Trust Deficit and Communication Fiasco

Externally, Malaysia is said to suffer from trust deficit among investors.Internally, people just don't know who or what to believe anymore since contradictory information cover almost every aspect of life.Foreign countries appear to believe that Malaysia is one of the most corrupted countries in the world.Billions of dollars are alleged to have been hived away from the public coffer through government related companies and hundreds of millions paid as commission(kickback) for issuing public contracts.

Foreign governments such as the the US are trying hard to recover lost assets through its DoJ while Singapore's Court has fined many banks for handling illegal transfers of "stolen' money.But no "kleptocracy" or misuse of public money has been found in Malaysia by the AG's office although the courts and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commsission had uncovered hundreds of millions of dirty money passing hands.

The mainstream media i.e. the Pres the radic and TV, release information that is quickly countered or refuted by opposition parties and the informal social media. Or the other way around. Ministers often come up with statements that are ludicrously untrue ---such as the GST will bring down the prices of consumer goods and the price of various consumer items are under control, while the public is grimacing at the increase on the price of almost all consumer items.

There are too many items to mention here but some ludicrous price increases include tinned food such as milk, sardines, and various other imported stuff, fish, beef and chicken. Sliced pineapple curry (pajeri) which used to be 50 sen a slice went up to RM2 a slice at the "pasar Ramadhan", and nothing can be bought anymore for less than RM5 except some junk food. The famous "Rojak"(mixed vegetable food) used to cost about RM3 and now it's RM4.50. Some increases are just unreasonable. Complain about it and the famous answer given by a Minister is. "if it's too expensive don't buy." A Minister responding to the complain about the skyrocketing price of houses said, " It's better to rent than to buy a house." On the increase in toll charges, a Minister said, "then don't use the highway and take the old roads."

Official statistics show that the rate of crime has gone down in the country. But every other day there's some repost on crime including sexual harassment and rape (plus murder) even in the toilet of gas station, the breaking of ATM machines, while snatch thieves and house breakers continue to thrive.

Most disheartening now of course is the the number of corruption cases being uncovered by the MACC. They involve officials and politicians who are holding key posts in the government, including officers in the Police Departmet. When political leaders continue to accuse each other of making false statements, confusing the public, and making allegations against each other with evidence to prove that the accused party is lying, we really don't know who to believe anymore.The communication fiasco seems to be as bad as the trust deficit now weakening the nation.