The 'back-door' cabinet - everything that's wrong with Malaysian politics

Muhyiddin Yassin's cabinet is like any sports team in today's Malaysia where members are not chosen for their skills on the pitch, their teamwork or their ability to perform under pressure.

Apart from race and religion, the selection criteria include skills in ampu bodek (flattery), strong kabel ke atas (political connections) and back-stabbing.

Football legends like Santokh Singh, Soh Chin Aun, Mokhtar Dahari, "Spiderman" R Arumugam and James Wong have been replaced by people with the calibre of Azmin Ali, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Hishammuddin Hussein, Khairy Jamaluddin and the token Chinese, Indian and East Malaysian.

Muhyiddin's "stuck-in-a-rut" cabinet sums up the dirty state of Malaysian politics. The needs and aspirations of the rakyat have made way for greedy, power-hungry politicians to promote their pseudo-Malay agenda.

After Muhyiddin staged his coup, a political observer, called "Yin", questioned his future in Malaysia. He said, "I won't stay where I am not wanted, even though it is my birthright to do so. They have made it abundantly clear – not once, not twice but for 60 years.

"They discriminate against me at every turn, they discriminate against my children and my grandchildren. We will always be second class. Good enough to pay most of the taxes that run the country; good enough to provide the services needed to keep things going; good enough to put our lives on the line to serve the country, but not good enough to be treated as equal citizens."

Yin acknowledges that "affirmative action" should have allowed the Malays to catch up, but wanted to know when it will the end. After decades of such action, the Malays are still lagging behind.

Addressing the leaders he said, "[...] but since you do not want me in this country, I leave you to steal from each other and stab each other in the back."

Yin rejects being called beggars, prostitutes or "guests" and said that the Chinese who left China to seek a better life, helped to build the railways in America and worked the gold mines of Australia.

"In every country we have been to, we have contributed economically and have not caused trouble," and added that Sir Frank Swettenham was reputed to have said that the Chinese were easy to govern because they work hard and contribute to the economy of the country.

Yin said that when the Chinese became rich, they built hospitals and donated to schools to give back to the community. He listed the hospitals, which accept people of all faiths and races, and said, "We donated to the National Mosque and a Chinese doctor (a Muslim) built a mosque in Ipoh" to be part of the community.

He was disappointed that their desire to be part of the country as full and equal citizens had been rejected and that they were only good as second-class citizens.

He said, "There’s a limit. Enough is enough. We, too, have our dignity which is built on honest hard work. If we don’t make it we don’t blame anyone else but ourselves and we double up to work harder and smarter next time."

He observed that the Chinese were constantly blamed for the Malays' failure and he told his children not to be angry about being discriminated against when they were denied entry into public universities or government jobs. He assured them that it was only temporary but wondered if they would also have to lie to their children.

He said, "How many tears must I wipe away when my children cannot get into the football team because they are of the wrong colour? How do you console those who climbed Mount Everest and their prime minister only congratulated them as an afterthought? You know full well that if they were Malays they would have all got titles and money.

"How do you feel when your idea is rejected by your own country and another country benefits from it? Every time you take a Grab, think about that; every time you use a pen-drive, think about that.

"We are discriminated against in every facet of public life. We have to work doubly hard to be recognised or to be successful in business. We cry out to be full citizens of this country. The country we were born in and the country we want to die in. Yet you push us away at every turn."

Yin regrets that the Malay leadership would rather accept an Indian fugitive preacher and award him with land, and offer blue identity cards to Muslims from other countries but reject those who born here "because they lack a piece of paper".

I have little to add to Yin's lament, suffice to say that in time, the ordinary Malays will eventually realise the treachery of the Malay leadership and that only the elite and well-connected Malays benefit from Ketuanan Melayu.

The Malays of my grandparents' era are gone. Hard work has been replaced by handouts. Ruthlessness is preferable to respect. Greed has triumphed over generosity, and individual interests are more important than integrity.

The rot that I observe in my own Malay community today is like the coronavirus pandemic. For the past five decades, Malay leaders were too busy playing politics to take drastic measures to contain the evil of Ketuanan Melayu.

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter. - Mkini