Politics: Malaysians are immature; whose fault is it, MM?

[pywong]

Malaysians are immature; whose fault is it, MM? (http://188hughlowstreet.wordpress.com/2012/02/23/malaysians-are-immature-whose-fault-is-it-mm/)

February 23, 2012 by Ipohgal (http://188hughlowstreet.wordpress.com/author/188hughlowstreet/)
http://188hughlowstreet.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/conscience.jpg?w=501&h=334 (http://188hughlowstreet.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/conscience.jpg)
Sorry to disappoint you guys, MMis not Marilyn Monroe, America’s legendary sex symbol, the beautiful blonde that drove all men wild and crazy. http://s0.wp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_smile.gif?m=1336659725g

Here, MM is the country’s fourth Prime Minister, the man we all loathed and wished he just fade away. http://s0.wp.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_sad.gif?m=1336659725g

MM said Malaysians are not mature enough for debates. He said debates would only make the situation worse as Malaysians were too sentimental and emotional to appreciate arguments that were presented rationally.

“The Malaysian public is not yet that mature. This is not America. And even in America, the debates only expose how stupid the candidates are, that’s all,” he told reporters at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya a few days ago.

Not mature enough means not fully developed or lacking the wisdom usually associated with adults. In other words, Malaysians, by and large, are still mentally inadequate. For this, we really have him to blame and thank for, in the same breath.

In 1974, MM was made the country’s Education Minister. That was when the decline began. Bit by bit, this man started to dismantle the strong foundation of a very sound education system which we have inherited from the British who once colonized us. Step by step, he began to take away the core, the essence, the fundamental part of education; then molded it into a tool to serve his political needs.

First, the teaching of English is limited to one subject only and English Literatures were relegated to the trash bin. He then politicized subjects like History and Moral Studies. Without us realizing it, he closed our windows to the world. Instead of studying world history, we were forced to focus on local history and even then, we have to study distorted history, history not written by neutral historians but by those appointed by the Education Ministry to glorify the government. It was a torture to read about the government coined slogan “Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah” in Moral Studies when you can see corruptions being practiced so openly among civil servants of all levels.

Not satisfied with this, he also enforced greater government control over Malaysian universities, despite very strong opposition from the academic community. MM also moved to limit politics on university campuses, giving his ministry the power to discipline students and academics who were politically active and making scholarship for students conditioned on the avoidance of politics.

All his evil plans were aim towards one motive – to stifle the intellectual growth of the populace. When we are stupid and ignorant, he can rule mighty over us. He does not want us to be smart and intelligent. In this way he could hold the grip longer. He managed to lord over us for 22 years (1981 to 2003) as Prime Minister, with iron fists and all the public institutions as well as the media at his disposal. Many of his opponents were banished off or put away behind bars without a fair trial.

I called those of us Malaysians who went to local government-funded schools after 1974 as “The Lost Generation” and I am among the first batch of “The Lost Generation.” I was only ten years old and in Standard Four when he became the Education Minister. His policies affected the quality of education that I received. It was not the all-round education which my much older siblings and those from their era received. What I had was a half-baked education. It was something that was neither here nor there, something which I was not proud of at all, something which could be a lot better if only a politician was not the person to dictate what I should learn in school.

Even today, my children are still trapped in his policies. They were the second batch of “The Lost Generation.” The things they are studying now are many times worse off than my time. What good knowledge can they get when there was a big “1Malaysia” logo on each of their textbook? How mature can they become when they are not allowed to think beyond their text books? How well-informed can they be when their History book said it was UMNO that got us our independence and we ought to be grateful to them? How smarter can they grow when they are fed daily with poisons like “Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan?”

I believed that as long as our education is being used as a political weapon by those in power, Malaysians will never get to grow maturely, not now, not in another 55 years. We need to separate politics from education as much as we need to separate politics from religions and ethnicities too.

What good will the Twin Towers, the Formula 1 in Sepang or the Kuala Lumpur International Airport does when our minds were shackled? Isn’t it ironic that the same man who gave us these “feels good” icons also took away the very basic human trait that we all have – mental development?
So, MM, can you blame Malaysians for not being mature enough? It all started with you, actually. What you should do now is simply hold back your vilest tongue and let others clean up the mess you have created!
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Also appeared in Malaysian Chronicle‘s blogsite :

[pywong]

Ask him to count how many people became thieves when he was in power....CK (http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.com/2012/03/ask-him-to-count-how-many-people-became.html)

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 07:10 PM PDT

ASK HIM TO COUNT HOW MANY PEOPLE BECAME THIEVES WHEN HE WAS IN POWER.

CK, February 24, 2012 20:49:52 in Malaysia Today

I came across that comment by CK in Malaysia Today on an article whose title I have long since forgotten. What I have not forgotten was what CK asked us to ask of Mahathir:

ASK HIM TO COUNT HOW MANY PEOPLE BECAME THIEVES WHEN HE WAS IN POWER...

Thief:
• Somebody who steals something especially with the
intention of escaping notice.

Steal:
• To take something that belongs to somebody else,
illegally or without the owner’s permission.
• To take or get something secretly or through trickery
• To take something that another person has created, and
present it as your own.

CK’s line captured the essence of the Mahathir’s time in government and positively identifies the main preoccupation that has defined UMNO and Barisan Nasional. Unfortunately it also gave many Malaysian the opportunity to do likewise and many embraced that opportunity reverently.

In his person it must be said that arguably Mahathir was not corrupt. He was not interested in amassing insane personal wealth. He did not suffer fools gladly and his work ethics were exemplary. One thing and one thing only coloured everything that he did – the acquisition of power within himself. And in the acquisition of this power he was enormously successful and became blind to everything else.

Blind to the need of check and balances in the business of government. Blind to his duty as an elected representative to be responsible and accountable to the people for what he did. And he was certainly blind to what harm the wielding of that power did to our people and to our country – damage that irreversibly and irrefutably caused the breakdown of the very fabric of society that we have known for as long as we have lived.

There were also the adverse economic costs that his irresponsible grandiose schemes, mega projects and Malaysia Inc. – all manifestation of his insistence to use the power within himself to do as he please unchecked - had costs our country. A cost that has ran into the billions of ringgits. A debt to be paid back by us, our children and by many generations to come. In his self-absorbed pursuit of power Mahathir used everything at his disposal to acquire power and excused anything else to keep it.

The tender system used to purchase what our government required became the quintessential way by which so many of these newly acquired thieving skills of the Malaysia people were deftly honed upon. The tender system was skewered to serve Mahathir’s purposes. The politics of patronage. Those who served Mahathir and UMNO vested interest were rewarded with government contracts and projects. Tenders by invitation only, tenders by negotiations and ways and means were perfected to ensure its award were only to preferred parties as identified by those in power. The tender process became flawed to serve Mahathir’s and UMNO’s interest. And once this process was flawed it, it was abused at all levels.

Every process of the tender system became a way of making money for the enterprising government servant and others. From the time when a requirement was identified, to the tendering out process, to the evaluation of it and then to the purchase and its payment process, and if required its maintenance - all along the line money could and was made by those involved in the process – all at great costs to our country.

Thus started the thieving of our country resources by many government servants and politicians – and the culture of materialism was born. Now everything to be done in government had a price – from haggling with the policeman to ‘selesai’ a minor traffic infringement to the building of the RM$20 billion Putrajaya.

The more power he acquired the greater his ability to reward those who served his purpose – a vicious circled that preyed on the inherent greed of men. None can deny the power that Mahathir wielded was absolute. And in having that absolute power he corrupted the process of government absolutely.

The Sultans became thieves under Mahathir. They were rewarded by being allowed to continue with their useless and ostentatious life style at our expense if they did Mahathir’s bidding. They got something for doing nothing (is that not thieving?). If they dared to cross Mahathir, they were abuse and punished.
The Mentri Besar did Mahathir’s bidding and stacked Cawangans, Bahagians and Negri level within UMNO into factions with leaders who only had loyalty to Mahathir and financial rewards came with it. We have yet to meet a Mentri Besar from the Mahathir era that retired poor! And Ketua Bahagians and Negri were little Napoleons of the great wealth and unbridled power in as long as it served Mahathir’s purposes. Probably the last and one of the most memorable example of these thieves chosen personally by Mahathir to be Mentri Besar, would be the ex-dentist now convicted of corruption, Khir Toyo. All these thieves given respectability by politics under UMNO led by Mahathir!

Ministers were thieves for the many financial rewards they and their supporters obtained for putting up with the Mahathir and his megalomaniac ways of doing government. They put up with everything that Mahathir wanted to do in Cabinet because in him they knew rested their career in politics and their financial rewards for services faithfully rendered to Mahathir. This was thieving on a grand scale with legitimacy conferred at the highest level in the land – the Cabinet.
When the highest echelons of government are themselves thieves – what more its people. And that is why I say that CK got the essence of Mahathir’s era when he said this of Mahathir’s time in government:

Ask him to count how many people became thieves when he was in power...
What a damming indictment of Mahathir who dares to think that he could be one of our greatest Prime Minister! Greatest my a@r*! He would be more at home amongst Field Marshal Idi Amin, Emperor Bokassa or Papa Doc of Haiti – all leaders diseased with the need to have power within themselves oblivious to the need of the people and the country they serve. All leaders dammed by history and considered buffoons when pitted against Ang Sang Sui Kyi and Mandela. Our tragedy is that we already have such a buffoon in Mahathir!

And I end with this other comment also from MT. All further examples of thievery on a grand scale done or given birth to during the Mahathir era:

Tell me, do I need to hentam Najib and UMNO-BN on issues such as NFC, 1Care, tolls, PKFZ, submarine commission, mysterious APC price differences, Felda Global Ventures, Terengganu Stadium Collapse, MRR2 repair, Tourism promotion bullsh*t, PSC Naval dockyard, mysterious non-accountable awards of contracts, payouts to contractors without contracts being fulfilled, crooked bridge compensation, Bank Bumi, Bank Islam, Maminco, Betting in foreign exchange futures by Bank Negara, Perwaja Steel, Valuecap Sdn. Bhd, corrupt practices including lu tolong wa – wa tolong lu-ism, racial politics, condoning arrogant overt acts of seditions by Utusan, Perkasa, BTN-ized racism by headmasters and use of books with bigoted contents, politicized police, MACC, judiciary, civil servants, muftis, AG, etc?

With apologies and thanks to the writer whom I have not been able to credit for this succulent comment as I have lost track of whom he/she is. Amen!