Real Change in Malaysia
Guest Commentary
REAL CHANGE IN MALAYSIA — WHEN THE OLD GUARDS MAKE WAY FOR THE NEW ONES.
by Mansor Puteh.
Everyone likes to talk about change that we need in the country. For many non-Malays, the changes they desire are readily predictable, like wanting to see a non-Malay becoming Prime Minister. No non-Malay however, wants to make way for a Malay to be the Chief Minister of Penang, which is the more likely possibility than the prospect of a non-Malay becoming Prime Minister.
One would not even dare ask if there is any possibility for a Chinese woman to become Prime Minister of Singapore. Indonesia and Philippines have both elected a woman as president, despite those countries being less developed economically, though not politically. Perversely in Singapore, the opposite happens; their economic development did not usher in commensurate political advancement.
Change to the non-Malays must mean Malays losing more grounds, while the Chinese keep whatever they have and more, like having road signs in their language even though there is no such directive in our constitution. However, I do not wish to engage in such petty displays of amateur political analysis.
Instead for me, the real change that Malaysia should have is when the entire group of old guards make way for new ones, on both sides of the political divide. We have seen enough of the old guards already. Their style is old; some have not said anything new in the last few decades! The only reason they survive is because their respective parties do not dare replace them with new and more capable ones.
Without mincing words, I wish the likes of Nik Aziz, Hadi Awang, Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh, plus Mahathir and others in Barisan would move on to better pastures, that is if they could find them anywhere in the world.
In the same vein, I wonder why our Members of Parliament are only part-timers. Many are lawyers with full-time practices or senior officials of major corporations. How could they be Members of Parliament and be practicing lawyers at the same time? They cannot do justice to both vocations.
Where in the world can we find legislators who are also CEOs of major corporations or lawyers with active practice?
They all should retire and spend the next phase of their lives teaching at universities locally or abroad, that is if there is any university that would wish to accept them since they may not have enough knowledge or insight to share with their students. The least I want for them is to go to Sungai Buloh.
What else can we offer them as they have already done everything? For that matter, I wish Raja Petra too would do other things. He has had his day, and Malaysians owe a lot to him.
Yes, the New Malaysia needs a new group of more dedicated political and other leaders, including academia as well as the corporate, social, cultural and economic sectors.
I was a rookie reporter with Utusan Melayu, now defunct, when I first came to know of the likes of Rais Yatim, who was then a Deputy Minister. More than thirty years later, he is still around in politics, doing pretty much the same things he did decades before.
I wonder if there is a future for these dinasaur political leaders like Syed Hamid, Rafidah Aziz, Kit Siang and the others, including those in PAS such as Nik Aziz and Hadi Awang? It seems that we cannot do without them today. Will our country be worst off if we do not have them around?
The truth is most if not all of them can never go anywhere else. The world has little use for their talent, experience and capability. Hence their need to be around here to do the things they have been doing unchanged all these decades.
Whereas in real democraties, leaders and politicians from both sides of the divide move on if they have been around for more than a term or two. They do not hang around and try to sound as if they are new to the scene.
If in their delusion they wish to compare themselves to Barack Obama (as the agent for change in America) – and there are some who wish to emulate him – I have this to say. Obama did not lose any election; his wife is not running for any political office; and Obama did not ask her to take over his senate seat he resigned after winning the presidential elections last November.
Obama is a genuine new face, so people could trust him. He did not go around America to speak in ‘ceramahs’ to denounce just about everybody and everything as a matter of habit.
Here in Malaysia, many politicians from both sides who have lost countless elections still insist on staying on to try their luck in the next election or by-election. They have no shame!
A politician who loses once should consider himself to be useless to the cause of the country. If he were to stay on, then we can only conlcude that they are solely concerned with their personal welfare rather than that of the people whom they allege to care for.
There have been a few who had been convicted and had to spend time in prison. Can they really claim that they are doing that on a matter of principle? Or are they just being vain and seeking personal glory?
One would not be wrong to say that Malaysia is being held hostage or to ransom by these dozen or so personalities who do not seem to know what else they can do with thier lives, or do not know where else to go. I feel sorry for them for delusion in thinking that they are still good for the country.