There was once a country in western folklore where all the people are blind. Except the king who has one eye. Now, one eye is hardly the perfect set for sight, nature's original design being for humankind having two.

No matter, the otherwise one eye of the king has given him an enormous advantage over his blind subjects. One eye over no eye is obviously something to lo and behold. He is the only one who can see, no matter how imperfectly. So he leads his people and country very much according to his whims and fancies.

His subjects have no other choice but to follow. They have no avenue for objection feed-back or even for contributing to the direction they and the country are going. Groping in total darkness, they do not know even where to go let alone how to get there.

Everything that the ruler says must be obeyed. Turn left he says and the people turn left; turn right and they turn right. In the kingdom of the blind the one-eyed king truly rules supreme. So he must be happy.

I have the sinking feeling that Malaysia belongs to this proverbial country. Malaysians are on the main two-eyed individuals, save for some unlucky or unfortunate souls who are blind for various reasons. So why do I say Malaysia is akin to one such country of the blind?

It is because in this country the ruling elite do pretty much what they wish. By 'they' I mean not the constitutional monarchs or the Agong and Sultans but the theocrats or ulamas, the bureaucrats and political kingpins all compounded into the single Ketuanan Melayu mindset.

They have this blind tendency to do things in the name of ' agama, bangsa dan negara ' or religion, race and country.

Right and Wrong

The ulama do things for the agama , the political leaders for the bangsa and the bureaucrats for the nation. They'd say something like this: "We must develop this country, progress and prosper, and be counted in the community of nations in the name of religion, race and the nation."

So in the name of the religion (which turns out to be Islam), race (Malay), and the nascent nation (Malaysia) between them:

They have declared that democracy means the election of parliamentary representatives in the House of Parliament, and their state equivalents, this may take once every five years. There is absolutely no democracy in between elections.

They have killed participatory grass-root democracy, the people's inputs into public policy formulation and application are all but dead. In any case, any feedback to government policies any show of dissent are taken as an insolent show of insincerity, disloyalty and sheer lack of patriotism on the people's part. They are almost always taken as impolite, arrogant and rude dissent and consequently are almost always ignored. The rulers in other words are always right and Very Right, and the people are always wrong and Very Wrong.

The people are denied access to government records. Transparency is all but substituted by darkness. Laws like the Official Secrets Act will take care of that.

The bureaucrats are in theory the servants of the people who pay their salaries in any case, but they are happy to be servants of the legislators.

The leaders become the judge, jury and executioner when they cleverly demolished the separation of powers between the legislators, the executive and the judiciary.

In effect, the rulers determine what they want the people to think. For example, the people are allowed to believe only what the rulers want them to believe.

The people are not to discuss even what they are supposed to believe, all of such discussions are under the sole purview of the rulers.

These items listed above have the effect of the formulation of public policies in the name of Islam and the Malay race first and foremost, while forgetting the interest of the nation in the process. Don't ever say this too often: that the interest of the nation has been hijacked by the Ketuanan Melayu interest of religion and race. (And if the list is not convincing enough, don't worry, for there are many more).

Together these items have practically blinded the people, not to sight but something in many ways more telling - to innovation, imagination, curiosity, creativity and inventiveness. They are reduced to leading a life of conservatism and conformity.

Climate of intimidation

So how does a one-eyed ruler rule over his 'blind' people? After imposing the list above, the ruling elite pursue the following:

There are many restrictive, punitive and draconian laws in active existence which can be activated at the leaders' pleasure. By their clever and aggressive albeit selective usage, the bureaucrats and political leaders develop a climate of intimidation and not a little fear. Freedom of the individual, like freedom of speech and expression, is no longer real, but an illusion. This is for the secular aspect of governance.

For the religion part, the rulers play on the guilt-complex of the people which is a consummately easy thing to do. They divide human activities into good and bad with 'good' to mean everything they perceived God has determined as good. Similarly they have 'bad' defined as everything they perceived God has also determined as bad. A person must perform all of the good things and avoid doing all the bad things. This is their idea and perception of 'truth'.

They want the people to be subservient to this, their understanding of truth. Failure to observe this truth will generate this guilt.

Then they set up a multitude of bureaucratic agencies and departments to oversee and ensure the people adhere to this truth.

The rulers are very clever in these areas of nation management. They do not allow the people even to air their views on the contents of this list. Yours is not to ask why, yours is to do or die.

When some people would still challenge this list, the strongly dissenting people would be put into a detention camp for rehabilitation.

Together the Ketuanan Melayu leaders blame external factors for any failure of public policies they propound in the name of religion, race and (the long forgotten) nation. For this, there are many bogies and scapegoats around, like the greedy, seedy scheming and ungrateful non-Malays, the blood-sucking former British colonisers, the wartime Japanese, the communist terrorists, the antagonistic and belligerent present-day Americans, and even the ever vile Jews.

On the last part, the Jews, how so? Because the Jews apparently control world finance and communication structure, and you take it from there.

Suffering in silence

This short tale is too sombre and serious. The purpose of life is to seek happiness. If all these while we Malaysians are happy so be it. "Don't worry, be happy" says a pop song.

Are the rulers truly happy? As the composite one eyed ruler of course they ought to be, they must be. They get whatever they want. The political elites get whatever they want and more while the bureaucrats and theocrats enjoy cushy employment and grand career paths. Their sense of self-importance is met.

Are the people happy? This is where the problem begins as it always does in the situation when the led is more enlightened and talented than the leaders.

No, the people are not happy because they are really treated very much like blind people whereas in actuality they have two perfect eyes. So when the one eyed ruler rules through intimidation and fear, his two eyed subjects suffer in painful silence. But, no sensible person can be happy when having to suffer in silence.

So although the people are suffering in silence, they are not without any recourse. They are the cleverer ones we must remember.

So what happens? After 50 years of Independence, including 35 (give or take two or three) years of one-eyed rule, quite a few things have happened, some subtle, some more obvious:

The people are disillusioned and fragmented. This affects their national wealth creating capability and erodes social stability. The national well being (the 'feel good' feeling) is declining.

The number of people immigrating to greener lands is increasing. This is a form of hemorrhage of human resource which the nascent country can ill-afford. As this involves those having the innovation, imagination, curiosity, creativity and inventiveness plus money and technical savvy, this spells doom for the country in the immediate and long terms. Do recollect the story of the goose that lays the golden eggs to appreciate this message more.

The rate of domestic investment is low. Instead, the rate of local money invested abroad is increasing. This is another form of hemorrhage which the country can ill afford.

As if on cue, the rate of foreign investment into this country has dwindled in recent years in absolute and relative terms.

The country is to be sure suffering from anaemia through the loss of national social goodwill, the loss of talent, technical savvy and money, of able and competent future leaders and successors, to other countries; of depleting foreign investment.

One-eyed Malaysia Boleh

What does the one-eyed ruler say to all this?

What can he say? He'd just continue to portray a rosy picture of the state of health of the otherwise bleeding nation. (Remember that he is always Very Right). Essentially, he sticks to a state of denial by effectively saying goody-goody nothing with a straight face to boot.

He is able to do this with a straight face because he has this mental norm featured by an inability to realise that he has only one eye. (He does not have a mirror so he cannot see his own one-eye image). In any case, should he realise that he has only one eye and openly states that yes he has only one eye when his subjects have two, then he may lose his position and advantage as the ruler.

Maintaining the status quo is therefore something for him to lo and behold. He will never admit to having only one eye. His very existence is at stake.

In actual fact, maintaining the status quo is something he can do with yet another consummate ease. The reason is simple enough: that in this can do country the information and communication infrastructure is decked in his favour (forget the claim of Jewish control, it has been a minor back-fire and nobody has taken notice so why rock the boat), so despite his one eye, anything and everything is possible for him to conceive and do. One-eyed Malaysia Boleh!

So, it is true that in this kingdom of the blind, the one eyed ruler rules absolutely and comfortably supreme. And on this happy 50th anniversary shall we all raise a toast (while we can, for tomorrow somebody might just say raising a toast is an anti-religious act acted only by infidels) - Happy Birthday Malaysia.

AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture. As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world. In his free time, he loves to read, travel and play golf (although his game could be better).