It was touching to read a posting by Lim Guan Eng about a handwritten note from the young MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman to mark his 60th birthday last week.
In a frank and personal note, Syed Saddiq wrote that he had once thought that Guan Eng was “the embodiment of evil”, after years of indoctrination and misshapen views about the Lim family.
I have met Guan Eng a few times, in Penang and Kota Kinabalu. He is like a bespectacled nerd, with old-fashioned greasy hair combed backwards like John Travolta. His father, Kit Siang, has the same hairstyle. I did not see any horns, fangs or tail on him.
Corrupt politicians today are the true embodiment of evil, with their self-entitlement and air of self-righteousness.
Syed Saddiq said he no longer holds those negative views of Guan Eng after serving alongside the former finance minister in the Pakatan Harapan government, and once again in the opposition. He pledged to stand side-by-side with Lim for the sake of Malaysia.
Syed Saddiq’s remarks came off sounding like he was a graduate of a boot camp held by one of the communist parties, where they brainwash you to hate capitalism and Uncle Sam. Maybe he had attended a JASA boot camp, where the government indoctrinates people on the pretext of maintaining political, religious and government stability.
In these trying times, our senseless government wants to spend a huge amount on JASA to continue to brainwash more people into the kind of thinking described by Syed Saddiq. The government’s money could be put to better use to help small businesses affected by the pandemic or to improve rural health services.
Since Syed Saddiq was educated in Malaysia, he could be the product of his environment where the Malay worldview has been warped by the “ketuanan Melayu” concept. The supremacist’s ideology has led to the closure of the alcohol section in supermarkets, a big dip in sovereign ratings because corrupt officials were being let off the hook for their “indiscretions” and playing menteri besar musical chairs at the expense of the rakyat.
The unity message
The recent Sabah elections and Shafie Apdal’s campaign message, “In God we trust, unite we must” as well as “We are here to build a nation, not a particular race or religion” might have rubbed off on Syed Saddiq and made him realise there is something more important than bashing other races or religions.
Divisive politics comes from Malaya where the politicians divide the nation into “territorial warfare” between three races; Malay, Chinese and Indians. The 50 ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak are just collateral damage in the three-race power play.
The same divisive politics in Perak last week had also happened in Sabah where the GRS coalition (PPBM, BN, Umno) teamed up to defeat the local-based party Warisan. After winning the elections, Umno and PPBM fought over ministerial portfolios and gave a charity seat to PAS without a contest, upsetting Sabahans.
Perak’s Sultan Nazrin Shah expressed his frustration and reprimanded the state’s assemblymen in his speech during the third swearing-in ceremony to install the new menteri besar in just two years after the last general election.
This is certainly nothing to be to be proud of, but then it is already a norm in Malaysian politics.
It began with the Sheraton Move which brought down Pakatan Harapan after less than two years in power. Then it was Warisan’s turn.
Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, tired of being kicked around, declared that he had the numbers to bring down the Perikatan Nasional government led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin during the Sabah elections.
The madness continued in Perak recently where Ahmad Faizal Azumu lost the confidence of the state assembly, resulting in him stepping down as menteri besar. None of the parties whether it be Umno, PPBM or other coalitions will ever be satisfied as they will try to bring one another down. The end game will always be power and control, and all the riches that go with it. Forget about the rakyat, they are just in the way.
Elites who profit
In a book written by Niall Ferguson titled “Why nations fail”, commenting on Egypt, the author argued the country was poor because it was ruled by a narrow group of elites who organised society for their own benefit at the expense of the people.
That was the case when BN/Umno was in power and still remains the case as the main players are the same and with similar mindsets. Unless a new generation of Malaysians comes forward with values different from the current elites, Malaysia will remain trapped in a time zone of inept progress. Forget about becoming a high-income nation, our neighbours have overtaken us in the rankings.
However, there is still hope for the country when a young politician like Syed Saddiq acknowledges the goodness in a Chinese elder and sees the human side of everyone.
Since May 9, 2018, we have seen political warriors of the old school donning a new cloak over the same DNA within them.
Our hopes of a new Malaysia under PH has now evaporated, leaving us mired in the same Malaysia of yesteryear.
In other countries, a #MeToo movement has arisen, to champion a feminist movement against sexual harassment. In Malaysia, the same hashtag stands for what’s in it for me by way of ministerial position, or seats on the boards of government-linked companies, or by way of project contracts, etc.
#MeToo in Malaysia has nothing to do with serving the people.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.