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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Sunday 7 June 2009

The haute bourgeois morality of a besieged UMNO.

Never before in the history of UMNO, have the events within the Pan Islamic Malaysian Party( PAS) – Pa( Parti), Alif(Islam) Sin( SeMalaya) become the singular obsession of UMNO. This is an indication of a beleaguered UMNO which sees that its own survival is dependant on someone else.

But this shouldn't be surprising to anyone since UMNO's own philosophy is founded on treating the giving and receiving of subsidies as a way of life.

Hence when one blogger infamous for his piggy-fying others in his very rare sober moments or perhaps during his alcohol induced hallucinations exclaimed Thank God, or Dieu merci in French, monsieur Husam Musa lost, I, a full pledged UMNO member am tremendously disturbed.

You see, this confirmed what I have been saying all along, a Malay even a state of drunken stupor can still invoke the name of GOD. It is eating of pork that is an absolute taboo.

What was the singular clarion call of UMNO all this while to bind the thoughts of the Malay? Well, it used to be KETUANAN MELAYU. Ketuanan Melayu was just treated as something fashionable by the ruling elite to ensure obedience from the Malay populace. Viewed from the angle of vogue-ness, KETUANA MELAYU as an extraordinary means of unifying the Malay is just haute bourgeois morality.

It is simply the manufactured set of values by the elite to declare their fight to secure shared ideals. Of course, the idea of ensuring the primacy of Malay interests resonates and will resonate well with the Malay petit bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

But whether the high-class Malay's (as opposed to us the rest, who are sojourners of 2-star accommodations) fight for the supremacy of Malay interests is genuine is another question. Like much else, it has to be subjected to the test of life.

Your declarations of Ketuanan Melayu are a question of fact and therefore must be supported by irrefutable proofs.

I wish to point out two factual observations to refute and expose this pompous declaration.

  1. One, the recently published Forbes list of the richest people in Malaysia. A close look at the list will establish this irrefutable fact- you don't have to be Malay to be rich. This destroys the claim on the primacy of Malay interests. Indeed such findings establish the falsity and the duplicity of fighting for primacy of Malay interests for if that has been the principal motivation of UMNO, then the number of richest people in Malaysia, should have been dominated by the Malay.
  2. Second, it is a fact that the GINI coefficient of Malaysia is the worse in this region. What this means, is the income distribution in Malaysia is the worse. But wait, what is even more disturbing, is that the GINI coefficient within ethnic groups is worse among Malays. This means, that inequality of incomes is the worse within the Malay race. This fact destroys the claim that UMNO fights for Ketuanan Melayu.

What the leadership is fighting for is their own ketuanan. The concept of ketuanan Melayu is therefore just another facet of the morality of the high-class Malay to ensure their own ketuanan over the 2 star Malays.

Gini Coefficienst by countries.

Country

HDI

GINI

Singapore

0.902

42.5

Malaysia

0.793

49.2

Thailand

0.768

43.2

Philippines

0.753

46.1

Indonesia

0.692

34.3

Vietnam

0.691

36.1

Cambodia

0.568

40.4

Laos

0.534

37.0

Source: UNDP Human Development Report

A commonly-used measure of development is the Human Development Index (HDI). It is devised and calculated annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is preferable to a simple measure of per capita income because it takes into account other factors as well, including life expectancy and other measures of general 'well-being'. In the UNDP's 2004 Human Development Report, Malaysia ranked 59 out of 177 countries. With an HDI score of 0.793, Malaysia is just on the threshold of the UNDP's own definition of a 'Highly Developed Country', which is a score of 0.800 or above.

But when we look at Malaysia's international position in terms of individual inequality, the position is quite different. According to the latest internationally comparable data from the World Bank, individual inequality in Malaysia (as measured by the common Gini coefficient) is the second worst in all of the Asian countries for which data is available. Only Papua New Guinea ranks worse. In fact, out of 127 countries for the World Bank provides data, Malaysia ranks 101 in terms of the Gini coefficient – the commonest measure of inequality. Aside from Papua New Guinea, the only countries in the world with worse individual inequality than Malaysia are in Central and South America – a region of notoriously high inequality – and some areas of sub-Saharan Africa such as South Africa and Zimbabwe.

As a rule, countries with HIGHER levels of human development have LOWER levels of inequality; Malaysia thus stands out as an exception as a country with relatively high human development but also with relatively HIGH INEQUALITY. As Table 1 shows, Malaysia's Gini coefficient is the highest in all of ASEAN. According to the CIA World Factbook- the Malaysian GINI in 2002 was 46.1, still the worse in ASEAN.

Within the Malay community, income inequality is the greatest. In a study done by one A.H.Roslan , the Gini coefficients by race were are as follows:-

Gini coefficients by Race.

Year

Overal Gini

Malay

Chinese

Indian

1990

0.446

0.428

0.423

0.394

1995

0.4560

n.a.

n.a.

n.a

1997

0.4586

0.4495

0.4180

0.4092

Source: A.H.Roslan.

The above Table shows, income inequality within the Malay race has worsened since 1990. Smaller coefficient means there is greater equality. As the coefficient tends to1, inequality is greater.

Hence, seen from these two aspects, there is nothing left to salvage from the concept of Ketuanan Melayu. UMNO cannot claim it represents the Malays anymore as the results of the 12th GE show. I want to remind readers the following. UMNO has over 3 million members. In the 12th GE, UMNO candidates secured only 2 million votes and not all came from Malay voters. That would mean that over 1 million UMNO members DID NOT vote for UMNO candidates. We must also remind ourselves, that there were 5.7 million Malay voters during the 12th GE. If I am being charitable and accept those 2 million votes UMNO candidates received came from purely Malay voters, which would still mean that 3.7 Malays refused to vote for UMNO candidates. So, which ketuanan are you speaking about?

What is the next clarion call to salvage the survival of the ruling elite? The present haute bourgeois morality as espoused by Mr. Babiman and beleaguered UMNO leaders is Malay Unity. We shall talk about this later. It is nothing more than the last life jacket for a drowning elite. That is why someone is saying Dieu merci- monsieur Husam Musa lost!

8 comments:

Hamba,  7 June 2009 at 12:23  

The problem with ketuanan Melayu ( UMNO) is that the malay majority no longer subscribe to this idea. An idea needs a decent evidence of its success to be believed and accepted. Ketuanan Melayu have a very mediocre success rate. 1% of the malay is super rich and 99% is in the category of middle and low income class is pathetic ( the son of former PM is one of the richest malaysian?). Thus UMNO losses it malay support because of it. One glaring example of UMNO leaders grabbing the nation wealth is the car we all drives. While the UMNO elites drives super luxury car ( Mahathir driving a million RM car, hishamuddin driving a Hummer), the rakyat have to settle with driving a mediocre proton which is forced onto the rakyat at ridiculous prices. The evidence of this is too glaring for the malays to ignore! Thus "Ketuanan Melayu" is dead cos malays dont believe it anymore. That's why there are these issues about communist symphethetic opposition, Chin Peng and Unity government...UMNO is frantically looking for something to again rope in the malays under them. So far nothing is working and UMNO is getting desperate. 1Malaysia is fast becoming the 1malaysia that no longer support UMNO and BN. It really is a nightmare for Najib. And he might not wake up from it!

Anonymous,  7 June 2009 at 12:55  

The leaders forgot about the rakyat and especially so during the last 5 years.

The 2004 BN whitewash of the opposition was the catalyst.Our PM walks on water,everything is rosy,the Rakyat loves BN thus BN can do no wrong .In the parlance of the drug dealers world the end comes quickly to those who smoke their own dope.

CEOs and top management salaries increased by a minimum of 400 % compared to less than 50% for the average person.Khazanah with their KPIs was the driving force.

Although never proven,massive commissions on government deals was rumoured to be common place.Its no longer a few millions but triple digits "set for 100 generations" type of figures.PKFZ maybe just a drop in the ocean.

The government continued with grandiose project launchings.All smokes and mirrors because on the ground nothing seems to be moving.Meanwhile a coterie of consultants,PR specialist,rebranding artists continues getting huge fat assignments.

The rakyat is at the limit of its earning potential and more relevant disposal income.Private debt increases by 12.5% whereas earnings only grew 8%.

Then came the crunch with the oil price spike.The rest is history.

But sadly,DS Najib have failed to recognise the real issues.The two stimulus packages does not do much to resolve the frustrations.Even the basis for the stimulus packages i.e 2009 GDP growth was way off the mark AND yet the main man sits as EPU minister.

dato...if I am not mistaken,GINI assumes every one has positive net wealth..I guess most Malaysians may have negative equity due to house prices,stock prices,low FD returns..so possibly we're a few notches back.And Malays are the main asset poor class..relying on borrowings to fund asset purchases.

In summary the Malay voters profile>

Young Malays entering job market>>not much job,poor salaries,frustrated by the conspicuous lifestyle enjoyed by UMNO families.

Middle Class Malays>>not much career prospects,business controlled by elites.squeezed in debt traps

Senior Citizens >> realisation that the govt have squandered a lot of wealth..suffering and deteriorating lifestyle due to inflation,see genuine PAS effort to bring ppl closer to Islam.

No Dato..BN is dead.UMNO is dying and none of the Ministers have the intellect and resolve to find answers.Our concern is..if they reckon that the end is so near..might as well secure their personal future now.

Irfan

Unknown 7 June 2009 at 16:34  

Dato'

PAS appears to be putting its Good Cop (Haji Hadi) Bad Cop (Nik Aziz) strategy into operations for the UMNO-PAS Merger talks....

Husam has indicated that the country needs a PAS Leader as PM for Malaysia...
This is a prelude to the UMNO-PAS discussions... Which means that DS Najib has to tell Rosmah, that for the sake of Malay Unity he can no longer be PM of Malaysia...

Will it resuscitate UMNO?

We know what a Company Merger is like..Management Changes, Core Value Reassesment, Purges, etc, etc.

Will UMNO Member agree to such a deal?
After all UMNO is not Financially Bankrupt! Morally Bankrupt? Yes, but not Financially Bankrupt.
It's the Government of the day..PETRONAS and sundry are all there for the picking...

I guess UMNO leaders will be facing another distraction from all this Merger talks that by the time the next election is due, it is so unprepared that it may have to throw in the towel to PAS.

Oh, by the way PERAK will be on the Agenda in the Merger talks. PAS will not back down on Nizar's demands, after all he netted the highest votes from PAS members. Imagine what will happen to Zambry if the merger works out. M(Manager)B Zambry may be out of a Job.

Suci Dalam Debu 7 June 2009 at 16:45  

Dato,

Ketuanan Melayu is a slogan championed by

1. Those who walks the corridors of power in UMNO.

2. Those Malays of Indian race aka mamaks. (Please forgive me. This is only what I observed). Mamaks are way more vacal than the actual malays over this issue.

kuldeep 7 June 2009 at 19:10  

Are we average Malays getting poorer or are the rich Malays getting richer?
Sure feels poorer now yet I see many Malays buying bungalows,holidays abroad,children study abroad and driving fancy expensive cars.
I don't think its UMNO to blame..maybe I am a typical Malay who is at the limit of achievement commensurate with risk appetite.
And I am not good at hobnobbing with UMNO or powerful people too.
Thats about it ya?

Anonymous,  7 June 2009 at 23:36  

I confess that I am an UMNO member. Third generation.Ketuanan Melayu? I dont really felt it function on a large scale when I was younger.You see,I grew up in a Malay knitted community so we do not feel that much difference.Non Malay that I remembered was late Dr Dass in town who used to gave me nice candy after the visit. I had Ms Liew,my Maths and Mandarin extra class teacher every 3 days of a week since I was 4.And that funny chinese guy who used to go house to house to delivering 'botol klorok'.
UMNO .. for our family is functional to care about Islamic matters the beloved evening religion school.
Then, i grew up and moved to work in KL. Then I learned that there is Malay homes with alcohol in the fridge.There is Malay office with brandy in the closet , with big ayat kursi on the wall.It was a big shocked for me.
Then... its the business time.I never told anyone about our UMNO family roots.Dinner or meeting must be in Legend hotels , Parkroyal etc where they will bring their friends to feast too.From where we came from UMNO gathering is at the goreng pisang stalls.oh .. this is KL to we should up our standard. Back to the business,after they half hearted listening to your proposals or ideas , the question will be how much is the starting fee?job has not started.Up front is such a frequently used words.I have not elaborate about the mark up that made me so embaressed even to allows any of my proposal goes thru.Excess of profits is riba'. I just do not have the heart to do it.
Then I just started small.Doing ok not with majority doing in private sector.I never needed UMNO economically but I wish UMNO could do better for those poor oneI met in Kunak.Or maybe those making 280/month pumping gas for petronas.All these happening when I went with someone medium ranking in UMNO that spent RM180,000 for a wristwatch.

Ah maybe I am just mumbling.

Jamal JB

Are You Gonna Go My Way,  8 June 2009 at 02:57  

Dato,

Putting aside the ketuanan think..which I've never used as my tagline ever in my lifetime..except just to remind me of the history of this malay peninsular..

the sudden interest in PAS i guess is just a normal process in current malaysian politics...which UMNO cannot deny anymore...it seems like umno cannot work alone anymore...neither can PKR OR DAP...

PAS is the only party apart from BN that can win 2 or 3 states..on its own.

PKR and DAP are the in the losing side if ever PAS and UMNO kiss and makeup. Whatever the tagline dato, ketuanan melayu or ketuanan islam..if its for this country..why not.

The ketuanan with the elite group is a different thing altogether...we will tackle that too....maybe we need new players from PAS...that tackle hard..even berti voghts will envy..

Anonymous,  11 June 2009 at 00:06  

the official data only serves to confirm the observation on the ground. the UMNO elite few has hijacked NEP for their own benefit and to the detriment of the majority.
Nothing is going to change coz the elite few in UMNO will fight to their end to protect their privileges.

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