KUCHING: The year 2022 is undoubtedly not without any mishaps, tragedies and natural disasters for Malaysia including political turmoil.
The GE15 which has concluded had proven that the constant bickering amongst the Malaysian politicians did not augur well for their political careers.
It has now become a joke that it took only one day for Malaysians to cast their votes during the GE15 while it took the political parties and politicians four days and the King himself to intervene to appoint its new 10th Prime Minister.
Similarly, just last week, a landslide tragedy claimed dozens of lives at Batang Kali in Selangor and the cause of the landslide was believed to be due to extreme climate change.
Before this tragedy, flash floods had also hit the middle of the capital city in Malaysia causing losses of a few lives and properties due to the poor irrigation system.
These were all deemed as inexcusable as they could all be prevented if the government and the relevant government agencies and the public and private sectors had been diligent enough to carry out their respective roles and duties with more efficiency.
While all these major events have hit the country hard, the dollars and cents must also be included as misappropriation of the people’s money seems to be never-ending like the case of the RM600 billion that put former Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former Health Minister KJ and a few others in a bad light.
Last but not least, not all of these greedy leaders had gone unpunished as the former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife, Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor were finally brought to justice for swindling the country out of billions of ringgit.
That being said, a lot of Malaysians are wishing that it would be a better year for 2023 despite anticipating a challenging economic environment ahead.
“New year, a new beginning, new hopes. Although we are all wishing for a better year in 2023, we are, however, anticipating a challenging economic environment or even a recession globally,” said Datuk Richard Wee, president of the Federation of Chinese Associations of Sarawak.
Speaking to the New Sarawak Tribune here recently, he said with the new government, Malaysians hope to have political stability to enable the government to address the more important and urgent matters and issues facing the nation instead of politicking among themselves.
“In Sarawak, we hope that the aspirations of us, Sarawakians, the issues of MA63 and our autonomy championed by our Premier will come to expeditious fruition so we can chart our way for the interest and visions of Sarawakians.
“Above all, we hope that there will peace and harmony among all of us. Good health and no major natural calamity for all of us,” Wee added.
Political analyst James Chin said one of his New Year’s wishes is dissimilar from a lot of other people’s wishes
“I think for Sarawakians, they want the MA63 to be sorted out and settled.
“Also some Sarawakians also want Malaysia to have a strong economy, they want the Malaysian economy to be revived, better economic activities and a better standard of living,” he said.
Chin added that Sarawakians also want Sarawak to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic with the least damage.
“I think Sarawakians are hoping for peace and harmony, especially among all the different ethnic groups and religions.
“I think Sarawakians realised that the middle path is the best way for Malaysia and a lot of Sarawakians are hoping that the people in Malaya will finally realise this because it looks like Malaya is heading in another direction,” he added.
