An open letter to Dr M

By Ice Cream Seller | MARCH 30, 2014
The Malaysian Insider

Dear Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad,

We refer to your recent testing of the waters to see if you would be welcomed back to take over from our missing prime minister.

Thank you, but most of us are once bitten twice shy and have no stomach for another spell of your tenure.

You say you want to curb the Internet because it contributes to social problems and a rise in the crime index.

Actually, our social problems stem from many sources. Dumping of newborn babies is not something picked up from the Net. Incest and rape were already prevalent. Khalwat and zina thrived well before the age of the Net. Drug abuse was there, too.

Thanks to the Internet, these are brought to our awareness and not censored by your pliant media. Not to mention the numerous scandals of your and subsequent administrations

You say you gave your word about the Internet but not any assurance that it would not be filtered.

Frankly, we don’t care any more what you remember and what you choose to forget.

“Melayu muda lupa,” you say. But are you really Malay enough to forget? Selected amnesia is a skill you have honed since retirement.

You claim we have long held the expertise to censor the Internet. I don’t know about that but if it is anywhere as good as our capability to detect and track flight U-turns, then it is fine with me.

You blame the Internet for violence in film and television. To some extent, you are right. But what about the violence threatened by organisations which you are patron of?

Would they have behaved or postured differently had there been no Internet? Or is it the fact that their activities are being reported on the Internet while the mainstream pretend that they don’t exist being the reason you are irked?

You say our country has the right to uphold its security. That is so very true. But who says you have the divine right to determine how this security is upheld?

We have already seen it compromised in the substandard, overpriced equipment we have bought for the army, navy and air force.

What kind of security are you referring to when you brought in millions of illegals with the sole motive of perpetuating your tenure and compromising our judiciary to such an extent that it beggars belief.

The contamination our education standards with a venomous mixture of bigotry and religiosity and reducing the police force to what it is compared with 40 years ago was under your watch – whether you were instrumental or not.

You contemptuously state that people (meaning us) are too ill disciplined and immature to practise democracy. Well, as a previous education minister you have unintentionally admitted to be instrumental in creating and perpetuating an immature people.

You could have put that right in your subsequent 22 years as PM if you wanted to or if you thought it was the best for the country.

Actually, you selfishly ensured that the populace were only given a mediocre education for the insidious purpose of what Hishamuddin Rais referred to as the “bonsaification of the mind” thereby enabling you and your party to continue to rule at will.

Ignorant people are easier to manipulate, confuse, mislead and deceive. That is why for everything, our excuse is that “it will confuse our people”.

This mantra of our people being confused is now being adopted by the home minister in his recent comments about criticism from the Chinese press over the handling of the MH370 saga.

He himself avoided all the press conferences and instead sent his IGP. Maybe he was afraid he’d be confused by the barrage of questions that would be thrown at him. At least for that, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein earns some respect from me.

While on that subject, I must say the conduct and demeanour of MAS’ chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya also stood apart from the rest.

As you home in your 90th year, please rest, stay home and take time to smell the flowers and don’t mind the occasional haze that blights Kuala Lumpur.

Take a drive once a week or so to the Proton factory and see if they can catch up with the Hyundais and the KIAs. Maybe even take a long holiday to Kerala – god’s own country and relish the fish moli.

The wasted generation have enough on their plate. – March 30, 2014.

Note: This piece was written 10,700m up in the air on a MH flight that mostly straddled the vast oceans. Good flight, dedicated and pleasant crew, improved food and no U-turns.

* Ice Cream Seller reads The Malaysian Insider.