Of Isolate, isolated, isolation...and desertion

Some may lauded the Government's move to have Putrajaya, building new Istana Negara in Jalan Duta and progressively thinking of new parliament building in Putrajaya but this writer view the move as an attempt by the Executive to isolate the legislators from the rakyats

This is IT. Not the aborted 2009 concert due to MJ's sudden passing on but lazing under the coconut trees off Malaysian shores, snorkelling with the fishes amid the corals and turtle chasing (not the Leatherbacks but the Agar-agar species). Solace and time to discover inner peace, something that is terribly missing with our political leaders...

Whilst many have commented on Najib's "reversal" to Vincent Tan's sports betting license approval and PKR's "political weekend retreat" which relieve Khalid Ibrahim of leading Selangor's PKR, this writer choose to relook at how our past two PMs and the present PM's plans to isolate the rakyats from voicing their opinion on matters affecting our everyday lives.

It all begins with Putrajaya. When Mahathir opts to develope Putrajaya into an administrative enclave, it is only the beginning. Selangor has to sacrifice it's land in Putrajaya and in return receive enough capital to develope Shah Alam. Politically, one MB was "shown the door" for oppossing Mahathir in this grand design and replaced with anak Toyo.

Then Abdullah Badawi steps in as PM and his administration chose to construct a new Istana Negara up the hills near Damansara. His administration chose Maya Maju Sdn Bhd to carry out the project at an initial cost of RM 400M and reportedly ballooned to RM 800M and there are some who claimed that the final cost may touch RM 1.2B.

Now Najib "1MPM6" steps in and toyed with the idea of relocating Parlimen to Putrajaya where the building is budgeted to cost us RM 800M. The Minister of Works, Shaziman, came out to refute the claims of a new parliment and suggested that it is a mere "study"...

Individually, these three issues are independent and unrelated. However, time has proven that politicians speaks with double tongue, have thick skin and have ulterior motives in all that they do. Try thinking out of the box and look at the issues from another perspective ....

1. Do we really need Putrajaya? Or is it a political ploy to "create" a new parliamentary seat and to ensure that the seat will be retained by the ruling party (in this case BN) as long as the civil servants outnumbers the rest?;
2. What about the officers' rooms in Putrajaya complete with sofas and settees? Do the government "overdo" it? Is this done to "please" the government servants?
3. Does it pays to build Putrajaya then? Does that make Mahathir happy knowing that the Myanmar Junta mirror their new capital, Naypyidaw, to Putrajaya? The World understands why the Myanmar millitary Junta build their capital 9 hours from Yangoon shrouded in mystery and protected by natural barrier ie hills. Putrajaya? What are we hiding from? Unless our own Malaysian Executive branch finds the rakyat a nuisance and building Putrajaya will isolate the rakyats from the Executive branch.;
4. The "new" Istana Negara? What is Abdullah's rationale in the new Istana Negara? Yes, the present Istana Negara is old and heritage. Yes, it's main hall is small and barely able to accomodate the invited guests during official functions but does it really matters?;
5. Is it not better for the Government to construct annex buildings and extensions to fulfill the requirements? After all, the Istana Negara compounds are large enough to accomodate the expansion. If need be, the Government can even choose to acquire land along Jalan Bellamy, including Abdullah's private house.;
6. Siting the new Istana Negara in Jalan Duta is not the answer unless it is the Executive Branch's desire to place the occupants of Istana Negara under isolation from his royal subjects - the rakyat.;
7. With poor public transportation network nearby, the new Istana Negara will effective cut off the rakyats' access to Istana Negara and thus keep the palace isolated.
8. A new parliament house in Putrajaya? Shaziman may say it is under study and in proposal stage. But do we really need to have a new august house? What about USA and England? How old is their parliament and congress buildings? Are their buildings crumbling to bits and pieces? Does our own Malaysian parliament building rotting off into bits and pieces?;
9. Do the Government know the term "restoration"? I bet the buildings can be restored...so why the need to spend another RM 800M to build another parliament building?;
10. Placing the parliament building in Putrajaya is another "far-sighted" view of our ruling coalition to isolate the rakyat from the legislators. With proven poor public transportation in Putrajaya, the Government is effectively cutting the channels for the rakyats to voice their displeasure (and support) on any issues;

Some may lauded the Government's move to have Putrajaya, building new Istana Negara in Jalan Duta and progressively thinking of new parliament building in Putrajaya but this writer view the move as an attempt by the Executive to isolate the legislators from the rakyats and at the same time to discreetly keep the occupants of Istana Negara isolated from his royal subjects.

Whilst most of you will disagree with me on this, this writer hopes that a few will look at it from "outside the box". Or maybe the sun and the shade on a deserted island (really?) is too much for this caller... Whatever, this writer is looking for another "out of the box" trip to the islands in the near future... and do take some time to think of the possibility of His-shame-u-deen and Kha-eery Jam-all-ur-dime being "time-sharing members" of a certain Vampire (translate that into Bahasa Malaysia) who had appeared on big screen across the nation a couple of years back.

Excuse me because being "I-so-late" is not a good recipe for healthy relationship between the rakyats and the executive branch (unless that's what the Executives are planning)...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...