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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Tuesday 20 July 2010

The changing mental landscape of Malays?-3


DS Najib has been talking non-stop of everything that can bring good to the country. But I didn't see any result, as if he forget everything he said once he finished talking. Our DPM has a brain more like a 17-year olds. And I didn't hear anything worth listening from the UMNO vice-presidents, and what more senior ministers, especially Rais Yatim.  When I think of the country's future I feel hopeless. I don't think UMNO, under the present leadership, can lead the country forward.
This is the most damning indictment on the leadership of our country. It would seem our leadership has lost all perception of credibility.
I am afraid I can't share this gentleman's pessimism. The jury is still out on opposition controlled governments. It's still early to tell. The PKR people in government are all ex UMNO people. They have the same culture and probably the same deplorable habits. They don't have the same emotional constitution like the DAP and PAS people. They are going to be the sick man of PKR.
We will however agree that, despite the possible eventualities that can befall PR led governments, the shortcomings and deficiencies of the present national government , cannot and should not be trivialized nor ignored. So we continue to tell it as it is. It's like the PM once said- the opposition will not win elections, we lose them. Meaning, we must correct our faults. But who is to tell him and the UMNO leadership?
What is our priority? That is the first task of our leader. We have a 1Malaysia which in reality was the muhibbah started by Tun Razak. Coexistence based on mutual respect . Good, we feel nice about it. We Yee Sang together, we Daun Pisang together, we Rendang together. Do we live on ideas alone?
We have the NEM. Don't have a clue what's it's all about and how is the NEM relevant to Malays? More important, how can Malays take advantage of the NEM? We don't have a policy stating its principles. We paid RM 60 million to the few academics who have no inkling of the local environment trying to foist a new economic model on our country. Its free market in a text book. We love ideas. But we love ideas that work more.
We have that senior minister who doesn't explain to the people what NEM is all about. He is busy showing the PM the uniforms for the Merdeka Day celebrations. By the way, the cloth or uniform cost RM 50-100, or does it cost RM 50-100 per metre? How much are we going to spend for the celebrations?
Jawaharlal Nehru was a man of ideas. But the ideas couldn't work on Indian society because of the caste system. Ghandi wanted to create village economics- you sit with your loin cloth or kain pulikat by the spinning wheel while we are moving into the 21st century. If I say, Ibrahim Ali is like Ghandi that would be insult to the great man that Ghandi was- but he wants Malays to sit by the spinning wheel and be oblivious to the world outside.
Ok, the PM is more like Nehru in terms of ideas- but can the ideas be foisted onto the Malay mental landscape?
The number 1 priority is economic development. Ibrahim Ali's issue is with the economics. Yes, we want the NEM but it must be spelt out clearly. At the moment the NEM is all ideas- eventually it comes to the question of what do people really want?
we had the NEP where the government gave out RM 54,000,000,000. Out of that , those who subscribed to Ibrahim Ali's brand of pressure economics, want more of that. Well, we have to realise that out of that RM 54 billion, only RM 2 billion worth of Malay equities remain while the others gave up RM 52 billion worth. Gave up as in cashing out so that they can lead as bourgeois a life as possible.
So why should I support another round of NEP that will probably end up the same? The PM is right to carry out a new model. All it needs is more amplification, more meat and more explanation to the people. We haven't done that.
Again, what do people really want? I remember reading somewhere what the Sage of Singapore said- at the end of the day do we think the people want to write editorials or do they want a house, a car, food on the table and a future for their children? At the end you have to answer, the people want reality, not concepts. We don't want to end up discussing and outshouting each other on what 1Malaysia means. Economically it may mean, some people own the whole of Malaysia.
I support the NEM which taken as a whole poses a new challenge to the mental set up of Malays. We adapt or perish. This part hasn't been amplified. On the other hand, We are told daily of our limitations. Utusan Malaysia raised the spectre that haunts every Malay- that if we lose political power, we perish. The PM wants to prepare Malays a Malaysia on a different economic plane- the media manipulators and mind benders are preparing Malays to look the other way.
We have lost real political power all this while because we couldn't back that up by economic power. Others with economic power exert greater persuasiveness over politics. The 28 year old TJ Lo exerts greater influence over politics because of his economic power. A few years ago, we lamented and condemned a certain 28 year old as being the most powerful. We now have a globe traveling, party hopping 28 year old, we marveled at him and hold him in jaw dropping awe. He is going to develop the RM 500 million Sunga Besi Air Base fellers- or really, he is going to flip the deal or has concluded that damn deal. The place is going to be developed by the owners of Pavilion.
We have this aim of making Malaysia a high income economy that by 2020, our PCI will be USD15k. we have a minister who says we will go bankrupt if we don't cut subsidies or we don't grow by at least 6%. If deficits outgrow the growth rate, we shall be bankrupt. Contradiction in terms right? Just one year our country goes bankrupt but a year later we become a high income country. Which means what? All the good deals and wealth making opportunities go to the top 20% who will actually reap gargantuan incomes that when divided by the population, still yield us a textbook high PCI.
Idris Jala may be good minister but he makes a lousy leader. We can't have a leader who airs his personal fears and reservations in public.
Leaders excite and inspire people.

21 comments:

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 11:27  

Dato Sak

You said, "I am afraid I can't share this gentleman's pessimism. The jury is still out on opposition controlled governments. It's still early to tell. The PKR people in government are all ex UMNO people. They have the same culture and probably the same deplorable habits. "

In my humble opinion, I think that is not the issue. At no time did the Malay gentleman mentioned or compared the UMNO leadership with PR or PKR. He was directing at the Umno-BN Govt leadership per se.

To make comparison, when the argument is not, would de-value the very point raised the Malay gentleman.

It is more accurate to counter-argue the gentleman's points by taking on the very substance of his arguments, instead of pitching them to PKR/PR leadership.

It would appear sounding like being apologetic to the weakness of the UMNO leadership.

On the same score, it is also debatable whether the jury is out. The public opinion tends to lean on the fact that the jury has almost reached its conclusion, based on all the talks in the alternative media from both in and outside of UMNO, and from pro and against UMNO opinion makers.

schenker78 20 July 2010 at 11:29  

the world will suffer if they think they can do Industrialization and forget village economy and agriculture.

Mao Zee Dong made that terrible mistakes with Great Leap Forward and killed in excess 35million people in the 60s and 70s...

The most important thing sustain humanity is Water, Food, which means agriculture should be a very important issue. Food security, River quality, Forest retained for Water catchment. Do like a crazy mahathir and abandon pertanian, malaysia as well as the world will be dead.

Gandhi was slightly backward in thinking about spinning clothes and village economy but only fools will abandon village economy. Having said that, he made the remarks at that time when the world was recovering from 1929 Great Depression and World war 1 and WW2 which killed in excess of 70million people the world over....

The USA has the biggest agriculture exports. Why malaysia is importing billions of food?? Why Thai can export rice to Msia???

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 12:09  

U have distilled it down to the real issue i.e a leadership chasing high flying dreams whilst the rakyat struggles to survive.

Its governance by Public Relations voodoo.

Its the same model adopted by the GLCs.The headline KPIs and mumbo jumbos is never in synch with the "heart & essentials" of the business.

Eventually issues such as cost overruns,misguided investments,low profit/hectare,losing market share,bad oil hedges will outstrip the PR and float to the top.
Real talents (those who create & can drive the biz),knowledge base,creativity will be usurped & hv diminishing roles in the organisation-leaving a shell of bureaucracy & "syiok sendirism" as the pillar.

I hope someone will call the bluff before the rot gets to an incurable stage.

Red Alfa 20 July 2010 at 12:44  

Salam Dato'

This is stupendously original thinking and very refreshing piece! It is your passionate objectivity (quite the oxymoron no less if there can be any on this) which other bloggers can be so critically lacking.

In particular: "We will however agree that, despite the possible eventualities that can befall PR led governments, the shortcomings and deficiencies of the present national government , cannot and should not be trivialized nor ignored."

An UMNO blogger as always/would just not only trivialize and ignore the shortcomings and deficiencies but goes overboard to ridicule with the rival parties would be no better and even worse ... and fears of the bogeyman get to be trotted out. Like as if the MSMs have not been overdoing it already!

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 15:10  

Dato,

You are right about PKR. Many of them were ex-UMNO, notably AI. But have you notice that an increasing number of ex-UMNO are ex-PKR and UMNO again. What does it say about people like this ? They swing where the wind blows ?

To me, it would mean that UMNO doesn’t have any standard or worse, morals for accepting people who changed their allegiance not once, not twice but three times.

You are high on hopes and low in support from your fellow brothers. Until such time when the number of Malays that are deprived more than they gain from UMNO will you see change and boy, what a change it will be.

schenker78 20 July 2010 at 15:26  

Is this how fascist behave???

Lim Kit Siang today challenged the prime minister to give an “iron-clad guarantee” that N. Tharmendran would be absolutely safe on bail while awaiting trial for the theft of two jet engines.

The DAP parliamentary leader said that if Datuk Seri Najib Razak could not guarantee Tharmendran’s safety, that will mean the prime minister’s 1 Malaysia motto “People First, Performance Now” was not credible or legitimate.

“It is a terrible indictment on the system of governance in Malaysia that a person should feel safer in prison custody than to be out as a free man, for fear of being abducted and tortured again by military intelligence officers,” the Ipoh Timur MP said in a press statement.

Former Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) Sergeant Tharmendran, who was charged in January for the theft of two RMAF F5-E jet engines, returned to prison yesterday after losing his bid for a court protection order against RMAF officers he claimed intended to abduct him.

He was recently released from prison after winning an appeal early this month at the High Court here to reduce his bail to RM50,000 from the original RM150,000 posted by the Sessions Court on January 6.

Tharmendran, who initially confessed to the crime, later recanted and claimed that he had been tortured by military officers to force him into saying that he had been responsible for the theft.

The 42-year-old former air force sergeant alleged that he was dragged, stripped down to his underwear, and thrown into a freezing cold room and made to admit, repeatedly, that he was guilty.

He also said he was made to wear a crash helmet and was hit with a cricket bat and a golf club three to four times a day.

Tharmendran’s lawyers M. Manogaran and N. Surendran have maintained that their client is merely a scapegoat in a conspiracy involving high-ranking officers.

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 15:43  

IT DOES NOT MATTER if many PKR has a lot of the same habits and mentality of UMNO. Officially, they cannot do so i.e., So long as PKR people do not become overnight billionaires and millionaires suddenly, the system will work with the help of DAP and PAS. It won't work to perfection but it will still work.

We are not after perfection, we are after a major shift. Don't be fooled to believed we can leave everything behind, 50% will do. 70%-80% the future will look many times brighter.

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 16:34  

An 'uncivilized' senior civil servant lashes out at the Penang Chief Minister.
And he used an UMNO platform to do it!
Now, how low can we go as a civilized nation. The civil service and government has lost its direction.

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 17:06  

Hello Dato Sak,

Please do us a big favour and stop promoting KJ. Your articles on UMNO malaise is good but for some reason you keep on harping on KJ's potential. I think you should stop doing that and refrain yourself from promoting him. That way you'll have more credibility.

Anti exSIL

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 17:20  

Just reminds me of wat the Boss said in 1974 >
Johnny was sittin' on the fire escape watchin' the kids playin' down the street
He called down "Hey little heroes, summer's long but I guess it ain't very sweet around here anymore"
Janey sleeps in sheets damp with sweat, Johnny sits up alone and watches her dream on, dream on
And the sister prays for lost souls, then breaks down in the chapel after everyone's gone

Ariff Sabri 20 July 2010 at 18:32  

anti exsil

dont worry. if my promoting KJ doesn't earn me credibility, what you worry?

ralfie,  20 July 2010 at 20:40  

"Idris Jala may be good minister but he makes a lousy leader. We can't have a leader who airs his personal fears and reservations in public.
Leaders excite and inspire people. "

So in other words you are saying good leaders should lie? What good can excitement and inspiration do to the people? Hitler did the same and where did that lead the Germans? No doubt they are a big strong country now but we are not Germans. I don't want to be caught off guard about the state of our economy and I'm sure most of my compatriots feel the same way too. A good leader should tell things as they are, not propaganda.

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 21:46  

The country will go bankrupt in 2019 unless Malays accept their limitations & subscribe to walla's Batik industrialism.

Let the superior race run the country and do the real productive work.Nothing less is good enough,But this is NOT racialism.

All the past failures of the country (including Proton's power windows) is exclusively due to the Malays.

Quiet Despair,  20 July 2010 at 22:33  

Anon 16.34

He is a State Development Officer who has been chided by LGE three times in front of others.
GE has called him "incompetent, useless, unprofessional, coward and should be sacked."
Would you not do the same thing if you are mistreated like that?
Mind you he's a federal officer, not a state oficer. He's answerable only to KSN and PSD.
No other CMs or MBs have criticised government officials like this.
This shows Guan Eng is only good as opposition leader and not runniong the state.
Why must he be hostile towards civil servants?
Let's sack him as CM in the coming GE.

schenker78 20 July 2010 at 22:44  

as quiet despair said...

lets replace Lim Guan Eng and put back Koh Sukon or Bukit Bendera Gay boy, Ahmad Ismail as CM.... lets revive PGCC with Patrick Lim Badawi for billions in projects and let the Penang state have deficit budget again from currently surplus budget....

Anonymous,  20 July 2010 at 23:02  

To quiet despair!
You must be somewhere in gua kelam or gua tempurung.Nah! maybe in a terrible state of denial.Might be in despair too.Apa punya reasoning ni? Just because someone is a federal officer and only answerable to so and so, he can whack the CM?
Well both of you can go read the perintah am and then decide whether both of ur actions are justified.

Anonymous,  21 July 2010 at 03:49  

Quiet Despair is an UMNO goon.

Or, he could well be an Israeli agent working in Putrajaya or Bukit Aman.

Remember, BN renews APCO's contract.

BN support Israel. Tak tau ke?

BN mesti di kuburkan secepat mungkin. Bodoh punya melayu masih sokong APNO buta2.

orang kampung

schenker78 22 July 2010 at 12:46  

truthfully, i think a majority of malaysians wants the whole country to change inside out , to defeat the incumbent UMNO BN whether as necessity or just follow the law of nature that says no one can last forever. You simply cant expect UMNO to be in power until KIAMAT.

Just as many moslems hope that USA will go down, removed from the superpower status and weakens, its the same feeling for malaysia athat BN cant be in power till the end because its simply defy logic.

China Communist will one day collapse and become something else, whether a democracy or another type of dictatorship...Burma will collapse, UMNO will collapse..

Congress party of India lost power, LDP of Japanese lost power....UMNO Malaysia needs to lose to conform the law of nature.....Tiada siapa pun hidup selama-lamanya, baik UMNO, mahathor, anwar mahupun DAP....semuanya kena ada naik turun....

Hidup ini macam Yo Yo.....

Curious,  26 July 2010 at 18:25  

Thank you for a well thought out article. Is there a chance you could substantiate your claim that RM60m was paid out to the academics? Prof Danny Quah (http://dq6bn.blogspot.com/) says that he was received "practically no pay compared to outside options".

Thank you very much in advance.

Anonymous,  28 July 2010 at 11:28  

I would rather have Ibrahim Ali than Lim Kit Siang / Kapal Sink.

Anonymous,  30 July 2010 at 13:19  

"Our DPM has a brain more like a 17-year olds."

I would be damn upset as a 17-year-old to be compared to him.

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