Malaysian Dream
Paul Chong
Monday 21 June 2021
Three score & four years ago, Tunku Abdul Rahman & his Alliance embarked on a “Merdeka Mission” to London to negotiate & secure independence for then Malaya from the British colonial master. For most of us, it was the beginning of a beautiful Malayan Dream . . . as to be released from the bond of British control & sheer exploitation.
However, in all fairness to the British colonial masters, they left behind a rich legacy in education & the rule of law.
The new nation rejoiced & cerebrated its Merdeka (Independence) on 31 August 1957 till today as Malaysia Day. The Federation of Malaysia officially came into being on 16 September 1963 following the amalgamation of Malaya, Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (later renamed Sabah).
I am not about giving a history lecture here but we can learn from history & you can’t change history. Sensitive as it may be, the truth of it all with the present political woes must be told for the sake of the present & future generations. I shall speak the truth & shame the devil. There have been tremendous concealment & coverup of scenario & changing events.
The honeymoon was soon over the day the affable & much loved Father of the Nation Tunku Abdul Rahman was stabbed in the back & ousted by his Deputy PM Tun Hj. Abdul Razak (1922 – 1976), the father of Najib, the greatest financial crook in political history, who through the great financial heist 1MDB siphoned off billions of ringgit to enrich himself. To him “Cash is King”. No doubt an excellent disciple of Tun Dr. Mahathir. . . no small thief either during his 22-year reign as the Prime Minister. The wiry fox did a world of damage to Malaysia which time & space do not permit me to relate. He came back at age 92 as PM after the 14GE in 2018. Luckily or not, that tenure was short lived.
As said, the Malayan Dream was short upon the coming of Tun Hj. Abdul Razak. He was but a young lawyer when he went to London for Merdeka mission. He was a young PM in a hurry. He was suspected of having cancer & passed away at age 54. Well before that he had recalled his undergraduate son Najib back from higher studies in London & prepared him well for politics.
He was the first Malaysian PM to have gone to China to cut off the Chinese traders & businesses from all direct trading links with China. Subsequently, all imports of Chinese products have to go through Pernas. With political power in hands of the Malays, all economic activities were swept away.
In the words of the then DPM Musa Hitam both political & economic woes rest entirely on the shoulders of the Chinese who were & are less politically involved concentrating mainly on the economic side of life.
Tun Razak changed the whole inherited education system by switching the medium of instruction to Malay, a matter of national pride. Procedure in Parliament, the courts of law were all affected. He instituted the National Economic Plan (NEP) with special privileges & benefits to the Bumiputra Malays, the so-called “sons of the soil” . . . THIS TERM DOES APPLY TO OTHER RACES EVEN THOUGH BORN IN THE COUNTRY. It was proposed to help & eliminate the economic gap between the Malays & non-Malays for a period of 30 years, but the policy seems never ending. Civil services, banks & corporations, army & police are all monopolised by the Malays. Injustices & unfairness are too numerous to mention them all.
Can you imagine a country with an absolute CCN more famous the famed CNN news media. Here CCN stands for Corruption, Cronyism & Nepotism. MPs are all billionaires. How not to expect Tun Dr. Mahathir & Najib & their whole families not possessing all the ill begotten billions concealed in secret accounts overseas. The three Rs Policy of Race, Religion & Royalties must be eradicated. It’s absolutely detrimental to the nation’s growth & progress.
Presently, there are squabbles in Parliament over the illegal backdoor entry PM Mohyddin (now nicknamed Mahiaddin, a word with a bad connotation attached in the Cantonese dialect), unheeding to the Agong’s advice to step down as PM & reluctant to open Parliament for fear of losing his power. Now the loosely glued Perikatan Nasional coalition has been plunged into panic mode. Who knows what’s going to happen?
Malaysia is known as the “BolehLand”, anything goes. They amend the constitution like changing clothes. Everything is chaotic.
No country can endure with polarisation or being marginalised, or treated unfairly or unjustly. Sixty-four years spell enough is enough.
Let’s look at its ousted southern neighbour. On 9 August 1965, Singapore was ousted from Malaysia to become an independent and sovereign state. The truth of this is political . . . the fear of Lee Kuan Yew’s popularity as a very able leader & his proposal & campaign of the concept of “Malaysian Malaysia. The Malaysian Alliance Party would not be fearful of being overcome by a greater number of Chinese. Lee Kuan Yew was moving too fast for the less able & competitive Malay. Nevertheless, you only have to look at Singapore today, rich & prosperous, enjoying peace & harmony by all irrespective of colour, race or religion.
If Singapore without any natural resources like Malaysia can make it great, how come Malaysia is now becoming the poor cousin of its south east Asian neighbours & lagging far behind Singapore?
Shame on you Malaysia. You could easily stand tall & unrighteous with a shining beacon to guide others along. Instead you are into a quagmire & who can come to drain the swamp? Can the Malaysian Dream be resurrected? Courage to face the truth would be the initial step.
In the final analysis & in total fairness & justice to all the rakyat, & you be your own judge & jury, has the NEP (National Economic Policy) produced any positive tangible result? As an observer looming in from from outside, I can absolutely say in the negative:
- Malay graduates from the numerous local universities are finding jobs as taxi drivers, delivery boys or couriers, waiters/waitressers
- In small country like Malaysia there are 20 Public Universities (IPTA). Malaysia also has 60 Private Higher Education Institutions (IPTS) like Universiti Teknologi Petronass (UTP), Universiti Multi Media (MMU) and Universiti Tenaga Nasional (Uniten). The issue here is most of them have doubtful accreditation. Students are being admitted like mushrooms.
- Education ranking is the lowest in the Pacific rim.
- The MPs are amending the nation Constitution like changing clothes. Semua boleh.
- Unlike Indonesia, the government there is stressing on the study of English & Mandarin Chinese, two most important languages jn the changing world of trade & globalisation, Malaysia, clinging to national pride, will have no change in their educational policy.
- All Policies are heavily entrenched in the abandoned South African style of apartheid creating more & more marginalisation & polarisation.
- A nation of sheep led by blindness shapherds leading to a socio-economic & political quagmire.
Suffice for me to mention just these few madnesses among the heap of matters that need to be sorted out.
WHAT MALAYSIA NEEDS IS AN ABLE LEADER LIKE NELSON MANDELA, MODI OR MAHATMA GANDHI, LEE KUAN YEW OR XI JINPING.
Viva Malaysian Dream!
NB: Please read my previous related article “Be A Shining Beacon”.
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