Let's look for more sincere politicians.

I remember a time when I was still naive enough to believe that politicians do sincerely wish to help the people. No, not exactly. There were a few truly helpful ones and perhaps it was these few who gave me the confidence to think that things could be worked out with some politicians so that there was true progress for all Malaysians.

There was a Tuan Haji who lived in Sungai Pasir and was a member of parliament. He was not only reachable. There were some problems he helped the people solve. Though the cases solved were few, he was a sincere person and he did try his best. In fact when he was not chosen again to stand for election for a second term, my friends and I were sad and suspected that there were people higher up who did not like the earnestness he put in to solve some of the problems. Well, it looked to us like a politician who looked after the interest of the people above that of his political masters can never survive for long.

In fact there was a time when I was quite enthusiastic about helping the poorer folks in the rural areas overcome their poverty. You see, I saw hardly any progress in places like Kuala Ketil in Kedah, where I was doing contract teaching for two years. The rural places were really bad and when I asked them why certain places still did not have essential facilities when they had a kind of village development committee to help them; the answer was unbelievable as they claim those people act only if it benefited them. It must be true otherwise how was it that they were still still unable to get out of their poverty trap. Where was the sincerity in assisting the poor?

So, I approached the elected representatives and told them they ought to fight for improvements for schools and some kind of library for every small town where children of the poor can be helped to read better and study well besides being provided with lots of interesting reading material that all children need to cultivate a reading habit which could take them to better education, knowledge and understanding. Every time there was no interest and when pushed about it, they used the no money allotted to such things reason which I thought was the weakest excuse especially when the country was at that time spending a lot building mega projects.

In fact, it is not gifts of money that would get the poor out of their poverty. All the monetary gifts are to make the government popular but it does not help the poor in the long run. What the poor need is education and when I say education it is not giving away university places or degrees to students who are poorly qualified for the places. Remember, we ended up with graduations who could not find appropriate jobs in private companies resulting in the government having to absorb some of them into the civil service.

Education is the way for the poor to rise above their poverty. That was the reason I suggested having better facilities in rural school and constructing a library for each and every small town. How can we ever be a truly developed nation if a lot of areas in our country do not even have a library to cater to the literate people in such places? And do not tell me we expect more than half the nation found in such rural areas to be not literate. Developed or not depends upon the mental quality of the people and not just physical structure. We certainly do not want to have most Malaysians still with third world mentality when we declare ourselves a developed country.

This year we have decided to move one step backwards when we do away with the teaching of mathematics and science in English; this despite knowing the importance of English in our global world. (Remember that some of our graduates could not find jobs in big international companies because they were not proficient enough in English.)In fact, when the teaching of mathematics and English in English was pushed through by our then Prime Minister, I supported his move as it would certainly result in students with more English usage. Besides, it would also give the students a motive to improve their English earlier rather than struggle to improve it only when they find it is necessary for high posts in big companies. By then it could be a little too late.

But then, as just a citizen, what can be done? As someone pointed out, this citizens holds just one vote. But I wish to point out that every one vote of ours, if done collectively will result in many votes. So, citizens must choose the right people to be our representatives. They must not be representatives of the people only in name but actually representing what their parties want. We obviously need better politicians!