Is Nazri Confused Or Just Being Mischievous?

Today, Nazri seems to have forgotten what we debated slightly over ten years ago. Has Nazri changed? Is he no longer a Malay nationalist? If he is no longer a Malay nationalist then what he is today? Is he a pro-DAP liberal like many urban Malays seem to have become? Does he believe that the Malay College Kuala Kangsar should be changed to the Malaysian College Kuala Kangsar and non-Malays be admitted, destroying more than 100 years of history?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

More than ten years ago I debated Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz in a closed-door debate organised by Old Boys of MCKK. The issue we debated was why he supported Umno and why I did not support Umno. Basically, it was about Umno’s doctrine and what the party stood for and why we were on opposite sides of Umno.

It was a friendly debate because we were friends and both Old Boys of MCKK. MCKK is supposed to be the Eton of the East (though we prefer to call Eton the MCKK of the West) where we played cricket, had tea and crumpets at four, and a cigar and single malt after dinner.

In short, it is supposed to be a school for children of gentlemen who are in MCKK to be groomed into gentlemen and taught that good brandy is supposed to be sniffed and sipped and not gulped like air sirap such as what those people do at Chinese weddings.

After many years of living together, MCKK is supposed to create camaraderie such as in Britain where you cannot join the British government unless you are from Eton (some call in “Old Boys Network”). During the time of the late Tun Razak Hussein, half the Cabinet were Old Boys of MCKK, as were the senior civil servants, IGP, heads of the various armed forces, etc.

In short, MCKK ran the country.

MCKK: the school for sons of gentlemen to be groomed into gentlemen

And then that changed. The government decided that to be fair to “other” Malays, MCKK should open its doors to those from the less privileged class and soon the likes of Anwar Ibrahim were allowed into MCKK. In time MCKK ceased to be the Eton of the East and got reduced to just another school like in the council houses of London. Yes, breeding means a lot in grooming gentlemen and you cannot turn glass into diamonds.

Anyway, I considered Nazri still the gentleman and I debated him as true gentlemen should. I disagreed with him on what Umno stood for but respected him for his commitment to Umno. True gentlemen should respect differences and agree to disagree (unfortunately, Chinese will never understand what this means).

Nazri explained he was a Malay nationalist and was in Umno to defend the special position of the Malays. He felt the New Economic Policy (NEP) was still needed because the Malays still needed help. Without the NEP the Malays would become slaves in their own county.

I did not oppose the principle of what the NEP stood for but was against the abuse of the NEP. Certain things were being done by the ruling elite in the name of the NEP. The NEP was being abused so that a handful of people could get rich at the expense of the Malays.

Tun Razak’s NEP touched the lives of 20 million Malays either directly or indirectly

The NEP, the creation of one of the most illustrious Old Boys of MCKK, Tun Razak, has done the Malays a lot of good. Felda helped millions of landless Malays become landowners (which Pakatan Harapan now wants to reverse). Five million Malays received a higher or tertiary education because of the NEP, where in the past they would have become padi farmers and fishermen.

Yes, when people talk about the NEP they only talk about quotas, APs and government contracts. They seem to have forgotten about the millions of Malays who benefited from the NEP in other ways. Out of the 20 million Malays in Malaysia, not a single Malay can claim he or she has not been touched by the NEP in one way or another, either directly or indirectly.

What Tun Razak did in his 20 years in government cannot be matched by Mahathir’s 22 years (or 27 years if he remains as PM till GE15). Mahathir built monuments to prove that he is a great Prime Minister. Tun Razak built jamban Siam in God forsaken places and gave the kampungs running water and sent midwives to pregnant women to help deliver babies.

Tun Razak did not built monuments like Mahathir did but be brought quality of life, education, health care and longevity to the kampungs, plus the benefits of the NEP

In short, Tun Razak was about quality of life, education, health care and longevity, the basics that humans require. Tun Razak was also about not giving fish to Malays but teaching them how to fish and giving them the means to fish — such as Felda land settlements and education.

But since the time of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak Hussein and Tun Hussein Onn, Umno seems to have changed direction. By the time Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over, Umno was no longer about the proletariat but about the ruling elite. And that is why I opposed Umno and why I debated Nazri.

We needed a “peoples’ revolution” to restore power to the people. We needed the ruling elite to serve the people and not the people having to serve the ruling elite. And that, I explained to Nazri, was why I was not with Umno but with the Reformasi movement.

Is Nazri no longer the Malay nationalist that he once was?

Nevertheless, I respected Nazri’s Malay nationalism stand and agreed that Malays do need help. But I felt we needed to change the way the Malays are helped because Umno’s way did not really help the Malays. That was the only disagreement Nazri and I seem to have had.

Today, Nazri seems to have forgotten what we debated slightly over ten years ago. Has Nazri changed? Is he no longer a Malay nationalist? If he is no longer a Malay nationalist then what he is today? Is he a pro-DAP liberal like many urban Malays seem to have become? Does he believe that the Malay College Kuala Kangsar should be changed to the Malaysian College Kuala Kangsar and non-Malays be admitted, destroying more than 100 years of history?