Malaysians should be very proud of their country, a nation where they are born into, raised and will die and buried here irrespective of what kind of government they have. But sadly many still could not differentiate between the country that they owned (belong to) and an elected government that are supposed to serve. The long serving one party (precisely 56 years) has gone overboard and arrogant to remind the rakyat that they must be grateful and be patriotic to the powers that be.
Most Malaysians are moving forward fast and are adapting well to the various changes that are ongoing together with the outside world but are pulled back or hindered by a restrictive government that are not willing to open up and face the present day reality. The results of the 12th and 13th General Elections have shown that most Malaysians wanted to move along with the rest of the world but post 308 and 505 gave you a more opaque and an intolerance government.
They are still using the old formula of divide and rule, enhancing their racism and religious intolerance including veiled threats which they thought can still work to their advantage and hold on to power. We wish them all the best except not to create chaos and 'crushed bodies and lives lost' to fulfill their wish of holding on to power.
Are Malaysians really that blind, dumb and deaf to fall yet again to all these antics? Yes, there are still 47% of the voters that believe in them. What then can we do to make the ruling government listen to us? Guess there is not much we can do individually but to lend support to a greater force that can challenged the ruling government to ensure that they served the rakyat and not the reverse and if possible a total change in GE 14. Presently we have this greater force by the name of Pakatan Rakyat.
Many would not agree that Pakatan Rakyat is the greater force. Let me just ask one question and let you decide if PR is or is not the greater force. Why is the ruling government going all out to kill-off DAP, activating their 'speculative moles' inside PKR and enticing PAS in talks? The motive is very clear for all to see, "TO BREAK UP or DESTROYED PAKATAN RAKYAT" before GE 14.
With the reintroduction of 'detention without trial', The Peaceful Assembly Act 2012, fuelling anti-Shia sentiments, no intention of removing the sedition act and the daily doses of veiled threats against anything that are challenging their stay in power comes GE 14, Pakatan Rakyat must be at their toes at all times.
The machinery "TO BREAK UP or DESTROYED PAKATAN RAKYAT" before GE 14 has gain momentum each passing day and I would like to provide PR my 2sen worth of suggestion.
Their modus operandi is very simple, to keep PR coalition parties busy fighting the fires which are thrown at them be it lies or slanders ranging from racial, religious issues to just about anything that they can think of to ensure that PR is broken or destroyed by GE 14.
PR must form a council or committee comprising members from all the three parties and on full time basis. The members should be from the younger generation that are trustworthy, with integrity and are presently not elected MPs or Adun. Elected representatives will be busy with their work functions to serve the rakyat and nation on pressing daily issues. The senior leaders can act as advisers. The council job functions are to study all the attacks from the opponent collectively, work out counter solutions and response to the attacks on PR platform. If time permit and if experienced enough, this council should also be on the look out and identify suspected moles.
No doubt there may be such a council in each party where each party will response to the attacks individually. It may work that way but at times there are conflicting responses from each other that gave more bullets to the opponent for further attacks.
The new PR council should be able to identify if the attack is very specific to a certain party but will still study together to provide solution and response. This response will be conveyed to that particular party leader before any statement is issued publicly. Most attacks are interlinked within the three parties, it would be better to study, resolve and make a final PR stand to ward of the attacks. PR must be able to work together, to help each other and resolve matters on a standard platform no matter how hard the attacks are.
Pakatan Rakyat is a coalition of three parties that are supposed to be equal partners but sometimes we still read about party members going after each others throat. Should there be any disagreement, the problems can be forwarded to the new PR council to try and find a solution before any of these go to the press. One thing PR politicians must learn is, try not to talk too much to the press (especially in this country) on personal and party issues should there be any differences among you all, one minute of fame can destroy you if not the party!
Unless there are any hidden agenda within each individual party or lack of credible members, I see no problem in forming a new PR council or committee to work in tandem and proving to Malaysians that PR is the greater force that can bring down a very much disliked present government in GE 14.
This is not the case of 'too many cooks spoil the soup' but 'united we stand, divided we fall'.
Sunday, December 15, 2013
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Umno Baru running scared
by Mariam Mokhtar | Malaysiakini
The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by UMNO Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.
When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without UMNO Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.
UMNO Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and UMNO Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would UMNO Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.
The line that UMNO Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfill the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about UMNO Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.
The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to UMNO Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of UMNO Baru. UMNO Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, UMNO Baru will become irrelevant.
If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the brain drain is no longer confined to non-Malays seeking better shores. What frightens UMNO Baru is the fact that many Malays have become disillusioned with UMNO Baru and are not just abandoning the party. They are prepared to forsake their country.
In the past, Malays used to deride the non-Malays for leaving Malaysia. Many did not know the degree of unfairness with which the government treated the non-Malays, in the areas of employment, business opportunities, education, jobs in the civil service and defence.
Today, young graduate Malays, who have been educated overseas, are telling their parents that enough is enough. They are astute enough to know that the government will make the lives of their families miserable so they leave quietly and without fuss. If the government cannot prosecute the Malay graduate who has absconded, their modus operandi is to go after their families.
In a change from the past, Malay families are now supportive of their children working and living abroad. In the age of the Internet, communication is easy and relatively cheap. Ironically, the Malays are now emulating their non-Malay peers, by turning their backs on Malaysia.
Many Malays who have found employment in the countries in which they studied are happy and glad they made the move. One Malay doctor said, “My work experience in the (Malaysian) hospital was a bitter experience. I wasn’t just overworked but when I asked the consultant for advice, I was shouted at in front of the patients and other staff. It was humiliating and degrading. In the teaching hospital in Sydney, the consultants were pleasant and eager to train me. I felt appreciated.”
When you hear stories like these you know that young Malays are not prepared to believe the lies of UMNO Baru any longer. The young Malays of today have an appetite for hard work, which is not matched by the UMNO Baru Malays or mat rempit types whom Najib is fond of praising.
Answering Najib
A Malay farmer in his sixties said, “What is Najib doing about the farmers? The youth have no interest in agriculture They are leaving the kampong in search of jobs. Many farmers are now in their 60s and 70s. Who will take over my farm when I die?
“I know that many young men who migrated to the cities, are still unemployed. Many have turned to drugs or petty theft. What has the government done to make farming attractive?”
Many civil servants claim that they are demoralised at work. They find that their time and departmental operating budgets are increasingly being used for UMNO Baru political activities. The ones who voice their opinions are warned that they risk destroying their career prospects.
Even UMNO Baru supporters are slowly realising they are being conned. One senior party worker said that, with UMNO Baru’s help, many rich Malays drive imported sports cars and live in rumah mewah (mansions). When asked how UMNO Baru had helped uplift his life, he was dumb-struck. The penny had dropped!
If Najib Abdul Razak had asked the rhetorical question “Where would the Malays be without UMNO Baru?”, in front of ordinary members of the rakyat, he would have been drowned out with hisses and pelted with rotten eggs, or shoes.
The answer to Najib’s question is simple. Without UMNO Baru, the Malays would be better off economically, financially, morally, spiritually and intellectually. Without UMNO Baru, the Malays can restore their lost dignity. A Malay who has the courage to reject UMNO Baru will be mentally liberated and feel a weight lifted from his shoulders.
UMNO Baru has brainwashed Malays and gave them a false sense of entitlement. They were told they were owed success without the need for hard work. Only UMNO Baru would think of placing a copyright on the word ‘Allah’. UMNO Baru gave Malays and Islam a bad reputation.
Under UMNO Baru, Malays have become arrogant, insincere, work-shy, complacent, uncompetitive, demanding and insensitive. UMNO Baru conditioned the Malays to stop thinking and let UMNO Baru think for them.
UMNO Baru taught some Malays to steal the taxpayers’ money and learn the fine art of corruption. It conditioned the Malay mind to think that any wrongdoing by its leaders is acceptable, because this is preferable to a non-Malay leading the country. How pathetic can anyone get than someone with this frame of mind.
UMNO Baru injected fear into the Malay psyche and told him that he should be afraid of change and new ideas. Only UMNO Baru will say that liberal Malays, Christians, Singapore and progressive NGOs are a threat to Malays and Islam.
UMNO Baru is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s creation and mistrust, disunity, treachery, sedition and intolerance are his true legacy.
Only an UMNO Baru leader would defend his wife’s extravagance and boast of her ability, but ignore the suffering of the rakyat. The average Malaysian family is barely surviving. Where is the breadwinner going to find an additional 15 percent more income to pay for the increase caused by the GST?
Mahathir, Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Khairy Jamaluddin and other senior UMNO Baru politicians are poor role models for Malays.
UMNO Baru is not concerned about Malays or Malay rights. Its only concern is status and power; both economic and political power. Najib realises that without the Malays, UMNO Baru could be as dead as a dodo. Najib knows that UMNO Baru is living on borrowed time.
By GE14, the only people supporting Najib and UMNO Baru will be the mat rempits and the ‘new Malays’ from Bangladesh.
The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by UMNO Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.
When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without UMNO Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.
UMNO Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and UMNO Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would UMNO Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.
The line that UMNO Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfill the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about UMNO Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.
The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to UMNO Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of UMNO Baru. UMNO Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, UMNO Baru will become irrelevant.
If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the brain drain is no longer confined to non-Malays seeking better shores. What frightens UMNO Baru is the fact that many Malays have become disillusioned with UMNO Baru and are not just abandoning the party. They are prepared to forsake their country.
In the past, Malays used to deride the non-Malays for leaving Malaysia. Many did not know the degree of unfairness with which the government treated the non-Malays, in the areas of employment, business opportunities, education, jobs in the civil service and defence.
Today, young graduate Malays, who have been educated overseas, are telling their parents that enough is enough. They are astute enough to know that the government will make the lives of their families miserable so they leave quietly and without fuss. If the government cannot prosecute the Malay graduate who has absconded, their modus operandi is to go after their families.
In a change from the past, Malay families are now supportive of their children working and living abroad. In the age of the Internet, communication is easy and relatively cheap. Ironically, the Malays are now emulating their non-Malay peers, by turning their backs on Malaysia.
Many Malays who have found employment in the countries in which they studied are happy and glad they made the move. One Malay doctor said, “My work experience in the (Malaysian) hospital was a bitter experience. I wasn’t just overworked but when I asked the consultant for advice, I was shouted at in front of the patients and other staff. It was humiliating and degrading. In the teaching hospital in Sydney, the consultants were pleasant and eager to train me. I felt appreciated.”
When you hear stories like these you know that young Malays are not prepared to believe the lies of UMNO Baru any longer. The young Malays of today have an appetite for hard work, which is not matched by the UMNO Baru Malays or mat rempit types whom Najib is fond of praising.
Answering Najib
A Malay farmer in his sixties said, “What is Najib doing about the farmers? The youth have no interest in agriculture They are leaving the kampong in search of jobs. Many farmers are now in their 60s and 70s. Who will take over my farm when I die?
“I know that many young men who migrated to the cities, are still unemployed. Many have turned to drugs or petty theft. What has the government done to make farming attractive?”
Many civil servants claim that they are demoralised at work. They find that their time and departmental operating budgets are increasingly being used for UMNO Baru political activities. The ones who voice their opinions are warned that they risk destroying their career prospects.
Even UMNO Baru supporters are slowly realising they are being conned. One senior party worker said that, with UMNO Baru’s help, many rich Malays drive imported sports cars and live in rumah mewah (mansions). When asked how UMNO Baru had helped uplift his life, he was dumb-struck. The penny had dropped!
If Najib Abdul Razak had asked the rhetorical question “Where would the Malays be without UMNO Baru?”, in front of ordinary members of the rakyat, he would have been drowned out with hisses and pelted with rotten eggs, or shoes.
The answer to Najib’s question is simple. Without UMNO Baru, the Malays would be better off economically, financially, morally, spiritually and intellectually. Without UMNO Baru, the Malays can restore their lost dignity. A Malay who has the courage to reject UMNO Baru will be mentally liberated and feel a weight lifted from his shoulders.
UMNO Baru has brainwashed Malays and gave them a false sense of entitlement. They were told they were owed success without the need for hard work. Only UMNO Baru would think of placing a copyright on the word ‘Allah’. UMNO Baru gave Malays and Islam a bad reputation.
Under UMNO Baru, Malays have become arrogant, insincere, work-shy, complacent, uncompetitive, demanding and insensitive. UMNO Baru conditioned the Malays to stop thinking and let UMNO Baru think for them.
UMNO Baru taught some Malays to steal the taxpayers’ money and learn the fine art of corruption. It conditioned the Malay mind to think that any wrongdoing by its leaders is acceptable, because this is preferable to a non-Malay leading the country. How pathetic can anyone get than someone with this frame of mind.
UMNO Baru injected fear into the Malay psyche and told him that he should be afraid of change and new ideas. Only UMNO Baru will say that liberal Malays, Christians, Singapore and progressive NGOs are a threat to Malays and Islam.
UMNO Baru is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s creation and mistrust, disunity, treachery, sedition and intolerance are his true legacy.
Only an UMNO Baru leader would defend his wife’s extravagance and boast of her ability, but ignore the suffering of the rakyat. The average Malaysian family is barely surviving. Where is the breadwinner going to find an additional 15 percent more income to pay for the increase caused by the GST?
Mahathir, Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Khairy Jamaluddin and other senior UMNO Baru politicians are poor role models for Malays.
UMNO Baru is not concerned about Malays or Malay rights. Its only concern is status and power; both economic and political power. Najib realises that without the Malays, UMNO Baru could be as dead as a dodo. Najib knows that UMNO Baru is living on borrowed time.
By GE14, the only people supporting Najib and UMNO Baru will be the mat rempits and the ‘new Malays’ from Bangladesh.
Where would Umno be without the Malays? – Sakmongkol AK47
By Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz | TMI
Where would Umno be without the Malays and the people? Najib Razak is a poor imitator and a poor student of history.
Many many years ago, President Kennedy asked the rhetorical question — ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. This particular passage has been criticised because it contradicted much that was said in the stirring speech. The speech, by the way, is a classic, not worthy to be estimated by a lowly person such as I.
It contradicts the very idea of freedom which the speech wanted to convey. Neither half of the passage reflects the idea of the freeman, freedom and liberty.
Ask not what your country can do for you suggests that the country, and by extension, the government, is your overlord, the one whose generosity one depends on. The other half of the passage, ask what you can do to the country, suggests that you are the slave to the overlord, consigned forever to toil and to owe absolute loyalty to the country and by extension to the government that rules the country.
It contradicts the idea that man alone has in his mortal hands the power to do good and also to destroy which Kennedy said earlier in the speech.
Najib on the other hand doesn’t have the intellectual breadth of Kennedy. He was able only to say: where would the Malays be without Umno. It means the same to the Malays, that Umno is the supreme overlord, whose generosity the Malays depend on and whose absolute obedience is owned by. Umno is your master, and you, Umno slaves.
The right question, Mr Prime Minister, should be: where would Umno be, without the Malays? Without Malay support, Umno is doomed.
Do we see Malays lying dead in Kelantan where Umno remains defeated for so long a time? Do we see Malays lying around dead since DAP took over Penang? And do we see dead Malays on the streets in Selangor ever since PR governed it? We saw better and more honest government in these states which we didn’t see during Umno rule. Things can only get better without Umno for the Malays.
Why? Because in replacement of Umno, we have governments that rule on the basis of the principles of the rule of law, on the principles of good governance and on the principles of responsibility and accountability. What does Umno represent? It represents absolute discretion, it represents corruption and abuse of power and it represents total abandonment of responsibility and accountability.
I have said it many times. Let me try to put it simpler and clearer. There are 18 million Malays in Malaysia. There are 3.4 million Umno members. In other words, 1 out of 6 Malays is an Umno member. Suppose the 1 Umno Malay were to drop dead, will the other Malays also drop dead?
The answer is, if the Umno Malay dies, the 5 others continue living. To answer Najib in a simple manner understandable by the Umno JKKK delegates: if Umno dies, the Malays will continue living. Will the people of Pekan die if Najib were not the PM?
Where are the Umno windbags when Zaid Ibrahim answered Najib? And we know, during Zaid’s short stint as a minister in Pak Lah’s government, Najib disliked him because Zaid has the mind of an independent gadfly who Najib cannot dominate. Why should any democrat submit to feudal Najib anyway?
Zaid has written an article with similar message that I have written many times. The destiny and future of Malays are not dependent on Umno. Their future and destiny lies in the own mortal hands.
We who oppose Najib and his Umno must always remind the people that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. I hope Najib doesn’t think that God is an Umno member! We must never permit the slow undoing of those human rights which Umno is doing.
The mass of the Malays are poor. The bottom 40% earn a monthly income of RM1,300 while the top 20% Malays earn RM10,666 a month. Since 1970, the top 20% Malays have always controlled and captured 52% of the income while the bottom feeders, the bulk of the sad class, share 12% of the income.
To borrow some passages in Kennedy’s speech, to those peoples in the huts and villages across our country struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
Najib simply doesn’t get it. He gets and understands only to heap praises and offer self-congratulatory and self-serving dictates supporting a feudal overlord and his consort.
The Umno people can’t respond to what Zaid said, because they simply can’t. The only thing coming out from their mouths are material that are supposed to come out from their rear end. That’s the value of what were said at length in the recent Umno PAU-wow.
Let’s see if any Umno member can engage Zaid sensibly. Chances are, they will come out with the usual vitriol and venom that are thrown at people who will not subscribe to the fascist thinking of Umno. - sakmongkol.blogspot.com, December 10, 2013.
Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of Raub MP Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz.
Where would Umno be without the Malays and the people? Najib Razak is a poor imitator and a poor student of history.
Many many years ago, President Kennedy asked the rhetorical question — ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country. This particular passage has been criticised because it contradicted much that was said in the stirring speech. The speech, by the way, is a classic, not worthy to be estimated by a lowly person such as I.
It contradicts the very idea of freedom which the speech wanted to convey. Neither half of the passage reflects the idea of the freeman, freedom and liberty.
Ask not what your country can do for you suggests that the country, and by extension, the government, is your overlord, the one whose generosity one depends on. The other half of the passage, ask what you can do to the country, suggests that you are the slave to the overlord, consigned forever to toil and to owe absolute loyalty to the country and by extension to the government that rules the country.
It contradicts the idea that man alone has in his mortal hands the power to do good and also to destroy which Kennedy said earlier in the speech.
Najib on the other hand doesn’t have the intellectual breadth of Kennedy. He was able only to say: where would the Malays be without Umno. It means the same to the Malays, that Umno is the supreme overlord, whose generosity the Malays depend on and whose absolute obedience is owned by. Umno is your master, and you, Umno slaves.
The right question, Mr Prime Minister, should be: where would Umno be, without the Malays? Without Malay support, Umno is doomed.
Do we see Malays lying dead in Kelantan where Umno remains defeated for so long a time? Do we see Malays lying around dead since DAP took over Penang? And do we see dead Malays on the streets in Selangor ever since PR governed it? We saw better and more honest government in these states which we didn’t see during Umno rule. Things can only get better without Umno for the Malays.
Why? Because in replacement of Umno, we have governments that rule on the basis of the principles of the rule of law, on the principles of good governance and on the principles of responsibility and accountability. What does Umno represent? It represents absolute discretion, it represents corruption and abuse of power and it represents total abandonment of responsibility and accountability.
I have said it many times. Let me try to put it simpler and clearer. There are 18 million Malays in Malaysia. There are 3.4 million Umno members. In other words, 1 out of 6 Malays is an Umno member. Suppose the 1 Umno Malay were to drop dead, will the other Malays also drop dead?
The answer is, if the Umno Malay dies, the 5 others continue living. To answer Najib in a simple manner understandable by the Umno JKKK delegates: if Umno dies, the Malays will continue living. Will the people of Pekan die if Najib were not the PM?
Where are the Umno windbags when Zaid Ibrahim answered Najib? And we know, during Zaid’s short stint as a minister in Pak Lah’s government, Najib disliked him because Zaid has the mind of an independent gadfly who Najib cannot dominate. Why should any democrat submit to feudal Najib anyway?
Zaid has written an article with similar message that I have written many times. The destiny and future of Malays are not dependent on Umno. Their future and destiny lies in the own mortal hands.
We who oppose Najib and his Umno must always remind the people that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God. I hope Najib doesn’t think that God is an Umno member! We must never permit the slow undoing of those human rights which Umno is doing.
The mass of the Malays are poor. The bottom 40% earn a monthly income of RM1,300 while the top 20% Malays earn RM10,666 a month. Since 1970, the top 20% Malays have always controlled and captured 52% of the income while the bottom feeders, the bulk of the sad class, share 12% of the income.
To borrow some passages in Kennedy’s speech, to those peoples in the huts and villages across our country struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.
Najib simply doesn’t get it. He gets and understands only to heap praises and offer self-congratulatory and self-serving dictates supporting a feudal overlord and his consort.
The Umno people can’t respond to what Zaid said, because they simply can’t. The only thing coming out from their mouths are material that are supposed to come out from their rear end. That’s the value of what were said at length in the recent Umno PAU-wow.
Let’s see if any Umno member can engage Zaid sensibly. Chances are, they will come out with the usual vitriol and venom that are thrown at people who will not subscribe to the fascist thinking of Umno. - sakmongkol.blogspot.com, December 10, 2013.
Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of Raub MP Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz.
Monday, December 9, 2013
How Dare Najib Discredit Mandela
By Kee Thuan Chye | Yahoo! News
Umno President Najib Razak diminished the stature of a great man when he said last Saturday at his party’s general assembly that Umno fought for the “same cause” as Nelson Mandela, who had died two days before.
What same cause? Mandela fought against racial discrimination whereas Umno institutionalised racial discrimination a few decades ago and still upholds it.
Mandela never advocated black supremacy, whereas Umno promotes Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).
After he became president of South Africa, Mandela proposed reconciliation and sought to bring the races in his country together, whereas in Malaysia, Umno divides the races in order to keep itself in power.
Even at its general assembly, Umno’s delegates lobbied for the ethnocentric ‘1Melayu’ to replace the more inclusive ‘1Malaysia’, bashed the Chinese for not supporting the party at the last general election, and demanded a bigger stake in the economy, totally ignoring the reality that most of the country’s economic development is now already in Malay hands.
Furthermore, no less an Umno leader than Awang Adek Hussin, who is also the country’s deputy finance minister, proposed that private companies should declare how they support the Bumiputera agenda in their annual reports. He also insisted that, because Malays now make up almost 70 per cent of the population, the hiring policy of private companies should reflect the country’s racial composition at every level.
This is effectively saying that CEOs of private companies should also be Malay, and that their staff should be 70 per cent Malay. Indeed. Apa lagi Umno mahu? (What more does Umno want?)
On the other hand, does the civil service reflect the country’s racial composition? Are there 30 per cent non-Malay heads of department? In our public universities, are 30 per cent of vice-chancellors non-Malay?
Mandela did not take away the businesses of the whites in the name of affirmative action for the black South Africans. He allowed the whites to continue to control the economy and as a result of its being in experienced hands, South Africa’s economy grew at a steady, robust rate.
Mandela also believed in inclusiveness, in humanity and human rights. But Umno abhors lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBTs) although they are no less human beings. One delegate denigrated them by saying at the assembly that LGBTs exist so that “orang jahat (bad people) can be purged, leaving behind only the good people to inherit the earth”. How simplistically stupid, or stupidly simplistic.
Neither does Umno tolerate Shiite (Syiah) Muslims. Delegates urged that the Federal Constitution be amended to give recognition only to Sunni Islam. And Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in his customary aggressive manner of winning support from the Umno flock, seized the moment to accuse the “No. 2” man in the Opposition party PAS of being a Shiite leader. He called for action to be taken against the latter. It was a clear manifestation of gutter politics posing under the guise of religion.
How, then, could Najib have had the temerity to draw parallels between Umno and Mandela? They couldn’t be more worlds apart. How could he have said what he said and not appear foolish to the outside world? He might have been able to deceive his audience of Umno members, but he cannot deceive the intelligent and discerning.
He apparently rationalised it by claiming that no race has been deprived under the New Economic Policy (NEP). He probably knows better – or else he is ignorant or dumb – but he still played to the gallery. When he asked his audience, “Were (other races) sidelined during the NEP? Did we ever hurt the livelihood of other races?”, they of course responded with a resounding “no”. This of course is an act of syiok sendiri too.
They chose to conveniently forget the millions of non-Malays who over the decades have been deprived of places in public universities, scholarships, jobs in the civil service, promotions, higher ranks in the security forces, government projects (except the big crony Chinese companies), etc.
They pretended not to know that the non-Malays most hurt by the NEP were the low-income and middle-class groups. Many of their children could not pursue tertiary education through lack of means. Those who could had parents who worked extra hard to make extra money to send their children to private institutions.
They chose to ignore the truth that the push for Ketuanan Melayu caused non-Malays to be sidelined in unjust, uncountable ways and turned them into second-class citizens.
Now, to add insult to injury, they profess no knowledge of all that, still present the Malays as victims after more than 50 years of independence from the British “oppressors”, brand the “foreign races” (meaning non-Malays) as threats, lament that the Malays might become “slaves in their own land”, ask for more handouts, more projects, more quotas.
Enough is never enough. At every annual general assembly, they dish out the same laments, the same non-Malay bashing, the same demands for more opportunities while at the same time moaning that Malay entrepreneurs still need “hand-holding”. Their thinking is this: Ask and it shall be given. Just like that. No need to prove their abilities first, no need to be free of “hand-holding” first, no need to work to attain their goals. That’s the attitude they take.
And this is equated with Mandela’s struggle?
This sort of attitude exhibited by Umno is what pisses off a lot of people and makes them hate the party. If Najib’s comparison between Umno and Mandela doesn’t piss off the South African Government, well, that’s its business. But if it does, President Jacob Zuma might want to demand an apology from Najib for showing disrespect and distorting the principles of the great Mandela.
Najib cannot exploit a good man’s name to justify his party’s petty schemes.
Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.
Umno President Najib Razak diminished the stature of a great man when he said last Saturday at his party’s general assembly that Umno fought for the “same cause” as Nelson Mandela, who had died two days before.
What same cause? Mandela fought against racial discrimination whereas Umno institutionalised racial discrimination a few decades ago and still upholds it.
Mandela never advocated black supremacy, whereas Umno promotes Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).
After he became president of South Africa, Mandela proposed reconciliation and sought to bring the races in his country together, whereas in Malaysia, Umno divides the races in order to keep itself in power.
Even at its general assembly, Umno’s delegates lobbied for the ethnocentric ‘1Melayu’ to replace the more inclusive ‘1Malaysia’, bashed the Chinese for not supporting the party at the last general election, and demanded a bigger stake in the economy, totally ignoring the reality that most of the country’s economic development is now already in Malay hands.
Furthermore, no less an Umno leader than Awang Adek Hussin, who is also the country’s deputy finance minister, proposed that private companies should declare how they support the Bumiputera agenda in their annual reports. He also insisted that, because Malays now make up almost 70 per cent of the population, the hiring policy of private companies should reflect the country’s racial composition at every level.
This is effectively saying that CEOs of private companies should also be Malay, and that their staff should be 70 per cent Malay. Indeed. Apa lagi Umno mahu? (What more does Umno want?)
On the other hand, does the civil service reflect the country’s racial composition? Are there 30 per cent non-Malay heads of department? In our public universities, are 30 per cent of vice-chancellors non-Malay?
Mandela did not take away the businesses of the whites in the name of affirmative action for the black South Africans. He allowed the whites to continue to control the economy and as a result of its being in experienced hands, South Africa’s economy grew at a steady, robust rate.
Mandela also believed in inclusiveness, in humanity and human rights. But Umno abhors lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transsexuals (LGBTs) although they are no less human beings. One delegate denigrated them by saying at the assembly that LGBTs exist so that “orang jahat (bad people) can be purged, leaving behind only the good people to inherit the earth”. How simplistically stupid, or stupidly simplistic.
Neither does Umno tolerate Shiite (Syiah) Muslims. Delegates urged that the Federal Constitution be amended to give recognition only to Sunni Islam. And Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, in his customary aggressive manner of winning support from the Umno flock, seized the moment to accuse the “No. 2” man in the Opposition party PAS of being a Shiite leader. He called for action to be taken against the latter. It was a clear manifestation of gutter politics posing under the guise of religion.
How, then, could Najib have had the temerity to draw parallels between Umno and Mandela? They couldn’t be more worlds apart. How could he have said what he said and not appear foolish to the outside world? He might have been able to deceive his audience of Umno members, but he cannot deceive the intelligent and discerning.
He apparently rationalised it by claiming that no race has been deprived under the New Economic Policy (NEP). He probably knows better – or else he is ignorant or dumb – but he still played to the gallery. When he asked his audience, “Were (other races) sidelined during the NEP? Did we ever hurt the livelihood of other races?”, they of course responded with a resounding “no”. This of course is an act of syiok sendiri too.
They chose to conveniently forget the millions of non-Malays who over the decades have been deprived of places in public universities, scholarships, jobs in the civil service, promotions, higher ranks in the security forces, government projects (except the big crony Chinese companies), etc.
They pretended not to know that the non-Malays most hurt by the NEP were the low-income and middle-class groups. Many of their children could not pursue tertiary education through lack of means. Those who could had parents who worked extra hard to make extra money to send their children to private institutions.
They chose to ignore the truth that the push for Ketuanan Melayu caused non-Malays to be sidelined in unjust, uncountable ways and turned them into second-class citizens.
Now, to add insult to injury, they profess no knowledge of all that, still present the Malays as victims after more than 50 years of independence from the British “oppressors”, brand the “foreign races” (meaning non-Malays) as threats, lament that the Malays might become “slaves in their own land”, ask for more handouts, more projects, more quotas.
Enough is never enough. At every annual general assembly, they dish out the same laments, the same non-Malay bashing, the same demands for more opportunities while at the same time moaning that Malay entrepreneurs still need “hand-holding”. Their thinking is this: Ask and it shall be given. Just like that. No need to prove their abilities first, no need to be free of “hand-holding” first, no need to work to attain their goals. That’s the attitude they take.
And this is equated with Mandela’s struggle?
This sort of attitude exhibited by Umno is what pisses off a lot of people and makes them hate the party. If Najib’s comparison between Umno and Mandela doesn’t piss off the South African Government, well, that’s its business. But if it does, President Jacob Zuma might want to demand an apology from Najib for showing disrespect and distorting the principles of the great Mandela.
Najib cannot exploit a good man’s name to justify his party’s petty schemes.
Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the new book The Elections Bullshit, now available in bookstores.
The big hue and cry over Selangor assemblymen/women pay hike
Human beings are very complicated and their mental behavior can be misdirected at times where even psychologists have no answer to it. When news of the pay hike to all the Selangor Assemblymen/women were announced 'all hell breaks loose'. People suddenly do not see or study the rational of the increase before they started blasting away. Their discontentment varies from Anwar's excessive statement to Najib's hypocrite argument, while others claimed that now is not the time or raise it gradually.
Let us look at the three main arguments, 'Excessive', 'now is not the right time' and 'to raise gradually'. I have no answer to Najib's hypocrite argument, I leave it to the readers to interpret what it meant.
1) Excessive - How do you quantified excessive? A company usually has salary scale for all levels of its employees including the annual percentage salary increase so when an employee suddenly received a three bar jump in his increment, 'excessive' will call into question. Is there any salary scale for state assemblymen or guidelines for any increment? If there are then they should follow the scale or guidelines, if not how can we judged that it is excessive, just because the figures look big?
2) Now is not the right time - I ask you, so when is the right time? Yes, the economy is not good (contrary to what the federal government said), rakyat is suffering with price increases in almost every consumer goods, they have to tighten their belts and living by the day. Rakayat must understand that at least 50% of state activities and policies especially the economy are still under the Federal government influence. Whether the economy is good or bad primarily depends on the Federal government performances. Our economy is in bad state for years now and will continue to be so if not worst. Can we used the overall bad economy that affected the whole nation to stop the pay hike and not base on the individual state performances? You will get to understand more further down this article.
3) Raise it gradually - here I ask, how gradual and at what quantum? These state assemblymen/women are elected to serve a five year term, so, should their pay hike be carried out on a yearly basis and at what quantum? If the quantum is an insignificant small amount might as well not raise at all. Moreover, no matter how much is raised there would be angry people not happy with the raise and the state assemblymen/women will have to suffer the brick-bat thrown at them over the raise five times during their term in office.
To those who are against the pay hike your reasoning's are not totally wrong but you have to look at the different perspective as well. Some who are against the pay hike, especially gerakan and its youth chief Tan Keng Liang are just playing politics, trying to score political points.
My basis of argument is not to present whether the pay hike is right or wrong but to show how at times we can be penny wise pound foolish. I am comparing this state assemblymen/women pay hike to the 'secretive' payment of RM7.2 billions to foreign consultants.
a) State: The whole process to approve the pay hike to all the state assemblymen/women salary were carried out during the assembly. Everything is open and transparent to show each individual assemblyman/woman how much is his/her increment.
Federal: Nobody knows who are the foreign consultants, is it 1, 5, 10 or none at all. How much was paid to each of them and the best part is we get to know only after they were already being paid.
b) State: Assemblymen/women should know what are their job functions and everyone got eyes to see them at work. You will know and able to evaluate whether their high pay commensurate with their performances.
Federal: What are the job functions of these foreign consultants, no one knows. Have they achieved the results that they are paid for so 'excessively'? Here I have to really say this word aloud!
c) State: Will the rakyat really suffer more because of the extra few millions used for the assemblymen/women pay hike? Will the state government becomes bankrupt, neglect the state and rakyat due to the increase or their performances will decline?
Federal: Malaysia has 28 million people and the federal government could not find someone local capable of doing the job that they need to engage a RM7.2 billion foreign consultants. Will RM7.2 billion outflow to foreigners or the few millions extra paid to Malaysian assemblymen/women cause the rakyat to suffer or even bankrupt the nation? You tell me.
d) State: RESULTS - What the rakyat must look at is the end RESULTS. They can have their so call 'excessive pay hike' but you can monitor their overall performances for the next five years and the power is in your hand should they fail to perform to your expectation.
Federal:The RM7.2 billion have already being paid out and they will continue to engage these foreign consultants, so they said. Have they shown us these foreign consultants performance results to date. Yes or No you answer that.
Lastly, why I said gerakan, Tan Keng Liang and many other umno/bn supporters are playing politics to gain some brownie points on this matter. They never speak out against the Sarawak state government which also raised their assemblymen/women salaries so 'excessively' and not a sound over the engagement of the RM7.2 billion foreign consultants that we never know existed nor their performances. To call others 'hypocrite'? What a joke.
Let us look at the three main arguments, 'Excessive', 'now is not the right time' and 'to raise gradually'. I have no answer to Najib's hypocrite argument, I leave it to the readers to interpret what it meant.
1) Excessive - How do you quantified excessive? A company usually has salary scale for all levels of its employees including the annual percentage salary increase so when an employee suddenly received a three bar jump in his increment, 'excessive' will call into question. Is there any salary scale for state assemblymen or guidelines for any increment? If there are then they should follow the scale or guidelines, if not how can we judged that it is excessive, just because the figures look big?
2) Now is not the right time - I ask you, so when is the right time? Yes, the economy is not good (contrary to what the federal government said), rakyat is suffering with price increases in almost every consumer goods, they have to tighten their belts and living by the day. Rakayat must understand that at least 50% of state activities and policies especially the economy are still under the Federal government influence. Whether the economy is good or bad primarily depends on the Federal government performances. Our economy is in bad state for years now and will continue to be so if not worst. Can we used the overall bad economy that affected the whole nation to stop the pay hike and not base on the individual state performances? You will get to understand more further down this article.
3) Raise it gradually - here I ask, how gradual and at what quantum? These state assemblymen/women are elected to serve a five year term, so, should their pay hike be carried out on a yearly basis and at what quantum? If the quantum is an insignificant small amount might as well not raise at all. Moreover, no matter how much is raised there would be angry people not happy with the raise and the state assemblymen/women will have to suffer the brick-bat thrown at them over the raise five times during their term in office.
To those who are against the pay hike your reasoning's are not totally wrong but you have to look at the different perspective as well. Some who are against the pay hike, especially gerakan and its youth chief Tan Keng Liang are just playing politics, trying to score political points.
My basis of argument is not to present whether the pay hike is right or wrong but to show how at times we can be penny wise pound foolish. I am comparing this state assemblymen/women pay hike to the 'secretive' payment of RM7.2 billions to foreign consultants.
a) State: The whole process to approve the pay hike to all the state assemblymen/women salary were carried out during the assembly. Everything is open and transparent to show each individual assemblyman/woman how much is his/her increment.
Federal: Nobody knows who are the foreign consultants, is it 1, 5, 10 or none at all. How much was paid to each of them and the best part is we get to know only after they were already being paid.
b) State: Assemblymen/women should know what are their job functions and everyone got eyes to see them at work. You will know and able to evaluate whether their high pay commensurate with their performances.
Federal: What are the job functions of these foreign consultants, no one knows. Have they achieved the results that they are paid for so 'excessively'? Here I have to really say this word aloud!
c) State: Will the rakyat really suffer more because of the extra few millions used for the assemblymen/women pay hike? Will the state government becomes bankrupt, neglect the state and rakyat due to the increase or their performances will decline?
Federal: Malaysia has 28 million people and the federal government could not find someone local capable of doing the job that they need to engage a RM7.2 billion foreign consultants. Will RM7.2 billion outflow to foreigners or the few millions extra paid to Malaysian assemblymen/women cause the rakyat to suffer or even bankrupt the nation? You tell me.
d) State: RESULTS - What the rakyat must look at is the end RESULTS. They can have their so call 'excessive pay hike' but you can monitor their overall performances for the next five years and the power is in your hand should they fail to perform to your expectation.
Federal:The RM7.2 billion have already being paid out and they will continue to engage these foreign consultants, so they said. Have they shown us these foreign consultants performance results to date. Yes or No you answer that.
Lastly, why I said gerakan, Tan Keng Liang and many other umno/bn supporters are playing politics to gain some brownie points on this matter. They never speak out against the Sarawak state government which also raised their assemblymen/women salaries so 'excessively' and not a sound over the engagement of the RM7.2 billion foreign consultants that we never know existed nor their performances. To call others 'hypocrite'? What a joke.
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