Singapore Malay, Malaysia Malay

 

I read with interest the exchange between a commentator with the blogger Oped. See here. The exchange is about the lot of the Malays in Singapore. The commentator is lamenting the condition of Malays in Singapore whom he thinks are a discriminated lot. He goes on mentioning the condition of Malays in Singapore, living in tents along beaches etc.

Of course, it is perfectly noble and indeed laudable to feel for your own kind. We feel an attachment as a result of shared roots, religion and cultural heritage. It would be a mistake however to suggest that such feelings are unique only when they apply to Singapore Malays. Malays in similar situation, anywhere deserves sympathy from better off Malays anywhere.

On the other hand, from my personal observation, on the whole, I agree with Oped's take on the position of Singapore Malays. On average they are indeed better off and he produces data to dispute what's said orally by the commentator.

I am sure; the debate between them will develop and expand and will certainly provide a relief from having to burden oneself with the trial ongoing in Malaysia now.

But beyond that, what can we learn from the Singapore Malay experience? To my mind, it is as follows:-

The way to survive, develop and even prosper will depend on the adoption of certain values. You go in life, having to depend on your wits, intelligence, hard work, cooperation and trusting your group members. You survive by these and chief of all relying on your efforts without depending on others for your succor.

Therefore, if the Malays in Singapore have achieved some advancement in life, then it is due to the adoption of these values. What sets the Singapore Malays apart therefore is that they have become robust Malays. This robustness is sometimes interpreted as haughtiness, arrogance and so forth and perceived in negative light by the 'gentler' Malays.

This then is the form of merit that serves as catalyst for further advancement. I would think that, this form of merit rather than being dismissed should serve as an object lesson to be adopted by Malays here in Malaysia.

Whatever little that has been achieved by Singapore Malays shows what could be possible instead of what is given simpliciter. It also serves to heighten our own awareness that affirmative policies, such as are practiced here by our Malaysian government, can only work if the same values form the basis for our own advancement.

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The way we handle this

We have never seen anything like this in the world I think. Never has a criminal case attracted that much attention. What is supposed to be a criminal trial replete with technical details is being repeated in a parallel universe, at once surreal and terrifying.

The whole world seems united in its condemnation on Malaysia for persecuting prosecuting Anwar Ibrahim. The banshee-like shrieking and very voluble protests are unified in persecuting Malaysia.

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  This trial is about a political conspiracy to remove the only threat to the survival of UMNO led government.
  
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  This is another attempt by the discredited BN government to save itself from oblivion.
  
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  Another desperate move to prevent the opposition from becoming the next government.
  
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  A grand design to divert attention of the people from the real catastrophe- the poor economy.
  
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  Anwar Ibrahim is facing yet another trump up charge.
  
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  This trial is an affront to all democratic principles.
  
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  The trial will not be fair because the entire judiciary is rotten to the core.
  
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  Anwar did not ram the poor chap's butt.
  
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  This is a perversion of justice at its most heinous.
  

That's one. On the other side of the divide, the very bitter character assassination carried out with a vengeance rarely seen in Malaysia by some UMNO bloggers on Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar Ibrahim, like the common man facing a common judicial system with its fair share of warts, deserves a fair treatment. He must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The standard is for the prosecution to prove his guilt beyond any reasonable doubt. This translates into meaning, if there are reasonable doubts as to the accusation or doubts created by shoddy prosecuting work, Anwar must  be accepted as innocent no matter what our misgivings and loathsome feelings we have towards him.

The way we are handling this matter is disconcerting and reflects , to use a cruder yet simpler term- our much uncivilized manner of handling this matter. This is purely a criminal case triable in the court of law. We have the experts inside the court to argue their case.

This case does not require outside interference and a supporting role of a parallel court. We don't require the heckling supporters of Anwar Ibrahim nor the media persecution by vulgar bloggers.

I may not agree with Anwar on many issues and I am sure many share this feeling- but even he deserves the respect accorded to another fellow human being. The daily vilification of Anwar makes it appear, as though Anwar Ibrahim is less than human. How could we discard any sense of decorum and compassion and allow all those humane considerations which we normally readily offer the deprived and unfortunates be overwhelmed by the vilest of depictions and spiteful venom?

I am very disturbed at how we treat Anwar who is after all a former DPM.

But what about the accuser? The accuser is not, like we are told and encouraged to believe, a hapless unknown. He has the comforting protection of the government.

   

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The politics of a Kangaroo trial

 

"Many Malaysians believe that sections of the executive and political establishment have an interest in this trial. There does not seem to have been any attempt to remove this suspicion," Razaleigh said.

 

How to remove this suspicion? The accused is a political personage. Anywhere one moves, he says this is a conspiracy by the establishment to bump him off. He himself politicises the issue by linking up with the sections of the international community. He holds the country at ransom and is therefore partly responsible for causing this country's credibility to spiral down further. The accused is as guilty as sections of the executive and political establishment of turning this trial, into a political circus.

That is precisely what the accused wants- to tie up what is basically a criminal case into a political frenzy. Once there, he can, with the manufactured theories of political conspiracies, claim that his trial is politically driven. He needs all the accompanying hoo-has because his identity and relevance depend on them.

True, the behaviour and action by the media owned by the government is not commendable, but the actions of the accused and his carnival dancers aren't either.

The prosecution is done by the state and that being so; it is not possible to remove suspicions that it is doing the bidding of the executive and political establishment. The whole thing reaches sinister levels because, the accused being the person that he is, knows this and exploits it.

Since when are the higher standard of proof of Islamic jurisprudence become a subject of interest with people who would seize the slightest chance to condemn the 'archaic' Islamic laws? Since the time, when people realise the 'antiquated' laws can be of use to them. One day a liberal, another day, a fundamentalist's fundamentalist.

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The Fly who flew on an airplane.

 

One day a male fly boarded an Air Asia plane. The plane goes to Melbourne, Australia. From the plane, the fly was able to see the wonders of space. When the plane landed, the Malaysian fly flew to a few places. It was able to see wonderful places and things. Met with local flies and exchanged pleasantries. When the fly has completed a few visits, it was time to go back.

So it came back to the Air Asia plane where it was transported back to Malaysia. It disembarked and went back to its colony.

Once back at the colony, the fly narrated its story to an amazed and disbelieving crowd. Many people shouted obscenities to him, heaped profanities and ridicule at him. He was very depressed.

And so he went to a wise old fly to seek counsel. The old fly said- I believe you my son.

But my brothers and sisters do not, objected the returned fly.

Leave them be, said the old fly- how could they comprehend such matters? After all they have the brains of a fly.

We have been schooled in the best tradition of conspiracy theories. Our minds have been accordingly shaped. It is near impossible for us to debunk what we have accepted as undisputable beliefs. How could we believe a heretic fly?

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The Kangaroo Trial

The only people who are flabbergasted are those who choose to be so. They are oblivious to the wrongs that may have been committed by Anwar which are now going to be determined by the court of law. It may surprise foreign observers and commentators, that here in Malaysia; we do practise the adversarial system. The same as those adopted in the mature and upper country democracies. The sitting judge will rule on the truth by umpiring the arguments from prosecuting and defense lawyers.

The natural thing or the natural approach to adopt is to allow the due process of law to take place. Let's hear the arguments put forth. Let us see the evidence. The current trial of the former DPM of Malaysia becomes a kangaroo trial precisely because, while the trial proper is taking place, there is also a parallel trial going outside the court.

The parallel court outside is justified on the allegation that the formal and official court is biased. It is alleged to be doing the bidding of incumbent political powers. The troubling thing with such a view is that, it forces us to assume that the defense lawyers engaged by the accused are dullards incapable of exposing the hidden hands of the incumbent political powers. A top notch defense team will be able to expose the hypocrisy of the assembled court will they not?

Could it be, in actuality, the weight of evidence whose intrinsic truthfulness will be reinforced in the coming days by reasoned arguments by the prosecution, are so overwhelming that the defense team and the accused know- THIS IS IT!

The truth is, there is only one justification for setting up a parallel trial with the carnivalesque aplomb of organized chaotic heckling abetted and amplified by a cacophony of noises from foreign observers- that the accused wants to have a court assembled on his terms. To which the only answer we can give- we shall have none of that!

Now, what is wrong with that? The glaring defect is that the accused wants special treatment given to him whereas the same 'bad' judicial system is commonly applicable to common people. It implies the accused has a choice; whereas the common people have none. Now, what can be more unjust than to have a situation when a particular accused has a choice when the whole world and us the rest, have none?

The opinions and arguments that matter are those said and going to be said in court. The heckling outside and the parallel trials held by supporters of the accused and those carried out with such vehemence by those who despise him, are not relevant.

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A King and his rooks, bishops? Knights?

 

In the last article, I placed a picture of a key with the Dollar sign. I narrated a true story about people who didn't know where the keys are located and also did not know how to identify the keys. Many are not happy about this story but I tell it as it is.

I wasn't joking about the ramifications. If you have people who not only do not know where they key is and do not know how the keys looked like, the objectives of the KRA's crucial to the transformation of Malaysia, will not be met.

If UMNO people treat this casually and regard any contrary opinions given to the achievement of KRA's and Transformation of society as undermining the efforts of the PM, they are wrong. UMNO people as direct stakeholders have an interest to ensure this KRA thing and transforming society must be successful. In doing so, their role is not necessarily as a compliant parrot.

Hence you need people qualified and reasonable to talk about the complex concept of 1 Malaysia.

Now it seems everyone is coming out to either support or condemn Nasir Safar. But no one asks the irritating question that needs to be asked- Is he qualified to speak about this vexed issue in the first place? Can you blame an inadequate person for talking about a weighty issue? That reflects how serious the PM's people are treating this issue.

That calls into question the issue of loyalty versus substance. One is loyal but not necessarily substantial. Nasir Safar is without doubt a loyal to the PM but we must not readily equate this trait with substance and quality.

Maybe its time for the PM to conduct a KPI on the credibility of his people. I am reminded of the opinion given me by the Oracle of Syed Putra- there are other ways for the PM to reward loyalty. That opinion suggests a reward not necessarily by being part of a policy making team.

All we know that he was a long time ago an exco of pergerakan pemuda, perhaps during the time when PM Najib was ketua Pemuda. He was at that time working in a Pasar somewhere in Johor and some people even say; he was just a penyembelih ayam. To have achieved a post as the PM's special officer and a Dato to boot is quite an accomplishment. It tells nothing however whether you have that intellectual capability and verve to speak on this matter.

He is free to talk about whatever he wants, but whether he is qualified to talk about a heavy issue as 1 Malaysia is another matter. You choose people who not only don't know where to locate the key area but also don't know how the keys looked like, you bear the damage. It's not opened for you now to disclaim his stupidity. His stupidity hurts you too. Perhaps what he spoke of was better said in a pasar somewhere in Johor.

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NKRA- finding KEY people.

 

 Its fine and dandy, talking and publicizing the concept of national key result areas ( NKRA). The key areas are already identified. Very good indeed.

But the PM needs champions to champion his cause. Corruption, poverty, high income economy etc. the targets enumerated and described in the key areas demand good people, good politicians and good government to implement and execute them. The key to implementing NKRAs is finding the KEY people.

They first of all require good people to be at the helm. This is the biggest challenge faced by the PM- To place people with stout determination, verve and dedication and most important share the beliefs of the PM to make things right.

Finding the good people must be the priority of the PM. If you don't have the good and right people, they won't be able to identify the areas where the keys are located or worse still, they don't recognize the area and the keys when they see them.

Let me narrate a personal story. When I was a serving ADUN under the DPM (as the PM then was), I had the opportunity to bring about 160 people to Kuala Lumpur. One of the things to do, was to bring these people (UMNO members) to Sri Satria to meet up with the DPM (as he was then).

I had them put up at a leading hotel in the city (a 3 star hotel) with quite modern facilities. The rooms had touch pad buttons to switch on lights, air conditioners etc. we placed 3-4 persons to a room. These are located on the console of the night lamp desk at the side of the bed.

You have the 'keys' at the key area.

I kid you not- this incident happened to many of the participants who came. The next morning, we went to fetch some people from a particular room, I was surprised to see the aircond wasn't turned on, the lights were not on. The room was very warm, humid and I could see people perspiring. Windows were fixed types permanently fastened and were not opened. Even the ceiling fan wasn't witched on.

I asked- kenapa tak pasang lampu, air-cond, kipas? Apa pasal bilik air pun gelap? Semalam AWOK seme  tidor bergelap dan berpanas ke? Bilik hotel mahal, tapi kalau tak guna kemudahan, lagi tak berguna. Poh Paleh...wabe( Pekan Slang)

YB, hotel ini tak guna- takde kipas, aircond ada, tapi switch takde. Lampu ada kat celing, tepi dinding tapi punat nak tekan pun takde.

Lain kali duduk hotel di Chow Kit Road sahaja lah. Tak guna punya hotel.

I said, mana takde. Tengok ni. Switch semua ada kat sini as I demonstrated by depressing the touch pad keys on the side table of the bed.

Awak orang dah datang Kuala Lumpur macam Kuantan Pekan berpuloh kali, tapi tak kenal rupa switch. Haha, Melayu Melayu, macam mana nak maju. Bikin Malu Dato Najib aje! Koman betul orang Pekan.

Translation:

You people didn't switch on the lights, air cond, fan? Why is the bathroom dark? Yesterday night, you people were sleeping in total darkness and humid discomfort?

YB, this hotel is useless. It looks fine on the outside. You have a fan but no switch, aircond with no starter, we see lights up the ceiling but no switches can be found.

Next time, put us up at the Chow Kit budget hotels- that would be better.

Who says no such things? I proceeded to the bed side table and demonstrated depressing the touch-pad keys. Voila! All of the amenities came around,

You see, you may have people, but do they recognise where they keys are in the first place? Announcing NKRAs is one thing, having good people, able to identify and recognise the keys is even more important.

You need KEY people to do the NKRAs.

 

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