Losing the plot: Malaysia and UK edition

 

There’s a smallish country, once much respected and admired by its peers and held up as an example for others, but now facing hard times.

Prices of its bonds and stocks are plummeting, its politics is in an uproar, its citizens are disenchanted, and many are leaving its shores for greener pastures.

In many ways, it’s living on its past glory, indulging in pomp and pageantry and glossy media and entertainment that’s supposed to help rouse the soul. But these aren’t working, and the country is in a downward spiral.

Its currency, once strong and respected, is now almost in freefall. The only good thing is it has a lot of oil, and the petro-money helps a bit. But oil, being priced in US dollars, also means more expensive fuel at the petrol pump, requiring ever higher amounts of subsidies.

The country is being led by a bunch of leaders who’d do anything to cling to power, high on rhetoric and ideologies and low on real-world skills, empathy and competence.

I’m of course talking about the UK. A country much in the news lately for its monarch’s death and for its increasingly chaotic political state.

I’m of course not talking about Malaysia. It’s different here, because… Well, it’s not the same, because… And we really must draw a distinction, because…

Okay, okay, I guess the above also applies to Malaysia too.

The two countries had quite a few governments recently; both had traumatic experiences politically and economically (Brexit and GE14), and both are facing up to the fact that maybe their best days are behind them.

Liz Truss is UK’s new prime minister, winning it after a tough, divisive fight. After just a few weeks she’s looking very shaky already. Her Tory party – the Conservative party of law and order and competence – seems to be losing the plot and is in disarray.

And yes, here we are in Malaysia too, with our own revolving door for prime ministers, and we’re losing the plot too, though perhaps for different reasons.

One thing different about the way the British are shooting themselves in the foot though is, at least they’re driven by some ideology – in this case the quaint idea that the richer you make the rich, the richer they’ll make everybody else.

It’s called the Trickle-Down Effect, an economic theory considered by many now as thoroughly discredited. Today’s rich don’t create employment; they just shuffle capital around and use their windfall from tax savings to buy superyachts and not spend it in their neighbourhood shops.

Not much, if any of the wealth at all, gets to trickle down. But, like all ideologies, facts don’t matter much. The conclusion, that trickle-down economics does work, drives the argument that we must have trickle-down economics.

We don’t really have a trickle-down philosophy in Malaysia. Taxes don’t play a big role in our politics – the small number of citizens who pay taxes don’t get to say much about how their hard-earned money gets spent by those who didn’t pay their fair share of, or even any, taxes at all.

Here in Malaysia, we believe in another philosophy altogether. Here’s how it works.

You enter politics through a race-based party, one with a great past to give you a veneer of respectability, but also one that’s been soiled after repeated pillaging and plundering by many generations of increasingly venal politicians.

You claim credit for the party’s past achievements and resurrect whatever’s useful so as not to have to invent anything new. That’s too much hard work. If you’d wanted hard work, you wouldn’t have entered politics.

Rising in politics is easy. Good people find politics increasingly vicious so they stay away and leave the path clear for the likes of you. Your opponents are just like you, so even if they win, the net effect on society remains the same.

On the Malay side of the game, use Islam extensively and interchangeably with Malayness. Tell people they’re stupid, confused and easily corrupted, and over time they’ll became stupid, confused and easily corrupted. They’ll even thank you for it!

Create a siege mentality and a victimhood mindset. Don’t explain why after years of your sacrifice for race and religion, you are now rich beyond reason, even if none of the goals have been achieved and the community seems to have even more problems.

Get the masses to feel entitled and delirious with the fact that because of their race or religion or whatever, they have an immense and increasing amount of rights, but not responsibilities.

Remove any obstacles along the way. Rule of law is inconvenient, so find ways to weaken it. Integrity is a hassle, so slowly disintegrate integrity. Same with critical thinking, so dumb down the education system.

And presto! You go from being a jaguh kampung, or village hero, to being a jaguh kampung, but in Putrajaya! But the world is a big, scary and intimidating place, so what to do?

Like the Malay saying “katak bawah tempurung”, you shrink the world down to your tempurung, and keep everybody under this tempurung sedated with dreams of glory and fears of being overcome – best if both at the same time!

In the meantime, gobble up wealth to last for the next seven generations, whether from donations or “business” or just plain theft. Spend it lavishly to buy something you’ll never have, which is class, and spend it ostentatiously to intimidate the hoi polloi out there.

When election time comes, visit the kampungs and chew the fat and dribble down some spit to those below. Tell them to be thankful for this nectar from the gods, and ask for the only thing of value they have – their votes which will allow you to continue to exploit them.

It’s called the Dribble-Down Effect, and it really works. The British shouldn’t be too proud to learn something from a former colony. - FMT

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