If, by 1Malaysia, the Prime Minister is merely invoking the undoubted virtue of, and the equally vital necessity for all of us to strive to live in peace and harmony, then I believe he is more than a half a century wide of the mark. Living peacefully together, cheek by jowl is something we are rather good at, and frankly we do not politicians, particularly those from race-based parties to tutor us on this.
In the interest of self-preservation, we have been doing just that finding accommodation with our racially and culturally assorted neighbours.. And, so, it is not entirely surprising that the same Malaysians that Prime Minister Najib is so desperately anxious to unite should feel a little peeved, and confused especially when rumour has it that enormous sums of public money – dare I venture to mention slush funds, have been expended to mount a campaign that has all the appearance of a damp squid, with apologies to all the squids of this world.
Malaysians are fed up with being continually bombarded and harangued by Najib on his slogan the significance of which he is not sure about. To the millions of us preoccupied with making ends meet on a daily basis in Najib’s economic haven, 1Malaysia cannot be disguised as anything but what it is; a hellishly wasteful and hollow symbol by any reckoning. And, that is putting it as charitably as I can.
His latest attempt at giving substance to a brain dead concept was on Al Jazeera a few days ago. No rumpled suit for him, but the discomfiture was writ large all over his face when he failed to make sense of what he meant by 1Malaysia. His convoluted response was downright shifty Najib knew that his savoir-faire had just, when he needed it most, deserted him, leaving him looking like a very dishonest second hand car salesman.
He was mercifully let off the hook when the comely interviewer suddenly and gratuitously changed tack, describing him as hailing from “a political aristocracy.” He lapped it all up, and there was imperceptibly a trace of ill-disguised suppression of delight at the reference to his elitist pedigree. Najib, I am pleased to say is human after all, and is not averse like all of us to a little flattery.
Even an accomplished aristocrat-turned politician like Najib, on occasion, is not above being a trifle economical with the truth. A truthful and honest politician is a contradiction in terms. That said, he is not, in my book, a practised compulsive liar, and I put this down, in part, to good breeding. His one single act of Machiavellianism in the Perak affair has blotted his copy book, marked him out as an immoral, nasty piece of work. It will be a badge of infamy that will now be part of his excess baggage to lug around..
When Najib became prime minister a year ago, I said in a column I wrote then that I would impose on myself a year’s moratorium before commenting on his performance, in place of the time-honoured 100 days so beloved of political commentators. It would be churlish to deny him, on balance, his pass mark. He is known for his grand standing, the broad brush big picture artist, or perhaps more appropriate, the ultimate grand illusionist. Not for him the despairingly soul-destroying realities that dog this country in social, political and economic terms, such as the debilitating impact of the ever widening circle of grinding poverty among our rural and urban communities alike, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. While it is not really fair to blame Najib for the ills of the world, he must address the issue of poverty holistically and comprehensively now, including confronting corruption in the executive mansions and suites in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Many of the problems associated with the plight of our fellow citizens in The Land of the Hornbills and The Land Below the Wind have been brought about without exception by a succession of callous and unbelievably corrupt chief ministers who have been robbing their people blind, in broad daylight.
Let us see whether Najib the Prime Minister has the stomach for a grand putsch against the architects of Grand Corruption who have raped and impoverished this potentially rich competitive nation. Najib must naturally lead by example, not always easy, in this and as in other matters of critical importance to the future of his 1Malaysia, already in danger of joining the ranks of the mythical Camelot.
I am not opposed to the idea of 1Malaysia simply to be bloody minded, but it has to be a Malaysia that is fit for all Malaysians. We cannot expect people to swallow some vague promise of a bright future for all while in the same breath he declares that the NEP will forever remain a sacred cow. How on earth can he hope to reconcile special treatment for the Bumiputeras for eternity and equal opportunity for all Malaysians? I do not expect UMNO to see any contradiction in this formula for a happy country. I think the NEP as cobbled together after the 1968 race riots was a brilliant attempt to redress the economic wrongs of the past. Unfortunately, the overarching objective of alleviating poverty across the board irrespective of race was deliberately ignored in order to make way for the corrupt and the greedy to gorge themselves off the same grubby trough. Therein lies the critical challenge for Najib.
taz,
you still talk cock old boy
Well said Tunku.
One must be a damn blind fool with brains in his feet if he thinks Najib is a remarkable PM who now holds a 68% popular rating. Polls can be doctored for a small payment!!!
How can he fight corruption when he himself is corrupted? How can he talk about racial unity when he publicly threatened to soak the keris in Chinese blood?
Tunku is quite charitable to call him a grand illusionist. How can he be in the same league as David Copperfield or Chris Angel?
Najib is a con-man, a charlatan, a road side medicine peddler and play actor.
He has no brain to engage the people intellectually and so he walks about among the masses and draw admiration to himself from the misinformed, naive and gullible folks who have no access to the internet or the new media.
All the while, the purpose of paying APCO RM23 million of the Rakyat’s money is to enhance Najib’s shiok sendiri syndrome. Without a doubt Najib is even worst than his predecessor, that sleepy head.
No lah, not his Camelot. His fat mama is so unlike fair Guinevere. Actually it is his Waterloo and he will soon be sent to St Helena to keep old Napoleon company
///…hellishly wasteful and hollow symbol by any reckoning. And, that is putting it as charitably as I can…/// – Tunku Abdul Aziz
Far from “talk cock” (Chengho), Tunku’s view is rational skepticism.
Najib realises the urgency and imperative of economic reforms via his NEM departing from the NEP. For such reforms, the NEM has to be underpinned by a compatible political/national ideology. Which is ‘1 Malaysia’. This slogan purportedly embraces pluralism and advocates national/collective interest over narrow parocial communal interests. It is diametrically opposed to ‘Ketuanan’
Ideology – the pillar of Mahathir legacy- that underpins the NEP.
The first problem is that in the ideological conflict between ‘Ketuanan’
versus 1 Malaysia, the former is prevailing at latter’s expense (understandably because ‘Ketuanan’ enjoys more than 30 years of nurturance compared to the one year old ‘1 Malaysia’). This is evidenced by the fact that for reasons of ‘political considerations’ both top leaders were unwilling to state that they were Malaysians first and Race (Malay) second, whether challenged by Kit or Al Jazeera!
The political considerations are two fold: first, majority of the traditional constitutency of the ruling party may not be ready yet to accept the paradigmn change, if one believes in the findings of the survey conducted by independent pollster Merdeka Centre – that nearly 70 per cent of Malay voters in peninsular Malaysia agreed with Perkasa’s demands; second, the positions of top leaders are by our constitution dependent directly on support/votes of party’s delegates/warlords having vested interest in Ketuanan/NEP and resistant against its slightest variation/dilution rather than the majority of electorate throughout the country who may arguably support change.
This means that if political survival within party system were prioritised, as it invariably would, there will simply be insufficient political will to push through genuine reforms. What can be reasonably expected is waffling – a two faced pretence of saying of one thing and doing of another that will impose on even the naïve. The unwillingness to openly declare “Malaysians first and Race second” is the clearest example of such double talk even at the level of “talk” let alone deeds!
The Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat by-election set for April 25 will provide yet another test: will BN’s campaigners/candidate actively campaign for ‘1 Malaysia’ on premise of “Malaysians first and Race second”??? This another acid test. Likely they dare not – which makes a mockery of the thrust of the national platform of 1 Malaysia GTP Roadmap.
The strategy the Opposition should take in the Hulu Selangor parliamentary seat by-election is to contend in broad terms:-
1. it as no quarrel with the ruling coalition’s 1 Malaysia GTP Roadmap: after all it has borrowed substantially from its “Middle Malaysia”, but:
2. it has quarrel however with the ruling coalition’s unwillingness and incapacity to practise what it preaches in respect of 1 Malaysia GTP Roadmap.
The ruling coalition tries to take the winds of PR’s sails by highjacking its inclusive motto attributed to Opposition’s success in 308 elections. It s no point challenging in principle BN’s 1 Malaysia GTP Roadmap. One cannot win on that. Its better to challenge on the point of sincerity – the mismatch/gap between what the ruling coalition says and actually practise.
Pakatan Rakyat will win Hulu Selangor if BN fielded MIC candidate.
This is how I see 1Malaysia, a lip service. But the era of lip service is over. Forming slogan aiming at truncating the clamour for change and inclusiveness is over. Racial unity and integration can not be promoted by slogan or by asking people to give up their identities for some illusionary notion of commonality. National unity and integration is brought about by genuine desire of individuals to sacrifice a little of themselves in exchange for the greater common good that they can see happening in the society and country they live in.
Quite clearly chengho had himself just completed a marathon round of masturbation and all he could do was to talk cock. Hoi talking cock is not your right. The right to do that belongs to umnoputras. Oh sheet you are an umnoputra in cheongsam!
Mamak tied umno up into knots. Jib does know how to undo them. Sleepy head failed of course. He thought the knots could become undone merely by some hot air. He was dreaming. Jib strangely thought the same too. Maybe they both shared the same dream. Jib had the benefit of sleepy head’s failure. He realised that letting hot air merely will not do. He must do it big time and in another way. But there are only that many ways hot air can be released. Fart, blow through the mouth or through the nose. Farting is not good. That is obvious. Blowing though the mouth did not work for sleepy head. How about blowing though the nose. That’s kinda snorting. How to do it properly. Ah. Ask the israelis. Yes ask APCO.
Malaysians are fed up with being continually bombarded and harangued by Najib on his slogan the significance of which he is not sure about. To the millions of us preoccupied with making ends meet on a daily basis in Najib’s economic haven, 1Malaysia cannot be disguised as anything but what it is; a hellishly wasteful and hollow symbol by any reckoning. And, that is putting it as charitably as I can. – Tunku
Tunku, you’ve said it!
This bloke is still giving us the same slogan type of rhethoric that Malaysians have grown very wary of.
Fifty years is a very long time in human terms and we have now been weaned off the cock and bull routine by now.
What this country needs is a PM who dare to do what’s right for the people; I mean ALL the people.
And he should not be worried that in do so that he may be disenfranchised by any section of society.
And I can say in all earnesty that if the PM called for a General Election NOW, his government will lose big!
Perhaps the mother of all tsunami compared to 308!!
A top ranking Umno man named NOR something,sorry I can’t remember his full name said yesterday in front of hundreds of Umno members that should Umno failed to win the Hulu Selangor by election,it means Umno/Bn would never be able to win the 13th GE. Well guys,let us all make his wish comes true.
If a simple slogan like “1-Malaysia” can change the mindset of the raykat, it shows that the people are weak and can easily be manipulated.
Najib is therefore a confirmed HP6 to think he can win over the hearts and minds of the people who are against him.
Everywhere you go, you can hear people talk about corruption, and the murder of Altantuya, TBH and Kugan, unfair distribution of scholarship, discrimination, kangaroo court, bad PDRM, etc.
Now, asssuming the people of Sabah were to come out with a slogan “Sabah for Sabahan only”, and “Kick out BN/UMNO”, I am sure the dreams of Sabahans can easily be achieved, because they have been so badly marginalised for the past 50 years, until their children have to beg for food in the streets of KL.
Therefore, just ignore the “1-Malaysia” slogan and concentrate to demand for equality …. starting with a demand for 95% oil money and give the 5% to KL as “Wang Esahn”
It is an impossible to do the right thing in a government filled with corrupted people. People used to easy money will never accept anything less and will resist change. There is hope only if a new government takes over.
By the way, Tunku Aziz is a respected person so maybe Chengho is Najib or his crony in disguise.
The 1 malaysia slogan is not a magic wand to change the ppl .Maybe they are good in doing disappearing acts like the jet engines, Bala ,etc. The Hulu Selangor will be a good opportunity to show the umnoputras that their corrupted and dictatorial practices are not accepted by the ppl.How can the contractors not charging a screwdriver for rm2000 and laptop for rm42000 when they are required to give besides the 30% equity an upfront payment % depending on the project even before earning any profit. No wonder so many mega projects are not open tenders. Tenders worth billions can also be given to a 23 yrs old man. This is totally outrageous. The ravaging should stop now.
We all know Najib’s talk is not real. He says one thing but fall short of actually doing it. The issue really is what is he trying to do?
It appears that what he want to do is confused the public opposition to UMNO/BN and at the same time apply old-fashion Mahathirist iron-fist to defeat the opposition parties. That is basically the extend of his intellect. Its really the stuff of the simple-minded rather than a real strategic thinker.
There is only a small window with this kind of game and when people wake up to the real game that is being played, you will always lose. So the question really is WHEN is Najib going for GE13? I believe he is not smart enough to figure out that he has only a small window and will wait. Which means he is falling into his own trap.
I could be wrong and we could be looking at GE13 in less than 12 months..
That is why the government is still spending beyond its means to boost the economy.
Also all types of incentives have been given to civil servants and the PDRM.
Yes I agree that the next GE will be held sooner rather than later when we get more problems in the global economy.
chengho: “taz, you still talk cock old boy”
How could the subject of Tunku Abdul Aziz’s article here be mistaken for that about ‘roosters’?
Clearly, the subject of Tunku’s article is about PM Najib, unless someone else has mistakenly confused Najib for a ‘rooster’…
Pointless to about 1 Malaysia even the basic needs of education here in Malaysia is greatly discriminated.The government does not have the political will to offer equal opportunity to all young Malaysians.Entry to university for bumi and non-bumi are totally different.The only route for non-bumi is a good pass in SPTM,while bumi STUDENTS have many channels like matriks,program asasi, dilopma,pro-dilopma and others.Teachers in schools do not pracstise discriminating teaching to all races of students,why should their children be deprived of their chance ? .Is it what we call fair?. MR PRIME MINISTER,PLS EXPLAIN TO THE YOUNG STUDENTS IN SCHLOOS.ARE THEY ANAK MALAYSIA OR ANAK ASING.
PM is always under the control of Malayan extremists. It is a dilemma for the ruling government to handle the situation. So we have to wait for God to send a savior down. A big-scale 513 may be a quick fix to get rid of the extremists once and for all. Then transform Malaysia into a Republic, like Singapore. Better still, just invite Singapore to help manage the country for a fee.
///if one believes in the findings of the survey conducted by independent pollster Merdeka Centre – that nearly 70 per cent of Malay voters in peninsular Malaysia agreed with Perkasa’s demands;///–Jeffrey
I thought if a survey has asked if one is allowed to rob with impunity would he do it, the answer would be 100%. It was only 70%. It says that 30% of the Malays who responded really practise Islamic religion, and have the sense of righteousness. The others are badly influenced by the Mamak who thought that might is right, and if they have the power to bully, why not.
Looks like 30% of Malay votes would go to PAS, and some to PKR. Together with the other 30 % non-Malay votes, other than the opportunists MCA and MIC members slightly more than half the population will support PR to form the next federal government, if the electroal boundaries are fairly demarcated..
UMNO spent the last 40 years creating 2Malaysia – 1 for Malays and 1 for non-Malays.
Now, they belatedly realize that they need a 1Malaysia to propel Malaysia forward. No, correction, to prevent Malaysia from becoming a failed state, if it is not already there.
Is Najib is really serious with his 1 Malaysia,starts off with fair and equal opportunity for his Anak Malaysia of all races first before any other policies.Don’t simply sing the song that is not from your heart.Why should there be ” Untuk Buniputeras Sahaja” in many programmes under KPM or IPTA ?.Where is your will and sincerity ?. Scoring 25As by putting herculean efforts during 12 years’ schooling time is meaningless even denied a place into popular Matrikulasi.UPSR- 7As, PMR-8As, SPM 10As.Is there any future for us in your country ?.On behalf of a 2009 SPM non bumi leaver.Is that what we call Meritocracy or to produce quality human capital for the country?.