BN must return the booty, bread and butter to Malaysians

After five decades of BN governance, what have Malaysians gained and at what price and what have we lost in exchange?

To begin with, where is all of this nation’s booty? There was a time when the colonial masters (rather raiders) came and took all our rubber and tin. But at least they gave us education, healthcare, roads and rails without asking us to pay toll and taxes. Right?

But what can we say of our post-independence masters? They lorded over us and sold us the ‘nationalism’ mantra. They sang ‘Look East’ and ‘Buy British Last’. Later they seemingly sold us that piped-dream of a modern Malaysia with jobs for all and wealth to be shared by Malaysians.

And so we ran the race at full throttle for the local masters and helped them build their own cartels and fortunes. Today, not only are we left in serious debt but have also pawned our bread and butter jobs that are enriching neighboring countries at the expense of the 27 million citizens of this land.

The factory jobs have gone to foreign labor. The petrol kiosk attendant and car wash jobs have gone to the illegal labor. The maid jobs are sold too. The construction industry is no more an easy entry for locals. Let us not forget the plantation sectors.

We are not even talking about the thousands of massage parlor workers and sex workers coming in under the cover of tourist visas.

Even pasar malam stalls, taxi driving, retail outlets – and many more have all gone to the foreign labor. Just take a tour of Petaling Street or any pasar malam all across the nation to see the reality.

And mind you, there must be truth in the perception that while there may be two million legalized (or authorized) immigrant workers here, it is everyone’s guess that that figure could just as well be doubled given the illegal workers coming and going and the recently ‘malaysianized’ foreigners.

So today we have a situation where foreign workers are not only talking back money by the millions from the country but are also leaving us with a youth population that knows nothing about housekeeping, building and construction, harvesting the fields, trading, and a long list of economic activities, survival skills and know-how.

And let us cut the bull out of that argument that the nation is advancing and therefore Malaysians will not take on menial tasks. Take a look at the West or the East if you will. Their retired folks are gainfully engaged. Their youth population Has the option to go into any of the industries that BN has ‘pajak’ to the foreign cheap substitute.

No small wonder then that we are now wrestling with mat rempits, drug addiction – including steroids, aesthetic and designer dugs, house break-ins, street crimes and what have you.

The BN led government has failed to ensure technology transfer to all Malaysians. They have failed to build alternative industries to keep Malaysians as economically viable. They have failed to keep the wealth of the nation within its borders. True?

Instead they absorbed the compromised-graduates into the civil service and we all know that half of them are only clocking the punch cards as there is no work. Or if there is work, much of it is redundant, repetitive and unproductive. Ask the traffic cops who man the stations and they will tell you many more stories of doing ‘bodoh punya kerja’.

Have we also not heard the all too often song that Malaysians are shying away from the jobs available and so we have to give it to the foreign workers?

It is indeed a wonder how the politicians can get away with such answers. Either Malaysians are all fools or they are far too exhausted to even whimper.

We know that unhealthy profit taking is the only motivator for all those hiring foreign workers. Not nationhood. Period.

In any case, if the BN campers knew that Malaysia would not be an attractive cheap labor market eventually, then there are two questions that beg serious answers:

Firstly, then why did the Tun Dr who helmed the nation for 22 years pawn our citizens into the cheap labor marketplace in the first place? Why did he take this short cut if not to push his own agenda for power and control?

Secondly, what were all the BN campers doing all these 30 years – why did they not map out a strategic masterplan to re-engage and transform our labor market into self-reliance?

We could have created our own knowledgeable workforce of construction and plantation workers, maids, traders and cottage industry hands by institutionalizing these sectors. We could have made it if the lords of contemporary Malaysia had kept interest of the rakyat as a priority above profit-taking and self enrichment in that process.

Today, our friends from neighboring countries are enriching their own nations with wealth brought in from the global market place. More. They are also enriching their nation with crafts and skills that will keep the country in good stead should the world economy crash.

But we – what have got? The Abu, Ah Chong and Muthu can hardly bang a nail in concrete; the Siti, Swee Wong and Meenachi hardly know much about housekeeping and knitting yarn let alone growing chili in the back yard.

You can have all the skyscrapers. You can have all the flyovers. But when corruption and self interest has blinded you, you leave the population paralyzed in the face of a global meltdown. And when the tides hits our shores do we blame the Soros and Jews again just like the Tun did before?

Thanks to BN. And thanks to all Malaysians too for believing the Tun Doctor’s dream for far too long out of fear and passive submission.

Today while half the working population is clinging on to their jobs for dear life, another half is drifting without much hope given the economic and financial storms brewing across the globe. And between these extremes is a tiny fraction enjoying the spoils of patronage for the new gurus of Malaysia – the politician turned tycoons.

Malaysia Chronicle