Wither Malaysia?
I don't like to blog about politics, but it has weighed heavily on my mind recently.
Amidst all the shows and drama that are on display daily in our newspapers and in cyberspace, there are a few things that I felt are worth pointing out:
The dominant party in the ruling coalition has become too powerful, to the point that not the police, not the judiciary, not the parliament, and probably not even the monarchy is able to do anything about the rampant abuse of power by them.
I suspect it is not really the alternative coalition that the rakyat want, but rather a way to finally check and roll back the insidious influence this party has been having on all our cherished institutions. They see the alternative coalition as one of our final hopes of doing this.
The key players in the party have too much at stake for us to hope that they will find it in their conscience to do the right thing. They will surely have to answer to the Almighty in the hereafter, but at the moment they just don't care.
There is one other hope, and that for the other member parties of the ruling coalition to realize that they do have it in their power to turn this tide around. Minus all the other member parties, the dominant party cannot stand on its own. But most are either too cowardly or too self serving to have the courage to do the right thing.
--------------------------------------------
So, is there no hope for Malaysia then? Will the final remnants of resistance be finally snuffed out and Malaysia continue on its slow but sure path to self-destruction? The events unfolding in the next few weeks will tell, but at this moment the optimist in me has just turned off the lights and left the building.
6 comments:
Unless the Malays stop practising racism in Malaysia, the country cannot progress or prosper.
There is daylight after every storm. The question is how long the storm last. It could end in months, years or centuries.
History told us that great Kingdoms fall. China was once weak, colonized and closed under Communist. But after two centuries, it thrives again.
Zimbabwe was once rice bowl for Africa but now its people are starving. How long their suffering will end nobody know. Similar with China, the country will thrive again.
Hope that the storm will soon be over and all Malaysians will see the daylight.
A similar topic posted by Dr.M a day after yours.
WHITHER MALAYSIA
Posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at August 8, 2008 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0) | Previous Blog
1. I am very touched by the response to my article "The Country We Love" (July 27, 2008). We may have our differences, we may be of different races but it seems that we all love this country.
2. I have been abroad hundreds of times but I never fail to look forward to returning home. And as I step off the plane I would feel that sense of belonging that almost move me to tears. I am quite sure that every Malaysian feels this way upon returning to this, our very own homeland.
3. As Malaysia we are not an old country for we came into being only slightly more than 50 years ago. But it had been a very eventful half a century.
4. No one gave us much of a chance when in 1957 we lowered the Union Jack and flew the Jalur Gemilang. We were of many races, cultures and religions, divided again by our economic functions, by extreme disparities in material wealth.
5. But our wise founding fathers, our Tunku Abdul Rahman, our Tan Cheng Lock and our Tun Sambanthan worked out a unique form of racial cooperation that staved off any violent confrontation between the races.
6. That cooperation, embodied in the coalition of racial parties and the Alliance/National Front Governments enabled the country to remain peaceful, bar one or two hiccups for 50 years.
7. Those were glorious years. The country grew and prospered. It became the model of the development of a developing country, a model of racial cooperation. It became known throughout the world where once no one could evenpronounce its name. It was the envy of other developing countries.
8. Malaysians abroad felt proud because the moment they identified themselves as Malaysians, immediately people talked of F1 in Sepang and the twin towers.
9. There seemed to be nothing to stop us from achieving our goal of becoming a developed country by 2020.
10. Now all these dreams seem to have faded away. We are involved in political wrangling of all kinds, our leaders seem to be uncertain about what to do, our foreign policy is in disarray etc etc.
11. We have lost our direction. And we get no guidance.
12. We can withdraw into ourselves and merely wish our problems would go away or would solve themselves.
13. But that is wishful thinking. They will not solve themselves, they will not go away. If at all they will become worse, become much more difficult to resolve, as our people become more deeply divided.
14. The organisations created by our founding leaders which we were once confident could handle every problem have now deteriorated. Everything is about what is in it for me. Even the ordinary members of once respected political parties want something for themselves. Jobs, posts, titles, contracts and filthy lucre are the only things which matter.
15. Sacrifice? What sacrifice?
16. Who cares to sacrifice whatever. For most of the people we put our trust in to steer this beloved country to greater heights, the only sacrifice is to give up the Mercedes Benz for Proton Perdana, and that too very reluctantly.
17. I wasn't the best of leaders when I was in the hot seat.
18. But I did try my best. If my best is not good enough I am sorry.
19. But Dato Onn Jaafar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Tun V.T. Sambanthan cannot be faulted in terms of the sacrifices they made, their contributions to building racial harmony, peace and stability for their country.
20. Could it be that we forgot to teach this generation of leaders about the sacrifices made by our founding fathers. 21. Could it be that we cannot handle wealth as we did poverty?
22. Could it be that our leaders lack honour and the sense to accept responsibility and to retire gracefully?
23. Some simply cannot accept the realities, the role they had played in the destruction of a near perfect system which had done so much for our country.
24. Yes we should "Cry the Beloved Country" as Alan Payton said of his South Africa of the Apartheid past.
25. But crying would take us nowhere.
26. It is time the silent majority stop being silent.
27. It is time to speak up and be counted.
28. If we love our country we must not allow crooks and charlatans to rape and steal it from us.
29. It is ours, this country of many races and religions.
30. We must stand together, we the concerned Malaysians, and defend our heritage.
William - you talk a lot, but if Malaysia is so great, why are you in Australia?
The fact remains unless the Malays stop practising racism in Malaysia, the country cannot progress or prosper.
Hi Anonymous,
I copy and paste Dr.M statements into the comments.
Malaysia is a great country blessed with resources and talents. Unfortunately due to the greed of some people and the majority race exercising their supremacy or Ketuanan, the country economic performance is affected.
The hope is democracy is respected and not manipulated and everyone has equal opportunity.
The reason that I am in Australia is I do not know the duration of the storm and I don't want my children to go through our path.
I appreciate the opportunity that the Australian government has given me. I am treated equally and it is good to be equal as everybody and I can stand high with pride.
I hope that clarify your curiosity.
Over the tea talk this afternoon with few friends...in fact the Westerners are all big hipocrites as they have sucked almost everywhere there are good resources to tap when they conquered parts of the world. But again, they have introduced a lot of civilised way of living and it seems that we have been adapting to the style.
Malaysia is still very much a young country and I believe this is part of the process of growing up when you need to go through this storm. The silent majority just need to speak up and force the Malaysian way of building up this country.
When we observed what the Bar Council is doing on last Saturday, it was a big hooha...even some of the PR leaders also stumbled on this challenges and we see some of their colours.
Whatever it is, the silent majority must move with their votes to elect right leaders to enable more transparent and vocal outlook to good governance of Malaysia.
The transformation must continue whether it is the current government or future government of same or different parties.
We will prevail ! (hopefully not like China with confrontation or African countries with bloodshed)
Post a Comment