Give me the power

0

The following is not fiction.

The man went to the King of kings and said, “Give me the power.”

Some of you might recognise that this is part of the lyrics of the chart-topping song by Vodoo and Serano (2003) of the same title.

“Why?” Asked the King.

“There is a miasma of plague threatening the world and our country is not spared,” he said.

And then he repeated the lyrics of the song almost verbatim:

“Give me the power

even when the night is falling

Every hour I will fight for what is right

Give me the power.”

Then the King said, “As the Prime Minister, don’t you already have the power?”

“No,” he replied, “my power can only be exercised based on the consent of the council of advisors. This is an emergency. The deadly darkest cloud is hanging over our nation. I need unbridled power to form my own team against this menace. I want to be able to empty, if need be, the treasury to finance this fight. The council of advisors would only hold things up. Time is of the essence; speed is of utmost importance.”

The King was persuaded and so, on 12 January 2021 the nation received this message from the royal comptroller Ahmad Fadil Shamsuddin, who said in a press statement: “Al-Sultan Abdullah is of the view that the spread of Covid-19 in the country is at a very critical stage and there is need to decree an Emergency Proclamation.”

So, at a time when different factions and personalities were quibbling vociferously over who should take over from the 94-year-old man as the Prime Minister of Malaysia (okay, Tun Mahathir is well past the “sale by date”) the unassuming man who went by the name of Muhyiddin man quietly moved in the slipstream of the battle and obtained for the top position in the Nation.

He was given unfettered power to run the country and the key to the national treasury. Yes, he has the whole cookie jar at his sole disposal. The nation grudgingly accepts it, after all, “desperate time calls for desperate measures”. However, in our desperation, have the King and the people misjudged in appointing Muhyiddin the supremo of the nation? Well, time will tell but there a few signs perhaps that could raise the alarm.

Firstly, it is strange that the man did not use his real name. It transpired that he is officially not Tan Sri Muhyiddin after all. It took a court decision to unveil this fact. On April 2, it was reported that the Shah Alam court had reversed a preventive detention order signed by Muhyiddin (then the Home Minister) as Muhyiddin. The court reversed its decision because it declared that was just a “glamour name”. His real name as entered in the NRIC (National Registration Identity Card) is Mahiaddin bin Md Yasin. You might say, what is the big deal? It was a big deal for a friend of mine who bought a house, but the title was registered with his so-called “glamour name”. It took quite some time and money to unravel that legal mess. I wonder what happened to the validity of all the documents he signed in the last four months. I suppose as a VVVIP and PM he could get away with it.

However, it does raise a concern about his diligence and standard of care while acting as the chief executive of our country that he could overlook such an important issue.

Secondly, I am concerned that Mahaiddin does not appreciate the import of being given great power. Perhaps he never watched the movie Spider-Man where the wise uncle immortalised the saying, “With great power comes great responsibility”. In the face of a mortal enemy like Covid, it is his responsibility to employ the most capable of the nation to be the vanguard in the battle. No, rather he packed his Cabinet with all his “yes men”. Maybe he is taking a leaf from Najib’s playbook who said he valued loyal people over “smart people”. He tried to compensate for the lack of quality with quantity. As one opposition politician said. “There are 70 posts including the prime minister, comparing to 55 in the previous government. This is a Cabinet where everyone gets his piece.” Someone else said that the ministerial posts were given as rewards for support of the PM.

This reminds me of a story.

In the middle of a little village, there sat a big metal bell. It had been there since the founding days. Every noon someone would strike the big bell and its beautiful majestic sound would range throughout the village. One day the mayor found out the metal was very precious and could fetch a very good price. He decided to capitalize on this and wanted to secretly cart it away to sell. However, the bell was too big and heavy, so he asked his men to break it into manageable pieces. Soon the village reverberated with the peal of the bell in distress. The villagers protested against the destruction of the relic of their place. The cunning mayor instructed his men to give the most vociferous of the protestors a piece of the precious metal each. Those so gifted managed to convince the rest of the villagers to abandon their protest. So, thenceforth the sound of the ancient bell was no more.

So, what we have at the helm of our battleship is a bunch of people whose only value is to keep the unelected government in power.

Without the benefit of wise counsel and varied opinions from different parties, our struggle against the formidable enemy Covid has always been a struggle. Some apologists might say kudos to them, they tried their best. Unfortunately, their best is not good enough. It is time to take a different course. The Agung and the other Sultans certainly think so when they said that the parliament should reconvene ASAP.

How do we take this news? Do we take it as the light at the end of the tunnel or is it the light of the oncoming train? Are the parties going to spend time shouting and finger-pointing at each other or for once, the politicians are going to take seriously their declared sacred duty, “working for the people”. Some cynics would say, “Really? And pig can fly.” To that, I would say, “miracles do happen.” But to be safe I am going to say to prayer to St. Jude. If you are uncertain as to who is St. Jude, check with Uncle Google and you will get my drift.