Hussein Onn, July 16th 1981 And Now

I received the following via WhatsApp. It is written by one M Santhananaban of
Kajang. I am posting it here in good faith. It is worth reading.

 

Hussein Onn, July 16th 1981 And Now
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Exactly 41 years ago today Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became the fourth prime minister of Malaysia. On assuming office he wanted to plainly signal that the country was making a clean break with the post-colonial leadership of the country of the previous 24 years.

He seemed inspiring, innovative and confident about the direction the country was taking. He spoke of some subjects of startling importance and also of making Antarctica the global commons and even visited that inhospitably cold region in 2002. Our diplomats were tasked at the leading capitals of the world to make a case for global ownership of Antarctica.

Dr Mahathir had the luxury of doing this and becoming the world’s most travelled prime minister because he had inherited in 1981 an impressive ship of state. He had good ministers and capable civil servants. His diplomats spoke good English and were well equipped to present the challenging case for Antarctica at all the leading G7 capitals and beyond. We had an incorruptible and impressive civil service that inspired respect and confidence.

Today 41 years later we have a much lower quality of English to distinguish our people and diplomats generally. The 9th prime minister of the country has directed our diplomats to convey and present whatever they want to say in Bahasa Malaysia. This 9th prime minister has had the luxury of surviving and peerlessly prospering, more by default than design, in the country’s political system with his little English which is suspected to be of a mediocre quality.

A Pale Shadow of The Past

Our strong political stability and currency of the 1980s is no more, our advantage as an attractive investment destination in Southeast Asia has lost its lustre, we have a much bloated civil service and pensioner category numbering 2.4 million that is rapidly and increasingly eating into the nation’s annual operating budget and we have become deficient, desultory and desperate about rising levels of poverty, inflation, graduate unemployment, a rising food import bill, growing national debt, a feckless power elite and a dysfunctional political system. We also have too many cabinet- rank officials and far too many GLCs which have far too generous compensation packages. Recent events in Sri Lanka where an asymmetrical political structure based on undisguised ethnocentric supremacy has failed are also causing some concern. There are some somewhat similar parallels in Malaysia.

The country has to move on beyond its phase of sloganeering to create ‘towering Malays' to 1Malaysia to producing civic minded hardworking patriotic citizens. The monopoly of political and administrative power vested almost entirely in peninsular hands has to be loosened gradually and refined to include the Orang Asli, the Sabahans, Sarawakians and those of other ethnic descent. The leadership cannot use their 4-decades-old blinkers to further alienate, marginalise and distance the country’s administration from the minorities.

We cannot repeat or perpetuate the mistakes of the last 41 years. We have to have a more inclusive administration, education, higher education system and more diversified content in our employment outlook. . Sabah and Sarawak must be given parity with the peninsula to achieve a better development equilibrium. National unity should be prioritised and cultural diversity has to be celebrated.

Part of the current state of disillusionment stems from the freedoms and facilities enjoyed by the convicted 6th prime minister of the country. He has attempted, using a facile canard to cast aspersions on a judiciary that should be beyond any kind of reproach. From the mid-1980s the judiciary has been subject to threats to circumscribe its powers, prestige and performance. The time is right to stop or check these trends and restore to that significant institution the prestige it enjoyed under Tun Suffian Hashim and Raja (as he was then) Azlan Shah and the country’s original constitution.

It is unrealistic and churlish to conceive of any grand plans or vision for the nation if we cannot think beyond the narrow confines of race, religion and region. It is time to embrace all citizens as equal, reward the rainmaker, rein in the recalcitrant and roundly reprove the rapacious, whether it be an errant police-person or prime minister. Needless to say, elite corruption has to be eliminated.

I trust that Tun Hussein Onn who relinquished his post 41 years ago today, would in his sublime wisdom endorse this review.

M Santhananaban
Kajang.
July 16, 2022