Remembering Tun Razak
[Note: I am posting this today instead of on the usual Sunday to remember the death of a great Malaysian 30 years ago . MBM]
Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein
(March 11th 1922-January 14, 1976)
Thirty years ago on January 14, 1976, our nation was stunned with the sudden and unexpected announcement of the death of its Prime Minister, Tun Razak. He was only 53 years old, much younger than some UMNO Youth leaders. It turned out later that only the announcement was unexpected.
The Tun had been suffering for a few years from a lethal form of cancer. His physicians and advisors had kept that news secret not only from the citizens but also presumably from his family. This great patriot died in a foreign land among strangers and without his loving family at his bedside.
I had always wondered what advice the Tun’s physicians and closest advisors gave him when they knew the end was near. I could not fathom why he and they did not take the nation into their confidence and share the grim news of his serious illness much earlier.
As a surgeon, I am intimately involved in the care of my patients who are at the end of their life. When death is imminent, I always apprise them and their families of the sad reality so I could discern their wishes. I do everything possible to comply with their requests.
Inspiring Role Model
Tun Razak’s death came a few days after I returned to Malaysia with the intention of staying permanently. I had been away for over a decade; he was the reason for my returning.
A few years earlier I had finished my training and started my private practice abroad. I also had a young family on the way, and life was good. However I had the unsettled feeling that I was not quite ready for the life of a suburbanite with a station wagon and a dog, together with a cottage at the lakeside.
Longing for my roots, I began reading about Malaysia, and came upon a sympathetic article on the late Tun. While hitherto my heroes had been the brilliant scientists and legendary surgeons I work with, now I had someone from my own culture to look up to.
I was impressed by the Tun’s outstanding achievements at Malay College, where he excelled academically as well as on the playing field. Later as a brilliant young civil servant, his British superiors recognized his talent and sent him to Britain to read law.
Looking over his early life, I could not help but admire his willingness to give up what seemed like a very promising and secure career in the civil service to pursue the then highly unpredictable and uncertain field of politics. Many of its practitioners had ended up being jailed, exiled, or worse.
Even more admirable, the Tun could just as easily have stayed back in Britain and started a lucrative practice as a barrister there, or applied his considerable managerial and executive talent working for one of the British corporations. He could have had a very rewarding career over there.
That he opted not to do so and returned home to serve his country inspired me to do likewise. I was unabashedly modeling myself after him except for this very significant difference. I had no love for politics; I would serve in my chosen profession instead.
Nearly two decades earlier, the Tun had visited my old school in Kuala Pilah and had exhorted us, especially Malay students, to opt for the sciences. Fortunately, science, especially medicine, is my passion, and I will serve in that field. That they were then too few Malays pursuing the sciences only increased my resolve to do my part in remedying the situation.
When I returned I settled my young family in my parent’s home in Seremban while I was busy making frequent day trips to Kuala Lumpur to arrange for my job. I had greatly underestimated the ability of the Malaysian bureaucracy to throw hurdles on my path. As one of the few Malay surgeons then (or even now), I had expected a welcome just short of that reserved for the return of the prodigal son. Far from it!
It was after a frustrating trip to the Ministry of Health that I returned to my parent’s home only to be stunned by that tragic news of the Tun’s death. I felt as if the air had been sucked out of me. There was a sudden emptiness in me. The tribulations I had earlier with the recalcitrant civil servants at the ministry seemed so trivial.
Enduring Legacy
Tun Razak saw early the importance of investing in his people as shown by his commitment to rural development and to education. On looking back, the one sight that I took very much for granted during my youth in the 1950s was the ubiquitous building of new schools especially in rural areas. I also remember seeing the joy in the eyes of illiterate villagers who could now read the daily papers, thanks to the adult literacy classes started by Tun Razak. He also expanded Malay education hitherto available only at the primary level, right up to the university.
His education policy was not without blemish. While he modernized education in the Malay language, but others read that as a signal for them to ignore English. While he could restrain the more extremist language nationalists, his successors were more than eager to pander to them.
His modernizing education in the Malay stream encouraged many Malays to pursue their education. The Tun however was pragmatic; he sent his own children to English schools, in Britain no less. Others may charge hypocrisy, but I am certain that his children are grateful that their father had chosen for them a superior education despite the considerable political risks he would incur.
It was the Tun, together with Indonesia’s Adam Malik, who ended the totally unnecessary and utterly destructive konfrontasi that had wasted so much resources and energy from the two nations. Both leaders successfully overcame the egotistic stubbornness of their superior (the Tunku for the Tun, and Sukarno for Adam Malik) and quickly came to an agreement.
A few years later, the Tun would once again be the nation’s savior, literally. It was he, and not the hapless Tunku, who brought law and order – and then peace – following the nation’s most harrowing experience, the 1969 race riots.
Two of the Tun’s greatest legacies deserve deeper scrutiny: The New Economic Policy (NEP), spawned immediately following the 1969 riots, and the Government-Linked Companies (GLCs).
In the NEP, the Tun implicitly recognized that economic growth alone, unless accompanied by social and economic equities, would be very destabilizing and thus not sustainable. In this, he anticipated the thinking of progressive development economists by decades. Today it is the accepted wisdom.
When he formulated the NEP, the Tun did not hesitate to challenge accepted orthodoxy. Today, a generation later, we must again emulate the Tun’s boldness in challenging the status quo in revamping the successors to the NEP.
Similarly, establishing the GLCs was the Tun’s creative way to overcome the creakiness and rigidities of the civil service. It was also his recognition that the prevailing economic milieu then in Malaysia was far from being truly competitive. He used the power of government through these GLCs to open up the market and break down the de facto monopolies then in existence. The role played by his GLCs is a far cry from the resource-consuming and corruption-ridden variety in existence today.
I had never had the privilege of meeting the late Tun. Yet thirty years after his death, reminded by his many achievements and enduring legacy, I am still inspired by this great Malaysian. He was truly a Razak, the tireless servant of Allah, and the devoted and loyal servant of his beloved nation.
January 14th, 2006 at 11:19 am
In instituting NEP Tun Razak and his “back room boys” were revolutionaries… they went against orthodox economic thinking…. I wonder how many of the younger generation understand the message behind Senu Abdul Rahman’s Revolusi Mental ?
But M Bakri… I think the term GLC is quite recent…. Back in those days (in 70s), the govt if it creates a company it would be totally govt owned. In Malaysia, I think the term GLC (which means partial privatisation) may start with Mahathir’s privatisation policies.
Perhaps your definition of GLC is different.
January 14th, 2006 at 2:35 pm
..but not the son najib. najib is naughty, likes to book himself into hotels for a massage ..and more. he and me happened to share the same favourtie masseuse. he married a royal member of the kelantan royal family and then left her for a divorcee, the temptress rosmah (who divorced his high school sweetheart after so many years of marriage - whose vices included collecting shoes like imelda marcos). together they would shop at harrods in london -one day the harrods kept open for her to finish her shopping! najib was then defence minister negotiating lucrative contracts with the british government on behalf of UMNO actually, for the 2% kickback that would go to the coffers of UMNO to finance the general elections.
of course, politicians would take the opportunity to also line their own pockets in the process.
January 14th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
each time the couple goes overseas on official trips they would return with tankerloads of personal belongings.
January 14th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Hi All,
I have my songkok in hand and my right hand over my heart when I say that Tun Abdul Razak was a good leader, honest and forthright, with a vision and a plan. He had, to his great fortune, a pool of like-minded but younger cohorts that he could count on to think out and implement government policies. These young turks were responsible for some of the more lasting policies that shaped our nation. As always, the good die young, and it was unfortunate that the Tun was taken away from us when he was, with many more missions and policies still to see the light.
Together with YM Tg Razaleigh, Pak Lah still has one of the brighter young turks, Dato’ Shahrir Samad (though no longer young) to seek counsel from. I wonder if the PM does that.
However, the Tun’s most important legacy is the NEP, which, in its original, unedited, un-adlibbed form was a true instrument of affirmative action. As always, the implementation side of things left a lot to be desired. This is not to say it failed; it could have been implemented better and on a more equitable note.
The NEP was a bold, necessary move, not necessarily the most popular move. And it has helped Malaysia move forward and become a model for like-minded nations in Africa and other places as they too seek their place in the sun.
That was then, this is now.
We need to rediscover the boldness that powered and drove the will of Malaysia’s 2nd PM and use it to quell the inept way the country is being ruled now.
Too many crocodile tears have been wept regarding our great Nation’s inability to reign in our bereaucratic civil service and the bully boys that run our administrative and political organizations.
You know,
It has been 48 years since we rose from being colonized to being independent but I believe we have somehow replaced the colonials by a rule of ‘the elite’ who continue to ‘ape’ people long gone and their lifestyles.
I do not decry the physical symbols of wealth and status that our leaders, both corporate and political, eschew but I have a question to raise: “in your stewardship of our national wealth and continued independence, have you ever thought of treating the people that appointed/elected you as partners instead of subjects?”
We are no longer the 3rd world country we once were and the populace is quite able to rationally think and act, qualities that are important in a multi-racial melting pot that is Malaysia. Consult us on the way the majority wants things done, and have a care for the minority too. We do not want a case of “Menyusu Monyet di Hutang, Anak diRumah Kelaparan”.
In a way Malaysia’s brand of democracy has, time and again, failed us, her people, because the system allows those we elected in free elections (arguable point, this) to rule - and not represent -us.
Despite the 48 years, our ‘ruling class’ has not quite recovered from their colonial hangover. The people we have elected have not developed the idealogy, the attitudes and the institutions which would change us, the average Malaysians, from subjects to partners.
January 14th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
i meant to say ‘menyusu monyet di hutan’ not ‘di hutang’ - a Freudian slip, as it is, my personal gearing is an issue i am committed to lower this year. ha ha…
January 14th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Hello kulimboy,
welcome back.
Hutang is a global issue and I hope you will succeed in containing (is reducing a better word?) yours.
I was not fortunate to live during the Razak era. What I know of him are only things that I read as a student of history. So far, he has been judged kindly.
Sam, why take issue on Najib, and that too based on hearsay and malicious rumours?
If those contentions were true, on a lighter note, we may have ourselves a Kennedy in Putrajaya, and the administration may prove to be a tad more colorful than the present!
Happy New Year to all and may the Year of the Dog be good.
yours sincerely
myra
January 15th, 2006 at 12:22 am
Dr. Bakri,
I have tried very hard to dig deep into my reserves to justify the accolades you have heaped on the Tun. He changed the historical landscape of this country, for worse. It is very convenient to say that his NEP was meant to be fair to all, irrespective of race but implementation was something else. However, looking at the Tun as a person and the policies he implemented, he personifies the ills of what we face today. It will be a lame excuse to say that he never intended the NEP to be a prejudiced piece but he is what the NEP is, in all its manifestations of the several problems we face today. He is the architect of the decadence we face today.
Perhaps, some of us have short memory indeed but some of the racially inclined blunt pronouncements he made at the time paved the way for the structural demise of a nation. Malaysia would never be the same again. May he rest in peace but he did mellow towards the tail-end of his life, partly, I belief, due to his illness at the time.
As I have always mentioned in this blog, the NEP was a novel idea, at least in the way it was told to us but we now recognise its failures. To say that the Tun would have never intended it to be the way we accuse it of now is sadly hypocritical. The servants did what the master intended, all along.
Each of us have our own iluminaries in our hearts and annals. The Tun will never be in mine.
January 15th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Dear fair Malaysian,
I have the honour and oportunity to work in one of the GLC that the Tun created and have seen and heard him speak and work. If you compare him and the current batches of Ministers, they are mere tailings.
You must remember that the NEP was formulated after May 13 and if this were not done we may ,perhaps not be able to exchange views on this site!!The NEP interpretes the social contract that was made during independence, and if it has not achieved integretion it is not because of the Tun’s vision but due to its implementation and later leaders.
The NEP was supposed to be implemented through several vehicles, created during that time and if it had been allowed to function as its founders wanted it to be and not shred to bits through privatisation; and if the Tun had had a longer life I believe that Malaysia could have been a better place.
To me the structure of the NEP and its breakdown was due to the Mahathir era, where greed was the motto and social considerations were thrown into the rubbish bin. Under the guise of the NEP, this era saw a few people become filthy rich and the masses retrogressed. This would never have happened with the NEP that the Tun envisaged. His vission was to improve the livelihood of the poor Malays,not to make the already rich, millionaires by giving them contracts on a silver platter.
The Mahathir era created Malay millionaires who are both selfish and greedy and who do not even think about others or help anyone. Even some non Malay cronies were given the same accord as a trade off. This privatisation process was in fact done under the guise of the NEP. This was what went wrong.
The Tun would never have agreed to this.
I dont think I can say the same about hs sons.
January 15th, 2006 at 8:26 am
myra
what i said about the son, najib tun razak, is not heresay.
January 15th, 2006 at 8:27 am
P.S>
but to compare the guy to jack kennedy is a stretch.
January 15th, 2006 at 8:38 am
myra
some of the stories i told is first hand knowledge - not heresay, first hand heresay or second hand hearsay.
the rest came directly from special branch persnonel attending to his personal needs.
there are more juicy details which i dont care to share
January 15th, 2006 at 9:00 am
fair malaysian
NEP is a misnomer to begin with - there is nothing new about the policy in the sense it was conceived in haste from the smouldering ashes of may 13.
it was a recognition of the failure of the tunku administration to address the issues.
i think your words about the tun are too harsh.
think - at the time of may 13, i was an undergrad at MU. the only university then had less than 40% malay students and all of them were concentrated in the faculty of malay and islamic studies. nothing wrong with that? i am not suggesting it was not anybody’s fault — if at all, it was anybody’s fault it was the malays themselves. but they were not alone - the system has everything to do with it.
the NEP only gave and received a wider and more public recognition to a ‘policy’ that was already there - but was not being implemented with the kind of vigour and urgency that the times needed them to be implemented.
tun razak was not the architect of the NEP - perhaps he was its engineer. it had its roots in art 153 of the federal constitution.
January 15th, 2006 at 9:08 am
p.s.
having said that, we must remind ourselves that the NEP is many different things to different people.
fair malaysian, may have had unpleasant personal experiences which he wrongly attributed to policy considerations of the government which could be traced back to the NEP and its ‘architect’.
if fair malaysian feels it is the federal constitution that is at fault, then he needs to address it as such.
January 15th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Well, it’s nice that Bakri has a hero in Tun Razak. I do not want to make any other comment on Tun Razak except that he is not a hero to me. But granted, the problems that beset Malaysia could be bigger than any one individual could solve, so maybe he was just a victim of his circumstances.
I find it interesting Bakri wrote that he is a hero to him and Fair Malaysian said he is not a hero. To me, I share Fair Malaysian’s sentiments. But I can, of course, see why he is a hero to Bakri.
It’s funny, how to Malays, the NEP means getting ahead and to the non-Malays, it means being denied.
Some people say the NEP was basically good but failed in execution. But no amount of gift wrapping will change the fact that NEP had a racist agenda, a very dangerous element in a multi-racial society. Rather than forging a race blind society, the NEP was a program that brought race into the spotlight like never before and opened the floodgates for a host of other race based abuses.
But a lot of non-Malay unhappiness is not just about the NEP. It’s about how the nation perceives itself and how its citizens are treated unequally according to that perception.
The solution to all this fighting over the NEP, Malay education and Malay supremacy doctrines, I think lies in the examination of the history of Malaysia.
Under British control from 1786 to 1957, the Chinese and the Indians were brought in to develop tin mines, rubber estates, towns and trading ports.
Many generations of Chinese and Indians shed blood, sweat, tears and even their lives in the malarial swamps to accomplish this. When the British left, their legacy was a country that was #1 in tin and rubber export, one of the finest universities in Asia, one of the highest per capita incomes in Asia, a living standard the envy of other countries in Asia, an effective civil service, a significant asset in its English speaking populace, a respected media (I understand that the Straits Times was even available in South America!) and so on and so forth. (But look at Malaysia today, fallen so far behind Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan. Even Thailand and Vietnam look set to surpass us in the not too distant future! And let’s not even talk about India, China and Japan)
From the Malay perspective, especially the UMNO perspective, the non-Malays were an unwelcome intrusion. They were not invited by the UMNO-Malays (I used this disctinction because I don’t want to generalize the Malay population). They are expected to be grateful for not being deported back to their home countries despite investing their lives and the lives of their children to build up the country. They are seen as a threat to the UMNO-Malays. They are expected to allow the UMNO-Malays to dominate the government, to accept oppression for the sake of UMNO-Malay advancement, and be docile and unquestioning. The UMNO-Malay mindset is that Malaysia belongs to the UMNO-Malays and the non-Malays have to accept second class citizenship - basically, pay taxes but don’t expect to have the same rights as the UMNO-Malays.
But of course, non-Malays, especially the non-Malays born after 1957 will see things differently. First of all, they did not choose to come to Malaysia, especially not with its present system of government. It is not their fault that the British, more than one hundred years ago, brought in so many Indians and Chinese and made the UMNO-Malays feel insecure. It is not their fault that many of the immigrants, with the permission of the British, toiled to be successful and that made the UMNO-Malays felt threatened by it. And since when did success become something you have to be punished for instead of celebrating? It is not their fault that English is the dominant language of science, technology, commerce, diplomacy and just about any branch of knowledge and has been entrenched in Malaysia since 1786. They feel puzzled that the UMNO controlled government (let’s not kid ourselves that MCA or MIC matter in the least) talks with a forked tongue - asking Malaysians to be united and at the same time asking the non-Malays to accept second class citizenship and then Tun Razak’s own son brandishes a kris and talks about chinese blood on it to emphasize the point. To them, this is a contradiction.
They can’t understand why the government is hell bent on destroying the system of government left behind by the British, a system that Singapore kept, enhanced and used to become one of the richest, cleanest, most well planned, most advanced, competitive and admired countries on earth despite being just a rock the size of Langkawi island.
No - there’s a lot that does not make sense to the non-Malays. And Tun Razak’s actions is only one of them.
January 15th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
bintang
i am overseas and i dont read the papers.
you said
“…and then Tun Razak’s own son brandishes a kris and talks about chinese blood on it to emphasize the point.”
is this a fact??? it was not hussein onn’s son who brandished the keris to emphasise his point? there was a picture of someone brandishing the kris with his mouth wide open. i couldn’t hear what he was saying. was he warning the chinese that the malays were prepared to fight to the death or something like that - to defend their rights??
he couldn’t be saying that - as he is in league with a chinese owned bank which gives him millions of dollars to finance his business?? so for whose consumption was that speech meant??
January 15th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
bintang
the NEP is not meant to be a zero sum game.
January 15th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Dear Bintang, Fair Malaysian et al
For me, Tun Razak’s NEP was necessary as well as time limited in which he recognised the problem of ongoing systematic affirmative action.
It was I repeat necessary, the problem was also the manipulation of all by those who wanted power not for the sake of making a difference in the ordinary lives of its citizens but for entrenching only a select group within the targeted populace.
The problem was one the implementation and that it in the end only entrenched that particular segment.
Please note the facts, the main issue was to educate all, eradicate poverty and to eradicate identification of wealth by community.
However, the problem which occurred here and also in USA, people need results and preferably quick fix. Hence, for education, using through train
system, rather than remedial classes and lax testing or biased testing. This is one example.
Hence, Tun Razak to me is a respected leader.
Regards
Ajohore
January 15th, 2006 at 8:56 pm
Fair Malaysian, what about Lee Kwan Yew or Lim Kit Siang? I need your comments!
January 15th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
“Only the GOOD die young & the EVIL seem to live forever”
January 15th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
The NEP was supposed to be fair to all. The intention seemed good at that time. The other races - the chinese, indians, eurasians, kadazans and others didn’t mind if it was to the poor ordinary malays and most importantly, keep the nation’s peace. But as always, there were loopholes in its implementation thus giving a selected group of greedy umno cronies a free run to amass great wealth while the rural malays remain just as poor, life just as hard and nothing much has changed.
While our great leader the past 20-odd years run crocodile tears in public ever so often, throwing blame, blast the poor rural malays for their indifference, inedequacies, laziness and inability to comply, nothing was done to look inside the NEP, where it went wrong, plug loopholes and rectify the situation.
Tun Razak must be rolling in his grave; I don’t think he would have expected the way things turn out today 49 years on. Sad to say the rot goes on.
January 15th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Oops, sorry correction:
” ….others didn’t mind if it was to help the poor ordinary”
January 15th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
bintang,
I like what you wrote, it’s true and well put.
One correction though - the kris-guy was Krishammuddin, …..oops Hishammuddin s/o Tun Hussein Onn and not Tun Razak. Well, you can say he’s Tun Razak’s nephew.
January 16th, 2006 at 12:50 am
There’s a fair bit of nagging about NEP, but please remember the original NEP (New Economic Policy) was on a 20-year timeframe (1970-1990), so Tun Razak obviously, perhaps, did not see it as something that should be a permanent fixture of Malaysian life, and that those entrusted with the execution must ensure NEP achieved its stated targets. Current NEP (National Economic Policy) is a different “animal”, perhaps even a 300 lbs “monster”(?) behind the economy’s back. Had Tun Razak lived a little bit longer maybe we see a better outcome of NEP. We can never and will never know…
January 16th, 2006 at 1:12 am
Hantu gigi jarang:
I believe the instant discussion is on the late Tun Razak and neither on Lee Kwan Yew nor Lim Kit Siang. I will share my views on them when and if Dr. Bakri decides to bring them into this arena. We have to understand that this is Dr. Bakri’s blog and he calls the shots, and rightly so.
January 16th, 2006 at 7:42 am
Observer said: “is this a fact??? it was not hussein onn’s son who brandished the keris to emphasise his point? ”
Here is the information I got from wikipedia where it names Najib (who is Tun Razak’s son I believe) as the one who called for a soaking of the keris with chinese blood:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Malays_National_Organisation
“The Youth wing in particular is known for what some call radical and extremist defense of ketuanan Melayu; one opposition journalist has contended that all UMNO Youth leaders were “perceived as pro-Malay, anti-Chinese in their days”. One oft-cited instance of this is a rally held by UMNO Youth shortly before Ops Lallang in 1987, where future Deputy Prime Minister and then UMNO Youth Chief Najib Razak threatened to bathe a keris (dagger) with Chinese blood. [5] At the same rally, banners were hoisted carrying phrases such as “revoke the citizenship of those who opposed the Malay rulers”, “May 13 has begun” (referring to the May 13 racial riots in 1969), and “soak it (the keris) with Chinese blood”. [6]”
Interestingly enough, I also found this:
“A series of Malay congresses were held, culminating in the formation of UMNO on May 11, 1946 at the Third Malay Congress in Johor Bahru, with Datuk Onn Jaafar at its head.
However, membership in UMNO was and continues to be limited to members of the Malay (bumiputra) race, and Onn Jaafar’s attempt to change this policy and the party’s name into the United Malaya National Organisation was rejected in 1951. Onn Jaafar resigned in protest, but his role was taken up by Tunku Abdul Rahman who steered the country to independence in 1957.”
and this:
“The Tunku’s speech when he became UMNO President would also have clashed with ketuanan Melayu, as he stated that “For those who love and feel they owe undivided loyalty to this country, we will welcome them as Malayans. They must truly be Malayans, and they will have the same rights and privileges as the Malays.”
Hmm….. what happened? My guess is that there are actually many Malaysias. There is the Kelantan Malaysia, the Selangor Malaysia, the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, the Penang Malaysia, Sabah Malaysia, Sarawak Malaysia and briefly a Singapore Malaysia. There is not much in common among them - someone in Kuching would not likely identify with someone in Kota Baru who would not identify with someone in Kuala Lumpur who would unlikely be able to identify with someone from Kangar. The UMNOputra part of Malaysia has decided that they must be supreme over others. Over time, this mindset lead them to believe that it is normal for one human being to have more rights than his neighbour. If this is indeed the case, the non-Malays should never have been allowed to stay in Malaysia as to declare one race supreme over another is a terrible stain on humanity. It would have been better to have found a home for non-Malays elsewhere where they can live in freedom than to keep them in servitude. My guess is back in 1957, the non-Malays had already put down deep roots in Malaya, some having lived here for generations and had nowhere else to go. I’m sure they never imagined, perhaps too optimistic in the bucolic setting of old colonial Malaya and the euphoria of independence, that their children and grandchildren would grow up to be 2nd class citizens, discriminated against because of their race and religion.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:05 am
The NEP I think was necessary as no nation can have a majority who own only 3% of the wealth. any non malay(I’m one) who think he could have been better off, should look at the chinese in Indonesia or Vietnam. what happen to the chinese in Vietnam, boat people? whose house was damaged during the 1997 crisis in Indonesia. The NEP was to address the poverty issue regardless of race. I was too young for Tun Razak’s time but from what I know the man did a great job. The NEP was after all for 20 years. Unfortunately Dr.M and the rest knew to play the game which needed money. And they have abused the NEP for soley that purpose and today others are doing it. And they are really making the non malay Malaysians feel like second class. The non Malays are as Malaysian as anyone and will defend this country but asked to leave the country by BN MP. The current govt should not make the same mistake made in 1969 and think that there is racial harmony and that all will be well.
and yes I remember the najib incident with a keris. It happended at the a stadium(TPRC?) in Kampung baru. But he didn’t get picked up in Ops Lallang.Why? guess he was doing his part as Umno Youth radical and too get some mileage. was it trully him, radical?( More likely a womaniser) No but he did it anyway for political mileage. My respect to the Tun but not for najib or Hisham. they need keris to justify their man hood and get support!!
January 16th, 2006 at 9:12 am
stadium is TPCA ..sorry.
January 16th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Sam,
I meant that having Najib in Putrajaya would give the city (and Malaysia perhaps) some color and excitement. I did not mean to equate Najib with Jack in the grey matter department.
I have not heard from my esteemed friends Din, kampongboy, Benta, FZ regarding the Tun Razak issue. IS the late Tun Razak a hero in your books? and did Tun Mahathir really mess things up?
January 16th, 2006 at 9:37 am
Together with Tina, they must still be celebrating the founding of the Din Merican Club !
January 16th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
i knew it…! i knew it….
is that why i couldn’t get both of them on the phone?? i hear din merican is busy looking up the SPGs in bangsar.
SPG= sarong party girls (normally seen with their mat salleh partners) at pasar malam.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:45 pm
We look to the past to find moments responsible for the present situation. Truth is, the present is not all bad but it ain’t a bed of roses either. We think back to figure out what went wrong and at the same time, remembering what we have gotten right.
Can we make the right lessons?
In the aftermath of 1969, the country was thrust into a state of emergency. More than thirty-six years after the fateful day, the scar is still there. Has there been local ethnic tensions that flared up now and then, before and after May 13? ABSOLUTELY. What did the administration learn from 1969? CONTAINMENT. How is containment achieved? Strengthening the ELITE BARGAINING SYSTEM with liberal use of oppressive and draconian LAWS.
Our communities are still isolated in their own bubbles, unable to look beyond. Contact between the ethnic groups are greased by the community leaders, whom some politicians and businessmen put to good use when needed. You are a surgeon Dr. Bakri, can you tell me what is the standard of difference between an Islamic hospital and your standard hospital? This is not so much a distinction after the popularization of Islamic banking. It is a divisive and confusing branding exercise, but hey, it IS a private entity. So if a company intends to do its own branding to ride on the waves of Islamization, I suppose all we can do is to congratulate its innovative operators. I suppose there are Islamic medical procedures that are different from the western tradition that warrants separation. I wonder if non-muslim surgeons need apply at PUSRAWI. Anyway, I was accused of being a Kassim Ahmad, and when I read his work recently at free minds, I realized that how much more it is supposed to hurt if I am a muslim Malay. What we are looking at in Malaysia is the default position of a divided society. To keep peace is not to disturb this divisions. I can do what I like as long as I don’t cross some ethno-religious line. In fact, to some, I can gamble and drink myself to death, and that’s okay because I am a Chinese. That’s very reassuring.
At the end of the day, we must look at the masses. Look at the average Joe and see what they believe. They are the ones who will shape our social reality. Until we are able to affect change to that social reality, the average Joe’s stands. This doesn’t mean that there is no objective reality or Truth with a capital T. But it means that when most people believe that it was Hishamuddin Onn who was brandishing a keris and not Najib Razak, it will be so, even though the truth is Najib popularized it into an art form way back in the 1980s.
The past is not forgiving, but who cares? Right after the passing of Tun Razak, UMNO never truly healed from the succession crisis it generated. Too much or too little is done with his name, for better or worse. Can we pin every thread of downward spiral to the Tuns who has captained this ship? Frankly, what worries me more is how nostalgia serves to widen the gap between what is going on among the masses and the elite few.
I disagree that the Constitution is the problem. The problem is some have gone way out of the Constitution’s intended spirit and meaning and gave us the present Malaysia.
January 16th, 2006 at 5:01 pm
“But it means that when most people believe that it was Hishamuddin Onn who was brandishing a keris and not Najib Razak, it will be so, even though the truth is Najib popularized it into an art form way back in the 1980s.”
Nope.
It was Hang Jebat
January 16th, 2006 at 5:05 pm
Before Hang Jebat, it was Admiral Cheng Hoe - my neighbour’s ancestor, my neighbour who runs a furniture shop in taman melawati. you can get good discounts from him.
January 16th, 2006 at 6:26 pm
That piece of Malay Malacca history was a case of tyranny (of Sultan Melaka), misguided loyalty (of Hang Tuah to Sultan, and of Hang Jebat to his big bro Hang Tuah) and messed-up plans (of Bendahara for tricking Sultan into believing Hang Tuah was executed and for not telling Hang Jebat it was all a ruse and everything will be fine). And there seems to be a lot of corollary with modern Malaysia i.e. PM that becomes so powerful usurping the power of all the sultans, the executives, the legislative and the judiciary combined, the blind loyalty commanded of PM from his subjects where any hints of disloyalty - real, imagined or fabricated - are punished, and the litany of policy screw ups, NEP included…
January 16th, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Dear Myra,
Happy New Year to you.
Over exposure is not good. So I am taking a rest, but I am enjoying reading all your comments. I see Kulimboy is back, and hope he can update us on the situation in Kedah post Syed Razak, especially on rural development, malay reservation land, and “tanah berbiar” in my state.
Rural Development was close to the late Tun Razak’s heart. Our man, Badawi, is trying to be like the late Tun, under whom he served during the dark days of the National Operations Council Administration (Post 1969). Let us hope he will start doing something soon. Ah, wait for the 9th Malaysia Plan, lah.
Myra, there are no simple onliner answers to your questions as you can see in these exchanges.
Thanks.
P.S. The self styled President, Din Merican Fan Club, has a very vivid imagination indeed. Why not get real as Tina is waiting. Or go to Ipoh where Jong welcomes you with open arms.
January 16th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
HA ha, we manage to smoke him out at last, but his sidekicks are still missing!
January 16th, 2006 at 11:31 pm
I wish I had been more attentive when my history teacher taught us the part about Tun Razak. They were right, history is written by the victors - and the ruling government.
I see a lot of vitriol on display here - and targeted at a man who cannot anymore defend himself. Tun Razak may have been all that you guys say he was (for better or worse) but he did get the country on an even keel when Time magazine was crowing about “the Death of Democracy in Malaysia” in ‘69. Let’s give this man some credit.
Working in a time-sensitive decision-making firm, I realize that when we decide to invest or otherwise, the decision is made based on ‘best available information AT THE MATERIAL TIME.’
Tun Razak and his National Operations Council people reacted to the events then based on the possible scenarios that would be played out and I believe we should give thanks that he stopped things from getting further out of hand.
20/20 vision is great but this is all on hindsight. We continue to successfully build Malaysia because of the platform he left behind. True the platform may not be perfect, but we have to strive to make things work. That’s life…get lemons, make lemonades.
Dr Bakri has placed this man among his pantheon of heroes while others disagree. But would all these agreements been possible if the events that threatened to tear the country asunder and plunge it into utter chaos in ‘69 were not arrested?
We’ll never know, will we?
yours sincerely
myra
January 17th, 2006 at 3:33 am
I don’t have much problems with the NEP. The NEP was and is the correct policy to implement, IMO. I see the problems associated with it as more of a symptom, and not an underlying reason, for our problems when it comes to national unity. IMO, Article 153 of the Constitution, ketuanan Melayu and the endless harping on the social contract cause more trouble than the NEP ever can. The NEP is founded on the correct premises - ending poverty regardless of race, and giving the hobbled a chance to catch up. Ketuanan Melayu and the social contract with its quid pro quo “we give you citizenship in return for our special rights” are founded on incorrect premises - especially the belief that some people are inherently entitled from birth to something others don’t. I don’t mind having to pay a little extra to give my fellow man in the kampung a hand up. What I do mind is being told I’m a “pendatang asing” who has no right to be here or being told to balik tongsan (or cross the causeway). This is a blatant insult to my Malaysian nationality, the Malaysian passport I carry, the blue IC in my wallet, the Malaysian heart that beats in my chest, and the Malaysian belief in equality in unity I was brought up with. You want to know why so many Malaysians choose to be discriminated in White Man’s Land, or go south? It’s not because of the NEP. It’s because our right to be Malaysians has been questioned. It’s one thing to have to sacrifice for your fellow citizen. It’s another thing to sacrifice for a citizen of a country where you don’t even belong.
January 17th, 2006 at 4:49 am
rocky: “The NEP I think was necessary as no nation can have a majority who own only 3% of the wealth”
Well, I think fixation on percentages is also unhealthy. I think what is more important is that everyone in the nation should receive fair compensation for their work, can earn enough to live in dignity, can have proper housing in well maintained towns and villages and have access to proper medical care, recreational and education facilities. Creating a good quality of life for every Malaysian citizen should have been the goal and not allocation of wealth by race. NEP is fixated on this 30% thing. Why 30% and not 35% or 28%?? Why such an arbitrary number? Even within the non-Malay community, a few billionaire individuals control a large percentage of the so called non-Malay wealth. Should we punish them too with a form of NEP?
January 17th, 2006 at 7:26 am
i am disappointed with you, abang din!
are you suggesting that i should consider having a lesbian relationship with tina??? masha’allah!! may god forgive you!
i once worked in your office. we girls used to swoon everytime you walked through that door in your striped pin suit and pretty tie.
January 17th, 2006 at 7:27 am
..the ladies’ man that you were.
January 17th, 2006 at 8:48 am
“I don’t mind having to pay a little extra to give my fellow man in the kampung a hand up. What I do mind is being told I’m a “pendatang asing” who has no right to be here or being told to balik tongsan (or cross the causeway). This is a blatant insult to my Malaysian nationality, the Malaysian passport I carry, the blue IC in my wallet, the Malaysian heart that beats in my chest, and the Malaysian belief in equality in unity I was brought up with.”
johnleemk,
well said.I second what you say bro.It is an insult when they question our loyalty and our Malaysian spirit. We are born here and will die here and are willing to die for our country.We are not our grandfathers same way khir toyo is not like his father who came here in the early 1900s from indonesia.But who skimming this country of the wealth and resources? Not ordinary Malaysians
But here comes the Indonesian, gets ID and his children gets bumiputra status…and who do you think is in the stands supporting indonesia when Indonesia meets Malaysia in soccer.
Numbers are fine, some kind of target. The problem is NEP is being screwed by the Umnoputras for their own interest. what has the kampung folks get. Damn they can’t even get the donations made by us after the tsunami from the govt and can’t even get a boat. Red tape or what?
January 17th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Yes Myra… I see a lot of people vilifying Tun Razak… I don’t worry too much as they are just reactionaries… complain…complain…complain… but I don’t like them engaging in vitriolic and saying bad things about Tun Razak…. Who the hell are they to say such things… don’t they ever read history ?
But let me tell you… lets have a new NEP… I am all for it. Hey I like Chez’s idea that we should focus on the masses… the average folks… after all they are the people that populate Malaysia the most.
A new NEP…. An NEP for the masses….. let’s have affirmative action for the average Joe and Jill. let’s have affirmative action for the average Ahmad and Aminah…. A new NEP for all the ordinary kampong and city folks…
A new NEP…an NEP for you and me…An NEP for everybody…
Hey… this makes a good slogan… maybe a good political manifesto…
January 17th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
rocky
“We are born here and will die here and are willing to die for our country.”
is that why there are so few chinese in the armed forces??
“willing to die for the country”?? think again. you dont want to do that!
January 17th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Agree with Amit, we need a fresh NEP that is for all Malaysian regardless of religion, colour and creed. Why? Because I sense trouble times ahead for our economy - recession in 2007? Note the recent newspaper report of finance companies having to grapple with over RM3bn worth of bad car loans forcing them to repo. Deputy FM Ng Yen Yen sometime last year said personal bankcruptcy surged 47% between 2001 and 2004, of which the credit card related bankcruptcy rose 25%. Would be interesting to see what the stats for 2005 looks like - most likely up as personal loan defaults is on the rise, basedon BNM report on non-performing loans. We seriously need a new economic policy to bring our country back on track, promote fair and equitable wealth creation, bring the economy to the next stage of development post-industrialisation etc. Last two and a half years, consumer spending was driving the economy, but its getting tired in the legs as consumers have to carry the burden of rising inflation, and now rising interest rate, which could balloon further loan defaults. And in 2007, we’ll probably be slapped with Goods and Service Tax (GST). Rising inflation, interest rate and tax - now that’s “triple whammy” for average you and me. Now if consumers don’t spend, business would be in dire straits and the vicious cycle will propagate itself. I hate to sound so negative and spreading it around, but that’s the feeling I have right now…I’m quite sure many share the same sense.
January 18th, 2006 at 2:42 am
Thanks Myra,
I’m still very much attached to this blog. It’s just that my time does not permit me to do the thinking and the writing on this issue. But one thing for sure, Benta is a small koboi town in Pahang, the beautiful state where Tun Razak was born. I always have soft spot for any “orang Pahang”. For this reason, you can imagine what’s my position on Tun Razak.
BTW, my late father, once a very hard working rubber tapper and in the seventies, earned less than RM80 monthly, used to have a very high regard on him. We still has Tun Razak’s photo, prominiently hanged on the wall of our family house in Benta.
Insyallah, I may provide my commentary on him later.
January 18th, 2006 at 2:56 am
Bakri,
I always admired your writing but this time you sounds like “bodeking” lah. Apa macam? The winds has changed eh?
January 18th, 2006 at 5:28 am
Hey, President of Din Merican Fan cCub,
I see your patron has gone AWOL. Please forward the membership form to me at Ayer Rajah Garden, Penang. You still have my address?
Cindy
January 18th, 2006 at 8:25 am
Commander in chief: “is that why there are so few chinese in the armed forces??”
Well, I think you know the answer why. Like so many government institutions, there was a form of ethnic cleansing in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s which saw the determined push of non-Malays out in favor of increasing the number of Malays both at the rank and file and at leadership positions. That’s why you see a dramatic change in the complexion of the government if you compare say the 1960s and 1990s. That’s why non-Malays avoid government institutions, not just the armed forces - it’s the same with organizations like EPF, Bank Negara, etc etc. Over the years, the Government institutions have evolved into very hostile environments for non-Malays.
January 18th, 2006 at 4:06 pm
i am sorry, bintang, but your statement is a gross distortion of the facts - and the truth.
the truth is the chinese every where (not just in a country like malaysia with its racist policies etc) are known to look upon professions like the armed forces and the police with disdain.
the air force seems to be the exception - for obvious reasons. its members are well paid. it offers them an opportunity to make the transition to commercial pilots - yet another lucrative profession.
January 18th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
Commander in Chief,
There’s some truth in what bintang said. Btw what’s your problem?
January 18th, 2006 at 7:19 pm
dear BENTA,glad to know you are from benta,Pahang.What a small world indeed.I remember i used to cycle from my home town,KUALA LIPIS to BENTA,….what a beautiful memory!By the way,many of my friends from BENTA did their secondary in CLIFFORD,kuala lipis,are you?
January 18th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Living in a country such as Malaysia is not as simple as a ‘football game”, where a level playing field is to ensure there’s always a winner and a loser and a draw, if any, is something undesirable except probably, for certain strategic reasons.
I believe the Malays dont like the NEP either! For them, NEP will not exist if this country is not multi-racials! But that’s history! Going forward, all Malaysians should be more concerned on the implementation rather than questioning the spirit of the NEP itself, as envisioned by Tun Razak.
January 18th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Dear Cindy,
You are in Penang!! Do you still throw oranges near Gurney Drive or the Esplanade during Chap Goh Meh? During my time, young Chinese maidens were hoping to get good and rich hubbies and in exchange, they offered oranges. Not a bad deal. That was quite a traditional thing to do.
I remember being in the sea (in my swimming trunks, of course, as to do otherwise I would have been caught and hauled by our moral policemen), waiting to collect those oranges for resale and personal consumption. Those were the days of 1950s, the times of Pat Boone, Elvis Presley, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Ricky Nelson, Johnny Mathis, and the great P. Ramlee, Jimmy Boyle, and Ahmad Daud. Doris Day, Patti Page and Lulu, too!!
I have nothing really extra to add to Dr. Bakri’s article on the late Tun Razak. Hence my silence. I admired the late Tun. He was one of the heroes of the time of my youth. Apart from Tun Dr. Mahathir, I think the late Tun Razak was a great Malaysian Prime Minister who tried hard to develop the Malays.
The late Tun also had a very progressive and enlightened Foreign Policy. He negotiated the end of the Indonesian Confrontation with Tun Adam Malik who was General Soeharto’s Foreign Minister, opened the Gates of China, and started our engagement with non-Aligned Third World Movement. He was one of the architects of ASEAN. Unfortunately, he died young and because of that, we will never know what his true legacy is. He is, however, being remembered as “Bapak Pembangunan” today, that is when we do not engage in selective amnesia.
The early years of Malaysian Independence (1960s) were difficult and trying times. The Tunku thought those times were “happy times”. But not Tun Razak and his trusted lieutenant, the tough and principled Tun Dr. Ismail, and their team of excellent Civil Servants. They had to deal with the Emergency, problems of integrating Singapore into new Federation while restructuring the economy (NEP), Sukarno’s Crush Malaysia campaign, and the consequences of America’s massive military intervention in Vietnam. The whole region was unstable since Communism was gaining ground. The Cold War was on with ferocious intensity.
At the risk of exaggeration, I would say that project Malaysia was at risk with simmering domestic racial tensions which eventually led to the May 13, 1969 riots. The late Tun Razak was our man of the moment, ever reliable, steadfast and reassuring.
Both the late Tun Razak and our former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir worked hard for the economic advancement and intellectual development of the Malays. They were decision makers, not procrastinators. Whose fault was it, if most Malays chose the easy route of relying on a paternalistic Big Brother for everything?
Times have changed, and we are now in the 2ist century. A paradigm shift in the way we approach Malay economic and intellectual development is badly needed. I, therefore, find the discussions on this webblog to be a means of identifying alternative approaches, although some of your comments are nothing but emotional outbursts (of therapeutic value perhaps?).
I have always maintained that the Malays need help, especially the rural Malays, but the question is how do we deliver that help in the most effective and beneficial way, one that strengthens and promotes Malay self-reliance rather one which weakens the Malays. As a conservative economist, I believe in incentive and performance based approaches, and active self-help by the Malay community itself with enabling Government policies and support.
Thanks.
January 19th, 2006 at 2:07 am
Dear lipis,
It’s nice to know that you’re “kira orang kampunglah”! I didn’t have the opportunity to study in Clifford. After my primary, I was “sent” by my late father to continue my secondary in another part of Malaysia. But I’m very much a Benta boy myself!
Cycling from Kuala Lipis to Benta is no small feat. That’s about 25 miles? But those days, boys and girls did many weird things, unimaginable by the present generation. Clifford was such a great school before, producing many great people like Siti Norhaliza. Is it still today?
I like the ambience of the train station, especially at late afternoon. I hope the authority is doing a good job in taking care of such an interesting place.
Now whenever I make a visit to Kuala Lipis, I cant help saying to myself that the town and the surrounding kampungs have really progressed as compared to those days.
January 19th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Commander in chief
in any organisation if there is certain amount of discrimination, will you join that organisation if you have a choice when you will be discriminated?In our civil service there is lots of discrimination.Look at all the snafus, cos they don’t get the right person regardless of race. Look at Singapore, the chinese are in the army etc. so are the indians and the malays. Yes there was an issue with the malay pilots. But there are significant indians there in the civil service as an example since the chinese are majority there. why was chinese and indians in the armed forces here etc in signifcant numbers before the 1980s? and there is a lot of lucrative deals in the army and police and some are below the table and some like it that way.
and look at urban Malays, are they joining the army in droves? Income has got a thing to do with it. air force, well you need skills to be a pilot and there you can be to biased on selection process
BTW you don’t need to die for you country just by being in the army. If a war does take place, rakyat has to play a role like they did in WWII or Darurat. Will the indonesians do it, especially if the opponent is Indonesia??
Back to subject, I do think Tun Razak is a great man and I’m glad we had him as a leader. Hope Najib is half the person his dad was.
January 20th, 2006 at 12:42 am
Din: “I have always maintained that the Malays need help, especially the rural Malays, but the question is how do we deliver that help in the most effective and beneficial way, one that strengthens and promotes Malay self-reliance rather one which weakens the Malays.”
Well, here are my thoughts:
1) I agree that rural areas need to be developed. I have seen rural areas in US, Switzerland and UK. Such a difference! Whatever programs are developed make it inclusive. So if there is a comprehensive rural development program say to bring up rural areas at least all in rural areas will benefit.
2) Ask for input from all Malaysians and get all Malaysians involved so it doesn’t promote an us vs them mentality. Malay development programs now are developed exclusively by UMNO so much so that many Malays think that non-Malays are unwilling to help. But that’s not true.
Good Luck!
2)
January 20th, 2006 at 5:31 am
“I was impressed by the Tun’s outstanding achievements at Malay College, where he excelled academically as well as on the playing field. Later as a brilliant young civil servant, his British superiors recognized his talent and sent him to Britain to read law.”
“Brilliant”? Bro your clever Tun scrapped through with a 3rd class at the Bar Finals. So much for your standard of brilliance..
LJ
January 21st, 2006 at 10:36 pm
Bintang,
I agree, but I am not sure that UMNO politicians can accept your position. Their party is the lead member and captain of Barisan Nasional. I do not speak for them. Thanks.