DIESEL PROBLEM - SYSTEMIC FAILURE

DIESEL - SYSTEM FAILURE

The entire system of diesel distribution and enforcement of laws had to be re-appraised, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal said today.

Shafie said: "It is the system that needs to be reviewed. We must look at all aspects, the shortcomings and so on. Punishment alone does not give us the assurance that we can put a stop to the smuggling of diesel.

"Look at the drug problem in the country. Despite the imposition of strict laws, there are still many people out there supplying drugs to others.

"It is the system that matters."

Datuk Shafie was responding to the suggestion by Datuk Radzi Sheikh Ahmad that the Internal Security Act be used against diesel smugglers.

Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk Noh Omar said preventive detention laws could be used against two groups of people: those who were a threat to national security and those whose actions put the country’s economy at risk.

The ISA, Noh said, "can be used on anyone found to be a threat to the nation’s economy".

COMMENT:

It is unbecoming of our elected representatives and Ministers who when system malfunctions, are not able to resolve them and have no intellectual brainworks to define the right solution except to use draconian sword to kill flies.

Where there are some people who had harp on racial issues, religious issues and ethnic issues to further their political ambitions, which are likely to give rise to racial divide and disintegration of the social fabrics, and they come from UMNO, MCA, MIC, and UMNO controlled newspapers like UTUSAN MELAYU, BERITA HARIAN, the said Ministers said nothing about them, did nothing and allowed those racial slurs to be propagated freely. In fact, impliedly, they had sanction and affirm these propaganda. Their silence can and does amount to consent and affirmation.

If the Rule of Law is to have any meaning in a democratic society, it must mean that those who make the law, those executives that exercises the control, and those who had influence the decision makers within the political system, must abide and be subjected to the same law; there must be no room for an "Ends justifies the means" mentality

The decision to exercise the power must always be taken in accordance with the rules of NATURAL JUSTICE and with due respect for Equality and Fairness. Therefore, we should naturally expect that the ISA law which gives extraordinary power to the executives to detain any person without trial, should be clear in proportion, as the power currently vested on the executives can be exorbitant and abused.

Coming back to the diesel problem - Datuk Shafie is PERFECTLY RIGHT - "it is SYSTEM FAILURE. It is the system that needs to be reviewed. We must look at all aspects, the shortcomings and so on. Punishment alone does not give us the assurance that we can stop the smuggling of diesel."

As long as we do not refined and tuned, and maybe, revamp the system, the problem will continue to spread to a larger spectrum that become insidious and epidemic.

Throughout the decades, Malaysian Govt had not done much to refine the system, to evolve and progress in parallel to the massive changes of the national and global economic system. The system stagnated and hybernate while the global system and global economic system continues to move and evolve rapidly.

As a result, you can see why we had 80,000 unemployable graduates (maybe much more), subsidies, protected industries for fear of failures and competition (such as automobil, Banks, steel, cement, etc). Glaringly, we had not been able to compete with the global players and the only resort is to enforce barriers in order to keep the local manufacturers and bankers solvent and to retain ownership at the hands of local enterpreneurs.

But globalization is rapidly tearing down these barriers. Other countries are responding to the need for change and the need of competitive advantage. In fact, many countries, together their industrialist, are seeing far greater opportunities in the face of globalization and are tapping them to their advantage. But sadly, we are still hybernating and are blaming all others for our retard and handicap. We are telling the world that they should move slower than us, be more stupid than us, and should let us move ahead irrespective. They owe us a living, and they must play by our rules.

Unfortunately, they won't. Nobody will. We will be left behind... we will have to face the facts and if nothing is done radically, we will perish or be grouped with the 4th World Disasterous Economy. We won't have a choice ...either we move forward or stay behind and mourn.

But to move forward, we need visionary leaders. We must be prepared to innovate and take risks. We must be prepared to let go those clutches and start walking without subsidization. Can we???? Alas, our politcal system will not allow such to happen.

It is not that we don't have good leaders and Intellectuals. It is the lack of POLITICAL WILL POWER and the lack of COURAGE and WILLINGNESS to accept pain, to go through trials and tribulations, and to innovate freely, so as to move progressively forward. But moving forward also need a far more liberal mindset. Religion and racial issues may pose as a barrier to change and progress. It is not about giving up our belief or lower our moral. It is about accepting the co-existence of the juxtaposition of those elements and to distinguish those goods from the bads, the can[s] and cannot[s]. It is also about having a meritocratic and just system to tap talents and use them to facilitate and enhance the business and political systems, and processes of management. It include transforming the educational system which is the key production house of grooming and breeding future leaders.

Are we willing to move forward? Will be accept the pain? Will we learn fast enough?

Only God can help us! Amen! But God only will help those who are willing to help themselves.