En route to Mersing, I travelled through Air Hitam. Then on to Keluang , passing through Kahang, Felda Nittar and finally making it to Mersing. I passed through towns and centers of commerce.
Passing through these areas, I see firsthand the failure of UMNO policies. I was amazed to see the development of Air Hitam which a short while ago was famous perhaps as a town selling vases and potteries. Or just as an intersection town for people going to Kluang, Johor Bharu or Batu Pahat.
Kluang is a bustling commercial town. You have many factories producing clay based industries, flooring tiles and the maker of pampers- Kimberley Clark. You see a few palm oil mills that process oil for planters around the area. I did not have time regrettably, to patronize the famous Tong Fong Coffee Shop in Kluang.
You pass through Kahang and the sight along the main road is deceiving. The town and commercial centers are located off the main trunk road. Finally you arrive in Mersing a smallish town with character. The commercial vibrancy is as usual, provided for by Malaysian Chinese.
Traveling through the towns, stopping by briefly, I suddenly realized that I have just passed through testaments on the failure of the UMNO/BN government. They exposed the fallacies boasted by the now familiar billboards proclaiming UMNO’s 55 years of promises fulfilled. The policies have only fulfilled the promise to make Malays beggars in their own country.
What do the towns of Air Hitam, Keluang and Mersing and even Kahang show me? They show indicators of the boldness of the human spirit. Yet, these indicators of human advancement and enterprise also tell me that after 55 years of UMNO rule, you have a section of the Malaysian section, probably 95% of them, who do notdepend on UMNO for their living. They are driven by the awareness and appreciation that the responsibility in determining their future lies within themselves instead of allowing others to define and determine their future. They accept and adapted to the free market system. Despite that, they can and have prospered and will soon enjoy more democracy if democracy is defined in the context of freedom to exercise choices. They can choose NOT to elect BN. that is a wonderful sense of true freedom.
On the flip side, you have a section of our Malaysian population where 95% is made dependent on UMNO’s largesse and benefaction. One section of the population is independent, depending on its own efforts and enterprise to advance in life; the other is dependent and enslaved by its political masters. The other is full of optimism and confident in its forward march, the other waits to be commanded and enslaved by pessimism and bigotry.
How is possible, for people living in the same country, enjoying the same climate, living off the same soil, display such stark differences.
The difference to me is sufficiently explained by the fact that one portion of the population adopts and adapts to the free market; the other adopts a central command economy- commanded by UMNO. The one portion enjoys a per capita income of RM 1500, the other, RM1000. Even then, 40% of the latter lived under an income of RM1500 a month. The majority who scrambled to get the RM500 from our Santa Claus PM are Malays who are generally made poor because of the damning policies carried out by UMNO.
The Malays are a victim to UMNO’s objectionable policy of equality of outcome. The non-Malays thriving in Mersing, Kluang and Air Hitam are beneficiaries of the equality of opportunity- that no one should be prevented by arbitrary obstacles from using his capacity to advance his own objectives. They succeeded where government interference is least and the lesser the interference, the more thriving they become.
Malays on the other hand demand equality of outcome. Everyone must finish at the same time in the race. But the Malays forget, demand for equality of outcome, gives a license for bigger and bigger government and of government imposed restrictions on their liberty. And UMNO does not ensure everyone finishes at the same time. It allows a selected few to finish ahead. Those who finished ahead find their champion and spokesperson in people like Ibrahim Ali; and people like Mahathir who laments that after 55 years, Malays are beggars in their own country. His children are not beggars though. They are rich beyond our imagination because, Mahathir did indeed command people to enrich his children.
Posted by sakmongkol AK47
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.