Reflections from the Historic Public Debate
The 1st Public Debate on air is over, but the people of every social stratum are still talking about it. Najib Abd Razak, the Deputy Prime Minister, is seeking feedback from the masses before the government would decide on carrying on live telecast debate between the Opposition and the Government over issues of public interest. If only he could have done the same before the decision to introduce the controversial price hike of oil.
I found a post-event remark by Khairy Jamaluddin, an Oxford-trained Member of Parliament, pertaining to the oil price reduction issue to be very shallow or even moronic. I had absolutely no doubts at all of the pledge made by PKR in its Election Manifesto to reducing the oil price by 90 cents from the prevailing RM1.92 per litre then. Had PKR been returned to power in the last General Elections, the people would have seen the promise honoured. And I believe the People's Front government would not have increased the price at such high rate introduced by the ruling National Front government.
I hope the Ministry of Information would institutionalise this Public Debate-on-Air as a part of enhancing our democratic process to a higher level of respectability.
I found a post-event remark by Khairy Jamaluddin, an Oxford-trained Member of Parliament, pertaining to the oil price reduction issue to be very shallow or even moronic. I had absolutely no doubts at all of the pledge made by PKR in its Election Manifesto to reducing the oil price by 90 cents from the prevailing RM1.92 per litre then. Had PKR been returned to power in the last General Elections, the people would have seen the promise honoured. And I believe the People's Front government would not have increased the price at such high rate introduced by the ruling National Front government.
I hope the Ministry of Information would institutionalise this Public Debate-on-Air as a part of enhancing our democratic process to a higher level of respectability.
Labels: Governance, Politics
posted by Nasariyev Usovich at
7/17/2008 09:58:00 AM
1 Comments:
The debate was certainly a bold move by the government, which unfortunately backfired them a bit.
The arrest of DSAI and the ensuing circus which we can expect from now only give a sense of deja vu from ten years ago.
Are we to expect this things to take place every ten years then?
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