Open Letter to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak - Din Merican

“In every age it has been the tyrant, the oppressor and the exploiter who has wrapped himself in the cloak of patriotism, or religion, or both to deceive and overawe the People.”– Eugene V Debs

Dear Prime Minister.

The late great American journalist, Edward R. Murrow said, “No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” Here in Malaysia, the ordinary Rakyat have ceased to be your accomplices.

Najib and David Cameron

In the  GE-13, you lost the popular vote and were denied 2/3rd majority in Parliament. If you were to hold an election today, I do believe you would lose, or barely win and only because as former Bersih chairperson and my good friend, Dato Ambiga Sreenevasan detailed in her New York Times op-ed piece, “Once again, the people of Malaysia risk being cheated out of an election.”

Your accomplices are those who in your own words benefited from the “donation” by concerned Arab potentates. Your accomplices are a person like the Inspector- General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, who instead of carrying out his mandate of protecting the Rakyat busies himself by intimidating and harassing people who point out that his Emperor and master (you) has no clothes. Your accomplices are in government institutions who instead of carrying out their duties, concern themselves with ensuring that your position is secure. What happens to our country is secondary to them as long as  they can benefit from your largess.

You have either sacked or sidelined anyone including Deputy Prime Minister and party Deputy President, Muhyiddin Yassin. who values UMNO over the man and ensured that dissent within your own party, is met with the full force of the State or the malicious rumor mongering of cyber thugs in your employ.

The silencing of the  respected Edge magazine and the harassment of its eloquent owner and its public spirited and brave editor was another failed attempt at controlling the narrative, and your reluctance to initiate proceedings against the Wall Street Journal  is evidence of the bullying nature that characterizes UMNO rule under former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir but you are elevating to new heights.

You are a Prime Minster bereft of political or populist legitimacy and public trust. When Prime Minster David Cameron visited Malaysia, he was forced to confront issues created by your political and financial scandals, instead of fostering international ties with a foreign country. Your political career is defined not only by financial scandal but the cloud of mystery surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu.

You are the most tainted Prime Minster in Malaysian history. You surround yourself with a cadre of sycophants who care more for their own position and what you can give them instead of the ordinary Rakyat.   You may claim that you are beholden to the Rakyat but the reality is that you think that the Rakyat are beholden to UMNO.

You claim that the Malay community would be “bangsat” without UMNO, but the reality is what I wrote in my open letter to former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir, “the Malays have been conditioned by Tun Dr. Mahathir (refer to his controversial book, The Malay Dilemmaand Dr. Syed Hussein’s critique of it in his book, The Myth of the Lazy Native)  have been conditioned to think that we have dilemmas. In truth, we all want  progress, modernisation and national unity, and  shun ignorance,and backwardness.”

Instead of progress and modernization, you give us bigotry and fear, with members of your administration and most damagingly you, claiming that the Malays would lose power to the Chinese community and we would be nowhere without UMNO.

And yet your propaganda apparatus tout the 1Malaysia concept as something that should be emulated and feed BR1M to the rakyat as if that paltry sum would cauterize the deep wounds you have inflicted on Malaysians.

As a contributing member of the Malay community whose fortunes and failures are part and parcel of my life, I cringe and feel a deep sense of hopelessness when I see an idea like Low Yatt 2, in the wake of the Low Yatt incident which had nothing to do with race but instead an ordinary criminal act that was used by opportunistic members of your administration to further this sense of “Ketuanan Melayu”.

Please do not be fooled by your foreign spin masters, no doubt purchased by foreign donations. Ordinary Malaysians regardless of race or religion realize that something is very wrong with Malaysia. They may not have access to the writings or ideas that the Internet offers, but their circumstances tell them that something is wrong with the economy, something is wrong with the social fabric, something is wrong with politicians and they know that all of this comes from Putrajaya.

You can blame the Chinese, you can blame China’s economy, you can blame the falling petrol prices but everyone knows that the economy has been mismanaged. That corruption is rampant. Everyone knows that money placed in your account benefitted you through placating the various warlords who see to it that your position is secure.

I realize my words hold very little value to you, including what I said to you during our short conversation at the Maybank hospitality marquis during the 2010 Maybank Open at the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club when I counseled you to use the awesome power of your office with responsibility. You agreed with me and pledged to make Malaysia great again. What a lie it was and I believed you then, but not now, not a second time.

You have dismantled or neutered any mechanisms that could remove you from power. The best thing you could do for this country is remove yourself from office. Allow UMNO the slight chance of reforming itself and perhaps attempting to get back to the ideals of the founders of this once great country.

I will be returning to Phnom Penh soon to resume my academic duties at the University ofCambodia  where I will enjoy the company of my fellow academicians  and our students. Leaving Malaysia  and being away from my dear wife, Dr Kamsiah, at this point in time when our country faces an imminent economic crisis (a worse case scenario being the recent prediction of former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin) as a result of your economic policies and politics is difficult for me.

It is indeed sad for me to acknowledge that you have failed in the performance of your duties as Prime Minister of our country. If you have any shred of pride and honour left in you, you should resign of your own volition. If you do not do so, you will face the indignity of being thrown out of office by all Malaysians who love their country.

Remember the wise words of Mahatma Gandhi. “Remember that all through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always.”

Yours sincerely,

Din Merican