LETTER | Seeding right concepts for a sustainable M'sia

LETTER | Parliament has been dissolved to pave way for the 15th general election (GE15). These are my thoughts on how best we should exercise our voting rights to end political uncertainties plaguing us from the onset of GE14.

This time, let’s challenge those aspiring to represent us in our August House by seeding in them the concepts of how they should lead within the context of the respective entrusted ministries.

We should not settle for manifestos, which largely over these years have turned out to be unfulfilled promises. Hence, we want these representatives to pledge, honour and act on concepts to achieve good governance, where it becomes truly a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

We will set the choice, so that they have the chance to make the required changes in adopting these concepts as seeds to be sown within their respective portfolios, where needed, to work interdependently with other ministries.

This is our way to provide them with a KPI, where they will ensure to “Keep People Involved” and “Keep People Interested” by “Keeping Promises Intact”.

1. Prime Minister's Department: “Conduit a winning nation”. The PM serves the whole nation. The potential PM candidate must be someone that becomes a conduit towards a vision of creating a winning nation and binding everyone within the aims of our coat of arms “Bersekutu Bertambah Mutu”.

2. Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry: “Cultivating good husbandry”. Reignite the need to regain our agriculture prowess by working on our agriculture values stream, for self-sustenance and reliance as well as reducing heavy imports.

3. Communication and Multimedia Ministry: “Connectivity” aimed at reducing the digital divide with accessibility for rural folks.

4. Defence Ministry: “Credible defence system”. Taking care of the defence personnel and equipping the country with up-to-date technology advanced systems.

5. Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry: “Consumer-centricity”. Formulate policies to arrest and address the rising cost of consumer goods and services.

6. Education Ministry: “Capacity and capabilities development”. A total revamp of the education system that thrives and is premised on capacity and capabilities development.

7. Energy and Natural Resources Ministry: “Championing conservation and sustainability” in meeting the sustainable development goals, due by 2030.

8. Entrepreneurship Development and Co-operatives Ministry: “Conducive entrepreneurial ecosystem”. Developing the entrepreneurs-ecosystem oriented on growth mindset and finding ways to create disruption of the status quo.

9. Environment and Water Ministry: “Climate change planning and preparedness”. Formulate long-term strategies to avoid floods from being an annual affair. Ensure the nation enjoys portable water that is truly fit for consumption.

10. Federal Territories Ministry: “Cohesive federals”. Breaking down boundaries and barriers within the three territories for cohesive administration and development.

11. Finance Ministry: “Creating wealth of the nation with resource optimisation”. Finding ways to seek new sources of revenue generation with our diverse and rich resources. Moving away from being heavily dependent on distribution to scaling value creation.

12. Foreign Affairs Ministry: “Cross border collaboration”. Keeping in mind respect for the sovereignty of other countries but advocating a strong sense of collaboration in eradicating terrorism and other menaces from affecting our nation.

13. Health Ministry: “Caring for wellness”. Unplug the rising cost of medical treatment by building a caring wellness strategy. Ensure that medical care is accessible to all citizens, without a need to outsource these expenses with exorbitant medical cards. Disrupt from illness to wellness care.

14. Higher Education Ministry: “Creative thinking graduates”. Produce graduates who are ready for the future workforce based on growing and declining job trends. Collaborate with other ministries to ensure the timely development of the country’s human resources.

15. Home Ministry: “Cooperation in public order for nation’s safety and wellbeing”.

16. Housing and Local Government Ministry: “Community comfort”. Provide the comfort of home for every citizen in need. Build homes with advanced town planning for majority comfort.

17. Human Resources Ministry: “Capabilities development for sustainable resource growth”. Devise a decisive HR policy that will develop the workforce capabilities and sustain the resources for economic growth, inclusively complementing international resource standards and protections for competitiveness.

18. International Trade and Industry Ministry: “Commercial-sense” where focus is on having accountability to build strong and long-term plans that have in-depth commercial-sense for its stakeholders.

19. National Unity Ministry: “Community growth” within the context of Rukun Negara to achieve common unity within our diverse ethnicities.

20. Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry: “Commodities streams optimisation”. Creating upstream plantations, downstream manufacturing and research capabilities in optimising our plantation resources as one of the core growth engines.

21. Rural Development Ministry: “Closing urban-rural gap”. People in rural areas should not be neglected by mainstream urban development. They should be developed in tandem.

22. Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry: “Curating high technology enabled nation” aimed at creating a progressive nation through Stem as promogulated in the Rukun Negara’s aspirations.

23. Tourism, Art and Culture Ministry: “Custom cultured citizenry”. Demonstrating and promoting our rich and diverse culture as our identity to enrich our “Malaysian Brand”.

24. Transport Ministry: “Carbon-free transportation”, where efforts to transform and sustain an integrated transportation system to reduce carbon emissions.

25. Women, Family and Community Development Ministry: “Collective family inclusivity” where family becomes the nucleus for community development. The rest becomes incidental towards this development.

26. Works Ministry: “Constructive work of works”. The single most work is working towards roadworthiness and preventive maintenance of our infrastructures and buildings.

27. Youth and Sports Ministry: “Consciousness growth”. Expanding the consciousness of youths through sports and other interventions to scale empowerment, employability and entrepreneurship.

Based on the enunciated concepts, these are some of the characteristics we should look for in a candidate to help restore confidence in our compromised system.

1. Candidates that possess “caliphate quality” to guide the nation in their ministries.

2. Competent within their respective portfolios.

3. Closely having ears on the ground in serving their constituents for grounded empathy.

4. Clarity in their thoughts, heart and actions to walk their talk.

5. Change agents that subscribe to the fundamentals of our Federal Constitution and act within the rule of law.

6. Candidate to be considered and elected in a constituency must have served the constituents for a favourable time period for familiarity with ground issues.

7. Character with credibility so that the candidate will be accepted as a role model leader.

Therefore, let us channel our energy to spread our requirements far and wide to restore our country with candidates that can crown us back to our glorious days.

Ours is a democratic system, where the fate of our country lies in the wisdom of the majority. If we continue to choose foolish, corrupt and kleptocrats as our leaders in GE15, then the country would continue to transgress and we will then bear the disastrous consequences of our choice, passed on to the next generation.

This is the time to do so. If need be, brave through the floods to cast your votes. Let’s flood Parliament with leaders that hold true to these concepts for good governance. Stop whining and let’s come together in winning the people’s aspiration, “This time, we must”.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.