Will Marina help save Malaysia?

This reader is calling on Marina Mahathir to enter the political arena and save Malaysia before it is too late.

FMT LETTERS

From Concerned Citizen via e-mail

Dear Malaysians,

As someone who cares very much for this country, I am particularly disturbed by the state the country is in and where it is heading.

What a difference 50 odd years makes! Then we were united even though we were still divided by race, religion and language. Today we are truly divided.

What went wrong, Malaysia? The same political party has ruled this country since independence – what went wrong Barisan Nasional? Today this ruling coalition has lost its way and the opposition is in disarray.

At no time in its history has there been a greater need than NOW for a white knight to take over the premiership of this country.

I would like to suggest that Marina Mahathir be persuaded to enter the political arena. I believe she will be able to tackle the job well.

Marina is well known in Malaysia, is a Malay Muslim and comes from a well known political family. She is fully aware of what has been happening to the country and has often written in the Malaysian media and spoken at length at forums on issues pertinent to the country.

She is in her 50s, is politically savvy, educated, intelligent and as far as I know, is free of any scandal or baggage. Except for the religious bigots, I think she would be acceptable to all communities in Malaysia.

From what I can surmise, she is one who will respect the constitution, restore independence of the judiciary and accept Parliament as an independent entity and honour the Malaysia agreement with Sabah and Sarawak.

Under her leadership we can expect corruption and wastage in government to be a thing of the past and the rule of law to be upheld. I expect her to regain respect for the country globally and to bring back the value of the ringgit to be where it should be.

We have lived beyond our means for far too long; we can expect her to balance the budget and correct our education policy so that graduates will not be left unemployed on account of poor written and spoken English. She can be expected to take steps to reduce our national debt and introduce transparency in government activities.

Most importantly we can expect her to take steps to unite the races and maintain religious harmony. Malaysia is a multiracial multireligious country. This fact will never be lost on Marina.

My guess is she will not be able to function effectively in the BN environment. Anyway there is too much baggage there for her to handle. She needs a clean slate to start with. I suggest that she joins PKR.

PKR needs help to rejuvenate itself after the past two years of chaos. Someone like Marina can only help to enhance the image of PKR and also help to attract many young moderate Malays to its fold. I hope PKR will accept the challenge.

The question is whether Marina can be persuaded to come on board knowing her views on Malaysian politics and politicians. But my hope is that at this time of need she would be willing to make the sacrifice.

I pray that as many Malaysians as possible join me in calling on Marina to come forward to serve the country. We cannot continue along the present path. We have three years before the next election, which length of time is long enough for someone of Marina’s calibre to come to grips with the pressing issues facing us.

We need new blood to change the face of Malaysian politics.