
Saturday, 23 August 2008, 18:15
We were born as an independent sovereign nation, a secular democratic state on 31 August 1957. In a week’s time we celebrate our 51st Hari Merdeka. Actually, there is very little to celebrate. After 51 years of Alliance/BN rule we have sunk low on all fronts as a nation. It is time to take stock and evaluate intelligently why as a nation we are going downhill in all fields of national endeavour, says our special correspondent, in this message to the voters of Permatang Pauh.
National Unity
Despite the loyalty and patriotism displayed by the rakyat, the Umno-dominated government, despite its platitudes and pronouncements, has made a mockery of national unity, which is so crucial to our survival as a nation. After 8 March, Umno has unmasked itself and shown its true colours as a racist, Islamo-fascist party confirmed by its Ketuanan Melayu, Malay hegemony and Malay supremacy stance. Umno’s ideas of race supremacy and the importance of only one race seems to have been borrowed from defeated World War II western leaders. Their use of Islam apparently to deaden Malay intellect and rationality is what Karl Marx called “the opiate of the people.” It is clear that the Malay rakyat must escape from the clutches of Umno, which for 50 years has exploited and manipulated them, to join other Malaysians to achieve national unity.
Economic development

Bad governance
The Umno-dominated BN government has been bad, thoroughly bad. Bad governance is everywhere to see – many political leaders at all levels are deemed to be corrupt, unethical and immoral; the civil service is perceived to be, and in many instances, corrupt and inefficient; sections of the police force are not only inefficient and allegedly corrupt but brutal on the rakyat. An armful of draconian laws is used to protect the powers-that-be and there is the scandal-ridden judiciary to provide additional umbrage.

Corruption
The implementation of the NEP created golden opportunities for Umnoputras and their cronies to enrich themselves. The NEP was successfully hijacked by Umnoputras and their cronies who cleverly masqueraded as champions of bangsa and ugama, pulled wool over the eyes of the rural Malays, and exploited and manipulated them to amass great wealth in the name of the Malay community. They ravaged our dear land mercilessly through generous pink form share allocations, APs, generous business and taxi licences, over-priced public projects, and privatisation of public entities.


"INDEPENDENT" INSTITUTIONS

The judiciary is in a mess, indeed it is a joke by any standards. The Lingamgate affair revealed the corruption within and the horrendous Executive manipulation of the judiciary. An independent judicial commission to appoint judges will not happen unless there is a change of government. The BN leaders realise that an independent judiciary will sound the death knell of many BN politicians from top to bottom.

This is another institution that is a great joke because of its ineffectiveness and selective persecutions. It is under the thumb of the Executive and has become a dreaded tool to be used against the opposition and against BN members who fall out of line. BN leaders such as Dr M, the currency smuggler, and compliant ex-chief judges are beyond the reach of the ACA. It has become another BN tool to intimidate and put fear in opponents and critics. If it becomes independent there would not be enough prisons to house these BN crooks!

The EC and its Chairman behave like imbeciles in asserting the powers granted to them under the Constitution to conduct free and fair elections. They have for a long time been allegedly manipulated to grant the BN unfair, indeed illegal, advantages be it gerrymandering, the use of non-transparent ballot boxes, mysterious postal ballots and the non-use of indelible ink to eliminate phantom voters.

The BN’s use of the police and now the army to ensure rule by law and not rule of law is frightening. The role of the Inspector-General and other top police officers in Sodomy I, which collapsed in court, is clear proof of this. Now we are witnessing the same thing in Sodomy II. A poor fellow was persuaded to do things like swearing on the Koran, which is haram in Islam! Dr M, who possessed a diabolical talent for apparently ruining the country and is now seen as a discredited and discarded politician, said that Malaysia has become a police state. For once he spoke the truth.

In what way is our police force different from those in other dictatorships that persecute political opponents and their supporters? The police in Malaysia – when they get a whiff of a protest, real or imagined, put up road-blocks hours in advance of the supposed protest, causing massive traffic jams, inconveniencing the rakyat and disrupting business. The opposition is then blamed for all these! Can you imagine putting a police and military ring round Parliament House? Is Malaysia a democracy or dictatorship?

Isn’t it a shame that those who tell the truth have to flee the country but those in high places who tell lies and are allegedly involved in all sorts of immoral and criminal activities such as groping a bar-girl live happily ever after. I appeal to the voters in Permatang Pauh to not only save the country from ruin but also heal the many wounds inflicted on it by a power crazy, corrupt and inefficient Umno-dominated BN government.

The education system is rotten to the core. “Education is an absolute disaster” and “racism runs deep” said Zaid Ibrahim, our law minister. The BN claims that our education system is advanced but the UN report on education indicated our low quality with a warning that compared to others around us we are bound to lose our competitiveness. Many children of our BN leaders are overseas, many on scholarship, thus robbing those who really need scholarships.
The education system has adversely affected Malaysians, especially the Malays. Umno has brainwashed many Malays into thinking that meritocracy is disadvantageous to them. Competition is discouraged. The behaviour of the UiTM students opposing a 10 per cent non-Malay student enrolment is proof of what Umno can do to destroy quality. The mere mention of the word “meritocracy” sends Umnoputras into a paroxysm of fear. Under globalisation, we need to produce global professionals to ensure economic survival. The Malays will be left behind if they do not wake up to what Umno is doing to them.

In Greek history, there was the Oracle of Delphi which was consulted before anything of national importance was undertaken. The Oracle always equivocated and those who consulted it had to interpret the prognostication correctly. Failure to do so would result in disaster. A man decided to prove the Oracle wrong on the spot. He clutched a little bird in his fist with only its beak showing between his thumb and forefinger and asked the Oracle, “Is the bird dead or alive?” If the Oracle answered “Alive,” he would squeeze the bird dead; if the answer was “Dead” he would let the bird fly to prove it is wrong. The Oracle’s answer was, “The bird’s life is in your hands.”
Dear voters in Permatang Pauh, the life of the nation is in your hands. Never before and, I believe, never again will such a great honour, indeed such a great responsibility, be accorded to a single constituency to decide the political future of our nation. I hope and pray that the voters in Permatang Pauh will rise to the challenge and not let a hopeful nation down. A very huge vote for Anwar will be the best mandate for change.