Losing in Victory

By Hussein Hamid

When will UMNO starts its journey of renewal? Take on the path of morality and decency to ensure that the resurrection of UMNO will meet the aspirations of the Malays and the people of our country? This is not hard to do because there are still amongst them people who are decent, upright and committed to uphold the cause of the Malays and of our country. Let these good people speak their mind. Listen to them and do what they ask you to do so that UMNO will rid itself of the ignorance and narrow mindedness of its current leaders.

They will tell you that at the General Elections of 2004 UMNO could have secured its right to govern the country for fifty more years. UMNO could have right many wrongs, do justice for all and serve the people of this country as UMNO leaders had promised they will do. They could have enhanced the values that they then hold and focused the purpose of our nation into more tangible directions – towards a truly Malaysian Malaysia where all its people having their place in society because if the reality of one Malaysia if not attained it would mean that UMNO would have failed the people, failed the nation.

But they did not do this.

There is no racial problem. No religious problem. There is only a Malaysian problem and we are all Malaysian and so it is our problem.

Remember these words:

• All Men are created equal.
• Government by consent of the governed

Every one of us wants to be treated equal in opportunity to all others. To be denied this because of our race or religion is to deny our basic rights as a citizen. There is no reason to deny anyone this right and yet we know that there are in place many obstacles and the only way of overcoming these obstacles is if you are a Malay. So we must act now to eliminate these barriers and restriction that divides our people from each other.

There is no moral issue. There is no issue of Malay rights. We have waited over 50 years to do this. Let us not wait any longer. The time for change has come and it is now.

Our enemies are ignorance and narrow mindedness of a Government that chooses to ignore our needs. But they must not forget that these right once given carries with it responsibility. The responsibility to live and work together.

There are Malays that have questioned the wisdom and necessity to do away with UMNO and my rational for involving myself in this matter Let me tell you why I do so.

For years we Malays have been told that we are a lazy people. That we are weak and in need of being protected from the Chinese. That we are not capable of taking care of ourselves and that we need UMNO to do that for us. We have been told that we must be grateful for the many largeness that UMNO has provided us with. The NEP, the Bumiputra status, the business opportunities, the education….and that if these are taken away from us we will not survive.

Some of us have begun to believe these lies. Believe that the hopes and the aspiration of the Malay race lies only with UMNO…a self fulfilling prophecy that could have become true if not for the ability of the Malays to think for themselves. We might be exceedingly polite and unfailingly respectful of our elders but we are not stupid. Yes we did begin to think that UMNO and the Malays could not survive without the other but in time we understood that it would be more true to say that one feed of the other. That UMNO did the feeding. That realization came at a costs to UMNO and to the Malays.

To UMNO it came with their loss in spite of a victory in the last General Elections. Losing in victory is ironic but you cannot call it anything else. For the Malays it was a realization that we need to stand shoulder to shoulder with the others not after the NEP has done its work but NOW. Thank GOD we are ready but no thanks to UMNO that we are!

UMNO has weakened at least one generation of Malays because they lost their sense of direction and focused on enriching themselves instead of preparing the Malays for the time that has now come. Thank GOD that they have only weakened not destroy that one generation of Malays. The Malays will prevail and take their place with the others with much vigor and confidence. Are we downhearted? No we are not…for we have enough belief in ourselves to know that we will survive and thrive.

For UMNO understand this. Nothing that you do in the name of UMNO, Malaysia or its people is safe if it does not show that it can bear discussion and publicity. In time all will be reveal. Every secret, every decision, every administration of injustice, every means you tried of enriching yourselves will be revealed.

Understand too that whatever objective you had while in Government – whether it be for the advantage of UMNO, the enrichment of your own people or the subjugation of the opposition – all this will be questioned by those that come after you. It is only when one is fighting for justice and freedom for all its people that there will be no objections to it as it will benefit everyone and provoke no opposition.

And understand too that when we judge Najib, Mahuyuddin – all you Barisan leaders – if there is any presumption for us to make as to whether you all did any wrong, our expectation will be that those who are with greater power will be judged more harshly for they were given more trust by the people. That they abused this trust confirmed our belief that “All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

For the Indians and the others we are aware that they have been oppressed by the majority. It is true to say that whether a country is free or not can be judged by the amount of security enjoyed by the minorities so we will need to look constructively at what needs to be done to redress this imbalance.

For now we wait.