By Tunku Abdul Aziz
Although I have in my travels seen abject poverty in such diverse places as Addis Ababa, Dhaka, Dar es Salaam, Kolkata, Mumbai and Manila, I must confess to a feeling of utter revulsion and anger when confronted by stark deprivation in our supposedly well-governed and prosperous Malaysia.
The pockets of rural poverty in the Malay heartlands of Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu are islands of prosperity compared to the scene that churned my stomach and assailed my sense of guilt and outrage when I first ventured into the Iban long houses on the majestic Rejang.
It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life. The Orang Asli tribes and the Orang Hulu, the Malays from the interior, have a great deal in common with their Dayak friends. For all we care, they are Malaysia’s forgotten people, but not quite. Whenever an election is underway, be it a by-election or a general election, they find themselves the centre of attention, in great demand by the rich and powerful, all claiming to love and care for them.
Before the day is out, they are the proud possessors of a handful of crisp 50 ringgit notes. Four or five hundred ringgit is a princely sum to them, a king’s ransom, no less, in exchange for their votes. If some of them have become cunning, manipulative supplicants and sacrificed their values for a fistful of ringgit, remember it is we who have corrupted them.
Years of exposure to extreme poverty and unbridled exploitation have rendered many of these once proud and noble people, nature’s gentlemen, inured and insensitive to their own traditional values and value systems. They are reduced to living from hand to mouth, on handouts, from day to day. What a tragedy to befall a people whose only sin is to trust those sworn to protect their native rights. They are bewildered to find themselves dispossessed, as their land is taken away without as much as “by your leave” for commercial exploitation by the towkay friends of the powerful.
Talking to many of them, the Ibans, I mean, I believe the only way we can restore their pride and dignity is by providing opportunities for regular employment. We are dealing with an ancient people with a distinctive culture. Even those among them whose lives have taken on an urban aspect continue to cling strenuously to their traditional practices. We who are strong have a duty to help the weak by not foisting on the Ibans and others our culture of corruption and other despicable practices.
Some years ago, an Indonesian anti-corruption activist friend of mine visited our country during the 11th general elections, as part of a privately funded election observer mission. His group spent a great deal of time in Sarawak and Sabah and told me that he was shocked by the scale of vote buying. I was greatly embarrassed by his revelation because at an anti-corruption conference in The Hague at which I was invited to speak and he was a participant some two months earlier, I had said that while vote buying was rampant in party elections, the practice was unknown in general and state elections. I was unbelievably naïve to believe the Barisan Nasional government propaganda. The scale of vote-buying must have been so massive as to shock my Indonesian anti-corruption fighter, used as he was to living and working in a corruption-infested nation. It is not that easy to shock an Indonesian over a corruption issue. But unlike Malaysia, Indonesia is on the mend as far as fighting corruption is concerned. In Malaysia, on the contrary, it is in indecently robust health.
Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and poverty as we have seen in Sabah, Sarawak, Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan and Terengganu can only be explained in terms of governance grounded on corruption and political excesses. When we look at the personal wealth accumulated by Chief Minister Taib of Sarawak at one extremity and the Ibans at the other, one begins to wonder what the future holds for Malaysia. I am not at all sanguine.
The thieving and plundering by those in power must stop because, as history tells us, it is only a matter of time before the forbearance of the long suffering poor takes on an ugly aspect, with consequences too dreadful to contemplate. The Government of Malaysia and the state governments of Sabah and Sarawak in particular can alleviate poverty by governing in the sole interest of the people. Najib’s people first is under close public scrutiny.
Not to be mean but I think Tunku Abdul Aziz is lying. Why would he be shocked by such revelations? He is a member of DAP, the party that warned from the start all the ills of NEP and Ketuanan Melayu that we see today. Everyone also agree intellectually at least that DAP vision of the future of this country, whether it continues as is or what it can be, is correct. That is not the issue. The issue is whether there is or lack of will.
So what is there to be shocked about the excesses and depravity of UMNO/BN. Nothing..
That was why the East Timurese voted to get out of Indonesia in 1999
Malaysia = the next Zimbabwe.
Umno teaches us how to gostan..
welcome to Bolehland..
vote Umno out is the only solution, no others..
when you travel all over the world you will apreaciate mother Malaysia is still the best nation in the world that why u’re still around otherwise u will migrate long time ago to timbaktu .
Vote for BN good for your health
You see Tunku, if your message is meant for those who are really really poor, I think you are wasting your breath because they can never understand you, and neither do they know it is their rights not to be so poor in a rich country.
Let me relate to you my own story: I grew up poor, lost my father at tender age, and have to depend on my uneducated mum to work on a farm (as squatters) to survive. For many years until my teen, I thought life was meant to be like that – that deprivation and poverty was my destiny. I did not know it was our right to get help from the government, neither did we know that help was available.
Coming back to those who are poor and destitute that you have just described, I can only imagine my own experience when I was growing up. They will never know their rights. They will never know how to demand for a better life. So whatever that were thrown at them once every five years or when there is a by election, they would be grateful.
So it is back to leadership. For whatever reasons, Malaysia never seems to be able to produce a leader who has a genuine love for his/her people. The track records of leaders who are/were in power in this country just show they know to plunder, pilfer, and spent on melodrama dreams that are/were totally irrelevant to the welfare of the people. We want to believe that Pakatan leaders would be different and that is why we are placing our hope that the coalition will come to power next. But please take note of what I said: it is just a hope. Once in power it could be very different and again I hope you and others in the leadership would start to think about this issue before the power is in your hand.
The white=haired Rajah took it all.
East Malaysia MUST vote to get out of the federation as soon as possible, and before Malaysia is bankrupted by UMNO.
We really must thank chengho for reminding us constantly and doggedly of how “good” and “wonderful” umno’s ketuanan is.
Yes keep them coming dude. Thank you so much.
The abject poverty in Sarawak and Sabah merely reflects leadership failure of the two states.
Sucker, Changehole! “Vote for BN good for your health” What the sucking philosophy or theory that you try to apply?
Sucker, Changehole! Cut-off your sh*ts & mama-topping ads! “Vote BN will get free mama-topping and change holes to holes” may be good for your ads. Bunch of hogs would surrounding & topping your mama for FREE….
See you at the 19th Hole. 6pm. Happy Hour till 8.30pm.
When you both finished Chengho’s holes….give it to me.
I will shaft a monster ball in the front hole to shut his mouth.
Day in day out….this sickening Chengho keep advertising how good BN this …BN that….carrying Najib’s balls…shamelessly.
Chengho is a gone case….as his hands are filled with Njib’s balls worms…penetrating into his skin…poisoning his pea brain.
What Tunku Aziz have forgotten…is that…we are dealing with a gang of robbers and thieves with sweet mouths to keep fooling Malaysians….and this orang asli are the last ones UMNO B will sincerely help.
Poor or rich….all Malaysians have the freedom to voice out their complaints.
Not so easy before 12th GE….but now…no excuses not to dare to be free and equal.
These poor helpless orang asli needs Foochow voters to sound off decades being neglected by UMNO. Will Foochow voters be unselfishly feel the pains and sufferings of the very poor and vote Najib out?
Chinese racists can go back to China if they think Malaysia is a horrible country.
Why are you still here, i wonder?
racist extremists in DAP is at it again
The poor folks must be taught to take whatever UMNO/BN has to offer them during a by-election or a General Election.
But they must also be taught that it is also perfectly all right to give such people the boot!
After all the money that comes from the corrupters belong to the taxpayers!
The PR must also let them know that it will not only give them fish during the short term but, in the long term, take them by their hands and SHOW THEM HOW TO FISH!
That way their prosperity and future will be assured!
And I thought why we lost the thomas cup. China too good for us? No! Jib was there. He contributed to our loss. Players’s blood were boiling hot and could not concentrate well because of anger with jib’s deceitful ways. Jib does not belong in an arena where real merits is the means and the end of everything. Ketuanan will not help.
Come to think of it shouldnt ibrahim bin perkasa show his face and his ketuanan to the world in bkt jalil?
D stark truth is all we need is ONE or a few good guys with vision n absolute probity 2 change d fortune of this nation
But don’t expect these few good guys 2 come fr UmnoB/BN, which hv been given >50 years 2 rule but failed miserably in making this nation a globally respected nation
CHANGE we must, vote out n replace UmnoB/BN!
Look at d little red dot, yesterday a titan Dr. Goh Keng Swee, though born a Malayan in Malacca n once a Malaysian, passed away
This 1 man, among d founding fathers of Singapore, plotted d paths dat made Sg what it is today
He fathered many babies: Singapore Armed Forces, Economic Development Board, Monetary Authority of Singapore, Government of Singapore Investment Board, Temasek Holdings, Jurong Industrial Estate, Sentosa, Jurong Shipyard (Sembcorp Marine), Jurong BirdPark, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, Institute of SEA Studies, etc
He shook up n improved d Ministry of Education n d education system of Sg
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_526470.html
GKS had served as Minister for Interior n Defence, Minister for Finance, n Minister for Education
NR too had held similar posts – but what legacy did NR leave? Corruption, murder, keris raising n yelling 4 nonMalays’ blood, chaotic education system, engineless fighter jets, undiveable submarine, astronomical commission 4 cronies, a national service with corrupt practices n deaths of trainees, etc
So, how 2 expect our unis 2 perform under UmnoB/BN?
So sad, we missed d service of visionary, patriotic, n honest ppl like GKS – imagine what Malaysia COULD have been!!
We MUST REPLACE UmnoB/BN with PR (DAP/PAS/PKR) n hope dat there r capable patriots with absolute probity n total reliability 2 SERVE d nation n its ppl 4 d benefits of all
How a lunatic with withered balls can is so obsessed with others’ balls is simply beyond my comprehension.
YES, TAA, patriotic n enlightened Malays n Bumiputras who do not subscribe 2 UmnoB’s racist n corrupt practices (dat actually exploit economically disadvantaged Malays n Bumiputras, n prevent them fr advancing socially) MUST EXPOSE d selfish n self-enriching acts of UmnoBputras
Pls SPEAK 2 rural Malays n Bumiputras n EXPOSE d crooked n corrupt UmnoBputras 2 rural Malays n Bumiputras
D war in M’sia is NOT between Malays n nonMalays, or Muslims n nonMuslims – as always declared by UmnoBputras, MMK, Perkasa, n Utusan Malaysia
It is actually between d big fat rich UmnoB Malays + their cronies n d rest of rakyat
They use NEP, now NEM, n racial fear 2 wallop $$$ 4 themselves at d expense of economically disadvantaged Malays n Bumiputras
Quote:
“It is not enough that we have robbed them of their ancestral lands and impoverished them in the process, but we also felt constrained to strip them naked of any residual personal dignity that they might still have by introducing policies that have succeeded in reducing them to the fringes of mainstream economic life. ”
We must all thank our ex-what-someone -called- the-great-mamak-kutty-PM for all this disgraceful deprivation, shouldn’t we? He allowed all this to happen in his watch-man.
The gravest injustice done to the natives of Sarawak was the Bakun dam.
Tens of thousands were displaced as pristine forests were stolen from the natives. It is a form of genocide as the native culture and livelihood was destroyed under the guise of development and even now the electricity cannot be “pumped” to western Malaysia.
Isn’t it strange that only now it has been decided that the cost of the submarine cable is too expensive.
A similar case with the proposed nuclear power station – no proposal has been offered on how to dispose the waste material or is that where the crony contract will be offered?
I dare say Chengho never travel all over the world at all.
He is just a clerk in UMNO B government.
Yes…we are lucky to live in Malaysia .a god gifted country…not a country made by UMNO B government.
It is UMNO B government that is destroying our god gifted country by stealing billions every year…to bankrupt Malaysia very soon…if we do not do something about it ……right now.
All you need is to ask yourself…do you trust Chengho or Monsterball. CHOOSE!!
Better still…do you trust Lim Kit Siang or Najib.
Chengho never travel all over the world.
UMNO B crooks…..trusted agents.. travel all over the world to check up what properties to buy.. and the stolen money…safe and sound.
Is Chengho a filthy rich UMNO B crony?
He is just an office boy…talking cock all the time.
I have travelled all over the world and can see UMNO B is destroying our country.
Can you see that?
monsterball… what about you guys? do you think that you are better.
you consists of crooks, underworld gang members, pirated dvd sellers, prostitution ring and all kinds of sick thing.
reject politicians using religion
And Lim Suck Ass is expected to be… beyond his comprehension of my
“love” for Chengho..and true hatred to him…because he is a braggart with no manner..trying to impress everyone..he is he smartest of all.
Chengho alone is smarter than Lim Suck Ass.
So are majority who choose to ignore him…except Jeffery.
For me…Lim Suck Ass needs my attentions badly..so I entertain him a little.
Today is important to talk about Foochow votes …not too much about an ass sucker……who confessed he is the biggest scumbag in this blog….yet talk so much..with no shame.
That’s MCA trademark..he has and cannot be relied upon to vote for change in government.
Braggarts are unreliable…because the need to be totally selfish..conceited to be braggarts.
Read his comments and know his character.
i dun know why there are a bunch of stupid idiots craps like ‘chengho’ above still have a perception that if u dun vote BN means u dun love malaysia..!? BN is just a party… it does not represent Malaysia. And Malaysia is my country… I REJECT BN BECAUSE I LOVE MALAYSIA!
Tell the Sibu folks to go ahead and take the ringgit that BN offered to them. I fact all these years infact BN own them even more than those crispy ringgits but tell them take the $$$ but vote DAP.
Mr Cheng Old, I think you are old and cheng(green for Cantonese). Vote fo BN? Mmmmm let see why people should vote for BN…Mmmm… yeah..right…I know why?
– Vote for BN so that C4 can be applied to more Mongolian Model.
– Vote BN so that more Jet engines can be stolen.
– Vote for BN so that more Chinese like Teoh Beng Hock be killed.
– Vote for BN so that more Port Klang corruption can continue.
– Vote BN so that people like Tajudin ramli can continue to siphone off $$$ from MAS
– Vote BN so that More Kugan could be killed
– Vote BN so that they can kill more Malay kids without warrant or remorse
– Vote BN so that we have more IGP like that Musang
-Vote BN so that they can sell off more blocks of wealth to Brunei
– Vote for BN so that they can continue to waste the rakyat $$$ without ends to buy votes
– Vote BN so that they can cook up charges on anyone who dare go against them especially using their ISA
Vote BN…. on…and on…
Is this why you vote BN???? What kind of person u are? Maybe u are not human.
Tunku you’ve been away overseas too long. But there’s always a first time.
1. No Tunku, this is inadequate. If we want to discuss poverty alleviatian, we need to think in real terms – appropriate economic solutions as agriculture and advanced self-help as in skills in co-operative movement, among some. But hands off! Not like the BN. Guide, yes but hands off! You create jobs for the balance who neither have the skills nor love for farming. The Dayaks are adventurers and farmers. They go to Singapore and Taiwan for jobs. But when Gawai calls the harvest spirits of the rice muse beckon and they drop whatever on hand and vamoose for the longhouse.
2. No again for the growing antiestablishment. Najib’s 1Malaysia is a myth just like Hang Tuah was. In Sibu they talk under hushed tones of the Hang Tuah in suits and sun-shades or those in traditional jeans. Tunku, please humor us. The Indonesians kicked asses. They kicked Sukarno’s ass, Suharto’s ass, though it was probably McNamara who played out Sukarno. The CIA tried but got stumped by unexpected Indonesian response from the porn fake movie of Sukarno their hero.
I agree with you Indonesia is a vibrant place. And there lies our future endeavors socially or economicaly. The Indonesians write beautiful music and venture into unchartered waters. If Malaysians are of help to them, we prosper. Already our present forage into Jakarta’s corporate world is whistling some weird tunes. The problem is in Najib’s Malaysia that we are underlings.
stevesiew – “Vote BN so that they can cook up charges on anyone”.
I agree. They can cook. They have good cookbooks. Make terrific Nasik Lemak, too. In their gatal mood they “cooked” books, too!
Bung Mukhtar loves “cookies”, too! Bless him! :)