The Election Fever is On

Day before yesterday which was much awaited by the people was the announcement at lunchtime by the PM that the Parliament was dissolved, paving the way for the country's 12 General Elections. A lot of speculation on the date of the elections were in the rumour mill but I was expecting that election day would fall on the school term holiday. So when the Chairman of EC announced it, I took it as matter-of-factly. Who's going to win the elections is not much of a big deal to many as the outcome is easily predictable. But what is most disturbing is that what the recent so-called survey on issues that catch the attention of the people at the moment. First is the economy, followed by crime rate and public safety. Whether it is by default or by design, issues such as corruption and accountabilty do not seem to be raised or perhaps it was conveniently dropped as one of the important issues to be asked in the survey. Probably the party that conducted the survey is so much obligated to the govt of the day, that it does not want to offend the powers that be and obliquely touch on such issues between the lines. It's obvious that if investments which is the FDI goes elsewhere, there must be reasons apart from the political stability and infrastructure. What's more important is the investment climate, such as corruption and judicial independence. These two major factors are enough to drive away potential investors from our shores, if at every step of the ladder to get approvals money must change hands. To make matters worse if the perception of foreign investors that they cannot rely on our judiciary to be fair and impartial, then these will simply drive them elsewhere, even if the political stability and the infrastructure is in place. We must benchmark our country with that of Singapore our closest neighbour and lest we forget that it has no natural resources in abundance like we do, but it's reputation as a corrupt free govt and a judiciary that's independent are the two factors that draw the FDI to the island republic.