The Malays: changing mental landscapes- continuation

What can people like Ibrahim Ali help to advance the Malays? What happen to our government servants? Every decisions, however minor, has to be brought and decided by committees. What's the use of sending them to Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, etc. Where is the delegation of duties in the government? even buying stationeries has to go to the committee. You can see the quality of Malay university professors talking on TV talk shows. They talk to please their hosts and to protect their positions, rather than truth and facts.

 

I am looking past the name. The Malay gentleman who wrote the e mail could have really meant, what could the approach and thinking represented by Ibrahim Ali do for the Malays? If that is the real meaning, we are in business- we can debate the issue.

I have written some articles about Ibrahim Ali. Indeed for the sake of objectivity, I have met up with him  together with my blogger friend Aspan Alias. I wasn't interested in judging Ibrahim Ali as a person, but was keen to explore the thinking behind the man. He has his good qualities, his supporters will say. We are not going to take that away from him. The man has his foible and all that, but I have said, UMNO can't ignore those people who are slowly gravitating towards Ibrahim Ali and his movement of reasserting Malay interests. In the interest of objectivity, I have chosen to ignore the ad hominem argument. The kind of thinking and approach that Ibrahim Ali represented are bigger than him.

When such a body exists and for a specific purpose at that, reasserting Malay interests- it could only mean that what have been done thus far, are being eroded or are perceived to have been abandoned. The core of the objections centered on a belief that the government is forsaking all policies regarding Malay interests in favor of new policies planned by the Najib administration. For example, the policies of Malay economic privileges are being replaced by the New Economic Model. The primacy of Malay nationalism is being replaced by the concept of 1Malaysia. The sanctity of Malay rulers paramountcy is being attacked by legal liberalism.

The principal object of derision is of course the adoption of wholesale free market solutions, prompting Ibrahim Ali to declare that the free market is not for Malays.

The supporters of Perkasa are alarmed that the economic policy elements that were supposed to be a help to Malay economic advancement have been rendered useless. so Perkasa held its own Malay Economic Congress to issue notice that the movement fights for continued Malay economic rights and privileges. It was also a signal to UMNO telling the party that UMNO no longer holds a monopoly as the vanguard or spearhead for Malays and Malay interests. The rising approval for what Perkasa stands for and the increasing number of adherents to its cause, the rapidity by which it is assimilated into the Malay psyche reflect also, a worrying de-coupling of absolute and unqualified Malay support to UMNO. Its telling UMNO that it must realise that Malay support is not longer unqualified blind support. That support for UMNO is contingent on whether it continues to safeguard a wide ranging of Malay interests. It was also a stark reminder to UMNO that it cannot move on without addressing Malay issues.

it could also mean that those things which the Malays hold dear to them such as his language, his religion, his political institutions are also being attacked. Hence when I spoke to Ibrahim Ali he was recounting the time when Anwar Ibrahim came over to him and stroked his shoulders and patted his back. Ibrahim told Anwar Ibrahim- I won't condemn you provided you don't touch these things- the New Economic Policy, Dr Mahathir and Malay kings.

The fears and hopes represented by Ibrahim and Perkasa haven't been addressed fully by the Najib government. It's not sufficient to say, you won't abandon the NEP by reminding everyone at the Perkasa Economic Convention you are the son of Tun Abdul Razak without setting out details how you want to achieve the economic goals.

The NEP can't be entirely wrong. It was a realisation, that Malay economic issues can't be left to chance or free play of market forces and that some form of interventionist policies were needed. Personally I accept this argument. Paucity of a commercial and economic past, Malays lacking in skills and capital, acumen, the necessary business culture etc. we can't leave everything to the luck of the draw and hope some will emerge to come up tops. That happens but they happened selectively to selected people.

Somehow the selection process was flawed. Those who cashed out the RM 52 billion certainly fit the bill of those who cop out. The immediate step is to ensure that none of those within the RM 52 billion ever get another chance. Have we done that? Perkasa should have demanded that anyone within that 52billion group needs to be blacklisted permanently.

So, not wanting the Malay economic problem solve itself out, makes intervention by the government since 1970, necessary. This idea of picking winners, selecting an elite to spearhead society isn't new. All countries have them. The US has its West Point and all the ivy league universities and exclusive prep schools. Because they believed from the start, that every society needs a group to act as catalysts- so they try to imbue those who went through the hallowed halls of their institutions, the determination, the integrity to serve god, country or community. The British has their Eton and Harrow. Malaysia had MCKK where well born Malays once were sent there to study to take the reins of government. We now have a variety of residential schools preparing bright students. We haven't taught them how to lead perhaps.

So, selecting those who can spearhead Malay economic success, in a sense is an extension of this thinking- that we needed a select group to act as catalyst and yeast that lead to rising.

But the issue was how was the selection done? We didn't have a system or ecosystem that pushes up the people with quality to serve as the spearhead. We can't deny this- we failed as evidence by those who cashed out RM 52 billion worth of equities. We failed because the selection was arbitrary and depended on one or two people.

DS Najib has to find a system, that's capable of sifting through and pushing up the real players.