The present Malay dilemma

Malay political leaders who have achieved the pinnacle of their career do so by a combination of guile, political pedigree and money – plenty of money.

COMMENT

Malays who are pillars and leaders of society, Malays who are in high public offices, Malays possessing great executive and political power with wide discretion in using that power and minimal accountability, will, more often than not, misuse that power to their personal advantage, resulting in the detriment of the very people whom they lead.

This was true of the Sultans who were not hesitant on calling upon the British to safeguard their royal prerogatives while surrendering their interest, that of their subjects and of their country into the avaricious hands of the British.

The British then proceeded to hand over part of our nation in the north to Thailand and unilaterally reigned over Pahang, Terengganu, Kelantan, Selangor, Johor, Kedah and Perak – appointing themselves as “advisors” to these Sultans “whose advise must be acted upon”.

In the process Sultans who were compliant with the wishes of the British were put on the thrones of Kedah, Perak and elsewhere and whatever changes deemed necessary by the British to the constitution of Malaya to reflect the interest of the British – changes that have literally changed forever the very foundation of our nation – for good and for bad.

This is also true of Umno from the time they took government after Merdeka to this very day where political power in their hands were abuse for the personal gain of their own kind to the detriment of the Malays and our nation.

And it is true today of those Malays who have been privileged to hold high public office and who then proceed to sell their executive powers along with their integrity and credibility to the highest bidders while taking for themselves whatever could be taken from our national coffers.
How cheaply they sell themselves and how little they care for the common good of our people and our nation! They do not seem to understand that with great power comes great responsibility.

This not to say that all Malays with power will misuse that power but the prevalence of this scourge amongst Malay leaders plagues too many of them, so many that it raises the question of whether the Malays can really lead responsibly.

As a Malay, it pains me to raise that question that only a Malay can rightfully ask of his own leaders before others ask it – if that is not already being done.

For the Malays, the sum of the negatives far outweighs the positive. Our problems are multi dimensional but none more so than the dearth of worthy leaders to lead us in this darkest hour of our nation, if not of the Malays.

Malay political leaders who have achieved the pinnacle of their career do so by a combination of guile, political pedigree and money – plenty of money.

It is never by being a force for common good and for positive change within their party, within government and for the people and our nation.

It gives rise to the question as to what they will do once power is in their hands. How will they sustain and keep their hold on power? With guile, with an over dependence on their political pedigree (for whatever it is worth), and with money too?

And none reflect this more than the two alpha Malay leaders that now take centre stage in our political life – Anwar Ibrahim and Najib Tun Razak.

Abusing the trust

Both had greatness thrust upon them at an early age not by their own accord but by others. Najib because of his pedigree and Anwar by Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Whether deserved or not of that greatness, both then proceeded with unrestrained aplomb to abuse the trust placed upon them.

Najib through his personal indiscretion and a lacklustre political career, Anwar by his rabid attempts at consolidating around him political power and the financial means to achieve that power.

Today we know enough of these two individuals to wonder how is it that after all that they have done to themselves, to our people and to our country, they are still at the top of the heap amongst the Malays, nay amongst all Malaysian, to be able to give us no other choices for our leaders but themselves! How is this so?

Are the Malays selling themselves short? Of course we are! We deserve better! We cannot be silent anymore.

We cannot continue doing nothing anymore, and there is no time quite like the present if the Malays are to awake and begin the process of stopping the rot. Otherwise that saying “Takkan Melayu hilang di dunia” will no longer have any relevance or the ability to move future generations of Malays as it has moved Malays in the past.

Today the Malays are synonymous with political power – failed political power and abused political power!

Political power has been misused and abused for so long because the institutional framework that makes this possible exists. And it exists because of this outdated and horrendous belief that the majority rules, that the minority and the individual can be egregiously discriminated against with impunity by those in power, that justice will not prevail.

The result of the 13th general election is a travesty of what majority rule should be all about when it was first institutionalised by Umno in the time when it had its two-third majority in Parliament.

During that time, majority for Umno meant consolidating and maintaining their two-third majority in Parliament. This they proceeded to do by manipulating district boundaries to create a disproportionate political advantage for themselves.

It is like a household comprising of the father, mother and four children. The mother and the four children are given one vote each when it comes to deciding where they should go for a holiday.

The father gives himself six votes. So no matter how they vote it is the father who will have his way over the others. In Malaysia, Umno is the father and we are the rest of the family.

Fix the system first

Umno has used political, ethnic, racial, linguistic, religious and class groups to advantage them when deciding on their preferred voting boundaries.

Once institutionalised, this “majority rule” reflected what Umno wanted and not what the people of Malaysia wanted.

And so we now have the anomaly of Pakatan Rakyat winning the real majority votes but not the election because “majority” as interpreted by Umno means a majority in parliamentary seats, not the majority votes.

These are legacies of the past that we need to deal with in the manner that we now expect things to be dealt with – with common sense and consensus amongst all Malaysians.

Hence I do not think it right that Pakatan Rakyat or Anwar should go about insisting that having won the “popular” vote they deserve to be in government.

In so doing Anwar is imposing the “majority will” upon us all. We need first to change the institutional framework to reflect the things we want – and do it through an act of parliament.

Fix the system. Let this election be the turning point and the starting point of a new era. We must move on and Anwar must move onToday the leaders the Malays seek are not only from themselves and for themselves. Today’s leaders must be for all Malaysians and if these leaders fail, then it is no longer the Malays alone that are to be responsible for their failure.

Their failure will also be Malaysia’s failure. With this in mind, is it not time that we look beyond Najib and Anwar? Beyond race, religion and region in the choice of a leader? If we do not, then we are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Mistakes that will doom our present!

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.