A Sprint Or Marathon Towards Bangsa Malaysia?
By Nur Jazlan Mohamed
(Substitute the number of years since Merdeka in 1957) ago, Malayans of all races spilled into Stadium Merdeka and padangs across Malaya to celebrate Independence on August 31st. And every year since then, we lament, we recriminate, we ruminate, we fulminate on what it means, what it was, what it is and what it will be, each year.
Wither Malaysia yesterday, today and tomorrow?
Old introductions, old arguments, old ways of thinking about the politics of race, about unity in diversity, straddling competing interests as we move forward and meld Malaysians of various ethnicities into Bangsa Malaysia. But, where do we start? From the original Perikatan or Alliance that comprised of UMNO, MCA and MIC that helped wrought a Malaya with neatly divided duties and responsibilities in a small constitutional monarchy/parliamentary democracy with Malays in the civil service, Chinese in business and Indians in professional services.
Then, we soon became Malaysia and expanded our nation to embrace our brethren across the South China Sea. And here we are today, still arguing, debating and pushing forward our vested interests in Malaysia.
The fact of the matter is political debate is healthy and good for a democracy. Pakatan Rakyat's substantial gains in the 2008 General Elections prove that democracy is alive and well in Malaysia despite the doubts of the foreign press. This was a good comeback for the Pakatan Rakyat even though many Malaysians virtually ignored them in the 2004 elections.
My biggest worry about the current political scenario now is that the rakyat seem to be preoccupied with politics and are forgetting the hard work needed to develop the country."It's the economy, stupid," to borrow a quote from the former United States President, Bill Clinton. He is right. Malaysians should be focusing more on growing the economy to feed its people, rather than just wagging their chins.
Our forefathers fought for Independence to keep our wealth in natural resources from being physically taken away to London by the British. We can quibble about how Petronas money is being spent to the cent, but the money that Petronas spends today is a result of the wisdom of our leaders decades ago. The question we should be asking now is what we must do to generate future wealth in the economy without relying too much on our finite natural resources.
We should ask ourselves whether we have worked hard towards using the high standard of education that we have obtained to take advantage of the Internet and generate new wealth from the wide expanse of knowledge it provides. Or do we underutilize it and use it mainly to get sensational political news.
Back to the issue of the economy, the rakyat is looking for strong leadership to guide them through these tough and challenging times. However I fail to see any leadership on the economy by both BN and Pakatan Rakyat. The BN's welfare state focus is needed to help the less fortunate in society. But I do not see many practical proposals by the government to generate new economic growth to create sustainable development. The Pakatan Rakyat doesn't seem to have many ideas either on the economy, and seem to be fixated on politicking and harping on corruption by the BN government.With the prosecution of the two Perak state exco members; maybe they should concentrate on cleaning up corruption in their respective administrations first.
In all this time of course, with the evolving political climate, there has been much talk about a two party system and a fairer power sharing arrangement in Malaysia. I believe it is a good idea to have a two party system of government provided that it does not come at the expense of strong leadership. Assuming that the two party system in Malaysia would finally evolve into BN and Pakatan Rakyat and both alliances would operate under its own power sharing arrangement , the rakyat would have to decide on which coalition is more enduring - to effectively provide the strong leadership needed for the growth of the economy.
I have my doubts on a long lasting Pakatan Rakyat coalition of parties with widely contrasting ideologies, which is currently being held together by Anwar Ibrahim. Can the Pakatan survive after Anwar? The rakyat should also ask whether Pakatan Rakyat would be courageous to reform the overwhelmingly Malay civil service, police force, army, and educators without risking a political backlash from a growing Malay majority, as the current birth trends predict that Malaysia would have a Malay population of 60 percent in 2020.
The rakyat should also ask whether in a two party system, Pakatan Rakyat could indeed win the two thirds majority needed to change the Constitution that is deemed to protect the Sultans and the Malays. Many more questions follow in my mind. For example, surely, Pakatan Rakyat would want to eliminate the Sultans in its quest to achieve fairness - just as the Australians are now thinking to turn their country into a full Republic? What about the question of removing Malay rights deemed and enshrined in the Constitution? Would the Malays give up those privileges easily, even though many Malays, including myself, believe that we should practice meritocracy?
In conclusion, I think we should respect the wisdom of our forefathers during the quest of gaining Independence. They could have turned Malaysia into a republic then and eliminated the Sultans who were mostly with the British at that time. They understood the long-term basic nature of the country with its complex and potentially multi-ethnic and multi-religious mix. Maybe that's why they choose political stability over fairness at that time and focused on developing the country. They knew that there was a danger that the best people would leave the country if they were unhappy and the country would suffer economically.
In my opinion, our forefathers knew that Malaysians needed strong leadership and guided democracy for their political formula to work. So now, we can talk till the cows come home to figure out the politics of race but it won't take us anywhere, either in a sprint or a marathon. To breast the tape, what we really need is hard work, something often forgotten amidst all the cheering and the noise.
Datuk Nur Jazlan is a two-term Member of Parliament for Pulai, Johor. He is also the Barisan Nasional and UMNO chief for the Pulai constituency. He is a chartered accountant by training.