There is a
chapter in Fredrik Hayek’s book, The Road to Serfdom that explains why
the worst get to the top. The main
reason it seems if we interpret it in modern terms, is that people are willing
to suspend reality in exchange for a sanitized world. People do not want to believe
that if you have an intrinsically bad system, however good you are at the beginning,
you are eventually going to degenerate. They dont want to accept that.
Say we begin by assuming Najib is a good person (he probably is) but the system which sustains him will cause him to turn bad. So it isn’t enough to transform society by changing the people leading it, but the system that structures our society must be changed too.That is our agenda now. Not just changing of guards, but changing the system that structures our society.
Say we begin by assuming Najib is a good person (he probably is) but the system which sustains him will cause him to turn bad. So it isn’t enough to transform society by changing the people leading it, but the system that structures our society must be changed too.That is our agenda now. Not just changing of guards, but changing the system that structures our society.
Hayek tells
of the danger of people accommodating totalitarian system believing that it isn’t
the system that is at wrong. Totalitarianism may even be good if only good
people are helming it.
Just as
a free market requires a libertarian system or liberal democracy, so do good
people at the top who can stay good only if we have a good system of government.
The leader who respects the opinions of the people he leads stays a good leader,
if the system sustains him so. Najib can’t stay as a good leader because UMNO structures
the world around us in a bad way.
Najib’s New
Economic Model in reality is just an extension of Mahathir’s way of renouncing
the NEP and choosing to jump start Malay economics by picking and choosing
winners. He has chosen mostly devils he knows and enriching them. Najib is now
continuing to do the same by his market driven affirmative action that forms
his NEM. Affirming the choice of selected individuals as economic drivers and
trophy-ing them as paragons of Malay economics.
After that,
believing he has accomplished much, Najib and gang can party to celebrate the crowning
achievements of his economic transformation where the missus sings and serenades
the invited crowd. That is why dear readers, the disparity of income within the
Malay community is the greater when compared to income disparities of other Malaysian
races. 12% of the Malay population still lives under poverty while there are not more
than 3% of the other races falling under the poor group.
if we believe good men can overcome a bad system, we are wrong. as Hayek points out, this
is a dangerous kind of thinking. Malaysia appears to be in that situation. We adjust
ourselves and accommodate totalitarian tendencies believing that such system or
political arrangement is not at fault. The
fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves if we are
underlings translates into the fault lies, dear citizens is not in the
system but in ourselves if we are slaves.
We may even
be able to adopt a totalitarian system if only we can ensure that good men lead
it. We have seen so many totalitarian tendencies being played out recently.
The refusal
and dismissive attitude of the finance minister when the leader of the
Malaysian opposition presented his rebuttal can only be interpreted as a
totalitarian behavior. PM Najib lays out his budget demanding it to be accepted
lock, stock and barrel. The PM and his government
continues in their rapacious spending and we accommodate that behavior as
nothing wrong.
Only in Malaysia we see the court allowing murder accused wearing masks in court so that the public cannot identify the perpetrators. How do we know, those paraded in court with masks on are not some Indonesians and other illegals dressed up as the principal accused to be the fall guys?
Only in Malaysia we see the court allowing murder accused wearing masks in court so that the public cannot identify the perpetrators. How do we know, those paraded in court with masks on are not some Indonesians and other illegals dressed up as the principal accused to be the fall guys?
Sharizat’s
family members can do as they pleased with the RM 250 million because they know
they can get away with the wrong. The PM’s wife can continue behaving as did
Marie Antoinette because she believes the opinions of the enslaved people do
not matter.
You have
the classic case that there is nothing wrong in the system. That we change the present
bad people with good and decent people, everything is all right.
Nothing is
farther from the truth. The agenda that we seek is not only changing the bad
people on top, but reforming the structure of this country. if we don’t put the
correct structure in place, even when good men lead the system, they will soon
be overwhelmed by the system and become tyrannical in the end.
and the worst is that these people believe in GOD...from hindu, buddism, christianity, Islam....etc...Thinking that their constant support of Evil regime doing evil will not go unpunished....
ReplyDeleteSon't live your life fullfilling others Dream....or
jangan hidup, SEUMUR HIDUP menunaikan Impian orang lain....bah kata....Hidup agar awak boleh dapat menunaikan impian anda dengan kebolehan sendiri yang dikurniakan Allah kepada anda!!
Ini bermakna kemiskinan dikalangan rakyat Malaysia adalah perbuatan UMNO-BN. Ingat Malaysia harus ada 12 NEGRI Singapura Kalau tiada Korrupsi UMNO, RASIS UMNO dan Kroni UMNO. UMNO adalah Penghina ALLAH dan Parti Kemerosotan budaya Melayu Malaysia!!..ABU - Asalkan bukan UMNO!!
Dear Sakmongkol
ReplyDelete“The agenda that we seek is not only changing the bad people on top, but reforming the structure of this country.”
I agree with that statement. But you have not elaborated on what exactly you meant by “reforming the structure”. Everyone will have his pet idea of what this means.
UMNO is only paying lip service to multi-racialism, multi-culturalism and multi-religiosity. It doesn’t believe in any of these ideas. They cannot say they believe if they condone Perkasa. Do they believe in the freedom of ideas and expression? If they did why are they controlling the mainstream media – the print media, TV and radio? They do not believe in the fundamental freedom of the people to assemble. If they did why are the police harassing citizens who assemble to demand free and fair elections, the very basis of a true democracy? If they really believe in democracy, why are they gerrymandering with electoral boundaries to favour the rural Malay vote to ensure that they get a disproportionate number of seats in Parliament? Do they believe in the equality of citizenship? If they did why this ketuanan Melayu stuff? Do we kill the much despised and abused NEP?
If “reforming the structure” includes all these issues, then we have a long way to go. UMNO is incapable of leading and reforming. They are the cause of all these issues and problems. But really, I still have no idea what “reforming the structure” entails.
Good question! Why the court allowing murder accused wearing masks in court???
ReplyDeleteThe murders might be free and out of prison! Who knows? Who have seen their faces before? Even they are on the street and nobody can recognise them!
Dato
ReplyDeleteIt is true that BN system has degenerated over the years.
It is also true that the quality of BN leaders are also sub-standard or worse.
After 50 years, the bad system and people are so entrenched in Malaysian society that it will take superhuman effort to get rid of the cancerous growth. But Malaysians have no choice. Its bankruptcy and years of modern day slavery or make a break in the next GE and start with a new platform. Hopefully your countrymen are no longer as complacent as before.
Brisbanite
It is true and you are right sir.
ReplyDeleteNot only the system that is bad, the leaders leading are hampassss.
salam dato'
ReplyDeleteu're spot-on,
the sifir is very simple,
good driver + bad car = BAD
bad driver + good car = BAD
First third of October is come and gone.My forecast is totally off mark.Maybe there is not gonna be a GE afterall.
ReplyDelete"The agenda that we seek is not only changing the bad people on top, but reforming the structure of this country. if we don’t put the correct structure in place, even when good men lead the system, they will soon be overwhelmed by the system and become tyrannical in the end."
ReplyDeleteWell said, Dato Sak. All right thinking rakyat pray and hope that BN gomen will be toppled so that the change process can begin in order to transform Malaysia! ABU !
'"The agenda that we seek is not only changing the bad people on top, but reforming the structure of this country. if we don’t put the correct structure in place, even when good men lead the system, they will soon be overwhelmed by the system and become tyrannical in the end."
ReplyDeleteIs just lijke someone keep saying;
'checking the function of the dog collar, rather than keep talking about its color'
LOL
By my half-past six english, a transformation means change. Changing something to something else which is better at serving more honestly the underlying, recurring and pressing needs which have been stifling real and relevant progress while adding more pains and losses to what is already an untenable situation denuding the future.
ReplyDeleteReal change, not the pink-lipped, LCS service that offers only Lie, Cheat and Steal.
There are many types of transformations. Economic, judicial, social, educational, cultural and so on.
What Najib's government has been doing all these while is just selling one type: economic transformation.
But even that he is missing the forest for the trees. Strip off those acronyms, his economic transformation is mostly crony-linked conning contracts for land-play constructions using public funds.
This is precisely what the rakyat have been objecting vehemently so that your inescapable conclusion is his government has omitted to do the other transformations and with each day of more scandalous behavior by Umno's brown rajah's, the omission looks more and more deliberate.
This would certainly explain why the Umno government has been on overdrive in pumping the rakyat with its expired penicillin of spin.
A real judicial transformation, for instance, would have immediately seen to it that a statement made by an ex-premier is ridiculously insufficient ground to quash charges, especially when that ex-premier has already displayed time and again his serpentine qualities that so excites his BTN-drugged supporters stoned on his brand of the NEP virus.
Instead of the usual whimpers, the prosecution if really transformed would have asked why the transaction was not based on fair market price which is the crux of the charge if the intent had been to unveil what was done wrong which would have shown WHY wrong things were done which would have revealed WHO were doing the wrong things.
Even Judge Dredd would have been aghast at the kangaroo circus so redolent of the late Altantuya murder case.
All these questions sit on the bench next to the commissions presumably demanded by the defendant from developers of both the place and the other one in Kampar which may also explain the expensive whiskeys.
Maybe it's all because he would look out of place wearing a lilac-white tudung. Yes?
A side view. The KSN must add to the remits of the civil service - fall-guys for bad politicians - in exchange for year-end bonuses already debited to the accounts of the children as their burden when they grow up. Still proud of yourselves now, by any chance?
2/2
ReplyDeleteTake another transformation. You like social? A social transformation would have made the politician bite his own tongue before saying the opposition, meaning the Rakyat Of Malaysia, are just spiteful and jealous.
Is it wrong for the rakyat to ask who paid for the mega-sized personal event, given their knowledge that (a) all monies spent come from them ultimately, and (b) agencies, companies and individuals would have not sponsored such an event unless they are either (c) grateful for past favours rendered, and/or (d) hopeful of future ones to be given, all of which costs have been incurred and will therefore be added to the bills for the account of taxpayers and customers.
After all, if the monies did not come from the rakyat, they must have come from the personal account. Now what is the gazetted salary of that office-bearer again?
Doesn't his behavior indicate the SAME abuse of public office in one state that has already been committed for more than 10 years in another, both under a judiciary-executive compact that has obviously not been transformed?
Given the state of the nation created by years of Umno abuse and misrule, we cannot have one transformation without the others. The biggest change not done remains not done. The change of Umno.
Now that we are only a lap or two away from the finishing line towards GE13, Umno has shown you every waking hour that it has no intention of changing itself.
If it had, the entire Umno leadership would have cuffed itself instead of a young socially-conscious girl, and resign en masse in permanent shame instead of still having the gall to strut around like little napoleons without clothes.
The only reason this country is having two-party politics today is because it has been ruled all this while by two standards. One for you but ten for me even if there are ten of you for one of me. What will Hayek think of our outstanding parasitic capitalism?
Lastly, if Najib was a good guy, he would come out to rebut why people would say he had said keris bathed in blood if he had not said it. Will he apologize now that his assistants have read this?
And it's easy to appear nice when one can sucker the masses with their own money, supported by media one controls, living in cozy comfort from cradle onwards, and sucked up by sillies and sycophants. But what happens when the last ray of light dims?
What this country needs right now is a long-overdue Malay transformation. Start now and ramp it up all the way to GE13 day. Vomit Umno out of your system. How else can one transform and change when old worm is still ingesting every new tissue that wants to grow?
Ask yourselves with the otak He has given you - if Umno has been doing the right things all along, why so zealous to protect itself, sell itself but ultimately serve itself and cheat the rakyat?
ABU.
"...We may even be able to adopt a totalitarian system if only we can ensure that good men lead it. ..."
ReplyDeleteYou have to seriously doubt this. In reality systems actually live, in a way. But ultimately you want to change it. I guess you just cant help it.
It's probably in the gene, that magic. Plus the ebullience arount it. In a way you are helpless if "certain" ambient element does not come into play. A knack for undertanding this and trying to move it to your way might suggest being "driven" or if you like in "submission" to it. You could well fight it and that is our UMNO Malaysian story! ;-))
In Wukan, Mr Zhang Jiancheng, [#] grew impatient at the suppression the China government imposed ... Zang managed to get elected with his supporters in the village. After 6 months he got sick of the system that first appeared pliable with development. Those other Officials again began to curi tanah and farmlands and making life miserable as in Sarawak and Johore. This rendered his "change" meaningless!
China is a mystery of sorts as we know, the Muslim Arabs were in China doing bizness as early as the 700's AD before the mother fcuker Khans overran the country. But they brought change after assimilation into Chinese ways and even led in several ways in Chinese culture or thinking.
So Mr Zhang after being really elected to assume power in the village got mad and impatient and has declared he will lead his supporters to "protest". After a few thousand years of civilization, the bugger got impatient after only 6 months. In a sense that is our reaction. It may or may not be the time thats the element but other factors making life unbearable and a nonsense of human and socio-cultural values.
Why did this happen in Wukan after 6 months? Well, why is it happening in Malaysia? After 6 decades?
[#] AFP Wukan Protest FT 20.9.2012, Rahul Jacob and Zhou Ping