What Malaysians and Malaysian Chinese want?

The question is what do Malaysians want? We have been side-tracked so many times. More recently, the real issues are hidden from us by raising the spectre of Chinese triumphalism.

Chinese triumphalism? I first heard of this term from a veteran journalist from the mainstream media. I take it to mean, that successive victories by Chinese in various fields translate into euphoric sense of importance culminating into something of a middle kingdom mind-set or attitude. It results in the Chinese feeling they, their thinking, their way are superior and this attitude will result in triumph in any endeavour they set out to do.

Being the middle kingdom, all other nations are vassals to the Chinese empire. Do you know that 400 years ago, a Brunei Sultan went over to China to present the Chinese emperor with fine silk and he died there and a shrine was built in his honour?

Now, Chinese Triumphalism treated as a mental jump-start, gives the Chinese a sense of manifest destiny that in the end, they will triumph over all others. That thought is scary.

If we were to be factual about it- this mind-set is unavoidable and should be embraced and respected but not feared. The Chinese has had a 4000 year of cultural history infused into their personality or as Lee Kuan Yew puts it colourfully- a thinking that has been shaped through epigrams- short sayings that seem to explain everything in simple manner. What needs to be said has been said by Chinese sages. Remember the master instructing mosquito via short sayings in the tv series Kung Fu starring David Carradine? Those were epigrams.

Chinese political victories are seen as something that has emboldened the Chinese as a whole into demanding and asking for more. That something more is control of the government. Which the Malays see as their enclave.

What can the Chinese want other than what is achievable within the context of Malaysia? That despite Chinese triumphalism? In the end, it’s not what the Chinese or Indian want, but what all Malaysians want. Even if all the Chinese unite under one political party- let’s say all Chinese based parties merge with DAP naturally becoming the leader, the Chinese form 25% of the population. If they combine with the Indians with another say 10%, the non-Malays still form 35%. Not enough to topple a Malay/Bumiputera dominated government.

If Malays privately think that all the Chinese are the same- MCA or DAP or Gerakan or any other Chinese based are the same as in being like-minded, they see the Malays in the same light. Privately they will think that Malays are like-minded whether they are UMNO, PAS, or Bejasa or any other.

But let me try to answer what the Chinese want. I am basing my observations on my experience with the Raub Chinese. What do they want? They want fair dealing from a fair minded government. They recognise more can be achieved with a Malay leading the political will. Otherwise, what they demand, ask or request will be seen as a demand from a Chinese group made on a Malay dominated government. Immediately the Malays will be on the defensive, suspecting Chinese pressures as being directed at toppling the status quo.

So the Chinese adjust. They take the political environment as a given. They accept Malay political leadership. But they want fair dealing from a fair minded government. They want decent housing, education and health care. They want land to cultivate and earn a living. They want basic infrastructure and services to be in place. Other than that, the Chinese will self-sustain.

 This ability is both a source of fear and envy. Fear because the Chinese independent mind rivals the dependent Malay mind which is a source of irritation to the powers that be. Because such a mind-set can be infectious. It’s teachable.

Envy because, the mind-set has enabled the Chinese as a whole to operate as an achievement oriented group.

Not that they don’t want to be a government, but they recognise the numerical impossibility. It’s like the Malays in Singapore. They would want to be government but with Chinese forming 80% of the population, they adjust and endure.

The Malays in Singapore have therefore acquired the survival traits of that the Chinese adopted at the turn of the century when they came to Malaya. First, they appreciate that there is no such thing as free lunch. No one owes them a living. They learned the hard way that they lived in a society based on effort and merit, not wealth and privilege that comes with accidental birth.

The Chinese as far as I can observe in Raub at least has acquired these traits as a matter of fact. They understand the way forward requires  them to answer and respond to the external environment taken as given- that Malays form the political masters, the social milieu in which they lived is Malay dominated. The way forward is by effort and merit sharpened with the underlining awareness that no one owes them a living. As for life, they take care of themselves.

The environment which facilitates the self-care is what they want. Fair dealing from the government. Rights  to own property. Right to apply for land to cultivate, to own a home, to get a decent education that serves their economic agenda, being treated as equals before the law. The rest, they take care of themselves.

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The Changing Tunes of the Pied Piper

When it comes to the crunch, our PM is reluctant to change. He makes all the wonderful noises giving Malaysians the placebo effect on assuming the office of PM. That was before when he and his advisors thought, his aura and personality can pull the government through. After achieving dismal results in GE13, he has a change of heart.

Where is the Najib brand now? Where is the 1Malaysia concept now? His ETP? His other initiatives? All these are taking a back seat so that Najib can prepare for his survival in the UMNO elections. Najib will have the support of those who depend on his benevolence to enrich themselves and those fearful of a game changing leadership. A leadership that dismisses the influence of Mahathir and with it, the business interests of those whom Mahathir has made rich.

At heart, he wants to preserve all the privileges that come with retaining power. How can he render asunder the system that gives life to UMNO?- the corruption, the use of position, the giving of patronage, staying on top of the pyramid scheme? Even if he wants to, the forces in UMNO are too overwhelming. The UMNO dynamics can never be understood by the APCO people or the apco-infused thinking  of his think-tank group led by JJ.

On the surface he articulates transformation and all that. Nothing he does can hide the fact that Najib is a weak leader, playing to the gallery most of the time.

He confuses the issue of change and transformation. Malaysians of all political persuasions do not want to overthrow the system of government. Meaning we don’t want to overthrow the legitimate government through illegitimate means unless we are ruled by an absolute tyrant. What we want is change as reformation.

We haven’t said what reformation is explicitly. It means re-constituting, re arranging some composition within the system without changing the substance. The substance of our politics will always be an elected democratic government, with constitutional rulers, upholding the rule of law and dispensing just and equitable policies.

Reformation means getting rid of the bad elements. Such as the early and postal voting which a recent study showed that BN would not have won the general elections and forming the national government if not for it.

Which change is Naib talking of? Change as innovation which is essentially destructive because it substitutes existing institutions of the state with potentially harmful experiments. Or at best whose outcome is not so predictable. Or is he talking of change as reform which is intended to preserve and improve the basic institutions of the state?

For example, if we do away with postal and early voting, will removing it confer a new abstract right to the people? Or does it simply mean, handing to the people, a right which is always theirs in the first place, constituted in our political system- which is a right for every citizen in the country to exercise freely his/her choice of government? Doing away with early and postal voting is change as reformation because it preserves a right that is always there in the first place.

Najib should not disbelieve the will of the people in wanting change as reformation. It is a thoughtful process restrained by prudence. We don’t want change as reformation because of light and transient causes. Those are motives imputed only by people like Najib and his pliant press.

Najib as PM isn’t reading the political temperature correctly. After failing to do better than Pak Lah, he is now saying that change takes a few generations. The chickens have come back to roost. His real political character has emerged after performing worse than Pak Lah. UMNO gets 88 seats because it won in areas where voting densities are less and where gerrymandering gave unfair advantage to rural areas. Urban areas have densities a high as 140,000 votes , rural areas have densities like 16-20,000 voters. Najib would not have won if not for early and postal voting. Najib only managed to get 133 seats, less by 7 achieved by Pak Lah. Najib got 47% of the popular votes. So where is Najib’s success?

He knows he hasn’t delivered. The UMNO people know he has not. Why should he be treated any differently than Pak Lah?.

What is DAP’s interest in the leadership change of the government? Its interest lies in the potential emergence of a leadership cognizant of political realities of the future. That political future is one that accepts convergence and not divergence as the answer to our political well-being. On the part of the government for the time being, we are interested to see the emergence of a leadership that has the courage to carry out change as reformation. Najib understands the concept, but lacks courage.

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Selamat Hari Raya Puasa Eidul Fitr.

Sakmongkol Ak47, Dato Ariff Sabri bin Hj Abdul Aziz, Ahli Parlimen P80 Raub Pahang, mengucapkan selamat Hari Raya Puasa Eidul Fitr kepada seluruh umat Islam dimana jua mereka berada. Saya mohon maaf zahir dan batin.

Sakmongkol Ak47, Dato Ariff Sabri Hj Abdul Aziz, Member of Parliament P80 Raub, wishes all Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Puasa Eidul Fitr wherever they are. I take this opportunity to seek human forgiveness seen and unseen.

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The Longest serving Retiree and the Dawdling Prime Minister.

Dr Mahathir says he will continue to speak about the primacy of Malay interests. Why does he need to say this? Mainly because he isn’t confident that Najib knows how to be Malay first before he becomes a Malaysian leader. Najib, insists Mahathir, must be a Malay leader first and a Malaysian leader second. In this sense, Mahathir supports Muhyidin’s stand. Najib is diluting the primacy of Malay interests as how Mahathir defines it.

We know that Mahathir berates and runs down Najib in many private meet- -the-UMNO little Napoleons and Stalin sessions. Mahathir’s holds many closed door meetings. In these meetings, Mahathir bashes Najib. The rot, says Mahathir starts during Pak lah’s time; to Mahathir Pak lah is a bungling fool. Najib continues the inanity. Najib is a dawdler. That is worse than a person who decides quickly not to make any decisions.

Najib’s first mistake is to lose confidence in UMNO as a brand name. That is why Najib uses his own name Najib as a brand hoping that his personality and aura will compensate the shortcomings of UMNO. Next he uses 1Malaysia as a brand name. UMNO? UMNO is treated like a dirty 4-letter word. That is blasphemous and the prophet of UMNO will have none of that.

Najib according to Mahathir is ashamed to carry the UMNO brand around. As a result, auxiliary groups such as Perkasa come around rescuing the soul of UMNO. Everyone knows Perkasa is a subsidiary of UMNO. Perkasa sees itself as the keeper of the Malay conscience and therefore is tolerated and even viewed as a godsend by many Malays. The existence and spreading presence of Perkasa reflects the growing disenchantment with Najib. Perkasa’s spiritual adviser is of course Dr Mahathir.

Instead his people are selling the Najib brand name forgetting that Najib comes into office as the PM with the most personal baggage in history. Sometimes the Malaysian people wonder if we are electing a presidential candidate.

In addition, Najib is selling the 1Malaysia brand name which Mahathir says is confusing to people as different people read and understand the concept differently. To the Malays it means that there will no more vernacular schools. To the Chinese it means everyone is treated equally with no entitlement other that according to what one has contributed into the economy.

Najib’s people go everywhere touting Najib the brand name often relegating UMNO to a midwife’s role. Najib’s advisers think they are selling a presidential candidate and making out Najib as bigger than UMNO. That is the second costly mistake.

That leads to another mistake. Najib surrounds himself with sycophantic advisers more keen to be the bearer of good news rather that serving as hard-nosed reality checkers. These advisors, say Mahathir, are not in touch with political realities and most often lacked the sensitivities to appreciate the consequences of their actions. The advice they give to a not so intelligent PM combine to create a potent brew.

Mahathir dismisses the idea behind BR1M- that special scheme whereby the government hands out money to the people. This will be disastrous says Mahathir. It will create the impression among recipients that BR1M is a birth right entitlement. They will expect the same in the years to come. What will happen when the costs become unbearable to the government finances? To Mahathir- BR1M is like the man who rides on the back of the tiger who now fears to dismount because the tiger will eat him up.

Mahathir has information that Najib isn’t that strong even in his parliamentary seat. A relatively unknown, hailing from Terengganu managed to get 15,000 votes against Najib in his own backyard.  We are all surprised to know that Pekan has 80,260 voters. Of course I can understand that those who are not from Pekan will never understand this. That number will leave no walking space in the small town of Pekan.

From 2004 to 2008, the number of eligible voters increased by 5534 people. The number grew from 52, 683 in 2004 to 58,217 in 2008. That increase looked reasonable because during that time, Pekan has additional voters in the form of tentera wataniah and college teachers.

But from 2008 to 2023, the number of voters increased by a whopping 22,043. Now where do these people come from?  The sudden increase is unnatural.

We know and Mahathir is also reliably informed that during this period, Najib’s officers were busy with their own project IC and making address changes for people to vote in Pekan. At least there were 18,000 aliens given overnight ICs or people having their addressed changed to Pekan to enable them to vote for Kim Il Najib. His minders were busy facilitating ICs to be given to Myanmarese and Kampucheans. So that if we deduct 18,000 from Najib’s 35,000-majority, which would leave Najib with a majority of around 17,000 only. According to Pekan people, the increase in aliens in Pekan became most pronounced between 2008-2013.

In GE11, Najib got a majority of 22,922 in 2004. In GE12, his majority was 26,464. His real majority in GE13 after deducting the 18,000 or so aliens with overnight ICs and changed addressees was only 17,000 or so. Najib’s 35,000-majority in 2013 was contributed by the influx of new voters who appeared from nowhere. Mahathir was well informed about these things because there are many secret service people who are loyal to Mahathir.

For the man justifiably credited with spawning money politics, BR1M is shocking even to him. During Mahathir’s time, money politics was restricted to buying off convention delegates and paying off rival politicians. Under Najib, the practice of vote buying has gone en masse.

BR1M is essentially the boldest and explicit form of money politics. It’s now an established policy instrument by the government to corrupt people and induce them to keep the ruling elite in power. What the government has done is to install giving out bribes as a legitimate governing instrument. While this is going on, interested parties who are supposed to defend the administration’s integrity and professionalism keep quite. I am talking specifically about the civil service and heads of independent commissions.

While we can understand the chief secretary of the cabinet functioning as nothing else but a pleading lapdog, what about heads of independent commissions? For example on what and whose authority, the head and deputy head of SPR make political speeches? On what authority did the deputy head pf SPR announced that promises of projects and handing out of cash do not amount to bribery and corruption? He is not a politician but an officer of a commission answerable and responsible to the Agong who is supposed to be above partisan politics.

Money politics is nothing more than the buying of votes so that the buyer remains in power. Once in power, he has to recover the amount of money he has spent out plus a tidy sum of profit to prepare for the next round of vote buying. Hence the practice will self-perpetrate and becomes ingrained as a political culture. Meanwhile the voting public gets sucked into the black hole of money politics at each successive rounds until they see money politics as part and parcel of the ruling government’s benevolence.

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Masa depan negara gelap dibawah kepimpinan yang mediocre

Dr Mahathir kata dia akan terus bercakap mengenai orang Melayu. Kenapa Mahathir perlu bercakap begini? Kerana dia tidak yakin Naib faham apa ertinya menjadi pemimpin Melayu terlebih dahulu sebelum jadi pemimpin Malaysia.

kita pun mendapat perkhabaran dimana dalam perjumpaan tertutup, Mahathir membalun Najib. Kerosakan UMNO bermula dari zaman Pak Lah kata Mahathir. Najib menyambung kerosakan tersebut. Kesilapan terbesar Najib ialah dia hilang keyakinan kepada jenama UMNO.

Najib mengikut Mahathir sudah malu menjaja jenama UMNO. sebab itu dia menjaja Najib sebagai jenama dan 1Malaysia sebagai jenama tambahan. Najib ingat negara kita sudah menjadi demokrasi ala Amerika dimana kita pilih presiden. Kesana kesini para juak Najib membesar besarkan factor Najib untuk mendapat kemenangan.

Keadaan bertambah buruk kerana Najib mempunyai barisan penasihat yang tidak ada pengalaman politik dan tidak sensitive terhadap kesan daripada nasihat yang diberi kepada seorang PM yang kurang cerdiknya. Mengikut Mahathir- BR1M adalah suatu kesilapan kerana ianya membiasakan orang akan berfikiran bahawa mendapat wang setiap kali adalah suatu hak. Masaalah akan timbul bila kerajaan tidak mempunyai wang untuk mendanai rasuah dan politik wang. BR1M boleh kita ibaratkan sebagai seorang yang menunggang harimau yang sudah takut untuk turun kerana akan dibaham harimau tersebut.

Najib bukanlah pemimpin yang kuat. Dalam kawasan parlimen nya, kita amat hairan bagaimana jumlah pengundi mencecah 80,260 orang. Orang yang tidak datang dari Pekan tentulah tidak memahami perkara ini. Sesak dan semak Pekan jika ada orang seramai ini.

Dari tahun 2004 hingga 2008, jumlah pengundi bertambah pada kadar 5534 orang sahaja. ( dari 52, 683 dalam tahun 2004 kepada 58,217 dalam tahun 2008). Ini pertambahan yang munasabah memandangkan ada kem tentera wataniah dan kolej2. Tapi sejak tahun 2008 hingga 2023, yakni 5 tahun, jumlah pengundi bertambah secara mendadak dengan tambahan 22,043. Ini pertambahan yang menakjubkan. Dari mana datang nya 22,043 ini?

Kita tahu pegawa2i Najib menjalankan operasi membawa masuk orang asing dan memberi kad pengenalan kepada mereka. Sekurang kurang 18,000 warga asing dari kemboja dan Myanmar dijadikan rakyat negara ini dan beralamat di Pekan. Kalau kita tolak 18,000 dari majority Najib dalam tahun 2013, maka majority nya hanyalah 17,000. Dan mengikut maklumat dari orang Pekan sendiri, pertambahan pengundi asing amat mendadak antara 2008-2013.

Pada PRU11, Najib mendapat majority 22,922. PRU12 majoriti nya 26,464. Majoriti sebenarnya dalam PRU13 jika kita tolak 18,000 warga asing (Myanmar, Kemboja dll) , majoriti Najib hanya 17,000. Ini bermakna, Najib tidaklah bertambah kuat dalam kawasan nya sendiri. Kekuatan nya bertumpang kepada warga asing yang dapat KP segera. Dan Dr Mahathir tahu maklumat ini sebab ramai perisik masih setia dan mengkagumi Dr Mahathir.

BR1M pada hakikat nya kemuncak amalan politik wang. Ini masaalah terbesar yang sedang dilakukan oleh kerajaan hari ini. Yakni, kerajaan telah memertabatkan politik wang kepada tahap yang lebih tinggi dan mereka yang berkepentingan membisu malah menyokong rasuah dan politik wang. Atas otoriti apa misalnya, timbalan pengerusi SPR menyatakan janji projek dan pemberian wang bukan politik wang? Dia bukan tokoh politik tapi anggota suatu suruhanjaya yang berjawab kepada Tuanku Agong.

Politik wang tidak lain dan tidak bukan ialah pembelian undi untuk kekal berkuasa dan setelah dapat kuasa kerajaan akan mencari jalan mengutip balik wang yang telah dibelanja dengan kadar untung pula. Proses ini diulangi setiap kali pilihanraya dan masyarakat terjerumus semakin dalam dalam sedutan politik wang.

Kenapa ini terjadi? Ini terjadi kerana politik wang sudah menjadi budaya UMNO. pemimpin naik keatas kerana membeli undi dan bukan menawarkan keupayaan dan kemampaun. Kita akan tiba pada suatu keadaan dimana barisan pimpinan adalah mereka yang telah membayar untuk naik hairaki kepimpinan. Kita mendapat mediocre leadership dan mediocre leadership tidak akan dapat membangunkan negara. Satu mediocre leadership akan menghimpunkan kumpulan orang yang sepemikiran dengan nya dan secara kolektif, ini akan menjahanamkan negara kita.

Dr Mahathir tidak percaya Najib melakukan yang terbaik untuk orang Melayu. Atau mampu melakukan nya. Bahkan dia anggap Najib seorang pemimpin ynag lembik dan berkompromi dengan bangsa lain. Mahathir memberi contoh kesediaan Najib meletakkan SPR dibawah pemantauan parlimen sebagai bukti Najib tunduk kepada tekanan. Bukan rahsia lagi Mahathir sekarang sedang menyerang Najib secara senyap2. Sementara dia berlari bersama arnab, dia memburu bersama anjing2.

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