Malaysian Ruling Party’s Comeuppance

Malaysian Ruling Party’s Comeuppance

Funny how the world works? The saying “what goes around comes around” is so prevalent in describing the political scenario in Malaysia today.

The corrupt cycle really started in earnest when Mahathir came to power. His corruption was more power driven than money driven. In order to achieve the totalitarian power he yearned for he had to “buy” that power. He used state funds and state patronage to provide incentives to acquire his almost totalitarian power, abusing our constitution along the way. He silenced his critics and bought over the judiciary. He shut a blind eye to the many hands in the till, particularly by his handpicked Treasurer.

But he was a leader of exceptional ability, in the likeness of our more infamous world dictators. Hardworking and focused, he had a sharp mind and he was intellectually curious and capable. A very dangerous combination. Put that all together, it was a formidable package. Unfortunately the corruption he created and took part in somewhat engulfed him and the greedy soon fought amongst themselves to eventually oust him. Reluctantly he anointed a weak, and reputably “clean” replacement, thinking perhaps he could still manipulate & control this weak person. Well the calculation misfired. This supposedly “Mr. Clean” wasn’t clean after all. Moreover he had others that were in a better position to manipulate him, namely the shamelessly ambitious and somewhat more educated son-in-law. The tail ended up wagging this hopeless dog.

The end result was a feeding frenzy of corruption, lies, and daylight robbery. Eventually he made a predictable miscalculation and had the legs under him chopped off. Now he is limping and bleeding and the sharks are in for a feeding frenzy.

The Barisan Nasional, a coalition of racially based components were held together by fear of the threat of ethic cleansing should the other races even dare to suggest that the ruling party renounce its demands for the apartheid-like policies. So the other racially composed Parties were cowed by these threats; enough so that the plundering of our coffers went into new heights.

The elites became unshakeable warlords. They even forgot their own kind and now we see that even the Malays ‘tak nak” the NEP. They “tak nak” all the abuse. They too want a fair and equitable sharing of the pie. The election results clearly attest to this groundswell. Led by the Sultans, this abusive rule is being challenged. Malaysia enters into a world of sophisticated politics and if allowed to play itself out peacefully, we will emerge as a nation of fairness, respect for civil liberties and our democracy will be something to emulate. This will form the basis of a bright and prosperous future. New enlightened leadership will emerge, our institutions will have played its role.

Meanwhile we have a few humpdidumpties on the ground after their big fall; namely the MCA, MIC and Gerakan. All the kingsmen cannot put them together again.

Color Blind

Inspiration of a modern Leader

Today I heard Sen. Obama’s speech on racism. It was awesome and there are lessons there that we all need to embrace and I urge everyone, especially our Politician to pay some heed. The speech is on MSNCB in video or in written form.

Just some snippets:

“…we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for our children and grandchildren.”

“The dreams of [one race] does not come at the expense of [another race]”

Can our leaders rise up to this standard of leadership, this standard of understanding real issues that confront us normal citizens each day? To embrace the fact that no matter what race, religion, color or background, we all want the same for our children and our grandchildren. We want justice and progress for all. Be a brave leader so we can all move forward in the same direction and not be kept in the same sinking quagmire.

We do not want feudalism. We don’t want dictatorial and overbearing, threatening leadership. We want inspiring, intellectual, inspirational leadership.

Our dreams in our unique multicultural society is not a zero sum game. It doesn’t have to be I lose so you win , or I can only win when you lose. We can only win when we all win together.

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