The Arrogance of Power.

Reprise : First posted on Monday, 7 September 2009, at 2:01 pm in Lim Kit Siang's blog.

The Arrogance of Power

By Hussein Hamid

When you are in power for over fifty years, every now and then there is that temptation to bend the rules and sometimes even the truth to suit the political needs of the moment. You can be forgiven if this inclination does come up once in a blue moon – though the colour of the moon can be said to be blue every month if you are powerful enough to want it to be so. So here lies the problem. When this inclination becomes the norm where does that put good governance?

Almost daily now we are subject to the painful and most uncomfortable sensation of having our leaders take us for fools. They boldly stand in front of us through the medium of their Television Stations, their Media or even at times in person and proceed to tell us what they want us to know – not what we should know. Is there nobody amongst them that can tell them that what they are doing is like peeing into the wind?

Have the educated, intelligent and rational generation of Malays all left UMNO leaving our nation without some of its best people in government even when we need them most? Najib is in a world of his own. He lacks the ability to make sense of what is happening around the country. Surviving day to day is hard enough for him. UMNO has sworn blood oaths that they will defend themselves from PAS, from DAP from Keadilan from everybody – no matter what. In desperation they have ventured into territory where they violate all democratic conventions almost on a daily basis. When we question the legality of their actions their answer is that ‘might is right’.

When the court initially finds in favor of the opposition as in Perak – they appeal its decision confident that the Judiciary is ultimately theirs to instruct and manage. When a death in custody happens the usual suspects are paraded. A commission, an inquiry, no stones unturned….and then slowly but surely nothing will come of it. They play the Judiciary as if it was their own – and why not when the Chief Justice is indeed their own. Whenever a situation arise that will give problems to them they no longer even have the decency to pay lip service to placate the Rakyat – now days it is deny, deny deny.

Deny there was ever any intention to humilate the Hindus in the cow-head incident. Deny that there was any reason to not renew the IGP again and again. Deny that there was anything wrong in the caning sentence of Kartika but nevertheless no less a person then the Prime Minister himself has asked her to appeal for a reduction in her sentence.

Arrest 16 people for carrying yellow candles and red and white roses who were seeking freedom of religion in this country and yet deny that Muslims stepping on the sacred head of a cow is doing anything to incite another race. They invoke the name of ALLAH at their whims and fancies and see no sin in promoting the very sins that Islam frowns upon. For surely corruption and greed is also corruption and greed whether in Mecca or Malaysia? That all this has become the norm for UMNO frightens me. This is the arrogance of power that I am talking about. Perhaps the most outrageous example of this arrogance is their inability to understand that there are another points of view to be considered other then their own. To them any deviations from their point of view is a conspiracy to undermine their ability to hold on to power – no matter what. I try to do this. By my writing if I can turn one person against UMNO – just one – then we are one person ahead towards our ‘brand new beginning’. Do as I do. Go talk to one person and bring him or her into our fold – then one by one we will slowly but surely build up our strength and strike down UMNO and Barisan. 

Go do it now!

Comments:

#2 by Loh on Monday, 7 September 2009 - 3:39 pm 

 

The arrogance of power is shown by TDM telling Malays that NEP has achieved its objectives, but he still wanted NEP continued though it has gone on 19 years beyond the termination date, of a original twenty-year programme.

Just before TDM stepped down in 2003 he said that he failed to change Malays’ mindset not to rely on crutches, and now he criticises Malays for ditching the crutches calling for an end to NEP. If TDM meant what he said before he stepped down, he should encourage those Malays who think that enough is enough. Obviously he pretended to honour the promise made by Tun Razak and blamed the Malays for being crutch-dependent. Certainly, being not classified as Malay before 1957 constitution was in force, he was not able to feel the desire of the late Tun Ismail regarding preserving the pride of the Malays. Malays wanted their efforts recognised for the achievement they attained. That is not possible if NEP or even Article 153 remains. Zaid Ibrahim was blamed for being ungrateful to NEP when he was honest with his thought.

The Malays are as smart as any other races in the world. Under real meritocracy for university admission, like the pre-NEP days, the successful Malays such as Zaid Ibrahim have no problems getting into universities. The poorer students are safe-candidates for study-loans which the government has no problem in setting up a revolving fund to finance them. The perverted meritocracy implemented through NEP only ushered into institutions for tertiary education those not suitable for entry in the first place, and having got into the institutions beyond their mental capacity, they ended up as unemployable graduates, through obviously scaled-down passing marks. In the process the institutions that conferred degrees to the substandard-graduates have soiled their reputation. The degrees awarded as an indicator fail to guarantee that the holders have attained the required standards. This causes other graduates, Malays included, to have their scrolls become a doubtful paper. Consequently, Malays graduates passing out from local universities are not readily accepted based on the papers they possess. Should the majority among the Malays suffer the crisis of confidence so that the minority of those who had not the aptitude for tertiary education occupied the places when those who are able to make use of them are denied opportunities for themselves, and for the nation to upgrade their human resources?

A Chinese who was adopted by Malay and accepted as Malay enjoyed the special favour which included government sponsored education abroad wrote to chedet.com saying that his four children who have completed tertiary education have remained abroad because Malaysia has become a low income equivalent of Myanmar. Other Malays, true or NEW have the same story to tell, no doubt. NEP is the main reasons why we have become a low income country. The emigration of two million Malaysians over the last four decades deprives the country of the critical mass of human resources that could make this a high income country. That resources have been squandered because the cabinets members and their families wanted to ensure continued hold to power but were lazy to work on the policies which would return them to power without having to resort to division of the population by race, and ruled through favouritism. Since that divide-and-rule formula seems to be infallible for those in power continue to remain in office while the nation slipping to the level of Myanmar or Zimbabwe, they have cultivated a sense of arrogance. Malaysia has to be recognised as the most capable government in the commonwealth which have turned neutral government agencies into UMNO branches. Party members and supporters of UMNO are the backbone of the government agencies. Government leaders are above the law, even though the royalties have to answer for their private actions in special court. We cannot blame them for being arrogance, they have made it.


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