cakap cakap....a Malay no more?

First posted on Wednesday, November 14, 2012

I am no longer the Malay who believes that “Hidup dikandung adat dan mati dikandung budi” – that life should be filled with customs and death should be filled with gratefulness. I am all this because the times we live in has made me so.

I am a Malay no more? Words like compromise, respect,  tolerance, forgiveness, modesty and patience are today alien to me as I whack and hantam Malay political leaders left and right.  I am tolerant no more of their doings to our people, our country and our future. Budi adat and traditions be damm! I am no longer that Malay who is sensitive and gentle in nature! I will not bow when walking past Mahathir – my elder by a good many years! 

the malay bride

I do not articulate my distaste for the doings of UMNO graciously. I directly verbalize my contempt and disgust in the manner they have governed our country even as I acknowledge the rudeness of my confrontational approach and understand how unbecoming it is for a Malay to do so.

I no longer care that they may think me not noble or cultured, lacking in good manners and inconsiderate of their discomfort at my tirade against them.

I am no longer the Malay who believes that “Hidup dikandung adat dan mati dikandung budi” – that life should be filled with customs and death should be filled with gratefulness. I am all this because the times we live in has made me so.

How do you expect me to be quiet when I am constantly confronted by the excesses of UMNO politicians, their families, their cronies and sahabats whose sense of entitlement to that which does not belong to them overshadows all sense of decency and the rights and wrongs that I have been taught in my childhood, in my growing up and in what I have seen till this ripe old age of sixty five that I am today? 

The Malay and Islam idea that the State duty is to uphold justice and fairness has been breached much too many times by UMNO for my liking. By so doing UMNO has absolved itself from having a peaceful society that would be complaint to their government of our nation. And when UMNO distance itself from this duty of justice and care of its own people then what the Malays says ‘biar mati anak jangan mati adat… no longer holds true….. is it not the custom or adat of our leaders to take care of us?

And by not continuing with this ‘adat’ of now only taking care of itself, UMNO is also now breaching the sanctity of Islam amongst the Malay.  The link between Islam and Malay culture is the very crux of the Malay being. Even the colonial rulers and Christian missionaries did not interfere in Islamic affairs and Malay customs and traditions. UMNO dares to do this and UMNO today no longer respects the Malay budi and adat and uses Islam for their political gain!

That is why I believe that the Malays cannot sit down quietly any more and allow their budi, their adat and Islam to be ridiculed and degraded by the desperateness of UMNO to hang on to political power.  

What of the Sultans and their place in all this?

Perish the thought that the Sultans are concern about or can do anything about the well-being of their ‘subjects’! And perish the thought that his subjects will pledge loyalty to the Sultan because the Sultan is just to his subjects! The political power of the Sultan has gradually waned as many of his ‘subjects’ manage to surpass the wealth of the Sultan. Today too many UMNO Malays have accumulated wealth that the Sultans could only dream of. The rise of the ‘political rich’ who are also politically powerful has totally eclipsed any meaningful function that these Sultans could now hope to undertake. So what of the Sultan? I am afraid without the ability to do anything about the well-being of his subject there is no quid pro quo between the Sultan and his subjects to justify the Sultan’s existence.

For now UMNO claims to have that quid pro quo with the Malays..but I think not! While the Malays in the millions are still without the benefit of this quid pro quo from UMNO why are there many amongst UMNO leaders whose wealth far exceed the bounds of decency? UMNO takes too much from the Malays for itself.

To UMNO  I say this:

Thy ambition,


Thou scarlet sin,

robb'd this bewailing land.


Henry VIII 3.2.306-7, Surrey

So I may no longer be a Malay in the manner I write my thoughts but I am so because those whom I once look upon to be our leaders are no longer Malays themselves in the manner they conduct their affairs.

The Malays were tolerant of other ethnic communities. UMNO is not!

Adat, budi and Islam are the traditional and social values upon which the Malay communities are based upon. UMNO does not subscribed to these values as evident in the arrogant manner they conduct themselves in politics and in the decadent lifestyle of their leader from whom other UMNO members would drawn upon as an example of their own lifestyle.

The Malays emphasize moderation in their life as Islam does. UMNO is a litany of abuses of executive power, corrupt practices and a total disregard of anyone else interest but their own in all things Malaysians. They profess to be adherents of the tenets of Islam but celebrate their ruling supremacy in ways that Islam and the Malays frown upon and regard with contempt and disgust.

The Malays respect humbleness in any wise and intellectual person. UMNO is arrogance personified!

Why would I want to follow UMNO into the abyss and be what they are: arrogant, deceitful and morally corrupt? It is time we stand firm and tell UMNO they can no longer have their way with us. The time is now. And those that will stand in their way are you and me!