ROSMAH & the 'CURSE' of the Malaysian govt's executive jet

Some time ago, there was wide publicity of a government executive jet being used to ferry VIP wives to Doha and Dubai. I remember a lot of noise and protest was made.

Now, just a few days ago, another alleged misuse of a government executive jet surfaced again. This time it was a round-the-world rendezvous from Hawaii, to LA, Indianapolis, New York, London and Bangkok. Again I hear many Malaysians protesting and making noise, from debate over who was eligible to use the jet to the wastage of taxpayers’ money and abuse of privileges and power.

What do we see here? The problem is not going away. It repeats at regular intervals. The people can protest all we want but it is not going to make an iota of a difference.

Let’s not talk about VIP wives using the executive jet of the government for the time being. Let’s take a look at leaders of other countries first, especially of those richer than we are. Do they travel around holidaying using the executive jets of the government? I am not too sure about this and I therefore welcome comments from other readers who may know better. Do the prime ministers of Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and even the United Kingdom use government-owned executive jets when they go on private holiday? I picked all these countries richer and more developed than us at random.

We may all laugh about it, but are luxurious jets and opulent palaces the epitome of many third world leaders from Africa and Latin America?

So I have a simple hypothesis: the welfare of the people and the wealth of a nation are inversely proportionate to the privileges enjoyed by its leaders. The more the privileges of the leaders, the poorer the people will be.

PM Najib Wife, Rosmah Mansor

Now, as I see it, the problem is more than top leaders abusing and misusing privileges. More often than not, these abuses of privileges will cascade down to lesser leaders. Throughout my lifetime, I have the opportunity to compare and contrast the allowances and privileges of public officials attending international meetings and conferences. It is not unusual that officials from poorer countries are often paid higher allowances and accorded more privileges than officials from richer countries.

I hope by now we can all better understand why some countries are rich and why some are poor, notwithstanding the differences in resources and other reasons that we are constantly made to understand. The main culprit again points to poor governance, corruption and abuse of power by those in authority.

We should not miss the forest for the trees. Top leaders set the tone, the rest just follow. If top leaders lose their credibility, the rest, including their wives and mistresses, no longer care about integrity and honesty. – TMI