1Malaysia

Najib’s 1Malaysia a two-faced scam?

Kim Quek
Monday, 10 August 2009

Take a look at the following two scenarios which were spectacularly contradictory to each other:

Scenario 1: Prime Minister Najib Razak’s wife Rosmah Mansor put up a stellar performance in a charity dinner that helped to raise RM 2.3 million for a Chinese primary school in Segambut, Kuala Lumpur on Aug 6. Rosmah not only serenaded the audience with a popular Mandarin song (which alone netted RM 200,000), her group of ministers’ wives gave rendition to four songs each in a different language - Mandarin, English, Malay and Tamil - to give full expressions to her husband’s ‘lMalaysia’ motto. She heaped praise on the Chinese community for their unfailing generosity to support Chinese education and urged other communities to follow suit in the spirit of ‘1Malaysia’.

Scenario 2: Almost at the same, mass circulated Malay paper Utusan Malaysia, which is UMNO’s mouthpiece, spat racial fire through an incendiary article. Writing under the title ‘Melayu jangan jadi bacul’ (Malays, don’t be cowards) on Aug 4, journalist Noor Azam accused the Chinese and Indians of wanting to “destroy Malay political power held by UMNO since independence” with the help of Anwar Ibrahim and PAS. This supposed power grab was pursued with Chinese-dominated DAP manipulating the Malay leaders in Pakatan Rakyat. The writer further claimed that “The attacks and the hatred shown by the opposition and Chinese and Indian political activists towards the Malays have worsened”. To goad the Malays into action, he even went to the extent of calling them ‘cowards’, saying “The Malay race has become stupid cowards, and people who are cowards will die before even their deaths.”

Such bare-faced incitement of racial hatred and racial clash should have landed the writer in lock-up and the newspaper’s licence revoked under Malaysia’s repressive laws, particularly if they are on the other side of the political divide, but Noor Azam and Utusan Malaysia not only escaped untouched, but had the honour of being defended by none other than the UMNO’s Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin who ridiculously and inexplicably blamed the opposition for causing such heightening of racial temperature. That Noor’s racist blast bears the stamp of UMNO’s policy is unmistakable.


The objectives of this two-pronged strategy are obvious. Strategy 1 (Scenario 1) is meant to coax the return of Chinese and Indian votes which had exited the BN pen in a mass exodus in the 8 Mar 08 elections. And Strategy 2 (Scenario 2) is geared towards splitting the opposition and re-uniting the Malay electorate under the UMNO canopy by appealing to the primordial instincts of race and religion through pressing the panic buttons of lies and deceit, of which the nonsense of Scenario 2 is typical.

This explains why Najib’s new measures are mostly ad-hoc, piecemeal, populist and election-centred – every move calculated for electoral gains.

My Personal Opinion

I don't usually like to talk about politics, but looking at these depressing Malaysian news like the article above almost everyday, I would also like to share my perspective regarding this matter.

Let me bring in the concept of the "invisible hand" by Adam Smith, which I strongly believe in. Things work naturally to bring maximum benefit to society.

In ecology - the prey-predator mechanism maintains the balance of the ecosystem.

In metaphysics - there are attractive and repulsive forces balancing each other in the most fundamental level of matter.

In economics - the "invisible hand" drives the demand and supply of a free market to achieve optimal price and quantity.




The biggest problem now lies in the fact that the affirmative action policy of Malaysia is resisting the natural tendency of this "invisible hand" to drive Malaysia's economy to greater heights.

In investment - companies listed in the KLSE must find bumiputeras taking up a minimum 30% of equity under this policy, driving away foreign investors and funds, resulting in reduced foreign investment.

In education - this affirmative action policy is draining away local talent by having quota on public tertiary education and scholarship opportunities, lowering the standards of education (e.g. poor command of English, the Science and Math issue), increasing unemployment rate etc etc etc.



Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad has bemoaned the extreme reliance of Bumiputras on their privileges. Of course he has to say it nicely to the people first, and he couldn't remove this policy right away, otherwise he wont get to say it again after the next general election, you know.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM.

Do the leaders truly want progress for our nation, or remain popular among the people and continue to stay in office?

Thanks to this policy, the mentality of being complacent and taking-for-granted-because-the-government-will-give-me-what-I-want is already deep rooted among the people today. And the Prime Minister is having a hard time dealing with this mess. I am not sure if beliau is really trying, but based on the article I just saw above, I am quite convinced that it is more towards rallying support from the people and prevent the repeat of the 08/03/08 election loss. Ever wondered where will Malaysia be heading to in the future? Now you know. Quite sad huh.

As what I have learnt to write as conclusion for my Economic essays on free trade - "Protectionism may be necessary to let infant industries grow amidst a crowd of economic giants, but may breed inefficiency and complacency in the long run."

OK, now let me rephrase:

The affirmative action policy may be necessary to help the bumiputeras escape poverty during the post-independence era in the 1960s, but it is breeding inefficiency and complacency in the long run, which is NOW, TODAY, SEKARANG. With news like Anwar, Teoh Beng Hock and the ISA, YO, the people up there, can you see the current situation already? @_@

Please, for optimal benefit for the people, the economy and the nation, just scrape it.

Just my two cents worth. What do you think?