The leap we need to make — Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

MARCH 23 — James Puthucheary lived what is by any measure an extraordinary and eventful life. He was, among other things, a scholar, anti-colonial activist, poet, political economist and lawyer.

The thread running through these roles was his struggle for progressive politics in a multiracial society. His actions were informed by an acute sense of history and by a commitment to a more equitable and just Malaysia.

James was concerned about economic development in a way that was Malaysian in the best sense. His thinking was motivated by a concerned for socioeconomic equity and for the banishment of communalism and ethnic chauvinism from our politics.

The launch of the Second Edition of this collection of James Puthucheary’s writings, “No Cowardly Past”, invites us to think and speak about our country with intellectual honesty and courage.

Let me put down some propositions, as plainly as I can, about where I think we stand.

1. Our political system has broken down in a way that cannot be salvaged by piecemeal reform.

2. Our public institutions are compromised by politics (most disturbingly by racial politics) and by money. This is to say they have become biased, inefficient and corrupt.

3. Our economy has stagnated. Our growth is based on the export of natural resources. Productivity remains low. We now lag our regional competitors in the quality of our people, when we were once leaders in the developing world.

4. Points 1) -3), regardless of official denials and mainstream media spin, is common knowledge. As a result, confidence is at an all time low. We are suffering debilitating levels of brain and capital drain.

Today I wanted to share some suggestions on how we might move the economy forward, but our economic stagnation is clearly not something we can tackle or even discuss in isolation from the problem of a broken political system and a compromised set of public institutions.

This country is enormously blessed with talent and natural resources. We are shielded from natural calamities and enjoy warm weather all year round. We are blessed to be located at the crossroads of India and China and the Indonesian archipelago.

We are blessed to have cultural kinship with China, India, the Middle East and Indonesia. We attained independence with an enviable institutional framework.

We were a federation with a Constitution that is the supreme law of the land, a parliamentary democracy, an independent judiciary, a common law system and an independent civil service. We had political parties with a strong base of support that produced talented political leadership.

We have no excuse for our present state of economic and social stagnation. It is because we have allowed that last set of features, our institutional and political framework, to be eroded, that all our advantages are not better realized.

So it makes little sense to talk glibly about selecting growth drivers, fine-tuning our industrial or trade policy, and so on, without acknowledging that our economy is in bad shape because our political system is in bad shape.

A case in point is the so called New Economic Model. The government promised the world it would be announced by the end of last year. It was put off to the end of this month. Now we are told we will be getting just the first part of it, and that we will be getting merely a proposal for the New Economic Model from the NEAC. Clearly, politics has intruded. The NEM has been opposed by groups that are concerned that the NEM might replace the NEP. The New Economic Model might not turn out to be so new after all.

The NEP

The irony in all this is that there is nothing to replace. The NEP is the opposite of New. It is defunct and is no longer an official government policy because it was replaced by the New Development Policy (another old New policy) in 1991. The “NEP” was brought back in its afterlife as a slogan by the leadership of UMNO Youth in 2004. It was and remains the most low-cost way to portray oneself as a Malay champion.

Thus, at a time when we are genuinely need of bold new economic measures, we are hamstrung by by the ghost of dead policies with the word New in them. What happens when good policy outlives its time and survives as a slogan?

The NEP was a twenty year programme. It has become, in the imaginations of some, the centre of a permanently racialized socio-economic framework.

Tun Ismail and Tun Razak, in the age of the fixed telephone (you even needed to go through an operator), thought twenty years would be enough. Its champions in the age of instant messaging talk about 100 or 450 years of Malay dependency.

It had a national agenda to eradicate poverty and address structural inequalities between the races for the sake of equity and unity. The Malays were unfairly concentrated in low income sectors such as agriculture. The aim was to remove colonial era silos of economic roles in our economy. It has been trivialized into a concern with obtaining equity and contracts by racial quotas. The NEP was to diversify the Malay economy beyond certain stereotyped occupations. It is now about feeding a class of party- linked people whose main economic function is to obtain and re-sell government contracts and concessions.

The NEP saw poverty as a national, Malaysian problem that engaged the interest and idealism of all Malaysians. People like James Puthucheary were at the forefront of articulating this concern. Its present-day proponents portray poverty as a communal problem.

The NEP was a unity policy. Nowhere in its terms was any race specified. It has been reinvented as an inalienable platform of a Malay Agenda that at one and the same time asserts Malay supremacy and perpetuates the myth of Malay dependency.

It was meant to unite our citizens by making economic arrangements fairer, and de-racializing our economy. In its implementation it became a project to enrich a selection of Malay capitalists. James Puthucheary had warned, back in 1959, that this was bound to fail. “The presence of Chinese capitalists has not noticeably helped solve the poverty of Chinese households.. Those who think that the economic position of the Malays can be improved by creating a few Malay capitalists, thus making a few Malays well-to-do, will have to think again. “

The NEP’s aim to restructure society and to ensure a more equitable distribution of economic growth was justified on principles of social justice, not claims of racial privilege. This is an important point. The NEP was acceptable to all Malaysians because its justification was universal rather than racial, ethical rather than opportunistic. It appealed to Malaysians’ sense of social justice and not to any notion of racial supremacy.

We were a policy with a 20 year horizon, in pursuit of a set of measurable outcomes. We were not devising a doctrine for a permanent socio-economic arrangement. We did not make the damaging assumption of the permanently dependent Malay.

Today we are in a foundational crisis both of our politics and of our economy. Politically and economically, we have come to the end of the road for an old way of managing things. It is said you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all the time. Well these days the time you have in which to fool people is measured in minutes, not years.

The world is greatly changed. The next move we must make is not a step but a leap that changes the very ground we play on.

The NEP is over. I ask the government to have the courage to face up to this. The people already know. The real issue is not whether the NEP is to be continued or not, but whether we have the imagination and courage to come up with something which better addresses the real challenges of growth, equity and unity of our time.

At its working best the NEP secured national unity and provided a stable foundation for economic growth. Taken out of its policy context (a context that James helped frame) and turned into a political programme for the extension of special privilege, it has been distorted into something that its formulators, people such as the late Tun Razak and Tun Ismail, would have absolutely abhorred: it is now the primary justification and cover for corruption, crony capitalism and money politics, and it is corruption, cronyism and money politics that rob us and destroy our future.

No one who really cares about our country can approve of the role the NEP now plays in distorting the way we think about the economy, of our people, of our future, and retarded our ability to formulate forward-looking economic strategy.

The need for a wholistic approach to development based on the restoration and building of confidence.

We need a wholistic approach to development that takes account of the full potential of our society and of our people as individuals. We need an approach to development that begins with the nurturing and empowerment of the human spirit. Both personally and as a society, this means we look for the restoration of confidence in ourselves, who we are, what we are capable of, and the future before us.

I return to the question of the Middle Income Trap that I alluded to some time ago. I am glad that notion has since been taken up by the Government.

The middle income trap is a condition determined by the quality of our people and of the institutions that bind them. It is not something overcome simply by growing more oil palm or extracting more oil and gas. Our economic challenge is to improve the quality of our people and institutions. Making the break from the middle-income trap is in the first place a social, cultural, educational and institutional challenge. Let me just list what needs to be done. Before we can pursue meaningful economic strategy we need to get our house in order. We need to:

1. undertake bold reforms to restore the independence of the police, the anti-corruption commission and the judiciary. Confidence in the rule of law is a basic condition of economic growth.

2. reform the civil service

3. wage all out war on corruption

4. thoroughly revamp our education system

5. repeal the Printing Presses Act, the Universities and Colleges Act, the ISA and the OSA. These repressive laws only serve to create a climate of timidity and fear which is the opposite of the flourishing of talent and ideas that we say we want.

6. Replace the NEP with an equity and unity policy (a kind of “New Deal”) to bring everyone, regardless of race, gender, or what state they live in and who they voted for, into the economic mainstream.

These reforms are the necessary foundation for any particular economic strategies. Many of these reforms will take time. Educational reform is the work of many years. But that is no excuse not to start, confidence will return immediately if that start is bold. As for particular economic strategies, there are many we can pursue:

* We need to tap our advantage in having a high savings rate. Thanks to a lot of forced savings, our savings rate is about 38%. We need more productive uses for the massive funds held in EPF. LTH, LTAT and PNB than investment in an already over-capitalized stock market. One suggestion is to make strategic investments internationally in broad growth sectors such as minerals. Another is that we should use these funds to enable every Malaysian to own their own home. This would stimulate the construction sector with its large multiplier of activities and bring about a stakeholder society. A fine example of how this is done is Singapore’s use of savings in CPF to fund property purchases.

* The Government could make sure that the the land office and local government, developers and house-buyers are coordinated through a one-stop agency under the Ministry of Housing and and Local Government. This would get everyone active, right down to the level of local authorities. The keys to unleashing this activity are financing and a radical streamlining of local government approvals.

* We have been living off a drip of oil and cheap foreign labour. Dependence on these easy sources of revenue has dulled our competitiveness and prevented the growth of high income jobs. We need a moratorium on the hiring of low skilled foreign labour that is paired with a very aggressive effort to increase the productivity and wages of Malaysian labour. Higher wages would mean we could retain more of our skilled labour and other talent.

* Five years ago I called for a project to make Malaysia an oil and gas services and trading hub for East Asia. Oil and gas activities will bring jobs to some of our poorest states. We should not discriminate against those states on the basis of their political affiliations. No one is better placed by natural advantage to develop this hub. Meanwhile Singapore, with not a drop of oil, has moved ahead on this front.

* We should ready ourselves to tap the wealth of the emerging middle class of China, India and Indonesia in providing services such as tourism, medical care and education. That readiness can come in the form of streamlined procedures, language preparation, and targeted infrastructure development.

These are just some ideas for some of the many things we could do to ensure our prosperity. Others may have better ideas.

Conclusion

We are in a foundational crisis of our political system. People can no longer see what lies ahead of us, and all around us they see signs of decaying institutions. Wealth and talent will continue to leave the country in droves.

To reverse that exodus we need to restore confidence in the country. We do not get confidence back with piecemeal economic measures but with bold reforms to restore transparency, accountability and legitimacy to our institutions. Confidence will return if people see decisive leadership motivated by a sincere for the welfare of the country. The opposite occurs if they see decisions motivated by short term politics. Nevermind FDI, if Malaysians started investing in Malaysia, and stopped leaving, or started coming back, we would see a surge in growth.

In the same measure we also need to break the stranglehold of communal politics and racial policy if we want to be a place where an economy driven by ideas and skills can flourish. This must be done, and it must be done now. We have a small window of time left before we fall into a spiral of political, social and economic decline from which we will not emerge for decades.

This is the leap we need to make, but to make that leap we need a government capable of promoting radical reform. That is not going to happen without political change. We should not underestimate the ability of our citizens to transcend lies, distortions and myths and get behind the best interest of the country. In this they are far ahead of our present leadership, and our leadership should listen to them.

* Speech by Gua Musang MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at the launch of the Second Edition of “No Cowardly Past: James Puthucheary, Writings, Poems, Commentaries” at the PJ Civic Centre on March 22, 2010.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.

My poor Malaysia — Karim Raslan

MARCH 6 — Manila is an exhausting and ugly city. After a week of meetings and far too many encounters with politicians (strange how they never listen to us?), I was itching to get away from the capital.

On the recommendation of some friends, I headed south to the island of Bohol, which is located in the Visayas, the belt of islands anchored by Cebu and sandwiched between Luzon — to the north — and Mindanao — to the south.

I’d been told that Bohol, more than Boracay, (the country’s party-island) was a Bali-in-the-making. Bohol, according to my sources, had Boracay-like sandy beaches. However, at the same time, it also had culture, history and a beautiful countryside.

So, tired of being stuck in endless traffic jams along EDSA, Manila’s equivalent of Jalan Tun Razak and the Federal Highway rolled into one, I headed off.

However, modern technology means that we never really leave our “world” behind and with my Blackberry blinking perpetually; updates from Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta followed me across Bohol’s gorgeous landscape.

Of the two, the news from Malaysia where three women were caned for illicit sex was by far the most disturbing.

The canings have serious implications for Malaysia. We have crossed an invisible line. We no longer belong with Turkey and Indonesia as progressive Muslim nations. For better or for worse, we have chosen to join the more conservative spectrum.

Indeed, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has long argued that we are an Islamic state. The recent canings strengthen this position — though I disagree with such a definition.

Moreover, we have chosen to dramatically insert the state — with all its inadequacies and prejudices — into the world of private morality. In doing so, the boundary between the public and personal has been erased forever.

So, what is happening? Well, the Malay/Muslim community is once again being consolidated and united around Umno. Inevitably, this will have tremendous long-term repercussions for the community and indeed the country.

Why? Well, because the very real diversity and differences within the Malay community will no longer be tolerated. We are to be homogenous, loyal and unquestioning subjects.

Independence of thought and action is dangerous and unwise. Anyone who chooses not conform had better be prepared for the consequences.

This is ironic given the fact that we’re simultaneously being exhorted to be innovative and creative in order to take Malaysia to a higher economic level.

The push to control the community absolutely will leave the Malays as the ultimate losers. The best and the brightest will flee for higher paying jobs elsewhere. Meanwhile, everyone else will readjust (or rather, stagnate) to the new reality — namely that obtaining power and money depends on your closeness to Umno, thereby heightening the lobbying and the politicking.

At the same time it’s worth bearing in mind that morality laws are a double-edged sword. Today’s accuser could end up tomorrow’s victim. It’s arguable that justice without mercy is merely revenge. The second trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a powerful reminder to people of the dangers of challenging established authority.

Needless to say, the news was pretty depressing. Still, since I was in Bohol, I tried enjoying myself while doing my best to forget the bigotry and narrowness that has been making life in Kuala Lumpur more difficult.

Whilst Bohol’s charms couldn’t entirely shake off the gloom, the island and its history reminded me of the arbitrariness of life in Southeast Asia.

As one of the first points of contact between the Spanish and the locals back in 1565, Bohol was probably a Muslim enclave. The Spanish, however, were thorough conquerors, also spreading Catholicism in their wake.

Interestingly though, the conquistadors quickly realised that they would only be able to convert the local people if they learnt the local languages. This they promptly did, spreading Christianity through a mixture of Tagalog or Bisayan, depending on the locality.

What this did in turn was not dissimilar to the acculturation process that took place in Java in the 15th and 16th-Centuries when Islam was spread by the famous Wali Songo. These nine famous Muslim preachers used Javanese in their sermons, adapting their message to local customs and practices.

Bohol was so strange and yet so familiar. I was constantly being reminded of places elsewhere in Southeast Asia that I’ve visited over the past decades. There were parts that had echoes of Terengganu, Sabah, Ambon, Bangka and even Pagan in Myanmar.

As I drove across Bohol, stopping off at beaches and the rolling chocolate-coloured hills in the centre of the island (a set of bizarre and uniformly dome-shaped formations that rolled on for miles and miles), I found myself forgetting the dispiriting news from Kuala Lumpur.

Indeed, I became quite intrigued by the island’s churches instead. They were large, daunting stone structures, laid out by Jesuits in the 1600’s and 1700’s. The buildings had impressive thick walls, baroque altar-pieces and lavish painted ceilings.

They had survived earthquakes and fires, standing tall among the humble atap homes of their parishioners, a stern and forbidding symbol of Catholicism’s might, not to mention the power of the Spanish monarchs.

Indeed, as I watched the local Bohol people go about their religious practices I was reminded of similar crowds I’d seen years before in Kelantan, in Padang, Quiapo and

Penampang. Indeed, I was most struck by the similarity in terms of intensity and passion that I’d seen at the historic Sultan Ampel mosque in Surabaya, or the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon.

We were all Southeast Asians — history’s pawns. Here, in a land little different from my own — a land studded with coconut palms, bamboo groves, mango trees and watered by frequent rainstorms, another faith — almost by accident — had taken hold and become dominant, whereas on the Malay Peninsula we had become Muslims.

Once converted, we have now become the most assiduous of believers. Tragically, we are in danger of losing our openness. Instead, we are all-too eager to condemn and attack. Somehow, somewhere along the way, we forgot our rich, syncretic, and much more accepting, tolerant past. Malaysia, my poor Malaysia. — mysinchew

Yes my point exactly. I am not as lucid as Karim Raslan but i do share his dismay of what have happen to the Malay race. To walk tall among others we must admit our shortcomings by doing so we could learn and adapt it to survive. We must admit in terms of ketamadunan or being civilised we are far behind the Cihnese and Indian. No doubt we have government, we have our own writings but domestic economics we have remain stagnated. We are traders no doubt, we buy and sell but we do not create end products. We have good harbours, people comes to buy raw materials while we bought from them cloths, silverware etc. We sell raw, we do make certain items but even then the craft goods that we made were not market properly or the price were higher. So yes we produce songket, we made keris but overall we still buy porcelain plates and cutting tools from neighbouring countries.

It was more economical but it also create a gap between us and others. So when machination arrive here, the one servicing these tools were the non malays. They have a head start. Since I have also wrote the next economic wheel for Malaysia would be in the service industries I am sad the Malays will be left behind. The Ultras are still wailing for level playing field but what the use of level playing field if the Malay mind set is not geared to service her clients. You go to any restaurant own by Malay and likely the bane is poor service and you ask a Malay why he likes Mamak restaurant, not for the food really but the service.

We must create a service oriented mentality, we must be able to serve and not look that as beneath us because to succeed we must serve. As Muslims we serve God so why can't we serve Man for profit? A paradigm shift must be the main goal of the Malays, Mindset must by all means reflect the new economic necessity. Leaning to the Government for hands out is the thing of the past, they must rely on themselves and look at the government more as a friend to help them but not a father figure anymore.

This is from a columnist form Malaysian Insider. Nice

Time to make it a Malaysian problem

MARCH 19 — Every time some politician makes an ill-advised remark about race or religion, there will be the inevitable deluge of comments reminding him where his true allegiance belongs. If the politician speaks out for the Malays or Islam, the chorus will be: “Remember, you are beholden to Malaysians, not the Malays/Muslims,” and if the politician speaks out for the non-Malays or non-Muslims, it will be, “Remember, you are beholden to the Malays, not the non-Malays.”

What infuriates me is that I agree with both sides — and yet they are both so insufferably smug in excluding other Malaysians and Malaysian concerns from their vision of what Malaysia should be.

It should be abundantly clear to all that when you serve the Malays, you are serving Malaysians, and when you serve the non-Malays, you are serving Malaysians. Yet this basic fact eludes so many of us.

When a Malay youth cannot find employment or education, that is not a Malay problem — that is a Malaysian problem. When a Hindu temple is torn down, that is not the desecration of a Hindu place of worship — that is the desecration of a Malaysian place of worship. We, as Malaysians, need to champion the solutions to these problems together, because who else will do it? Surely not the Singaporeans or the British!

But who among the non-Malays talks about the plight of the Malays or the Bumiputeras? If ever we talk about their problems, it is to make an insulting joke about their supposed ignorance, or to dismiss them as know-nothing bumpkins. Do we ever take seriously the problems Malay youth have in their schooling, or ponder how to help them into the mainstream of the modern Malaysian economy?

And how often do the Malays talk about the problems of the non-Malays? Is there ever recognition of the difficulties non-Malays encounter in obtaining public scholarships or government work? Is there ever a discussion of the non-Malays’ fear of Malay culture encroaching on their own traditions and way of life?

Some politicians, both from Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, are valiantly trying to change our culture of ignoring other communities’ interests. 1 Malaysia, as much of an empty slogan as it is, is all about this idea, if nothing else.

Admirably, Pakatan politicians have made clear that they practise what they preach. Teresa Kok gives money to mosques; Lim Guan Eng attends Muslim festivities which his predecessors in the Penang government shunned. Meanwhile, Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat defends Bumiputera Christians’ usage of the word “Allah,” and Malay leaders from all Pakatan parties denounce the unfair treatment of the non-Malay communities.

But all this will be for naught unless we, the Malaysian rakyat, change. Why aren’t we taking responsibility for the Malaysian problems in our country? Why do we still not bother trying to find out why other Malaysians differ with us so strongly on an issue? Why are we content with dismissing them as arrogant ignoramuses, instead of recognising and working out our valid differences?

When a church is bombed, that is my problem. When a mosque is vandalised, that is my problem. When a Malay youth becomes a Mat Rempit, that is my problem. When a Chinese youth joins a triad, that is my problem. When a Penan girl is raped, that is my problem. When an Indian father becomes an alcoholic, that is my problem. Until we can all say and truly believe these things, where is our Bangsa Malaysia?

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.

Sorry state of affair by a Chinese point of view!

This Article in question was send to me by email by a Chinese friend. I am answering it below but it must be read together by looking at the youtube of Qmar

Posted by St Low
An Open Letter to all DAP Leaders and Members:

Friday, 29 August 2008 17:20

The majority of the Malays support UMNO; and UMNO has plundered and mismanaged the wealth of this country with impunity. Therefore, to change the fate of our nation is to change the mentality of the Malays. This is the ONLY solution!

Without doubt, DAP has struggled and fought fearlessly and tirelessly over the past 4 decades aspiring to build a democratic and progressive Malaysia regardless of race and religion. However, I can only conclude that over the past 4 decades, DAP has completely failed to fight against the UMNO hegemony in the country.

DAP had never prepared itself to be the alternative of BN until 08 March 2008. And we have to acknowledge that DAP had been dragged and manipulated by UMNO to become or at least seen to become a Chinese-Chauvinist political party. The fact is that without PAS or Anwar Ibrahim, DAP will NEVER be able to engage the Malay electorate. The leadership of DAP has long been luxuriating in being recognized as the "Chinese Hero" or "Non-Muslims' Rights Defender".

Since DAP's inception in 1966, the Party has failed to recognize the basic and simple fact that it is the Malays who decide the sort of leaders they want and they have voted UMNO in for 12 consecutive General Elections.

UMNO had always been perceived as the sole defender of Malay supremacy with their special rights and privileges, even if it is at the expense of other ethnic groups. It doesn't require complex political analysis to understand that the MAJORITY of Malays had always been staunch supporters of UMNO. If they refuse to change their voting preference, the status quo is going to remain. The more we challenge it, the stronger UMNO will be. Thus, for DAP to directly clash with UMNO will further enhance its image as a Chinese-based party and provide UMNO with an opportunity to have more Malay sympathizers.

An example is, if they increase the number of scholarships for non-bumis, UMNO can easily tell the Kampong Malays that they have succumbed to the pressure of MCA, Gerakan and MIC. The Malays will immediately give their strong endorsement to UMNO to defend their rights. DAP, as one of the strongest opposition parties in Malaysia, is still failing to comprehend the racial game played by UMNO.

Instead of directly engaging the Malay electorate, DAP chooses to play the ZERO SUM GAME with MCA and Gerakan. These 3 Chinese-based political parties lack the basic political wisdom to survive independently in our multi-racial country where Malays/Muslims are the majority. At least we know UMNO can easily survive by means of communalism and form the government with smaller political parties.

No matter how hard DAP argues or debates with MCA or Gerakan, it won't change the fixed mindset or mentality of the Malay electorate. Neither will MCA or Gerakan be forced to change the mindset of the Malays by DAP!

Remember the iron fact that the majority of the Malays support UMNO; and UMNO has plundered and mismanaged the wealth of this country with impunity. Therefore, to change the fate of our nation is to change the mentality of the Malays. This is the ONLY solution!
As our most respected Regent of Perak, Dr. Nazrin Shah put it, "The Malay mindset is a crucial factor in our nation's stability". Dr. Nazrin further elaborated that, "racial prejudice can be erased if the Malay mindset is stable and comfortable towards forging harmony. It is a pre-condition to our nation's stability".

May I ask Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Karpal Singh, or even the writer Liew Chin Tong, how much has DAP done over the past 40 years to change the mindset of the Malays? How much has DAP done to win the trust of the Malays? How many times has DAP challenged UMNO in open debate on the academic performance of Malay students?

Instead of getting closer and winning the hearts and trust of the Malay electorate, DAP has chosen to fight with MCA and Gerakan to play the role of Chinese Hero.

Worse still, after struggling for more than 40 years in Malaysia's political history, DAP still doesn't have the slightest inkling of what "political courtship" is all about. Even the MOST STUPID salesman knows how to be courteous to customers and win their trust.
DAP chooses to shun Malay electorate and frighten them by:
a) Refusing to wear songkok,
b) Raising the issue of Social Contract,
c) Immediate abolition of positive discrimination policies

It's made me wonder whether DAP is paid by UMNO to strengthen their grass root supporters! If I were a DAP leader, I would ostentatiously wear the Songkok to pro-actively court and seek Malay support for DAP. I would put aside the issue of the Social Contract and would clearly and carefully pinpoint the weaknesses of the NEP to the Malay masses before revising it.

If the Umnoputras liken the fate of the Malays in Penang to the Malays in Singapore, how is YAB Mr. Lim Guan Eng going to answer this question or "accusation"? What YAB Mr. Lim Guan Eng will do is to imitate his predecessor Dr. Koh by keeping his mouth shut and be speechless. Silence means consent!

DAP should pro-actively and sincerely urge the Malay masses to look beyond the tiny island of Singapore and focus on the plight of Malays in Batam, Bintang, Karimun and even the slum areas in Jakarta. Ask them to compare whether Singapore Malays are better off or Batam Malays are better off.

I can help organize special tours for all the Malays/bumiputras in Malaysia to visit all the Indonesian islands surrounding Singapore to see for themselves how the Malays there are living in abject poverty and sordid conditions. Many young girls in Batam, Bintang and Karimun have to prostitute themselves to feed their family. They are also deprived of the opportunity to receive basic education and training. And we know many of them have to leave their families to become maids in Singapore and Malaysia.

We should challenge UMNO - NOT to protect the Malays in Singapore, but the Malays in Batam, Bintang and Karimun! We are not defending Singapore, but we have to speak the truth to the Malay masses. Enlighten them and so they won't be blinded and misguided by UMNO. Shame on our Education Minister who expressed the need to travel to the UK to save "our" so-called prodigy Sufiah. He should go to Batam Island to join the UN's efforts to curb child prostitution!

For DAP's information, Singapore Malays have progressed very well. Over the last 15 years, they have improved significantly in their academic performance. Singapore Malays have the highest percentage of home ownership as compared to the Malays in Malaysia and Indonesia! DAP does not have to defend PAP, but I would encourage YAB Mr. Lim to invite Dr. Mahathir for a telecast debate on the plight of Malays in Singapore.

Dr. Mahathir always reminds the Malays in our country to look at the Malays in Singapore, how "miserable" they are without firm control in politics. For Mahathir's information, the Singapore Parliament Speaker is a Malay and the Finance Minister an Indian Muslim like Mahathir. And so far, I have not heard of Singapore Malays being maids in Malaysia or Indonesia, and neither have I heard of a large number of young Malay girls in Singapore prostituting themselves to feed their family.

As Islam is the official religion of Malaysia, DAP leaders should openly and publicly support the teachings of the Quran in our country. I voted for PAS on 8th March to close down casinos, horse-racing, 4D and TOTO. Non-Muslims have long been paying a second tax to the UMNO government by "gambling-off" their whole family savings and children's education to win the trust and respect of Malays and Muslims.

DAP should advocate the closure of casinos, 4D, TOTO, and horse-racing as all these vice activities operators are UMNO agents. They take gambling money from non-Muslims and pay it to their UMNO Master. To cut off this source of revenue for UMNO, DAP should explain to the non-Muslim community how this gambling system works in Malaysia - and teach UMNO a lesson as we must expose UMNO's hypocrisy!

Unfortunately, DAP leaders don't appear to have the intelligence, wit, courage and political will to have the paradigm shift and think out of the box politically. As mentioned earlier, DAP is just a political party helplessly manipulated by UMNO. By just simply advocating the banning of gambling, DAP could win the respect and trust of Malays and Muslims plus save many non-Muslims from bankruptcy and family problems. But most importantly, it cuts off a large chunk of revenue from UMNO. ONE stone killing 3 birds.

Instead of shouting and arguing with ridiculous Umnoputras in Parliament, I urge DAP to instruct each of their members to befriend at least 10 Malays to explain to them the challenge of this ever-changing globalized economy and how we have to work together regardless of race and religion for a better Malaysia. When the Malay mindsets change, Malaysia will change; and vice-versa.

DAP, hear me and hear me well. You may be sincere, but you are sincerely wrong in Malaysian politics. Go and study what made UMNO strong. Do your political analysis. Also, DAP, you must remember that PAS is your true friend, even though they talked with UMNO. They are righteous and godly people that won't succumb to the temptation of money. That is not the case with Keadilan. Except Anwar and a few top leaders, many Keadilan people are still carrying the UMNO-DNA, as we have witnessed with the running dog Ezam and Nalla betraying the party.

DAP, you should acknowledge the fact that the special rights and position of Malays/bumiputras are enshrined in our constitution. You have to respect it. You must have a complete and comprehensive Malay agenda to compete with UMNO. For example, the Penang state government can provide free but compulsory tuition for Penang Malay students at schools. DAP must cultivate and nurture the Malays in Penang to excel in academics and be able to compete on equal footing with others. Penang Malays must be the locomotive change of mindset to the rest of the Malays in our country. If DAP fails to change the Malay mindset in Penang, DAP will never be qualified to be addressed as a "National" party.

Lastly, DAP, you still have a long way to go and you really have to learn again who's given UMNO power. Go to their power base, seize their power and cut off their power supply! For a progressive and better Malaysia, wearing the songkok is a trivial matter.

If necessary, let Anwar's new cabinet be full of capable Malays like Dr. Syed Husin Ali, Dr. Azly Rahman, Dr. Bakri Musa, Tuanku Abdul Aziz, etc. to prove to the Malay masses that we, Chinese, are not power hungry; we don't choose to "pegang" so as to destroy their livelihood as UMNO has claimed. We can prove to them that even though there is only 1 Chinese Minister in the Cabinet, it is still okay to us if the highly capable and honest Malay leaders can lead our country to greater heights and serve the rakyat wholeheartedly regardless of race, language and religion!

Please learn, understand and even master the UMNO's Art of War in Politics.

"Know your enemies and know yourself, hundred battles hundred victories" - "Sun Tzu's Art of War".

FOR A BETTER MALAYSIA
Hidup Malaysia...
Mr. Loi Bih Siang Benjamin
Political Scientist

Thus here I begin to rebut Mr Loi Bih Siang or should i say Benyamin S! A political Scientist my foot! When you look at a picture you must be able to see the bigger picture. Focusing yourself on Bantam Bintang and Karimun and compare it to Malaysia is overtly simplistic! I do not know that you are qualified, or maybe your qualification comes from NUS thus your sweeping statement then makes sense! Indonesia political landscape is different than Malaysia. We are more closer to Singapore! In Indonesia 90% are of Malay stock 3% Chinese thus how it is run is not so much base on race but on political expediency!

I have repeatedly say that our leaders be it Tunku, Tun Razak, Sambathan or Cheng Loke even Tun Dr Ismail and Mr Opposition Tan Chee Koon understand the concept and aspiration of creating a level playing field. Recently the (dis) honourable Brother Anwar call for the abolishment of affirmative policy and to change it to need base policy. He calls for the abolishment of the NEP. What utter rubbish! He has no brains but as usual he played to the audience and as usual Londoners or intellectuals be it Malay or Chinese applaud it without checking the facts!

In 1990 the NEP officially ended. A new policy was introduce which is a copy of the old policy! Who was in the cabinet then but Bro Anwar Ibrahim. In fact in 1991 he assumes the post of the Minister of Finance and I repeat here how many lollies did he gave to his cronies! If Benjamin S have check his facts he will notice that the plunder and mismanagement of the country's economy went wild during Anwar's term! He was presiding during the mega growth rate of Malaysia and dollies were handed down with impunity for whom could forget Anwar's boys, not his predilection but his boys!

NEP was and i repeat here, never about race, it was about eradicating of poverty across racial line and blurring the line of economic activity by racial line. Thus we want Malay Indian and Chinese Shopkeepers. we want Malay Indian and Chinese lawyers etc! Affirmative policy was created so that Bumis could be given an extra hand. It was never meant to be indefinite and the leader thought that it will die a natural death. Affirmative policy is not new, it is being practice in the states for the blacks and Singapore too, has affirmative install! Yes, Singapore have an affirmative policy for politics, for business it still a no no after all Monies is everything to the Chinese!With Malays kampong and Indian villages destroy and HDB flat built in her place, and with the government imposing that HDB flats of that area reflect the demographic situations of Singapore it would be improbable for non Malays to win an election. So Singapore PAP would install Malays or Indians to stand in the election to give them a place in Parliament. This is presently the situation, as Singapore constituents does not have a non Chinese majority. Is this not a form of affirmative policy?

So before you take pot shots at UMNO learn history well. UMNO was never the vanguard of the Malays but was the vanguard of Malaysia. Chauvinism has no place in Tunku's time or Razak or Hussain it was only during Tun Mahathir's time that this bigotry took root! But sadly Many non Malays idolize Mahathir , many for the wrong reason. Many Chinese Capitalist adores Mahathir because he created wealth at the expense of liberty! As for DAP claim that she is not a chauvinist party I am sorry! The Chinese never do learn. The art of politics in Malaysia and the far east is different. Numbers do not create might! Wealth is not strength! I will definitely not tell you what because it would destroy my race and I would never do that!

You can't go to the Sultan and demand the MB post because your party won the biggest seat! Birch was an arrogant SOB and he was murdered!It does not matter if the Sultan is dumb or corrupted(my apologies-it is just an expression)! if you are rude to him and tak jaga air muka then you would suffer. It does not matter if you are right, it matters that you do not offend. To the Malays this is very important and I think so it also matter to the Chinese. To go on a platform and speak Chinese in an official function of a Party that is multi racial spoke of arrogance in platitudes! I do not understand why can't you use Malay after all it is the National Language but yet again DAP is a Chinese Chauvinist party, it refuse to bow down!

To give scholarship to non Malays could be accepted by the Malays if proper explanation is given but to say it is your right then it become provocative! I have no problem with scholarship but I have a problem when it is twisted to reflect chauvinistic ideas be it from UMNO or DAP! If you say you are fighting for Middle Malaysia you still have a long way to go! At last year AGM your members fail to elect Tunku Aziz. He lost and have to be appointed by your Chairman to the board! That reflect reality! Another multiracial party whose women's wing at one time headed by a non Chinese saw herself not standing for election, and you talk about meritocracy what bull! About Singapore please read my previous articles1 I am tired of playing the same record again and again!

Yes UMNO was and hopefully will always be the vanguard for Malaysians and I hope it return back to the middle path because the country needs her badly!

Anwar: Dumping NEP key to regaining competitive edge

“The racial equation means that the vast majority who benefit are Malays. So why the siege mentality?” he asked. — Picture by Danny Lim

By Shannon Teoh

LONDON, March 20 — Malaysia must dump race-based affirmative action policies for a needs-based formula to stop the slide in its economic competitiveness, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said last night.

The Opposition Leader insisted that dropping the New Economic Policy (NEP), first drawn up in the 1970s, would be more effective in helping poor Bumiputeras, a constant call by his political foes in Umno as well as Malay rights groups.

“It needs to be dismantled because of the lost competitiveness,” he told a forum in London.

Anwar’s frequent criticism of the NEP has often drawn flak along with the accusation that he is selling out "his race", a charge that he denies.

“We have to regain it and enrich the country and then distribute wealth through a more transparent affirmative action policy,” the PKR de facto leader said.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is set to receive a New Economic Model (NEM) report that will offer alternatives to the current affirmative-action policies but he said public feedback is required before implementation.

The NEM comes on the back of moves last year to free certain sectors of the economy of Bumiputera quotas. These moves have raised concerns about Malays being marginalised.

But Anwar, speaking to a mix of 300 students and working Malaysians, argued that for the majority — and the majority of poor being Malay — a needs-based system would in fact benefit Malays more in comparison to other races.

“They ask what will happen to Malays? In fact, Malays will be better off if they get rid of people like you,” he said. — Picture by Danny Lim

“The racial equation means that the vast majority who benefit are Malays. So why the siege mentality?” he asked.

The Permatang Pauh MP added that he has often been posed hypothetical questions in which the Chinese would win all open tenders due to their current advantages.

“We will have policies in place that those who win tender awards must open up their subcontracts and give exposure to all other communities. If leaders are not corrupt and looking for commissions, then it can be done,” he explained.

The former deputy prime minister insisted that NEP policies were being supported by Umno as a means to practice “corruption with impunity.”

“They ask what will happen to Malays? In fact, Malays will be better off if they get rid of people like you,” he said, adding that it was an irresponsible statement to say that the NEP benefited all Malays at the expense of non-Malays when it in fact only benefited the “Umnoputra.”

Anwar, who was finance minister in the 1990s, defended the use of the NEP in years past, saying that he supported it before as “it was a different situation then.”

“We benefited and there was social mobility. But this from 35 years ago.

“Yes there were abuses, it was exploited by the rich and political cronies. Look at the richest Malays in the country, it is the brother of the prime minister, the son of a former prime minister and the son-in-law of another former prime minister,” he said, referring to banker Datuk Seri Nazir Razak, entrepreneur Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir and Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin respectively.

Earlier in the evening, Anwar had described how in the 1990s Malaysia was second in the region only to Singapore in economic competitiveness but could now no longer be compared to such leadings lights as our southern neighbour and other Asian giants like South Korea and Taiwan.

“Instead we are comparing ourselves to Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines and even then we are losing to them in terms of growth and foreign direct investment,” he claimed.

He added that the country has lost its attractiveness as an investment destination with experts explaining that Malaysia is no longer on “the radar” due to “destruction of institutions” such as the media and the judiciary.

This, they believe, has left investors with a sense of “hopelessness” about the economy.

Singapore Racist

I will follow up with an article of it!

I am a floater! There I say it! I could float in any pool of water be it at sea or in a swimming pool! I could float for hours and my family could attest to that! My friends from school too know of it! I could float since I was young! It was a natural thing! I did not learn it from Java or any pesentren, or be-quested to me by a Tok guru! In fact maybe I got it from a Nagoor in Transfer Road, Penang! The Mamak with the wearing a dhoti, everything white came to me in a dream! Hmmm a mamak who knows how to swim! His Makam is still present or maybe i got it from Datuk Koya! Maybe the food of Penang gave me the ability or maybe I got it from Terenggannu! We did stay in Batu Buruk where Main Pantai was once held! I could only remember someone stool floating when i went to swim in the 70's! Maybe because of that I could float!

I do not know why? But i know this the body is a funny tool! I read in a entertainment news weekly report about a lady in South Africa who has the same ability way back in the 70's and I found it does happen frequently. It is a natural thing! It seem these people have a higher buoyancy than normal thus are able to do it! It is nothing to do by being fat but more on the buoyancy level that you posses. I am fat but I was able to do it since young! Although I have always been heavy but definitely not as heavy as i am now! When my parents were staying in Melaka we have access to use the pool nearby. I use to swim and test my ability. I was fascinated by the news of the lady that she could stand in a horizontal position without getting drown and so I did and I can do it! Although to be fair the woman has melons and since I have melons too now maybe it can be better!

I could read books easily and able to cross my legs and also wrap my hand under my neck without drowning! Well If TV3 or Bernama or RTM wish to record my ability I'm happy to oblige, perhaps we could have a reality TV to know who is the best floater! I only request Yusanani Yushak to interview me which is quite fair I think!

From the Star

Sunday March 7, 2010

Surfing’s a snap for senior citizen Dion

ALOR GAJAH: The next time you log into social networking site Facebook, check out 66-year-old Dion Bakar who “floats” out his life story from the sea.

The senior citizen, whose real name is Abu Bakar Mohamad, has the ability to go online while keeping himself afloat at sea – sometimes for hours.

In a demonstration at 11am yesterday, the Malacca-born stayed afloat in the water while doing three things – surfing Facebook, speaking on the phone and reading a newspaper. He was in the water for almost an hour.

Multi-tasker: Dion demonstrating how he can multi-task while staying afloat in the water. He is seen here surfing the Internet. He can also read and make phone calls when in the water for hours. – Bernama

Reporters had met him earlier at the Pengkalan Balak beach in Masjid Tanah near here.

The former pilot said he received his education from a pondok school in Demak, Central Java, Indonesia when he was 10 years old. It was there that he learnt how to float.

Dion, who said he was working with a member of the Pahang royalty, claimed that he had successfully stayed afloat in waters near Pulau Jawa for three days.

The multi-lingual Dion also has several films under his belt, having acted in a Hollywood film titled Beyond Rangoon and local films such as Bisikan Cinta and Driving School, as well as gracing the cover of Her World magazine in 1977. — Bernama