85 Responses to “UMNO the Enabler”

1. Din Merican Says:
   August 12th, 2005 at 11:59 pm

   Hidup Melayu UMNO dan pemimpin mereka. Musim tenuai kedua akan datang. Melayu lain semua hilang.

2. kgboy Says:
   August 13th, 2005 at 11:01 pm

   I made the following comments on another blog which as the questions “What’s wrong with the Malays?”

   I have been reading a lot of writings especially in blogs on racial bigotry especially that of/about the Malays. Malays are no different from other ethnics, they too are capable of many things inlcuding whatever the others are capable of. Their potentials are seldom realised much less challenged. It is simply because they are the disadvantaged lot. They are disadvantaged because they are allowed to be and in fact institutionalised ‘disadvantaged’ by the government policies. The policies that rob them of the opportunities to be exposed to the challenges of the world which are necessary to make them what they are capable of. In short, I would like to qoute this:-

   “Gold is tried by fire, brave men by adversity”
   - Seneca. Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD

   Now you understand why worldwide the immigrants are the most productive people!!!!! (Malcom Gladwell - Tipping Point) Perhaps the Chinese and the Indians in Malaysia were/are the advantaged ones being tried by adversity whether deliberate or not and this inevitably make them more prepared for the global challenges of the century. In fact if you look at the US, from sports to economy from sciecne to technology, the productive immigrants were/are undeniably the critical contributors.

   Dr Bakri, I am sure you typify those productive immigrant that is mentioned by Malcom Chadwell. There is a difference. In the US immigrants identify or allowed to identify themselves as Americans. Are the Malaysian immigrants (well, most Malaysians are no longer qualified to be known as such but the government or UMNO deliberately continues to perpetuate such categorisation for reasons best know to themsleves) allow themselves to identify themselves as Malaysians in the real sense of the word? Today, like the foreign investment coming from the US dollars surpluses of the US trading countries which are reinvested into the US economies and in return support the quality of life in domestic US, the immigrants continues to supply the US with new talents, technologies, creativity and innovation. It is like the theory of osmosis. Money and talents flow into a country which has already have plenty of them. Malaysia has a system in complete contrary to the above theory. Wealth and talents then naturally flow outwards.

   Why such absurd practice? Insecurity. Inferiority Complex. Inconfidence. Let it be a country with the tallest towers, the largest air port all other physical infrastructures. But what about the softwares? The talents who are going not only to continue build and but perpetuate such things.

   I like to qoute my favourite quote here. “If someone is hungry give him a fish you feed him for a day, teach him how to fish you feed him for the rest of his life” Why no let us be a country with an environment where people feel confident and comfortable to park their future in. Confident and comfortable to live here and contribute to its economy. Let osmosis work for us. Let the ‘water’ flow in. You notice that I do not use money. I believe when talented and innovative people flock here, money (investment) follows.

   There are quite a number of Malays like yourself, well educated, productive and most of all have a sense of right and wrong coupled with a balance worldview exposed to the ‘elements’ of the globalised world and are aware of ills afflicting their kind and concerned with the impending consequences such culture.

   I would plea you to continue and encourage more like yourself to engage others in discourse and we pray that eventually a critical mass would be achieved upon which a great nation would emerge.

3. Awang Kera Says:
   August 14th, 2005 at 12:28 am

   Dear Dr. Bakri,

   Syabas. Wake Up call for UMNO and its corrupt politicos.

   I commented on the views of Malaysians concerning the NEP/NDP/NNA debate. I was triggered by an article which appeared last week under Monday Morning Blues in http://www.malaysia-today.net. UMNO’s examplary leadership is essential but I agree with your view that the party must clean its own house first before it can lead with some moral authority.

   I send you what I wrote below:

   “The response to Din Merican’s article is quite overwhelming (38 responses). My comments have also provoked all kinds of reactions and produced useful ideas. This is not unusual since the NEP/NDP, now NNA (New National Agenda),is a controversial, difficult, and complex programme.It is also perceived as one which is pro-Malay.

   There is fear that it will remain a pro-Malay agenda, because of the keris rattling mindset of the new generation of UMNO leaders. Some people even talk of a second rape by UMNO leaders of our national largesse because UMNO, they like Dr. Bakri Musa say, is corrupt to the core.

   Because of past experiences with NEP/NDP implementation and the serious nature of the challenges we face in the era of globalisation, Khairy Jamaluddin’s NNA has been received with mixed concerns. It is contentious and if not properly managed, it can be very divisive and could undermine national unity and political stability.

   It is useful that we recall what the NEP/NDP is about. The aim of the Government under our Second Prime Minister, the Late Tun Abdul Razak, which launched the programme was to (1) eradicate poverty, irrespective of race, and (2) restructure Malaysian society to reduce and eventually eliminate the identification of race with economic functions.

   In his Forward to the Second Malaysia Plan (1970-1975), the Late Tun, now a national but forgotten icon of development, clearly stated that the Government “will spare no efforts to promote national unity and develop a just and progressive Malaysian society in a rapidly expanding economy so that no one will experience any loss or feel any sense of deprivation of his rights, privileges, income, job or opportunity…While devoting our efforts to the task of achieving rapid economic development, we need to ensure at the same time that there is social justice, equitable sharing of income growth and increasing opportunities for employment.”

   We all can still agree with what the Late Tun Razak said. But one of the major weakness of the Plan when it was introduced in 1970 was that it did not set specific quantitative targets for the attainment of the NEP Goals. This was, however, rectified in the Outline Perspective Plan (1970-1990), and subsequent Malaysia Plans.Various strategies and programmes have been introduced to implement the National Economic Agenda, which is what the NEP/NDP is about.

   An integral component was “the creation of a commercial and industrial community among Malays and other indigenous people in order that,within one generation, they will own and manage at least 30% of the total commercial and industrial activities of the country in all categories and scales of operation.” (OPP,page 62).

   The key words are OWN and MANAGE, not take and sell for quick profits. It takes hard work, strong commitment and focus to manage. It is easy to take and then sell. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to do that!! The NEP is about enhancing bumiputra capacity to manage and succeed over the long haul. It is also about bumiputra entrepreneurship, not rentiers, influence peddlers, and cronies.

   The size of the economic cake for the Malays and other bumiputras was established. Today, we have come to another crossroad with the impending release of the 9th Malaysia Plan in 2006. Should the NEP be extended because the target of 30% Bumiputra share of the national economic cake has not been met (only around 18% according to Khairy Jamaluddin and UMNO Youth)? Has it really fallen short and if so, how to proceed? We need facts to evaluate and formulate.

   With the economy slowing down due to the austerity drive by the Badawi Administration to redress the fiscal deficit and other external factors like the massive crude oil price increases (now around USD64+ per barrel), the bread and butter issues are back on the table,thereby clouding the more important mission of achieving the restructuring aspects of NEP/NDP objectives. National Unity is still an overriding consideration.

   While we are justified in being critical with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, we have to acknowledge our nation has been transformed.To day, the Malays and other bumiputras are in business (while we may argue about whether or not the bumiputra share target has been achieved), absolute poverty has been eliminated, and we are no longer a colonial backwater dependent on commodities like rubber, tin and palm oil.

   We are capable of building excellent infrastructure and export our technical and professional skills. Our businessmen have been operating overseas, exporting, and building economic stakes abroad. We have some good brand names like MAS,and PETRONAS. We must give due credit to Tun Dr, Mahathir and his economic team. The NEP/NDP is not a failure, although it may have fallen short of target(?).

   At the same time, we have to acknowledge that our education system, and public service delivery system are in urgent need of serious and drastic reform. Our private sector is still lagging behind and very dependent on patronage, although some companies have been able to do well abroad like Khazanah, PETRONAS, and MAS. As a result, the NEP/NDP is viewed negatively as weakening the Malays, albiet with some justification.

   Corruption is systemic.The “Know Who” culture is entrenched. This is because the NEP/NDP programmes, especially the major privatizations and prestige projects were implemented unfortunately to benefit UMNO elite members, their cronies and friends, including well connected Chinese and Indian politicans and businessmen.The “trickle down effects” did not occur. The less connected are still struggling to carve out a decent living.

   In short, we must adapt our people, our institutions, our systems and strategies to the requirements of a global economy, where the best can prosper, and where the weak will be protected and given the encouragement to be strong. No one should be left out.

   The devil is in the details of the execution of “Who gets What,When and How”. We are back to square one, to some extent. We have the benefit of 35 years of valuable experience and accummulated wisdom to plan our next step forward. But it is important what we have a common data base from which to start so the NNA can be carefully and realistically crafted and then implemented for the benefit of all Malaysians.

   We should ensure that the NNA is a true handicapping system, not a welfare support one. The handicap can be reviewed and eventually removed. The Malays and other bumiputras cannot expect to be helped in perpetuity. The Non-Bumiputras too need state support and as citizens they deserve it. It is possible for them to be part of the new handicapping system. The “HOW” must be implemented with equity.

   I feel that there must be the political will. We have to stop politicians from meddling with the economy. For example, having introduced the Balanced Scorecard and KPIs system, let the GLCs to operate without further interference.Let us begin our journey towards meritocracy and excellent governance.

   Civil Service reform must be our top priority. Top Civil Servants must stop behaving like politicians and return to the 1960s and 1970s when the Malaysian Civil Service was praised for its integrity and communal impartiality, not sycophancy. The Government must mobilise public support for the NNA. The country can no longer afford fiascos like Rafidah’s APs, scandals like UMNO’s Osu Sukam’s debts, and uneconomic use of our scarce resources.

   UMNO which has been given the mandate to lead must have examplary and smart leaders with the capacity to look beyond their personal interests and start serving Malaysians. I would like to see a more assertive and gutsy Prime Minister. Badawi is being given this unique opportunity to make a difference. He can if he stops being too much of a politician and start becoming a Prime Minister. Time for talk is over.

   Let me make one thing clear: I love our country. I believe that we all have huge stakes in its success. I am proud of its achievements, yet not blind to its failings and shortfalls (we are equally at fault because we are, in fact, the country). I believe we can do better for ourselves, our families and our future generations.

   Let us be the best that we can and are poised to be. Keep thinking, and also start doing”.

   Thank you

4. ck Says:
   August 15th, 2005 at 1:01 am

   Well said Awang Kera.

   Where do we start from here? You’ve mentioned a fews & I would like to suggest that we should start from a DB whether the set target of 30% of Bumi equity has been achieved over the years.

   Mr Robin Yeoh has written an article on this subject at the latest The Edege (dateline 15-22 Aug2005).

   Why this 30% quantitative parameter? Because its The Bone of contention over all the arguements about the extention of NEP/NDP/NNA.

   Only when this is clearly settled then all the politikus will not be able to game on this subject.

   ONLY then we can move on with a clear objective of what need to be done to help all the unfortunates of the nation, irrespective of race & religions. By then all the other factors like meritocracy, transparentcy, efficiency at all the level of the govt machineries will hopefully fall into place naturally.

   Schlarship & uni courses will be given to the best-fits (not necessary based on paper exams), Dept management will be placed out to the most capable, rather than the know-who selection now. The lists can go on & eventually Malaysia will prosper & Malaysian will be proud.

5. awang kera Says:
   August 15th, 2005 at 2:30 am

   Thanks ck.

   I think we should send all the politikus to Pulau Tikus to be among the rats. They have betrayed our trust, and squandered our resources.

   The Malay farmer or fisherman in the kampong is still struggling after 48 years of Independence. All the agencies which were set up to help them are the “pagar makan padi” types. They are compounding his problems. Go to Risda, Fama, Majuikan, or Bank Pertanian for help.

   The guys and gals in these agencies are in neckties and tudongs, sitting comfortably in their air-conditioned offices, thinking about how to suck up to their bosses, and get a raise or a promotion. They are so customer unfriendly. The higher up the structure you go, the more remote they are from the Malay farmer.

   These bureaucrats will often make life miserable for the Malay farmer before he can get credit or sell his produce…imagine the bureaucracy and the paper work. If we who can read and write are confused with the games these bureaucrats play, it is nightmare or maze for the Malay farmer.

   On the other hand, if he goes to village friend, Ah Kow, who knows him from the days when they were both young, Ah Kow will lend him the money (no questions asked) and will arrange the sale of his produce.

   Expect Fama to sell farm produce? They can’t even sell pisang goreng in the streets. Furthermore, they do not understand how the informal economy works. It is based on trust, not fancy titles.

   If we can’t solve the problem of the Malay farmer, how can we be glokal? We are just loco, not even local. We have to get back to basics. That is where we should start, in my view.

   Targets are meaningless, when people like Rafidah, for example, are sabotaging our national car with her indiscriminate award of APs. Give them power, politicians abuse it.

6. Din Merican Says:
   August 15th, 2005 at 2:41 am

   Sedih betul cerita awang. Apa nak buat, nasib badan, kata Allahyarham Tan Sri P. Ramlee.

7. The3rdEye Says:
   August 16th, 2005 at 9:00 pm

   Bravo! An intelligent and accurate assessment. 30 years, 1 generation is a long time for pampering. You have analysed and presented the scenario well. At one time, people with handicaps were called handicapped. Today they are refered to as special or physically challenged individuals. They now embark on all forms of initiatives to prove their net worth and also that they are not to be seen as lesser individuals. The colonial masters might have done the Malays grave injustice with their labels, but why are you accepting it lying down and taking handouts even as we approach our 48th year of Independence. Remove the crutches, abandon the wheelchairs and consolidate with the rest of people of this mighty nation and challenge the fundamentals. Remember China and India are stirring from their long slumber and going globa. Even US and Japan are beginning to fear. We on the other hand are still happy with our negative labels, handouts, lack of transparency, non-meritocratic policies and ‘divide this great nation of ours’ atitude, in order to control and conquer ourselves!

8. Spade Says:
   August 17th, 2005 at 7:03 am

   This is the most enlightened blog (besides MackZul’s and JeffOoi’s blogs) that have come out of Malaysian blogosphere of late.

   I wish UMNO and UMNO Youth leaders and members read what had been posted including comments, in here, intelligently, critically and analytically.

   This is the knowledge-based world now. It is now a world that depends on how best nations capitalised the brainpower of its people.

   We need more Malaysians and Malays in the mold of the Bakri Musa’s, the Din Merican’s and the “Awang Kera’s ” and the more enlightened Malaysians. These are the people who should shape the landscape of our thoughts, instead of keris-waving maniacs in UMNO and UMNO Youth.

   It is still not too late to wrestle back the soul of our nation from the greedy and corrupt and morally weak political leaders we have todayacross the whole political spectrum in the country.

   Then we can truly say : “We are proud to be Malaysians”

9. thquah Says:
   August 17th, 2005 at 6:57 pm

   Do you think the UMNO politikus will even dare to embark on this journey?To weed out all the bad apples.

10. goks Says:
    August 17th, 2005 at 7:01 pm

    What a wonderfull article and discussion. I for one am mad with the constant UMNO reminder that Malays lag behind and Malays need crutches to compete at level playing field! HELLOOOOO wake up! The Johor UMNO’s speech is a total disgrace and embarassment to a race that has moved up the notch so much over the last few decades!

    In my personal experiance, beign in the telco industry and having met many local operators, i MUST say here that i’ve been aquainted with tens of dozens of Malays, not a single one an underachiever! They are very intelligent and very very capable!

    If not for my current job, i would have baught UMNO’s propaganda that Malay’s are not up to the mark yet! Hey, i being non-malay, i do at times feel i lag behind some of these fine gentleman! of course, it’s my responsibility to learn and get at par! no crutches is going to help!

    I must say my dear frens that in my very small working life span of 6 yrs, in 3 different MNC’s within malaysia, the malays i have come across, at least 70-80% of them are what i regard as top 20% of the company (highly regarded individuals). This i consider very high if not norm. The ones that dont fall into this top 20% catagory, be it malay, indian or chinese, are out of one’s own doing. In specific, laziness and lack of zeal to advance in life.

    As such, to my Keris wielding gangster politicians, PLEASE for heaven sakes, do not put down the capabilities of your own race!! Beign the majority would mean the ammount of ppl who fall into the bottom 10% of the performance index will look big too. But what you need to do is what we call a performance improvement plan. If you want to help, YES DO IT but spoon feed in advice and guidance and not in crutches!

    Non-malay malaysians (i speak for myself and a few light minded frens) are all out for a balanced society and rights. The malay will continue to have our closest support if he chooses to stand on his two feet. Likewise, everyone one of us should practise the same and help those who work their way up without teh short cut!

    We must stop and correct politicians who claim that “if not kampung poverty, it’s urban poverty” . Politicians throw dumb statements like this without explanation of how it’s gauged? If one cant cut his shirt with the cloth in hand, any race would have such “urban poverty” issue.

    I’m proud to be malaysian, but as some reader in Jeff’s blogs have pointed out, it’s sad that while i’m overseas on work assignment, i’m regarded as a malaysian and back home, i’m an Indian! this given the fact that my father served 35 years in the government, i studying locally in a local you after a difficult 2 years of STPM and 3 years Military service graduating from the Malaysian Reserves Forces while i studied in a local U.

    Whats in store for my future and the futrue of my kids? If we keep having leaders who undermine every effort of their own race to progress? Will hatred perpetuated by UMNO as mentioned above continue to jeopardise racial unity?

    I hope not…

    PROUD MALAYSIAN

11. keris_always Says:
    August 17th, 2005 at 8:23 pm

    i believe the keris is a symbol of the struggle by the malays against the brits for independence in the years leading up to independence - and that symbol has been hijacked recently.

12. keris_always Says:
    August 17th, 2005 at 9:05 pm

    The old guards within UMNO are fast dying. Those that remain find themselves sadly operating in an environment alien to them and different from when they first started. They are the true patriots fighting for independence from the white men. Today these patriots have been supplanted by a new generation of Malays educated abroad impatient to accumulate wealth and power - in the name of championing Malays rights.

    The UMNO of today has metarmaphosed into something unrecognizable by those who helped found it. UMNO leaders today jostled among themselves even trampling on each other for elbow space to champion the rights of the Malays. But really they are lining their own pockets and all to often feel the need to seek legitimacy for their ‘activities’ by shouting the loudest and by leaning to the far right. They play a zero sum game with the future of our children.

    I am a Malay and I have made the United States my home because in the country of my birth there is no freedom of religion. Need I say more?

    Malays need a viable alternative to UMNO. Keadilan sadly speaking is a party tarnished by the stigma of its founder and would never be the right party to lead the country. Anwar’s credibility will always be an issue - so is the credibility of many of the Ministers today.

    Communal politics is so out of date today and serves no purpose other than to widen the chasm separating the races. Political parties based on communal lines are an anachronism and must be dismantled and abandoned. A solution must be sought and found. Find we must because the choice between oppression and democracy is never a choice.

13. Patrick the Pup Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 3:03 am

    What we want IS progress…we can’t have those elected ministers who put their personal interest above the interest of our beloved country. These morons must not be allowed to be re-elected in future

    To progress, we need to be ONE not Malay, Chinese, Indian or ‘Pendatang’

    We are all Malaysian, and we should not be differentiated by race.

    It saddened me when i read articles saying that the bumis must be this or that. It should be read as WE THE MALAYSIAN MUST BE THIS OR THAT

    We all have to do our part to establish ourselves

    Spoon feeding is not the key

    * Great comments guyz, finally I read things with substance

14. keris_always Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 6:47 am

    An Indian poster (and I used “Indian poster” as a short form and not to accentuate the racial origin of the poster) in Jeff’s blog commented ” he is first an Indian and only second a Malaysian”. That sadly and unfortunately is inaccurate. The oft repeated remark by disgrunted Malaysians of any race anywhere when they wish to make a point is that one is first a Chinese and an Indian and a Malay etc and only second a Malaysian - a distant second at that.

    What do Malaysians expect when everywhere one goes, in any corner of the country, one is confronted with signs like ‘halal’, ‘it is an offence to sell liquor to Muslims’, and when you browse through the job advertisement columns of newspapers you get to read, ‘bumis only’ ads. and of course during general elections you get signs like ‘Undilah UMNO, ‘Undilah DAP’ “Undilah MCA”, Undilah MIC’ ( and even when they do not read exactly that we all know what they really want to say) etc thrusted in your face wherever you go. Even when the signs read ‘Undilah Barisan Nasional’ we all know what they are trying to say which is ‘Undilah UMNO’ for the Barisan or National Front is so dominated by one component party that without it the Front is nonsensical - and I do not mean it as an insult to the other political parties. I do believe however in calling a spade a spade. It is not even a real Front. It is not inaccurate or false to refer to it as a rag tag band of race-based political parties which come together during general elections to hoodwink the average and the less politically astute among the voters that the Front offers the better alternative. It may be the better alternative - but not because it is fighting for all Malaysians but for each community separately. Therein lies the dilemma.

    By doing so it is widening the racial chasm. I am not so naive as to believe that racial differences can be obliterated, that we could forge a new race called ‘Bangsa Malaysia’. Race and nationality are two different things ( and as my kids would say to me “Duh”). It is futile to try to attempt to obliterate racial differences. (In fact it could be made to good use because clearly we will all be the poorer without the diversity). Malaysians will always think of themselves as first an Indian, Chinese and a Malay privately and at work. It is a choice they make daily. But when the government institutionalises or is allowed to institutionalise racism or race in its schools, the workplace, public places and even privately owned ‘public’ places like hotel lobbies then it is an insult to the intelligence of the better informed among us Malaysians, even an affront to his sensitivities I might add to announce that someone is made to feel he is first an Indian and second a Malaysian.

    To all those who are considering leaving the country of their birth for ‘greener pastures’ be they Chinese or Indian or even Malay to countries like the United States, to them I say “Give yourself another chance and your country another opportunity.” You can educate yourself, your children in foreign lands or even acquire work experience in foreign lands, have a second home but Malaysia will always be different to you. It is where you grew up playing marbles along the roadside or spinning tops, drinking teh tarik at the mamak stalls and where the favourite password is “sudah makan?”

    We grew up accepting one another, even loving one another. But somewhere along the line, some kris wielding or drum beating or bamboo wielding politician changes all that.

15. Din Merican Says:
    August 18th, 2005 at 9:32 pm

    Dear Keris_always,

    Do not be despondent. Change will come. The dinosaurs are dying in Malaysia too, and new breeds are emerging in the form of better educated and more tolerant Malaysians, and dynamic Malays. All efforts to separate us will fail. Too much is at stake for us to allow parochialism and religious obscurantism to succeed.

    I am critical of the present system, but I am also optimistic that it is twilight time for the status quo. But we must still work at it, so that change when it comes, as it must, is orderly and peaceful.My dear friend, Dr.Bakri, who I hold in high esteem, and I are in our 60s. We have not given up.

    In fact, we are still trying to bring about changes in our political system in our modest way, although we know that the UMNO guys do not give a damn about what we say, or write. But we persist in exchanging ideas with young and smart Malaysians and sharing our experiences. Your responses are most helpful to us, thank you.

    We are proud Malays and have been hurt by snide remarks about our kind. We have faith in our own kind. We know that as a race, we cannot hide behind protection forever. We also believe that we can compete and excel.

    Dr. Bakri and I benefited from an excellent education locally and overseas, funded by the Government and in my case, Bank Negara. We have served out our contracts, and paid all dues with our sweat. To get there, we competed with the our Chinese and Indian friends and others in school and at the university.

    We needed the scholarship, and earned it by doing well academically. And we think we enjoyed the competition. We are the lucky few in our time. But let us not forget that there are Malays and other Malaysians out there who still need the help, encouragement, and guidance. So affirmative yet means and performance-based action programmes are needed.

    UMNO leaders may have forgotten about their kind in the rural areas who have to toil in the heat of the sun to earn pittance. The MIC and MCA too may have neglected the Indian weeder, harvester and tapper and the Chinese vegetable farmer or his counterpart in the New Village. But Barisan Nasional politicians know that the status quo will be challenged, and they must change.

    The Barisan Nasional today has become a coalition of the rich and well connected, and to these people go the spoils of economic growth and privatization of Government assets. Their culture is a get rich quickly culture.

    Yes, they can say that there are unit trusts established by the Government to take of savings of the average Malaysian. How are they performing to today? If you have invested in a unit at RM1.00 a few years ago, today it is worth 34 sen or less in some of the State run unit trusts. What is going on? I do not blame Awang Kera for saying that our politicians are like tikus (rats). But there are pockets of excellence like in Khazanah Nasional and PETRONAS too.

    Nothing can prevent an idea whose time have come. Globalization is the new idea: it is about free flow of ideas, capital, talent and information enabled by advances in technology.The Internet, for example, is beyond the control of Governments (meaning politicians). Money move by the trillions daily across borders unimpeded at the click of a button. Books and publications are readily available, thanks to Amazon.com and e-Bay. News can be had via CNN and the other networks around the clock. Travel is relatively cheap, thanks to the Boeing 777s and the AirBus 380s.

    Those with the talent, capacity for hard work and risk taking and self-confidence know that the world is their playing field. Go out in the world and carve a niche for yourself. Compete and be a better Malaysian.

    In a real sense, politicians no longer matter. Their performance globally is dismal at best. In a democracy or an authoritarian system, it is we who make them important. In Iran, for example, the Shah of Shahs fell in 1979 because the Iranians decided that they no longer needed him. He died in Egypt, ignored by one of his strongest allies, the United States. Ferdinand Marcos succumbed to People Power in the Philippines. He too died in exile. Only politicians who listen to and serve their electorate can survive. Fortunately, this message is not lost on our politicians.

    Thanks.

16. keris_always Says:
    August 19th, 2005 at 8:19 am

    Din Merican,

    It is inspiring to listen to you impart confidence in the manner you did. However, I feel for as long as the professionals and intellectuals among the malays like yourself are satisfied just to sit behind their desks and serve as arm chair critics and be bystanders to opportunities which represent themselves once in every 50 years, perhaps seeking to influence and provide the much needed stimulus to change from the outside (which you contend must come now that we live in a world of the internet and free flow of ideas and of course globalisation which is the product of it) I am afraid I cannot say I share the same confidence and optimism. The change you speak of will come but will be so painfully slow as the new ‘old guards’ are “phased out” through the process of natural selection. Can we afford the time? No. Because there is no certainty that change will come - and of course by ‘change’ we mean change for the better. A change in the status quo could go both ways.

    The issue that troubles all of us is that it is no longer whether corruption exists at such a level that it is allowed to gnaw at the foundation of nation building which is frail to begin with - built upon the so-called consensus among the races which gave rise to the federal malaysian constitution of 1957. In fact it is no exaggeration to say that corruption has been allowed to obtain a stranglehold in our daily lives to such an extent that we read with disgust about the activities of the Malay okb who openly flaunt their wealth. Dont get me wrong. I have nothing against those who became rich as a result of their own entreprenuership - but only against those who acquired wealth at the expense of the rakyat. Included in this group are not only those who benefitted from ‘cronyism’, ‘nepotism’ but also those who benefitted from the government’s affirmative action policy who shouted the loudest in demonstrations within the university campus of the 60s, imbued with socialist ideals, acting to the dictates of malay nationalism - a narrow one at that but only to betray them when they left their institution of higher learning. Included in this group are the slogan shouting student leaders who stood on the pedestal of the Speakers’ Corner at MU who graduated only to forget their roots and their debts to society which paid for their education. One such speaker went on to become the country’s deputy prime minister. What happened to his ideals when he was a student leader. He betrayed everything he said he stood for. When he fell from his horse and injured his neck or back - horse riding which is the favourite pastime of the rich and the famous - he seems to be saying to those who stood with him and his supporters to ’stuff your socialist ideals’, ‘ I indulge in the sport of horse riding because I can afford it and you cannot, what’s wrong with that’? Afford it he can after some 20 years at the reins of the government - earning more than the chief executive of Sime Darby? The same could be said of the good doctor who once upon a time practised medicine along the narrow streets of Pekan Melayu in Alor Star.

    Like yourself I too am a product of the government’s affirmative action policy and programmes. Like you I also paid pack every cent they spent on me. And I never again had to say ‘Please I am a Malay. I need your help and this time to educate my sons.” my sons were educated overseas at my own expense because I could afford it. I never had to depend on government scholarship to educate my sons and I am proud of it. These politicians introduced the new education policy and later introduced Malay as the medium of instruction but yet they have no faith in the sytem they helped set up. How do we know that? They sent their sons and daughters overseas for their high school and tertiary education and at taxpayers’ expense too.

    During our time there was only one university. The Malays made up less than 50% of the campus population and almost all could be found in the Faculty of Malay Studies. During my time in campus the controversial Minister of Trade and Industry was a tutor, tutoring in the subject of Rural Economics and lived in Old PJ (Kawasan Melayu) in her parents’ home. She was my neighbor then. Of course she now lives in Bukit Damansara in a palace of her own - and a world of her own I might add as she refuses to read the writings on the wall. She could not be forced to read the writings on the wall by her peers for fear of shaking the boat.

    In your time at Bank Negara prior to your ‘migration’ to Sime Darby, it was run by a true professional, a conversative and a stict disciplinarian who took no nonsense from anybody and who viewed a 2% inflation as unacceptable, a fiercely independent governor who refused to let the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister influence his decisions. Bank Negara was independent of the government and was truly its advisor in all monetary and fiscal matters. But look where it is today. It is a shadow of the original institution led by a Malay patriot who took over from the orang puteh. Today it is mostly a tool of the politicians - the legacy of the Mahathir years.

    I am afraid until professionals like yourself take over the reins of government, offer your services to the country, stand for elections the best I can say for myself is I have only guarded optimism at best for the future of Malays and the country.

17. Din Merican Says:
    August 20th, 2005 at 12:17 am

    Dear keris_always,

    You are inspiring too. You should be proud of being a responsible father who sacrificed for the education of your kids. That is what we who can afford it should do. But I know of PSD officials who send their kids overseas with Government scholarships, and use their influence to obtain entry to good Universities for their kids.

    Allow me try to respond to your comments. I agree with you are saying.

    Rafidah was very much my junior at University of Malaya. She was in Victoria Institution when I was in my final year. Basir Ahmad, her hubby, was my junior, and Basir and I played music and sang together at University functions.

    Rafidah has changed beyond recognition because she has some much power and influence with no checks and balances. But not my friend and ex-Bank Negara colleague, Basir, who is Maybank Chairman. He is a gentleman and a true professional, well schooled by the “Tun Ismail Ali School of Business” at our national bank.

    The MITI Minister talked about duty, integrity and honesty.Yet she did not speak the whole truth about the Approved Permit issue to her Cabinet colleagues and at the recent UMN0 General Assembly. Obviously, you and I have a different understanding of what that word “Integrity” means. We belonged to an old value system. Tak boleh pakai lagi!!

    For me, Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman (the Deputy to Tun Razak), Tun Ismail Ali (my Bank Negara boss and successor to Tun Tan Siew Sin at Sime Darby) and Tun Tan Siew Sin (my Sime Darby chairman) were men of integrity who led by example.

    Our great orator and firebrand at the Speakers Corner in University of Malaya, Brother Anwar Ibrahim, championed the poor in Baling in 1974. He too forget himself after he was recruited to join UMNO in 1981. Mahathir chose him because of his ABIM credentials and he was used by Mahathir to outIslam PAS. In 1998, he got dumped. Now he is back and humbled. But for how long?

    Because of Anwar Ibrahim, our Malay women, who are today in their tudongs, were subject to a “mild” form of Saudi Wahhabism. Our Malays became Islamic zombies. No wonder the Saudis were prepared to fly him out to Munich for medical treatment. He was their prized asset and stooge. He is now Economic Adviser to the Emir of Qatar.

    Anwar Ibrahim sold out his principles to UMNO and like Rafidah, he forgot who he was and what he stood for. Power got to his head and he became an “Asian Renaissance man” with lofty ideals quoting Iqbal, Tagore and Rizal. Mencius and Confucius, no longer the champion of the poor. Sudah lupa daratan dan besak kepala, they say in Kedah lingo. Naik kuda lagi baik.

    People do change when we start praising them day in day out. Mahathir is no different. He too got carried away. Even Badawi who asked us to “work with” rather than “for” him has changed his tack. That comes only after nearly 2 years as Prime Minister.

    Watch on TV what people do when they greet him at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport upon his return from an overseas trip. They have started to kiss his left hand. Soon, his head will be as big as Humpty Dumpty, until he himself has a big fall.

    Keris_always, I will never be a politician. It was a choice I made at a very early age. I wanted to be a top flight professional who always spoke his mind. My role models and mentors were not politicians. Politics has no place for someone like me who called a spade a spade. But I have arrived as a professional and remain a consultant.

    My whole years of education and experience are still available for our country. I am ready to serve again in committees. But the Government has many brilliant minds, inside and outside our country.

    When I was in Sime Darby, I accepted to be a Director, Proton (1988-1990), and sat on a number of committees, including a debt restructuring committee in 1986-87 to sort out bumiputra debt. I participated, for example, in the deliberations of the globalisation committee set up by Tun Daim during the last Economic Crisis (2000). After a while, especially after Dato Mustapha Mohamed became the Exectuive Director, National Economic Action Council, I was no longer invited.

    A year ago, my friend Dato Zainuddin Maidin, Deputy Minister of Information invited me to attend a meeting with his people and JAKIM representatives to review their programme on Islam. I gave them my frank feedback. I was not invited again. Who needs an irritant!!

    I even wrote letters to the present Prime Minister on matters that I thought he should know as I did with Tun Dr. Mahathir over the years. But at least Tun Dr. Mahathir never failed to acknowledge my letters. He might not have agreed with me. But the new man had no time for minions like me. So, I am not an armchair critic. I am very clear where I stood on corruption, bureaucratic inefficiencies, cronyism, and other civic issues.

    The mainstream papers will never carry my writings. Even if they do, what I write will be poorly edited by them and my real message is lost. But when Yale’s Jeffrey Garten, a member of the International Advisory Panel to the Badawi Administration, makes a statement, or gives an interview, he is given a full center page in the New Straits Times (See August 20, 2005 which carried Jeffery’s interview with Hardev Kaur).

    What Jeffery said in that interview is not new, but it was full of praise for our Prime Minister and our country. We are on the right track! I heard that many, many times. Foreign experts have been here before. So why are we still in a mess?

    Why do I remain optimistic then? Firstly, I am a diehard optimist by nature. Change can come slowly or with a big bang, as I said earlier when I mentioned Iran and the Philippines. Globalisation is at our front door. China and India will force us to act, ready or not.

    Secondly, I believe in our young people. I read what our young people are saying in cyberspace. They make sense and I think I understand them. If only our leaders and policy makers care to surf the net, they will learn something from these exchanges between members of our younger generation.

    Our young and educated people are our best hope. They will make change happen, and politicians will be advised to sit up, listen and start doing something.

    Thirdly, because I use the taxi regularly, I hear what the taxi drivers are saying. They too are not without common sense. They are not happy with the status quo and the state of our economy. They have victims of unfulfilled promises. So, I am in touch.

    And so I will write, and speak up at appropriate forums. I now use Bakri’s or Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s blog. Occasionally, I contribute to Steven Gan’s Malaysiakini. Somehow, I can get my message through, albiet slowly. I also have my circle of friends in Government, the GLCs, and even in politics. I talk to them. So all is not lost.

    In the end, only the Malays can decide what they want for themselves. Neither the Chinese nor the Indians can help us. If we want just to have a good time and depend on our Government for handouts, it is our choice. There is a price to that choice: we will be left behind in the globalisation game. If that happens, we deserve to be in the Malay reservations like the Red Indians of the US and Canada are in theirs, as tourist attractions.

    Thanks.

18. Spade Says:
    August 20th, 2005 at 6:26 am

    Dear Din Merican and Keris_always

    I feel very uplifting by the discussion and interaction between both of you.

    The more I read what both of you write and opined, the more I have hope for Malaysia.

    But how many are there of both of your calibre and maturity in thinking?

    I cannot even think of one in UMNO, UMNO Youth, MCA, MCA Youth, MIC or MIC Youth.

    How can we train our generation, not just budding leaders, but all and sundry, to be able to engage in searching for common goals and seek common destiny from our differences?

    Our education system, very well analysed by our good doctor, Bakri Musa, is manufacturing robot-like graduates, whose thinking faculties and capacity for analytical thought have been damaged, to say it crudely.

    I know many enlightened Malays are seeking the internal reformation and cleansing from within of UMNO. I tend to think it will be almost impossible for that to happen soon or even in the immediate future. Experiences of governments in other democratic countries tend to show that it requires the ruling parties to lose government before they are forced to take internal reassessment of themselves.

    I am more inclined to think that radical reforms of UMNO will only take place after it loses Government. UMNO has NEVER lost government.

    I am wondering how far UMNO members are able to live with the fact if they actually had lost government.

    Are they able to let it go without traumatising the nation? The realpolitik, I mean.

19. keris_always Says:
    August 20th, 2005 at 11:20 am

    Dear Din Merican,

    I would like to know your views on the role of religion in government.

    When they drafted the Federal Malaysian Constitution I was in standard four of a primary school named after Mahathir’s school teacher father. Later on I studied the Constitution under the late Prof. Nik Rashid at the University of Malaya. I am no Constitutional expert but I do not believe religion is meant to be given the role and the prominence it is given in later years.

    Our politicians chose to tap the religous zeal of the rural malays and of the malays who recently migrated to urban areas in the 70s ( and who as recent migrants to the chinese dominated urban areas, I might add were preoccupied with issues of survival and of cultural shock in their own country) and use it for their own ends. This is never more obvious than in the 80s. When mahathir out of the blue, against all expectations suddenly ’snuffed’ the rising star of PAS (UMNO’s arch rival for political power among the Malays), by bringing the former student leader - whose oratory skill admittedly is comparable to that of Sukarno in the 50s and 60s - into UMNO and made him his Education Minister not long after, he was demonstrating his craftiness as a politician bent on solidifying support for UMNO - and of course his personal power base. Mahathir himself is never given to religious extremes. In fact as a trained professional educated in Singapore, he is westernised and moderate in his views, even liberal as some would insist. I do not think he has any strong opinion on religion. Little did he realise, I believe, that once tapped, religion becomes a force which would be hard to control - almost like a woman scorned.

    The result? Today’s Islamic religious fundamentalism could be traced to the 80s. Today we have our tudung wearing youth in jeans ( jeans is a symbol of western preoccupation with liberal values at one time and still is today) who themselves are victims of the Saudi Wahabibsm you mention, vigilantes who join the moral police for one thing and one thing only - to indulge in voyeurism to satisfy their primordial needs. Indeed the many rehabilitation centres set up by the government at taxpayers’ money should be populated by the very people who sent others there. This serves to underlilne the contradictions that exist within the fabric of Malay society.

    We have an UMNO Minister once leading the Youth wing whose sexual prowess in bed with numerous partners is the talk of the town. The tudung on her head serves only to highlight the contradictions and the conflicts she must be having as a politician and mirrors the image from within Malay society. What is she thinking? UMNO Ministers who cannot meet the demands of public life should not be Ministers. As politicans their personal lives are fair game. In countries where the media rules supreme, she and others like her would be fodder in no time.

    Our government is meant to be a secular one. Mahathir of course knew that. When he said Malaysia is already an Islamic state (and therefore he does not understand what the fuss is all about) he is really being “clever” as some of us would say, a “smart ass” as they say over here.

    Where do Malays go from here? Any Malay politician who even so much as mildly suggests turning the clock backwards is committing political harakiri.

    Perhaps a woman scorned could still be controlled after all. Take her to see the bomoh?

    Regards,

    keris_always

20. Din Merican Says:
    August 20th, 2005 at 11:16 pm

    Dear keris_always,

    I am no constitutional expert. I am not even a lawyer. But I do understand simple English and Bahasa Malaysia. The Constitution only states that Islam is the official religion of Malaysia. It. however, does not give the Government the right to encroach in the name of religion on our rights and civil liberties, which it seeks to safeguard. Of course, we have the Sharia Law and adat laws. I will not comment on them.

    It is the politicians, both in PAS and UMNO, who used Islam to control the Malays. The Government gave the vigilantes and the “houlier than thou” types the opportunity to interfere in the private lives of the Malays. They have become paid or hired hands of the Government with the power to collect “rents”. We never had that problem in the 1950s-1970s. We never had a religious Police Force who terrorise and insult our women then.

    Early in his Administration (1981), Mahathir sought to introduce Islamic values in public administration. Nothing is wrong with that because these are universal values. But when he thought he could beat PAS to the game of winning the hearts and minds of the Malays to UMNO, Mahathir let the religious genie out of the bottle, and lost control of the process. He ended up trying to outdo PAS; each time he was challenged by the Middle East trained PAS leaders, he had to become “more Islamic”.

    Mahathir’s moves also coincided with the global resurgence of Islam with the success of the Iranian Revolution (1979), and the emergence of Saudi Arabia as an oil power. You may recall the quadrupling of the oil price (1973) which enabled the Saudi Kings to use their wealth to spread Wahhabist Islam throughout the world, especially to Afghanistan, Pakistan and South East Asia. In Malaysia, we had ABIM which received some funding from the Saudis. The Dakwah movement came into full swing and was exploited, I think, by PAS, thereby further forcing Mahathir’s hand.

    A saviour turned up. The former Prime Minister found a rebel rouser from University of Malaya called Anwar Ibrahim, who had political ambitions of his own. Anwar became his willing partner in the fight against PAS. In fact, Mahathir gave Anwar a free hand, and the latter thought he could recreate Andalus (Islamic Spain) in Malaysia.

    He deluded himself, and the Malays. I suggest you read Dr. Zaiuddin Sardar’s “Desparately Seeking Paradise” for a good firsthand account of the Anwar Plan. This plan, of course, backfired when Anwar was booted out of office in 1998. But by then the damage had already been done to our young Malay women and men who were “Arabised”; in fact, they became more Arab than the Arabs themselves.

    As an optimist, I am confident that the Malay and Malaysian public opposition to the encroachment of the Ulamaks and the religious authorities in their lives is emerging in an organised way. More and more people in our country, including non-Muslims, are making their views and concerns about the loss of civil liberties. NGOs like the Sisters In Islam are active in promoting a more enlightened Islam. They are working with the Government to ensure that Sharia Laws are reviewed to protect the rights of Muslims, especially our women. I understand a Malaysian Civil Liberties Society is in formation.

    The failure of Political Islam is also forcing a reassessment of the role of religion in the affairs of state. Badawi responded to this with Islam Hadhari. PAS leaders too are re-examing their strategy. Their younger leaders in their lounge suits are no longer pushing for an Islamic state. A less intrusive and more moderate Islam is, therefore, possible.This can only be good for the Malays, and for Malaysia in the eyes of the rest of the world. We no longer hear of the once much touted Islamic State.

    I have always felt that my religion is a private matter between me and God. I read the Quran and study its philosophy,and metaphysics. I find that Islam is a great and liberal religion, the rituals aside. Although I was a Muslim by birth, I am now a convinced Muslim by choice.

    Islam allows me to think, see and hear, and motivates me to seek knowledge so that I may understand God’s Majesty. Night and Day, the Sun and Moon, the Heavens, and all God’s creations including the bee and the ant never cease to fascinate me. There is so much I do not understand.

    I have a duty to my God and my religion, myself, my family and our country in that order. It is important that I should be a good Muslim, and I know how hard it is to be a truly good one, that is, to follow the 5 Rukun Islam. I, therefore, do not need any Ulamak to tell me what I must do.

    In fact, I find their actions demotivating, and their sermons boring to the point of insulting my simple intelligence. But I am grateful that the Government invested in mosques and suraus throughout the country so that it is now convenient for me to say my prayers. After that, they should leave me alone.

    You can understand why I was never invited again by Dato Zainuddin Maidin, the Deputy Minister of Information, to meetings with his staff after their first encounter with me.

    Thanks.

21. keris_always Says:
    August 21st, 2005 at 9:15 am

    Brother Dean Merican,

    (I address you as “brother” as a younger brother would his older brother in conformity with Malay tradition and with all due respect – not “brother in arms” lest we be accused of starting a revolution in cyber space and staging a coup de tat of sorts – and as for the “dean”, it just sounds better to my ears).

    You said, “The Constitution only states that Islam is the official religion of Malaysia”.

    Correct. It does not state that Islam is the state religion – like in the Constitutions of some other Muslim countries such as Pakistan. There is a difference. Constitutional experts argued that, therefore, because of the difference in wording used, the drafters of our Constitution i.e. the Reid Commission must have envisaged a different role for religion in the affairs of state at the time.

    You said, “It is the politicians, both in PAS and UMNO, who used Islam to control the Malays.” I would prefer to use the word “influence” rather than “control”. It suggests a more subtle process and hence more effective and far reaching. IT suggests inter alia manipulation for a private agenda.

    There have been suggestions recently especially post 1999, that all the concern shown to Islam is politically motivated. Some political pundits, think tanks among the Malay intellectuals of different political affiliations say that if UMNO were to make amendments to the present Constitution to allow for Malays to convert out of Islam should they choose to, it would lose control of the government. I would agree with the latter observation but not with the former. To say that UMNO is politically motivated when it acts to improve the position of Islam in public life without more is to grossly oversimplify the situation. However, the fact remains that the intention of the Reid Commission when it drafted the Federal Malayan Constitution of 1957 was, I believe, to preserve the position of Islam, its symbols, trimmings etc in the affairs of state. It gives recognition to the fact there is a need in multiracial and multireligious Malaya, to give special recognition to Malay custom, Malay religion in the affairs of state. There was , for example, widespread recognition that Malays were lagging behind the other races in education etc and independence could not be achieved if the issue is not properly addressed – at least on paper. Accepted was the need to provide a level field in order to preserve racial harmony – without which these orang puteh were reluctant if not unwilling to give us independence. They saw what happened in India which was torn apart by religious and ethnic differences between Hindus and Muslims. Articles like Art 153 were inserted towards a specific end and such articles were to have a life of their own – separate from the Constitution, meaning it has a life span of its own. (I will not go into that here).

    Sadly, under UMNO especially as UMNO came under the influence of - for want of a better word - the “ultra conservatives” among the Malays, the Malay school teachers of the 60s led by the likes of the ketua Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka who brought religion into the media, and the business inspired youth leaders of the 70s, and the self styled suited businessmen of the 80s and 90s, the Constitution was mutilated beyond recognition by numerous amendments which were steamrolled by the Lower House of the country’s legislative assembly and rubber stamped by its Upper House, the Senate. The Senate should have acted to safeguard the Constitution but instead it joined in the fray and betrayed the ordinary Malaysians who looked to them as repositories of conventional and intellectual wisdom.

    Now the level of corruption within the UMNO led government has become so endemic and systemic that for civil servants and their political masters to profess to being a true Muslim at the same time is to be guilty of being a hypocrite, a traitor even – a trait greatly scorned by prophets of the Old Testament.

    Will the true patriots among the Malays within UMNO please stand up!

22. Kazzan Says:
    August 21st, 2005 at 9:08 pm

    An German intellect mocked on the Nazis after the WW2. God give the germans 2 choices to be made out of 3: a) Intelligence b) Honesty and c) Nazism.
    So if one is
    A) intelligent and a Nazi, he can’t be an honest person
    B) honest and a Nazi, he must be lacking upstairs
    He marked himself by saying “I am intelligent and honest, therefore I couldn’t have been a Nazi”

    Substitute the word Nazi with any abbreviation in the BN’s member, you will get 99% of the picture what it in Malaysia today.

    (citing)…top party positions are not contested! ….Competitions are viewed as potentially divisive….

    This is new form of Fascism, by the gang! Watch out! there are “Mestapos” in disguise.

    Nonetheless, after reading this blog, I do feel optimistic that there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

    Thank you Screenshot for the link.

23. Din Merican Says:
    August 21st, 2005 at 9:39 pm

    Brother keris_always,

    “Dean” as in Dean Martin? That guy (dec. 1995) is my favorite crooner, apart from Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tome, and Tony Bennett, ever since I watched Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin movies at the now defunct Empire Theatre, Alor Setar in the 1950s. I lived at BakaK(r) Bata in the General Hospital Quarters. I think I may know your Dad, if you can tell me his name. But “Dean” is “unIslamic” lah, and no NEP for me!!

    Before I comment, let me recommend that you read Olivier Roy’s The Failure of Political Islam and its sequel, Globalised Islam, and also Giles Kepel’s Jihad. You could re-visit Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. If you have time, please visit Kassim Ahmad’s blog, and read his Sun interview by Zainon Ahmad. If you have problems, check Bakri’s website which is linked to it. If you still cannot find it, e-mail Bakri, and he will be happy to send it to you.

    I used the word “control” for a reason. The Government no longer seeks to influence us. They are more crude and blatant than the word “influence” conveys. They are pushing the version of Islam down our throats…hectoring and sermonising us… and there is no room to breathe. So I will stick to the use of “control” because that is what they are precisely doing, every day on the Radio and TV.

    I agree with everything you say. I often wondered what we should be doing next. We are hopeful that things will evolve over time. It is a route I prefer out of conviction. Change must come. The signs are already there.
    Now, it is a question of each of us doing our own thing, helping our family first.

    If we cannot take care of ourselves people who matter most to us, and cannot lead them in the right direction, we are not ready to deal with the broad issues affecting the illusory ummah, a utopia according to Olivier Roy. Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Mawdudi and Khomeini are mistaken. If we listen to the politicians and their hired ulamas, we are going be more and more confused.

    A non-Muslim and varsity and school mate told me bluntly just last Sunday when I accompanied him to pay his respects to his ancestors in a Petaling Jaya Chinese Temple that the Malays have a serious identity problem. For that reason, we hide behind Islam. He suggested that we should look at life square in the face, and deal with the challenges of life in very simple and practical ways. Don’t intellectualise too much.

    Just work hard, study hard, compete hard, be honest and trustworthy, and live frugally and save money. He said his community came to Malaysia generations ago with nothing. His forebears worked as labourers in Penang loading bales of rubber onto ships, and surviving on porride, salted fish, and pickled vegetables. They even left their families back in Fukien Province. Over time, they became successful and wealthy.

    He thinks Islam is about these things as well as about spirituality. Let us get real and leave our mantras aside when we work. He too believed in the power of prayer, but he said that there is a time and place for religious observance. Never overdo this. Don’t get too obsessed with it , just put things in the proper perspective, he added. How true and this is coming from someone who is not an Ulama. He had simple common sense.

    We, the Malays, must decide who we are, where we want to go, what we need, and how to get there. Simple questions yet we don’t seem to have the answers.

    Thanks.

24. ratburn Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 1:15 am

    I’ve been following this discourse. Interesting. But I can’t help the feeling that both Din Merican and Keris do have a common background and intellectual belief and mentality, an obvious British-colonial mindset. I am just a regular malay muslim in his early 40s, and my perspectives although may ultimately converge with that of our two intellectuals, I however, beg to differ on many counts.
    There appears to be a lack of confidence of Islam, being a noble religion, by the old colonial guards. The concensus is that fact that UMNO today, as a political party, is a failure. Corruption and abuse of power are deep rooted and has become a culture. Technically, UMNO is controlled by the its Chinese Business Masters. Whom do you think financed the UMNO’s politik wang if not for the Chinese Businesses? And this has happened througout the years as its proclaimation of being Islam first and Melayu second, is at most can easily be labelled as munafik. So are the high ranking ex-government officials (mainly those who British colonialist-educated, who immediately upon retirement sat as chairmanships/directorships of these Chinese businesses, be it listed companies or otherwise, so as to facilitate in securing numerous contracts and subcontracts for the Chinese masteers. In return, these malays would be given porsh cars, a driver and hefty payouts. So who are ones who sold-out the malays? Here, I strongly do not believe Islam is at fault. had these people adhered to islamic teaching and be god-fearing, other than embracing the so-called universally accepted values, we will not be in a state we are today. Sadly, both economically and politically, the malays today are, by and large, marginalised. Sad to say, if you are a top echeleon UMNOputra, you’re a first class citizen but if you dissent and be a PAS muslim, you are branded a 3rd class citizen, even worse than the Chinese and Indians. Dear Din Merican and keris, that is the reality. A case in point in is the state of Terengganu while under rule of PAS. the malays suffered terribly. Financial aids landed in the hands of UMNO politicians instead of the people. I’ve much more to say but I shall leave it that that for the moment. As to your comments on Anwar Ibrahim, I beg to differ. He came at a time when secularism is at its peak. Years before, gamblings, partying (joget) and drinking (alcohol) are prevalent among malays during the British rule. Just looked at some of the P.ramlee movies, i’m sure it gives a good reminiscence of the good old days.

25. Moses Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 1:50 am

    Dear Bakri Musa,

    This is an excellent site that you have put out. I hope you can continue to offer your enlighten thoughts on what is possible for Malaysia for the younger generation.

    Thank you.

26. keris_always Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 4:33 am

    Dear Dean and Ratburn (Is the latter a translation from something?), I do not want to limit the discussion to the role of Islam, secularism and Anwar Ibrahim or just UMNO. My interest is with the question, “Where do we (the Malays) go from here?.

    Simply put I do not share the quite optimism of Brother Dean - although we may come from the same area of swaying palm trees that lined the road that got its name from a brick kiln that could have once upon a time existed there - Bakaq Bata.

    Talking about ‘identity crisis’ I have been facing my own identity crisis since my early teens. I found I could not mix with my kind as well as I did with those different from me. I did not know where I belonged and was grappling with the issue even after I graduated from university. I still do today as I struggle to make sense with my past living among foreigners who discriminate against me as a solution to their problems - very much like we do back in Malaysia. Perhaps I am destined not to know who I really am. My kids face the same problem as they have foreign wives. To a certain extent it mirrors the image Malays back home have been made to face all these years - and are stil facing. Like me, they have not found themselves.

    Malays have gone through a number of identity crises. They went through the stage when it was fashionable to ape their colonial masters. They wore white suits with neckties and smoke pipes, played poker and bet on their favourite horses on sundays at the local race course, danced and drank, played tennis and poker - and even kept mistresses though not necessarilly in that order (who were invariably dance hostesses from dance clubs which dotted the beach of golden sands in the immediate post war years and post colonial period ). Aloq Staq was very much a sleepy hollow then. Tunku abdul rahman, Tun Dr.Ismail, Tun Razak fit comfortably into these moulds to varying degrees - and I am not saying this in a derogatory sense. It was just the sign of the times. Then the guy in the green turban and white robe came riding on motor cycles ( often with their fourth wife and perhaps a child riding pillion in heavily stockinged feet) on the scene and it was no longer fashionable to be seen publicly at race courses, poker player tables, dance clubs. It is not that the western educated, westernised and well to do among the Malays cease to indulge in such activities, but the time had come for them to be discrete. And of course riding high on the tide of Islamic Fundamentalism of the early 80s was none other than our “Rennaisance Man.”

    The conflicts and the contradictions…. I am sorry I just do not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I think it has to get worse before it gets better - like the flu.

27. keris_always Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 4:44 am

    P.S.

    Brother Dean Merican, you are NOT that old to be able to call my dad your contemporary. I am sorry. Are you old enough to be sharing once upon a time the same class with Mohd Khir Johari and Mahathir? I could be wrong - but I dont think so as we crossed path at least once before when we shared a business meal at Hotel Equatorial, Kuala Lumpur.

28. DC Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 7:12 am

    I think the BN will longer in power in the near future when All Malaysian wake up from the race base “doctrine preaching” when most of us struggle for end meets as now. The BN never want to see the unity, intergration, and even ‘assimilation’ among the nation, otherwise, no one will vote for UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, Dap as well. How can they continue to indulge siphoning the country resources without the support of the stupidity of the people?

    The future of Malaysia is lie in our hands, we shall stop condemning who’s right, who’s wrong. We need to rectify all those hair-wired from education to public administration and even private sector. We must have the guts to do so…….change it trough the ballot box. Otherwise we will be fooled for another generations.

    By the way, I’m Malaysian (Keturunan Cina, bukan Orang Cina) and studied in pure Chinese school which is not a ideal place for new generation without interacting with other races. Those student will very unlikely to be instilled and cultivated with global value and mindsets. No doubt the globalisation is approching fast and emerging of China, the Chineses school in Malaysia become more demanding.due to the existing race based policy and deteriorated education system.

    So what can we do to promote race harmony among us, stop listening to politician. We don’t want any racial tolerance anymore, we want truly acceptance among all races, we are proud to be Malaysian, no more orang Melayu, Cina, India…….Only keturunan!

29. Din Merican Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 6:30 pm

    Dear keris_always,

    I am younger than Pak Mahathir aka Pak Det by 14 years. I know him and Khir Johari well. They were “heroes” of that time. Pak Khir was Malayan Airways (MAS at present) airport manager in Kepala Batas, when I first met him, and we are still in touch. Mahathir was the handsome Doctor with a lovely Doctor wife from Selangor.

    So you are right, I am not your Dad’s comtemporary. I am with Pak Daim’s age group. Kassim Ahmad was our senior. In Kedah, we call our elders and teachers, and those we respect “Pak”, for example “Pak Murad”. That applied to our male Chinese and Indian teachers. Guys like me from Bakaq Bata make that a habit.

    If your Dad was with Mahathir and Pak Khir, then I should at least know of him. I am still figuring out who you are. Any more clues?

    I will respond to you and others, especially Ratburn, later. Need some thinking to do before that. Salams.

30. keris_always Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 7:35 pm

    Bro Dean Merican,

    I grew up listening in the early years to of course Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, the Platters. I also grew up rocking away with the likes of Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Cliff Richard and later Paul Anka, Andy Williams, Acker Bilt, Kenny Rogers, Engelbert Humperdink, Tom Jones, Beatles and the Bee Gees, Dusty Springfield, Rolling Stones. Later my taste in music took a drastic turn and I began listening to James Taylor, Elton John, Steppenwolf, Credence Clearwater Revival (CCR), Deep Purple, Santana. I am also a movie buff and in the early years I used to accompany my mother to Empire Theatre (the premier theatre - not the Royal Theatre) where you also frequented to see Malay movies - after which, whenever we were together with my father after watching movies at night, we would eat koay teow mamak hiding behind the seat of my father’s Peugeot. I cannot remember anything other than P. Ramlee and Saloma movies. Hindustani movies were not yet popular then. They were the favourites later on with my younger sisters who liked to daydream all day long.

    Whenever I got sick, my father would bring me to see the good doctor who had his practice in Pekan Melayu Maha Clinic it was then known and still is to this day, charging $2 per patient at the time. On one occassion in the late 60s, he made a house call to see my mother in his pink (or was it cream coloured?) Cadillac. I forgot to pay him. Prior to him stepping down as PM, I thought of writing to him to ask what should I do with the money I still owed him - but somehow didn’t manage to do that. I promised myself that one day soon I will have to do the right thing. With interest over the many years that went by, I think he could buy a good meal perhaps roti canai or nasi ali or nasi kandaq. The mamak selling koay teow has long since disappeared together with his stall. Indeed the land where the stall stood is now a busy shopping area. There is only Pekan Rabu to remind me of those years I used to cycle to college every day.

    Any suggestion as to what I should do with the money I still owe Cek Det?

31. Din Merican Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 9:12 pm

    Dear Ratburn and keris_always,

    What do you mean by a “British colonial mindset”? In Malaysia, we have different mind-sets just as we have different pairs of eyes, legs and hands. I see nothing wrong with that. But we need to integrate these different perspectives, and try to get more balanced and holistic perspective. This is the value of the dialogue we are engaged in via Bakri Musa’s blog. The Government too must encourage dialogue. No one has a monopoly on wisdom. Neither do we have the right answer!

    It is true that people like me (Penang Free School), Bakri Musa (The Malay College), Kassim Ahmad (Sultan Abdul Hamid College) and Keris_always (Iskandar School and SAHC?) went to school during British rule. We read History and Literature written by Orientalists. But we also were encouraged by our teachers to read, converse, and think critically. Our teachers imbued in all of us the love of learning with a healthy attitude of “not accepting things blindly”. We were motivated to excel by examplary and dedicated teachers.

    What books are our present generation reading in our schools and universities?. They are still by Orientalists, I suspect, since the Occidentalists are few and far in-between. Try to read Edward Said, the critic of Orientalism: he is just incomprehensible. Don’t even talk about Malaysian authors.

    Today our young generation are not interested in reading. They are taught to accept whatever their teachers tell them, and are spoonfed with notes and model essays. In examinations, they just regurgitate. As for our teachers today, they are more interested in earning money from after school tuitions. Even then, they are so exams oriented. As a result, school is boring and tedious.

    Kassim Ahmad identified himself with Hang Jebat, the legendary rebel against feudalism. I felt I was James Dean at one time. In my youth, I was a rebel without a cause. Now I am a rebel of many causes, and a concerned citizen of our country. Bakri himself is very critical of the system and his views are well known through his books, essays, articles and speeches. I am sure that at one time he was one of the Malay Collegians who looked British planters in their white shirts and shorts and knee-high white stockings. Bakri would probably laugh when he recalled that he was once “one of them”. But we all grew out of those fads as we matured. We made mistakes and failed, but we could learn, change, rebound, and continue to move forward.

    You, Ratburn, too are influenced by some propaganda, fad or another. You may not have a “colonial mindset”; you could be someone with an “Anwarist mind-set.” Even our kids today are not immune to some mindset or other. So how we are educated is vital. It should enable us to think, reason and be more discriminating. We should never ourselves to be led like mules by our leaders or anybody else for that matter.

    Our education system today is designed to serve the ideology of the Barisan Nasional Government. That has got to change. Take politics out of education. Teach our young to read critically, think and reason. Build their character, and encourage them to appreciate the love of lifelong learning.

    “Lack of confidence of Islam?”. Utter rubbish! We are all members of a noble Faith. We are Muslims. But we are extremely critical how Islam is preached and taught by the present crop of ulamaks and religious officials and promoted by Malay political leaders. I am sure you can see the difference. If you care, read the writings of Muhammad Iqbal, Hamka, Kassim Ahmad, Bakri Musa, Zainah Anwar in Sisters-in-Islam, Marina Mahathir, and other Muslim intellectuals, especially in Indonesia.Then compare them to those of IKIM, our Ulamaks like the Mufti of Perak, and local Islamic scholars (they are few exceptions of course).

    So keris_always is right. ” Where do we (the Malays) go from here?”. For starters, I would say that it is time to get real. So I would to quote what I wrote earlier, as follows:

    “A non-Muslim and varsity and school mate…suggested that we should look at life square in the face, and deal with the challenges of life in very simple and practical ways. Don’t intellectualise too much…Just work hard, study hard, compete hard, be honest and trustworthy, and live frugally and save money. He said his community came to Malaysia generations ago with nothing. His forebears worked as labourers in Penang loading bales of rubber onto ships, and surviving on porridge, salted fish, and pickled vegetables. They even left their families back in Fukien Province. Over time, they became successful and wealthy”.

    Keris_always, I remain optimistic, maybe because I am from Bakaq Bata, Alor Setar, (they have modernised the name of our town; it used to be Alok Stak) but I am also realistic. We must resolve the “conflicts and contradictions”, as you say, and take charge at least of our lives. That is hard work, but not impossible. Otherwise, there is no reason for me to go on. Just pack my bags and leave.

32. Din Merican Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 9:14 pm

    Samad Mahadi kah. Hang di mana kawan lama?

33. kenDO Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 9:25 pm

    1-Well, the solution will be just let the most capable hands- professional managers, race-biased-less, better-manage the country.

    2- While the rest of the people, be ahmad ah beng samy, can share and enjoy better life quality thru better wealth re-distribution via higher PER GDP, like the case in singapore/ Northern Europe. Like hiring Tony Fernandand types, who can generate better nation wealth, to manage GLCs etc..

    3- Thus everyone can ride “Kancil, not Motorbike”; safer streets; quality english schools etc.

    4- While the current admnistration is not capable to do that, we now are serious about a Big Change! Timing is Right soon.

34. Din Merican Says:
    August 22nd, 2005 at 11:31 pm

    Dear Keris_always,

    Maybe you are not my old pal, Samad Mahadi, who is Che Det’s rebel nephew. He lives in Langkawi now.

    As for the money you owe the good doctor in Pekan Melayu, I suggest you donate it to some orphanage in your area. You are obliged to “derma kepada anak-anak yatim”.

    I need more hints to jolt my memory. It must have been in the 1980s when we sat beside each other during a business luncheon. You know that we are in the 21st century and that is a long, long time ago…20th century.

    Salams

35. keris_always Says:
    August 23rd, 2005 at 5:52 am

    Brother Dean Merican,

    Perhaps I was thinking of the moody and temperemental rebel rouser James Dean when I had your name Europeanised. I sometimes see myself as Gary Cooper of High Noon fame - old before my time - only later to be replaced by Audie Murphy and the young Clint Eastwood - the latter of spaghetti western fame. But I viewed Hang Jebat then as an out-of-control commoner who had no regard to tradition, who fought against the royalists – an inaccurate description of the man no doubt. I no longer viewed Hang Jebat in the same way of course. I myself later on took on the personality of Hang Jebat when I took part in campus demonstrations against the one-eyed king of the early 70s. Mahathir’s open letter distributed in campus a few years earlier may have influenced me.

    Anyway now I am Randolph Scott of the 50s riding into the sunset. And before I disappeared into the twilight I am hoping to make sense of my life.

    Brother Dean, these trips up the river have been a very pleasant one for me. Let us leave it there before someone objects to all the reminiscing.

    The fact remains that I see no light at the end of the tunnel. Oh yes… light there will be if we are talking in terms of a tunnel. But I just don’t see it right now.

    To those who are impatient for change, be happy in the knowledge that you are an agent of “change”. Like Brother Dean says “change” could come with a big bang or slowly. I believe if “change” is to be meaningful, it is the kind of “change” that comes in small doses over time.

    Then I ask “What is so good in changing the status quo” and have “change” for change sake. If the change is in the wrong direction. If you are talking about “globalization”, of course, change can only be for the better – in the long run. Meanwhile, in the short run, the necessary structural adjustments and changes are going to be painful. But as for “change in mindset”, I am not sure what ratburn was talking about. We need him to come back and make his argument.

    Among Malays, the handout mentality openly and actively encouraged in the 70s under Tun Razak, taking roots especially in the 80s has to be discarded. The mentality must go before the handouts. Perhaps one way to promote this change in the mindset of the Malays (and I am talking only about the dependence of Malays on public financial support in education) it is to give tax incentives to Malay parents who could take advantage of public scholarships and don’t do it out of choice because they can afford the cost of tertiary education for their children themselves. That is just one small step. There are others.

    Talking of political change, we may not have the luxury of time on our side. Those impatient for change may see Che Guevera emerging within their ranks as the only solution. I don’t profess to know if there is any real choice here between Che Guevera or Nelson Mandela. Are we supposed to wait out the period when UMNO leaders have made enough wealth for themselves before spearheading change?

36. Din Merican Says:
    August 23rd, 2005 at 8:42 pm

    Brother keris_always,

    You have given Ratburn the opportunity to come back with your colonial era cerita. He is right. You and I are exposed to the same things. We were lived in the same place, the palm tree lined Bakaq Bata. But Rat-B forgot that we could think, see, and react differently. I will add a few more for him.

    Yes, I remember Audy Murphy’s “To Hell and Back” movie and also Gary “Do not Forsake Me” Cooper’s “High Noon”, and the song sung by Frankie Lane. Remember Marlon Brando’s ”On the Waterfront” and his role as Mark Anthony in “Julius Caesar”? Also James Mason as my favorite General Erwin Rommel in “The Desert Fox”. Remember William Holden in “Stalag 17″? The exception was the mournful British Lawrence Olivier in “Hamlet”, which I saw at the famed Empire Theatre.

    Remember Rose Chan, the foremost Malaysian stripteaser and how she did her thing to the tune of “Cherry Pink and Apple Bloom White” by Eddie Calvert, the trumpetter? I saw her perform in the Great World “Theme” Park. That got my late mom very angry. And of course, the James Dean Movies (3 only).

    BTW, there was the Cathay Theatre by the muddy river which runs through Alok Staq and flows behind the Royal Panggung Wayang. Hey, come to think of it, we were more American than British. What is the difference, one the imperialist, and the other the coloniser. We were both screwed up. I like Jazz too.

    Let us hope Rat-B comes back and responds to our comments. After that, you and I can answer him. Or is he having a heartburn?

    You can e-mail me at dmerican@yahoo.com to reveal your true identity. You know who I am, and here I am wrecking my brains to recall you. My age and fading memory are not helping!!

    Thanks, Din

37. loonz Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 1:30 am

    dear din merican and keris_always

    thank you for providing me with such an enlightened intelectual discourse on the topic. perhaps if the ruling coalition is peopled by the likes of you both, it would be a much better place to live.

    hats off to both of you gentlemen.

38. Din Merican Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 3:27 am

    Thanks loonz,

    I am not going to be a politician. But I will remain a member of an emerging civil society in our country. When civil society wants change, politicians have to listen and behave accordingly.

    I am not against politicians, some of them are my dear friends and I can have tea tarik with them (and usually I make them pay). They are great fun to be with. Some of them are genuine. But I have certain expectations of them. I expect them to work for their constituents, and for our country.

    If they want more money and perks I will wholeheartedly support that. But if they abuse power and trust of the people, I expect the full weight of the law to apply to them, no exceptions, as it would to all citizens. So when they say something, I will hold them to account. I am not impressed with manifestos and promises.

    I want results which bring benefits to the maximum number of citizens. That, loonz, is real politics. Otherwise, it is woodoo whoodeedoo stuff.

39. ratburn Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 6:15 am

    Dear Din Merican,

    In a sense you are right. I do have my own mindset, whatever you may want to call it “Anwaritas” or whatever. I believe in certain principles, and just cause, and I must say so do you and, for that my utmost respect.

    Having said the above, in the light of today’s swirling events, HYPOCRISY RULED, sequentially DIVIDE AND RULE. With it come Islam bashing and Islamophobia. You name it, the Mat salleh’s, Chinese, Indians, Jews and Sikhs are having a free-reign at bashing Islam, including a rebranding exercise….”Mullahs”, “Hijabs”, “Skull Caps”, “Bearded men”, “dark haired and Middle-Eastern looking”, “Talibanism” and the most sad part of it for just “being a Muslim”. Sadly, our progressive Muslims echoed. MINDSETS!

    So who are responsible?. Opinion differs.

    One, being “the terrorists/jihadist” who acted in the name of Islam and the other, the “double standards policies of the superpowers”, especially.
    But then again, why dragged the whole religion of Islam after thousands of years of existence and universally acknowledged as a religion of peace? What has the religion done wrong? Is freedom of choice wrong? How different is it with democracy and its acceptance of majority rule? Is it equity? But does differing intrepretation of equity is a matter of acceptance by the majority? Why are Muslims condemning its very own religion when only a few are directly responsible of such barbaric actions.

    In the name of freedom and democracy, the US and UK and its allies consented to the thousands of innocent lives (mainly muslims including thousands of mothers, babies and sons) perished. And for what, in the name of “protecting our values, civilisation and way of life?” And for that, it justify the massacre thru brutal aggressions, compounding the procrastinate supression endured under the former dictatorial regime. Is that a very good excuse? Why? Are the lives of Muslims cheaper than that of a US or UK citizen for that matter. And why are Muslims, the self-professed progressives, condemning his own brothers, albeit openly without any proper forum in which a balance view could be presented to the audience by all parties?

    Hypocrisy further continues to rule as the ranking for justifications seems ever changing. From WMD to terrorist cells, then association with 9/11, it then took a twist in the form of safeguarding their western values/civilsation etc, etc. In the Malaysian, first it is known as Kumpulan Mujahideen Malaysia (KMM), it subsequently changed to Kumpulan Militant Malaysia (also KMM). Today, its only the acronymm, KMM. But does the Malaysian media-controlled or the Muslim progressives ever questioned? NO. So then, which is which? Please help me here. I’m a confused bloke. My MINDSET is severely affected.

    Are they, including the Muslim progressives, the only civilised people on Planet Earth? And those who dissent are automaticallly branded a “terrorist and militants”. But there are also many Americans and Malaysian sceptics out here.

    Suffice to say the above for the time being.

    Oh yess….just last night (or rather this morning), CNN aired a speech by an influential Christian right wing centric, Sen. (actually ex-Sen) Pat Robertson of the US, condoning the killing of Pres. Chavez of Veneuzela. On what grounds? He says Chavez, amongst others, is propagating Islamic extremism. This may sound silly but what has Chave got to do with Islamic extremism?
    By and large, an influential person as Robertson would have immediately been branded as “terrorist militants” by the likes of US Admin., the CNN even the BBC (to my surprise). Had this person has his surname Pat Rpbertson BIN Mohammed, the likelihood of him being deported out of the US or even detained under the Patriot Act and sent to Guatanamo (how come it wasn’t affected by the Tsunami…hmmmmmm) or Bagram Airport are highly likely on grounds of ecouraging religious bigotry and hate. But hey….., this is America….we preach true democracy and here lies freedom of speech as enshrined under the Constitution.
    He is a former presidential contender to the US presidency, who is “supposedly”, amongst the most elite and most civilised of all people (here on PLANET EARTH), endorsing a call for the assisination of a sovereign and foreign head of state?.
    As America is for Americans (not really sure whether American Muslims are American and the Patriot Act applies to them), rest assured, Mr Pat Roberson will again get away scot free it will be treated as his personal belief/opinion and has no relationship whatsoever with the position of the US administration!!!!

    What am I trying to say here? Notice the hyprocritical consistencies? Let’s analyse some of the common traits or values. There is indeed a pattern. Both professed they are elites, well-read and educated, strong believer in the separation of religion and state, the State Constituion is their Al-Mighty, no room for elements of Islamic/Syariah laws.
    And yet, without any restrain on coverage, at time even encouraged, they preached and imposed their own values on human rights onto others, the need for freedom of speech and religious freedom and unlimited discourse over Islam by all but without hesistation would take an immediate turn on the same principles the very next day against those who differ with their values/traits. Isn’t this HYPROCRISY?.

    To further add salt and insult, through their “controlled-media” (Muslim-controlled or non-Muslim controlled”) the self-professed and self-proclaimed progressive Muslim “intellectuals”, e.g. the likes of Sisters in Islam, Marina Mahathir, Rais Yatim (where has he campak his thesis on the ISA by the way?) etc. were given prominent space and coverage on everything Islam and even putting their taughts without boundaries, sometimes purely based on human logic. I do agree, that some of the challenges and arguments have a real basis to it upon which our Islamic scholars should dealt with (on those issues and concerns) but more often than not, the progressives are trying very hard to uphold their existing values and way of life they’re currently enjoying. So today, we saw the organisation of a “tudung” competition by the Goethe Institute, supported by Sisters in Islam. The objective? To question the wisdom of one’s “choice” over her belief! We have plenty of localised reality shows to the extent that the Malays contributes approx. RM 20 million to Ananda Krishnan. The worst part of its, in one of the reality shows (Akademi Fantasia) was shown live from Putrajaya. At 8.30pm, there were suddenly intermission for advertisements? Wnat to know why? Coz Azan Isyak berkumandang at Masjid Putrajaya, which is located immediately behind the event location. During this time, thousands of Melayu’s there congregated at the “Akademi” and having a time of their life fantasising their idols. Funny thing is, the makcik’s and pakcik’s are there as well. Hypothetically, almost all, in the thousands are Melayus. But do you hear critisms from the likes of SIS and Marina Mahathir or that of Rais Yatim. Sounds hypocritical, isn’t it?

    Therefore, was Islam hijacked? Yes indeed. By whom? Both. the “terrorists” and the “progressives” and to a certain degree the extremists. However, there is little relationship between terror and the madrasahs as compiled in a report (by Mat Sallehs) by an international group before the London 9/7 bombings. Yet, Tony and the US had no reservation about pointing their fingers to the madrasahs. A simplistic approach.

    the guts of tional nothing Too much democracy/secularity or blaming those men in robes, with their long beards, and white skull caps? Hey friend….wait a minute! What about the rappers, the so-called hip-hops (even amongst Muslims youths). Don’t they wear caps, and at many times in white? But this don’t bother the likes. Amazing…..What about exposed and pierced belly-buttons vs hijab? Hmmmm……
    Worst still, there’s an unwritten rule, banning the wearing of skull caps on TV by non-other by the “good friend”, Zainuddin Maidin. Is this the intellectual mentality and mindset of our Islamic ministers? Is this all that they are capable of…hmmmm. Is this what Pak lah has been bragging…”the third world mentality”? Dear Mr Merican, while it may seem absurd, pls do go and check it out for yourself. One’s esteem and ego some times would be better served upon knowing by himslef through the horses mounth!

    Having said all that, did we ever questioned ourselves after, a long 20 hard years of dictatorship, as to whether or not the Malays have effectively progressed? From the equity perspective and after 48 years of MERDEKA, its only 19%, which is way below the original target. I would have dread how the late Tun Razak and Tun Hussien would have felt had they been around to see the meltdown of the Malays? While wealth dwinded to 19%, we continue to see the Keris being bandied around non-other by the son of our great leader Tun Hussein. It is an embarrassment that in today’s age and technology, the UMNOputras are still wielding the KERIS while his Chinese counterparts are wielding the PDAs, Notebooks, Mobiles with Black Berry and such! As they move forward, we the Malay transgress. Talk about MINDSET…
    I may sound like a frustrated 40 something mad man. I am MAD and, at the same time, SAD. MAD at seeing the non-Malays manipulating the Malays, and Malays on Malays, on all front including religion. MAD coz most Malays could no longer afford to buy high-end houses, i.e costing more than RM400K and monopolised by the economic might of the Chinese. Few months after a property launch, a banner would appear and be displayed “BUMI QUOTA RELEASED”. You can see it everywhere at these high-end locations. And these are freehold properties. If ever you’re in the Bandar Utama area, for instance, could’t even see houses occcupied by Melayu. Hardly any!

    Similarly, as you enter our KL shopping malls. Where are the Melayu outlets? Go check the KLCC, Berjaya Times Square, Lot 10, Sg Wang, the Bukit Bintang areas, all those massive malls at Bandar Utama and even Malls in the KL surburbs. After 48 years of MERDEKA and 20 years of dictatorship, we can’t even find a decent number of Melayu retailers. Having said that, the UMNOputras continue to thrives economically, both in wealth and wives.

    On a lighter note, just heard that Dato’ Azmi Khalid will wed the “perempuan Melayu terakhir”, Normala Samsuddin. Khalid is really making waves. Surely, we can Shahidan Kassim to outdo him, very soooon..

    At the same time, I’m SAD.

    When you experienced and saw before your very eyes the brute force applied against your very own kind, by fully-armed pegawai polis anti-rusuhan Melayu - beaten with rotan/cator, kicked and terajang kepala and of course the infamous water canon against another helpless and defenceless Melayus, men and women, professionals and govt. servants alike, demonstrating dengan aman for a just cause - I feel soooo…SAD. I even cried….Hence, having little time to reminisence the good old days of James Dean, Dean Martin, Elvis, Englebert Humperdink, Monroe and the likes…. etc. etc…..No disrespect, but that is the full truth. To the powers that be, the message is clear, “You are a dissent, a disgrace to this nation and do not deserve to be heard!” Sadly, it worked, time and time again as the propaganda and shallow slogans continues.

    Just imagine this. In this time and age, assembling of more than 4 without a police permit is an offence. Even, at one point, a jemaah sembahyang of more than 4 is defined as illegal assembly! It requires a police permit. Oh my, my…….

    Dear Din Merican and Keris_always. I agree. Lets move forward. But fiirst and for most, please do not degrade our very own Islamic brothers in robes, skull caps or spotting a goatee or “janggut kambing”. Heck, even the hollywood and bollywod stars have goatees nowadays . Its in TREND.

    But on a more serious note, these are the very people left today to carry out the message of Allah and the Prophet (pbuh), to teach the Koran and spread dakwah. In today’s world, pls honestly admit, how many of our Muslim boys and girls have/complete reading the Koran (in Arabic)? While admittedly, there the those deviant few but that is ordinary. Its still within the normal bell curve. It has not and never skewed. Life continues and we have to struggle and rise based on merit.

    No light at the end of the tunnel? May be true and may be not. What is needed to march on? HOW. THRU CHANGE AND REFORM. THERE’S NO ROOM FOR HOLLOW SLOGANS OR RHETORIICS

    What is required? Regime change or System change? The PEOPLE will decide but must ensure FREE FLOW of information. This is utmost important and for once let the RAKYAT MAKE INFORMED DECISIONS (without any manipulation).

    At the same time, we might also want to preach the so-called progressive Muslims to exercise restraint in their attacked against pther fellow Islam and the Mullah’s alike. Pls realise, your actions are being cheered upon by the non-Muslims and enemies of Islam? While we should give due respect to their fundamental rights to exercise and express their taughts, views and opinions without boundaries and restraint, through the much-controlled media, they (the progressives/UMNOputras) are in fact selling the soul of the Malays/Muslims.

    Dear Din Merican and Keris_always. A food for thought. While you both have high regards on the likes of Sisters in Islam, or Marina Mahathir, have you ever hear or heard them taking to the forefront on the issues, for instance, relating to the ISA (at the very least they should looked into the welfares of the mothers and childrens of those ISA detainees. So much talk about being Sisters in Islam….). Almost no action or even a blinked. Ada sikit statements but no action. Again, a NATO lot.

    By the way, my question on the free-riding ex-senior Government officials,
    who cari makan, after retirement, by giving SUMPTUOUS MAKAN to our Chinese friends remain unanswered. Best still, some are even promoters of Gambling dens while some with the likes OSU Sukam are hardcore gamblers (talk about MINDSET?).
    Also, pls see who are these Muslims directors or ex-directors in the respective gambling corporations such as Magnum and Genting! You will find out these are very familiar names and faces. Ring a bell already?

    Being well-educated, during colonial masters or otherwise, one of these Melayuss could not find in the Koran that gambling is forbidden (haram). Ring a bell. Pls go through the High Court records. But did we hear any complaints/critisims by our “Hadhari” masters and puppeteers and the likes if SIS, Marina Mahathir?

    I’ve given up. Tired. So much to write but does not have the luxury of time. Till then, see yaaa.

40. keris_always Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 7:32 am

    Saudara Dean Merican,

    I should refrain from addressing you as ‘brother’ lest someone takes you for a pastor, priest etc. but on the other hand, I have second thoughts about addressing you as “abang” for fear of it being taken by you (and others) as an endearing term commonly used by SYTs wanting something from “big brother”. From now I will use the more fashionable term of the time favoured by our socialist leaning friends – ‘saudara’ like when our saudara Anwar Ibrahim was in University of Malaya campus shouting anti - American slogans, although today, ‘sleeping with the enemy’ more accurately describes his relationship with the red neck (nothing to do with his neck being over exposed to the hot summer sun) Republican Conservative American Paul Wolfowitz whom he called “my friend.”Yes. That Wolfowitz, the second-in-command in the Pentagon who helped planned military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

    This is my response to the earlier posting by Ratburn. I hope he gets to read it and gives us all the benefit of his experience, wisdom and foresight – in that order.

    “….both Din Merican and Keris do have a common background and intellectual belief and mentality, an obvious British-colonial mindset” says Ratburn.

    Response: A British colonial mindset? Really?! Both Saudara Dean Merican ( no relative of Dean Martin the late Italian American crooner of the 60s) and I grew up in the post-colonial years – unlike Mahathir. Mahathir grew up in the colonial years and had a deep rooted resentment for the Orang Puteh - and for obvious reasons. He had been rudely and personally discriminated against by them – he tasted the poison of discrimination first hand and in its worst form. i.e. the orang puteh refusing to share tables and restrooms with him. I believe he arrived on the political scene in the 70s and 80s with a lot of excess baggage which he picked up during those times and more along the way and this, I believe, sadly was allowed by him to influence important decisions when in government (like when setting up Perwaja, Proton) – even in the later part of his career as a politician and prime minister. Saudara Dean Merican and I were more fortunate. At least we would like to think that we carried none of the excess baggage. Though admittedly we were still products of the kind of western style education taught by Kirkby trained teachers if not the orang puteh themselves, who told us that Stamford Raffles discovered Singapore and Francis Light discovered Penang and Birch was murdered by a barbaric long haired, keris wielding and spear shaking Malay madman native while bathing along the banks of the Perak river. The truth is they didn’t discover anything. They were the first known Europeans to have landed on the shores of these islands bringing with them hitherto unheard of diseases like small pox and syphillis. In the case of Penang they forced my ancestors to give up Pulau Pinang for tuppence. I don’t know what our kids are being taught in schools these days. As for Birch, I think his name was, as one story goes (albeit unsubstantiated to this day), he was doing something unmentionable (not very unlike what Rose Chan did for a living) while bathing and the natives found it an affront to their native sensitivities and one of them took the law in his own hands. That was that. I admit the comparison of Birch to Rose Chan is a little off. But what the heck! There is nothing wrong with adding some spice to an otherwise boring subject - though I shudder at the thought of the reaction from my stern and no nonsense type history teacher Joginder Singh to such a remark!

    “There appears to be a lack of confidence of Islam, being a noble religion, by the old colonial guards. The consensus is that fact that UMNO today, as a political party, is a failure” says Ratburn

    Response: A two-part response is necessary here – like two limbs of a single principle. Lack of confidence in Islam? I feel religion, any religion, should never have been made a tool by the self-serving politicians. In the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Dr. Ismail, Hussein Onn (in his early years at the helm perhaps) religion occupied its rightful and respectable place in public life and in the affairs of state. It is not as obtrusive as it is now. It was never a tool for anybody. “Officially” adhered to in state ceremonies, it is regal. Outside such official ceremonies, it is personal. Today it has this “in your face” presence.

    We should build and maintain mosques as provided for by the Federal Constitution – no need for the largest, tallest and bluest etc but just mosques for the rakyat to go to, and for some UMNO politicians to go to, to seek forgiveness for their excesses. And I am not talking about anything spectacular like the “largest of its kind” projects which should be funded by private charities and philanthropists – a group which cannot include Soros or Bill Gates but certainly include donations from private individuals especially those who owe a lot to the government for their rags to riches journey in their lives - like the businessman from Kampong Kangkung. We should be sensitive to the fact that such religious structures and institutions are built at tax payers cost. We should provide our children with the right religious and moral education. And I am referring to religious instruction as opposed to religious indoctrination. The idea of indoctrination is repulsive and certainly not the kind of a tool resorted to by a democratically elected government, only a tool favoured by those who have lost faith in their ability to persuade others to their way of thinking.

    The “consensus” Ratburn maintains is that UMNO is a failure. When did anyone conduct opinion polls recently? It is more like UMNO of late has been hijacked by a group of Malay right wing ultras bent on increasing their stakes at whatever cost to the country, working to protect vested interests etc. in the name of Malay rights and special privileges. Really the only thing these self-serving politicians sought to preserve is their special interests if not just their rights and privileges. The true patriots within UMNO appears to have long ceased to contribute – perhaps because they have been marginalized, perhaps they have decided that they are no longer relevant to the party they once served - for reasons best known to themselves. It appears that UMNO today has lost connection with its roots – a process which took time to get to a stranglehold level but a stranglehold it is today. The “don’t shake the boat” syndrome if I could call it that has stifled all meaningful discussions as to reforms etc. In my opinion only a purge would rid the party of such elements. Perhaps we need a Malay Che Guevera from within. Any chance of that happening?

    “Technically, UMNO is controlled by its Chinese business masters” says Ratburn

    Response: That is self-evident and for a long time now. It is also an over simplification. If by that you mean that leaders in UMNO are in collusion with leaders in MCA and the capitalist elements from the other political parties, working to serve their own needs, special interests and to promote their own private agenda, that is nothing new. It is but a trite remark. What should worry the electorate is why such collusion which obviously amounts to a betrayal of the interests UMNO is supposed to protect, is allowed to continue unchecked and unabated. On the other hand, to say that UMNO is “controlled” by Chinese business interests would be to underestimate the kind of forces at work and to be superficial in one’s analysis – not to mention the “slap in the face” effect it has on the rank and file among the ordinary members within the party. The fact remains that members within UMNO compete among themselves for the spoils of office – as we the ordinary downtrodden look on, satisfied merely to be passive bystanders and onlookers, satisfied with the crumbs they throw at us. We hope Malays of the calibre of Saudara (abang) Dean Merican, whose wisdom and foresight are there for the offing, would take over the reins of leadership – and do something. As that is not going to happen anytime soon or in the foreseeable future, and there is a void in the kind of leadership the country needs before lasting and meaningful change could take roots, the average Malay is resigned to whatever fate awaits him or her. Unless the Malays wake up soon, it is no exaggeration to say that the Malays may awake one day only to find themselves and what they stand for, consigned to the dustbins of history.

    “As to your comments on Anwar Ibrahim, I beg to differ. He came at a time when secularism is at its peak. Years before, gamblings, partying (joget) and drinking (alcohol) are prevalent among Malays during the British rule. Just looked at some of the P. Ramlee movies, I’m sure it gives a good reminiscence of the good old days” says Ratburn.
    Ratburn sees secularism as a disease and equates it to the moral decay which plagues certain western societies. The truth is secularism has nothing to do with it. I can’t put it more simply than that. Have you heard of secular humanism?
    P. Ramlee is in the building? When I think of P. Ramlee I think of the conflicts troubling Malay society of the time. In his movies, P. Ramlee portrayed the struggles between the rich and the poor within Malay society of the time ( the kind of class conflict referred to as dialectical materialism by Karl Marx – not that P. Ramlee intended to do so or had read Karl Marx or knew anything about Das Kapita), the unrequited love of the time ( of Romeo and Juliet – not Rose Chan) and the classic stereotype cruel mother-in-law – and in one of the movies, I remember, he even stuck forks (or was it spoons?) into his eyes and blinded himself. As a little kid when I watched that movie, I did not understand why anyone would want to do that. God, it is painful and I still don’t. Perhaps big brother Dean Merican, being a little older, understood it better than I do. Sticking forks into your eyes would only blind yourself. It does not mean that the ills that beset Malay society would disappear. Just because you blind yourself to the truth which is that UMNO no longer represents the downtrodden among the Malays, it does not mean the malaise that plagues the Malay community no longer exists.

41. keris_always Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 7:56 am

    P.S> this posting has apparently crossed that of Ratburn.

42. keris_always Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 9:05 am

    Saudara Abang Dean Merican,

    I am struck by the anger and criticism implicit in the treatise delivered by Ratburn – anger directed clearly at those he calls “hypocrites” among us, at those so-called Malay Muslim intellectuals, the so-called “progressive and forward looking” among the Malays and at those he accused rightly or wrongly of indulging in Muslim bashing – of Pat Robertson, whose ranting on Islam and its close association with terrorism is nothing new.

    I need to take time out to reflect on all that has been said. At earlier times, I would be sitting at the bar requesting frantically for “firewater” as the native Americans call it, to calm my nerves – perhaps watching Rose Chan’s adopted daughter displaying her wares, secure in the knowledge that Abang Dean Merican only has interest which could be traced back to his escapades to one amusement park next to the Rex Cinema in Aloq Staq in the 50s.

43. Din Merican Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 7:26 pm

    Dear Rat_B and Sdr keris_always,

    I have read your stuff. I am rushing to a consulting meeting. So I respond on Saturday, August 26. In a debate or views exchange, anger get us no where. Cheers.

44. Din Merican Says:
    August 24th, 2005 at 7:41 pm

    Correction.

    “I have read your stuff. I am rushing to a consulting meeting. So I will respond on Friday, August 26. In a debate or views exchange anger gets us nowhere. Maybe, Sdr keris_always, you and I provoked him. Cheers”.

    P.S. I got the date right, but the day wrong. Friday is masjid day. That is a problem when one is in a hurry. Blame it on Rose Chan. She was horny, wasn’t she? Hey, Sdr. keris_always, you could never be that secure. I could be eyeing her adopted daughter as well. Kalau boleh nak sapu semua!!

45. keris_always Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 5:45 am

    My God, bang Dean Merican, Rose Chan must be ..what? In her 80s. No, that is not the year but her age!?! The same age of my late grandmother. And the snake with one end curling around her busty bosom and the other slithering in unmentionable parts has long returned to the Garden of Eden to be with its mentor.

    Haaah? Kalau boleh nak sapu dua dua sekali? Ini lah… the same dilemma that Cek Det says Malays face. Anyway that’s what he thought Malays were facing. It turned out at the end, that it is more like his own dilemma.

    And by the way, what has Rose Chan got that UMNO does not have?

    Food for thought.

46. Din Merican Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 8:07 pm

    Sdr. keris_always and Rat-Bee,

    Rose Chan passed on years ago. In her own way she was iconic. There are Male strippers too, you know. I saw them perform on stage for my lady classmates who hosted me, when I was a student in the US. They may still operate there, maybe in Thailand and other places.

    There is no way one can make a living the way Rose Chan did then in our country today. The Polis Agama and religious officials will be after them. I am not passing judgement on that. In our time and in the absence of TV, theatre and live concerts, that was a form of entertainment.

    Some of our readers may be wondering why two “old” guys are going down memory lane. There is a serious side to this journey. Our experiences shape our personality and influenced how we see and react to issues past and present and think about the future. We have chosen to share our insights.

    You and I are consciously aware that we are dealing with the hip hop and rap generation featuring Britney Spears and Alicia Keys, the hard rock metal musicians, and the rappers, no longer the mournful longings of a Nat King Cole, the romantic Dean Martin, Perry Como or the country and western renditions of a Slim Whitman, Roy Rogers, and Marty Robbins; in stead we have Don Williams, Don Mclean, and Willie Nelson. Even jazz has changed from the days of Charlie Parker, John Coltrane and Miles Davies. A lot more of technology is used to support the jazz musicians. But these are Western influences, Rat-Bee. Yes the Rabbanis, etc too.

    We welcome hearing from our young colleagues about their times. Unfortunately, given the present conformist environment, they are restrained from sharing their inner feelings with us. They are rather uptight. Good business for the headshrinkers and faith healers.

    Keria-always, your comments to Rat-Bee are good. I cannot add more to that. However, let me say that we are not against the goatees and the turbannites of this 21st century. In fact, I find them useful as comic relief. I do not take them seriously. But what I am concerned is their attempt to impose their values and brand of Islam on me, and the unwillingness to consider alternatives. When they are challenged they quote the Quran and Hadith, often recited in Arabic and out of context. Frankly, I do not buy that.

    I remember being approached by a Tabligh group leader in 1992. Initially, he was very nice to me, giving me free rides in his car and the occasional meal in his bungalow in Damansara Heights, and taking me to his gatherings, where I met some Government servants. The teachings of the Turkish Guru and Imam, whose name escapes me, were discussed, nothing about the Quran, but the man’s tafsiran and world view. Everthing what this Guru said could not be questioned (no different from the approach of our Government). All this is similiar to what Dr. Zaiuddin Sardar experienced, as described in his book, “Desperately Seeking Paradise”. Do we need gurus?

    I became suspicious when this Group leader said that I should give up my worldy possessions and give my money to their cause. When I told him I was not going to do that, he was very upset. He realised he had failed in his mission. After that, no more free rides from him and no more contacts. I was condenmed to go to “Hell”. Why should I support his affluent lifestyle?

    So Rat-Bee, I have no respect for such goatees and turbanites. Their hypocrisy and deceptions disgusts me. They should leave me alone. It is more refreshing to look at Islam for its logic, the depth of human vision and mission, and the beauty of the Quran.

    For you, Rat-Bee, may I recommend that you read Muhammad Iqbal Lahori’s “The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” (London: Oxford University Press, 1930), Roy Mottahedeh, “Mantle of the Prophet” (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), Vala Vakili, “Debating Religion and Politics in Iran: The Political Thought of Abdol-karim Soroush” (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, Fall, 1996), Occasional Papers. No.2. Read the speeches by our Prime Minister on Islam Hadari.

    If possible, and if you have more interest and time, you can go to “Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdol-karim Soroush” edited by Mahmoud Sadri and Ahmad Sadri (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). BTW, Soroush is a Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies, Harvard University. He is a theologian and an Iqbalian in his Islamic philosophical orientation.

    After that, if you are still in the mood, try Dr. Ali Shari’ati and Dr. Ismail al Faruqi. Contrast all these with those of revolutionary Al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb and Maulana Mawdudi.

    As far as Marina Mahathir and Sisters-in-Islam headed by Zainah Anwar are concerned, I would like to say that I know what they are doing. They are not just bystanders. At the same time I admit that they are not political agitators. They are serious social activists. Marina is known for her work on HIV/AIDS and her commentary, Musings, in the Star, and Zainah Anwar, a respected and outspoken researcher, deals with Sharia Law reform and the status of women, especially Muslim women. So Rat_bee, we have different roles to play. I wonder what is yours.

    I feel that the divide on Islam in our country is huge. We cannot, for example, discuss Kassim Ahmad’s Islamic rationalist approach without some people sending Bakri and me websites to read about one fatwa or another, and unpleasant and crude e-mails.

    Keris_always, you may wish to know that Jabatan Agama Negeri Kedah Darulaman issued a fatwa (fetweh) condenming Kassim’s Hadith book. I wonder whether they read and understood Kassim’s views. But then, we can expect this kind of mentality from our smart religious Kedahans.

    There is no way we can agree, unless we are prepared to abandon our prejudices, preconceptions and myths surrounding the most enlightened religion known to man. Islam means “peace”.

    I will deal with the economic and other secular issues later.

    Thanks.

47. ratburn Says:
    August 25th, 2005 at 10:59 pm

    Dear Din Merican,

    Lovely to hear from you again. I sincerely hope your consulting meeting the other day went on smoothly. I’m in a holiday mood at the moment. Looking forward to it, so decided to take a temporary break on our discourse (Well, even agree to disagree part of democracy and Islam too..syura and ijhtihad!. Wouldn’t u think so?)
    To be honest, I was nevery an angry bloke, may be a bit emotional and at tiimes having strong opinions. I like to think i’m the passionate type but has to admit, not overly romantic (ooooo….always got the eye-look from Mrs, scaryyyyyy tought….! . Well that’s me.

    I’m heading for a holiday break for the next a one half week. Havent’t been to one since early this year. Guess what? Going to Awana “Genting” with “extended families” for few days - for some change of air. Well, people like me do go to holidays too, you know. Perhaps watch some movies, take on some daredevil rides and so on. Like you, we “live” too.

    Apart from my “makan gaji” serving the “Government” and the “People” routines, I’m very much into Gardening and Landscaping, every chance that I get. Current flavour is on bushy green tropical style and on everything Balinese. Like herbs planting too. Can save quite a fair bit you know, esp on herb plants - the likes of oregano, rosemary, thyme (these are a real challenge coz we’re not as temperate), pandans, curry trees and the like. If you’re also into it, feel free to converse. The sweating is really joyful!
    I’m also very passionate with interior designsl. Perhaps, upon retirement or even earlier, god williing, I can have my own set-up. Very much into tropicals, zen and minimalists.

    I’m also very much into cooking. Culinary Arts is dearly close to my heart and a damn good critic on cooking too! (hmmm…can’t avoid running into trouble with my Mrs). As I’ve learned, critics and challenge process move one towards achieving excellence and pefectiion. Really glad. She’s now a “very damn good cook”! As you can see, we are not so Taliban like after all.

    And my only son too (currently in his 13s) have shown signs of similar interests. If he is into it seriously, might just consider sending him to some good Culinary Arts school. Any recommended institutions? Also dream of opening up a small-cosy cafe one day. You know, a few tables, nicely decorated interior and perhaps candle-lit environment (though I’m not as romantic). A small area covered fresh-baked pastries and home-made breads, with vaeiety of toppings. Would love to serve fresh strawberries with honey, white and chocolate creams.

    My cute lovely little adopted daughter is growing-up fast (into her 15th month now). She brighthens our life even further now. Lovely family. Nothing more that I can ask for. These days, can’t wait to reach home every day or night”. Well, I do work late, generally.
    Well, during lunch (yesterday), went to the Mall (tak nampak pungg.. kedai Malayu!!) to get her a swimming outfit and cap (not skull cap hee…heee), a cutie goggle and a float (that resemble a dinosaur.) Our mega sale is still on. its about the only time to shop.

    Okay. Got to go for now. It has been a pleasure knowing you. See yaaaa…sometime next week (to be continued…..like a cliff hanger!). Bye.

    p/s: Latest - Wedding for “perempuan melayu terakhir” was postponed until further notice. melepas member kita nak lepas gerammmm!

48. ratburn Says:
    August 26th, 2005 at 4:06 am

    Dear all,

    Latest: “Perempuan Melayu Terakhir” n Bapak Menteri finally wed at Taman Tun Dr Ismail last night! Wowww…..

49. Din Merican Says:
    August 26th, 2005 at 5:14 am

    Dear Rat-Bee,

    Have a good break with the family. They are important.

    Hey, my sparring buddy, please reserve judgement on Islam, Democracy, Freedom, and Reason until you have had a chance to read some of the stuff I recommended. Then we can have a base to argue from. After that we can agree to disagree agreeably.

    We must now discuss the new development agenda and how to shake the PM from his sleep. The economy is slowing down. Some serious actions must be taken as people are disgruntled. No one is interested in buying Jalur Gemilang for display on their cars and in their home. This is a bad sign. Poor Dato Sheikh Kadir Fadzir, our man from Bollywood. His appeals are falling on deaf ears. The reason is that no one wants to spend their money because they are not sure whether they will have their jobs in the coming months.

    Of course, the Government employees, like you, are different. Their jobs, salaries and annual increments are assured whether they perform or not and at year end, they also want their bonuses. They don’t know what a recession is.

    Now they have Saturday (more time for the senior civil servants to play golf, or do gardening) off, and Friday is just a prayer and not much work day for the Muslims. Taking everything into account (time for prayer, coffee and tea breaks, and chit-chat/office gossip ), civil servants enjoy a max of 3.5 day work week. No wonder their productivity is down.

    In the meantime, I am waiting to hear from my Bakaq Bata pal. I am sure he will have something to say so that this dialogue will not come to an abrupt end. Bakri must be pleased with the response to his article. UMNO The Enabler.

    I wish Dato Azmi Khalid and Normala (now officially a Datin) all the best as they make the journey of life together. They must be on their honeymoon now. That’s a WOW. Cheers.

50. Ibrahim Says:
    August 26th, 2005 at 12:13 pm

    keris.always
    just like you i am a malay and have made the u.s. my home. just like you i have sent my boys to college/universities on my own, without government scholarship. i share your feelings and disappointment on the malay okb. i grew up in kawasan melayu p.j. in a cookie cutter type house. there is so much similarities here.

51. Din Merican Says:
    August 26th, 2005 at 9:30 pm

    Dear Ibrahim,

    Well done. It is not who you are in terms of your economic or social status; it is what you can be, or want to be and the willingness to go through all barriers to get there.

    I bet you that it was all hard work. But the satisfaction of having made it through your own effort with encouragement from your parents is immense and immeasurable. Keep it up. Our job is far from done. Salams.

52. keris_always Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 5:47 am

    Dear Brother Dean Merican,

    Our background is eerily similar. our taste in music and movies coincide, our paths have crossed - our interest in and preference for entertainers like Rose Chan (God rests her soul. I never knew she has long gone to be with her snake) … uplifiting? Even our interest in Scarlett O’hara have shifted to Scarlet Johansson - and by doing so they say we have come full circle.

    I am currently going over Bernard Lewis’s overview of Islam in crisis (”The crisis of Islam, holy war and unholy terror.” Bernard Lewis is a prof at Princeton, a distinguished historian and world’s foremost scholar of Islam.

    Lewis writes. “There are many types of Islamic fundamentalism in different countries and even sometimes within a single country. Some are state-sponsored - promulgated, used and promoted by or other Muslim government for its own purposes; some are genuine popular moverments from below. Among state-sponsored Islamic movements, there are again several kinds, both radical and conservative. both subversive and preemptive. Conservative and preemptive movements have been started by governments in power, seeking to protect themselves from the revoutionary wave. …

    The Musllim fundamentalists…do not differ from the mainstream on questions of theology and the interpretation of scripture. Their critique is, in the broadest sense, societal. The Islamic world, in their view, has taken a wrong turning. Its rulers call themselves Muslims and make a pretense of Islam, but they are in fact apostates ….Fundamentalists are anti-Western in the sense that they regard the West as the source of the evil that is corroding Muslim society, but their primary attack is directed against their own rulers and leaders.”

    How much of this reflects the situation in Malaysia today? How much of this is eerily reminiscent of the politics of UMNO and PAS in the run up to general elections? How much of this is the basis of the anger which consumes Malays like Ratburn?

    UMNO, in my view, has long lost its legitimacy as the custodian and defender of Malay rights. Seen within the context in which the Party led the movement for independence in the 50s, it has today lost its impetus as facilitator. Today UMNO enables nobody but only the self-serving politicians within its ranks to accumulate personal wealth. The frenzy with which it is pursued is almost obscene, to say the least.

53. keris_always Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 7:05 am

    “Conservative and preemptive movements have been started by governments in power, seeking to protect themselves from the revoutionary wave. …” Bernard Lewis in “Crisis of Islam”.

    I wonder if the keris wielding UMNO politician understands why he felt the need to wave the keris, thrusting the keris and cutting the thin air with it. Who is he waving the keris at?

    Whoever he is wielding the keris at, I assure you he is not about to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs - the Chinese capitalist interest he aligns himself with.

54. Ibrahim Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 5:47 pm

    Dear Din Merican,
    Thanks for your kind words. I do enjoy the exchange between you and Dr Bakri Musa which he kindly forwarded to me.
    Yes I can walk with my head held high as I was not a product of the NEP and not a rent seeker. Unfortunately I cannot share this moment with my parents. My dad passed away when I was 13 and my mom died when I was 20. I oftentime feel a great vacuum in not being able to repay them for their sacrifices and bringing me up in the way they did. I just wish they could enjoy the quality of life that I am enjoying now.
    UMNO needs to seriously study their role in being the prominent Malay political party. They also need new leadership with fresh ideas especially in handling the issue of Islamisation of Malaysia. Looking at current trends they are neither here nor there. On one hand they want to implement Hudud Laws (in trying to keep up with PAS) but on the other hand they condone or promote unislamic activities. i’m sure you can easily identify them.
    Another issue is the Ayah Pin or murtad. To me it’s not worth having a Muslim who acknowledge being a muslim but does not practise Islam. In Ayah Pin’s case he has openly declared he is not a Muslim, so why do Malaysia press the issue to take him to court for denouncing Islam? Why is the government so afraid of Ayah Pin and his followers? If Allah had wanted Ayah Pin to be a Muslim Ayah Pin will be a Muslim. I have not heard a squeak from the Heads of Islamic Organizations in Malaysia, the JAKIM, JAIS and other Islamic Development Organization. Perhaps they are dumbfounded.
    I am not sure if you’ve read the works of Aidid Safar “Hijacking of Islam” He presents logical answers to the practice of Islam in Saudi Arabia which he labels as Arab Religion. His works is similar to Kassim Ahmad anti hadiths.
    Salams and best regards

55. Din Merican Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 10:01 pm

    Keris_always and Ibrahim,

    Kita semua termasuk Dr. Bakri, our intellectual penghulu in Morgan Hill, California, sudah jadi anak Yatim. I am a grandpa, which also means the next generation after my sons and daughters has come. Our generation must make way as this is the natural order of things.

    Leaves wither and die as fresh buds appear. We are all in the autumn of our lives. But I think “riding into the sunset like Randolph Scott” is a more apt description of what Keris_always and I would like to do. Remember the vivid descriptions of the western sunset in Zane Grey’s books! It is heroic.

    Hey, but that does not mean that I cannot talk about Rose Chan and re-visit a bygone era, enjoy good music, visit a night club with some old friends (we have a night club here in Kuala Lumpur called Zouk in Jalan Ampang, near the Towering KLCC, which was raided by Badawi’s Polis Agama..dengki or rent collecting characters) from time to time, read a challenging book, grapple with new difficult ideas and concepts, and play a round of golf.

    It is all about keeping oneself busy and engaged, thirsting for knowledge and seeking self-renewal. There is also time in my life for my religious duties, all in moderation, that is, tak sampai dahi lebam, and to enjoy of the company of my grandkids.

    A few days ago, I saw “Gol and Gincu” produced by Marina Mahathir and directed by a promising UK-trained director Bernard Chauly. I was the only old guy in the theatre that day for the show. The movie gave me an update on the dilemmas, social problems and expectations of our younger set.

    In my view, it was a subtle protest movie of young girls and women who are conscious of their rights. For every girl with the tudong, there are more out there who are liberal and open with tasteful yet trendy clothes. They are free and lively. Refreshing, I thought. I also felt the generation gap. But if the movie reflects current developments, I am optimistic that change will come. I am afraid that this time it will be led by the women, not the present crop of young men. In our time, we led.

    Keris-always, if Pak Det who is now 80 is very active (I understand he is writing his autobiography) with his speaking and travelling engagements and advisory role in Proton and Petronas, we ourselves who are very much younger than he have no excuse to be idle. It is good to know you and Ibrahim are reading new books. Thanks, please let me have the full titles of the books you mentioned, so that I can rush to the bookshop to get and read them. I do not want to be left behind.

    Be careful about Bernard Lewis. He has become one of George W. Bush’s advisers on Islam and Terrorism. He is in good company with Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz ( Anwar Ibrahim’s American brother), Condoleesa Rice and other neo-Cons. If what Bush is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the fight against the so-called Jihadists and the Osama Ben Laden is the yardstick, then Lewis cannot be that impartial about Islam. Bush is in a mess today.So I urge caution.

    But like you guys, I try to read what the “outsiders” are saying about Muslims. I am even prepared to read the writings and sermons of Pat Richardson, that nut of a Christian TV evengelist, if they are available. But I find Karen Armstrong’s book more objective and balanced. Even Olivier Roy and Giles Kepel are okay. But I have to be careful about Thomas Friedman, the reporter with the New York Times. They are still the Crusades mode.

    We can debate UMNO till the cows come home, but they have got the Malays by our ba//s and are twisting us. As I have said, in my earlier piece posted on this website, it is TINA (there is no alternative). These guys know it, and they will not change unless there is a major crisis.

    At the last General Assembly, the delegates were diverted from criticising Badawi for his handling of the economy. As you can see, Bank Negara is finally admitting that the economy is slowing down. I know that a year ago or more, and yet I am not one of those helping to make economic policy. They all want to be deliverers of good news, when it is more appropriate to be prepare the nation for difficult times ahead..all this spin.

    What happened at the General Assembly instead was the attack on Rafidah Aziz, the MITI Chief and her now famous AP fiasco.I do not deny that she deserved what she got for misleading the delegates. The Deputy President talks about glokal Malays and the President himself about his vision, both of which are beyond the concern of party grassroots. Keris-always, our friend, Dato Badruddin continued with pantuns and jokes. But the real issues were sidelined. But thanks to Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO can still champion “ketuanan Melayu” with the New Economic Agenda (NNA). Relevance was rediscovered.

    At the rate they are going and with the economy contracting due to both external and internal factors, they will soon be in for some rude shock. When the price of tea tarik starts to rise and the roti canai is getting thinner, the public is not going to sit and enjoy the pantuns and the wang kulit.

    The response to the present display of jalur gemilang campaign, for example, has been poor, despite the untiring efforts of our Goebbels, Dato Kadir Sheikh Fadzir. I take this to be a sign that the public is fed up with the politicians, and their feel good scenariois and unfulfilled promises.

    I am like Bakap Bata in maintaining that change has got to be on the way. It is just a matter of time. Changes have already occurred in MCA and Gerakan. Even Samy Vellu is worried about his future, although that astute Indian politician still has a few things up his sleeves.

    For UMNO, we have to wait for 2007. In the mean time, the undercurrents are at play in UMNO. Expect any major changes in the impending Cabinet reschuffle?

    Thanks.

56. Din Merican Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 10:02 pm

    Keris_always and Ibrahim,

    Kita semua termasuk Dr. Bakri, our intellectual penghulu in Morgan Hill, California, sudah jadi anak Yatim. I am a grandpa, which also means the next generation after my sons and daughters has come. Our generation must make way as this is the natural order of things.

    Leaves wither and die as fresh buds appear. We are all in the autumn of our lives. But I think “riding into the sunset like Randolph Scott” is a more apt description of what Keris_always and I would like to do. Remember the vivid descriptions of the western sunset in Zane Grey’s books! It is heroic.

    Hey, but that does not mean that I cannot talk about Rose Chan and re-visit a bygone era, enjoy good music, visit a night club with some old friends (we have a night club here in Kuala Lumpur called Zouk in Jalan Ampang, near the Towering KLCC, which was raided by Badawi’s Polis Agama..dengki or rent collecting characters) from time to time, read a challenging book, grapple with new difficult ideas and concepts, and play a round of golf.

    It is all about keeping oneself busy and engaged, thirsting for knowledge and seeking self-renewal. There is also time in my life for my religious duties, all in moderation, that is, tak sampai dahi lebam, and to enjoy of the company of my grandkids.

    A few days ago, I saw “Gol and Gincu” produced by Marina Mahathir and directed by a promising UK-trained director Bernard Chauly. I was the only old guy in the theatre that day for the show. The movie gave me an update on the dilemmas, social problems and expectations of our younger set.

    In my view, it was a subtle protest movie of young girls and women who are conscious of their rights. For every girl with the tudong, there are more out there who are liberal and open with tasteful yet trendy clothes. They are free and lively. Refreshing, I thought. I also felt the generation gap. But if the movie reflects current developments, I am optimistic that change will come. I am afraid that this time it will be led by the women, not the present crop of young men. In our time, we led.

    Keris-always, if Pak Det who is now 80 is very active (I understand he is writing his autobiography) with his speaking and travelling engagements and advisory role in Proton and Petronas, we ourselves who are very much younger than he have no excuse to be idle. It is good to know you and Ibrahim are reading new books. Thanks, please let me have the full titles of the books you mentioned, so that I can rush to the bookshop to get and read them. I do not want to be left behind.

    Be careful about Bernard Lewis. He has become one of George W. Bush’s advisers on Islam and Terrorism. He is in good company with Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz ( Anwar Ibrahim’s American brother), Condoleesa Rice and other neo-Cons. If what Bush is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the fight against the so-called Jihadists and the Osama Ben Laden is the yardstick, then Lewis cannot be that impartial about Islam. Bush is in a mess today.So I urge caution.

    But like you guys, I try to read what the “outsiders” are saying about Muslims. I am even prepared to read the writings and sermons of Pat Richardson, that nut of a Christian TV evengelist, if they are available. But I find Karen Armstrong’s book more objective and balanced. Even Olivier Roy and Giles Kepel are okay. But I have to be careful about Thomas Friedman, the reporter with the New York Times. They are still the Crusades mode.

    We can debate UMNO till the cows come home, but they have got the Malays by our ba//s and are twisting us. As I have said, in my earlier piece posted on this website, it is TINA (there is no alternative). These guys know it, and they will not change unless there is a major crisis.

    At the last General Assembly, the delegates were diverted from criticising Badawi for his handling of the economy. As you can see, Bank Negara is finally admitting that the economy is slowing down. I know that a year ago or more, and yet I am not one of those helping to make economic policy. They all want to be deliverers of good news, when it is more appropriate to be prepare the nation for difficult times ahead..all this spin.

    What happened at the General Assembly instead was the attack on Rafidah Aziz, the MITI Chief and her now famous AP fiasco.I do not deny that she deserved what she got for misleading the delegates. The Deputy President talks about glokal Malays and the President himself about his vision, both of which are beyond the concern of party grassroots. Keris-always, our friend, Dato Badruddin continued with pantuns and jokes. But the real issues were sidelined. But thanks to Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO can still champion “ketuanan Melayu” with the New Economic Agenda (NNA). Relevance was rediscovered.

    At the rate they are going and with the economy contracting due to both external and internal factors, they will soon be in for some rude shock. When the price of tea tarik starts to rise and the roti canai is getting thinner, the public is not going to sit and enjoy the pantuns and the wang kulit.

    The response to the present display of jalur gemilang campaign, for example, has been poor, despite the untiring efforts of our Goebbels, Dato Kadir Sheikh Fadzir. I take this to be a sign that the public is fed up with the politicians, and their feel good scenariois and unfulfilled promises.

    I am like Bakap Bata in maintaining that change has got to be on the way. It is just a matter of time. Changes have already occurred in MCA and Gerakan. Even Samy Vellu is worried about his future, although that astute Indian politician still has a few things up his sleeves.

    For UMNO, we have to wait for 2007. In the mean time, the undercurrents are at play in UMNO. Expect any major changes in the impending Cabinet reschuffle?

    Thanks.

57. ibrahim Says:
    August 27th, 2005 at 11:40 pm

    Dear Din Merican,
    The book Hijacking of Islam is written by AididSafar, not his real name. It is available at www:aididsafar.com.
    Yes Malaysia is our country. In spite of havinag made the US my home for the last 30 years, I still love Malaysia and I get angry when I see UMNO and their cronies run the country to the ground. Malaysia and the US are about the same age but the US is now the most advanced nation while Malaysia is still struggling with providing basic necessities. I always wonder what went wrong. The early settlers in the US were all immigrant and they came with the shirts on their back. We Malays were the rulers of the Malay states and yet we are now the recipient of the NEP handouts. Shameful.
    I live in Malaysia when Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Hussein Onn were the Prime Ministers. I remember the Ministers then; the first Cabinet and then the reshuffle which saw some members being dropped such as Aziz Ishak. I knew Sardon Jubir, Senu Abdul Rahman, Tun Dr Ismail, Tan Sri Kadir Yusof, Ghafar Baba, Tun Tan Siew Sin and the flamboyant Tan Sri T H Tan. These people were true Malaysian at hearts and never thought about their wealth. Instead they worried about the Malaysian economy and rural development. This is in sharp contrast with the present cabinet that worry more about where the next project is coming from and how much they will make.
    I share your memories of BB Park and Rose Chan and also the other night clubs such as Time Tunnle, Arthurs Cave, Eastern Cabaret, and Mechinta in JB. I have not been to Zouk but have visited the Beach Club and others surrounding it. Times have changed so have the complexities of entertainment. Nowadays I hear of horror stories of the Moral Police and also Ali Rustam $ B acting as spies. Brrrr gives me the shivers.
    I like the Instant Cafe Theatre and also the Bangsar Actors Studios and I feel we have come a long way towards being a cultured society till the ban by the government. I guess the government of Malaysia takes action at the whim and fancy of individuals without open discussions. What bothers me though is the lack of actions on pimps and prostitutes along Jalan Bukit Bintang and Jalan Sultan Ismail. I have been approached by these pimps on a daily basis and sometimes when walking with my wife.
    I’ve often pondered is this development? Is this what Malaysia can show for being a developed nation? The night clubs, the prostitution and the open consumption of alcohol on the streets. The leaders will always place the blame on western influence. Living in the US i can say with certainty that it is nothing like KL. Here you cannot have an open container of alcohol on the street, and no such clubs as Zouk and Beach Clubs with patrons spilling onto the streets. Before a club is issued a license they have a Town Hall meeting and every resident is allowed to voice their opinion and the City Council will decide at an open meeting.
    Like most commentators on this blog I find peace and orderliness here. I am not banging my head and getting headaches like in Malaysia.
    Salams and best wishes

58. keris_always Says:
    August 28th, 2005 at 6:33 pm

    Dear Brother Dean Merican,

    Our days as Gary Cooper riding into the sunset have only just begun. But you say you are still an ardent member of places like the Zouk – a place of ill-repute? Talking of houses of ill-repute, the term reminds me of the time we made a school excursion to Padang Besaq, something akin to an excursion by Brother Berahim to Tijuana from San Diego. Our economics teacher warned us boys not to visit the houses of ill-repute which he says were everywhere in Padang Besaq. I wonder to this day why he took us there in the first place. Was it to learn the meaning of free enterprise in a laissez faire system – or to witness first hand the “push” and “pull” factors that Rafidah Aziz never failed to refer to in her class on rural economics in the late 60s?

    I could not help but notice Brother Berahim’s fondness for billiards and is as what he says, our contemporary – not because he remembers Time Tunnel, that “tunnel of love” that once stood where Citibank now stands along Jalan Ampang, but because he says he too, like yourself, is addicted to Rose Chan with her bumps and her grinds. In addition to places like Time Tunnel, there was also the Cellar in Newtown PJ, at the basement of the only supermarket in that town then. But, “No, I never felt the need however to frequent the cabarets that dotted one side of the river bank not far from the Time Tunnel – although an undergrad friend of mine did. Such cabaret and cabaret style activities seemed to be the activity of choice among the then budding conservative ultras of the right within UMNO, the political party which they later joined. This one did it all with the help of his federal scholarship money. Mine was enough to buy me goring pisang in old PJ Kawasan Melayu. It was only later and after graduating that I followed in the footsteps of Brother Dean to places like the Intan Malam (also along Jalan Ampang), to listen to good music of course and only coincidentally, to ogle at Filipino performers in the tradition of Rose Chan displaying their wares for a fee. It was reminiscent of the time when members of our self styled moral police were still in their diapers, of a time when there was free speech and freedom of movement and association – when Islam occupied its rightful and respectable place in public and private life, when whatever sins you commit are sins you have to answer to God and God alone.

    On a more serious note, I browsed through Brother Bakri’s book, “Malay Dilemma Revisited,” (I think it was) especially the chapter entitled “Islamization of Malaysia.” I must admit it fell acutely short of my expectations. Bro Bakri, in my opinion, missed important opportunities when he failed to even mention the rise of Islamic fundamentalism which no doubt characterized and dominated those Mahathir years - a period which spanned more than two decades. In fact nowhere in this chapter on Islamization is the term, “Islamic fundamentalism” to be found.

    The appearance of the robed, turbaned individual (also referred to as “diaper heads” an offensive term no doubt, elsewhere in the western world) with the salt and pepper beard of the late 70s or early 80s, riding his Honda motorcycle with his fourth wife in stockinged feet riding pillion is not, however, the product or byproduct of the Mahathir years. He (this turbaned guy in robe and pony tail) is not God’s gift to PAS either - sent down from the Heavens to punish UMNO politicians for their excesses. His emergence does, however, coincide with similar movements elsewhere in the Islamic world – symbolic of the angry rejection by Islamic fundamentalists everywhere of everything western and everything modern, with modernization seen as being identical to westernization rightly or wrongly.

    When he took over as Prime Minister, Mahathir being the crafty politician that he was, saw an opportunity in these turbaned individuals in salt and pepper beards riding a modern contraption called motorcycles. Instead of using the “mata mata” (no relation to the voluptuous Mata Hari executed by the Dutch as a spy) to stop such individuals for breaking traffic rules as an excuse, and then using the dreaded ISA, and locking them up and throwing away the key, Mahathir joined in on a motorcycle of his own – except he himself does not sport a salt and pepper beard or put diapers on his head. He is too smart for that. He, in fact, and with no less vigour goes on to ride the waves of Islamic fundamentalism from within UMNO and without, taking, in the process, his country to its rightful place in the world Muslim community. Sadly readers were denied Brother Bakri’s comments on this important phenomenon.

    Instead he limited his observations and comments to the historical arrival of Islam in Malaysia, its adoption years later as the country’s official religion (the difference between “state” and “official” religion is not dealt with; and the issue of whether the acts of the Mahathir Administration has been ultra vires the Constitution has been ignored altogether). Brother Bakri dealt mostly with the changing attitudes towards Islam and the abuse by theologians and bureaucrats of their positions for more worldly benefits. By so doing Brother Bakri painted the country’s religious landscape with very broad brushstrokes and failed to distinguish the macro from the micro aspects of this very important development or phenomenon – which is Islamic fundamentalism, as the popularly based movement as well as the government sanctioned type Islamic fundamentalism.

    What Mahathir did was very clever. It is perhaps the one single most important factor that goes a long way to explain the continued legitimacy of UMNO in the post-Hussein and the post-Mahathir years as a political party representing the Malays. As Prime Minister, Mahathir not only was seen to act to protect and safeguard the constitutional position of Islam as enshrined in the Constitution but he used the opportunity to create an officially government sanctioned version of Islam to combat the rise of Islamic fundamentalism as a popular movement – the latter seen by the West as destabilizing.

    Islamic fundamentalism is not a homogenous movement. Mahathir took advantage of this and built up a system of Islamic values and have these infused in his Administration in the latter years. And by so doing, he could be said to have pulled the carpet from underneath the feet of PAS. Since then the feet of PAS is never again perceived as having a firm grip of the ground their leaders walk on.

    Mahathir cleverly rode out the waves(s) of Islamic fundamentalism – just like Brother Dean Merican now rides his horse into the sunset.

    Goodbye, Gary Cooper.

59. Din Merican Says:
    August 28th, 2005 at 7:48 pm

    Dear Ibrahim,

    A Malaysian will always a Malaysian no matter where he can be, or makes a living. I used to live in Singapore (1988-1990), Indonesia (I year in 1991) and in Cambodia (1992-1997). Whenever I hear P. Ramlee and Saloma singing to those beautiful romantic songs, or S.M.Salim rendering lagu Melayu asli on my cd player, I feel homesick. It hurt me to be away from home. I missed the people, my tea tarik and roti chanai, laksa assam and sambal belachan, and even the air.

    I am Malay and a Malaysian and I will not trade places. This in part explains why I have remained in our country, despite all its warts. I feel I can still make a difference by speaking out and writing. It is a personal jihad (not about terrorism) for my grandchildren. There were times I must admit that I would like to throw in the towel and go away. But I am Bakaq Bata, keris_always.

    Malaysia looks great from a distance, but when I was back I began to see its warts. Like you, I feel frustrated and am often at a loss to explain the paradoxes of development. Material progress is in stark contrast to the deterioration in the economic, social and moral state of Malay society, despite the rise in religiosity. Even progress is not trickling down to the Malay masses.

    Progress? I also see the lack of a maintenance culture (our public toilets are a disgrace). Great buildings are allowed to deteriorate, and our public transport system is in a mess (Kuala Lumpur is one of the few cities which has 3 mass transit systems operating side by side). We can fix these things.

    But changing mindsets of Malaysians, and in particular the Malays is a challenge for any Government which is in charge of our country. It is not ckicken feed, if you know what I mean. It involves hard work and persistence. It is about less talk and more action. It is also about cooperation between citizens and their duly elected Government.

    The Malay psyche is a complex one. It is almost trite to say that. Capitalist systems thrive on self-interest, enlightened or otherwise. We, Malays, too are driven by self-interest. Yet we are not motivated, or more accurately negatively motivated. I think, our self-interest is really greed.

    We seem to have this obsession that material wealth can be had if we use our political power to extract huge rents from other members of Malaysian society. Yes, for a while. It comes at the cost of our Malay maruah.

    As a result, the NEP/NDP became the means whereby the Malay gets rich quickly, almost without effort. For example, when the Government grants permits to operate taxis, even, say, to an UMNO crony, the Malay passes them on to his Chinese friends to operate. The Malay is just happy to earn RM15,000-20,000 a month as Chairman with perks like a Mercedes Benz fully maintained by the Company, a nice house, bonuses or dividends, and an annual full paid holiday package for himself and family. He then uses his position as a Bumiputra to obtain loans to finance a de facto Chinese business and guarantees the loans. He avoids the day to day headaches of running the business. As a result, he remains a rent collector all his life, until the taxi company runs into trouble, and he is saddled with the debts.

    That model will have to change and I think it is changing. The younger lots of Malays want to control and run their own business. I have met quite a few of them, but they are facing stiff competition from the Chinese businessmen.

    My son who runs his own architectural firm, for example, has great difficulty in obtaining work from Chinese property developers. He has to rely on Government jobs, Malay property developers, and on GLCs. If you operate a retail business, you will find that you have few Chinese customers, and you will get your supplies at less competitive prices and less favorable terms.

    If you cultivate vegetables in Cameron Highlands or grow rice in Kedah, you will have problems in marketing them since the distribution is monopolised by the Chinese middlemen with links to Singapore and the local markets. Ask a Malay fisherman in Terengganu and he will lay bare his problems to you. Prof. Ungku A Aziz is right: he talked about the monopoly-monopsony trap when I was his student in the 1960s. This situation has not changed in the rural economy.

    We talk of partnerships with them, but very few Chinese business are prepared to give up control. They have to be taken over at a premium. These are the real problems today facing Malay business. Of course, there are black sheeps in our community. But let me tell you that the Malays in business are facing competitive barriers, and also bureaucratic hassles.

    Government agencies like Bank Pertanian, FAMA, Majuikan, Risda and MARA were set up to support Malay entrepreneurs, fishermen and farmers. But the Malay civil servants and bureaucrats who are supposed to be facilitators are very a difficult lot. These agencies have failed the Malay business community, the rural farmer and fisherman. A public servant becomes a Tuan in stead of a servant, often inaccessible to his clients.

    I have been very critical of UMNO politicians and their money politics and inlfuence peddling, but I often wondered whether or not I am being unreasonable by putting the blame entirely on them. They could be part of the problem, no doubt. But I am now inclined to think that we Malays are our own worst enemies.

    It is time we stop blaming others, and begin a process of self-examination. Our bureaucrats must seriously look at themselves and realise that they are a national and moral mission to partake in the upliftment of the Malay community.

    We, the Malays, have to accept that we cannot rely on others, be it Government and other communities, to help us. We need to be more self-reliant and resourceful. We need to cooperate with each other for a common cause.

    So I hope the NNA which is now being debated will address this Malay problem. It is not going to be easy, but it must be done for the survival of the Malays. To you and keris-always, I say that I remain optimistic that it can be done.

    Thanks.

60. ibrahim Says:
    August 28th, 2005 at 10:05 pm

    To Bro keris.always
    My apologies for assuming that you were of the same generation that identified with the clubs and cabarets mentioned. I guess you were more of the mesjid type with Haji Yusof, Ustaz Dahalan and entertainment was The Majestic theater and State in new town. As for Tijuana I’ve been there just once, didn’t like it and never visited it again.

    For Bro Din Merican, yes I agree with you that the Malays are our worst enemies and if we don’t change we will be history. As the article is UMNO the enabler, UMNO must take the blame for the position of the malays. We Malays are very good imitators, we can sing like Elvis without even speaking the english language. we can recite the Quran better that the natives Arabaic speakers just to cite some examples. The UMNO leadership has not demonstrated the best leadership values and examples. Several top UMNO leaders were caught doing misdeeds or embezzling public funds yet they were not punished or face retribution. What kind of message this sends to other Malays? It is OK to plunder and pillage as we are all Malays and we will not be punished. This has over the years nurtured the lifestyle of the present Malays. If the top UMNO leaders can get millions, I should get my share of it. Right or wrong does not matter anymore.
    In years gone by we Malays are proud of our honesty, politeness and our family lines. Oh dia anak ustaz so and so baik orangnya. This is no longer true. Sad but true.
    I know your son. We had an occassion to meet about a project in Malaysia which was later hijacked from his firm. Yes it is difficult to do business with the Chinese, that is why such agencies such as FAMA, FIMA, FELDA, Majuikan and others were established but as you said the malay bureaucrat failed the Malay race by helping themselves to the spoils. Not satisfied with their salary they resort to accepting kickbacks which has grown into a daily affair. It used to be the RIMV that were the butt of jokes but now you name it, there are stories for every government department. ACA is no longer a feared word. Instead of punishing the culprit action is taken against the whistleblower. So how would that help the Malays change?
    Just like you I’m optimistic of change but I wonder if it is going to be in my lifetime orwill it be in time to save the Malay race from being an endangered species.
    Wallahualam
    Salams and best wishes to you and keris.always

61. Din Merican Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 2:32 am

    Dear Ibrahim,

    UMNO leaders are guilty as hell for the current plight of the Malays. The Malay Civil Servants are just as bad for allowing the situation to deteriorate further. So now they are in league when once upon a time, civil servants were respected by the politicians because they were impartial and honest. The Malays who are not part of the system were the ultimate losers. But the whole community is to be blamed since we tolerated and allowed it to happen.

    The partnership between the politician and the civil servant is so good that Badawi would not want to change it. If he had intended to change the system, he would have fired the present Ketua Setiausaha Negara and his cronies during the first 100 days of his Administration. In stead, he kept them, while trying to tell us that he wants to improve the Civil Service delivery system.

    Those who benefited from the exisitng setup cannot be expected to reform or change it. Either the PM is extremely naive to think that the perpetrators of an inefficient and corrupt system can do the clean up job, or he knows that the system should kept in its “pristine state” as it would serve his political purpose. Since I think he is an astute politician, maybe not a brilliant CEO type, I would say that the status quo suited his needs. The public can go to hell for all he cares. Goodbye to that inspiring Election Manifesto.

    I am pleased to know that you knew my son, Jafri. Let me tell you that he is not the only victim of “project hijacking”. The EPU is well known during the heydays of privatization in the 1980s and 1990s of passing other people’s project proposals to their friends and associates. Suddenly, a submission would disappear, only to rear its head under a different letterhead, usually of a favored party, with the typing errors unchanged.

    Businessmen would tell you horror stories and openly say that the guys in EPU were no respecters of intellectual property. Yet no action was taken by the ACA (Anti-Corruption Agency), that toothless instrument in the Prime Minister’s control for keeping public servants and politicians.

    So now we have to establish another agency called the “National Integrity Institute” to implement a National Integrity Plan. Like the ACA, this institute will in no time become a butt of jokes in Kuala Lumpur. It is sheer waste of public funds.

    In fact, if the Government is serious about cutting cost, then the Prime Minister should review all agencies which were charged with the NEP programme implementation, and close most of them. They are no longer relevant, and are consuming taxpayers money without adding value. Who dares to do it? Expect the present PM to do it. Jadi macam pungguk rindukan bulan, lah!!

    The only way things can change is when the public and NGOs start exposing the inefficiencies and corrupt practices of the Civil Service and demand higher standards of public accountability. I suggest that the role of and legislation concerning Public Service Commission should be redefined. The Commission should be empowered to fire errant Civil Servants. It should not be used to protect them. Perhaps, we need a Parliamentary Watchdog or Ombudsman.

    Thanks.

62. keris_always Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 3:19 am

    Dear Brother Dean Merican and Berahim,

    Apart from a brief appearance this morning (morning here, night there - same time) to rebut Brother Berahim’s observation that I am of the “mesjid type”, lest friends laugh at the remark, let me say categorically that I am not. Nothing can be further from the truth. Having said that I have to add that I dont mean to infer or attach negative connotations to the term, “mesjid type”. Stereotyping and labelling can be done but at a risk. But so long as you understand what these risks are, you may indulge in it. It does help one to simplify and understand what is an already complex world - and with simplification or oversimplication. something is lost in the process, inevitably so.

    I would like to hear both your opinion on an observation I made earlier of Brother Bakri’s book, “Malay dilemma revisited,” and the missed opportunities in the chapter on, “Islamization of Malaysia”.

    Needless to say, we need the help of our “brother in arms” Ratburn. Has he not returned from his sojourn in the mountains? Hasnt he had enough bird droppings on his head to pursuade him to resume his jihad against the evils of the west and westernization - referred to as the Great Satan (first by Ayatollah Khomenin in the late 70s) and what it represents?

    As for Brother Dean Merican, when you returned from Cambodia or was it Vietnam, didnt you bring back with you a Vietnamese beauty to share your love affair with the roti canai and teh tarik? They say a tryst can sometimes rejuvenate your sex life.

    Cheers.

63. keris_always Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 3:42 am

    P.S.

    Brother Dean Merican,

    Your posting crosses mine lately. We need to change the time of posting - or scroll back far enough to read them.

64. Din Merican Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 6:25 pm

    Dear Keris-always and Ibrahim,

    You are pretty up to date on my personal developments. For one moment, I thought you could have once been in the Special Branch (SB) of our clean Police Force, which got some kudos from the Royal Commission.

    The boys in the SB monitor people they consider to be “shapers of public opinion” ( a polite term for agitators and disturbers of the peace). I am not surprised that they are aware of this website and others including blogs, which have recently mushroomed in our country and elsewhere. That can only be for the good if they take our comments, observations and views in the most positive sense and have the courage to report the facts to their political masters. Usually, they seek to suppress contrarian views and “threaten” us. They report what their bosses want to hear. “Semua okay, Dato Seri”, and the boss will smile and can rest easy.

    The raids on http://www. Malaysiakini.com and the private home of Raja Petra Kamaruddin of http://www.Malaysia-today.net are a reminder of what they can do for their political bosses, some times. Dr. Bakri Musa and I commented on their actions some time ago. I believe that the SB guys and gals are pretty tolerant, if we are responsible, constructive and considered in our views about our Government.

    Their activities, keris_always, are not unknown to us when we were students at the University of Malaya. Even today, they are in the campuses to monitor the activities of students. I know that they are at forums organised by societies in the universities as I participated in a few of them. Hey, they are doing their job. It is their excesses that can be a cause for worry.

    We express our views in the hope that things will improve and get better. We are not politicians, but ordinary senior citizens who speak without favour. I am always ready to praise them when they have done a good job. Unfortunately, one has to wreck one’s brains to say something good about our public and security services these days.

    Yes, she is a very attactrive Cambodian lady with an excellent education in Cambodia and France (1960s) and an MBA in Finance from University of Hull in the UK. We have a 14 year old precocious daughter. She resides in Phnom Penh where she owns and operates an international school and Montessori School there and another International School in Siem Reap. The medium of instruction is in English, not Bahasa Malaysia. She was exposed to all Malaysian cuisine, but she thinks we Malays are weak and cannot compete and that hurts, knowing how hard I had to slog to get where I got.

    I am not sure about your statement that “a tryst can sometimes rejuvenate your sex life”. You could be speaking from experience and I, therefore, take it as good advice from a more experienced guy!!

    Bakri Musa’s “The Malay Dilemma Revisited” is well received in Kuala Lumpur. I thought he did a pretty good job. But let me read the chapter “Islamisation of Malaysia” again before I can comment.

    As for our Pak Det, he did not have to ride the motorcycle as the turbaned and green robed and bearded members of PAS did. He just drove the Proton Saga (he just returned 7 Protons to the company), stayed above the fray, and let his overzealous supporters do the battle for him. He was their strategist. He maintained maximum flexibility at the top. In this, our Pak Det was brilliant and spectacular.

    Unfortunately, his people overdid things, especially his Islamic henchman, ideologue and fellow kaki kuda, Brother Anwar Ibrahim. The Malays are never the same again after our brother’s Dakwah. As for the present PM, he is in his elements with all things Islamic. It is his forte.

    Keris_always, it does not matter whether you are at this age a “ahli masjid” or not. You can’t be if you say that you follow in my footsteps. As long as this was conscious choice–to discover life in its multi-dimensions–, you have nothing to worry. Life is to be lived, but in moderation. There is a time and a place for everything.

    After seeing the serious and fun sides of life, we can ride into the sunset, each of us in our own style. I will do so on a water kerbau and two white banggaus on my shoulders. I wonder what yours would be: ” a bison” or a “raging Texan bull” or “a rhino” if you live in Kenya. Gary Cooper, up yours!

    Thanks

65. Din Merican Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 8:39 pm

    Dear Ibrahim,

    The BB Park is now replaced by BB-Sungei Wang Plaza, a modern shopping mecca for Arab, Indian and other tourists. It was the place where the late Ahmad “Trumpet” Amin used to blow his horn, and people like me and my classmates at UM were engaged in cabaret or ronggeng dancing. It was in all good clean fun, after a week of heavy course work, seminars and tutorials and lectures.

    Of course, today the ambience and the music have changed…a lot of electronics and hi-tech gadgets. The crowd is different and the atmosphere is artificially induced by soft drugs and psycho lights. But one is no longer that free because anytime the Police and their counterparts can drop for a cuppa and catch illegals and drug takers.

    But the hotels like the Shangrila Kuala Lumpur, or the PJ Hiton have live bands. I think that is the place to be, where you can have orang juice or two. Some kareoke(?) joints are not bad, especially the one behind the Bangsar Shopping Complex. In these joints, you can sing to your heart’s content, and be a Nat King Cole or a Frank Sinatra. The younger lot have entirely different tastes. So it is quite fun to be in Kuala Lumpur if you know where to hang out. Bangsar Baru and Sri Hartamas are good too.

    I mentioned your name to my son. He said that he knew many “Ibrahims” and was not able to make you out. But he thinks you could one of those tycoons who made it big, thanks to Mahathir’s policies and are now enjoying your stay abroad and taking pot shots of Malaysians!

    Keris_always and I knew lots of Ahmads in our time. So many of them that we had to give them nicknames e.g. “Ahmad Tok Mere”, Ahmad Tok Chot, or Ahmad Sepet, or Ahmad Pokok Sena, etc. I note that three of us engaging in this exchange. Our younger generation has nothing to contribute. Maybe, it is time for us to back off, and give this space to others.

    Thanks.

66. Ibrahim Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 10:19 pm

    Brother Dean Merican and Keris_always
    I met your son at his office in USJ across from Subang Parade. No I am not the beneficiary of Dr M NEP and I work to make a living. When I was at his office he was working on several plans for mesjids for Halim Saad. Yes I always enjoy the Pub at Shang. They have a nice local band D’Adza performing there. No karaoke for me.

    For Keris_Always, i thought you were from Kawasan Melayu PJ? I lived there way way back Jalan 3/69. Maybe you know Naleng, Bonchet, Rose and the satay guy Rahmat.

    Yes I think we should back off and let the younger gen have a say.
    Goodnight and pleasant dreams

67. Din Merican Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 11:32 pm

    Dear Ibrahim,

    I will inform Jafri. He has moved out of Subang Jaya to another location in the vicinity of Country Heights, not far from the Sapura Building and the Istana of Kuda-Kuda Emas (Palace of Golden Horses). He told he wanted to cut cost.

    My great friend, Tan Sri Halim Saad, was one of those identified by Tun Daim for the NEP millionaires’ club. Mahathir had this idea that Malay millionaires will be help other Malays to grow with them. It was his payong concept. But the Government overloaded Tan Sri Halim with so many projects, which he delivered including the North-South Highway, that Renong’s Balance Sheet was overextended. So the East Asian Economic Crisis(1997-1998) was his undoing.

    But Tan Sri Halim is back wiser and more astute. I admire the man’s business acumen and capacity. He works hard and drives his staff like Napoleon Bonaparte does his troops.

    I think we should give Keris_always his parting shot. I am curious to find out what animal he will be using to ride into the sunset. Jangan “UNTA” sudah lah. Take care, and stay in touch. I am reachable by e-mail.

68. Din Merican Says:
    August 29th, 2005 at 11:48 pm

    BTW, Keris_always and Ibrahim, Rose Chan aka The Rose of Malaya is featured in the “Off The Edge” (September 2005. Issue 09). She succumbed to cancer on May 26, 1987 in Butterworth, Penang. The article is written by Danny Lim.

    Happy 48th Merdeka. Tomorrow is the Big Parade in PutraJaya, courtesy of our Kulim man, Kadiak Sheikh Fadzir. Tonight (August 30) there will be a live concert at the KLCC sponsored by PETRONAS and ASTRO; all the Who’s Who will be there bersama rakyat to watch our local artistes and bands perform.

    Hidup Malaysia. Kita Boleh lagi…sapu semua!! Jalur Gemilang, Bangsa cemerlang dan terbilang.

69. cool hero Says:
    November 11th, 2005 at 4:17 am

    Chinese getting straight As are not allowed into universities. Not allowed civil service jobs. That is blatant discrimination.

    Why do you support such discrimination?

    Chinese Malaysians have built very successful businesses, hence they have the wealth that they have. This is not greed. They worked for what they now own.

    Why do you envy what does not belong to you? Is this not greed?

    It is quite untrue that business offers are conducted on the basis of race. Starting any business is very very hard work, but the malays did not have a hard working tradition to persevere. This is a cultural change the malays need in order to conduct businesses successfully.

    Armed with this knowledge, do you still insist that Chinese Malaysians are greedy, and therefore it is right for malays to take what does not belong to them?

    Your perception of business in Malaysia has got to be wrong.

    Most goods and services can be conducted in open markets, and there is no particular reason to single out malays so that Chinese businessmen should swindle them. There are lots of swindlers in business so it is not just malays who get swindled.

    Successful businessmen depend on providing real benefits to customers and partners so that it is worthwhile for them to do business again and again to both parties benefit. It is only when customers also get rich that businesses can grow.

    The discrimination against Chinese, Indians and other peoples cannot be tolerated in the modern world. Countries that do this will face long-term decline.

    Hard working people are not greedy as you accuse them. They are hard working because they have a mission in life to prosper, to give offspring a good chance in life to live to the full, to contribute their talents to the betterment of society……….

    This is not greed.

    Whereas, envy of others wealth and taking what they have not worked for is greed.

    I would put is stronger. It is robbery and corruption. You talk like a Mafia extortionist when you said that worse could happen to the Chinese, so be thankful because there are more malays than Chinese, and therefore they can take even more from the Chinese if they want to.

    You have to be joking to believe that your greed and prejudices are the wonderful things about Malaysia. Well, may be you do.

    Malaysia as describe it is a country based on racism, lack of a conscience, and greed (taking from hard working foreigners).

    Meritocracy is denounced. Robbing the wealthy is promoted.

    How can there be a good future for such a country?

    Looking from outside of Malaysia, it is easy to see that the malay-controlled government is enforcing a wealth-robbing programme from the Chinese who earned their wealth through hard works.

    By barring bright well-qualified Chinese Malaysians from entering Malaysian universities, Malaysia is pursuing a discriminatory policy based on race.

    This is not tolerated in civilised countries. It is a policy that gives Malaysia a very bad reputation and deprives itself of its most talented.

    It is a policy which tells the malays that robbing from the rich is not greed because being rich, being educated is the same as being greedy.

    This is moral corruption and self-contradiction which Malaysia will pay a very heavy price.

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72. pak mat Says:
    February 28th, 2006 at 9:31 am

    alamak!!
    it’s really sweet to listen to all the song that hit you straight in the heart, said “they are corrupted”, it’s a common knowledge but we Malay won’t say corruption but something else, just remember dulu-dulu before any politicus electus, all the future MP jemput kampong people to kenduri(open house) after dinner baca doa before going home, the MP’s orang kerja(amah) will handled you one bungkus nasi lebeh and 1,2 or 3 ringgit per head , we call it sedekah, the election day come around, imagine who’s winning, can’t go to DAP’s MP, kenduri cannot, doa, mana boleh, makan pula nanti ada ba alif ba ya. Now day if anybody can inform me if there’s any other practice???
    Another Malay politicos mystery(misery) remember our generation, a double language(Malay English) are standard(some are triple or more)suddenly a man come to decided that bahasa Baku(don’t know what it’s meanlah, sorry)could be one of the biggest living language to promote(I’m not anymore in home town, just run away to be one of the Diaspora)and more than 25 years later the same man step in again asking the Malay, Chinese and Indian children to return back on mathematic in english,1/4 of century? Must be super intelligent guy, but,but!! one must submit back to himself what’s this man try to say in his MALAY DILEMA “how long the said race “Malay” can stand before it’s disappeared if those action “enabler” didn’t be taken? let’s say Malaysian’s population somewhere around 25 million people, the optimism static say 50.08 Malays, while all the small and medium size business held by the main Ah kow(no racist intention here, ah kow success b’cos his merit)?

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74. Firefly Says:
    May 17th, 2006 at 12:59 am

    Saudara

    I have been reading your blog and enjoyed the forum.

    Being a Malaysian I am saddened by the sort of governance the UMNO malays have administered . We live in a demanding world where the output and oppourtunity of every citizen is valued. To segregate different races, bumi and non bumi touches on a negative dynamic in the very heart of the country .Malaysia has a great diversity, But this has been dominated and colonised by Arabisation and religon . An East Asian Malaysian with a fair go in tune with Diversity would have a better outcome in keeping in demand with a changing world . Where a balanced society is able to withstand the fluctations of Good and Bad times in the economies of the world where the positive contributions of every ctizen counts.

    So to have different categorisation of citizens separated by religon is a divisive modal . The social and economic outcome under the current regime is now in a negative decaying state

    Firefly
    Australia

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81. dreamhunter Says:
    August 26th, 2007 at 8:00 pm

    With all due respect, it is always all well and good to discuss and to discourse, to propose and to proletyse, like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. But, where would these sophists, these ‘thinkers’, have been in the annals of history had it not been for men of action, the warriors and the conquerors, men like Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes of Persia; Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon-Chaldea; Alexander of Macedonia; Memnon and Mentor of Rhodes; Chandragupta, Bindusara and Asoka of Mauryan Magadha; Tun Perak and Sultan Mansur of Malacca; etc. etc. to build and feed kingdoms and empires that employed and sustained those Plato-type philosophers and thinkers?

    Thinkers have the option of thinking in a world of ideality; but men of action can only execute and implement in a world of reality. UMNO is not the ideal political party, its members and leaders would be the first to admit that. That is exactly its basic strength and the source of its past successes, achievements etc. It has absolutely no pretense at all of being the perfect leading political party, let alone one in a complex multi-historied, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural country like Malaysia. But in terms of real world achievements eked out in real world environments and settings, it has managed to come out standing head and shoulders above the rest.

    Without appearing to be a fanatical defender of UMNO, which in no way I am, I have to make us all recall the past political mistakes of early Malay leaders during pre-independence days, mistakes which to this day UMNO has been burdened with the task to rectify. Without mincing words, how did Malays who were in full control of Semenanjung Melayu before the Portuguese invasion manage to cede so much power to Chinese and Indians in the days leading to independence and post-independence. How could they have been persuaded to cede large parts of their country to immigrants who have arrived in this land hardly one or two generations before, when pure-Malay Langkasuka have been around for a good 16 centuries or more?

    These are the past mistakes that will take us all Malays, preferably with UMNO in the lead, many more centuries to rectify. Guys, time to get real. We can still have our pick of which individual to lead, but collectively UMNO still leads the pack hands down.

    Friends, I rest my case.

    Dreamhunter

82. sheikh_of_shag Says:
    August 26th, 2007 at 9:39 pm

    Good Lord! How did I manage to come across this blog? Anyway, I think that our friend Dreamhunter has got it smack bang right on the head about Malaya, Malays and UMNO.

    Basically, to be brutally honest, some pre-independence Malay leaders made a big right mess of it all by agreeing to share power, wealth and territory with relative latecomers (very, very late) to this land, in their highly charged, headlong, emotional rush towardss independence. Of course these late immigrants could be counted on to support the Malays in pressuring for Malayan indpendence. They had a big stake in the game - citizenship and a new land they could call home and country.

    Question, is why and how did the Peninsula Malays, in their heady quest for Merdeka, lose all their mind and wits and agree to every condition set by the Chinese and Indians for them to support the Malay effort to liberate what was essentially, historically, purely Malay land? Why could they not see that what would really count in the days ahead was not independence per se, but independence on Malay terms, whether that took another decade, or even another century. I’m sorry to have to say this, but it looks to me as just another case of ‘Menang Sorak, Kampong Tergadai’ yet again.

    Whereas Brunei only achieved full independence in 1984, but the Bruneians, they’re smart enough to end up independent with their power, land and territory intact, belonging fully to their people, the Bruneian Malays.

    Well, now that ‘Nasi Sudah Menjadi Bubur’ for us Malayan Malays, it’s gonna take us all another few centuries at least, just like Dreamhunter said, to nearly set things back to what it once was, IF that is anything close to possible, in the light pf present reality.

    Glad to give ya all my two pennies’ worth

    Sheikh of Shag

83. Mahatma Gandhi Says:
    August 28th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    I really like this website and it is a waste the brilliant Malays are not in UMNO. I have worked in very highly ranked American IT companies and I have not came across ‘hopeless’ Malays and some of us are nominated as the best employees. We worked out butt of just to show to the world that we are the best and I have seen other races practice discrimination on us but we have to face the face racism is alive it is either they do it discretely or openly. I reckon only 10% of each race are productive hence 10% of Malays means a lot. I am preaching all the Malay youngsters to be more persevere and always show their best for themselves and the the race as a whole. Being the best doesn’t mean to score straight As but on the holistic side. I have a few straight As friends but are not worth to the country! As for the non bumis, they have to be relief as the Malays have been very courteous. The non-bumis can vote and some of them are even in the politics that is too goo to be true. They can have their own schools, pig farms in the middle of Malay village, etc. You know what, I bet if Arnold Schwarzenegger is “yellow” he will not be the governor!
    Only now I can see the Malays are more stern, and no more “bertolak ansur”, once ‘ditolak’ and they will ‘beransur’. Malays must stand taller and unite!

    UMNO is really a confused party. First of all UMNO is an acronym in English and but the party is representing the Malays. More over they have the guts to promote bahasa melayu. If you are in doing business in Malaysia, you need to have good ‘cable’ to them. I thought Pak Lah going to be clean but look around and try to get a deal from the government. They are 2 main suckers that I know of. One is Dato Rezal Merican, PM’s political secretary at MOF, he is going to be the richest mamak, and yet he is the president of GPMS (unless the M stands for Mamak). He has awarded a project called e-cadester to Precision Portal Sdn. Bhd (PPSB), valued RM280M but the cost is actually RM140M the most. PPSB and it subsidiaries like Octal Resources have been awarded with projects are initiated but others. A small company has RM1.3B worth of revenue and it is owned by Wan Aminuddin who is the ex-classmate of him at IIUM.
    Do you need this kind of people in this country? He is selling off the country!!! He has all the power to do so as they are 3 of them in a team. Mr. KJ, Dato Rizal Merican and Dato’ Norza (Political Secretary to 2nd Finance Minister).
    I think Pak Lah is killing the country, by 2020 Malaysia will be bankrupt.

84. dreamhunter Says:
    August 29th, 2007 at 5:42 am

    Seems this blog is beginnig to liven up again after a long, long while. Well, Mahatma, like I said before, it wouldn’t serve our purpose at all if we keep wishing for a perfect party, perfect leader, perfect system, perfect society, perfect everythinng. Let’s be realistic. As long as something works satisfactorily, that’s good enough. You’ve got to stop wishing for more.

    Name me any perfect leader, perfect party, perfect whatever in any developed country. The US Republican Party? What a joke! Huh! Those bastards, led by a mad, deluded superbastard, are destroying everything good we still have on this planet. Well, let’s hope they’ll end up destroying themselves.

    Hey, there’ll be bad guys everywhere you go. We need them too, to do the dirty work the good guys are too good to do. You can’t have just the good guys in any system, it just doesn’t work that way.

    Problem is, we had too many stupid good guys n not enough clever bad guys among the Malay leadership in the days approaching independence. Otherwise, we may not have lost so much to other people who came to this land much, much later than us. Power, wealth, land, resources, rights, you name it, we’ve lost so much of it away to latecomers, who now dare to openly demand total equality, through the stupidity of some of our forefathers.

    Now you and I are only Malaysians, when our ancestors have been here as Malayan Malays, or Langkasuka Malays, since 15 centuries or more ago. Whereas some joker whose grandfather only came to this great land from somewhere else only, what, 100 years ago maybe, is also a Malaysian with the same rights as yours. And he’s now demanding for more. What a sick, sad joke for us all Malays, isn’t it?

    I’ll leave that to you to ponder.

    Later skater, alligator.

    Dreamhunter

85. Msia-future-dims Says:
    October 11th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

    For those of you who ask ” When will NEP (Affirmative Action for the ‘Bumi’) end , I have an answer for you.
    i.e. in about 100 years.

    If the current trend continue (and I would bet my last cent that it would), non-Bumi would comprises of no more than 15% of total population by 2100. Imagine discount for Bumi (regardless of whether he is rich or poor) to buy a house… it would not be possible for 15% to ’sponsor’ the 85%. By then, the name program may have to be changed to ” Non-Bumi Tax’.. I.e. if you are non-Bumi, you pay 10% (or whatever the quantum) more to buy a house.

    The current situation is this : (1) The Umno-Malay busy making easy money, enriching themselves (2) Many middle class Bumi are addicted to affirmative action and not competitive (3) many lower level Bumi are constantly fed with spiritual opium’ (Islam).

    I am not optimistic with the future of Malaysia…. UNLESS there are a few (may be more than a few are needed) bright, committed and thinking Malay leaders emerge to form a party and replaced Umno to steer the country back to the right direction. PAS is defintely not the answer.. it would bring the country even more backward. Is Party Keadilan the answer? It is too early to tell.. What is needed is some charismatic Malay leaders to explain to the masses that affirmative action is doing them more than good. I am not sure Anwar is the answer…

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