Let the Truths of Malaysian Society be Known to All
Malaysia is a prosperous country endowed with all the Natural Resources most countries will envy.
The abundant intelligent human resources are never used intelligently for its full development. The one coalition known as the Barisan National government headed by the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO) and many smaller parties like Malaysian Chinese Organisation (MCA) , the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) and other smaller Eastern Malaysian parties ruled the country for 61 years. No one actually knew the deplorable situations and economic conditions the country was facing until 9th May 2018, when the Barisan government was toppled by the coalition of Hope (Pakatan Harapan: made up of 4 parties headed by a 93 years old leader Tun Dr Mahathir). Pakatan Harapan wins the General Election. Many secrets are revealed and everyone is shocked at the state of affairs in the nation. It is confirmed that the National debts at the moment stand over one trillion ringgit (Malaysian dollars). The last nine years under Najib Razak (president of UMNO and PM) have been exceptionally destructive in more ways than one. There will be more episodes awaiting us.
The new PM of Malaysia is a 93 years old politician who retired 15 years ago and he is back as the interim PM to correct all the mistakes he had made earlier in his 22 years as PM of Malaysia (1981 to 2003). During his 22 years administration, he brought about colossal development to Malaysia, envising the country to be a developed country by 2020. This vision was never materialised because of some of the mistakes he made. The successors identified by him were not the calibre people Malaysia had but from his old party members (UMNO) and the two PMs after him did a very bad job in seeing the country developed. Instead they enrich themselves especially Nazib Razak, the son of the second PM of Malaysia Tun Abdul Razak the so called father of development. Nazib Razak became the 'Cash is King' PM and billion of dollars were deposited into hin personal account. Worst of all, 114 million dollars, 100 kg gold bars and over 200 expensive handbags for his wife were recovered from his premises. This is just a tib of the iceberg, more cash and valuables items must be kept over-sea and elsewhere. This is the picture of the 93 years old PM. Tun Dr Mahathir (on the left) and below is Nazib Razak..
Nazib Razak was PM for almost 9 years until 9th May 2018. “You help me, I help you”, was the refrain and with cash as king, we now realise how many individuals have succumbed to his wishes and sold the soul of the nation. The entire civil service, judiciary and government machineries are contaminated, not to speak about government controlled companies (GLCs) and others. Many succumbed and you can hardly count on the fingers of one palm those from our institutions of governance - the civil service, police, judiciary and even from the royalty - who stood up and spoke out.
Take a look at the former PM Nazib Razak and his wife. The wife bears some resemblance to Mrs Marcus of the Philippines with her tastes of luxuries and expensive hand bags and shoes.
What does this say of our nation Malaysia and its people? We can blame and give enough reasons to justify all the bad happenings. That is noble. There will be rationalisations like fear, revenge and insecurity but are we ready to take responsibility? And ARE WE READY TO look within and face our own inner worth? Until then we will never understand why! There is so much religiosity in Malaysia but when it comes to expressions of faith and commitment, we fail badly.
The history of the administration of Nazib Razak for 9 years is interesting and devastating for Malaysia. So many benefited from Najib’s ‘rezeki’ or benefits and with the change of government, they will now have to face the new PM, Mahathir’s ‘takdir’ or rages. This only goes to show how little faith people do really practice in reality.
Malaysia is proclaimed as a Muslim country. Islam is the country main national religion and other religions are allowed to practice here. What is the difference between religion and faith? Most people who claim to be religious do not know the difference between religion and faith. All Malay students are Muslim and they have been indoctrinated so intensively that they fail to see the difference between religion and faith. In Fact the whole population fails to see this.
Religion and being religious is very different from having a faith. We have so many temples, churches and masjids. Muslim Places of worship, yet we cannot find enough practitioners to even save our nation from within the establishment. The cost has been very huge and colossal. The masjids, Muslim places of worship are built using tax-payers money but the temples and churches are usually built using people's donations. That's the only main difference. The similarity is that they can't see the difference between religion and faith.
To remind those who fail to see the difference between religion and faith, remember that a person of faith can believe or otherwise in God. What is more significant is that such a person has an internal moral compass and they live what they talk about. They are congruent and have the capacity to discern and act within the dictates of their conscience. Such individuals can neither be bought nor bullied. They look at money from a different perspective. They value different things. They are controlled by the motivations of experiences, growth and contributions. They gain their qualifications not from MIT, Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge or other prominent institutions. They cultivate their inner life and exhibit a sense of humanity. They can discern what is right and what is wrong. Silence and listening to the inner voice shapes their responses and they are people from different religious backgrounds. No religion has the monopoly. Remember that.
There is so much cynicism these days and this is because many young people see through the hypocrisy of their religious elders. Islamic groups like Islamic party, PAS, Perkasa and other extremist religious groups which are supposed to champion issues like anti-corruption, honesty and justice, are more interested in ‘hudud’ or ancient laws of punishments and how others should live their religious life. These are hypocrites of the first order and they are many in the Malaysian system of religious indoctrination.
Umno, the dominating party of Barisional National (61 years rule of Malaysia) talked about race, religion and royalty (3 Rs) and today we can surmise their contribution. They are still focusing on the three Rs. They are not aware that a focus only on race undercuts the Islamic notion of justice. Also, race is not a foundational cornerstone of Islam. Yet, in Malaysia we have Islam a la Umno, which is pedalled for votes as though after 67 years of independence and rule by Umno, Islam is now suddenly under threat. What a misconception? They are using fear as their weapon to win support from the rural Malay population. They even warned the rural Malays that if they do not vote for the Barisan (UMNO) government, the Chinese from Democratic Action Party (DAP) will rule the country. Ironically DAP is a multi-racial party of Chinese, Indians, Malays and other races. There are some Indian and Malay lawmakers in the parliament though Chines is the majority.
The dominating party UMNO lost its mandate to rule because it has lost its direction. It does not learn and does not possess the leadership with an open mind to both assess the climate of today, the needs of Malaysian society and where they intend to take this nation forward to in the next 20 years. A focus on race is not even a starter and this immediately cuts them away from the Malaysia that a vast majority of Malaysians envisage.
UMNO and Islamic party PAS do not know how to separate religion from politics. Political and state-run religion can cut both ways. In the guise of Islam they even gave free trips for pilgrimages. Look at the character and conduct of so many of their leaders and the question arises if this is what defending Islam is all about. The entire civil service and administration have been contaminated. Does defending Islam mean condoning corruption, dishonesty, justice and a lack of integrity? I hope they find their own answers.
We have Islamic preacher like Zakir Naik from India, who says publicly that if you have to choose between a corrupt Muslim leader and a good non-Muslim leader, then you have to choose the Muslim leader. What nonsense is he sprouting and what an insult to Islam as many understand it. Islam as I understand, stands for justice and integrity and inclusiveness. There are more Muslims in China, India and Pakistan than the number of Muslims in Malaysia. Islam does not identify race. And yet where are our muftis and scholars? They remain silent when such stupidity invades our digital media. Who is at faut? Not Islam but our members of UMNO and PAS.
UMNO still focuses on the three Rs and they will never get far. They may have a few competent people like Mustapa Mohamed and others and they do not exhibit leadership with character. But to many of its leaders, money is what matters in fighting for leadership, not your character, convictions and vision for the nation as a whole. They too are a disappointments to the nation. My best wishes to Tengku Razaleigh (popularly known as Ku Li, 80 years old), for he has never exhibited leadership and ideas that are progressive and inclusive. Yet he is a better bet than Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (the disposed deputy PM), the religious school student who would even lie for the sake of his leader. He claims to have met the donor of $2.6 billion dollars to the PM's person acccount. What character does he have? I hope the police will investigate not only his lie but also his beating up of his daughter’s fiancee, which was so skillfully covered up. These are not the people we want to lead Malaysia. Secondly, Zahid Hamidi seems to have reincarnated in Bagan Datoh, when it is understood that he was born in Indonesia. Where is his honesty?
Do Malaysia want leader of this calibre?
It is good that Hishammuddin Hussein (former Minister of defence) is not standing for the coming UMNO election as he has done enough damage, not only to the standing of his grandfather Dato Onn Jaafar, the founder of UMNO and his father Hussein Onn (third PM) but insulted his own intelligence by standing for the three Rs. How far will this get you? Ask yourself what are your deepest convictions and where do you want to see this diverse nation by 2030 and how you could lead everyone by promoting an inclusive -vision for all. He lacks the vision of inclusiveness of his grandfather who wanted to include non-Malays into his party UMNO. His grandfather left UMNO after his inclusiveness was rejected by the party.
These are the words and description of K. Haridas about royalty in Malaysia.
"And lastly let us look at the royalty, who were established as the new idols by Umno. You cannot talk about them but just accept them with the good, the bad and the ugly as part of Malay culture and tradition. Yet time and again they have failed us because good Malays have failed to hold them to the highest, instead of just revering them.
They remain ‘Raja-Raja Melayu’, something so exclusive that the rest of us Malaysians can only look at them with fear and trepidation. This is 2018 and the royalty should also understand that they are Constitutional Monarchs within Malaysia and not absolute rulers. When Pakatan Harapan institutes its Freedom of Information Act, then all the details regarding their payments and expenditure will be available in the public space.
They are rulers representing all of us and the terminology has to change. Their dignity should be above reproach if they are the custodians of Islam. We respect and honour them and likewise, they hold a duty of care for us in the way they conduct themselves. In the name of race, let us not build a cocoon around them. It is easy to condemn people regarding allegations when the government of the day does not correct the news in the digital media.
Is it true that a member of royalty has secured royalties worth few billion ringgit for investments in his state? Is it true that an individual was killed by a royalty using his golf club? What about gambling in casinos in London and loosing heavily? An illegitimate child born to a royalty and now we have a golden airplane owned by one.
All this is happening in a country where 50 percent of Malaysians earn below RM2,000 a month. Correct our perception, because this is the digital age and you cannot hide behind your throne, nor the government of the day conceal us from facts and reality."
K. Haridas added,
"However, if their lifestyle and conduct is unbecoming, they should not take on this august role. If they choose to serve, then they should be open to criticism. Islam is against all forms of idol worship and even if half of what journalist A Kadir Jasin indicates is true, it is bad enough.
Respect is just not given and for all of us, and even for the royalty, it has to be earned. This is an age where we have to speak truth to power, as well have the capacity to humbly apologise if we are wrong.
Tell us if it is right for the ruler to be away on the night of the general election? If we are not going to be open and give them a fair chance, we will end up nurturing demagogues in our midst, as we have seen in the case of Najib Razak. The truth is painful but it has to be said. We can never sugar-coat when their dues come out from the consolidated funds of the Treasury. It is the truth that sets everyone free."
Are we as citizens of Malaysia to ignore this? We have done for far too long and the time has come for those in power to be open and inform us about our inaccuracies and misconceptions. The new government the coalition of Hope (Pakatan Harapan) must live up to the Malaysian hope of a transparent and clean government. The last government under UMNO in the Barisan Nation did not do because this was part of the 3 Rs and their focus is not inclusiveness.
Were the rulers also susceptible to this mantra ‘You help me and I help you’? Were some of them also recipients of proceeds from One Malaysian Development Bhd (1MDB) or from the PM? Thank you, Kadir Jasin the editor and spoke person of the council of eminent people formed by the current PM Tun Dr Mahathir, for being brave and honest enough to state what needs to be said, even if your inaccuracies have yet to be corrected or clarified. We strongly stand and support your effort to be transparent and live with integrity.
This is the role of the media and for too long our licensed regime media has been silent in these areas. Let the truth be told and not everyone will be happy because they are not used to such expressions. However, a vast majority will be grateful if this is done with the interest of the nation in mind and with respect for boundaries within which we should all conduct ourselves if we choose to be in the public space.
Today the citizens of Malaysia have contributed over RM50 million to the Hope Fund to ease the government debt. More donations are flowing in to help the nation to recover from the colossal debt. This gives us the moral authority and credibility to expect the highest from all sectors of our society including our political leaders and rulers. To say that Mr Kadir Jasin has crossed the mark is to overlook the very serious and costly harm to our national image that has been brought about by the behaviour of people in power especially the PM and leaders from UMNO and their leadership which aims to protect race, religion and royalty.
The new concept of a Malaysian Malaysia and its inclusiveness will cultivate patriotism and contributions from all races which made up the population of Malaysia. Hopefully those who gave up hope and left Malaysia will return to serve Malaysia for a better future for all.