Tun Dr. Mahathir,
I have some subtle feeling that you are still keen to see the outcome of Umno party election to be in line with what you expect the outcome to be! Since you have not in so far announced openly that what you expect the Umno election outcome to be (with the exception of your openly asking Pak Lah to resign from the Presidency of Umno and from the premiership), therefore there are still a lot of rooms for you to meditate on the question of whether to rejoin Umno or not to rejoin!
First of all, please ask yourself: "Why do I need to rejoin Umno?"
Perhaps you missed those glorious days of the past when you were surrounded by many fancy supporters during the periods when you were sitting in the power necleus. Once you had retreated from the power nucleus, people would try to be funny and dare enough to spray some peppers onto your face and then your eyes would be irritated with the pepper attack. However, does Tun still want to sacrifice all your pleasure time on many trivial matters in relation to politics again like what you had come across during your 22 years' tenure in the PM's office? Does Tun realize that Tun's essay writings have indeed attracted a lot of blog readers from all around the world? Doesn't this phenomenon seem to be another glory which will bring plentiful good sense of self-actualization for Tun in the retirement age?
Many people had given the honour of "father of development" to the late Tun Abdul Razak. However, I was not able to understand Tun Abdul Razak in detail even though I was already in Form 3 when Tun Abdul Razak passed away in heart attack. I tried to find some readings of his personal writing but I could not find a lot of paper contributions which had been written personally by Tun Abdul Razak. I could only recall the remembrance about Tun Abdul Razak by the personal impression he had given me through the implementation of Rancangan Buku Hijau, the introduction of New Economic Policy, the establishment of MARA, and the handshake photo of the late Premier of People's Republic of China, Mr Chow En Lai, and the late Tun Abdul Razak during the later's visit to Beijing. Because Tun Abdul Razak did not leave behind him with a lot of essay writings, it was highly sceptical that the Malaysians who were born after the demise of Tun Abdul Razak would be able to know much about this great statesman who was called "the father of development of Malaysia".
I first came to know about Tun when Tun was having the first official visit to Seremban as the Minister of Education. However, I only started to realize that Tun was indeed a biased man who had provoked a lot of controversial argument when I first read in early 1980s the book written by Tun which was titled "The Malay Dilemma". Even though the Non-Malays in Malaysia already gave Tun a strong endorsement in general election 1999, this strong support was given to Tun based on these reasons:
1) Giving thanks to Tun for not taking the Non-Malays as the racist scapegoat for purpose of mobilising political support around yourself in the midst of financial turmoil as the aftermath of speculative currency attack in 1997-1998.
2) Taking into consideration that peace and national unity were critical factors for restoration of the nation's economic prosperity, therefore Tun was again being given the strong mandate to restore peace and national unity in order to bring forth another round of economic prosperity for the whole nation.
However, the result of General Election 1999 was still inadequate to wash away the misconception or false perception of racist label on Tun due to the dirts and taints that had been negatively added to Tun's image by the lopesided book of "The Malay Dilemma".
In view of Tun's very excellent and vivid writing skill, I would suggest that Tun should give a serious thought about writing a book on decison making process for developmental economics. Hopefully, with the contributions of Tun in writing such a book, the future generations of Malaysia will be able to understand much better on how the success can be achieved by making always the right decision and failure be avoided from Tun's administrative experiences and personal advices. I hope such a valuable book about developmental economics will also benefit some other less developed nations in the African Continent or the South American Continent since Tun would have a lot of pleasurable experiences to tell and translate them into model building for the political leaders of other continents to adopt and follow.
I think writing a book that allows the humans to quest for excellence by following the examples which have been demonstrated by Tun with Tun's 22 years' practical experiences of implementation will surely provide much better self-actualization to Tun than another round of winning situation in the Umno party election by Tun's nominees. After all, politics are a weary and tiredsome affair which involves with a lot of personal hostility and enmity. It is much better for Tun to leave it to those potential candidates like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to find their own way out for a leading edge in the party election. Only the leaders who can win with their own political strength will be able to stay long in politics for ensuring a long-term political stability of the party.
As for your good son Dato Mukhriz, it is much better that you leave him alone, lest people will accuse him for enjoying the uplift in politics by helicopter of nepotism as compared to other opponents' resort to only climbing the ladder of grassroot support by self-serving empty-handedness. Like the Chinese old saying goes, "The sons or grandsons will have their own bountiful blessings in accordance with their personal destiny. Therefore there is no need for the old folk to foreever serve them diligently like a functional horse or a functional bullock!"
What for if Tun is to serve the younger generations too much too often when what the younger generations really need is a chance to grow by themselves in order to achieve personal independence? Even if the younger generations will eventually have to distance Tun due to Tun's showing indifference and impartiality, there is nothing much to be worried about. No matter how and no matter what, the Almighty will always be with Tun!
Onlooker
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
The New Malay Dilemma
Onlooker said...
Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mahathir,
I see that you are really showing your concern about the future of UMNO. However, you have deliberately chosen to ignore the fact that the accumulated weaknesses in UMNO nowadays are undoubtedly originated from the much controversial New Economic Policy (NEP). In paper it can be read that the NEP comes with two noble objectives: 1. To promote economic growth, and 2. To eradicate poverty disregard of ethnics. In reality during your tenure as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, you chose to purportedly neglect the second noble objective of NEP and attempted to discriminately create a few multi-millionaires among the Malays (your two rich sons were the best examples of the successful multi-millionaires who had been created during your reign.) You even tried to legitimize this policy with the reason that the created Malay rich men would eventually eliminate the clear-cut isolation of different ethnics by wealth and then help to remove the jealous emotion of Malays against the relatively richer Malaysians of Chinese and Indian origins. You have tried to justify your biased policy by citing 'the prevention of racial conflicts possibly caused by wealth jealousy' as the main reason for making a few Malays rich.
However, after many years' weary implementation of the NEP, I hope you are able to sense by now that the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first' has already brought forth some setbacks or some harmful chronic side-effects. The few rich Malays do not necessarily give inspiration to the poorer Malaysians towards the direction of working hard in order to bring changes to their fate of being born poor since these few rich Malays made their fortune too easily through a short-cut of building up a political cabling. Some of these few rich Malays have even created some resentment among the Malay community. Take for instance, your best friend Malay Tycoon Tun Daim has already become a social outcast because people believe that he has squandered a lot of the people's money and then run away to live luxuriously either in South Africa or California.
UMNO members have a lot of discontent because they have too much demands and aspirations which are not easy to satisfy. Some members want 'tanah kurnia' (government granted land). Some ask for infrastructure and construction projects with lucrative profit but easy work. Some request for government financial aids or grants that are never required to be paid back to the government. Some want their son or daughter to be sent overseas for further study on the government scholarship even though this child's academic result does not meet up the admission requirement. This category of UMNO members are economically motivated by the implementation of the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first'. They also hope to be one of these few rich Malays whom will be created rich under the implementation of the NEP.
Of course, not every man can become rich too easily, disregard of ethnics, if the wealth does not come directly from the blessing of God. Many Malaysians fail to realize this truth about personal wealth. When the NEP has successfully created only a few rich Malays but left the majority Malay people live in abject poverty, the majority Malay people would definitely feel very disappointed with UMNO. Knowing this fact, it is therefore not too difficult to understand that why there were so many UMNO members choosing to cast either an opposition vote or a trash vote in Election March 8, 2008!
Tun, I hope you can be brave enough to admit your own mistake in the past. As a policy maker, a Prime Minister should not focus on only a particular interested group as the beneficary of a government policy. A popular government economic policy should by right help to create a full-fledge and sustainable positive macro-economic effect on the nation as a whole, disregard of ethnics.
Pak Lah may be too hastily to raise the petrol price by 41% in one shot. However, when we try to look at the positive aspect of this price up measure, we may be able to find that the desired curb on petrol consumption can be expected to help us save a lot of foreign exchange and help the Bank Negara to build up a much higher international reserve for purpose of strengthening the currency value of Ringgit. It is an undeniable fact that a stronger Ringgit will eventually give a positive impact on our economy as a whole since it helps to curb the imported inflation and also helps to attract the inflow of foreign direct investment when the investors feel comfortable with money putting in a strong Ringgit!
I hope you are willing to allow Pak Lah a bit more time to prove himself out. His policy may be politically incorrect, but it is economically making sense!
This is a viewpoint of a Malaysian farmer.
June 14, 2008 2:41 AM
Yang Amat Berbahagia Tun Dr Mahathir,
I see that you are really showing your concern about the future of UMNO. However, you have deliberately chosen to ignore the fact that the accumulated weaknesses in UMNO nowadays are undoubtedly originated from the much controversial New Economic Policy (NEP). In paper it can be read that the NEP comes with two noble objectives: 1. To promote economic growth, and 2. To eradicate poverty disregard of ethnics. In reality during your tenure as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, you chose to purportedly neglect the second noble objective of NEP and attempted to discriminately create a few multi-millionaires among the Malays (your two rich sons were the best examples of the successful multi-millionaires who had been created during your reign.) You even tried to legitimize this policy with the reason that the created Malay rich men would eventually eliminate the clear-cut isolation of different ethnics by wealth and then help to remove the jealous emotion of Malays against the relatively richer Malaysians of Chinese and Indian origins. You have tried to justify your biased policy by citing 'the prevention of racial conflicts possibly caused by wealth jealousy' as the main reason for making a few Malays rich.
However, after many years' weary implementation of the NEP, I hope you are able to sense by now that the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first' has already brought forth some setbacks or some harmful chronic side-effects. The few rich Malays do not necessarily give inspiration to the poorer Malaysians towards the direction of working hard in order to bring changes to their fate of being born poor since these few rich Malays made their fortune too easily through a short-cut of building up a political cabling. Some of these few rich Malays have even created some resentment among the Malay community. Take for instance, your best friend Malay Tycoon Tun Daim has already become a social outcast because people believe that he has squandered a lot of the people's money and then run away to live luxuriously either in South Africa or California.
UMNO members have a lot of discontent because they have too much demands and aspirations which are not easy to satisfy. Some members want 'tanah kurnia' (government granted land). Some ask for infrastructure and construction projects with lucrative profit but easy work. Some request for government financial aids or grants that are never required to be paid back to the government. Some want their son or daughter to be sent overseas for further study on the government scholarship even though this child's academic result does not meet up the admission requirement. This category of UMNO members are economically motivated by the implementation of the policy of 'making a few Malays rich first'. They also hope to be one of these few rich Malays whom will be created rich under the implementation of the NEP.
Of course, not every man can become rich too easily, disregard of ethnics, if the wealth does not come directly from the blessing of God. Many Malaysians fail to realize this truth about personal wealth. When the NEP has successfully created only a few rich Malays but left the majority Malay people live in abject poverty, the majority Malay people would definitely feel very disappointed with UMNO. Knowing this fact, it is therefore not too difficult to understand that why there were so many UMNO members choosing to cast either an opposition vote or a trash vote in Election March 8, 2008!
Tun, I hope you can be brave enough to admit your own mistake in the past. As a policy maker, a Prime Minister should not focus on only a particular interested group as the beneficary of a government policy. A popular government economic policy should by right help to create a full-fledge and sustainable positive macro-economic effect on the nation as a whole, disregard of ethnics.
Pak Lah may be too hastily to raise the petrol price by 41% in one shot. However, when we try to look at the positive aspect of this price up measure, we may be able to find that the desired curb on petrol consumption can be expected to help us save a lot of foreign exchange and help the Bank Negara to build up a much higher international reserve for purpose of strengthening the currency value of Ringgit. It is an undeniable fact that a stronger Ringgit will eventually give a positive impact on our economy as a whole since it helps to curb the imported inflation and also helps to attract the inflow of foreign direct investment when the investors feel comfortable with money putting in a strong Ringgit!
I hope you are willing to allow Pak Lah a bit more time to prove himself out. His policy may be politically incorrect, but it is economically making sense!
This is a viewpoint of a Malaysian farmer.
June 14, 2008 2:41 AM
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