Keep a hawk’s eye on the lifestyle of your YBs

COMMENT | When Dr Mahathir Mohamad introduced the ‘no gift’ policy - with the exception of flowers, fruits and food – throughout the cabinet and the civil service soon after Pakatan Harapan swept into power in May last year, all of us must have welcomed the refreshing change.

Wow, the new government under the old prime minister is finally serious about moving away from the corrupt ways of the previous regime.

Getting his ministers to reject expensive gifts, commonly showered upon them by those attempting to cozy up to government leaders, was a start to the ‘New Malaysia’ we envisioned and were promised, going into GE14.

Then we also witnessed two new ministers, Anthony Loke and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, famously rejecting their mobile phone and painting gifts in full glare of the media.

Oh yes, what a great start for a new government we all pinned our hopes on! Or so we thought.

But we now know we were fooled, don’t we?

The good vibes did not last long. Our high expectations for a change to an accountable and responsible governance under Harapan came crumbling down like a ton of bricks, 18 months later...