I had a conversation with 2 friends who are strong supporters
of DAP, asking my opinion on current affairs in the country. Here's my reply:-
1. On political party, we need to have an alternative to
replace UMNO, with DAP and PAN to join the coalition. I don’t want to talk
about PKR, nor do I care about MCA and MIC which are irrelevant today.
Coalition government based on differing racial ethnicity in our country has
proven to be successful for last 50 years, unlike one party for all. We like it
or not, majority Malaysians are still racial based and we have to leverage from
this, positively. Since UMNO is rotten
to the core, we need an alternative with similar aspirations for Alif Ba Ta.
So, KITA or IKATAN doesn't fit into these aspirations.
2. Social media penetration into the village and transform
villagers into urbanites to change political outlook of the orang kampong and attract
them to support opposition parties. I said NO. Learn from Sarawak election
experience. The village folks are not like the liberal Malays that we need to
change their perception to receive the lifestyle of city folks where the
oppositions support are stronger. The kampong folks are self-sufficient and
lead simple life. They are happy and they dont need to work 9-5 like us and
drained us like zombies. As long as the food stuff and rice are cheap, they are
happy. That’s why GST is rejected because it comes with price hike of food and
services that robbed the comfortable life that we once had. And GST is the main issue here.
3. I used to lecture for the military, political and
government services in Palembang, Sumatera and my perception was the same - that
they were lazy folks and just let the day passed by, working only 3-4 hours
daily. But hey!, they have acres of land and farms of fruits enough for years
of food supply; with herds of goats, cattle and chicken at the back of their
huge kampong house. They are proud people and they don’t need to work as maids
in other countries. What do they need in this life? Happiness and comfortable
life, of course. They have those and they don’t need to wait till retirement
age! Ultimately, when we retire at 60 we also want that similar lifestyle which
on the other hand, they are already enjoying the luxury and the simpleness that
we envy and aspire to achieve when we grow old. Do we need to change that? No!
4. Similarly in Malaysia, the Malays don’t want their 'roh' Melayu [Malay spirit] to be disturbed. Remember, Melayu amat kuat dengan jatidiri, budaya dan
adat resam. Jangan diganggu kerana mereka melihat dengan matahati dan akan
mendendami jika diganggu. Inilah yang tidak difahami oleh DAP atau pemimpin PKR
di bandar. Justeru itulah UMNO masih diyakini dapat mempertahankan 'roh' Melayu
ini kerana UMNO mempertahankan adat resam dan jatidiri orang Melayu.
5. Nonetheless, I want an alternative party that understand
this aspiration, to emulate and to build a new platform with new aspiring leaders. This is because UMNO is rotten and taken a
ride by opportunists, liberalists, corrupts, weak leadership, a$$ ki$$er$ and
uninspirational, unintelligent and non-visionary people, who are not leaders by
nature. To UMNO, sharing ideas and intellectual discourse doesn't make you
working and contributing to the party, but climb the tree to hang banners and
party flags means you work hard for the party and you can head the Cawangan.
The Pemuda mentality are blurred by the deafening shout of ‘Hidup UMNO’.
6. Recall my government-linked days when I led a team of ‘think
thank’ of a Ministry for Parliament sessions. While we were busy preparing
talking points, develope strategies, doing research and formulating policies
to defend the government in helping the rakyat and spent hours sitting in the
Dewan Rakyat listening to the topics of discussions and preparing hansards; the
UMNO political leaders who were ‘ketua itu’, ‘setiausaha ini’ appointed by the
Ministers were busy chatting in the cafe from morning until Dewan Rakyat ends, talking about 2P – women and projects!. Today, are they the ones
who are holding positions as Deputy Ministers and some are Ministers or Heads
of GLCs, now sitting in the Dewan Rakyat with empty brains and zero experience?
So, would you be surprised of the quality of our ‘half-past six kitchen cabinet’
that we have today?
7. I truly believe that UMNO today is becoming irrelevant in
this knowledge era and we need alternative platform that will bring in similar
aspirations of ‘UMNO’ with members comprising of the Melayu who are educated
and given similar opportunities to inculcate the strong aspirations of Alif,
Ba, Ta, in dignity of Agama, Bangsa dan Tanahair. I truly believe too, Tun Mahathir’
systemic total reform as a doctor to ‘cut off’ those rotten parts or a cancer
surgery will work wonders. Otherwise, let the cancer grow and kill UMNO!
8. Education is fundamental in development and growth and
most important to shape the nation. Anwar Ibrahim made the biggest mistake in
Malaysia history by changing our education system and converting all schools
into SRK and SMK, while retaining the vernaculars SRJK Cina and SRJK Tamil, but
abolished the SRJK and SMJK (English) which is the pillar in quality education
in Malaysia.
9. Recall my experience in SMJK (English) in late 70s, when
we were busy studying and competing each other with our Chinese and Indian
friends, the Malays in SMK were busy dating, disturbing girls and loitering at
the bus stations/supermarkets. Well, this culture is ordinarily familiar today,
amongst the school children. So would you be surprise what we have produced?
Perhaps these are the products that are now loitering the high level public
service positions in Ministries, departments and GLCs?
10. To be on track to become a developed nation, the Education Ministry must convert all
schools into SRJK and SMJK with English medium, abolish vernacular schools
because SRJK (English) and SMJK
(English) offers children to choose language subjects. Parents will not worry whether
their children can still speak Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English or not, and they
will still be strong believers of Islam, Christian, Buddhist or Hindu. What’s important
is they go to common place to seek education and not segregated according to racial
differences. Enough of ‘divide and rule’ policy. Bukankah dasar ‘pecah dan
perintah’ itu dibawa oleh Inggeris dan mengapa pemimpin Melayu masih mahu
mengamalkannya di era globalisasi ini?
11. Teachers will get the chance to compete amongst each
other to deliver the best. I propose to transform the education system of the country
and fast-tracked into achieving a true developed nation with highest level of
global service standard, through vigorous and prestigious education system,
creating a highly motivated and educated populace. We don’t need foreign
consultants producing bombastic education blueprint, but we need highly educated
and experienced Malaysians with global outlook who are strong believers in
capacity building of Malaysia through English education, and of course with
strong ‘jatidiri anak Malaysia’.
12. This is what we mean by EDUCATION REFORM and SOCIAL
ENGINEERING towards building a civil society and a developed nation according
to Malaysia aspiration and Rukunegara, and not just creating acronyms and rhetoric
like 1Malaysia, transformation agenda, Bumi agenda with the moon and the stars
etc., without affirmative action in articulating the strategy and clear
directions for the rakyat to participate. Concurrently, the bastardisation and
talibanism of the Malays in public schools shall be reduced. Change won’t
happen even though you shouted to the rakyat to change, or your hair change
colour to white or your face became haggard, if you as chosen leaders still
remain clueless.
13. We dont need to look far to learn from legendary leaders
who have transformed their countries successfully. Honorable Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad, is a living example, a Negarawan that has transformed Malaysia into
what we are today. Without him for 22 years at the helm, we are still like our
neighbouring countries. We would not be ‘exporting’ engineers and professionals
overseas like today, but maids and general workers instead. Be truthful about
it. I used to live overseas and travel in many countries round the world before
I returned home; I walk around with head held high and proud to introduce
myself as Malaysians.
14. Admit it my fellow countrymen of Chinese and Indian
origins, we are proud Malaysians. Why change something that we enjoy and proud
of? Our living conditions and lifestyle are being envied by people from
neighbouring countries. All we need to do is develop our country, improve/reform the
systems, enforce the implementation and restore the foundation as well as the fundamentals.
15. Why cant we seek Tun Dr Mahathir’s help, ideas and brain
while he is still alive? He has proven his success stories, unlike the current
PM who’s policy remain in papers, money spent but he still remain clueless.
Aren’t we not grateful Malaysians for not appreciating Tun Dr Mahathir, as one
of the greatest and respectable leader of this century?
16. The above questions were asked a year ago. Today, Tun Dr
Mahathir has brought us all together across partisan, across racial beliefs and
leaving behind prejudiced and self-interest in favor of a particular cause – to
Save Malaysia.
God help Malaysians.
Well, my DAP friends support and agree with me!
