TOH EE MING
Four months after elections, the committee set up to draft rules of the House is deadlocked and its term has been extended twice. The next hurdle is the nomination of the remaining 26 members to complement the technical expertise needed in the CA to write a proper democratic constitution. Because the parties are in the habit of buying and selling CA membership, this is expected to delay things further.
These prolonged gridlocks have once more spread disillusionment and hopelessness among the voters who showed up in large numbers last November to elect this body. As always, the leadership of this country is more concerned with political score-keeping and the immediate goals of sticking to the power than anything else.
For a nation writing its constitution, we don’t display the level of enthusiasm or ambition to discuss larger issues that will determine the socio-political and economic direction of the country. If we need long-term resolutions of problems plaguing us, we have to start here and now.