Where has Malaysia’s nation-building gone wrong?

MP SPEAKS | In 1979 at the Umno General Assembly, the then prime minister Hussein Onn warned that Malaysia would be destroyed if its leaders were “dishonest, untrustworthy and corrupt” and expressed the hope that the Bank Rakyat scandal would be a “bitter lesson to other government institutions and agencies, including companies and subsidiaries set up by the government”.

However, his warning 43 years ago has fallen on deaf ears and will be proven true before Malaysia’s centennial if there is no reset of nation-building policies and principles to get out of the present trajectory of kleptocracy.

Four things reminded me of Hussein’s warning 43 years ago.

First, I went to Bukit Aman on Friday because the police wanted a statement from me over my media statement last month warning Malaysians that Malaysia should not become another Sri Lanka, which has become a failed state and where the houses of the prime minister and ministers were set on fire by angry protesters.

I have said: “This is not going to happen today, this month or this year”.

Instead, I asked: “Will it happen before Malaysia marks its centennial in 2057 or 2063? Are we following in the footsteps of Sri Lanka, at one time a ‘jewel’ in terms of development prospects in South Asia?”

I had not incited nor had I any intent to incite anyone, any class or community of persons. I had also not created or initiated any transmission which was “obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person”, but I am prepared to go to jail for warning Malaysians not to become another Sri Lanka.

Losing its way

Secondly, Malaysia has lost its way in building the nation after 65 years and failed to become a ‘tiger’ economy or a world-class great nation.

We have increased our national per capita income by 30-fold from 1970 to the present day but we have increased by more than 63,000-fold the corruption and financial scandals in this period, as illustrated in the RM100 million Bank Rakyat scandal in 1979, the RM2.5 billion Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF) scandal in 1983 and the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal in the last decade.

In the past half a century, Malaysia lost out to Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam.

Will we lose out to China and Indonesia before the end of this decade in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perception Index)?

Will we lose out to more countries in economic development, even to Indonesia and the Philippines, come 2,040 or 2,050?

Thirdly, the recent memoirs of corporate lawyer Chooi Mun Sou, one of the three men appointed to the Ahmad Noordin BMF Inquiry Committee in 1984, whose book Malaysia My Home - Quo Vadis reminded me that Malaysia may be spared the mega multi-billion 1MDB scandal and the infamy, ignominy and iniquity of “kleptocracy at its worst” if the recommendations of the BMF committee had been acted upon by the government in 1986.

Fourthly, the indecent increase of the allowance of the chairperson of FGV Holdings Bhd to RM480,000 from RM300,000 and the allowances of the directors to RM150,000 from RM120,000 as compared to the meagre cash transfer announced by Putrajaya for people struggling with the rising cost of food.

Is there a Hussein Onn in Umno today?

All these reminded me of Hussein’s 1979 warning to the Umno general assembly of “dishonest, untrustworthy and corrupt” leaders not only in government but in “other government institutions and agencies including companies and subsidiaries set up by the government”.

I am not an Umno member, but how many Umno leaders and members remember Hussein’s warning or live by it?

In fact, we can even ask, is there a Hussein Onn in Umno today?

I said in Parliament in 1979 during the debate on the Bank Rakyat scandal that if the New Economic Policy (NEP) objectives of eliminating poverty regardless of race and the restructuring society were to succeed, the saboteurs of NEP in the public enterprises and companies must be got rid of.

The NEP is supposed to have a life span of 20 years from 1970-1990. Who sabotaged the NEP and ensured its failure as the overwhelming majority of the Malays remain poor?

Where has Malaysia's nation-building gone wrong?

Probably, the greatest wrong was it continuing the corruption, abuses of power and breaches of trust in the NEP in 1990 instead of replacing it with a needs-based policy declaring war against poverty regardless of race, religion or region.

So, where has Malaysian nation-building gone wrong? This is a question all Malaysians who love the country must ask and find an answer to. - Mkini

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LIM KIT SIANG is the Iskandar Puteri MP.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.