So who gets into the Merdeka Award 2025 shortlist?
Thursday, 28 Aug 2025 8:59 AM MYT
By Praba Ganesan
AUGUST 28 — August is when we get all worked up and annoyed about owning Malaysia, or in most cases, not owning it enough.
How about how Malaysia feels? Who should tanah airku, tanah tumpah darahku pick as the most brilliant child of the land for 2025?
That amazing beacon of hope and purity, deserving of an award this Merdeka season.
Now, some restraints are necessary for this trick assignment. It is bad faith to kick off a desire to recognise a winner only to end up dissing so many. So, a totally positive search for a national role model for the year.
The first name for consideration is of course the obvious one.
The prime minister may be the most photographed man in Malaysia but that probably does not get him automatically into the short list.
There was clearly more enthusiasm for him in 2023, leading up to the first unity government national day. I was not particularly enamoured that he defended the posting of M. Kumar as national CID director, by qualifying that there are several other senior policemen above him with the right type of names.
Is it always going to be a challenge for national leaders to just say that a Malaysian police force can have all kinds of Malaysians leading it and those who think otherwise possess issues they best bring to their weekly support group?
For the lack of fortitude for the Malaysia project, PMX only gets a notable mention for the year.
Who’s next?
It is best to skip both the deputy prime ministers. One is his state’s representative to federal power and works the Borneo agenda, though it’s understandable considering East Malaysia never got a fair break since formation. The other is, well, Zahid Hamidi.
Which then leads us to the rest of the Cabinet.
Today’s parliamentary seating may clarify things.
There is the Gig Workers Bill from the Human Resources Minister Steven Sim. Expected to sail through. While Sim has the service centre with a heart reputation in Bukit Mertajam, turning up to give a motorcycle or resolve housing, it does also box him into a local hero status rather than elevate him to be a national leader.
A bill for the underserved even if limited in scope, to protect 1.2 million gig workers is commendable. If it does put more ringgit in their wallets, that can be an election winner.
That also raises Sim’s profile.
However, it’s the other DAP minister in the chamber who’ll win the headlines tomorrow. Nga Kor Ming with his second reading of the Urban Renewal Act (URA) Bill brings repercussions to him and his party.
Homeowners are rarely indifferent and if the Bill is passed, some old developments are firmly set to be demolished.
Developers do not want to refurbish 12-floor decrepit buildings from the 1970s, they want a swankier 32-storey high condominiums in their places. The Bill to many is a path to remove the less affluent from city centres and give central attention to the much richer.
This is a roundabout way to bolt down the reality Nga won’t make the shortlist.
Speaking of divisive qualities, also involuntarily recused from the list with ease is Umno Youth Chief Akmal Saleh. He seems to have a stronger love story with the Malaysian flag rather than the Malaysian people.
The former is inconsequential without the latter but in his defence, the Russian State Medical University he attended did not have an elective course on courtesy.
It’s heating up in the bigger half of Malaysia, Borneo.
Warisan decided yesterday to go it alone in the Sabah polls, with a commitment to the idea that only state parties embody state ideals. Which they conveniently forgot when they set up branches in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and other Semenanjung states few years ago with the belief a national movement is necessary for all Malaysians. Yes, they are not it, are they? To be in the shortlist.
So far, it’s only Sim in the shortlist. Slim pickings.
Human Resources Minister Steven Sim addresses the Dewan Rakyat in Parliament House, Kuala Lumpur August 21, 2025. — Bernama pic
If it is not the executive nor the legislative, how about the judiciary?
A dark cloud remains over the halls of justice in the country, most certainly in the power available to appoint judges without political interference.
While the non-extension of Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat left a bitter aftertaste, the general tone of the judges to uphold justice in the face of severe external pressures as evidenced by the rejection of “annoying is criminal” laws inside Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act by the Appeals Court saved a lot of Malaysians court dates.
It’s a win for the rakyat. The same court saved Muda MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman from a jail sentence earlier this year.
The courts have steadied themselves, and they still have some high-profile corruption and graft cases ongoing or waiting for their court dates, not the least a possible prosecution of Mahathir Mohamad over Batu Puteh and other ex-prime ministers. The judiciary is in the shortlist and possibly ahead in it.
No cases to be fair about if there are no cases prosecuted. The colourful prosecutions have been from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headed by Azam Baki.
An imbalanced resolve can be seen from the type of cases he pursues and those which he does not. There are cheers for his discovery of RM170 million through conversations with former officers of ex-prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, but clear criticism that his office is hunting down the wealth of the late ex-finance minister Daim Zainuddin.
But it is sexy, pursuing outlandish cases with rich details about financial impropriety. So, he gets in to the shortlist.
The policy maker for gig workers, the judges and him.
Or are we better off giving it to all three?
Looking for my magic 8-ball.
Meanwhile, discuss.
AUGUST 28 — August is when we get all worked up and annoyed about owning Malaysia, or in most cases, not owning it enough.
How about how Malaysia feels? Who should tanah airku, tanah tumpah darahku pick as the most brilliant child of the land for 2025?
That amazing beacon of hope and purity, deserving of an award this Merdeka season.
Now, some restraints are necessary for this trick assignment. It is bad faith to kick off a desire to recognise a winner only to end up dissing so many. So, a totally positive search for a national role model for the year.
The first name for consideration is of course the obvious one.
The prime minister may be the most photographed man in Malaysia but that probably does not get him automatically into the short list.
There was clearly more enthusiasm for him in 2023, leading up to the first unity government national day. I was not particularly enamoured that he defended the posting of M. Kumar as national CID director, by qualifying that there are several other senior policemen above him with the right type of names.
Is it always going to be a challenge for national leaders to just say that a Malaysian police force can have all kinds of Malaysians leading it and those who think otherwise possess issues they best bring to their weekly support group?
For the lack of fortitude for the Malaysia project, PMX only gets a notable mention for the year.
Who’s next?
It is best to skip both the deputy prime ministers. One is his state’s representative to federal power and works the Borneo agenda, though it’s understandable considering East Malaysia never got a fair break since formation. The other is, well, Zahid Hamidi.
Which then leads us to the rest of the Cabinet.
Today’s parliamentary seating may clarify things.
There is the Gig Workers Bill from the Human Resources Minister Steven Sim. Expected to sail through. While Sim has the service centre with a heart reputation in Bukit Mertajam, turning up to give a motorcycle or resolve housing, it does also box him into a local hero status rather than elevate him to be a national leader.
A bill for the underserved even if limited in scope, to protect 1.2 million gig workers is commendable. If it does put more ringgit in their wallets, that can be an election winner.
That also raises Sim’s profile.
However, it’s the other DAP minister in the chamber who’ll win the headlines tomorrow. Nga Kor Ming with his second reading of the Urban Renewal Act (URA) Bill brings repercussions to him and his party.
Homeowners are rarely indifferent and if the Bill is passed, some old developments are firmly set to be demolished.
Developers do not want to refurbish 12-floor decrepit buildings from the 1970s, they want a swankier 32-storey high condominiums in their places. The Bill to many is a path to remove the less affluent from city centres and give central attention to the much richer.
This is a roundabout way to bolt down the reality Nga won’t make the shortlist.
Speaking of divisive qualities, also involuntarily recused from the list with ease is Umno Youth Chief Akmal Saleh. He seems to have a stronger love story with the Malaysian flag rather than the Malaysian people.
The former is inconsequential without the latter but in his defence, the Russian State Medical University he attended did not have an elective course on courtesy.
It’s heating up in the bigger half of Malaysia, Borneo.
Warisan decided yesterday to go it alone in the Sabah polls, with a commitment to the idea that only state parties embody state ideals. Which they conveniently forgot when they set up branches in Selangor, Negeri Sembilan and other Semenanjung states few years ago with the belief a national movement is necessary for all Malaysians. Yes, they are not it, are they? To be in the shortlist.
So far, it’s only Sim in the shortlist. Slim pickings.
Human Resources Minister Steven Sim addresses the Dewan Rakyat in Parliament House, Kuala Lumpur August 21, 2025. — Bernama pic
If it is not the executive nor the legislative, how about the judiciary?
A dark cloud remains over the halls of justice in the country, most certainly in the power available to appoint judges without political interference.
While the non-extension of Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat left a bitter aftertaste, the general tone of the judges to uphold justice in the face of severe external pressures as evidenced by the rejection of “annoying is criminal” laws inside Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act by the Appeals Court saved a lot of Malaysians court dates.
It’s a win for the rakyat. The same court saved Muda MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman from a jail sentence earlier this year.
The courts have steadied themselves, and they still have some high-profile corruption and graft cases ongoing or waiting for their court dates, not the least a possible prosecution of Mahathir Mohamad over Batu Puteh and other ex-prime ministers. The judiciary is in the shortlist and possibly ahead in it.
No cases to be fair about if there are no cases prosecuted. The colourful prosecutions have been from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission headed by Azam Baki.
An imbalanced resolve can be seen from the type of cases he pursues and those which he does not. There are cheers for his discovery of RM170 million through conversations with former officers of ex-prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, but clear criticism that his office is hunting down the wealth of the late ex-finance minister Daim Zainuddin.
But it is sexy, pursuing outlandish cases with rich details about financial impropriety. So, he gets in to the shortlist.
The policy maker for gig workers, the judges and him.
Or are we better off giving it to all three?
Looking for my magic 8-ball.
Meanwhile, discuss.
Akmal is DA Hero.
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