The Flight of The Money Changers

FDR’s inaugural speech tells of money changers fleeing the temple.

“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

He was speaking out against the free market system. He blamed the private sector for causing the Great Depression. FDR launched his New Deal which became the model for bigger and bigger government. 

We are not going to debate on which side caused the great depression. That will never be an ending debate. Many of us who read economics believed the great depression was caused by the failure of government and coward private sector. More specifically by the incompetence and corruption of the government and made worse by a coward and pliant private sector. 

In a true democracy, the private sector or market system will serve as a check on the powers of the government. 

In Malaysia the coward private sector serves as the running dogs to the corrupt, abusive and incompetent public sector. This is especially true of those groups of people made rich because of political connections and government patronage. They will be the first to be alarmed when they can already see their political patron losing power. 

Look around of us. Which kind of industrialists, business people, contractors and so forth who are rooting for UMNO and BN? Mostly those who have benefited from direct negotiated contracts, those who got licenses and quotas, those who have benefited from government legislative mechanisms –in short those who have benefited from government patronage. The toll collecting concessionaires, the IPP contractors, the holders of APs, infrastructure contractors, the license and quota holders- these make up the cowardly private sector. 

Having said so, we can now rephrase FDR’s inaugural speech to read something like this: the cowardly contractors, license and quota holders, the IPP concessionaires, the AP holders, the parasitic financial analysts are trembling in their high seats and will flee once the will of the people is restored. 

Who represents the incompetent government and speaks for the coward capitalists? PM Najib of course- the consummate showman and recently master–shouter.  Najib’s daily matra is lu tolong gua, gua tolong lu which is now updated to lu tolong gua dulu, baru gua tolong lu. You help me, I help you, becomes you help me first, then I will help you. 

This is the fundamental chink in Najib’s armor and the reason why we say, Najib aint goin to do no transformation. By now, everyone should realize that Najib has given us a lot of BS. Lu tolong gua , gu atolong lu is just a variation of ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for the country. Here, government is the country. Translated, lutolongguaguatolong lu just means, that the government is the patron, the people the ward that is looked after by a benevolent master. The government is the master, the people are servants. 

That is the mindset by which UMNO and BN operate. Such mindset made UMNO believe that only they can bring the greater good for the people. The same mindset allows UMNO to make the deceitful claim that only it can save the country. it was that mindset that allowed Najib to shamelessly say it in Tamil,“Yipadaithorkin, yeapadaivehlum” which means: “If this team cannot win the battle, no other team can”). Poodah!

What have the money changers done?  We hear of the cowardly and partisan warnings from the profiteers- the investment banks and securities houses or as Walla describes them, the rent seekers, gate-keepers and mind-sweepers. They have lent their support to UMNO and BN saying that if Barisan loses, the market will take a hit because of the uncertainty that follows.

They are of course speaking out of concern for their self-preservation. Because the rent-seekers, gate-keepers and mind-sweepers under a new administration would be retired to graze the grass-less fields of Bamboo River Resort.

The fine and intelligent bankers aka rent seekers, gatekeepers and mind sweepers should ask themselves why is it that Malaysia ranks 54 this year in the corruption index besides loaded with half a trillion ringgit in runaway debts but Singapore spun out from her innards ranks up there at number 5 besides being presently the richest country in the world.

They are alarmed because they see the writing on the wall- the world in which they ply their manipulative trade is about to end. As one blogger puts it eloquently: “ It really amazes me then that craven self-seeking individuals cannot see the futility of making an amateurish foray into partisan politics, at this point of our collective political life, without triggering negative reactions from a large section of the public”

How can we describe their reaction at the prospects of BN losing? I can’t put it any better than the same writer describing the reaction of these money changers as  “lower-order histrionics and a pathetic needless display of brinkmanship for and on behalf of money-grubbers”