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Saturday, July 27, 2013

No dilemma, Dr Mahathir, just the need for a better Malaysia

Maybe a decade ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic, right) could have counted on having the last word on everything; where the adoring millions would have devoured all his half-truths and fibs and allowed him the luxury of shoveling his porous theories of life in Malaysia on the masses.
Maybe a decade ago he could have got away with the self-serving opinion piece published in the Umno-controlled New Straits Timestoday, where he talked about a so-called Chinese dilemma, accusing the DAP of trying to set up Singapore in Malaysia, with the Chinese wielding economic and political power instead of sharing power.
“The dilemma for the Chinese is whether to make a grab for political power while dominating economic power or to adhere to the principle of sharing which has made this country what it is today...That is the Chinese dilemma," he wrote.
Memo to Dr Mahathir: The Chinese do not have any dilemma. For that matter, the more than 51 per cent who voted for Pakatan Rakyat in GE13 do not have a dilemma: they just wanted to oust a coalition which over a period of time had become corrupt and atrophied and allowed this country to be riven with racial and religious polarisation.
So strong was the antipathy against Barisan Nasional (BN) and all it represents that Chinese and other non-Malays were willing to vote for turbaned candidates from Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), something which Chinese voters were unwilling to do in large numbers as recently as the 1999 GE, when the Chinese vote saved Dr Mahathir from being scalped.
Dr Mahathir knows this but accepting this reality would force him to accept a harsher reality: that he as prime minister of Malaysia for 22 years contributed much to the decaying of the BN brand name and is culpable for the disillusionment many Malaysians feel towards Umno and the soulless component parties.
It is much easier and self-serving to slam the DAP for painting the MCA as lackeys of the Malays because it fits into the Umno world view that racism underpins Chinese support for Pakatan Rakyat.
GE13 saw the Chinese willing to vote for turbaned Muslim candidates, further illustrating the deep-lying sentiment against the BN government. The Malaysian Insider pic, July 27, 2013.GE13 saw the Chinese willing to vote for turbaned Muslim candidates, further illustrating the deep-lying sentiment against the BN government. The Malaysian Insider pic, July 27, 2013.“DAP, by undermining MCA is what causes the Chinese representation in the government to be weak. Without DAP, MCA is likely to garner more seats in Parliament and the government," he wrote in the opinion piece.
Actually, most Chinese and non-Malays rejected MCA because they are lackeys of Umno, not the Malays. Non-Malays do not have a quarrel with Malays. And in many instances, the majority of the Malays and non-Malays share similar grievances and aspirations.
Many in both groups have been left with crumbs while the politically connected and their family members have been feasting at the expense of taxpayers through inflated contracts and leakages.
It is an indictment of the system that Malaysia’s household debt is one of the highest in the world at 83 per cent of the GDP and that the group of Malaysians who Umno is supposed to look after form the largest number of at risk debtors.
What the Chinese and non-Malays cannot accept is the fact that MCA and MIC politicians have become Umno apologists and, worse yet, have also joined the plunder of the country.
It is striking that only after being sent packing in GE13, have certain MCA and MIC politicians found their voice. Nothing jolts the voice box and conscience like political oblivion.
Back to Dr Mahathir, instead of blaming the DAP and Chinese or any other imagined enemies, and writing thought-pieces with little semblance to the actual situation, perhaps a better approach would be to address some questions such as:
  • Why despite being the prime minister for so long, he was unable to make the Malays, especially the Umno boys, less reliant on government help?
     
  • Why he did not do much to stop the culture of easy money and corruption flourishing in Malaysia, especially among politicians?
     
  • Why despite overseeing the impressive makeover of the Kuala Lumpur skyline, his Bangsa Malaysia project lies in tatters?
     
  • Why didn’t he do more for education? It was during his tenure as PM that non-Malays started deserting national schools, starting a trend that would lead to serious racial polarisation.
     
  • Why didn’t he do more when he was the PM to ensure that Islam was more about substance rather than form?
The list of questions can go on and on because he was at the helm of the country for more than two decades and the excesses that resulted in many Malaysians rejecting BN at GE13 started during his time.
Or at least, there was an absence of any serious attempts by Dr Mahathir to tackle issues that would later come and haunt the BN.
Corruption. Abuse of Power. Poor Governance. Fraying Race Relations. Declining Standard of Education. It was a culmination of all these factors and others which led many voters away from BN.
It is giving the DAP or Anwar Ibrahim far too much credit to suggest that many Malaysians voted for them because of their rhetoric or electoral promises. It is also plainly dishonest to say that Chinese voted for DAP because they wanted political power.
They just had enough of the excesses of BN and wanted a better, more inclusive vision for Malaysia. 

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