Beware of the Ides of March – but who should beware?

The past 12 months have been a year never experienced by Malaysians who, with increasing desperation and sense of hopelessness, have never felt so sick and wracked by so many crisis, whether the RM55 billion 1MDB crisis, the RM2.6 billion “donation” crisis – or actually more, as according to the latest revelation by Wall Street Journal today, more than US$1 billion and not just US$681 million had been deposited into Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s personal bank accounts – the 6% GST imposed on April 1; the worst racial and religious polarisation in the nation’s history with the unprecedented rise of extremism, intolerance and bigotry; the devaluation of the Malaysian ringgit hovering at RM4.2 to the US dollar; the plunge in Malaysia’s educational standards and accomplishments; Malaysia’s deterioration in important international indices with the country named No.3 in the world’s “worst corruption scandals in 2015” or falling four places in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index 2015; the loss of national and international confidence in the Prime Minister who is being investigated by US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) whether he is a “kleptocrat” with the 1MDB scandal the subject of investigations by seven foreign countries; the threat of a new “dictatorship” with parliamentary passage of the National Security Council Bill (which has as yet to receive the Royal Assent) and above all, the future and survival of the Merdeka Constitution of 1957 and the Malaysian federation formed in 1963!

Everywhere and every day, informed, concerned and patriotic Malaysians are asking: How did Malaysia reached such a sorry pass, when the country once dreamt of international greatness and accomplishments in various fields of human endeavor in our early decades of nationhood, and how Malaysia could get out of the rut or cul de sac we have stuck ourselves in. Continue reading “Beware of the Ides of March – but who should beware?”

Malaysia post-Najib

Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
29 Feb 2016

It is the great Malaysian apathy which holds Malaysia back. Najib Abdul Razak will eventually leave office, voluntarily or otherwise. You can play an important role in post-Najib Malaysia. You are needed to shake-up the entire establishment.

Will you choose your present life which you believe is bearable? Or will you be brave and leap into the unknown, and entrust your future to a handful of people who are under pressure, and who feel your pain?

Those who lived through Merdeka were idealists. Honour, trust, respect and principle, meant something then. These things mean nothing in 21st Century Malaysia.

Over the past four decades, Malaysian life has become intolerable. You know things are bad when the theft of a mobile phone was politicised into a racial issue. Instead of living life to the full, we have become cynics and our beliefs have become corrupted. Others simply allow themselves to be corrupted.

Everyone, even former ministers and at least one former PM would like to say “Good riddance” to Najib. Continue reading “Malaysia post-Najib”