Why the Malaysian government should fund higher education

by Anas Alam Faizli

The Malaysian Insider

Jan 29, 2013

JAN 29 — Education was institutionalised to formalise the process of knowledge acquisition and research in man’s quest for understanding. The earliest universities in the history of mankind, namely Al-Azhar, Bologna, Oxford, Palencia, Cambridge and the University of Naples (world’s first public university, 1224), have one thing in common; they were built by notable early world civilisations as institutions of research, discourse, learning, proliferation of knowledge and documentation. This contrasts largely from the role of universities today as institutions of human capital accreditation, qualification and, most unfortunately, business and profits.

Ibnu Khaldun, father of historiography, sociology and economics, in his work “Prolegomenon” (Muqaddimah), argued that the government would only gain strength and sovereignty through its citizens. This strength can only be sustained by wealth, which can only be acquired through human capital development (education), which in turn can only be achieved by justice and inclusiveness for all. Aristotle too proposed: “Education should be one and the same for all.” A system that discriminates, in our case, based on household economic ability, can and will rile an unhealthy imbalance in the quality of the resulting labour force and society. These form the basis of our argument here.

In America, the individual funds his higher education while many European countries have public-funded institutions of higher learning. The latter is the best for Malaysia. Our societal and economic progression (or digression) does not depend on any one factor, but on the interaction of economic, social and political factors over a long period of time. Let’s first look at some realities that we need to contend with to understand why the Malaysian government should fund higher education.

Reality #1: Society benefits from education

We can never truly measure the immense positive externalities derived from an educated society. Outcomes of university education and research continuously found the progress of mankind. In developing Malaysia, higher education is an impetus for establishing a civic-minded society, highly-skilled manpower and competitive value proposition for capital and production. Investing in education may cost the society tax ringgit, but the consequences in failing to do so will be devastating. Walter W. McMahon (economist at University of Illinois) outlined the “private non-market benefits” for degree-holders. These include better personal health and improved cognitive development in their children. Alongside is the “social non-market benefits”, such as lower spending on prisons and greater political stability.

Reality #2: “Neither here nor there”

Malaysia is neither here nor there, and education opportunity is a major contributing factor. Robert Reich, former US secretary of labour and professor at UC Berkeley, made a compelling argument that is very applicable to Malaysia. To attract jobs and capital, nations and states face two choices; one is to build a low-tax but low-wage “warehouse economy” competing on price, another is to compete on quality, by increasing taxes and regulation to invest in human capital for a highly productive workforce. In Malaysia, wage growth caught up with productivity growth only up until the late 1990s. Since 1996, we have been living in the “middle-income trap”, stunted at the World Bank’s definition of upper middle income; neither high nor low income. In fact, for the past 10 years real wage growth has been negative. Having 77 per cent of the Malaysian workforce with only SPM and below qualification is a structural barrier to us crossing over to the higher-income group. The labour force is largely unskilled and unable to move their labour services up the

value chain where higher salaries are paid.

Reality #3: Education is fundamental to a competitive value proposition

Another case for education is competitiveness for both FDI and outputs. On the FDI side, our factors of production, in this case labour, need to be attractive enough. With a labour force that is neither highly skilled nor cheap, our value propositions dwarf next to the likes of Vietnam and Singapore. As a result, technology and automation service the lower-value processes replacing need for labour, while R&D and origination have not caught up due to lack of expertise. Malaysia has been the only country in the region facing net outflow in FDI since 2007.

On the output side, our goal to move away from producing lower-value manufacturing and primary goods into the higher-value services sector too has been held back by limited talent and capabilities. Lack of advanced education is one major factor causing this lack of competitiveness.

Reality #4: Efficiency-driven economy versus innovation-driven economy

A study released by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) categorises Malaysia as an efficiency-driven economy, behind innovation-driven economies. We focus on improving existing processes, but we are not out there inventing new things where the big money is. Focusing on the latter is extremely important now more than ever for Malaysia, because we can no longer offer very cheap labour, land and factories to produce mass generic products competitively. The number of researchers in Malaysia for each one million population is only 365, behind Japan’s 5,416 and South Korea’s 4,231. We are in dire need for more trained professionals and innovators, and we could have harvested them from talents that did not pursue tertiary education due to the lack of opportunities.

Reality #5: Education is an investment…

Like parents investing in their children’s future, the state must invest in the population for the future of the nation. An educated society is able to position themselves into higher standards of living characterised by higher income, production of high value goods and services, longer life expectancy, subscription to civic and moral values, political stability, existence of civil liberties and openness to change and development. While highly developed nations like Denmark and the Netherlands invest 11.2 per cent and 10.8 per cent (respectively) of GDP in education, we invested only 4.8 per cent last year (majority on infrastructure and emoluments!). To make matters worse, the education budget education is slashed from RM50 billion to RM37 billion this year! To get an idea of how counterintuitive this is for a developing Malaysia, even Afghanistan (7.4 per cent), Vietnam (7.2 per cent) and Timor Leste (12.3 per cent) spent more.

Currently, about 80 per cent of the bottom 40 per cent income households are only-SPM qualified and below, while only 5 per cent received higher education. The rest never made it to school at all. The reason is crystal clear; it is education that can lift households into higher income thus significantly reducing poverty and its consequences. If this group were to receive higher education, it is the state that ultimately benefits as social capital is returned from the household to the state in increased production and tax income. Social justice is served; while nobody is left discriminated or neglected from being given an opportunity to develop his or her own merits.

Reality #6: … with a positive net return-on-investment (ROI)

Entertain this simple simulation: Consider a fresh graduate entering the workforce with a salary of RM2,500, working for 30 years with a modest increment of 5 per cent a year. Upon retiring at the age of 55 years, he would have paid back at least RM290,000 to the government only in income taxes. Even after discounting, payback in taxes is significantly beyond the investment cost providing education.

Reality #7: Education correlates with wealth and income

Tertiary-educated individuals have an average of RM182,000 in wealth to their name, while SPM holders have only an average RM82,000 in net worth. Degree-holders have at least 2.2 times the wealth of SPM leavers. But the tertiary education penetration rate for Malaysia stands at only 36.5 per cent. This is only measured at point of enrolment (not completion)! Not only we are significantly behind “very high human development” nations’ average of 75 per cent, we are also behind “high human development” nations’ average of 50 per cent. In contrast, 86 per cent of Americans, 84 per cent of Kiwis, 100 per cent of Koreans, 99 per cent of the British, 45 per cent of Thais and 38.4 per cent of Turks are university-trained. As a result, the bulk of our workforce is unable to position themselves in higher-earning jobs. The bulk of our jobs involve the lower portions of the industry value chains. How are we then to move our economy into higher GNI territory, and inclusively move the majority of our population into higher income brackets? Current practice of relying on one-off mega construction projects will not ensure Malaysia move into high-income status, and stay there for the long run!

Reality #8: Education will reduce income inequality

Malaysia ranks as the third-most unequal nation in Asia, based on a GINI coefficient of 0.4621 (World Bank). Using only GINI, a simple measure of dispersion between the richest and poorest in an economy, we can already see that there are structural problems with the kind of growth that we have been enjoying. A household that earns RM10,000 monthly and above is already considered the top 4 per cent Malaysian households! Sixty per cent of the highest earning income households have at least one member that received tertiary-level education. But 60 per cent of the lowest-earning households have only SPM-holders as their most qualified household member. Not coincidentally, only the top 20 per cent income households in Malaysia have experienced substantial income growth. For the remaining 80 per cent it has been moderate. The gap between the rich and poor has been consistently growing from year 1970 until today. Only non-discriminatory access to education for the bottom 40 per cent will arrest the growth of this gap.

America perceives that the benefits of tertiary-level education are enjoyed most by the individual himself, thus the individual funds his higher education. The Scandinavians believe that the government should pay for higher education. On one hand, we see a privately funded education system in America, and growing inequality between the relatively richer and poorer households. There is at least US$902 billion (NY Federal Reserve) in total outstanding student loan debt in the United States today. In contrast, government-funded higher education Scandinavia ranks as most equal nations in the world. The apparent causal-effect relationship here is hard to dispel.

We expect free access to education to allow inter-generational mobility and narrow this inequality gap. If we let economic disability become a prohibitive factor for education, relatively poorer households will never be lifted out of the low-income bracket.

One graduate for every Malaysian family

We need an education system that is inclusive, does not neglect academically-struggling yet vocationally-advantaged pupils, matches industry requirements, yet streams students into disciplines where they will excel most. Most importantly, the system must not allow students to find themselves at the point of entering the industry, handicapped with a student loan on their shoulders, only to realise that they are not employable.

Malaysia has progressed in many aspects by making primary and secondary education free. One hundred per cent of Malaysians finish at least Primary 6 and 68 per cent finish Form 5. The current socio and economic condition in Malaysia now calls to make finishing Form 5 legally compulsory and providing free and accessible tertiary education for all.

I humbly urge the government, non-governmental bodies, policymakers and lobby groups to move towards providing free tuition fees for higher education at all our public universities. Where public universities are unable to cater for surplus of qualified students, it is suggested that the same equivalent amount of tuition fee funding is to be provided for private universities in a staggered manner, so as to ensure education accessibility by all.

I also propose the target of one graduate in each of the 6.4 million Malaysian households to ensure inter-generational mobility; that is for at least one child of a self-subsistent fisherman or low-salaried factory worker to uplift the entire family into a higher income bracket. A graduate in each family will be the change-agent that ensures his generation improves the family; via a chain reaction multiplying effect, ultimately affecting the graduate’s surroundings.

Education is way too important for us to risk any mismanagement, oversight and underfunding. The generations that go through a robustly managed quality education system, or lack of them, will ultimately decide Malaysia’s direction and the society that we will live in. Only then we can fundamentally assure that our true north for a high income Malaysia is sustainable, inclusive and is enjoyed by all layers of society — not just for the top 1 per cent. “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” (Nelson Mandela)

* Anas Alam Faizli is an oil and gas professional. He is pursuing a post-graduate doctorate and is the executive director of Teach For The Needs (TFTN).

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 30 January 2013, 12:36 am and is filed under
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70-Day Countdown to 13GE – Will Najib be the last Umno Prime Minister?

“Najib is not going to be the last Umno prime minister”, so says veteran Umno leader Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad at the 15th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference organized by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) today.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak clearly does not share Abdullah’s confidence and optimism or he would have called for the 13th general elections already instead of dilly-dallying with hesitation and indecision in the past two years, gaining for himself a reputation of being an even greater Flip-Flop Prime Minister than his predecessor Tun Abdullah.

Nor the Johore Mentri Besar,  Datuk Ghani Othman who told Kulai Chinese organizations less than three weeks ago that Pakatan Rakyat could win Putrajaya in the 13GE although he warned that the most the PR could win would be a slim majority of 5% to 10% of the parliamentary seats – i.e. a majority from 12 to 22 parliamentary seats.

Nor the UMNO/BN éminence grise, Tun Mahathir, who seems to be increasingly pessimistic about UMNO’s chances of winning Putrajaya in the 13GE, causing him to call on Malaysian voters to support “the devil you know than  the angel you don’t”, and recently, making more and more reckless and desperate statements, like:

•	his baseless accusation that the historic peaceful and successful Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat at Stadium Merdeka (KL112) by over 100,000 Malaysians from all races, religions and region was an attempt to topple the elected UMNO/BN government by violent means;

•	his baseless accusation that the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman had given citizenship to one million unqualified non-Malays before Merdeka in 1957 in an attempt to justify his “citizenship-for-votes” scam in Project M in Sabah, even suggesting a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Tunku Abdul Rahman’s issue of the one million citizenship to non-Malays before Merdeka.

However, despite the private doubts and diffidence of Umno/BN leadership about retaining Putrajaya in the 13GE, there can be no doubt that the UMNO/BN leaders and propagandists have ratcheted up their campaign which has gone into an overdrive in the mainstream and social media to convey the impression  that they have supreme confidence not only to defeat Pakatan Rakyat in the 13GE, but going to win big by regaining two-thirds parliamentary majority.

But, as the Prime Minister knows, whether Najib is going to be the last UMNO prime minister is still very uncertain and undecided – and it  is not going to be decided by the Umno leadership but by the 13 million Malaysian voters in the 13GE.

Undoubtedly the pre-eminent issues to be determined in the 13GE is whether Najib is the last Umno Prime Minister bringing UMNO/BN government to an end 55 years after Merdeka – liberating Malaysia from UMNO hegemony and set on the path of a normal democracy where voters can choose the Federal government they want through the ballot box during general elections.

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                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 January 2013, 4:52 pm and is filed under
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EC Chief Should Try Bersih Detergent

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 January 2013, 11:24 am and is filed under
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Najib Delivers — M’sia Worst-Ever Ranking On Press Freedom!

By Martin Jalleh

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 January 2013, 11:22 am and is filed under
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Stop delaying action against Ibrahim Ali, says former A-G

By Amin Iskandar

The Malaysian Insider

Jan 31, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 — The authorities must speed up action against Datuk Ibrahim Ali over his Bible-burning threat, says retired Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, adding any further delay in acting against the veteran politician could be held against the establishment ahead of Election 2013.

The vocal Ibrahim, who heads right-wing Malay group Perkasa, had sparked a firestorm last week when he reportedly called on Muslims to torch Malay-language copies of the Christian holy book that describes the Christian god as “Allah”, an Arabic word many Muslims here believe to be exclusive to their community.

“The issue is not the burning of the Bible. What is in the issue is, did he utter those words?” Abu Talib told The Malaysian Insider in an interview.

“If so, whether those words were seditious within the Sedition Act, reading it as a whole and in the context it was made. So, whether the Bible was burned is not material though helpful in the prosecution of the case if he is charged,” he said.

The government’s former top lawyer noted the police reports filed complaining about Ibrahim’s provocative remarks were related to the “Allah” dispute that has been simmering for the past four years.

He said there was no reason for the law enforcers to procrastinate deciding whether or not to prosecute the independent federal lawmaker who has been accused of inciting tension among Malaysia’s Muslim majority camp and followers of other faiths.

Abu Talib has been among others who have accused the A-G’s Chambers of practising selective prosecution.

“The police said they were recording statement from relevant witnesses. Surely they don’t require so much time to complete their investigations and make a decision if they are committed to a fair and impartial investigation.

“In fairness to him, clear him fast if he has not acted contrary to the Sedition Act 1948 or for that matter, any law applicable,” said the 73-year-old, who served as A-G for 13 years from 1980 to 1993, referring to Ibrahim.

The Bar Council and opposition lawmaker Karpal Singh have urged the government to charge the Pasir Mas MP with sedition but the incumbent A-G Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail has said action will only be taken against Ibrahim if bibles were burnt, and that the latter’s statement was not of grave concern.

Weighing in on the issue, Abu Talib said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had worked to dismantle archaic laws, namely the Internal Security Act (ISA) — which had been widely panned as a tool to suppress dissent — to bring the country’s justice system up to speed and in line with international human rights policies.

“Democracy, being government of, for and by the people, implies that it is the populace that is to be served and the elected is the servant, not the reverse,” said Abu Talib, who has chaired the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia.

The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the police force have taken a public beating in recent days with the Pakatan Rakyat federal opposition accusing the two public institutions of working with its political foe, Barisan Nasional, to keep the ruling coalition in power.

The AGC under Abdul Gani’s leadership has been hit with allegations of practising selective prosecution, including from Abu Talib and other retired civil servants such as former Kuala Lumpur criminal investigation police chief Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim.

A recent survey of five public institutions by the Merdeka Center found the police force bottoming out among Election 2013 first-time voters compared to both federal and state governments, the judiciary, the election regulator and political parties.

Politicians and local clergymen had lashed out at Ibrahim, the Perkasa founder and president, for allegedly stoking religious hatred and driving a deeper wedge between Muslims and non-Muslims.

Muslims are Malaysia’s biggest religious group at 60 per cent, while the minority Christians, who form just under 10 per cent of the 28 million population, have been at the forefront of issues confronting the non-Muslim community, which are provided for under the country’s constitution.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department also upset church leaders with its sermon last Friday, in which it warned Muslims nationwide of “enemies of Islam” that would try to confuse them into believing that all religions share the same god.

Muslim and Christian leaders here have been at loggerheads over use of the Arabic word “Allah” despite a 2009 High Court judgment that ruled Muslims did not have an exclusive right to the word “Allah”.

Debate resurfaced last month after DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who is also the Penang chief minister, called on Putrajaya to lift a ban on Malay-language bibles in Sabah and Sarawak, where the “Allah” word had been in use for centuries.

A Sabah church group has also alleged that the religious freedom of Christian Bumiputeras was under attack, pointing out that most adherents of the faith in Malaysia came from east Malaysia and used the Malay language.

A Buddhist group has urged the National Unity and Integration Department, which is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department, to resolve the drawn-out dispute over the usage of “Allah”.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 January 2013, 7:43 am and is filed under
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The dominoes in Johor

– Liew Chin Tong

The Malaysian Insider/Rocket

Jan 31, 2013

JAN 31 – Johor is the last bastion of Barisan Nasional but the coming general election may prove that the fortress may turn out to be merely a sand castle. If Pakatan Rakyat gets the support of 35 per cent Malay, 80 per cent Chinese and 50 per cent Indian voters in Johor, 20 parliamentary seats will fall like dominoes. Hence, Pakatan may gain the much-needed 112-seat threshold to form the next federal government with just seats from Peninsula Malaysia.

In the two rounds of seat re-delineation exercises in 1994 and 2003, many multi-ethnic mixed seats were created for Barisan Nasional to maximise its multi-ethnic appeal and to make the most out of the opposition’s inability to win across ethnic boundaries.

PAS was made to be seen by the Barisan-controlled media to non-Malays as an anathema to their interests while DAP as a threat to the Malays. Before 2008, PAS supporters rarely vote for DAP and vice versa.

The 2008 general election saw PAS benefiting from outpouring Chinese and Indian support for the “anything but UMNO” call while some urban Malays voted for DAP for the first time in their lives. Many multi-ethnic seats in the states north of Negeri Sembilan on the west coast of the Peninsula fell to the opposition.

How Pakatan can actually win Johor

Sabah and Johor are the two most crucial battlefields in the 2013 election. While Sabah attracts substantial attention, it could be hampered by seat negotiation and cooperation among various opposition groups. Johor is where Barisan Nasional may fall like dominoes.

Of Johor’s 26 parliamentary seats, only 8 have more than 60 per cent Malay votes which are harder to win with the current level of support for Pakatan Rakyat. No seat in Johor has more than 60 per cent Chinese voters.

On the one hand, without 25 per cent Malay support, even if non-Malay swing to Pakatan Rakyat is huge, the entire momentum may just fizzle out with a very few seats gained. Pakatan Rakyat received only about 20 per cent Malay support in Johor during the 2008 general election.

On the other hand, if 35 per cent Malay voters support Pakatan in this election, anything could happen. While it is tough to get 35 per cent Malay support, it is never impossible.

I was informed that a recent opinion poll shows that Malay support for Pakatan in Johor has exceeded 30 per cent though the support varies among parties – PAS’ support is much higher than average while DAP’s Malay support is lower than average.

The poll also shows that support from the Chinese for Pakatan is around 70 per cent though varies among parties with DAP exceeding the average while PAS lower than average. The poll shows the support from among Indians is constant at about 50 per cent.

Working together is key to victory

As the election approaches, I believe the gaps will narrow if PAS and DAP, with the help of PKR, manage to convince supporters to vote for each other in the context of coalition.

From purely mathematic simulations, here are the possible scenarios in Johor (assuming Indian support for Pakatan is constant):

Malay support at 25%, Chinese support at 65%, Pakatan will win just 1 parliamentary seat in Johor;

Malay support at 30%, Chinese support at 70%, Pakatan will win 6 seats;

Malay support at 30%, Chinese support at 75%, Pakatan will win 12 seats;

Malay support at 35%, Chinese support at 75%, Pakatan will win 16 seats;

Malay support at 35%, Chinese support at 80%, Pakatan will win 20 seats.

Of course these are just simulations on paper. But it shows that Barisan Nasional’s castle may crumble if a perfect storm comes into shape. It is also a fresh tsunami alert from the people of Johor to the government who refuses to reform. – The Rocket

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 31 January 2013, 6:22 pm and is filed under
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69-Day Countdown to 13GE – Mahathirism rides again with all its attendant horrors and monstrosities

Mahathirism rides again, with all its attendant horrors and monstrosities intact.

The latest manifestation of the full-throttled return of Mahathirism is one of the wildest accusations in Malaysian politics –  that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was the real mastermind in the “citizenship-for-votes” scams in Sabah in the nineties known as “Project M”.

When did former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad discover that Anwar was the mastermind of the project named infamously after him as “Project M”?

Clearly not on January 16, 2013 when revelations at the Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) on illegal immigrants implicated two of Mahathir’s closest confidantes, former  Deputy Home Minister, Megat Junid Megat Ayub and former political secretary Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin in the “Project M” scams from 1990 – 1995 to issue hundreds of thousands of fake blue identity cards and false letters of approval for birth certificates in exchange for votes to illegal immigrants.

Nor on the following day on  January 17 when for the first time in two decades, Mahathir publicly admitted the existence of “Project M” but defended it as lawful on the ground that the Filipino illegal immigrants could speak Malay and “have the right to be citizens”, while casting a serious slur on the memory and good name of  Tunku Abdul Rahman by alleging that Bapa Malaysia had done worse by giving citizenship to one million unqualified people before Merdeka, lamenting that no one had made it an issue.

Nor for the next two weeks until January 31 when Mahathir  suddenly announced that Anwar was the real mastermind of “Project M” responsible for the “citizenship-for-votes” scam in Sabah,  although admitting having no proof to back his claim.

How can Mahathir credibly claim that “Project M” might have happened “without any knowledge and orders from the top” when he had openly admitted to its existence and owned up to its authorship  on January 17, not only justifying it on the ground that the illegal immigrants spoke Malay, but claiming that he had not done worse than Tunku when he  falsely alleged that Bapa Malaysia had issued one million citizenship to unqualified non-Malays before Merdeka?

What credibility is there in Mahathir’s allegation yesterday blaming Anwar for masterminding “Project M”  when the two key personalities “from the top” in the “Project M” scams were his own and not Anwar’s right-hand men – namely Megat Junid and Aziz Shamsuddin?

Who would have doubted that if Anwar was the real mastermind of “citizenship-for-votes” scam, Mahathir would have charged Anwar in court or openly accused  him for high treason in his efforts for over a decade to kill off Anwar’s political prospects, and not to forget or overlook it for 15 years only to suddenly remember or  discover yesterday that it was Anwar and not him who was behind the “Project M” scam?

In fact, if Anwar had been the real mastermind of the  “citizenship-for-votes” scam in Sabah, it would have been known as “Project A” instead of “Project M”.

What Malaysians are seeing is Machiavellian Mahathir in full form.

Anwar has denied any role in Project M or Project IC in Sabah, saying that this matter was never brought to the Cabinet and neither did he attend or chair any meeting on it.

He reiterated that he is willing to testify before the RCI on illegal immigrants in Sabah if called to do so.

Anwar  accused Mahathir of being responsible for the task force responsible for the citizenships granted to the immigrants.

He also claimed that the exercise was ongoing and suggested that the RCI call up Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and former premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as well.

What Sabahans and Malaysians want is for Anwar, Najib and the two former Prime Ministers, Mahathir and Abdullah, to all testify before the RCI.

Anwar has declared his willingness to appear before the RCI.  Are Najib, Mahathir and Abdullah prepared to publicly declare their willingness to appear for the RCI to slot public hearings for the four as topmost RCI priority so as to establish who among the four had committed treason against the country?

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                This entry was posted on Friday, 1 February 2013, 3:24 pm and is filed under
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68-Day Countdown to 13GE – Chua Soi Lek’s increasing irrelevance and  hysteria with the approach of 13GE is really pathetic

It is really pathetic to witness the increasing irrelevance and hysteria of the MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek, to the extent that he has to publicly plead  for MCA members to give “claps and applauses” to his speeches and those of other MCA leaders at MCA public functions like the  recent MCA  “mega dinners” held all over the country.

Chua made this plea at the Federal Territory 64th MCA anniversary celebrations luncheon in Kepong yesterday but to little effect, as all he got from MCA members attending  the luncheon was a very tepid and half-hearted  response despite his repeated pleas for applauses to his speech.

Chua even tried to mislead MCA members to fortify his plea –asking MCA members to emulate DAP by claiming that when DAP leaders speak on stage, DAP members on the floor would respond with ceaseless applauses to give the impression that what the speakers said were right. Similarly, he asked MCA members to do the same by giving warm applauses to MCA leaders when speaking on stage so as to create confidence in MCA.

Firstly, let me state that in my 47 years of political work, I had never pleaded for claps and applauses for my speeches – and that goes for all other DAP leaders as well.

Secondly, the simple answer to Chua is that it is not only the ordinary public, but also MCA members who are antagonized and alienated by the present role played by the MCA leadership as purveyors of falsehood and prophets of doom to help UMNO to frighten and stampede the Chinese voters to support the Barisan Nasional in the 13th general elections.

It is not only the overwhelming majority of thinking Malaysians, whether Chinese, Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, but the overwhelming majority of decent MCA members, who can see through the  cowardice, dishonesty and hypocrisy of the politics of lies and falsehood perpetrated by MCA and UMNO leaders – with MCA leaders whose sole agenda is to frighten Chinese voters with the lies that DAP is a stooge of PAS while UMNO leaders doing the very opposite to frighten the Malay voters by alleging that PAS is a puppet of DAP.

Either the DAP is a stooge of PAS or PAS is a puppet of DAP. It is either one or the other, as both cannot be right. But both can be wrong. And in this case, both the conflicting and contradictory propaganda of MCA and UMNO are wrong – for both are just lies and falsehoods.

This is where Pakatan Rakyat differs in essence from Barisan Nasional.  Barisan Nasional is only a coalition in name for UMNO imposes the “Listen, listen, listen” political culture with UMNO’s political hegemony undisputed in BN.

This why when the then Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad arbitrarily and unconstitutionally announced on Sep. 29, 2001 (the “929 Declaration”) that Malaysia is an Islamic state, the first to express public support were the top MCA and Gerakan leaders, even without getting a mandate from the MCA and Gerakan membership.

Chua and the MCA leaders have been screaming at their fake MCA “mega dinners” the lies and falsehoods  that there would be trouble in Malaysia and that the country would go bankrupt if Pakatan Rakyat wins the 13th general elections and forms the Federal government in Putrajaya.

I have no doubt that the majority of MCA members regard such speeches  as most irresponsible for Pakatan Rakyat victories in five states in the political tsunami of the 2008 general elections, particularly in Penang and Selangor, have proven that  such prophecy of doom as utterly wrong and baseless.

I have no doubt that the majority of MCA members are also patriotic Malaysians who want to see political change for the first time in the nation’s history in 55 years to bring about  a better tomorrow for all Malaysians.

I say good luck to Chua, for at this stage of Malaysia’s political development,  he is helping to open more eyes to the politics of dishonesty, hypocrisy, lies and falsehood practiced not only by MCA but also by UMNO/Barisan Nasional when  compared to any other MCA President before him.

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/03/pengiraan-detik-68-hari-ke-pru13-penyimpangan-dan-histeria-chua-soi-lek-yang-kian-menjadi-jadi-ketika-semakin-hampir-dengan-pru13-amat-menyedihkan/

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 February 2013, 1:28 pm and is filed under
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“Psy”

Tweet
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Najib’s secret weapon to get 60k people for his CNY open-house in Han Chiang Penang on 11/2 – invite South Korean superstar Psy to perform Gangnam style

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 2 February 2013, 10:37 pm and is filed under
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67-Day Countdown to 13GE – Don’t just idolise Psy and Gangnam Style but learn the most important lesson that UBAH in 13GE is a prerequisite for Malaysia to make the quantum leap to become a  fully developed country like South Korea

The talk of the country today is the 13GE secret weapon of the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak to attract 60,000 people to his Chinese New Year Open House in Penang at the iconic Han Chiang High School on Feb. 11 by inviting South Korean superstar Psy to perform Gangnam style.

The invitation to Psy is going to cost UMNO/BN and eventually the Malaysian people a “bomb” but  most Malaysians, including Najib and UMNO/BN leaders, have missed the most pertinent point of the invitation to Psy for Najib’s CNY Open House in Penang.

Malaysians must not just idolise Psy and Gangnam Style but learn the most important lesson that UBAH in the 13th General Elections is a prerequisite for Malaysia to make the quantum leap to become a fully developed country like South Korea.

UMNO/BN leaders have been trying to scare Malaysian voters by warning that if there is a change of Federal Government in Putrajaya in the 13GE, there will be chaos like the “Arab Spring” countries and Malaysia will become bankrupt in five, three or two years – depending on which BN leader is talking!

Why do Malaysians want change in the 13GE?  Is it because Pakatan Rakyat leaders and Malaysian voters who support the notion of ending the  55-year UMNO hegemony and one-coalition government want chaos in the country and for  Malaysia to become bankrupt in two, three or five years’ time?

It is only the politically mendacious  or the mentally retarded who could believe in such nonsense and garbage.

DAP and the Pakatan Rakyat have never advocated revolution but peaceful and  democratic change through the ballot box.

Instead of comparing Malaysia with the “Arab Spring” countries, we should compare Malaysia with South Korea.

As late as the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita income of less than US$100 – even poorer and more backward than Malaysia which was No. 2 in Asia after Japan in terms of prosperity and income, having a per capita income of US$200 when we achieved independence in 1957.

In the first decade of our independence, Malaysia is still ahead of South Korea as  Malaysia’s per capita GNP stood at US$290 as compared to South Korea’s US$160.

Today, 55 years after Merdeka, South Korea has turned the tables, and from having half of our  per capita income, South Korea’s per capita income is two to three times higher than that of Malaysia. IMF for instance estimates that in 2012, South Korea’s per capita GDP is US$23,021 as compared to  Malaysia per capita GDP of  US$10,578.

In 2011, an international investment bank report anticipated South Korea to rank among the world’s top 10 wealthiest countries for per capita GDP adjusted for purchasing power parity in 2030 and 2040.

What is the secret of South Korea’s economic success, transforming itself in half a century from a country which was  poorer and more backward than Malaysia, with only half our per capita income to become two-to-three times richer than Malaysia – with stunning advancements  reflected in every field of human endeavour, whether development of  human resources, technology or even in the field of culture, as illustrated by  the phenomenon of Psy and Gangnam Style?

The answer is to be found in the political reforms which South Korea underwent from authoritarian rule to greater democratisations in the past few decades which allowed South Korea to take its economy to an entirely new level of innovation and creativity.

Malaysians do not want to compete or be compared with “Arab Spring” countries. We have been overtaken by South Korea but we must dare to stand up to catch up and close the gap that has opened up between Malaysia and South Korea.

Let Psy and his Gangnam Style be a sober reminder to Malaysians that if we are to reach for new heights of national achievements and not to be stuck in the political, economic, educational and nation-building grooves as a result of 55-years of UMNO/BN rule, then UBAH in the 13GE is a national imperative and a patriotic objective.

Only then can Malaysia hope to produce our own Psy and Gangnam Style to even dazzle the world and  South Koreans in their own country during their national festivities!

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/04/pengiraan-detik-67-hari-ke-pru13-jangan-hanya-memuja-psy-dan-gangnam-style-tetapi-fahamilah-pengajaran-paling-penting-bahawa-ubah-dalam-pru13-adalah-prasyarat-untuk-malaysia-melakukan-pening/

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 2:19 pm and is filed under
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Is Malaysia’s monarchy “above politics”?

by Pak Sako

CPI

01 February 2013

Speaking at the launch of a book on the Malaysian monarchy, Malaysian prime minister Najib bin Razak said that the Malay Rulers “are above politics” (see ‘Najib: Constitutional monarchy fosters stability, prosperity’, The Malaysian Insider, 30 Jan 2013).

He said that the Malaysian monarchy “provides a solid foundation” for turning Malaysia into a high-income nation.

To be above politics means to not interfere in the political workings of the country and to take no sides in party politics.

To act as a foundation to the economy so that Malaysian citizens enjoy high incomes means abstaining from and disapproving the undemocratic use of the public’s wealth and resources.

So is the prime minister’s statement about the Malaysian monarchy true?

The evidence paints a different story.

A Negri Sembilan prince clarified that the royalty have and do participate in party politics and gave five examples (see ‘Response to statements by Tunku Aziz and Anthony Loke’, The Malaysian Insider, 29 Jan 2013).

In his biography of Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysian Maverick (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2009), Barry Wain speaks about how the sultans of the nine states had “sometimes played politics, leveraged their positions for financial gain and indulged in fairytale-like extravagance at the public expense”. Although the sultans were “not meant to engage in commerce, they were actually so deeply involved that they were resented by the business community”.

Roger Kershaw’s Monarchy in South-East Asia (Routledge, 2001) states that “in return for secure wealth and status”, the Malaysian monarchy gives the ruling Malay elite a “traditional kind of legitimacy” by proxy, in what is said to be an “important but unwritten ‘social contract’” in contemporary Malaysia.

On this political relationship, associate professor Azlan Tajuddin in Malaysia in the World Economy (1824-2011) (Lexington Press, 2012) claims that when the constitutional article on royal immunity in 1993 was removed, “the real aim” of the government of seeking “full control of the monarchy” was “to ensure that the Malay royalty continued to serve a political function in preserving Malay electoral support for UMNO”. The author says it should not be surprising “to find some of the sultans publicly generating support for UMNO or admonishing those who have been critical of the party”.

He explains: “For the royals, the reward for subservience to the party [UMNO] would also sustain continued enjoyment of unsurpassed advantages… Several members of the the Malay royalty… have found their way into UMNO’s circle of crony entrepreneurs… Many royally-run businesses have resulted in numerous bankruptcies… [but] as long as the Malay rulers remained staunch UMNO supporters, they would be assured their businesses stayed operational and are given access to lucrative commercial ventures”.

Fadzilah Majid Cooke’s The Challenge of Sustainable Forests: Forest Resource Policy in Malaysia, 1970-1995 (Allen & Unwin, 1999) notes that between 1987 and 1990 alone, the Pahang royal family was awarded logging concession licenses totalling 18,723.82 hectares (or 187 square kilometres) of forest.

In illustrating the “growing economic nexus in the ruler-executive relations in virtually every Malay State”, Kershaw links the “[Pahang] Sultan[‘s] eager taste for timber concessions” to “being ‘genuinely’ consulted… over the appointment of Chief Ministers” and the need for a “malleable” Chief Minister to expedite or bend rules in the “processing of land alienation at preferential rates”.

Tajuddin claims that “[i]n 1981, the Sultan of Pahang and some members of his family had allegedly gambled away massive amounts of taxpayer money within days of an outing at an overseas casino. When the state government refused to settle the debt, the state’s chief minister, Rahim Bakar, was forced to resign from office. UMNO resolved the issue by… replacing the minister with a more amenable candidate, who expeditiously helped in clearing the sultan’s gambling dues. In return, the sultan has remained a strong and loyal advocate of UMNO, especially during elections”.

Tajuddin supplies another example: The Sultan of Perak’s eldest daughter Eleena is “a major controlling shareholder of Gamuda, an UMNO-linked construction company… [and] among Malaysia’s top 40 millionaires in 2011”. He adds that “[t]his has provided reasonable grounds for Malaysians to speculate on the connection between the Sultan of Perak’s family fortunes” and the dislodgement of Pakatan Rakyat’s state government headed by ex-chief minister Nizar Jamaluddin.

According to The Economist (2 May 2009), Nizar “had been removed, not as is usual in parliamentary systems, by his elected peers but by the Perak sultan”, Azlan Shah, “ignoring an appeal from [Nizar] to dissolve the house”. The outcome favoured UMNO.

These pieces of information indicate a long-standing royal-political-business collusion.

If these academic sources are correct, it means that the Malaysian monarchs are not “above politics” in spite of appearances, and that the monarchy’s impact on the public’s economic welfare and rights is questionable.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 11:52 am and is filed under
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Is sharia immutable?

— Asghar Ali Engineer

The Malaysian Insider

Feb 02, 2013

FEB 2 — It is believed by millions of Muslims across the world that sharia laws are immutable and represent divine will. This is based on serious misunderstanding. Sharia is not and cannot be immutable.

Recently I was invited to the Jaipur Literary Festival to be part of a panel discussion on the book “Heaven on Earth” by Sadakat Kadri of London, which is on the application of sharia laws across the Muslim world. He has travelled to different Muslim countries and talked to various ulama and muftis about sharia as applied to their respective countries.

All of them were defenders of conservative sharia formulations and refused to admit any change. They maintained that sharia being divine cannot be changed. It is from this rigidity of our ulama that the misunderstanding among common Muslims arises that sharia is divine and hence immutable.

In fact our ulama forget that ijtihad was not only permitted but encouraged by the Prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the hadith pertaining to Ma’adh bin Jabal is well-known. When the Prophet appointed him to the governorship of Yemen and he came to take leave of the Prophet, Ma’adh was asked how he would govern. Ma’adh said, according to the Quran. The Prophet thereupon asked what he would do if he did not find the solution to the problem in the Quran, to which Ma’adh said he would govern according to the Sunnah. But when the Prophet asked if he could not find it in the Sunnah also, Ma’adh said “ana ajtahidu” (I will exert myself to find the solution). The Prophet thereupon patted his back and told him he was right.

All ulama accept this hadith and yet, while theoretically admitting the permissibility of ijtihad, refuse to engage in it or allow it, saying there is no one capable of doing it. In fact, what is unalterable are the principles and values underlying sharia i.e. usul al-fiqh. But laws based on these usul must undergo change in keeping with changes in the social and cultural context. In fact cultural context plays a very important role in the formulation of sharia. The Arab adaat (customs and traditions) form an important part of sharia formulations.

The late Abdurrahman Wahid, who headed Indonesia’s religious organisation Nahdlatul Ulama and also served as president of that country, told me once that there was great debate among the ulama of Indonesia over whether Indonesian customs and traditions can become part of sharia as applicable in that country; those who advocated Indonesian adaat ultimately won.

Let us remember that what was called the Muslim ummah (community) during the Prophet’s time was limited to Arabia only. But when Islam spread to different areas the ummah was no more confined to the Arabs alone; it also encompassed the Iranians, Uzbeks, Turks, Chinese, Indians and others. Thus there were various linguistic and cultural groups within the fold of Islam.

Sharia was influenced by these factors. Thus the ummah was no longer a homogenous group but comprised various cultural communities with their own age-old customs and traditions.

However, the values, maqasid (intentions) and masalih (welfare) of human beings, did not change. Maqasid al-sharia and masalih al-sharia do not change, but in order to keep these values, maqasid and masalih intact, the rules framed by the ulama must change. When Imam Shafi’i moved from Hejaz to Egypt, which was a confluence of Arab and Coptic cultures, he realised this and changed his position on several issues.

However, what I am saying does not apply to ibadaat i.e. matters pertaining to worship, the world hereafter, etc but only to matters pertaining to mu’amalat i.e. interpersonal relations like marriage, divorce, inheritance and many other similar socio-economic matters.

The most important, of course, among these is matters pertaining to marriage, divorce, etc. In Jaipur I spoke mainly on women’s position in sharia and women’s position in the Quran.

The fact that the venue was packed with people shows the interest women’s position in general and that of Muslim women in particular generates. I commented that the book referred to earlier deals with only the status quo and application of sharia laws of patriarchal and feudalised Islamic societies. It very much misses what I call the transcendental Quranic vision. The Quran gives absolutely equal rights to man and woman without any discrimination.

However, the Quran was revealed in a highly patriarchal society which later also became feudalised when the caliphate turned into a feudal empire. Thus patriarchy and feudalism completely distorted the fundamental Quranic vision of gender equality and women’s individuality and dignity.

Unless we understand these sociological and cultural aspects and relate them to the theological one, we will miss the very revolutionary role which Islam wanted to play in totally transforming women’s status.

However, it is highly regrettable that Muslim societies could not produce ulama with the capacity to relate sociology with theology. Even in modern and post-modern societies our ulama totally lack a transcendental vision of Islam. They have become prisoners of the past and have frozen Islam in a feudal, patriarchal state.

We need theologians with vision to fulfil the Quran’s mission of going beyond the present which is full of injustice. Our society is replete with gender injustices and the Quran’s central value is justice — justice in all areas of life. Gender justice is as emphatically emphasised as justice in social and economic matters.

In order to emphasise gender justice it is high time that we produced female theologians with profound knowledge of the Arabic language. Even the most conservative ulama cannot oppose the concept of female theologians. — dawn.com

* Asghar Ali Engineer is an Islamic scholar who also heads the Centre for Study of Society & Secularism, Mumbai.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 11:46 pm and is filed under
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Malay politics and Ramleeology

Azly Rahman

Malaysiakini

Feb 2, 2013

“Alif-Mim-Nun-Wau… sarkis!”
 – said a character in P Ramlee’s movie
 Pendekar Bujang Lapok.

Of late I have been hit by nostalgia, reminiscing and even romanticising the 60s, 70s and the early 80s before Mahathirism took root.

My last column on Malaysia in the 70s was an enjoyable piece of journaling and from the numerous comments I read from all the blogs that carry it – my own blog
Between Cybernetics and Existentialism
, my
Facebook
 page,
 Malaysia Today
, etc – I feel that there was a time when a good Malaysian spirit was about to be forged.

This was that sense of a historical block, until May 13, 1969 came, of course; whether it was orchestrated or a victory campaign that went wrong we are beginning to find out, as alternative accounts of it continue to be written.

After languishing in sweet memories of the 70s, I next thought of the 60s; the time when I was growing up in Johor Baru and how the kampong and the city and the school I went to became my “global classrooms”.

My fond memories always go back to a “multicultural Malaysia I knew – especially how I owed my interest in learning and insatiable urge to acquire knowledge through the selfless work of my teachers – Malay, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, and even my Peace Corps American teachers.

Without them, I would not have been able to write honestly about the need not just to “tolerate” other cultures but to learn from each one of them, embrace the dynamics of each, and to bring out the universality of the values, and next to design good learning systems and environments that will nurture these differences into commonalities and to hybridise the wisdom we will acquire.

This is what has been lacking in our education system – critical sensibility and the embracing of the idea of “cultural action for freedom”, as the Brazilian educational philosopher Paulo Freire would say.

A P Ramlee movie

Of late, too, I have been watching P Ramlee movies – reminiscing my childhood days as well with my memory of the black and white television, that “machine to call upon far away vision” (tele + vision), or on a more theoretical basis, anthropologists of technology would call “a fantasy-machine in the garden” and in this case, a “TV in a peaceful kampong”.

I watched and “read closely” Malaysia’s great humanist-social-philosopher P Ramlee’s, classic of the 60s
Pendekar Bujang Lapok
.

I found something interesting in there worthy, in fact, of a full-blown dissertation on the anthropology of the Malays. Here is what I discovered about the first 17 minutes of it:

There is an intellectual framework in “reading” this movie; one that could be a hybrid of political-economy of development and underdevelopment (see the work of the Dependenistas/Dependency Theorists of the 70s), World-Systems Theory, Marx’s idea of “technological determinism”, i.e. technology as the shaper of social relations of production (see my dissertation Thesis on Cyberjaya, on the origin of Cyberjaya and the concluding discussion on Marx and technology and culture), semiotics of power, as in the notion of “habitus” (see Pierre Bourdieu’s work on “symbolic power”) and a study of post-colonialism emblematic in the work of Albert Memmi’s Colonizer and the Colonized, Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin White Masks, and others in the genre of psychological studies of oppression.

Ramleeology as method

Syed Hussein Al Attas’s work is also instructive of a framework in looking at the idea of how the image of the native is constructed, as lazy, obedient, and imbued with “bebalism” and “tolol-ism “ (feudalistic Malay idiocy and moronism); constructed by the rich and land-owning class that drew inspiration from “divide and rule” – from the British colonials.

Indeed there is a lot to “read” in this movie; provided we deconstruct it to its minute detail (dialogue, characterisation, symbolism, plot, discourse of power, language play, irony, metaphor, etc.). Herein lies the rejuvenation of my interest in developing “Ramleeology” as a “method of cultural critique based on radical social theory that can be applied to a trajectoric landscape of history such as Malaysia of this ‘hypermodern’ era”.

In just that 17 opening minutes. I saw the entire history of the evolution of the feudal and neo-feudal Malay mentality being displayed; from pre-independence to this day as we count the days to a regime change.

Sarimah Ahmad, Datuk an P Ramlee, Tan SriP Ramlee showed me what authoritarianism, stupefication, Malay gangsterism, crude kampongism, corruption, and arrogance mean. These can be seen in today’s display of political idiocy, as a legacy of Mahathirism.

But at the end of that “kampong jetty scene” of
Pendekar Bujang Lapok
, I saw “counter-hegemony” in the form of a revolt of the Malay masses against the oppressors, as if poetic justice must always be with the alienated and humiliated Malays at different epochs of history.

The last “revolt scene”, like a storming of the Bastille, and the overthrowing of Louis Capet and Marie Antoinette, I saw rallies upon rallies such as those we have been seeing in the last few years beginning from the first Bersih rally.

The Malays these days, the enlightened ones, in collaboration with their brothers and sisters of different race, religion, national origin have all become the new “pendekars” or “warriors” such a the three “pendekars” headed by P Ramlee.

But the final scene is not here yet. The deconstructionism mart is there; Malaysians are able to “read” what has been delusioning them vis-a-viz the dread called “Mahathirism”, the idiocy called “Ketuanan Melayu”, and the rhetoric called “social contract”, framed according to a truncated Malay view and not like a vision suggested by the social philosopher of the French Revolution, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

I had fun watching that particular P Ramlee movie. I think he is a visionary, somewhat like a modern Malay prophet speaking up truth to power for Malaysians of all races, for the oppressed, for those dehumanised by those who owns the means, methods , machinery, and media technology of oppression.

Watch the movie on
YouTube
 – we Malaysians are all in it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsxdksmUieg

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 12:01 pm and is filed under
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No homecoming for Chinese New Year

– George Lee

The Malaysian Insider

Feb 02, 2013

FEB 2 – Today I made a difficult decision not to return to Malaysia for the upcoming Chinese New Year. It is an inevitable sacrifice I have to make. There will be no family reunion dinner on Chinese New Year eve. I will miss the rare opportunity to meet up old friends from elsewhere as some only return to Malaysia during this festival period.

My ageing parents are longing for their favourite son to come home but it is not to be. I hope they understand my choice. I am going to miss all the fun, joy and get together. It saddens me for not able to be with my family but my love for my country Malaysia and the aspiration to carry out changes make the sacrifice a worthwhile endeavour.

In a nutshell, I am forgoing this once a year Chinese New Year festivity so that I can return on a later date for the upcoming general election.

When there was an announcement in the social media that Malaysians overseas are allowed to register as postal voters, I began to understand that we have a key roles to play in assisting our fellow countrymen to elect a truly people’s government.

We congratulate the Election Commission for taking this unprecedented stride and value our contribution to the democratic cause. Frankly, I expect more from the supposing independent and non-partisan organisation.

Over the last few months, there were copious fraudulent cases on the electoral roll brought by very competent groups with good supporting facts but the Commission has more often than not failed to counteract those cases properly. Latterly, the Commission chairperson chose to brush off the allegation with dubious, irrelevant and tactless statements.

As an ordinary non-partisan Malaysians, I would like to see constructive arguments, proof and action carried out by the Commission to fan off many of the accusation of ‘unclean’ electro roll so as to safeguard Commission’s integrity. However, with great disenchantment we see people helming the Commission not only having conflicting political interest but also lack of fresh ideas to run the organisation.

In short, the Commission has failed to do the necessary ‘to clear the contaminated air’. It is getting harder to believe that the Commission will act on many dubious identities on its database. In addition to the deny syndrome, the habit of sweeping the disease under the rug seem to be the norm of people in authority.

Any distrustful individuals and administration like the Election Commission will not gain respect from the people. The Commission fits the bill in a negative light at this moment of time with the 13th

General Election looming. The dismay attitude of the Commission will trigger many chain reactions as the people have awoken.

Many Malaysians reside outside the country will be determined to expunge the fraudulent electro roll with their votes. We all have a mission to accomplish on our returns.

As for me, I hope to make it a double celebration, a belted Chinese New Year and may the best man wins.

This is it. Change is imminent .

See you very soon my fellow countrymen. Gong Xi Fat Chai !

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 11:26 am and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 68 Hari ke PRU13 – Penyimpangan dan histeria Chua Soi Lek yang kian menjadi-jadi ketika semakin hampir dengan PRU13 amat menyedihkan

Amat menyedihkan untuk melihat menjadi-jadinya penyimpangan dan histeria Presiden MCA, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek ke tahap beliau perlu merayu ahli MCA untuk memberikan tepukan kepada ucapannya dan pemimpin MCA lain dalam acara terbuka MCA seperti “makan malam mega” MCA yang diadakan di seluruh negara.

Chua membuat rayuan ini ketika majlis makan tengah hari sambutan ulangtahun MCA ke-64 Wilayah Persekutuan di Kepong semalam akan tetapi apa yang beliau dapat daripada ahli MCA yang hadir hanyalah sambutan yang dingin dan tidak sepenuh hati meskipun berkali-kali merayu tepukan untuk ucapannya.

Malah Chua cuba untuk mengelirukan ahli MCA untuk mengukuhkan rayuannya – meminta ahli MCA untuk mencontohi DAP dengan mendakwa bahawa apabila pemimpin DAP  bercakap atas pentas, ahli DAP di bawah akan menyambut tanpa henti dengan tepukan untuk memberikan gambaran apa yang dikatakan adalah betul. Begitu juga, beliau meminta ahli MCA untuk melakukan perkara yang sama dengan memberikan tepukan gemuruh kepada pemimpin MCA ketika mereka bercakap atas pentas untuk mewujudkan keyakinan buat MCA.

Pertama sekali, izinkan saya nyatakan sepanjang 47 tahun di dalam politik, saya tidak pernah merayu supaya ucapan saya diberikan tepukan dan sorakkan – dan begitu juga dengan semua pemimpin DAP yang lain.

Kedua, jawapan mudah kepada Chua adalah bukan sahaja orang biasa, tetapi juga ahli MCA yang berasa marah dan terasing dengan lakonan yang dimainkan oleh kepimpinan MCA sebagai penyebar pembohongan dan ahli nujum malapetaka bagi membantu UMNO untuk menakut-nakutkan pengundi Cina bagi menyokong Barisan Nasional dalam pilihan raya umum ke-13.

Bukan saja kebanyakkan rakyat Malaysia yang berfikir, sama ada orang Cina, Melayu, India, Kadazan dan Iban, tetapi majoriti besar ahli MCA yang baik, yang dapat melihat di sebalik sifat penakut, tidak jujur dan kepura-puraan politik penipuan dan pembohongan yang dilakukan oleh pemimpin MCA dan UMNO – dengan pemimpin MCA yang agenda utama mereka adalah untuk menakut-nakutkan pengundi Cina dengan penipuan bahawa DAP adalah pak turut PAS sementara pemimpin UMNO melakukan perkara yang sebaliknya iaitu menakut-nakutkan pengundi Melayu dengan menuduh PAS adalah boneka DAP.

Sama ada DAP adalah pak turut PAS atau PAS adalah boneka DAP. Hanya salah satu yang mungkin kerana keduanya tidak mungkin betul. Dan dalam kes ini, kedua-dua propaganda bercanggahan MCA dan UMNO adalah salah – kerana kedua-dua adalah penipuan dan pembohongan.

Inilah yang pada dasarnya membezakan Pakatan Rakyat daripada Barisan Nasional. Barisan Nasional hanya perikatan dari segi nama namun UMNO memaksakan budaya politik “Listen, listen, listen” dengan UMNO sebagai hagemoni yang tidak dipertikaikan dalam BN.

Inilah sebabnya apabila Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad sewenang-wenangnya dan tidak mengikut perlembagaan mengumumkan pada 29 September 2001 (Deklarasi 929) bahawa Malaysia adalah negara Islam, yang pertama menzahirkan sokongan terbuka ialah pemimpin tertinggi MCA dan Gerakan, walaupun tanpa sebarang mandat daripada ahli MCA dan Gerakan.

Chua dan pemimpin MCA telah melaungkan di dalam “makan malam mega” MCA mereka penipuan dan pembohongan bahawa akan timbul masalah di Malaysia dan negara akan muflis sekiranya Pakatan Rakyat memenangi pilihan raya ke-13 dan membentuk kerajaan persekutuan di Putrajaya.

Tidak diragukan lagi bahawa majoriti ahli MCA menganggap ucapan sedemikian sebagai paling tidak bertanggungjawab kerana kejayaan Pakatan Rakyat di lima negeri selepas tsunami politik pilihan raya umum 2008, terutamanya di Pulau Pinang dan Selangor, telah membuktikan yang ramalan malapetaka sedemikian adalah salah dan tidak berasas.

Tidak diragukan lagi bahawa majoriti ahli MCA juga merupakan rakyat Malaysia yang patriotik dan mahu melihat perubahan politik buat pertama kali di dalam 55 tahun sejarah negara untuk mewujudkan hari esok yang lebih baik buat rakyat Malaysia.

Saya ucapkan semoga berjaya buat Chua, kerana di tahap perkembangan politik Malaysia sekarang, beliau membantu membuka banyak mata terhadap politik tidak jujur, berpura-pura, penipuan dan pembohongan yang diamalkan bukan sahaja oleh MCA tetapi juga UMNO/Barisan Nasional jika dibandingkan dengan mana-mana Presiden MCA sebelumnya.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/02/68-day-countdown-to-13ge-chua-soi-leks-increasing-irrelevance-and-hysteria-with-the-approach-of-13ge-is-really-pathetic/

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 2:30 pm and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 69 Hari ke PRU13 – Mahathirisme kembali lagi dengan kengerian dan kejahatan

Mahathirsime kembali lagi, dengan kengerian dan kebinatangan bersamanya.

Manifestasi terkini kembalinya Mahathirisme adalah melalui tuduhan liar di dalam politik Malaysia – bahawa pemimpin Oposisi Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim adalah dalang sebenar di dalam penipuan “kewarganegaraan untuk undi” di Sabah pada tahun sembilan puluhan yang dikenali sebagai “Projek M”.

Bilakah mantan Perdana Menteri Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad mula menyedari yang Anwar merupakan dalang projek yang dinamakan “Projek M” sempena namanya?

Jelas bukan pada 16 Januari, 2013 apabila pendedahan di Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja (RCI) Sabah terhadap pendatang tanpa izin melibatkan dua orang kanan Mahathir, bekas Timbalan Menteri Dalam negeri, Megat Junid Megat Ayub dan bekas Setiausaha Politik Abdul Aziz Shamsuddin dalam penipuan “Projek M” dari tahun 1990 – 1995 yang mengeluarkan beratus ribu kad pengenalan biru palsu dan surat pengesahan surat beranak sebagai tukaran untuk undi kepada pendatang tanpa izin.

Bukan juga pada hari berikutnya pada 17 Januari apabila buat pertama kalinya dalam dua dekad Mahathir secara terbuka mengakui kewujudan “Projek M” tetapi mempertahankannya sebagai mengikut undang-undang berdasarkan hujah pendatang tanpa izin Filipina boleh berbahasa Melayu dan “mempunyai hak untuk menjadi warga negara”, sambil melemparkan penghinaan kepada nama baik Tunku Abdul Rahman dengan menuduh Bapa Malaysia telah melakukan perkara yang lebih buruk kerana memberikan kewarganegaraan kepada satu juta orang yang tidak layak sebelum Merdeka, rungutan yang tiada siapa menjadikannya satu isu.

Bukan juga untuk dua minggu selepas itu sehiggalah 31 Januari apabila Mahathir tiba-tiba mengumumkan bahawa Anwar merupakan dalang sebenar “Projek M” yang bertanggungjawab terhadap penipuan “kewarganegaraan untuk undi” di Sabah, walaupun mengakui tidak mempunyai bukti untuk menyokong dakwaannya.

Bagaimana Mahathir mendakwa “Projek M” mungkin terjadi “tanpa sebarang pengetahuan dan arahan dari atas” apabila secara terbuka beliau mengakui kewujudannya dan mengakui terlibat pada 17 Januari, bukan sahaja menjustifikasikan tindakan itu dengan alasan pendatang itu berbahasa Melayu, tetapi turut mendakwa bahawa beliau tidak melakukan lebih teruk berbanding Tunku apabila menuduh secara bohong bahawa Bapa Malaysia telah memberikan satu juta kewarganegaraan sebelum Merdeka kepada bukan Melayu yang tidak layak?

Kewibawaan apa yang ada pada tuduhan Mahathir semalam menyalahkan Anwar mendalangi “Projek M” apabila dua personaliti utama “dari atas” di dalam penipuan “Projek M” merupakan orang kanan beliau sendiri dan bukannya Anwar – iaitu Megat Junid dan Aziz Shamsuddin?

Siapa yang akan meragui bahawa jika Anwar adalah dalang sebenar penipuan “kewarganegaraan untuk undi”,  Mahathir tentu telah mendakwa Anwar di mahkamah atau secara terbuka menuduhnya melakukan pengkhinatan dalam usahanya selama berdekad untuk menghapuskan peluang politik Anwar, dan tidak akan lupa atau terlepas pandang tentangnya untuk 15 tahun kemudian secara tiba-tiba teringat atau mengetahuinya semalam yang Anwar dan bukan dirinya disebalik penipuan “Projek M”?

Sebenarnya, sekiranya Anwar merupakan dalang sebenar penipuan “kewarganegaraan untuk undi” di Sabah, ia tentu akan dikenali sebagai “Projek A” bukannya “Projek M”.

Apa yang rakyat Malaysia sedang lihat adalah Mahathir yang Machiavelli dalam bentuk penuh.

Anwar telah menafikan sebarang peranan di dalam Projek M atau Projek IC di Sabah, menyatakan bahawa perkara ini tidak pernah dibawa ke Kabinet dan beliau tidak pernah mempengerusi atau hadir pada mesyuarat tentangnya. Beliau telah mengulangi bahawa beliau bersedia memberikan keterangan di RCI berkenaan pendatang tanpa izin di Sabah jika dipanggil.

Anwar menuduh Mahathir bertanggungjawab untuk pasukan petugas yang bertanggungjawab ke atas kewarganegaraan yang diberikan kepada pendatang.

Beliau juga mendakwa perbuatan itu berterusan dan mencadangkan RCI turut memanggil Perdana Menteri Najib Tun Razak dan mantan Perdana Menteri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi juga.

Apa yang rakyat Malaysia dan rakyat Sabah mahukan adalah supaya Anwar, Najib dan dua lagi mantan Perdana Menteri, Mahathir dan Abdullah, semua memberikan keterangan pada RCI.

Anwar telah mengisytiharkan kesediaannya untuk tampil di RCI. Adakah Najib, Mahathir dan Abdullah bersedia untuk mengisytihar secara terbuka kesediaan mereka untuk hadir pada RCI bagi membolehkan pendengaran awam kepada mereka berempat sebagai keutamaan tertinggi RCI supaya dapat memastikan siapa antara mereka berempat telah melakukan pengkhianatan terhadap negara?

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/01/69-day-countdown-to-13ge-mahathirism-rides-again-with-all-its-attendant-horrors-and-monstrosities/

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 2:28 pm and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 70 Hari ke PRU13 – Adakah Najib akan menjadi Perdana Menteri terakhir UMNO?

“Najib tidak akan menjadi perdana menteri terakhir Umno”, begitulah kata seorang pemimpin lama Umno Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad di Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference ke-15 yang dianjurkan oleh Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) hari ini.

Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak jelas tidak mermpunyai keyakinan dan rasa optimis Abdullah, jika tidak tentu beliau telah memanggil untuk pilihan raya umum dan bukannya berbolak-balik dengan ragu-ragu dan tidak yakin sejak dua tahun lalu, memberkannya reputasi sebagai Perdana Menteri Berubah-Ubah lebih teruk berbanding perdana menteri sebelumnya, Tun Abdullah.

Begitu juga Menteri Besar Johor, Datuk Ghani Othman yang memberitahu pertubuhan Cina Kulai kurang daripada tiga minggu lalu bahawa Pakatan Rakyat boleh menawan Putrjaya dalam PRU13 walaupun beliau memberi amaran bahawa paling banyak PR boleh menang cuma majoriti tipis 5% hingga 10% kerusi parlimen – iaitu majoriti daripada 12 hingga 22 kerusi parlimen.

Dan juga manusia berkuasa di dalam UMNO/BN, Tun Mahathir, yang kelihatan semakin pesimis tentang peluang UMNO menawan Putrajaya dalam PRU13, membuatkannya menyeru pengundi Malaysia menyokong “syaitan yang dikenali bukannya malaikat yang tidak dikenali”, dan baru-baru ini membuat kenyataan yang lebih semberono dan terdesak seperti:

tuduhan tidak berasas beliau bahawa Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat at Stadium Merdeka (KL112) yang aman dan berjaya dengan kehadiran 100,000 rakyat Malaysia dari pelbagai kaum, agama dan tempat adalah cubaan menggulingkan melalui jalan keganasan kerajaan UMNO/BN yang dipilih rakyat.

tuduhan tidak berasas beliau bahawa Perdana Menteri pertama, Tunku Abdul Rahman sebelum Merdeka pada 1957 telah memberikan kewarganegaraan kepada satu juta bukan Melayu yang tidak layak dalam cubaanya untuk menjustifikasikan penipuan “kewarganegaraan untuk undi” dalam Projek M di Sabah, malah mencadangkan satu Suruhanjaya Siasatan Diraja untuk menyiasat isu Tunku Abdul Rahman dan kewarganegaraan satu juta bukan Melayu sebelum Merdeka.

Bagaimanapun, walaupun terdapat keraguan dan kurang keyakinan kepimpinan UMNO/BN mempertahankan Putrajaya dalam PRU13, tidak ada keraguan lagi bahawa pemimpin dan propagandis UMNO/BN telah memulakan kempen yang telah terlebih pacu dalam media perdana dan media sosial untuk memberikan gambaran bahawa mereka memiliki keyakinan besar bukan saja untuk menewaskan Pakatan Rakyat dalam PRU13 tetapi juga menang besar dengan memperoleh majoriti dua pertiga parlimen.

Akan tetapi seperti yang diketahui Perdana Menteri, sama ada Najib akan menjadi perdana menteri terakhir UMNO adalah masih tidak pasti dan belum diputuskan – dan ia tidak akan ditentukan oleh kepimpinan Umno tetapi oleh 13 juta pengundi Malaysia dalam PRU13.

Tidak diragui lagi isu menonjol yang akan ditentukan dalam PRU13 adalah sama ada Najib merupakan Perdana Menteri UMNO yang membawa pengakhiran kerajaan UMNO/BN selepas 55 tahun selepas Merdeka –  membebaskan Malaysia daripada penguasaan UMNO dan menetapkan demokrasi normal yang mana pengundi boleh memilih kerajaan Persekutuan yang mereka mahu melalui peti undi ketika pilihan raya umum.

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/01/31/70-day-countdown-to-13ge-will-najib-be-the-last-umno-prime-minister/

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 2:24 pm and is filed under
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Psy is paid RM3mil for Barisan Nasional CNY Open House

By
Noorsila Abd Majid
 | 03 FEB 2013 12:19AM

ABN News

KUALA LUMPUR:  South Korean superstar Psy will be performing at Barisan Nasional’s Chinese New Year open house in Penang on Feb 11.

But the question that’s buzzing in everyone’s mind is: who’s paying for Psy and how much is he paid?

According to an industry source, the Gangnam Style hitmaker commands a minimum pay cheque of US1mil (RM3.1mil).

That’s just for him to horse around to the quirky beats of his phenomenal YouTube hit, “Gangnam Style”.

Yes, Psy is more expensive than teen pop superstar Justin Bieber, who’s paid US1 mil for a full concert in KL.

The runaway rap star is expected to perform Gangnam Style in front of 60,000 guests, including Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

The BN Chinese New Year open house will be held at Han Chiang High School in George Town from 10am to 1pm.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 3 February 2013, 3:34 pm and is filed under
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66-Day Countdown to 13GE – Why  only aim at 60,000 people for Psy’s “Oppa Gangnam Style” performance on CNY in Penang, should aim for 100,000 or even 250,000 people from Penang, all over Malaysia and neighbouring countries for the sensational event with Psy

The hot topic among Malaysians regardless of race, age and gender throughout the country second day in running is still Psy and his global hit “Oppa Gangnam Style”, especially the reported cost of RM3 million to bring the South Korean superstar to Penang to ensure a turnout crowd of 60,000 people for the Chinese New Year Open House of the  Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Let all Malaysians have a great day and enjoy themselves with Psy and “Oppa Gangnam Style” in Penang on the second day of Chinese New Year on Feb. 11.

In fact, why only aim at 60,000 people and not go for 100,000 people or even 250,000 people from Penang,  all over Malaysia and the neighbouring countries  to make the sensational event with Psy really historic and memorable?

It will be really historic if Psy’s premier appearance in Malaysia can also inspire Malaysians to emulate South Korea to pull the country from its bootstraps to undertake a genuine national transformation in governance, politics, economics, education and nation-building to enable Malaysia to take a quantum leap in all aspects of national life in the second Merdeka of Malaysia.

Let Psy’s visit to Malaysia mark the beginning of a national debate and soul-searching as to how South Korea, from a country poorer and more backward than Malaysia more than 50 years ago when we achieved Merdeka, succeeded in catapulting itself into an economic power-house which is now much wealthier than Malaysia, with a per capita income two to three times higher than Malaysia, and more advanced than Malaysia in all fields of human endeavour.

The  following 18-year series of Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) provides key to this answer:

Transparency International Corruption Perception Index

Year

Malaysia

South Korea

Rank

Score

Rank

Score

1995

23

5.28

27

4.29

1996

26

5.32

27

5.02

1997

32

5.01

34

4.29

1998

29

5.3

43

4.2

1999

32

5.1

50

3.8

2000

36

4.8

48

4.0

2001

36

5.0

42

4.2

2002

33

4.9

40

4.5

2003

37

5.2

50

4.3

2004

39

5.0

47

4.5

2005

39

5.1

40

5.0

2006

44

5.0

42

5.1

2007

43

5.1

43

5.1

2008

47

5.1

40

5.6

2009

56

4.5

39

5.5

2010

56

4.4

39

5.4

2011

60

4.3

42

5.4

2012

54

49/100

45

56/100

[From 1995 to 2011, the scale from 10(very clean) to 0(highly corrupt) was used, which is now replaced to a scale 0 – 100 from 2012]

The 18-year annual TI CPI series 1995-2012 show:

For the first 11 years from 1995-2005, Malaysia was ahead of South Korea in being perceived as more clean and less corrupt than South Korea, even reaching a difference of 18 rankings in 1999, representing a difference in score of 1.30.

South Korea beat Malaysia in 2006, with 42nd ranking as compared to Malaysia’s 44th ranking, and after a draw in 2007 with both ranked in 43rd placing with 5.1 score, South Korea has never looked back in getting better ranking and score in the five years from 2008 – 2012, even  beating Malaysia with a return difference of 18 places in 2011.

Malaysia’s TI CPI ranking and score  in the past four years (2009 – 2012), which are the years under the premiership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, are the worst in the past 18 years; while South Korea’s ranking and score for the past four years are among the country’s best in the series.

The lesson is clear. In the past 18 years, and particularly in the past four years, South Korea’s governance in transparency and accountability have been successful in restoring public trust by turning back the tide of corruption while the reverse is the case in Malaysia.

This is one lesson Malaysia must learn from South Korea.  Are Malaysians prepared to do so?

Artikel ini juga boleh didapati dalam Bahasa Malaysia di:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/06/pengiraan-detik-66-hari-ke-pru13-mengapa-cuma-sasarkan-60000-orang-untuk-persembahan-oppa-gangnam-style-psy-pada-tahun-baru-cina-di-pulau-pinang-sepatutnya-mensasarkan-10/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 February 2013, 6:13 pm and is filed under
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Interview with Suaris:  The Future of Malays, Part 2

[The original in Malay appeared in suaris.wordpress.com on January 25, 2013).

Suaris:  In a recent interview with Astro Awani, Dr. Mahathir said that Malays would be left behind unless given continued help. He referred to such help as crutches. Do you agree that we continue to need crutches? If so, for how long?

Dr. M. Bakri Musa:
  If we Malays still remain backward and marginalized after over 55 years of “help” from the UMNO government, then we ought to examine critically the nature of that help.

            As parents we readily acknowledge the importance of how we guide and help our children. Be too indulgent and protective, we lose hope of their ever able to shine on their own. Be too strict and controlling, they will never acquire self-confidence; likewise if we constantly criticize and highlight their weaknesses.

            In modern medicine, we rarely give crutches to patients following hip surgery. Instead we give them to physiotherapy so they could be self-ambulatory as quickly as possible. I encourage, in fact insist that my surgical patients be up and about the very next day. It is dangerous to keep them in bed; the most serious complication being potentially lethal blood clots.

            An insight of modern science is that if we do not exercise our body, it would atrophy. This applies to bone, muscle, or even brain. If I were to tie down a healthy young man in bed and “help” him with his feeding and bathing such that he does not have to move a muscle, after a week he would be need a crutch as he would be unable to stand up on his own. That is the price for excessive and inappropriate “help.”

            As a former physician, Mahathir should know that if a patient does not respond with your prescription, there is no point continuing it. Stop or change it; perhaps your patient requires penicillin, not Panadol.

            Even the right medicine if not given at the proper dose would be ineffective. Yes, Panadol reduces fever, but give only a quarter of the dose and there will be no effect, leading you to blame the medicine. Giving too much also carries its own hazards. Every year many children in America are fatally poisoned because of excessive dose of Tylenol, one more appropriate for adults.

            If with the right medicine at the right dose and administered correctly but your patient still does not respond, then reexamine your diagnosis. Patients with appendicitis require surgery, not penicillin.

            If readers are uncomfortable with my clinical metaphor, let me use a more familiar one. If you are not diligent in weeding out lalang in your garden, pretty soon you would be inundated by it, choking off useful plants. What more if you were to generously add fertilizer to the weed!

            The Malay garden is now full of lalang. We need Roundup pesticide to kill off those tenacious weeds so useful plants would then have a chance. However, what is UMNO’s current strategy? Yes, add fertilizer to the lalang! Its rationale? They are lalang, but Malay lalang, so we must be help!

            The “help” that UMNO types like Mahathir are championing is precisely this. Then we wonder why the Malay kebun is full of lalang. Isa Samad is one thriving lalang in the FELDA plantation; he was earlier found guilty of “money politics.” Khir Toyo,now luxuriating in his fantasy palace courtesy of taxpayers while waiting jail time for corruption, is another. The private sector too is infested. Lalang Tajuddin Ramli nearly destroyed MAS estate. Utusan and The New Straits Times are crippled with literary lalang; no wonder their readership continues to decline. The Malay lalang has already snuffed out Bank Bumiputra.

            We are finally no longer impressed with the greenness and lushness of lalang, even if it were Malay lalang. Our leaders however, still try to impress upon us that those lalang are alfalfa. The tragic part is that they now believe their own deceit.

            Leaders like Mahathir should be diligently searching for effective ways to help us and not be content with criticizing and dredging up old stereotypes or our alleged weaknesses. Give someone a fish, and we feed him only for a day; teach him how to fish and he feeds himself forever, goes an ancient wisdom. Extend that help a bit as with giving him a loan to buy a sampan, and he will fish the open ocean. Then he can feed the whole village and more, plus repay the loan!

            Doling out generous quotas for university admissions, lucrative contracts, and import licenses, or forcing others to take on Malays (usually UMNO politicians) as directors for their companies is not help. Those are but acts of fertilizing weeds, membajakan lalang. We end up with only usahan menenggek (carpetbagger capitalists)!

            The most consequential and enduring help would be to liberate the Malay mind, to teach them how to think freely. If our slogan in the 1950s was Merdeka Tanah Melayu (Freedom for the Malay Land), now it should be Merdeka Minda Melayu! (Freedom for the Malay Mind!)

            That is the theme of my latest book, Liberating The Malay Mind. The concept of a free mind is best illustrated by this story of Mullah Nasaruddin, known for his use of self-deprecating humor and simple everyday examples in his teaching.

            He had a neighbor who was in the habit of borrowing items and never returning them. One day he came over to borrow the Mullah’s donkey. Anticipating this, the Mullah had earlier wisely locked his animal in the barn and out of sight. When the neighbor came over, the Mullah confidently asserted, “My donkey had been borrowed yesterday!”

            Disappointed, the neighbor was about to return home when the animal brayed. “I thought you said your donkey had been borrowed!” he said.

            Whereupon the Mullah resolutely replied, “Do you believe the braying of the donkey over the words of the mullah?”

            Someone with a free mind would believe the braying donkey. Those whose minds are trapped by customs and traditions would of course continue believing the wise and pious Mullah even when the donkey is braying straight on their faces. We must teach Malays that when they hear the donkey braying, they should believe their own ears and not be lulled by the Mullah’s soothing words.

            I put forth four strategies to liberate the Malay mind:  freer access to information and differing viewpoints, meaning, freer mass media; liberal education with a strong foundation in science and mathematics; and encourage trade and commerce among our people. When we engage in trade, we would consider others not as pendatang (immigrants) but as potential customers, meaning, a source of profit.

            Fourth, we have to examine how we teach religion to our young and how we practice our faith as individuals as well as a society. Islam emancipated the Bedouins from their Age of Ignorance and brought light to them. Islam should do likewise for us – liberate our minds.

            If our minds are trapped, then the billions worth of help would be meaningless. Those are but narcotics for our self gratification and to indulge our fantasies. Those are but membajakan lalang.

            As a nation we have achieved much through independence. If we were to liberate Malay minds, there would be no limit to our achievements. Even more beautiful, a liberated mind can never ever be imprisoned again. Liberated minds need not worry about globalization and neo-colonization, or be threatened when our young learn English. Liberated minds would not feel imperiled when God’s other children use “Allah” to refer to their deity. It is after all the same God. Once Malay minds are liberated, we would no longer be, to borrow the terminology of the Algerian philosopher Malek Bennabi, “colonizable.”

            Help liberate the Malay mind! That would be the most consequential help!

            Back to Mahathir’s beloved crutches, how can he ever hope the simple villagers to give up on theirs when the biggest golden crutches are reserved for the sultans and ministers? Mahathir gets angry when Pak Mat diverted his few hundred dollars of MARA loan meant to improve his stall towards buying his children’s books but are conspicuously silent when spouses of ministers divert precious public funds to buy their private luxurious condos.

            Malays do not need crutches. The one help we desperately need is to liberate our minds. Reverting to my farm metaphor, if you want to help Malays, then uproot and rid the lalang in our midst so our beans, brinjals and cucumbers would have a chance. If you do not feel like doing that, then please do not fertilize the weeds!

To be continued, Suaris Interview:  The Future of Malays Part 3
:  In many of your writings, you advocate changes and ideas that are evolutionary and incremental in nature to effect changing mindsets. Don’t you think that a more aggressive “shock therapy” and revolutionary approach would have greater impact and lead to a quantum leap in improvement, as with Japan and South Korea today?

Part 1

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 February 2013, 3:37 pm and is filed under
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Pengiraan Detik 67 Hari ke PRU13 – Jangan hanya memuja Psy dan Gangnam Style tetapi fahamilah pengajaran paling penting bahawa UBAH dalam PRU13 adalah prasyarat untuk Malaysia melakukan peningkatan besar menjadi sebuah negara maju seperti Korea Selatan

Perkara yang sedang hangat diperkatakan hari ini ialah senjata rahsia PRU13 Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak untuk menarik 60,000 orang hadir ke Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina di Pulau Pinang di sekolah Han Chiang pada 11 Febuari dengan menjemput bintang Korea Selatan, Psy untuk mempersembahkan Gangnam Style.

Jemputan kepada Psy akan mengakibatkan kos yang besar buat UMNO/BN dan akhirnya rakyat Malaysia sendiri, termasuklah Najib dan pemimpin UMNO/BN, dan terlepas  titik paling penting jemputan buat Psy untuk Rumah Terbuka Tahun Baru Cina Najib di Pulau Pinang.

Malaysia tidak seharusnya cuma memuja Psy dan Gangnam Style tetapi fahamilah pengajaran paling penting bahawa UBAH dalam PRU13 adalah prasyarat untuk Malaysia melakukan peningkatan besar menjadi sebuah negara maju seperti Korea Selatan.

Pemimpin UMNO/BN telah cuba untuk menakut-nakutkan pengundi Malaysia dengan memberi amaran bahawa sekiranya berlakunya perubahan pada Kerajaan Persekutuan di Putrajaya dalam PRU13, akan berlaku huru-hara seperti negara yang mengalami “Kebangkitan dunia Arab” dan Malaysia akan muflis dalam masa lima, tiga atau dua tahun – bergantung pada pemimpin mana yang mengatakannya!

Mengapa rakyat Malaysia mahukan perubahan ketika PRU13? Adakah pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat dan pengundi Malaysia yang menyokong diakhiri hagemoni 55 tahun UMNO dan kerajaan satu perikatan BN mahukan huru-hara di dalam negara dan Malaysia muflis dalam masa dua, tiga atau lima tahun lagi?

Hanya yang politiknya penuh dusta atau cacat mentalnya saja akan mempercayai perkara tak masuk akal sebegitu.

DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat tidak pernah menggalakkan revolusi tetapi perubahan aman dan demokratik melalui peti undi.

Kita sepatutnya membandingkan diri kita dengan Korea Selatan dan bukannya negara yang melalui “kebangkitan dunia Arab”

Pada awal 1960-an, Korea Selatan merupakan salah satu negara termiskin di dunia, dengan pendapatan per kapita  kurang daripada US$100 – lebih miskin dan mundur daripada Malaysia yang berada di kedudukan No.2 Asia selepas Jepun dari sudut kemakmuran dan pendapatan, mempunyai pendapatan per kapita US$200 ketika kita mencapai kemerdekaan pada 1957.

Pada dekad pertama kemerdekaan kita, Malaysia masih jauh di hadapan Korea Selatan memandangkan KNK per kapita berada pada US$290 jika dibandingkan dengan US$160 Korea Selatan.

Hari ini, selepas 55 tahun Merdeka, Korea Selatan adalah sebaliknya, daripada memiliki separuh pendapatan per kapita kita, pendapatan per kapita Korea Selatan kini dua hingga tiga kali lebih tinggi daripada Malaysia. IMF contohnya menjangkakan pada 2012, KDNK per kapita Korea Selatan ialah US$23,021 berbanding KDNK per kapita Malaysia hanya US$10,578.

Pada 2011, sebuah bank pelaburan antarabangsa melaporkan menjangka Korea Selatan akan berada di kedudukan 10 negara terkaya KDNK per kapita diselaraskan dengan kuasa membeli setara pada tahun 2030 dan 2040.

Apakah rahsia kejayaan ekonomi Korea Selatan, merubah dirinya dalam tempoh separuh abad daripada sebuah negara yang lebih miskin dan mundur berbanding Malaysia, dengan hanya separuh daripada pendapatan per kapita kita menjadi dua hingga tiga kali lebih kaya berbanding Malaysia – dengan kemajuan menakjubkan terlihat di dalam setiap bidang yang usaha manusia, sama ada pembangunan sumber manusia, teknologi malahan dalam bidang budaya, speerti yang digambarkan dalam fenomena Psy dan Gangnam Style?

Jawapannya akan ditemui di dalam perubahan politik yang dilalui Korea Selatan daripada pemerintahan autoritarian kepada pendemokrasian yang lebih hebat sepanjang beberapa dekad yang membolehkan Korea Selatan membawa ekonominya ke tahap baru inovasi dan kreativiti. Rakyat Malaysia tidak mahu bersaing atau dibandingkan dengan negara yang melalui “Kebangkitan dunia Arab”. Kita telah dipotong oleh Korea Selatan tetapi kita mestilah berani untuk bangkit dan mengejar dan merapatkan kembali jurang yang kian melebar antara Malaysia dengan Korea Selatan.

Biar Psy dan Gangnam Stylenya menjadi peringatan buat rakyat Malaysia bahawa jika kita mahu mencapai tingkat baru pencapaian dan tidak mahu tersekat di dalam lorong sempit politik, ekonomi, pendidikan dan pembinaan bangsa akibat daripada 55 tahun pemerintahan UMNO/BN, maka UBAH dalam PRU13 adalah suatu yang penting dan matlamat patriotik.

Pada ketika itu barulah Malaysia boleh berharap untuk melahirkan Psy dan Gangnam Style kita sendiri untuk memukau dunia dan rakyat Korea Selatan di festival negara mereka!

This article is also available in English at:
https://blog.limkitsiang.com/2013/02/03/67-day-countdown-to-13ge-dont-just-idolise-psy-and-gangnam-style-but-learn-the-most-important-lesson-that-ubah-in-13ge-is-a-prerequisite-for-malaysia-to-make-the-quantum-leap-to-become-a/

                This entry was posted on Monday, 4 February 2013, 12:18 pm and is filed under
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