Have we become a fascist state?

Our state apparatus and its servants have become mere robots working on command of the ruling party to ensure freedom to opine is controlled if not stifled altogether

ANALYSIS

By P Dev Anand Pillai
I wonder now which writer will be picked up for airing his opinions in public all for the betterment of Malaysians and most of all to have a thinking public which is known not to be a reading society.

Though the police may have acted on the orders of their political masters i.e. the top civil servants in the home ministry who would have signaled their displeasure to the Inspector General of Police after having read the article, the police themselves have become a shame to their institution and the nation as a whole.

Despite having a better educated force, we still see many officers taking orders from their superiors which makes them look like fools when they execute such orders. Have we become a fascist state that criticising national policies and the way in which the nation is run has become so dangerous that writers and publishers have become the latest targets of the police?

Perhaps God may have seen what happened to Malaysiakini when the police came a calling, and that in the following days a huge disgraceful incident had happened in Prai, Penang where three policemen were accused of raping an Indonesian domestic helper who was caught without having her original passport which was being withheld by the agency which had brought her here. Instead of disciplining their own, our police force seem interested in ensuring that the freedom to opine is controlled if not stifled altogether.

It can be said that due to the education system that we have, the entrants into the police force today are of very low quality. Most of these entrants believe that by securing a job with the police and being in uniform, they are untouchable. Most are very lowly educated, most have very little knowledge of English, all they can converse in is in the national language.

The ones that are English speaking are usually kept as aides to the higher ranked officers who speak very little English but need to put up a good public relation stunt to show the world that they are able and highly educated policemen. Now with the secondment of Rela guards as police personnel, it makes the matter even worse.

Amongst the lower strata of the Indian community who have now become urban slum and ghetto dwellers, a job with the police force is like a calling from God. They feel that it will be better to join the devil instead of getting killed by the devil all the time. So, with pleasure many will be glad to see their daughters and sons in the blue uniform although what they do is just sit around in pondoks waiting for that gullible Indon, Bangla, Burmese or Indian worker to pass by.

Most don’t mind that all their children will be learning is the art of corruption and how to perfect it whilst enjoying a salary from the public purse and to top it all, a pension at the end of the day. Gone are the days when we had Indian and Chinese officers whose names would be enough to put fear into the slime balls of the underworld.

Fear and mental state of Malays

What we are left with today is a batch of Indian and Chinese officers who see the police force as another means of perfecting the art of patronage so that they can be as decorated as it is allowable for a non Malay in the police force.

This mental state has spread to all spheres of the current regime’s administration, after the DAP took power in Penang. Suddenly the Chinese in the DAP have become ultra Chinese who “hate” Malays. But when these same Chinese were in the opposition, no mention was made of this so called ultra-ism then.

So what can be gained from this is, as long as compliant Chinese in the MCA are sharing the “leased out” power which is on the benevolence of Umno, all will be fine but if the DAP takes power, the Chinese there will be termed as ultras. This fear and mental state in the Malays will never be eradicated until and unless they themselves brave the challenges and come out of the mental stranglehold of the state.

When queried by the press on the rape case by the police personnel, the home minister says that all has been done to bring them to justice and questions, “What else can be done?”. In mature democracies, the home minister’s resignation will be called for and if it is not forthcoming, public pressure will mount.

If we are really to become the best democracy in the world as espoused by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, accountability shall be paramount when it comes to public office. But as usual in our administration, all we have for a term of office by this current federal government is slogans, slogans and nothing but slogans. It should have been ‘People Last and What Performance?’ instead of ‘People First and Performance Now!’

We have to learn to differ and respect the right to opine if we are serious in seeing this country not become another province of Indonesia in the future, or some backwater state of South Asia where a system of governance which is more of a system of preferences based on race instead of need and a system which does not bother about accountability that has failed miserably, leaving us far behind our other South Asian neighbours.

To do that we need to show this government which has now become more of a regime because of the way in which the state apparatus and its servants (civil servants) have become more of robots working on command of the ruling party instead of going in tandem with the General Orders of Civil Service no matter which party comes to power.

There is no more time to be given to rectify mistakes. Mistakes should have been rectified a long time ago. We are on the verge of being a failed state. People have got to know that only when we agree to disagree can we sow the best minds which, in turn will help us lead this country to greater heights in the future especially in Southeast Asia where our neighbours are far ahead of us.

A question to ask

Since our administration is almost entirely Malay with just a show of multi-racialism here and there to show the world that we are multi racial, any real change must start from the Malays themselves. If they still feel that the Chinese and the Indians are here to steal Malaysia from them, then they will be stuck in this state for another 55 years to come.

If the mentality is to bear it with a leadership that is corrupted and unable to do anything drastic to curb corruption and the abuse of power to plunder state funds in the name of development all because the leadership is Malay, then the country is heading in the wrong direction.

The question the Malays must ask themselves is why can’t other Malays from different political opinions be given a fair shot at governing this country since it is an unwritten rule that only Malays can lead this country?

If the Malays feel that the Chinese and the Indians should not question them when it comes to the leadership of this country, then they should allow the non-Malays to just do business and live in this country with equal opportunities for scholarships, contracts awarded by the government via open tender, licenses, places at blue chip faculties of local universities and many other aspects of daily live which is not right now due to high corruption and abuse of power and racism.

The non-Malays should be given a fair shot at what the government has to offer to its people. If this can be done, the non-Malays will not be keen to partake in the leadership of the country because they would feel that the Malay leadership is doing a great job at it.

But what we see here today is totally the opposite. Corruption has been allowed to flourish unabated with many civil servants getting into the fray by setting up companies to do work outsourced by government departments and to get contracts from the government by way of closed tender awarded to crony companies.

When questioned, the force of the law with concocted facts and figures and a compliant judiciary is used to silence the questioners immediately. With every institution and department in their pockets, these leaders can continue to plunder the nation till the bottom of barrel is empty and then think of ways and means to fleece more money from the people through new innovative means.

When questioned again, race and religion will be used as the final trump card to again subdue the “boiling lid effect” which is already being seen. The Malays will be warned that they will loose power and be second class citizens in their own land and to curb this they must allow the “devils” that they know, to continue to lead.

The young are not prepared to see this attitude ruin the country. Many have awakened and are now more politically conscious. Be it the leading political parties, the law enforcement agencies like the police or any other institution which has been ruined and is totally useless and unworthy of its existence, the people are rising to claim this nation again.

We will not allow it to become a failed state and will not allow one party to dictate and call the shots any more. Malaysia is for her citizens, we should do all it takes to protect her from the irresponsible