Remove kakistocracy along with the Pekan man

Malaysia has been running a high fever ever since the Pekan man and his bedfellows took over the care of the country in 2009. In subsequent years, healthy cells were destroyed as one grave illness after another coursed through the veins of this once-promising land.

Hopes of recovery dimmed with each passing day because the strongman stubbornly continued to craft policies and introduce laws inimical to the public weal.

While the “patient” lay bleeding internally, calls for change in the conduct of the government went unheeded. When the people took to the streets to seek reforms, they were roundly condemned and chased away.

Soon the realisation set in that the disease eating into the vitality of the country must have its source in the quality of its leaders. A blood test confirmed the public’s worst fear: a virus called 'kakistocracy' has been responsible for the declining health.

Kakistocracy is a government “in which the worst persons are in power”. It is a very contagious disease that has ravaged and is still wreaking havoc in many countries from Africa to Asia.

The common symptoms are crushing legitimate unrest, hiding ill-gotten wealth, initiating reckless business ventures, rushing for foreign aid, throwing driblets to the masses and making a mockery of the rule of law.

A country is only strong and vibrant when its leaders are of high moral calibre and intelligence. Integrity and deep learning are what drive the engines of growth.

In a successfully developed country, one can feel the vibrancy and the vigour in the air as life moves with clockwork precision – all because the people at the helm are squeaky clean and eminently qualified.

In Malaysia, the head of the caretaker government and his cabinet do not come across as inspiring, forceful, honest. They do not leave a lasting imprint on the national stage with any brilliant ideas that will gain respect and dignity. They only follow a script that is long on platitudes and short on originality.

All the high-sounding plans, programmes and blueprints rolled out are built on rickety structures that can collapse at any time in a cloud of bad political practice. All criticisms by concerned citizens over the controversial undertakings are met with loud rebuke.

Yet, the ministers proudly wear their badge of arrogance and rudeness wherever they go – be it at public events or in Parliament. In the process, they become an object of derision or a laughingstock in the public eye.

The so-called collective leadership is nothing more than a bad leader holding the leash on his minions and instructing them to defend his limping government while prodding them to attack political opponents, past and present.

While he stays above the fray – not even stepping in Parliament to take the flak or answer questions intelligently and diligently – the ministers go about senselessly protecting the emperor with no clothes.

It is clear that the country is going nowhere in the hands of a government with an appalling record. The patient now needs oxygen and must no longer be touched by hands soiled with years of misrule.

Voters must lift the body and bring it to the operating theatre where it is up to the good old doctor – spearheading the charge for change – to take up the scalpel and remove kakistocracy along with the Pekan man.

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PHLIP RODRIGUES is a veteran journalist. - Mkini