Dr M teaches India to suck eggs: Be less democratic and more dictatorial

LETTER There’s very little that’s new from Mahathir Mohamad who, by this time, really needs no introduction at all, so great has his notoriety become in the nation and abroad over the years.

He was more recently in emerging economic power India to advise that great democracy, with a history 8,000 years in the making, to be “less democratic and more dictatorial so that it can be rich like China”. Still, democracy was the best he hastened to add as his Indian listeners glared at him.

"India would be like China if it was little less democratic," Mahathir said in New Delhi at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit while speaking on Challenges of Change in the 21st Century.

He also didn’t mention his own iron-fisted two decades-long rule which has brought Malaysia to a step away from ruin, but more likely than not, they already knew since his racist reputation precedes him whether he chooses to admit it or not.

At 85, Mahathir doesn’t shy away from making a fool of himself with painfully outdated and overemotional rhetoric, generally directed at the Malays, and for a sinister purpose: to get greater Malay support from behind which to camouflage the ruling elite’s continued plunder of the Public Treasury under the guise of bangsa, agama, dan negara, (race, religion and country) and “special privileges”.

God help all those who call themselves Malay if they continue to listen to Mahathir. He has become an embarrassment everywhere except in Zimbabwe, where his close friend Robert Mugabe holds sway.

Mahathir had 22 years as Prime Minister to help make a difference for the better but he messed up. The only ones who benefited were himself, his nominees and his coterie of cronies.

He squatted on everybody including the Malays and especially the minority Chinese and Indians in order to prove that he was “more Malay than the Malay, more Bumiputera than the Bumiputera”.

What’s his excuse now for continuing to preach to the Malays on unity, being calculative, being analytical or anything at all for that matter?

Unity

Unity is a myth. Every community in Malaysia is equally united and equally divided.

The greater the number of organisations representing any group, the better organised and efficient that group at the grassroots level. There’s nothing to prevent the leaders of the various organisations from working together on issues of common interest.

This is not good enough for Mahathir and his kind.

He wants all Malays under one political platform ostensibly to maintain their political power vis-a-vis the others in the country.

The Malays were united under Umno, and supported by the Barisan Nasional, in the wake of the searing Sino-Malay race riots of Fri May 13, 1969.

What has this so-called unity brought them?

Nothing, as witnessed eventually by the departure of Pas from the BN in the late 1970s when they realised that a handful of Umno leaders were taking the people for a ride at the expense of the nation.

Mahathir pledged after May 13 that the Malays would be somewhere close to the Chinese – in business, wealth, education -- under his hare-brained theories and schemes. They fell for it lock, stock and barrel, allowing Mahathir and his kind, in the process, to laugh all the way to the bank and keep laughing ever since.

Today, it must be admitted that the Malays are still back at Square One, in a Catch 22 situation. The non-Malays, at the same time, have been denied their legitimate aspirations under the Federal Constitution – Article 153, Article 8, Article 3, Article 10, Article 14, among others.

Meanwhile, as many Malays as non-Malays are fleeing the country in record numbers, the former for the first time eclipsing the latter in the numbers entering Australia, for example.

The only thing that the Malays have going for them has been obtained at the expense of the non-Malay communities viz. 90 per cent of those employed in the government sector are Malays, a figure substantially more than their 60 per cent representation in the population.

Article 153 in the Federal Constitution, among others, pledged that only a reasonable proportion of the intake into the civil service would be reserved for the Natives of Sabah and Sarawak, the Orang Asli and the Malays in Peninsular Malaysia.

Both the Natives and the Orang Asli have been left out under Mahathir, and from even before, and after.

Many Malays are university graduates. This is a good thing to happen to any nation. But are we anywhere near the western benchmark of putting 30 per cent of the school population through university?

In any case, the liberalisation and democratisation of higher education on the heels of globalisation has meant that many Malays would graduate anyway, with or without government aid.

Not calculative enough

Mahathir also thinks that the Malays are not calculative enough, a euphemism which takes a pot-shot at the Chinese in business in southeast Asia for their ability to buy at a loss and sell at a profit.

If that’s the case, Mahathir had no business preaching to the Malays about business. In fact, his bakery business, The Loaf, has to yet turn in a profit despite being around for several years. It’s a wonder that his Japanese partner has chosen to still stick around with him instead of fleeing home with his tail between his legs. Those who have patronised The Loaf complain that the prices there are outrageous, a fact admitted by Mahathir himself in several interviews. However, since Mahathir’s cost of production is high, he can’t afford to bring down the prices unless he wants to declare himself bankrupt.

The Loaf is an example of Mahathir having the cheek to preach on something which he doesn’t know anything about.

If Mahathir has been less than calculative, his Malayalee Muslim forefathers in their graves in Kerala – God’s Own Country – in southwest India, by the Arabian Sea, must be turning over in their graves. This community, also known as Kakas and famous for their cendol, rojak and berota – which the Malays call roti canai – are among the most calculative people in India.

Not analytical enough

Mahathir also laments that the Malays are not analytical enough.

This is like hitting below the belt.

No community will be analytical if they are fed with falsehoods and bad propaganda day and night in the mainstream media and persuaded that what they are getting is the Gospel truth.

When needless subjectivity comes in through the door, even the very minimum objectivity that is needed goes out the window.

The best bet for the people sheltering under the umbrella term of Malay is a future away from Mahathir, his poodle Perkasa, and Umno, among others.

The Malays, because of their sheer numbers, will always have a place in the Malaysian sun.

They need not fear being left out even more than they have been up to now.

In fact, the Malays can only do better as a community by making a clean break with their feudal past and their tribal mindset. They need to think through everything and not blindly and mindlessly lap up everything that any Tom, Dick and Harry in Umno or Perkasa tell them.

No one should tell the Malays what to do or what not to do. They are as capable as any community on Mother Earth to solve problems, come hell or high water!

Malaysia Chronicle