Malaysians must speak up against injustices to move forward, says think-tank founder

Free Malaysia Today

Think tank head Chandran Nair says the responsibility of turning the country around falls on all citizens.   Read More:   Laporan Lanjut:   Free Malaysia Today is an independent, bi-lingual news portal with a focus on Malaysian current affairs.    Subscribe to our channel - http://bit.ly/2Qo08ry   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check us out at https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com Follow FMT on Facebook: http://bit.ly/2Rn6xEV Follow FMT on Dailymotion: https://bit.ly/2WGITHM Follow FMT on Twitter: http://bit.ly/2OCwH8a  Follow FMT on Instagram: https://bit.ly/2OKJbc6 Follow FMT on TikTok : https://bit.ly/3cpbWKK Follow FMT Telegram - https://bit.ly/2VUfOrv Follow FMT LinkedIn - https://bit.ly/3B1e8lN Follow FMT Lifestyle on Instagram: https://bit.ly/39dBDbe ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Download FMT News App: Google Play – http://bit.ly/2YSuV46 App Store – https://apple.co/2HNH7gZ Huawei AppGallery - https://bit.ly/2D2OpNP  #FMTNews #ChandranNair #Malaysia

Transcript

00:00 And more Malaysians should stand up and speak, especially those of us who have positions

00:06 where our voices can be heard and we cannot be intimidated.

00:10 Chandra Nair is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute for Tomorrow, a think tank

00:16 based in Hong Kong.

00:18 An advocate of equity and justice, he says Malaysians must learn to speak up for the

00:22 country to reach its fullest potential.

00:25 Have a healthy parliamentary system is one in which people speak up.

00:31 As an example, Chandra says Malaysians did not show enough outrage when the Federal Territories

00:36 Pardons Board ignored calls for transparency over why former Prime Minister Najib Bazak's

00:41 sentence in the SRC international case was commuted.

00:45 Where are the forums?

00:46 Today there should be 15 forums across the universities, the think tanks, TV cameras

00:52 there, so people can listen.

00:54 Earlier this month, the Pardons Board announced that Najib's 12-year jail term had been halved

00:59 and his RM210 million fine reduced to RM15 million.

01:04 No reasons were given to justify the decision.

01:07 Chandra says such a lack of transparency as well as poor governance and incompetence have

01:12 stifled Malaysia's economic development.

01:16 Value systems down, education system down, corruption in every part of our economy.

01:24 Has this one decision set us back?

01:28 I don't think you can say the potential of a country has been essentially held back by

01:35 one single decision.

01:36 But we can't run away from the fact that the last eight, nine years with one MDB, the country

01:42 took a big hit.

01:44 He also says that the country has, over the years, lost its value system.

01:49 Singapore minister at the moment is undergoing a corruption investigation.

01:56 I think it's the transport minister.

01:59 And he resigned.

02:00 In Malaysia, do you know any elite who has essentially even seen their day in court or

02:07 said I'm wrong, I will resign?

02:10 No.

02:11 Because there's no values.

02:12 But the real troubling thing is that a corrosion of values is seeped into our entire society.

02:19 That difference in the value system is what Chandran says sets Singapore apart.

02:24 Some of the best Malaysians are in Singapore, helping them reach a GDP of US$80,000 per

02:29 capita, whilst we are languishing at 12.

02:32 But all is not lost.

02:34 Chandran says Malaysia is still capable of reaching its full potential by ensuring that

02:38 the next generation of politicians have deeply ingrained values like integrity.

02:44 So the silver lining is that generation of unscrupulous people who have led this country,

02:51 their time is up, both in terms of their age, their usefulness, and all of that is up.

02:57 Now it's up to us, the next generation, to essentially make sure we have a new generation

03:02 of politicians who are not nurtured in the way those were, who have a very clear idea

03:09 of what the value systems are.

03:11 Natasha Bust, FMT News.

03:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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