Yusuf Hashim's Letter To The Prime Minister

 Sdr Yusuf Hashim writes some nice long letters. I am sure many of you have read his latest Letter to the Prime Minister which has gone viral. A few people have forwarded it to me (thank you very much). So I will post it here today. Here it is. My comments in blue.

 

https://www.thevibes.com/articles/opinion/53742/an-open-letter-to-my-pm-yusuf-hashim

DEAR prime minister,

I am 76 years old. I have lived through the growth, the development, the decadence, the deterioration, the destruction, and the despair of my Malaysia, under the watch of all 8 of our prime ministers, including your good self, sir. Starting from Tunku, through Razak, Hussein, Mahathir Ver.01, Abdullah, Najib, Mahathir Ver.02, Muhyiddin and now you, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri.

I lived through the post-world-war period, the Communist insurgency, the idealistic beginnings of Umno, the heady days of the declaration of Merdeka, the creation of Malaysia, the expulsion of Singapore, the upheavals of 13 May 1969, the NOC period under Razak, the birth of the NEP, the emergence of Mahathir Ver.01 after the uneventful reign of Hussein Onn, the birth of cronyism, corruption, bigotry, and all that is presently loathsome in Malaysia, under Mahathir’s watch, the sleepy years of Abdullah Badawi, the grand larcenies under Najib, the return of Mahathir Ver.02 after the rise of the rakyat in GE14, the treachery of Muhyiddin and the Sheraton rats, and now the doldrums of your watch.

(OSTB: I think we can all agree with these thoughts. But we do need to keep somethings in mind. When Brader Anwar said he had 'convincing numbers' to form his own backdoor government (during Muhyiddin) few complained. His cheerleader girlies were already getting hysterical that the Brader would be coming in through the backdoor too. So Brader Anwar's back door was not treachery? To say that Muhyiddin committed treachery is therefore not exactly accurate. Its all about how many MPs support you. As simple as that. 

Yes there was definitely a rise of the rakyat in GE14 - but only after Dr Mahathir was confirmed as the PM candidate for PH. Without Dr M there would have been no toppling the BN.  Also do not forget that  after winning GE14 Mahathir Ver.02 then lost the people's support. Dr M lost the plot. Dr M lost SEVEN by elections in a row and was becoming crazy unpopular day by day. Mahathir Ver.02 was doomed. Sheraton was just a headcount. It could have been Hilton. There was no treachery.)
 

I am sad that what was once a potential tiger, is now a broken country, and possibly one of the greatest kleptocracies in the world. And I blame it fully on the bad policies of the rotten political parties running Malaysia over the last half a century. I blame Malaysia’s decay, squarely on the unprincipled Malay leaders that ran this country. I blame them for creating the crony class of rent seekers. I blame them for using religion in politics. I blame them for the money politics of today.  

(OSTB : This is a democracy. And the politicians are not stupid. They want your vote. If you like to sing and dance by the roadside they will sing and dance with you. If you like religion they will dress up like the Ayatollah. They will even go to temple for Thaipusam.   If you are a lazy rentseeker the politicians will make you a rent seeker. If you can be bought with money they will give you money. They are politicians. They have no principles, no morals, nothing. Their principles reflect your principles, their morals reflect your morals. Without your support they are nothing.)

I blame them for creating disharmony among Malaysians, by portraying Chinese Malaysians as the bogeyman, and the greatest threat to the advancement of the Malays. And most of all, I blame them for dumbing down and frightening the rural Malays, to the extent that they can no longer discern between crooks and saviours, and between charlatans and men of honour and integrity.

(OSTB : Yes to a large extent they have created disharmony in the country. But disharmony can only be created among a people who themselves lack morality. how many Malays (rural, urban, poor, rich, middle class, high class) protested when Pastor Koh was abducted? Or when Pastor Hilmy and his wife disappeared? Or when Amri Che Mat was abducted? The answer is NONE. Why? Because Pastor Koh was Chinese and Christian? Because Hilmy was Christian? Because Amri was a Shiah? So they were not human beings anymore. They are animals? So they could be abducted, kidnapped, disappeared etc. Who cares? How many Malays objected when our Air Force participated in helping the Saudis kill the people of Yemen? No one. Why? Because the Yemenis are Shiahs? Therefore they are animals - who can just be bombed from the air.

So when the society does not have any morals or lacks morals then and only then can you have the sick and insane "Bossku" phenomenon. Only then can a convicted criminal be nominated as the BN's candidate for Prime Minister. 

So do not blame the politicians too much. The politicians are chamemelons.  If you like to sing and dance by the roadside they will sing and dance with you. If you like religion they will dress up like the Ayatollah. They will even go to temple for Thaipusam.   If you are a lazy rentseeker the politicians will make you a rent seeker. If you can be bought with money they will give you money. Their principles reflect your principles, their morals reflect your morals. Without your support they are nothing.)
 

The British left us a good civil service in 1957, and a good education system based on meritocracy. Admittedly they also left some structural issues that needed to be properly managed, but the post-independence Malay-dominated political system, have exacerbated our differences, and ruined both the civil service and education system.

Our children are now educated in a three-silo system, with Chinese children largely in Chinese schools, Malay children in the Malay-language national school system, and the children of the wealthy, including the children of ministers, politicians, and the elite, in private schools, where mastery of English is emphasised, besides the mastery of the national language.

What is unfair and depressing is that for too long, places and scholarships in our local universities have been highly racially skewed in favour of the Malays. Meritocracy is compromised, and bright Malaysian children who are non-Bumiputeras are denied places, even though their academic grades are superlative. I would like to say that not all non-Malays are rich. More children of non-Malay Malaysians who excel academically, with parents who are ordinary not wealthy Malaysians, must also be given places and scholarships in our local universities. After more than 50 years of preferential treatment, I believe it is time that places in our universities should be allocated on meritocracy, and race be taken out of the equation. I believe the Malays are now capable of competing against the non-Malays on a level playing field. The country needs its best sons and daughters, irrespective of race, to bubble to the top. Only then can our Malaysia compete effectively with other nations, to take our rightful place among successful nations.

(OSTB : Again well said. I cannot agree more. We really need to remove all these race based negative discrimination. But we still need race based positive discrimination. We still need bumiputera affirmative action. Because for a certainty the Malays are not yet capable of competing with anyone.  But affirmative action in favour of bumiputeras DOES NOT MEAN discrimination against the non bumiputeras. Yes please allow the underperforming Malay student to enter university but why deny the qualifying non Malay entry into the same university?)

Today Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, which were once tiger cubs like us, are rich, developed, and successful world economic powers.

The same cannot be said of us.

Why are we so broken today, with everything we once held dear in complete tatters?

(OSTB : Again this is a misnomer. Only the Malays / bumiputeras are "broken" (just borrowing the phrase). To a large extent the non-Malays are not "broken" at all. Other than underachievement and poverty other negatives like drug abuse, broken families, single parenthood, social problems seem to afflict the Malays more than the non Malays. The people who face the most problems in Malaysia are the Malays / bumiputeras. The non-Malays do not have as many problems. So please focus time and energy to fix the problems of the Malays. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME CREATING PROBLEMS AND DISCRIMINATING AGAINST THE NON MALAYS. Fix only that which is broken. If it is not broken leave it alone. The Malays are broken, so fix them. The non-Malays are not broken so leave them alone. Do not try to break them. )

I believe we are behind the other developed nations today because of the long domination of Malaysian politics by not very honourable, dishonest, and even incompetent and criminally inclined politicians. Don’t look at the Twin Towers, at Putrajaya, at Proton Saga, the miles and miles of toll roads, overhead LRT lines and flyovers, the traffic jams, the shopping malls, the soulless skyscrapers, and uncontrolled urbanization, as signs of our development.

Look instead at the rampant corruption, the bigotry, the racism, the death of integrity, honesty, honour and righteousness, the brain drain, the broken education system, the unprincipled politicians, the rent-seeking cronies, the insidious presence of government in business, our shameful designation of being one of the greatest kleptocracies in the world, and also the rape of our environment by the privileged class in timber and mineral extraction.

In the 1995 Transparency International World Corruption Index, Singapore was #3, while Malaysia was #23.  In 2021, Singapore is still in the top 4, but Malaysia has plunged 39 places to #62.

Are you not appalled by this calamity?

Do you care at all?

You have an amazing opportunity to make a difference. And to leave behind an unparalleled legacy. Malaysians thought Mahathir Ver.02 was going to be that saviour of the country. Sadly, he wasn’t the one because his deep race-based agenda was still his dominant drive. Eventually, he was demolished by his own racist lieutenants, the Sheraton rats, in a typical display of treachery and bribery politics, for which Malay politicians were becoming known for.

Malaysians are looking for decisive action by you to stop the rot. But personally, I don’t think you can deliver.

With one of the world’s largest cabinet numbering 70 ministers, and dozens of cronies, retired civil servants and expired politicians, appointed to the boards of our GOCs and GLCs, poor governance and political interference in business, we anticipate more bailouts using taxpayers’ money will be needed. And we can expect Malaysia’s corruption index to plunge further.

I hope you have a strategic plan to arrest further decline and to put Malaysia back on the right track.

I would like you to focus on some, if not all of the following areas, to make Malaysia great again:

Revamp the national education system. Champion meritocracy. Give every Malaysian young person, irrespective of race, an equal chance to enter our national universities, based on their academic credentials. Give scholarships and financial assistance to all those that need assistance, and not based on race. Those who are not very good in academia can be developed in the trades, manufacturing, and services sector.

Reintroduce bilingualism in our national school system. In fact, trilingualism is even better. Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and that should remain. But make English a compulsory language for all Malaysians to master. English is one of the international languages that Malaysians need, in order to interact fluently with the rest of the world. Being fluent in English will allow Malaysians direct and immediate access to cutting-edge science, technology and human advances, without waiting for translations to be made.

China will overtake the USA as the world’s biggest economy, so Malaysians able to read, write and communicate in Mandarin will be a great asset for Malaysia. Most Chinese young people are already trilingual. If you want the Malays to be on par with Malaysian Chinese in the new world economic order, make Malays master Mandarin and English besides just the national language.

And while you are revamping the education system, dial back a little on the overemphasis on religion in schools. Focus more on morality, on core values that all religions hold dear. Teach our children to love one another, no matter their different races, religion, or mother tongues. It is ironic that there seems to be a direct corelation between the emphasis on religion, and the amount of corruption. The more the emphasis on religion, the more corruption increases.

When I was a student, half a century ago, we had very little religious education in schools, and yet there were more God-fearing people. The words corruption, cronies, kleptocracy, GLCs, GOCs and APs weren’t even invented yet. Dedak then was animal feed. Now we are the world’s greatest kleptocracy. Politicians are the most loathed species in Malaysia. And you need Approved Permits and to export, to import everything from motor cars to meat and chickens and durians. You need some kind of permit to do almost everything.

It was Ayn Rand, in her book Atlas Shrugged, written in 1957, the year of our independence who said:

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing,

When you see that money flows to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours,

When you see that men get richer by graft, and by pull, than by work,

And your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you,

When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – You will know that your society is doomed.”

60 years of the NEP is enough. I believe many Malays are now quite able of becoming successful and rich without so much direct government assistance. The NEP has been exploited by politicians and the crony class to create a hateful system of rent seekers. Worse, the political parties in power have been using the GLCs and GOCs and even government institutions that is supposed to serve the people as part of a wicked patronage system to keep themselves in power. Today you may be the prime minister, and you may be using the GLCs and GOCs to prop up your own administration, but what will you say if the regime that takes over from you, use the same rotten system to perpetuate their power? The honourable thing to do is to break the vicious cycle, and make things right. Privatise the GLCs and GOCs. Let them be run by technocrats and business professionals, and not retired civil servants and expired politicians.

Government should just govern. Leave the business of business to businessmen and professionals. The NEP should be replaced by a NBDP, which means a Needs Based Development Policy, where every Malaysian that needs assistance, no matter their race, religion, or political inclinations, should be given assistance. If you are a righteous, God-fearing man, this will be the only way.

Reduce the size of the civil service. With computers, automation, 5G and smart devices, many of the counter services provided by the administration can be privatised and done online. The national pension bill is going to get larger and larger, and the government should begin converting pensions to some form of self-contribution retirement plans, like the EPF for employees in the private sector.

And while you are looking at pensions for civil servants, please abolish the pension scheme, annual vacation packages, and excessive allowances and perks for MPs and ADUNs, ministers and deputy ministers, and freeloaders with ranks of ministers. Public service is NOT a career, and people become politicians as a public service, not as a job.  There should be a time bar and an age bar for politicians. No politicians should be allowed more than two terms or eight years in office. And a maximum retiring age of 60 must be set, because past 60, incumbents may not have the health and strength to carry out the arduous duties of publicly elected officials.

Corruption is the bane of this sad country. Corruption is endemic in Malaysia, and the perception is, the Malaysian government itself is perpetrating this scourge. Introduce the death penalty for corruption – for both the receiver and the giver. If that is unpalatable, how about medical amputation of the hand at the wrist for those convicted of corruption? The only way to get rid of corruption is to get serious about getting rid of corruption.

I have a personal gripe that I would like to mention. This is with regards to the abundance of state awards and titles in this country. The first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was the PM that introduced the laughable system. It is so tiresome that in speeches by public officials and especially politicians, half the speech is spent on calling out the titles of a long line of titled people. There are so many datuks and datos around, and hundreds more are being added every year, and looking at the large number, and the character and behaviour of some of these datos, many people wonder what they were decorated for.  What is very telling and alarming is many of those accused of white-collar crimes in our courts today are titled persons. Many are convicted but their titles remain with them when they are imprisoned. Even if one datukship is withdrawn, it’s laughable that they still have several other datoships from various states that are not withdrawn. Soon there will be more datuks than ordinary people in this sad country.

There you have it. I have many more issues that you need to focus on. The impartiality of many sectors of the civil service has deteriorated. The Election Commission and the Registrar of Societies are two areas that need reformation. Excessive gerrymandering has made a mockery of voters’ rights. Electoral demarcation lines have been bastardised to frustrate delineation decency. Too much power is being concentrated in the prime minister’s hands, and when we get a rogue PM like we’ve had in the past, there are no effective checks and balances.

Our Malaysia is badly broken, Mr Prime Minister. We pray to God that you will unbreak it. If you do, history will remember you as the prime minister who saved Malaysia. – The Vibes, February 7, 2022

Yusuf Hashim is a reader of The Vibes

(OSTB : The PM Ismail Sabri will not read this letter by Yusuf Hashim. I doubt he reads much at all. Never in a zillion years did Ismail Sabri ever dream of becoming a PM. yet here he is. Dia dapat terpijak. It is not Ismail Sabri who will change anything for the Malays. It is the Malays who must change. Only then will Ismail Sabri follow suit. He is a politician.)

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.