TODAY our nation is deeply embroiled in a typical “Byzantine politics” as rightly analysed by Tan Siok Choo (Making Sens, June 23).

At the break of dawn each day, we witness unprecedented political battles being fought; unusually high dramas unfolding; shocking details of suspected or alleged corruption and sins against the humble rakyat – and all of these are taking the heat away from a looming national crisis.

Today, the world is feverishly focused on the imminent threat of a global food shortage. Responsible governments are collaborating and cooperating within their corridors of governance to ensure that their people’s survival is guaranteed in the eventuality of the food chain disintegrating.

Authorities are warning that global grain belts are snapping owing to unprecedented weather patterns in the wheat and corn belts of America and Australia as well as in other large rice producing nations including Myanmar, Cambodia, India and Thailand.

Given the alarming rise of the crude oil price in the past 12 months, the global grain dilemma is bound to worsen. Already Malaysia has experienced this initial shock, having had to send an SOS to Thailand and India for emergency grain supply recently.

Unfortunately, our politicians are all obsessed with party survival and in the process battling it out at the expense of the helpless rakyat’s future.

The BN government of the day is increasingly fighting uphill battles and in the process slamming or obstructing the smooth functioning of government headed by opposition parties in several states. This is an open secret.

In-fighting within the corridors of power fuelled by even the former PM’s bile of protests is indeed sidelining the urgent need for a national focus in preparing for the food crisis that is looming very near.

Mere rhetoric is not going to add significant solutions in the event of the food chain’s breakdown.

We must get real. With almost every taman devoid of any trace of top soil owing to our acrimonious building and timber industries’ misdeeds these past 30 years, we are going to need even more fertilisers to get anything growing in the yards of our townships or out in the lumbered jungles.

We need the government to unite and get its act together fast. We need corruption to be dealt a lethal blow. We need leadership that is clean, fair, focused and driven.

The nation needs to give the top most priority to galvanising agriculture in a big way. Who knows, if properly executed, Malaysia could even be a world star performer in the face of a global disaster.

Perhaps, religious leaders, social activists and civil society should start pressuring the government to get its lens focused and get on with the job. Bloggers too can play a crucial role here.

Otherwise, it is again the humble, innocent rakyat who will suffer.

J. D. Lovrenciear
Semenyih

Source: The Sun – June 26, 2008