My friends we are witnessing the slow and messy end of Najib and gang, who for reason best known to themselves, have decided to commit Har-rah-kee-ree in public. Whether this was ordered by a greater authority (ahem…Mahathir?) as a form of punishment or chosen in preference to a dishonourable and certain death at the hands of an enemy(Us and Pakatan Rakyat!!)is anybody’s guess. But this particularly painful act of self- destruction is being acted out now even as I write but it is being done without honor, courage, moral character and etiquette which is an integral part of such an act as practised by the code of Bushido and the discipline of the Samurais of Japan. But then again with those familiar with the ways of UMNO, this lack of finesse is nothing out of the ordinary for UMNO.
Today I want to talk as a Melayu – without the constrains of having to worry about what anybody else in Malaysia will feel. Without having to worry about good manners, politeness and being nice – all the qualities that we Malays are noted for. With that out of the way I will begin.
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away as a Melayu I knew this for as a fact. The Chinese were from China. The Indians from India. The others were from where they came from. As a Malay, this is my country. The Malays control the Army, The Police and all facets of Government. The Chinese only the business and the economy. With the Dasar Ekonomi Baru (NEP) we had twenty over years to catch up with everybody else. Together we (the Malays and UMNO) would slowly but surly claim back our rightful place in our own country which has been taken away from us by the British.
We (the Malays and UMNO) started of well. After the May 13th Riots it could only get better! Education, rural development etc – all the relevant apparatus for the success of the DEB/NEP started to be put in place. Words such as “The Malay Agenda, “Malaysian Social Contract” started to be used with much frequency by UMNO. Business became the ‘buzz word’ in every Malay vocabulary and always that word “Bumiputra” keeps coming up in any discussions we had with the others when talking about business. There was Bank Bumiputra. OUR bank. Pernas was formed to encouraged Malay business. Petronas was there to go head to head with Esso, Mobil, Shell and Caltex. The rapid and very high profile establishment of Petronas Petrol Stations was a source of pride to us Malays.
How do we match the non Malays in population growth? Easy – bring in the Indonesian initially as pendatang asing – to provide the country with much needed cheap labour – then give them PR status – then citizenship.
What about winning elections for the Malays/UMNO? Suffice for me to say that with the Election Commission we were able to manipulate the election process for our own gain. The one man one vote principle was conveniently neutralized.
So far so good. So what went wrong?
Fast forward to today.
The most significant shift in the equation of the Malay being UMNO and UMNO being Malay is that right from its early days, the “SOCIAL CONTRACT” between the Malays and UMNO has become a means to an end – rather then the end to which we should have all worked towards together.It was the means through which UMNO, not the Malays achieved unheard of richness, sated their greed for all things materials and achieved, during the time of Mahathir, complete dominance over all things Malaysians. Because UMNO had the inclination and the opportunity, this power that they had in their control was used not for good but for evil. UMNO went on a reckless binge of acquiring money, money and more money right on the fringe of lunacy. Those whom the Gods wants to destroy, he first makes mad. As a Malay I felt used and there is anger in myself for letting UMNO do this to me and my race.
The Indonesians brought in to bolster the Malay population has now become a social problem because like many Government policies, the pros and the cons of assimilating them into the local population was not thought of in detail. No checks and balances were in place to ensure that they will fit into the Malay scheme of things.
Now I am done talking as a Malay.
That is why today I, as a Malay, am done with UMNO. A lot of Malays are done with UMNO. Without the Malays to support them UMNO is on its way out – bar the time left before the next elections. Will they use what time they have left to regroup and galvanized what they have left to try and turn their fortunes around? Not possible. UMNO has become the sum of what its members and leaders need and want. What they need and want is not compatible with what we need and want - Justice, freedom and the right to live a decent life. So we will not be spared the spectacle of an UMNO committing Har Rah Kee Ree in public for they know not what they do. When they are almost done, we will be their Kaishaku or assistant, and cut off their head to spare them too much sufferings by the time of the next General Elections. Amen.
Hello Hussein,
ReplyDeleteI am writing from KL and works in Subang Jaya. I have been working since 96, so that's about 13 years. I studied in a Kebangsaan school since Primary in a predominantly chinese area (Kepong/Jinjang). I could not say I have a lot of Malay friends (not even Indian friends) but I do have a few. But I do not have close ones, that's definite. So I am not exactly your ideal Malaysian where we have close friends from every race. I guess I just happen not to have friends of other races just because we did not have opportunity to mingle. thus, it can be said that I do have a good understanding of other culture. I know some, but I know that I don;t know a lot.
And then, why the heck do we group together Malay help Malay, Chinese help Chinese, Indian help Indian? What kind of crap is this? I can understand if it is pertaining to religious matter. But education, livelihood, citizenship, housing, welfare, etc etc..., man, these are universal stuff, the principle is to figure out a way to solve their problem and that's it. I don;t need "i am a chinese so i help chinese crap". Is just plain, I am human and elected representative (which I took up because I understand its responsibility), therefore I serve and help other humans, genuinely. Help them, if you got it wrong, figure again, and help them again.
And now that is on the human side of it. On the running the country or state, we have a few outstanding institutions, I think. Bank Negara is doing a great job now. The imigration particularly, passport division is not doing too bad. The IRB not too bad as well. We have a sprinkling of goodness here and there, then after that, it all go downhill. With excessive, corruption, slowness, ineffectiveness, discomfort, inconvenience, abuse of power.....etc etc negatives negatives.
I read what you have written up there. You wrote about Umno and Malay. Why do you have so much beef with Umno? Why Umno is acting this way? Is this a normal pysche of a Malay? Why are they so into "protecting" Malay rights? Who is taking their rights away? If the problem is Malay poverty, lets help them right and proper. Systemic change or whatever, to bring the whole lot up on good fundamentals. Is it that nobody in the ruling coalition right now, can agree on what are good fundamentals for the imporverish to be implemented in a just way properly? Can you write about Malay psyche in Umno and Malay in general and in particular, your psyche? I know is not easy when people give you a topic, but do find an opportunity, hopefully when you find yourself having this inspiration jumping right at you or out of you even when you are in the "jamban", u should stop and quickly type away. I think a lot of people now know more of what Umno is all about, I think what would be most interesting is to know the thinking of ordinary Malay, what they think of Malaysia, about the other races, their opportunities, their sense of belonging and their hope. This I think will bring us together a few more inches closer.
A long one for you, Hussein. Well, I hope I did not blow your sleep again.
Jack
Hi jack
ReplyDeleteWill try as you requested re Malay psyche in UMNO and malay in general - when I do not know yet - got to wait for inspiration.
Re Bank Negara -it's foundation was laid by Tun Ismail the first Governor - there is a story about him in one of my early article about my early days - see if you can find it.
HH
steadyaku47