KOTA KINABALU: In just a few days, we will be ushering in the New Year. We would all wish that it will not be a repeat of 2021. With that hope, we shall all celebrate and welcome the year 2022.
Traditionally, we have had fireworks displays on New Year’s Eve that we could watch from different parts of the Klang Valley, notably from KLCC, Dataran Merdeka, the Curve Shopping Mall and Sunway Lagoon, among others.’
But this year,let us welcome the new year in ways different from the previous years.
This year, let’s all spare a thought for the many families that have been adversely affected by the devastating floods, by Covid-19, by business closures, and by movement restrictions.
Let’s skip the fireworks displays and use the money we so save for the needy.
Let’s use our resources, time and effort to lift up the spirit of our fellow citizens in their time of need.
Some of them have lost their loved ones, others have lost their houses, their sources of income, and their belongings in the floods.
Let’s try to brighten their future not with fireworks or other ostentatious displays but with compassion and a helping hand.
Let’s skip the fireworks and build networks of organisations that care. Even if we want to welcome the new year do it on a small scale minus all the expensive fireworks.
But we must avoid those, though few, who would use the misfortunes of others for publicity to advance their political careers.
On that score, it is interesting to note how the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob will react to calls by some political experts and observers to review his cabinet line-up by removing non performing Ministers.
The Prime Minister has been proactive during these challenging times, even to the extent of taking the unprecedented step of urging his Ministers who are currently on holiday abroad to return home, in the aftermath of the recent floods. Ministers who plan to go overseas have also been told to call off their plans.
The political observers have expressed the view that the ‘non-performing Ministers’ would make a mockery of what had been announced by the Prime Minister earlier
They have expressed the view that the Prime Minister’s recent 90 per cent rating for the performance of his Cabinet members over the previous 100 days could not stand scrutiny, given the poor performance of some Ministers and some Government agencies.
TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE,
CHAIRMAN,
ALLIANCE FOR SAFE COMMUNITY.
