age of the ubiquitous social media, this loss of right would be made known and spread around in a swift manner and in no uncertain terms. It should be noted that the masses consider it their right, and rightly so, to have leaders of high morality.

It ought to be mentioned that in politics at least two elements in the practice of constitutional democracy are sacrosanct. Firstly, a democratically adopted constitution cannot be amended willy-nilly. It is a mockery to do so; for a constitution is a sacred document whose position, at the heart of a nation, is certainly much higher than that of the assembly of politicians whose first pledge of office is protecting the constitution’s sanctity and supremacy.

Should an amendment be considered in order, it must be done solely to improve the national quality of life. Amending a constitution to shore up and strengthen the power of an incumbent first among equals amounts to no more than an abuse of power.

Given that Malaysia is a constitutional democracy adhering to the supremacy of the constitution, it is all the more important to ensure that any amendment does not jeopardise that reality. We must acknowledge and accept that supremacy and adhere to it. This could never be overstated and therefore the inclusion of “The Supremacy of the Constitution” in the Rukunegara.

It bears reminding that our parliamentarians are bound by their oaths upon first entering the august House to uphold this supremacy. This must be reflected in their undertakings. By the same token, and bringing this argument to its rightful conclusion, other members of the other two branches of government are bound by their oaths of office and must operate within the dictates of the law and, rules and regulations. As is the monarch, bound by his oath which he swears to upon his being installed as the paramount ruler.

The second element at the heart of constitutional democracy is that there must never be any interference into the finely balanced separation of powers between the three branches of government – namely the executive, the legislature and the judiciary – that form the foundation of a constitutional democracy. A student of politics is inclined to think that this is stating the obvious. But we have to, since that separation of powers had once been trampled upon in our case. It is worth noting that the resultant negative impact is still felt, to an extent, by one particular branch. Perhaps, under our system, a law must be enacted to define and determine the separation of powers and severe penalties imposed on the transgression of this doctrine. Similarly, a law should be enacted to forbid or prohibit authorities to exercise discretionary power independently as this often could lead to abuses. Such executive decisions or actions could only be exercised upon joint consultation with at least two other peers.

Machiavellian leaders would think nothing of dismantling that separation. Such an action would be no more than an act of a political leader who practises one of the better known maxims of George Orwell; that is, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others”. This is merely a means for such a leader to empower himself to browbeat any or all members of the other two branches if and when he chooses to do so for his selfish reasons.

Ladies and gentlemen, being a politician, my speech is delivered from a political perspective. And as a politician I am very much aware that the 14th general election is just around the corner. The amount of space given to GE14 in the social media reflects the progress of our political maturity, although discussions are at times partisan. There has been a lot of passionate arguments and discussions about the government of the day, as well as about the strange bedfellows forming the coalition that promises an idealistic end to corruption, cronyism and nepotism as well as stopping kleptocracy should they be given the chance to form the government.

Not many are prepared to offer their predictions on the outcome of the forthcoming general elections. People presently close to those in power are optimistic of the outcome whilst those anxious to get to Putrajaya are readily hopeful of achieving victory and success this time especially with experienced hands at the helm of their team! I should like to mention that in my discussions and exchanges with friends and acquaintances, not a few have alluded to the possibility of a hung parliament. This would mean that the voters are neither for returning the government of the day to office nor giving power to the coalition offering the alternative. This would mean that the voters want a non-divisive government, comprising all the political stakeholders, to be formed. This, if you will, is essentially a national unity government.

In such a scenario as this, where all parties need to come together, the Executive branch must be led by a politician acceptable to both sides of the aisle of the Dewan Rakyat. Given the present national economic position, that person needs to be an MP with a proven record. I should add that buying MPs to cross the aisle to create a simple majority is an insult to the voters. If they had wanted a particular party to form the government, they would have voted that party in with at least a simple majority.

It is perhaps timely for us to ask the question of where we want our leadership to lead us. Well, I do not think that we have to reinvent the wheel. Rather, we should take a leaf out of the book of our founding prime minister. We should use his proven template that had successfully guided his loyal deputy in leading this blessed country well on her way to claiming her rightful and dignified place within the community of nations.

Currently, it is worthwhile noting that a neighbouring country or two is well in the process of overtaking us, particularly in economy and education. There is now almost a resigned acceptance of the notion that the economy is being advanced by forces not within our control. It would seem that economic undertakings of any significance are, in the main, in foreign hands. This brings into focus the possibility of our country being colonised economically. If this were so, it would bring to nought the hard work and effort put in by our fathers of independence.

Getting back on the right track demands requisite manpower. The tragedy here is that our education system is in a sorry state and will not be able to meet that demand. I would dare say that our education system has been treated as a political football much to the detriment of our children and grandchildren. Certainly an education reform is not out of order.

At the same time, we need to seriously think about the drivers of economic and social growth in the years ahead. This is important as we will be addressing the needs of the millennials who are into communications, media and digital technologies. In this regard, our leaders owe it to the millennials to give artificial intelligence its due importance so as to ensure that they would not be left behind in a post digital world. – January 27, 2018.

25. There might be those who say that I am stating the obvious. The reality is that at times we do not give enough emphasis to modern technology which is important to increase efficiency and productivity. Viewed in this context, giving attention to and maximizing the use of Artificial Intelligence can only be good for the country and the generations to come.

26. As for me, I can only say that I have had a good innings in Gua Musang. It has been my singular pleasure to serve her constituents this past 45 years. Upon reflection, I am under no doubt that their undivided and loyal support has been a source of inspiration that provided the impetus for me to dedicate my service to King and country. It has also given me the strength to give my best service. Without their unconditional support I could not have continued smoothly as a wakil rakyat.

27. They have been an inspiration par excellence to me. I am therefore taking this opportunity to put on record my gratitude and thanks from the depth of my heart for their undivided support and absolute loyalty. Indeed the people of Gua Musang have been an inspiration to me in discharging my duty.

Ladies and gentlemen, on that note I wish your forum the success that it greatly deserves. I now have much pleasure in declaring the meeting to be in session. Have a great day ahead and good morning.

* Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah is Gua Musang MP and the longest-serving lawmaker in the Dewan Rakyat.

* 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.