The history of Malaysia is a chronicle of lost opportunities, so will another leadership change make any real difference? The BN coalition that has run the country since independence is running out of steam but is still hot on going after those who challenge it. The 1MDB fiasco that now threatens to divide the county could have been an open-and-shut case had the truth been allowed to tell its story.
In the eyes of non-political Malaysians and outsiders, the governance of the country has become a national disaster and they are compelled to take sides. They cannot help being drawn into the political turmoil to help save their country because they see the breakdown of the rule of law and dark forces superimpose their will against the national interest of their once promising nation.
A government has become its own worst enemy in not doing the right thing, in not acting without fear or favour, but appears intent on protecting its scandalised leader. No government, however strong, can govern in self-delusion. The longer the charade the quicker the country, once the epitome of progress, and now lagging behind the Philippines and Indonesia, will become a pariah state. Even the American president is distancing himself, reports say.
The G25 is one evident disgruntled group of citizens. Copycat groups have appeared. Eminent Malaysians concerned for their country’s slide are compelled to enter the political fray and sound the alarm. They are ignored, like the hundreds of thousands who marched for electoral reform in the Bersih 4 walk.
Things will get worse before they get better. So far, Malaysian politicians have always managed to pull their country from the brink, though it is now sailing into uncharted waters.
Matters have now come to a head and many see the political battle lines drawn between good and evil and ‘they’ and ‘us’ is no longer about race and religion but Najib Abdul Razak & Co versus the people, the raison d’etre aptly surmised in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Four Corners documentary ‘State of Fear - Murder and Money in Malaysia..
The programme merely stated the facts, the events that took place. When someone is murdered there is always a mastermind and a motive. And more so if they are linked to politicians as everyone knows with the high-profile murders of Altantuya Shaariibuu and Kevin Morais.
The truth is out that it has never been about race, religion or a Chinese takeover, or even a Christian conspiracy, but unmistakable greed. Someone has finally shouted, “The emperor has no clothes”, and ironically, it is the emperor’s mentor, the one who clothed the emperor.
Enough is enough, he scolds, like an angry father dealing with a spoilt brat. Dr Mahathir Mohamad ceases not to baffle the nation and the role of nation-wrecker to national saviour may yet be the start of his journey to Damascus where I hope he, too, will see the light like Saul of Tarsus.
Informed Malaysians who follow their country’s current affairs and the 1MDB saga will know how the Four Corners team, Australia’s highly respected investigative journalists, have done a good and comprehensive job in weaving a complex story into its 45 minute report. That government critics slam the story for being ‘one-sided’ is regrettable and unfair.
We saw the team tenaciously accost their subject for answers as journalists do as a matter of routine during his visit to Sarawak only to be abruptly stopped, arrested, charged and deported. Why did he or any of the critics not front the camera to tell their side of the story? Why now cry ‘foul’ and demonise one of Australia's most respected news teams?
Eroding critics’ credibility
It only affirms the public criticism and perception someone is desperately hiding the truth from them. This is what erodes the critics’ credibility because people can see the absurdity of their stance. It is the government seen as not professional not the ABC journalists as unfairly and inaccurately slammed.
Never in the history of the nation have the rakyat faced such perilous times from within and without. The global economic meltdown and collapse of the oil price have evaporated the country's supply of petro dollars. Gone is the roughly annual RM100 billion Petronas revenue, now much decreased, and the people now feeling the onerous burden of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and more layoffs in the thousands.
There is a pervasive fear more people will lose their jobs as even the mighty Petronas has laid off many workers, an unprecedented and unthinkable phenomenon.
Malaysians are like sheep without a shepherd but not short of cybertroopers, police threats, spurious sedition charges and hot air. Even the weather has taken a beating and 38-degree days are like hot summer days in Perth.
The 1MDB controversy will not cool even as Australia cools with the onset of autumn. Be sure the Australian and foreign journalists from the world's leading media will continue to tell the tragic story of murder and money politics. The deportation of Al-Jazeera journalist Mary Ann Jolley has not stopped them.
If only the country’s leaders had lived up to the country’s national motto, ‘Unity is Strength’ Malaysia might have matched Singapore’s economic and social successes today. Unity is not exclusive but inclusive. Despite millions spent on fostering national unity today the country stays more divided and divisive, no thanks to agent provocateurs and money politics.
The nation’s governance is a tragic Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story. For example, the government sponsors racist National Civics Bureau (BTN) workshops and forms a unity council. Such self-evident hypocrisy is incredible.
For a perfect comparison, take Singapore that once was part of Malaysia, and the two nations took of from the same starting blocks. Singapore has left the straggling Malaysia behind in the development stakes. The difference is Singapore practised what Malaysia only preached in the ideals of nation-building.
It is nice to know the Johor sultan wants to re-create Johor into a Singapore with a soul. It is recognition of Singapore’s success. Why is Johor not emulating Putrajaya?
A nation divided cannot succeed.
That is the crux of the Malaysian malaise - a nation built on untenable crutches and racist ideologies is glaringly out of sync with the contemporary global rise of freedom, equality and competitiveness and I should add, the justice and freedoms provisions of the country’s own disfigured, ignored, but still recognisable and functional constitution and the rakyat's new aspirations.
The present battle of the Malay political titans is simply the ugly truth of kleptomania rearing its head. It is not about 'people first' but 'personalities' positioning and protecting their personal turfs like in a gangland stoush but without the guns and knives.
Nation is held to ransom
Today the nation is held to ransom, because like a Damocles sword, new laws and a compliant police chief threaten to silence those who dare challenge the political status quo and one after another innocent citizens are harassed with frivolous charges as in the case of the young woman, Bilqas Hijjas, with the ‘yellow balloon’. In the West such an act would not result in any political retribution and the politician would have had a good chuckle.
Shooting oneself in the foot through overkill and resorting to the jackboots has backfired. The dissidents of a new generation remain defiant.
Monday night’s ‘Four Corners’ programme on Australian ABC shows the perilous times the country faces. While it is true fear pervades the country more and more Malaysians are beginning to stand up to the bully.
Kevin Morais became a martyr for serving his country. His death and sacrifice should not be in vain. In time the truth will be exposed and the mastermind of his death will be punished. The sight of Kevin’s curled up body cemented in the drum should stir the nation to seek the punishment of his killers.
But will the system simply replace one bad pretender with another?
Today’s major anti-establishment players once were the perpetrators of the system. Mahathir’s son, Mukhriz, the purged leader of his home state Kedah, stated during the ‘Peoples’Congress’ the next country leader must be from Umno and therein lies the root of the problem.
Racial politics demands the preeminence of race. Does a leopard change its spots? Which country of reputable democracy functions like that? What will the world think if the world’s most powerful democracy the United States of America insists their president must be an Anglo-Saxon?
Can new wine be stored in an old wineskin?
Is a political marriage of convenience nothing more than an opportunistic move to oust an unpopular leader and replace him with another one from the same mould? Will a marriage of political convenience work?
The truth is beggars can’t be choosers. That’s what makes old political foes bury the hatchet and work together against their common enemy. Its enough to know the potential perils and for others to be wary and prepared.
The ideological cement that holds the dissidents together is friable yet enough for the mission. But what will be the political hangover after the emperor has been led to the political guillotine?
Like with Pakatan Rakyat, there is no ideological glue that binds the diverse component groups in an immoveable way but only the shared goal of defeating their common political foe. Will old enemies resume their rivalries like the Russians and the Americans did after the defeat of their common enemy, Adolf Hitler? After all a marriage not consummated in consensual political doctrines and convictions risks a nasty break-up after the passion ebbs.
No milestone ‘Magna Carta’
PAS has proved the point when her leaders flirt with the ‘devil we know’ in a shameless parlance in secret political adultery. Unequally yoked trysts are doomed to fail because Malaysian politicians have big egos and small minds and don't like to be questioned.
The just concluded ‘People’s Congress’ produced no milestone Malaysian ‘Magna Carta’- no watershed common charter for a New Nation of truth, justice and equality from the people agitating for change. The script, the stage and just about everything is fundamentally the same for those of the political ilk of the 3M’s who want to sack the political prima donna and his entire supporting cast.
The language of ‘forgive and forget’ alluding to Mahathir's past by several of the speakers at the people’s gathering is positive but misplaced. Personal forgiveness cannot discount personal culpability where the law is concerned.
Should they ‘forgive and forget’ a corrupt leader's alleged wrongdoings after some time? Does time make a crime less criminal? Should we re-write criminal history over time? Should the killers of Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock and A Kugan, among others, be forgiven in the passage of time?
Some think Adolf Hitler was a patriot who tried to save Germany and no wonder so many died for him. Beware the power of propaganda and what money can buy besides frogs and wanton journalists.
Sadly, without sound moral principles and sound laws upon which all human acts must be based and judged, there can be no exoneration and personal forgiveness is a subjective, even misguided notion. Mercy triumphs over judgment but there is no forgiveness without judgment, otherwise criminals will get away even with murder, and it appears the masterminds have thus far. The guilty must be judged in a court of law.
Still, the coalition of the people against corrupt governance is the only hope of challenging a runaway government that is increasingly being forced into a corner and may resort to more desperate measures.
But the solution is only short-range from either side. The dissidents adopt ad hoc approaches to rid the nation of an acute problem without immediate concern for the underlying serious chronic problem of a flawed and failed system of governance that engenders the growth of successive bad leaders and vice-versa.
The feudal state is disguised as a democracy. And personal greed is chocolate-coated in dubious slogans and false promises. Meanwhile, untold billions are stolen and the latest 100 million ringgit scandal involving a government official is the tip of the iceberg. How long the rakyat will be desensitised by the plunder is anyone's guess.
It didn’t just happen. I was told during the days of Mahathir, couriers on fast superbikes were delivering caches of millions of ringgits in cash to certain high-powered individuals in the early hours of the morning. Nothing new or startling. Some years ago, was not a former menteri besar caught with a million dollars in cold cash at an Australian airport?
It is needful, at some point, the sooner the better, for the ‘alternative government’, now with renewed vigour and new allies, to give the rakyat an ideological blueprint to believe in and that they can opt for in lieu of the status quo.
The need for an alternative and better Malaysia, something viable in a ‘Magna Carta’ or Manifesto or whatever name to describe the bold plan for the people, must be created to win over the minds of the masses. One single document to collate the will of the people is better than countless efforts that only dissipate the rakyat’s focus.
Tell the people what are the features and benefits of a new government and a new Malaysia. Don’t just expose, propose. It is easy to criticise in a scandal-infested country where bribery and kickbacks bloom like a Frangipani tree in a graveyard. Everyone has an anecdote on acts of corruption that seem commonplace. You can guess the one collecting money at the local railway station toilet may be part of an illegal racket.
With the advent of the Internet and mobile phones, the monopoly over the spreading of information is gone but the messengers must get the message across to the recipients still and it is the real challenge. And if technology fails there is still the old-fashioned word of mouth and personal touch approach.
‘Without critical mass, effective change impossible’
Zaid Ibrahim knows what it’s all about. Without critical mass, effective change is impossible. Gerrymandering can be a double-edged sword if the voters turn against the corrupt. They should know the ones who give them money and gifts to vote for them must be corrupt.
The re-creation of the country into a country for all where anyone can lead the country for the welfare of the people regardless of race and religion, including the ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ ideals that the late Lee Kuan Yew famously espoused, and later taken up by the DAP, is still the holy grail of Malaysia’s future, however you look at nation-building. Sadly we don't hear it much today.
A Malay-centric strategy in the governance of a country like Malaysia when the dynamos of the economy are the Chinese who are being driven against the wall and escaping abroad by discriminatory government policies has not been in the national interest. What more evidence does anyone need in the light of scandals like 1MDB and Mahathir’s own ‘missing 100 billions’ and the long list of other losses?
The DAP must re-assert its moral authority in standing up for the idea of ‘Malaysian Malaysia’ that once too was espoused by the now limping Gerakan Rakyat. Even the ‘Malay first’ Muhyiddin Yassin is sounding conciliatory and the new political re-alignment must do away with archaic and dysfunctional ideas of racist politics and unacceptable religious zealotry. The opposition must reach out to the masses who don’t read English online news sites.
Indonesia scared away its Chinese sons and daughters and suffered temporary economic decline and now desperately tries to woo back her lost Chinese capitalists and professionals and has attracted Malaysians in the spin-off. Malaysia can avoid a similar painful lesson. The disturbing signs of companies closing down and even the mighty Petronas laying off staff as I mentioned, warns of a foreboding economic storm.
The other option practised for decades by past and present governments is a failed experiment. Race-based policies don’t work and produce mediocrity, largesse, and corruption. The ‘nons’ have to prove they are sincere and capable of looking after the Malays and their interests.
Then the battle lines will even be more clearly drawn between those who are truly all-embracing nation-centric citizens and those who are narrow-minded and race-centric, and sadly the latter way, as so far evidenced in Malaysia, is anathema to the idea of nationhood.
People for change must bury the politics of race which has become a front for corruption. A hotel driver recently scammed us for RM50 when the shuttle ride to the train station should have been free. Racketeering, scamming, human trafficking, money-laundering, over-charging and every conceivable immoral activity is the result of a system gone awry when the fish rots from the head.
To survive, people contrive ways to scam others. The nation is seeing those desperate to survive rising living costs resort to dishonest practices from profiteering traders and cheating taxis to bribe-taking public servants.
It is time to share political power among all the capable regardless of race or religion for the sake of a stalling nation. The 3 Ms - not the politicians - we should have in mind, spelt in capital letters are the nation's real saviours. Morality, Meritocracy and Merdeka. They are self-explanatory.
Stop trying to defend indefensible
‘Honesty is the best policy’, as we were taught in school, must be the ethos of the politicians, not the ‘make hay while the sun shines’ greed and corruption that is destroying the country from unchecked corruption. The government has to, as they say, ‘cut the crap’ and stop trying to defend the indefensible. Politicking is not governing.
When a country has to have its concerned citizens govern its government, that’s how decrepit its administration has become. Bad governors are always the eventual losers because a higher official watches over the officials. Mark my words. God is more patient than Mahathir, but the corrupt will be brought to their knees in contrite confession or woeful and wretched public disgrace. The final countdown has begun.
The Malays must believe that the non-Malays will look after their welfare as well as anyone from their race. A nation born ‘of the people, by the people and for the people’ embracing one another is the singular hope for Malaysia, not the duplicitous racist politics and accruing kleptomania. Singapore and Western countries where Malaysians and Muslims are flocking to by the millions respectively are proof Muslims can entrust their welfare to non-Muslims.
For that honest leaders, not dishonest politicians, whatever the race, will suffice.
Race-based political parties have long passed their use-by date, like the ‘bastardised’ national economic policies. The continual political battles among the Malay political titans are convincing proof that race is no consideration in a state where unprincipled politicians will destroy those of their own race to further their self-vested agendas. The Chinese bogeyman has long been a pooh-poohed myth like the ‘pontianak’ by discerning Malaysians.
In time there will be no stage at home or abroad for a corrupt leader to strut his stuff.
The fact the prestigious New York Fortune magazine has chosen Sarawak Report’s editor Briton Claire Rewcastle-Brown as one of the ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ for her expose on the 1MDB scandal is proof the magazine’s editors like other reputable foreign media including the Wall Street Journal, the Economist and the Washington Post, among many others, have made their judgments. They all believe in Rewcastle-Brown’s expose. No need to speculate why.
Her belief that Malaysians look for foreign intervention in their political plight may be right. Every bit of help from outside the country in its plight against powerful dictators will count but Malaysians will have to overcome their own demons. They are doing fine. Even the enigmatic Mahathir looks sharp for his age and his preparedness to go to jail is the stuff of an unlikely political scenario that his detractors may regard as poetic justice.
CIMB boss Nazir Abdul Razak opines the country must never see another 1MDB scandal again. Really? But what practical safeguard is there to prevent a repeat? What new and radical legal safeguards have the banks proposed? Or is it just wishful thinking and damage control of the family name?
In the Four Corners report, when questioned, Reserve Bank governor Zeti evaded answering the crucial questions. Will the bank watchdog and the banking system demand new laws to prevent a repeat? Will the banking community demand mandatory disclosures to parliament of transfers of huge sums of money by government ministers and all politicians? Will they demand the political distributions by banks, such as the ones done by Nazir to politicians be disclosed by law?
Meanwhile the country’s ostracised Three ‘M’keteers’ - Mahathir, Muhyiddin, and Mukhriz - and their mate d’Artagnan Zaid, together with opposition and civil society leaders can make impassioned speeches and tell us what our itching ears want to hear. But they are kicking against a goad.
Power comes from the seats of power not the lips or keyboards of white-haired men and women and those without political guns. Public opinion is not that powerful in a country where someone like PAS politician Mohamad Sabu can throw a microphone during a public talk in utter frustration at the pervasive apathy and cowardice of the people. Power comes from the ballot box and the police who take sides with their political masters.
Until they destroy the serpent’s nest - the failed system - all is shadow-boxing and their enemy knows that. A million signatures will not evict the serpent from his nest. It will only tickle his funny bone and make him laugh and breathe out more fire. People power means nothing if it is not constitutional and creates a false hope. Malaysians are not the same as Thais or Filipinos or Egyptians. The Arab Spring has become an anti-climax.
An epiphany needed
The Malays, the majority race and those in the rural areas and the government’s ‘fixed deposit’ voters need an epiphany, as much as those in Sabah and Sarawak. For a long time the Chinese were asleep but they are awakened. The Indians are still bickering. Blind allegiance to a false preacher or fraudulent leader results in disillusion when the truth is known.
The Christians in Sarawak and the other parts of the country should know that friendship with the world of the corrupt is enmity with God. They are to expose corruption but friendship with the corrupt, and worse being partners with them, makes them enemies of God. They should heed their Bibles and honour God, not Mammon.
As for the Christians in government, I can only echo the words of Jesus to Peter, “Do you love me more than this? Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?”
The people must know the truth and act boldly, and not think like the retired Malay policeman from whose wife's shop I buy stuff, who unashamedly told me if given the chance he would do what the corrupt leaders have done. How do you change the mindset of someone like that? No wonder Mat Sabu was angry.
Reform is a hollow word until the entire system of governance and political mindset in the country sees radical change. With more and more non-Malays emigrating it behooves the Malays to realise their country’s economic future is at peril if the corrupt are not stopped and decent citizens, even Mahathir and many of us will not be around to say, write or do anything more.
Someone sent me a video of a young Malay girl berating an Indian boy made to kneel in the school classroom, presumably before the schoolteacher, for dropping her calculator. I was disgusted by the act of student abuse and wonder what sort of adult the girl would become.
I would dread to think in future that she would be making decisions that affect us. Yet it is symbolic of the country's sickness when a school-teacher encourages such bullying, also the modus operandi of those who abuse their powers.
In essence the country needs to re-calibrate its national policies with universal standards of free, fair, open and accountable governance and the shared moral dictates of a religious country. Democracy does not imply the adoption of the certain unhelpful immoral values of the West. The feudal state has to go along with the dictator and his acolytes.
A brave new Malaysia needs brave new Malaysians who will rise above the bigotry and corruption that now seriously threatens to sink the country. Mahathir & Co versus Najib & Co will see a Pyrrhic victory unless Malaysians demand a long overdue overhaul of their country's governance, political culture and national destiny.
It will happen if more and more Malaysians open their eyes and put their hands to the plough as if they have experienced an awakening, an epiphany, that will shake them loose out of the grip of their political captor and out of the darkness and ignorance of a Malaysian political 'jahiliyah'.
STEVE OH is the author of the novel ‘Tiger King of the Golden Jungle’ and composer of the musical of the same title. He believes in good governance and morally upright leaders. -Mkini
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