The elephant in the room ~ no unity without equality

Commentary by Gabriel Tarriba

As my Malaysian summer comes to an end, I decided to take stock of what I have learned during two eventful months of research, writing and travel in the country. I came to Malaysia knowing very little about the country: my original intention was to try to understand why this young multi-ethnic country has been so successful in developing economically over five decades.

Malaysia is today an example for many developing and emerging economies and I believe that all Malaysians should be proud of how much has been achieved in so little time. The country definitely offers many lessons for my own country, Mexico, which was spectacularly overtaken by Malaysia in economic and social development recently.

And yet, in spite of my admiration for the country’s economic trajectory, I must admit that on the political level there is something about Malaysia that I find frankly disturbing and incompatible with its image as a modern country.

It is the country’s original sin, a moral blemish so blatant and deep that even fifty years of sustained economic growth and a state machinery of censorship and intimidation have not been able to erase. It is the elephant in the room, the one element that sets Malaysia apart from the group of advanced countries that it wants to resemble.

It is also the source of national disunity and ethnic tensions, and it is intimately linked to the current political upheavals.

I am talking about the rejection of the principle of equality of all citizens contained in the Malaysian constitution. This legal anomaly underpins one of the largest systems of institutional racism of the modern world (if you prefer euphemisms you may call it ‘race-based affirmative action’. It is also the legal foundation of the New Economic Policy and all other policies that benefit one racial group over the others.

Like all forms of injustice, this inherently racist system is only viable if people are not able to discuss it; lacking any ethical and logical justification, the Malaysian original sin is underpinned by intimidation, censorship and repression. Racism stands no chance when reason is allowed to prevail.

Abdullah Zaik Abdul Rahman, president of the
fundamentalist Malaysian Muslim Solidarity NGO

In defence of the Malaysian racist regime, I must say that at least it is very blatant and visible. The Malaysian constitution contains its own version of the Orwellian dictum that ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others’.

Article 8 of the Malaysian Constitution says that “all persons are equal before the law” but then the second point reads: Except as expressly authorized by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens on the ground only of religion, race, descent or place of birth in any law relating to the acquisition, holding or disposition of property or the establishing or carrying on of any trade, business, profession, vocation or employment.

The first seven words of the previous sentence open up the door to legal discrimination. Article 153 then clarifies what forms of discrimination are expressly authorised (hint: a lot) on the basis of the ‘special position’ of the Malays and natives of East Malaysia).

A peculiar ‘social contract’

How did this system come into being? The short answer is that the Malays managed to coerce the Chinese and Indian minorities to accept a peculiar ‘social contract’ at the time of independence, through which they would become citizens, but without the same right as the Malays. The latter never recognised the Chinese and Indian as legitimate migrants, because most of them had settled in the Malacca peninsula in British colonial times.

These migrants, or rather descendants of migrants, could either accept this raw deal or face deportation and possibly statelessness. This makes the validity of the Malaysian ‘social contract’ highly questionable, just like any contract or confession obtained through coercion is void in a court.

Leaving aside the circumstances under which the ‘social contract’ was crafted, it is worth pondering the logic for which it stands. In a nutshell, the idea is that ethnic Malays, plus the native populations of East Malaysia, are the rightful owners of Malaysia because their ancestors arrived there earlier.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise how arbitrary, unjust and impractical this reasoning is. The distribution of human groups on the territories of this planet is the result of tens of thousands of years of migrations, conquests, forced displacements and the subjugation of one group by another. There is nothing fair or civilised about it.

The ethnic Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, and all other groups that live in modern-day Malaysia arrived on these lands at different points in time. It is absurd to qualify their right to be here on the basis of their belonging to a certain group that was politically and militarily dominant at a specific point in time.

That is why modern countries don’t try to make such distinctions: they have only one class of citizens and they all have the same rights and obligations, regardless of where their ancestors come from.

Equality is the only way to achieve national unity. You can’t tell people to unite and live in harmony when you are the first one to discriminate and divide people by race when it comes to rights and opportunities. You can’t tell people that there is ‘1Malaysia’, when all the time you promote racism, segregation, resentment and envy.

If you are serious about national unity, harmony and a constructing a common identity, you have to accept that all Malaysians have as much of a right to be here as you do, and that you are not entitled to more than anyone else.

History shows us that all systems based on racial discrimination are unsustainable in the long run, because they can only survive while reason, ethics and empathy are repressed. As Malaysia’s political system becomes more democratic and participative, the issue of equality will start to be discussed openly and without fear.

Eventually, the absurdity of the system of discrimination will become apparent to everyone and equality will be embraced as an ethical imperative but also as the missing element to propel the country into a prosperous, democratic future.

GABRIEL TARRIBA is a Master’s candidate in Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. Published 2 September 2015 in Malaysiakini

[First posted 2 September 2015]

It's official: Malaysia is now a Kakistocracy!

LEARN A NEW WORD!

Kakistocracy: Governance by a clique representing the worst elements of society, from the Greek, kakos, meaning foul, or filthy.

In the case of Malaysia, the word kakistocracy may derive from kaki - the colloquial Malay word for "crony" or "accomplice in crime."

Meet the new Najib-appointed Attorney-General!

Don't you think we deserve better?

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT... OR TEN (repost)

One of the wonderful features of blogs and online news portals is that they offer a measure of interactivity. Readers are encouraged to put in their two bits worth by leaving comments. Some find it quite hard to resist while others simply can't make themselves do it - either because they're paranoid about leaving any traces in cyberspace by which the Special Branch or Interpol can track them down; or because they're the sort who have trouble pissing in a public urinal if there's a stranger standing right next to them.
Over the past three years I must have left a trail of comments in cyberspace even Mr Magoo can follow. I can pee just about anywhere, possibly even on stage with a spotlight shining on my willy. One of my unique talents, I guess. Anyway, I've collected several longish comments I've left in various places like a trail of dog piss - some fairly recent, some more than a year old - and I figure it would be fun to turn them into a blogpost, so here goes...

"1Malaysia is about fostering unity amongst Malaysians. What measures can be taken to foster greater unity?"
When the government is TOO BIG and the people are too small, you get a Humpty Dumpty situation - exactly like we do now. Why is the government TOO BIG? Simple. The people who form the government were mostly born into the ruling elite and groomed to take over the reins of power. Their ingrained attitudes, lifestyles, thought processes and behavioral patterns ARE the problem - nothing else! If they had the wisdom to step down from power and let others take over, there may be a ray of hope. But I doubt that anyone already rich and powerful would ever look in the mirror and admit: "Ah, I see... the problem is ME!"

Here's a small bit of wisdom I shall leave you with: TRUE COMMUNICATION IS ONLY EVER POSSIBLE AMONGST EQUALS. What does this mean? Where a feudal hierarchy continues to exist, those on the lower rungs of the power structure will never express their true feelings for fear of losing their jobs or even their heads. They will, instead, resort to subtle sabotage and apathetic performance, slowly but surely wearing down the machinery of governance until nothing works anymore.

ISLAMIC VALUES

If only espousing Islamic values would make us kinder, more honest, more compassionate, and a great deal wiser... but in Malaysia these so-called Islamic values appear to be totally degraded, warmed over dregs of the ugliest species of cruelty and tyranny inspired by the erotophobic and wrathful Old Testament God of Abraham. That might explain why our law enforcement agencies in particular seem to have become repositories of sadism, perversity and absolute inhumanity - earning the country a vile reputation for being an active participant in human trafficking and for being tragically benighted when it comes to treating refugees, cultural deviants and political dissidents with the love and respect due all living beings. As defenders and upholders of Islam, the monarchs must be held fully responsible for the grotesque distortions and hypocrisies surrounding their exploitative, feudalistic, self-serving and unenlightened interpretation of Islam.

ON THE INCURABLE DR MAHATHIR

There's a name for this narcissistic old man's problems. I think it's called hoof-in-mouth disease. But somehow the press insist on quoting him just to add more mental pollution to an already murky political atmosphere.

Can someone please embalm him immediately?

MORAL POLICE

Hard to believe, in the final phase of our journey through linear time, with a massive paradigm shift and mind-boggling quantum jump directly ahead of us... there are religiocentric humans of the Enlilite/Yahwehist lineage still obstinately pursuing their self-destructive, self-limiting goal of damming up all the ways vital energy (chi or prana) flows in the universe by subjecting every individual incarnate soul to all sorts of idiotic legislation. And they have the audacity to do so in the name of "stability" when what best serves us is DYNAMISM!

So much for this suffocating plastic bag called "society." I opt for true community, spontaneously born of natural communion between souls.

ANWAR vs NAJIB

Don't fall for the MSM spin that simplifies everything to a boxing match between two heavyweights. Lean back and see the big picture. Learn from the cogent metaphors mythology offers. Have you read Tolkien or seen Lord of the Rings? The all-pervasive psychic poison of Sauron, the corruption and zombification of the Nine Kings who turn into the Nine Ringwraiths (Nazgul), the fall of Saruman... all these characters live amongst us - and within us - even if they wear sarongs and songkoks or custom-tailored suits and Italian shoes.

How do we define EVIL? That which thwarts your soul evolution and harvests your energy to serve ignoble and demeaning purposes. Use this yardstick and you will never again be misled by professional misleaders spouting platitudes and lying from every orifice. Stand firm for freedom, justice and spontaneous joy!

HARAPAN BARU

So long as BN continues to hold the national pursestrings and control the machinery of federal government, participatory democracy will remain a pipe dream. Whenever the BN regime cites "national security reasons" what they mean is "Barisan Nasional security." They cannot to afford to lose their stranglehold on the mass media, the judiciary and the police. Without these powerful tools of oppression, the majority of BN leaders will be hawking unsold indelible ink at the pasar malam.

I want Anwar Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat to take over as soon as humanly possible. Anwar and most of the new leaders in Pakatan Rakyat have been on the receiving end of injustice, abuse of the law, and negative media coverage by the BN-controlled channels. The first thing they must attend to - even more important than reducing fuel and food prices - is the abolition of all the archaic, authoritarian laws (ISA, OSA, PPPA, UUCA, and so on) that have effectively suppressed the voices of honest critics and created a climate of fear.

We do not want our children to grow up as zombies, interested in nothing but brainless consumption of disposable diversions. We don't want them to fear the public servants whose salaries we pay and whose ill-gotten gains have been acquired at our expense. We the people must solemnly vow to embody the ideals we wish to see in the words, deeds, and thoughts of our elected leaders. We must become the positive change we long to see!

WHY ANWAR IBRAHIM PROVOKES IRRATIONAL HATRED

Strange how some people - even well-educated and apparently intelligent ones, and I’m sad to say I have several close friends who fall in this category - have an irrational hatred for Anwar Ibrahim.

Some are secular, westernized Malays who would rather deal with the greedy, corrupt liars and hypocrites who populate the BN than with a leader who is actually clean-living and left-leaning. Others insist Anwar is a closet racist and opportunist who will woo anybody to get where he wants. Now that’s patently unfair a criticism; one might as well condemn all living things for their hardwired survival instincts. After all, every one of us can be accused of exactly the same ability to manipulate and mold reality so that it serves and supports us. It's how we do it - whether by inspiring love or instilling fear - that makes all the difference.

What I strongly believe is that most of these Anwar-haters are people who were once idealists, but became pragmatists in their adulthood. They conformed to the Status Quo and reaped personal benefits (contracts, positions, titles) by toeing the Umno/BN line. So when they see Anwar at 61 still holding on to the principles of his crusading youth, still gung-ho about REFORM, it makes them uncomfortable about their own Faustian pact with the powers-that-be.

They have what used to be a typically Australian complex: if a local boy returns to his hometown after accomplishing great deeds abroad, the yokels shun him as being “too big for his boots.” These people live such humdrum, mediocre lives - with so many compromises - they simply can’t bear to see a REAL HERO get his just desserts. Like what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago, they will attempt to arrest and crucify the bugger… and, maybe 300 years later, proclaim him a saint or a god when he’s long gone and no further threat to their vested interests.

BADAWI'S ABYSMAL FAILURE

How banal and dreary to read about Badawi "lashing out" at the new DAP government during his visit to Penang. No manners, no code of ethics, no fresh ideas. Just recycling the same old robotic hogwash, the same old braindead Umno rhetoric. Still wagging finger and tongue at phantoms in his own cobwebby mind. Would he were capable of showing signs of intelligence and responsiveness to rapidly changing circumstances by saying something simple and sincere like: "Let's move on from the elections and forge new levels of Federal-State cooperation to the benefit of the whole country. In the end, no matter what our political leanings and perceived differences, let us never forget we are first and foremost Malaysians."

With each new twist in the post-electoral plot, with each inane and all-too-predictable utterance, Badawi is sending out an unmistakeable signal that his political worldview is dead and done for, beyond hope of redemption or resurrection.

Nevertheless, I thank Badawi for having played his role in the drama. For all his grandiloquent mediocrity, he at least created a little more space for dissent. He allowed Anwar Ibrahim his freedom and was generally so unintimidating (unlike his predecessor) that during the four years of his first term as PM, we saw more and more Malaysians emboldened and empowered.

ON MEDIA OBJECTIVITY

“Objectivity” doesn’t really exist except as an excuse for not accepting full responsibility for one’s perceptions, opinions, and beliefs. For too many generations we have been left-brained biased - exalting rational thought above irrational feelings. But in nature, what we call ”irrational feelings” are actually our instincts, our gut responses that operate from cellular wisdom. A society trapped in its mind and disconnected from its heart (where instincts are experienced as emotions) is already on its way to becoming mechanical and robotic. This may suit the control freak and wannabe dictator within us - but it’s deleterious to our psycho-spiritual well-being. Being desensitized to our instinctual responses is akin to filtering out 99% of sensory and extra sensory data and making “logical” decisions based on only 1%.

This explains how so many can be tricked into believing in and voting for a clone like George W. Bush, for example, who emanates almost zero empathy and is, therefore, only fractionally human. It’s alarming when people are no longer able to detect energy fields - or have been trained to distrust extrasensory insights picked up by intuition. Otherwise they would automatically recoil from repugnant political entities spouting lifeless cliches and lying through every orifice. They never would have been fooled by the puppet show and 99% of the politicians currently in power would be selling insurance or involved in MLM schemes.

SAIFUL & SODOMY II

Study Saiful Bukhari's face. There's something there that reminds me of Khairy Jamaluddin. Shrinks today will label it "bi-polar disorder." In the good old days it was known as "schizophrenia." That's right, it's the proverbial Jekyll-Hyde complex - or Smeagol-Gollum syndrome if you prefer your metaphors up-to-date. What I see looking at Saiful's face is a kid who hasn't made up his mind whether to be "good" or "bad." There's a certain boyish charm and innocence there, a useful survival skill, and he seems very keen on being accepted and loved by his peers (read Saiful's blog comments on Riwayat Hayat in response to suggestions that he's a "musang berbulu ayam").

He volunteers his services to the PKR campaign. However, he also likes being photographed with Umno bigwigs and by now everybody has seen Saiful posing beside Najib's special agent Khairil Anas Jusoh (himself rumored to be gay) at the DPM's office. So if that resignation email is from Saiful (and I don't see who else might have written it for him, though he may have been instructed to tender his resignation before incriminating Anwar), it reveals a young man torn between loyalties and, ultimately, feeling himself unworthy to continue serving as Anwar's special assistant (perhaps because he found himself actually liking and admiring his boss), he does an amok on himself, going for the notoriety he knows will be his lot (in the same way a weak character like Mark David Chapman would choose to assassinate John Lennon, the man he admires, since he can never aspire to match his hero's accomplishments).

And what about KJ? When I met him back in 1999 he was working at NTV7 as a talkshow host and news producer. He was bright and smug and actually very polite but I could sense the young man's burning desire to make his mark, to really make it big. I think we did exchange a few pleasantries before we parted and my parting words to the young KJ may have been: "You have a lot going for you, but keep a tight rein on that ego!" He was certainly nothing like the KJ I saw on Malaysiakini.tv rabble-rousing for Umno at the Ijok by-election. Humans are not one-dimensional and to expect them to be is to dehumanize them. Life, like politics, is rarely a black-and-white affair. Even Lady Macbeth has a story to tell and, although one is wise to avoid marrying anyone like her, one ought to grant her her humanity - on condition she doesn’t ascend to the throne, of course!

A REGIME GONE MAD

Some long-dead Greek pederast once said: "Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." Ever since the macabre tale of a murdered Mongolian woman being blown to bits with C4 exploded in the international media, every move those BN/Umno sleazebags have made has been counterproductive and countersurvival. The gods are merciful in that they first drive insane those marked for doom. So be not surprised at the erratic behavior of the BN/Umno goondus - they are non compos mentis! You have to be a fucking lunatic to believe you can get away with stealing so much of the Rakyat's wealth over so many decades and that the Rakyat will never awaken from their zombie trance or break the evil pukau* wrought by the MSM!

____

*pukau - primitive but powerful Indonesian magic that puts you in a state of deep sleep or paralysis while your house is being burgled.

[First posted 27 November 2009]

YOU BECOME WHAT YOU HATE!

The behavioral similarities between Israel under the Likudniks and Malaysia under the Umnoputras are more than startling. In both cases, the problem seems to lie with an entrenched attitude of arrogance, conceit and compulsive denial concealing a pathological insecurity and deeply ingrained sense of victimhood. Here's what Swiss-born psychologist and philosopher Carlo Strenger has to say about the current Israeli government...

"Israel will have to decide: it cannot rebrand itself as a liberal, creative and progressive country without being one. Our business sector, our artists and academics are mostly progressive, liberal and creative. But their impact on how Israel is perceived will remain negligible as long as Israel’s politicians and emissaries keep harping on victimhood and survival and as long as its policies are repressive." ~ Carlo Strenger (Department of Psychology, Tel Aviv University)

The most important positive result of the ‘Branding Israel’ project has been that during the last decades, a powerful new sub-brand of Israel has evolved: it is called Tel Aviv, it is associated with Israel’s culture, technology and joie de vivre: it is perceived as liberal in outlook, full of vitality, creativity and oriented toward the future. Hence, the study concludes, Israel must rebrand itself as creative, vital and progressive; an image that has positive resonance with the young global elites.

However, there is one major obstacle in the path to rebranding Israel. Our politicians don't seem to understand how the mechanism of rebranding works. They confuse the old concept of ‘hasbara’, which literally means ‘explanation’ with branding. Explaining and arguing has no impact whatsoever on how people experience a person or a brand. Our relationship to brands is like our relationship to human beings: it is primarily emotional.

If somebody explains to you that she is a nice person, but does so sternly and harshly, it is the tone of voice rather than the content of the message that determines the listener's emotional reaction. Moreover: if you explain that you are nice, and are then seen behaving violently, it is the behavior rather than the words that will determine the emotional reaction. We all know this: if an airline explains to you that it is friendly, but you are treated dismally by its employees, you will tell your friends that the airline is horrible, not that it is friendly. Ultimately perception of a brand hinges on actual behavior and organizational culture, not propaganda.

[Source: Haaretz.com; kindly brought to my notice by Walter Smith]

Ehud Barak's "OneIsrael" is undoubtedly the big brother of Najib Razak's "1Malaysia"!

Also worth reading: Activists on the Ship 'Rachel Corrie' Challenge Israel's Unjust Gaza Blockade and Zionist Myths by Ira Chernus

Musa, you're disgraceful! ~ Lim Kit Siang

"The country cannot wait until September when Musa [Hassan]’s tenure expires. Malaysians need a new IGP who can inspire public confidence in the professionalism of the police force to fight crime and restore to Malaysians their two fundamental rights — to be free from crime and the fear of crime." ~ Lim Kit Siang

Musa, you're disgraceful! Kit Siang returns fire

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition stalwart Lim Kit Siang fires a verbal salvo against Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan, accusing him of “gross insubordination.”

This afternoon, Musa had threatened not to enforce the law in response to the criticisms over the fatal shooting of 15-year-old schoolboy Aminul Rasyid Amzah.

“This is a most disgraceful statement from the IGP as it tantamounts to an open and public insubordination against the Malaysian people who pay his salary,” Lim said in a statement.

The DAP veteran noted that it was not the first time Musa has done this.

“Musa was involved in the public challenge of the previous prime minister (Abdullah Ahmad Badawi), threatening a police revolt if the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission was implemented,” he said.

All over the world, Lim added, developed nations are graduating to the concept of democratic policing, subjecting police forces to principles of public responsibility and accountability.

“But this is clearly very alien to Musa,” he said, adding that the IGP has overstayed his welcome.

MUSA HASSAN ISN'T THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS TO GO...

Who will police our policemen?

CHEAP SHOTS

Cheers! Now, will the Pahang syariah court haul up Mr Pink Lips for consuming alcohol in public whilst on official duty, fine him RM5,000 plus six strokes of the rotan? Or is that just oolong tea? (Pic courtesy of The Malaysian Insider)

MOB RULE: The 'cow-head' protesters demonstrating outside the Shah Alam courts...

Headless cow gang from Umno portraying DAP leaders as The Yellow Peril or Mooists.

Way to go... kick their faces in... show them your utter contempt, boys!

Now step on their faces... harder! Oops, forgot to step on dog doo first...

Hahaha... pee on Lim Guan Eng... fart on his father's face... do it!

Altogether now, hold up your finger and bleat: "1Malaysia!" (Cowhead Dungu pics by Minaq Jinggo)

They joined a group of men outside the Sessions Court here and displayed a banner of the heads of DAP leaders Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng and Nga Kor Ming on the bodies of cattle in front of press photographers.

They were also seen stepping on the banners before shouting against those who were trying to fool the Malays. (Jangan bodohkan orang Melayu!)

The group told reporters that they would be lodging a police report later today against the DAP for questioning Malay rights.

[Read the rest here.]

SO WHO'S MORE 'KURANG AJAR' ~ THESE DUMBOS FROM UMNO OR NAMEWEE?

The Most Obnoxious Cop In KL?

Ladies and Gentlemen, watch these videos and you'll agree that Brickfields OCPD Asst Comm Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid fully deserves the 2009 Award for "The Most Obnoxious Cop in KL"...



Here he is, the delightfully obnoxious Wan Bari Wan Khalid, interrupting Tian Chua's speech during Nurul Izzah's fund-raising dinner at Taman Sri Sentosa on 31 October 2009. A special halloween treat for horror movie fans!

Flashback to 8 May 2009...



For the second straight night the Brickfields police have arrested people who gathered to show support for activist Wong Chin Huat, arrested under the Sedition Act on Wednesday.

In a repeat of last night's shameful demonstration of police aggression, 14 people were arrested again today for allegedly participating in an illegal assembly. About two hours later, six others were also taken in, including lawyers who had come to assist those arrested earlier.

The 14 - nine men and five women - included PKR Youth movement exco member Ginie Lim, KLSCAH Youth chief Ng Chong Soon, journalist Teh Yi Keong, PKR party worker Chua Yee Ling and several student activists.

The arrested lawyers were Fadiah Nadwa Fikri, Syuhaini Safwan, Puspawati Rosman, Ravinder Singh and Murnie Hidayah Anuar. They are all from the Bar Council's legal aid centre.

All six were arrested for illegal gathering.

Camera: Amirrudin Abdullah
Editor: Lydia Azizan

If I were the homo minister, I'd either promote this psychopath to IGP and turn the whole country into Abu Ghraib... or hang my head in shame and resign.

Dean Johns is 1 Helluva Funny Guy!

1 picture tells the story

By Dean Johns | Malaysiakini Oct 21, 09 | 10:35am

If ever there was a picture worth 1,000 or 10,000 or any other number of words, it was the humongous number 1 on the stage at last week's Umno general assembly.

The party's leaders, supporters and propagandists clearly intended and perceived it as a towering symbol of pride in their sense of unity and supremacy.

But to those of us who inhabit the real world, that monumental illuminated numeral was a glowing declaration of Umno's megalomanic determination to dominate Malaysia by means of Barisan Nasional.

And the tilted BN 'balance' or 'scales' logo was a reminder, as if we needed one, of how heavily and one-sidedly the nation's institutions are weighted in Umno/BN's favour.

The speeches that I've read spoke volumes too.

Not in their actual words, which were as platitudinous, self-serving, conflicted, confused and confusing as we've come to expect from Umno orators, but in what they omitted to say about issues that everybody knows cry out to be addressed.

PM and Umno President Najib Abdul Razak, for example, proclaimed that the party aimed to reform itself into a "progressive, dynamic and responsive" party, whatever such mush might mean, and later urged its members to "move away from the negative culture of money politics so we could become a clean and respected party."

No mention of the fact that BN won the recent Bagan Pinang by election with a candidate mired in money politics, and that presumably other Umno office-holders, including himself, are beneficiaries of the party's traditional money-politics culture that he claims to so eager to reform.

Later in his 70-minute speech, "Uphold tradition, and fostering change", Najib attempted to push his patently false 1Malaysia proposition by portraying Umno as a a party for all. "Umno must not be seen as representing certain people, the party must be seen as an inclusive party which puts the people's interests at the forefront, and not oneself," he said.

Hang together or hang separately

This flies in the face of the self-evident fact that, as Najib said elsewhere in his speech, Umno is "the Malay nationalist party", forever ferociously advocating and defending Malay rights to special privileges and advantages over Malaysians of other races.

Nevertheless, he pressed on with his myth of inclusiveness, claiming that Umno is and will remain "centrist", and is "neither a leftist nor a right-wing party".

I must confess I've never thought about Umno in terms of what political "wing" it seems to be on.


But now that Najib's raised the issue, I realise that, given my perception that Umno has seldom, if ever, shown signs of running the country right, I'd categorise it as not so much left-wing or right-wing as wrong-wing.

But Najib, apparently undaunted by such criticism and opposition, and even by setbacks like the 1969 general election, the Coalition's near loss of which provoked the May 13 riots, and BN's wake-up call in the 2008 electoral 'tsunami', remains supremely confident.

"If we remain united, work towards our common goal and put in the effort, we will climb the highest mountain and go down the deepest ravine and swim the deepest ocean. We shall overcome the odds," he said.

Calls by Najib and other Umno figures for unity always put me in mind of Benjamin Franklin's warning to his co-signatories of America's Declaration of Independence that their British rulers saw as treasonous: "Gentlemen, we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Doing whatever to maintain power

Because Umno/BN is arguably fast running out of rope and living in fear of retribution too.

Not for offences against some foreign power, like America's founding fathers were party to, but for 52 years of crimes and injustices committed against the Malaysian people.

Mongolian people too, recalling the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, but let's keep it to locals for now.

What Najib and his ilk are terrified of is the fact that, just as any sign of good governanace over the past 52 years is to the credit of Umno/BN, every bad administrative decision or act is also by definition their fault.

And they're haunted by half a century of crimes and misdemeanours that they have committed or condoned, from rampant corruption, the mismanagement and embezzlement of public funds and the perversion of public institutions like the press, judiciary and electoral commission, to the susected murder by the police and MACC of 'suspects' in their custody.

And there's mounting evidence that the people, Malay and non-Malay alike, are increasingly at one in their disgust at this disgraceful record, and in their eagerness to see the guilty thrown out of office and brought to justice.

Hence the calls to the forces of Umno/BN to "remain united" towards the "common goal" of saving their necks, be it by daring feats involving mountains, ravines and oceans or less athletic activities like bending the judiciary to their bidding and employing the police as their enforcers.

For all Najib's talk about the "reform" since he succeeded the somnolent Badawi as prime minister, he's yet to put so much as a sen of his money where his mouth is. Quite the opposite, in fact.

As human rights watchdog Suaram has reported on his 200th day in office (and, coincidentally, the 3rd anniversary of the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu), he's shown a "blatant disgregard" for human rights, and permitted "serious violations" including continued use of emergency laws, racial and religious intolerance, crackdowns on peaceful assemblies and protests, continued curbs on media freedom, attacks on alternative media, and abuses by law-enforcement agencies.

I could go on and on giving instances of Umno/BN's clear determination to do business as usual despite all its rhetoric about reform.

But that's enough words for me for now, and in any case you get the picture.

The big, blue 1 with Malaysia down below and the crooked BN scales in the middle on stage at the general assembly didn't, as we were supposed to believe, mean one Malaysia for all Malaysians.

It meant that Umno/BN stands united, as always, to say and do whatever it takes to retain enough popular support to continue the only activity for which its leaders, members and cronies have ever shown any appetite or aptitude: looking after number 1.

Mongolia unimpressed by Najib's "1Malaysia"

Living in the shadow of Najib’s 1 Malaysia

Tunku Aziz | Malaysian Insider | 26 Sept 2009

SEPT 26 — I was in Seoul last Monday to participate in the World Forum for Democratisation in Asia (Third Biennial Conference) on “Sustaining Democratisation in Asia: Challenges of Economic and Social Justice” with some 200 delegates from Asia and the United States.

The conference brought together people from diverse backgrounds and of all ages, to seek ways of strengthening, and arresting the rapidly declining state of democracy in their countries. These men and women, all with impeccable credentials as human rights advocates, shared many of the same democratic values that have inspired human beings through the ages, all over the world, to make great personal sacrifices against humanly impossible odds in the name of justice and freedom from the tyranny of state-sanctioned human rights abuses, such as we are subjected to in Malaysia regularly.

I spoke on the panel on “Citizen Participation and Political Accountability.” In the audience were participants from Indonesia, the US, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia and Mongolia, among others.


I thought I was doing well, having made some rather important points on the need for citizens to take charge of their own destiny as freedom was far too important to be left to the tender mercies of politicians, many of whom were charlatans at best and untrustworthy to boot. I mentioned as an example how citizens’ active participation in the March 2008 general election in my country had succeeded in changing, albeit ever so slightly, the 50-year corrupt political landscape, a feat that was nothing short of miraculous given the corrupt and repressive environment against which they were fighting to change.

I must confess that I was somewhat surprised that interest in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “baggage” had extended beyond the shores of Malaysia. Blame the borderless cyber technology for this unwelcome attention. Before I could finish my final remark, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the personable Yale- and Princeton-educated Ms. Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, advisor to the President of Mongolia. She wanted to know, in the nicest possible way, why Malaysian citizens had voted for a person of Najib’s known reputation to assume the highest political office, and, she continued, was it true that in the Altantuya Shaariibuu trial, the Malaysian judiciary was acting improperly to protect Najib?

We do not, of course, have direct prime ministerial elections in Malaysia. I explained that the prime minister was elected by his party; Umno. It says more about the integrity of the party than perhaps the person it elected to high office. Now, I am not unused to being asked all kinds of questions in my years of public speaking, both at home and abroad, but this, about the murder trial of Altantuya threw me off balance.

Ms Tsedevdamba was putting the proverbial cat among the pigeons. It caused a real flutter in my dovecot, no pun intended. My character and integrity would be put under close scrutiny, effectively on trial, and as in any trial, telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would, I thought, be the best policy.

I am fiercely patriotic, proud of our many achievements in a number of important areas, but like many of you I often hang my head in utter shame and humiliation when I see the cynical manipulation of democratic principles by a government that seems to have lost its moral capital by developing an unethical and immoral political behaviour into a fine art form. To them who govern this country, the end would seem to justify the means.


In this respect, it is useful to remind ourselves what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was Prime Minister, used to proclaim, without a tinge of embarrassment, that we were a democracy because we held regular elections. It was not important to the emasculator (or perhaps constrictor is a more appropriate word in his case) of human rights that they might not always have been free and fair. What Dr Mahathir and his Umno friends have never appreciated, or deliberately failed to acknowledge, is the fact that democracy is not just about elections. It is what happens between elections that really is the point at issue...

[Read the full story here.]

Tunku Aziz, one of the prime movers in setting up Transparency International Malaysia, in happier times was regarded by Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi as "one man (who) was able to harness his personal passion and deep commitment to the values of ethics and integrity, give it a larger purpose and meaning, and turn it into a force to transform society for the better." Why then was he left out of the MACC Advisory Group? He is regarded as being too outspoken for comfort and, therefore, difficult to handle.

Have we become a kakistocracy?

LEARN A NEW WORD!

Kakistocracy: Governance by a clique representing the worst elements of society, from the Greek, kakos, meaning foul, or filthy.

In the case of Malaysia, the word kakistocracy may derive from kaki - the colloquial Malay word for "crony" or "accomplice in crime."


Don't you think we deserve better?