On Zaid Ibrahim's Article : It Is ALL Just Camouflage To Cover Up Their Ignorance

Here is a relevant comment by Dato Zaid Ibrahim which appeared in FMT yesterday. Do read my comments (panjang sikit) at the end.

He has been described as the future of Umno and his maiden speech as the Umno Youth chief was applauded as inspiring and providing recipes for the revival of the party.

I met Umno Youth chief Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki recently at Bangsar Shopping Centre and he strikes me as a nice young man with polite manners.

He even promised to call me when he is free. I hope he will do well as the future of Umno depends on young leaders like him.

What bothers me about leaders in Umno like Asyraf is that, although well meaning in their desire to help the Malays, they themselves have forgotten Umno’s original objectives.

Umno leaders of the earlier years just wanted to help Malays deal with the problems in this life. 

In contrast, the present leaders want “a complete Malay” in the Muslim mould; that is successful in this life and the next.

What’s wrong with that? 

It’s too ambitious a project; 

and is not achievable, 

that’s why. 

No one can save another’s soul. 

Not even a Malay-led government. 

When you try to shape the Malays into a “complete persona” in this world and the next, you will fail in both.

Umno’s original objective was more limited in scope. 

Umno worked hard to get the Malays to read and write and be properly educated. 

They wanted the Malays to be able to reason and be interested in scientific matters.

That’s why Umno published “Revolusi Mental” or “Mental Revolution”. Umno wanted Malays to have meaningful participation in the economic activities of the country. That’s why they opened land schemes for them. Umno leaders then were not bothered if some Malays dr(a)nk whisky or Guinness Stout, or the ladies dressed like Saloma without the tudung. Private morality was a non-issue.

Today, Umno has a different complexion with a different agenda. 

They spend countless hours talking about halal and haram. 

They have to provide answers if Malays can visit temples, and the optimum age of young girls they should take as a wife or secondary ones.

In other words, they spend a lot of time dealing with the Malay soul. 

But the Malays’ souls are not sated, and the endless search for the saviour will continue, and that’s why Umno and PAS are courting them.

Since the early 1980s, Umno has become a hybrid. 

Half of them are Malay nationalists who only know Article 153; 

and the other half are Malay Islamists who think there is a magic formula out there revolving on the notion that religion is a panacea for all problems in society. 

The panacea has not been found yet, despite 40 years’ of Islamisation and billions spent on making the Malays “better Muslims”.

When I was in Umno, I proposed to the leaders to focus on issues of education; 

they wanted Islamic education as well. 

When I said Malays must have deep knowledge, they replied: what kind?

Knowledge was not enough for them; they wanted divine knowledge as well. When I suggested we leave religion to the Malays to sort it out, they countered: what do we do with all the religious institutions and thousands of religious teachers in the country?

When I told them that religious education should just be left to the parents and the community and government schools should just focus on education, Umno said no, and insisted that the government must not adopt secular policies. 

Now it looks to me PPBM-led Pakatan Harapan is following their footsteps.

Malay political leaders speak of great ideas like Malay resurgence and the Islamic renaissance. 

But none are prepared to talk about the lack of savings and the high household debt among Malays.

They don’t talk in their assemblies about why Islamisation policies have retarded Malay education, although it’s crystal clear to those who have eyes. 

They don’t want to find out why Malays are the biggest consumers of illicit drugs and ketum drinks.

They don’t have a debate on why some Malay students still cannot read after six years of schooling. 

They do not want to discuss the curriculum in religious schools or the lack of focus on science and technology in all schools generally. 

They are more interested in “more Islamisation“ for the Malays.

The message in my piece today is this: If Malay leaders in Umno, PAS and PH still want to save the Malay soul, then appoint more muftis and spend more money on Jakim (Department Of Islamic Development Malaysia) and continue with the programme of having an Islamic image and Islamic content, and spend a few billions more on divine knowledge.

In doing so, they might well win elections, but they will not save the Malay soul, nor will they contribute anything meaningful to progress the Malays.

The Malays will still be selling tom yam for a long time.

Zaid Ibrahim is a former law minister.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.

My comments : 

The problem is really more serious than that. 

For the past 40 years or more the Malays have been cocooned away from the real world. A friend who used to be Chairman of a very large Malay corporation that survived almost completely on government handout projects and concessions said that the skill sets and the work ethics inside his organisation "have nothing to do" with the real world outside. 

The entire Malay ecosystem was carefully nurtured to keep them away from mixing with the real world. Be it in business, education, social interactions, RELIGION, politics, language, sports, art and just about anything human beings do everyday.  

The common theme in all these areas of "endeavour" were lower standards. Lower the bar.  

For over 40 years the Malays have been dumbing down - at a time when the other non Malay communities have been making better strides and when other countries have been making giant strides.

Vietnam has announced that they will be manufacturing their own car the Vinfast.  But it is a private sector effort with no taxpayers funds involved. The CEO and top managers are  American, ex General Motors.  The Vietnamese have already displayed the car at the Paris Auto Show.  

Hiring American CEOs, displaying their cars in Paris - what does that mean? The Vietnamese are seeking out the outside world and saying "We are coming to join you".  And they are doing this without taxpayer funding - meaning it is market driven. 

In Malaysia we went the other way. We wanted to develop our country 'in our own mould'.  This was a misnomer. What it really meant was 'We want to develop the Malays in their own mould'.   

The mould had a very simple design. It was an all encompassing Malay / Muslim cocoon. No other light, sound, smells, taste and even fresh air could get into the Malay / Muslim cocoon from the outside. This has been going on for over 40 years.

The others, especially the Chinese and some Indians (not all) did not want to be part of this cocoon system.  They have been clever and more fortunate. From very early on the Chinese caught on that the national education system will be going into the cocoon mode.  Hence they invested heavily in their own education ecosystems. 

They have held on tightly to the 1300 Chinese language primary schools in the country. And it has been successful.  When compared to the government's "cocoon system" Chinese education has been much more successful in that they produce young people who can become productive citizens in the economy.  

Since the beginning of time, there are only 61 Chinese language secondary schools in Malaysia ("independent" Chinese schools offering the UEC certificate). Which has always been politicised. 

But there are bigger elephants than independent Chinese schools being born everyday. For example the Chinese have gone big into private schools which offer the O and A levels, etc.  They are known as "international schools". There are now a sizeable number of these "private international schools" in Malaysia offering primary to secondary level school education.  Many of these schools are run by the Chinese folks. The majority of the students, teachers and principals at these private schools are all Chinese.   They are doing a good job, serving the country's needs quite well.  Non-cocoon education system.

There is another huge side effect to this "Malay / Muslim cocoon". Which is what I want to talk about today.  And that is about leadership.

Anywhere in the world, in any system of government whether a democracy, monarchy, communist dictatorship, socialist dictatorship, authoritarianism, Islamic theocracy,  Hindu monarchy etc the leaders and the leadership WILL and MUST reflect the value system of the people or the society in that country.

1. Societies that are prone to violence and do not do much to curb anger and violence will produce leaders who will rely on violence to rule. Because that is what they understand.

2. Societies that do not like to listen to different points of view (especially about religion) will produce religious charlatans who will exploit the "no thinking zone".

3. Societies that have cocooned themselves away from the outside world or from people other than their own kind will produce leaders who will manipulate their "fears of the outside". This is NO rocket science.

4. Societies that do not compete will produce leaders who will frighten them with the "dangers of competition".

I can keep on going but the leaders of any society will and must reflect what goes on inside their own society. 

Their leaders will and must be fully soaked to the skin and bone with that society's norms and value systems.  

Kalau value system bagus, pemimpin pun bagus. 

Kalau value system tak bagus, pemimpin pun tak bagus.

They might have been born cerdik but they will never become pandai.   Cerdik is the intelligence that you are born with.  Pandai is the learning that you acquire.

In a cocooned environment, their cerdik people grow up to be 'tidak pandai' leaders. Because they have been denied an environment where they can compete and learn. They grew up inside a cocoon.

So can we expect 40 years of cocoon indoctrination to produce 'world class' ledership? Not likely.

Look at this screen grab here. Its an old Tanzanian folk tale.  There was a flood and the river overflowed. The fish were swept into the submerged grass. A group of monkeys decided to "save" the fish. They picked up the fish carefully and placed the fish on high, dry ground.  

This is what we are seeing in Malay society today. After over 40 years of being cocooned and growing up in a religious and racial slum, where ALL the standards have been lowered, we are now seeing their leaders who exactly reflect the lower standards of Malay / Muslim society. 

This is the nail in the coffin. After 40 years of the airtight and watertight cocoon, now they really and honestly think that the rest of the world outside the cocoon is wrong. That indeed life inside their cocoon is the best in the world.

Their religion is the best despite its violence, hate, ignorance and poverty.

Their social norms are simply the best despite very strange aberrations in behaviour and the looming breakdowns in Malay society.  (This is a very serious issue - please do not dismiss this lightly.)

They can ignore everything else (and even despise everything else) because it is outside their cocoon. 

Those who do not agree 'can leave the country'. 

So you see the  miserably failing Minister of Education Maszlee saying unbelievably dumb things like the  "Chinese should watch Upin and Ipin to learn Malay". This is too stupid to even comment about.

In Port Dickson, the Brader spoke about using his own car to send his daughter to the university.  That is all he has to offer. There is not much else going on inside his cocoon. 

Rafizi kept playing up personal issues (where is your dasar / vision bro?)  

By the way, can Rafizi show some audited accounts for all the money collected by Invoke? Some transparency would be good brader Rafizi.  Talk is you have some difficulty showing an audit of what happened to all that money you collected. 

Asyraf Wajdi once said (I was present) that Islamic banking can still function because the Malays do not know High Court Judge Justice Abdul Wahab Patail's ruling "against" Islamic banking.

Asyraf Wajdi has also just lost the elections. Their collective incompetence has seen UMNO being kicked out of government after 63 years.  

And the religious cocoon Pis-Pus guys are kissing up to the Malay cocoon UMNO guys.  As you can see in this montage:

At our government hospitals, water is leaking into the oxygen lines in the wards. 

In government departments the cafeteria is still the center of the universe - not the work desk.

Soon after being appointed, the new Mayor of Kuala Lumpur visited the hawkers (warong folks).  To show solidarity? The tikus population in Kuala Lumpur will certainly rejoice. They will continue enjoying the endless supply of food scraps thrown into the longkangs and the drains by the warong hawkers. Indonesian warong operators will also be very happy.

Government "seminars" / conferences still begin with long winded introductions,  10 am pisang goreng breaks, 12 pm lunch breaks and 3 pm curry puff breaks. 

So how does the cocoon deal with these obvious failures, the obvious non performance and the increasing criticism? 

Thats easy. Just shout louder, make more threats, show more anger, the so called tough language. More racist and religious posturing. Its just sad camouflage, a weak cover up for the cocoon's failure.

Zaid Ibrahim says :   The Malays will still be selling tom yam for a long time.

I disagree. I strongly and firmly believe the Malays can be turned around. In about 15 years max.  

Before that can happen - we must crack that cocoon.