SEPT 7 — I propose to move from discussing how racial differences can cause disunity and conflict. We all know we have our racist quotient. The objective is to contain these to avoid translating it into institutionalised and habitual discrimination. This requires conditioning at the personal and social or public level. Personal as in inculcating family values, social as in policies carried out by government institutions. No racism at the personal level, none at the public level.
It would be more useful to discuss whether one’s ethnicity has anything to do with one’s economic prosperity or otherwise. This is more interesting than to dwell on ethnic issues that create animosity and conflict. If we can dispel the belief that one’s ethnicity is not a critical factor in determining economic success, we can reject ethnicity as the cause for economic backwardness.
This is important for our social cohesiveness. So that other Malaysians don’t see anything inferior in Malays just because they are Malays. More so for us Malays to disbelieve our deficiencies as being the effects of our genetic makeup. Whatever shortcomings Malays have at the moment aren’t genetically determined, and accordingly, the shortcomings caused by non genetic factors can, by definition, be alterable. Change is possible and doable.
Long ago, sociologists and other researchers recognised that the degree and pace of economic development are the result of two consequences: The influence of the environment on man, and of man on the environment. To a large extent that pace and degree depends on man’s ability and willingness to transform his environment and his readiness and willingness to improve on what has been achieved by his forebears.
So what do the Malays like other people desire more? They want economic advancement. They want improvements on their material wellbeing. From walking to scooters to motor cars. From huts to houses to bungalows. From low income to higher incomes. From ignorance to knowledge. These can be achieved by applying their readiness to transforms their environment and willingness to improve upon what they have inherited.
This tells you that Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his team are better off concentrating on the Malay’s ability and willingness to transform his environment and also his willingness to improve on what has been achieved by his forebears. Unfortunately these points have not been articulated well.
By and large, the Umno leadership with the exception of Najib is stuck with the habit of retreating to the old ways represented generally by shouts of Malay supremacy. Hence the majority of Umno leadership is more comfortable playing to the gallery.
When Najib was presented with a memorandum at the Perkasa Economic Congress which in effect said, “we don’t agree with your NEM”, all he could do was to accept it with a nervous smile. Did anyone notice that none of his Umno field generals came out in support of the Umno president?
When Tun Razak transplanted thousands of settlers into Felda schemes, it wasn’t just a physical transplant and physical uprooting of people accustomed to what have been bequeathed by their forbears.
The settler was willing and ready to detach himself from an environment in which he was accustomed to and comfortable with. His willingness to be transplanted also signified his readiness to mix it up with a new environment, to master it and to forge new social relationships.
It was also, to me, a readiness and willingness to leave behind a world darkened by myths and legends and to carve out a new bright world. The eventual interaction of people from different social backgrounds, from different cultural practices and from different language dialects made possible the exchange of ideas and sharing of experience.
That transplant was also a readiness and willingness to improve on what has been achieved by their forebears.
The Malays are therefore not impervious to change. The Barisan Nasional and Umno in particular learnt it the hard way in 2008. More Malays rejected Umno candidates. More voted for the opposition. It’s like someone said: It’s not a case of the Malay changing his faith, it’s only a change in the medium. It’s no big deal. It can happen again. Bukan tukar aqidah, hanya tukar wadah.
It has thus been proven; the Malaya are capable and ready to make changes. If they were able to detach and free themselves from what they have been familiar with, at no risks of social upheavals, they too can detach themselves to what they have been politically accustomed to.
Umno must recognise this if it wants to stay relevant. People can and will reject Umno if Umno is not in tune with them. The results of the 2008 general election showed more Malays are willing to reject the old ways.
That means, provided Umno is teachable, that Umno cannot fall back on the old ways. What are the old ways? Solving problems using the old methods such as asserting Malayness by bellicose screaming, organised aggression, unsheathing of krises and so forth.
Our Malayness isn’t defined by Article 153 or insisting that we must have rights here and there. We can’t apply old thinking onto new political landscape where people no longer accept what we say superficially. They want to be engaged as thinking persons, be convinced by reasoning.
Umno can’t address the issues under Najib’s Malaysia by offering mediocre leadership and low quality candidates. They can’t or are afraid to articulate and communicate Najib’s ideas of a new Malaysia — progress through competition, meritocracy and inclusiveness. They can’t because most probably don’t understand his thinking.
He was brought up in a different environment, cosmopolitan, modern or even shielded from the harsh realities of racism. They are afraid to offend the Umno masses by appearing to be too compromising. If not, how does one explain people who have been brought up under similar environment such as Najib but aren’t talking of the same things like Najib?
People like Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, who is his cousin, and Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil who we could have expected to champion Najib’s thinking but are not articulating his thinking? Najib is being isolated by his own Umno.
Najib has to make only one mistake and the herd psychology of Umno will drown him. You fumble and the desertion starts and political re alignments take place.
Nothing exposes this disconnect between Najib and Umno than the survey by the Merdeka Center. Najib’s personal rating reaches beyond 60 percentage points while Umno’s didn’t even reach 45 per cent. Lest Najib forget, we don’t operate on the American presidential system. He is PM by virtue of being Umno president and BN chairman. His party loses and he goes out.
Part of the old ways is offering the old story line that Umno is Malay and Malay means Umno. It cannot behave as though it owns exclusive rights to fight for Agama, Bangsa dan Tanah Air without qualifying itself for that role.
And by qualifying, we mean doing the grunt work never taking for granted that support from the Malays is but a foregone conclusion. Malays who are capable and willing to transform know-what to know-HOW? How do you defend your Agama, Bangsa dan Negara?
It is obvious that Umno cannot go back to doing things the old school way. Imposing its will as of right and behaving in the manner of might is right. People now need a convincing story from Umno. Belief built on conviction has more permanency than belief built on unquestioning attachment to tradition. ,
I am happy to note that this is also the new thinking by the new Umno leadership. But unfortunately it is confined only to the PM. The rest of his team sadly hasn’t understood the requirements of the new thinking. Which goes to show further that the PM must unload this excess baggage after the next election. If he is still in power, he must bring in new blood (not necessarily young blood) more attuned to the new thinking.
The new thinking is economic advancement via competition not through protection. The new thinking is affirmative action through competing — you compete and strive to affirm your economic well-being. The new thinking is to disavow the thinking of groups like Perkasa but do it not through denouncing Perkasa which has managed to engage the imagination of the Malay majority, but by offering the Malays a better mousetrap. Don’t just say the ideas of Datuk Ibrahim Ali are rubbish — offer us a better and more compelling story.
Tell people a more convincing story. A believable and doable one. Not through sloganeering and not by contradicting your own resolve to achieve the goals that you have set.
You have zero tolerance for racism? Show it and tell people exactly why you choose to act in so and so manner. Why have you been slow in acting against Siti Inshah Mansor, for example? If she has been drawn into the controversy by some Malaysian Indians, say so.
Why has she done what she did? If she has been portrayed as an evil racist because one Hindraf lawyer and the Indian pupil’s parents saw it as an opportunity to escalate a misunderstanding issue into something bigger, tell the whole story so that the whole of Malaysia can hear and judge.
Tell the whole world that it was a misunderstanding that has been blown out of proportions by carcass hungry political scavengers. It’s not a legal offence not to behave as what ideally a headmistress should behave. How exactly should a headmistress behave? Certainly not as how others read it to be. You act as the situation dictates. Instil discipline, run the school as it should be run.
It’s no big deal to continue debating about this in blogosphere until we are blue in the face.
You can’t compromise the school because of one indiscipline pupil just as you can’t compromise the whole of TNB just because of one fellow.
If you have zero tolerance for corruption don’t contradict your resolve by compromising the decision approved earlier by the cabinet in accepting the proposal by China Railways to build the double tracking from Gemas to JB.
I have written about this sometime ago. The recent revelation by RPK in Malaysia today is more daring. If Nor Yacob has anything to do with it, sack him. If your golfing buddy has anything to do with it, ostracise him as continued association with him can lead to your downfall. Sack your people who attended the meeting in China who said the money is for our PM.
Malaysians and Malays need a convincing and compelling story from you Mr PM, sir. For that you need good people to tell Malays a more convincing story. Good people as in good leadership and good people in the civil service. You don’t have good people to articulate and communicate your ideas Mr PM, sir, you die. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com
* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Hj Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
