Pakatan Harapan Should Focus On Substance, Not On Technicalities

 

That was not how we opposed the government back in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, we sat down and talked to the government and told the government where and why we opposed them. And the government sat down to talk to us even though they knew we opposed them because the government knew we only wanted to see a better deal for the rakyat and not because we wanted to topple the government to take over.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I was in my 30s back in the 1980s when I first became politicalised. I was then a committee member of the Malay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and what concerned me then was that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had just become the prime minister and I did not really know which direction he was planning to take Malaysia.

Amongst Mahathir’s first ‘projects’ was to organise a joint Malay Chamber and Chinese Chamber dinner at the Equatorial Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The seating arrangement was that one Malay Chamber member would sit beside a Chinese Chamber member — so a Chinese had a Malay on his left and right, and vice versa for the Malay.

This reminded me of the ‘forced integration’ in the US back in the 1960s.

I cannot remember Mahathir’s entire speech but some of it is still stuck in my mind although this was about 40 years ago.

Mahathir told the Chinese that if the Malays are poor, then the Chinese would face the risk of unhappy Malays who would be jealous of Chinese wealth. Anyway, said Mahathir, Malays love to spend money. They would even borrow money to spend if they do not have money. And they would spend this money in Chinese shops. Hence the Chinese would benefit from the Malays being rich. Chinese, on the other hand, do not spend money. They save and invest. So, better rich Malays, as far as Chinese shops and businesses are concerned.

Hence, concluded Mahathir, it is to the interest of the Chinese that they work with the Malays, cooperate with the Malays, form joint-ventures with the Malays, and help the Malays get rich because rich Malays would benefit the Chinese — since all that money is finally going to end up in Chinese hands anyway.

Mahathir’s economic blueprint was to ask the Chinese to help make the Malays rich so that they can spend this money in Chinese shops

Yes, that was what Mahathir said not long after he became prime minister 40 years ago. Such a simple view of the economy and the filtering down of wealth. Rich Chinese do not spend, rich Malays spend. And rich Malays spend in Chinese shops. So rich Malays would mean Chinese become richer.

That is not quite how the economy works. But that was the economic concept of Malaysia’s prime minister who eventually stayed 22 years and sent Malaysia back 30 years. And this concerned me because the New Economic Policy was more than halfway through and we were still very far from reaching the target and aspirations of the plan.

And that was when I decided I must be on the other side of the government. The way forward for me was I must play the pressure group role to wake the government up and make the government listen.

Social reengineering involves more than just appealing to the Chinese for help in making the Malays rich so that the Malays will spend the money in Chinese shops and help the Chinese get even richer.

And that was when I turned anti-government, so to speak. Someone had to go against the government and put the fear of God in them. Someone had to make the government listen and threaten those who walk in the corridors of power that they risk losing power if they do not pull their socks up.

So, I decided to become active in PAS, the only opposition party a Malay-Muslim could support. DAP was non-existent in Terengganu while PSRM was too ‘communist’ for my taste (and not suitable for a capitalist like me).

Then, in 1988, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah formed Semangat 46, and I was excited (I saw that as the beginning of an opposition coalition). I immediately bought and wore a Semangat 46 badge, even during Malay Chamber committee meetings. Almost everyone in the meeting was Umno and you should have seen the dirty looks they gave me.

Eventually, Umno Youth ousted me from the Malay Chamber committee and from that day on they made sure only Umno people were elected to the committee.

I remember one occasion when I was invited to give a speech in Ipoh. At the end of my speech, Hamzah Zainudin, who was the Ipoh Umno Youth leader at that time, shook his head and commented, “My God! You are PAS.”

Understandably, I was never invited to speak in Perak again.

Anyway, back in those days we did not wish to be part of the government. We did not even wish to topple the government. We wanted the government to remain the government while we wanted to play the role of pressure group to put the government on its toes. We wanted to provide ideas to a government that appeared to lack ideas (other than asking the Chinese to help make the Malays rich so that they can spend this money in Chinese shops and make the Chinese even richer).

And we did this in the 1980s and early 1990s when we had numerous meetings, discussions, seminars and symposium with the government to plan the way forward for Malaysia. We not only met Dr Mahathir, we met Tun Daim Zainuddin, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Rafidah Aziz, Shahrir Samad, Sanusi Junid, Anwar Ibrahim, Musa Hitam, Sabbaruddin Chik, Megat Junid Megat Ayub, Mohammad Farid Ariffin, Muhyiddin Yassin, Ling Liong Sik, Samy Vellu, and many more government leaders.

Pakatan Harapan is a hopeless opposition which has no idea about what a good opposition should look like

They knew we were anti-government, but they still met us. And they met us because they knew while we may be critical of the government, our criticism was sincere and meant to see improvements — and that we were not criticising for the sake of criticising because we wanted to topple the government.

Today it is different. Pakatan Harapan criticises the government because they want to take over and not because they want to see the government improve. Pakatan Harapan’s criticism is not to seek the way forward but to make the government look bad.

If the government goes left, Pakatan Harapan will scream that the government should go right. If the government goes right, they will scream that the government should go left. Nothing the government does it right. The only right thing is for the government to resign and for Pakatan Harapan to take over.

For 20 years from 1998 to 2018 (or for 30 years from 1988 till 2018 for some), we criticised the government and said what they were doing was wrong and that things should be done differently and better. Then, in May 2018, the voters gave the government to Pakatan Harapan so that they could put their money where their mouth is.

But they did not deliver what they kept saying for 20 years or 30 years about what the government should do. In fact, they could not even deliver their promises in the election manifesto, let alone do what they had been grumbling about for 20 or 30 years. And the excuse as to why they cannot deliver is because the election promises were unrealistic, and they never thought they would win the election.

Today, Pakatan Harapan still wants to topple the government. But then why do they want to topple the government?

It is all about technicalities and has nothing to do with improving the lives of Malaysians. Perikatan Nasional did not get the mandate of the rakyat. The prime minister does not have the majority support of the members of parliament (or at least 112 of the 222 MPs). His Majesty the Agong had no right to appoint Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister. Anwar Ibrahim has the numbers.

All technicalities and nothing to do with improving the lives of Malaysians.

So what if Perikatan Nasional did not get the mandate of the rakyat? So what if the prime minister does not have the majority support of the members of parliament? So what if His Majesty the Agong had no right to appoint Muhyiddin Yassin as the prime minister? So what if Anwar Ibrahim has the numbers? What difference does all that make to the lives of Malaysians?

Pakatan Harapan needs to focus on substance, not merely talk about technicalities. We need to talk about how the cow can be useful to the farmer and not argue about the colour of the cow. As Deng Xiaoping said, never mind whether it is a black cat or a white cat as long as the cat can catch mice.

And that is why China is far ahead of Malaysia. In fact, today, China is leading the world.

In the 1980s, China embarked on economic reforms using the never mind the colour of the cat doctrine. However, since the 1980s, when Dr Mahathir became prime minister (and I became politicalised), Malaysians are still arguing about the colour of that cat.

Pakatan Harapan needs to abandon its argument surrounding technicalities and instead talk about substance. The entire world is facing an economic crisis because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Pakatan Harapan should be talking about (and pressuring the government on) saving lives and saving livelihoods.

Are allowing withdrawals from EPF and moratorium on loan repayments enough? Mana cukup! That is hardly scratching the surface. More, much more, needs to be done.

The Malay Chamber of Commerce met Anwar when he became the Finance Minister in 1991 but he was totally clueless about what to do post-NEP

The UK’s debt to GDP ratio is 100%. Malaysia is only half that and Pakatan Harapan is already screaming and asking that the government be toppled. Apa ni? Pakatan Harapan is lying to Malaysians by telling them that a lower debt to GDP ratio is better and that Malaysia is no good because it is half of UK’s debt to GDP.

We need to focus on the needs of the rakyat. The government needs to pour money into the economy so that this money can trickle down to the rakyat. But Pakatan Harapan is condemning the government for doing this, so the government is scared of doing it. And the rakyat suffers.

Of course, eventually, in the future, we will need to pay back the money we spend today. And the UK has warned that in future taxes will have to increase to pay for what the government spends today. Pakatan Harapan, on the other hand wants to do the opposite. They want taxes to be abolished.

And the rakyat have been taken in by this Pakatan Harapan fallacy. Kan ke bodoh? Malaysians have been fooled by Pakatan Harapan and they believe these lies. Pakatan Harapan should talk sense. Sure, pressure the government by all means. After all, that is the job of the opposition, to play the role of pressure group.

But do not sabotage the government just because you want power and, in the process, sabotage the livelihood and future of the rakyat. Kritik untuk membangunkan negara, jangan kritik untuk menghancurkan negara. Pakatan Harapan just wants to destroy the country so that they can take over.

But first Malaysians need to wake up. Malaysians need to recognise what a good opposition and what a bad opposition look like. And Pakatan Harapan is a bad opposition. They have no ideas on how to improve the lives of Malaysians and how to secure a better future for Malaysians.

That was not how we opposed the government back in the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, we sat down and talked to the government and told the government where and why we opposed them. And the government sat down to talk to us even though they knew we opposed them because the government knew we only wanted to see a better deal for the rakyat and not because we wanted to topple the government to take over.