COMMENT | Save the country, choose the right PM

COMMENT | The 15th general election (GE15) is being called one year early. It is called during the monsoon season. We should ask the question why the urgency?

We have had three prime ministers in the last four years. Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (paraphrasing the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein) has said GE15 is the ‘mother of all elections’.

The future of our country may well depend on the outcome of GE15. Not, however, for the reasons Zahid has given.

Malaysia is a beautiful country and could be a great nation. However, we are trailing other countries in the region.

Our national debt exceeds RM1 trillion and our household debt also exceeds the same figure. Poverty levels exceed 15 percent of Malaysian households.

And we are heavily reliant on oil and gas, a depleting asset. Malaysia is also reliant on cheap foreign labour which depresses wages for our own people. The future looks bleak.

What has brought us to this state and what is holding us back from becoming a developed country?

The answer seems obvious. Corruption is holding us back. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said it all during the campaign in the last general election.

In fact, he is still saying it. His successor Muhyiddin Yasin and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang also seem to agree that corruption is a big problem.

But both Muhyiddin and Hadi are also determined to preserve Malay power, even if it means cosying up to Umno which badly needs a leadership change and reform.

Even Khairy Jamaluddin, who is now contesting the Sungai Buloh seat, fights on the platform that he will assume the leadership of Umno and reform it!

We cannot deny that there were good years under an Umno-led government. It has led our government for all the years since Independence, except between 2018 to 2020.

There were good years under visionary leaders. We had our Malaysia Plans; we implemented the New Economic Policy (NEP) and produced a large Malay middle class comprising professionals and businesspersons.

That was a good thing except that its implementation could have been more inclusive. Non-Malay poor could have been brought into the various schemes and projects devised by the government for bumiputeras.

We also had Vision 2020- a strategic plan that was designed to help us focus on our priorities and ultimate goals as a nation. Then we had our National Development Policy (NDP). All good things.

Malaysia got sidetracked

But then we got derailed. We got sidetracked. The Umno-led government lost their focus and the 1MDB scandal was the worst of them all.

Before that, we lost money through silly adventures like Maminco, BMF scandal and the great Forex scandal.

1MDB involved blatant fraud and theft. It cost the nation upwards of RM40 billion. We entered into pipeline contracts with China and paid a lot of money upfront with little or no work done.

We went into the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) project and by all accounts, it was a railway system we did not need, and the project cost was inflated.

The Pakatan Harapan administration provided the interregnum the nation needed. Investigations were launched and prosecutions followed on our former leaders.

But after the Sheraton Move and the collapse of the Harapan government, Umno was back at the helm again.

There are many things wrong with our country. Corruption, low standards of education, the middle-income trap (the result of low productivity and cheap foreign labour) and high levels of poverty.

But we are also first-world in many respects and the things that are wrong with us can be remedied quite easily. If there is the political will to do so, which means having the right leaders in office.

There is a need for good and honest leadership. We are not a third-world country. We are not a failed state. There are many good things about us.

Our constitutional democracy, central bank, health system, police force, Attorney-General’s Chambers, legal system, judiciary and our education system are all first-world institutions.

These are by no means perfect but with good leadership, they could be improved. Some reform is required but it is only possible if we have leaders with vision and integrity.

The nation goes to the polls every five years unless called for earlier.

It would be difficult to describe them as being totally fair and free but nevertheless, in recent years, the outcome has not been certain for the incumbent party.

GE15 is probably one of the most hotly contested elections ever. After GE14, Malaysians know that they can change the government if they put their minds to it.

BN is a coalition of several parties – Umno, MCA, MIC and Parti Bersatu Rakyat Sabah (PBRS). Bersatu, Gerakan and PAS form Perikatan Nasional.

Essentially, Umno, Bersatu and PAS are bumiputera or Malay-only parties paying nominal or lip service to others.

Pejuang is also a Malay-only party while Harapan is a multiracial coalition committed to multiracial policies.

As DAP, a Harapan component party, is dominated by the Chinese, some Malays are suspicious of it.

There are, of course, the parties of Sabah and Sarawak. They will play a pivotal role.

Twin evils

Our politics has always been focused on race and religion and this is because political parties are often race-based.

Our politics and political rhetoric divide us. Our politicians have become skilled at saying different things before different audiences.

PAS and to some extent, Umno casts the non-Muslims as occupying a different plane in the political landscape meriting a lesser role.

The attempt by the Harapan administration to treat non-Muslims more equally triggered a backlash that finally led to the Sheraton Move and its ouster from Putrajaya.

This is the most crucial issue for the country. Do we come together as a people, or do we continue with this divide-and-rule policy?

If the latter persists, where will the end point be? It is the one factor that is holding us back in our advance to becoming a developed nation.

We have a peaceful, stable and diverse population. Despite the worst efforts of some of our politicians, we remain a peaceful nation.

There are no simmering tensions. The people go about their daily lives quite peacefully and happily. There is interaction at many points between the races. And these interactions are for the most part, polite and peaceful.

Children go to school together. In fact, more than 100,000 non-Chinese children attend Chinese vernacular schools. All races go to university together and work in offices and factories together.

There are issues here too. We do not have a unified school system. We have religious schools, vernacular schools and national schools. A whopping 95 percent of Chinese kids attend Chinese vernacular primary schools and 55 percent of Indian kids attend Tamil schools.

As for our civil service, armed forces and government-linked companies, their employees are predominantly Malays. The Chinese-owned SMEs employ most from their own community.

These are not good things. In the long term, these issues should be addressed. A national vision is required to bring us together. Racism, wherever it is, must be rooted out.

Our people must understand our history. The Chinese and Indians did not come here as part of the colonising power. The trading relationship between China, India and the various states of Malaysia went on for centuries before the advent of the British.

Chinese and Indian indentured labour were brought in large numbers after the British arrived to open the forests, establish infrastructure, open up tin mines and establish plantations.

Later, the Chinese and Indians helped set up the retail trade in this country - even the early banking system. Indians helped in the civil service, education, healthcare, legal and in the unions.

Today, Indians have been displaced from government service and plantations. Little thought has been given to the place of minorities in our society.

The point is that all races contributed and continue to contribute to the betterment of our country. We are at the confluence of so many cultures and civilisations.

The dynamics produced people who are adaptable and open to new ideas. Our diversity is our strength.

Hence, there is a need for our leaders to work towards uniting the nation and promoting the Malaysian identity. We should think of ourselves as Malaysians first.

The pandemic

Covid-19 brought us together. Government hospitals and clinics were at the frontline. They looked after infected persons and then they administered the vaccines.

The staff were predominantly Malays but included all races. Non-Malays who had previously only attended private clinics and hospitals were pleasantly surprised at how competent, polite and cheerful the doctors, nurses and other personnel at these centres were.

Scores of NGOs, temples, churches, gurdwaras and other organisations manned soup kitchens and handed out groceries and food parcels to the poor. These volunteers were from all races.

Whatever the politicians tried to do to divide us, it had little effect as people on the ground interact with each other in a peaceful, cooperative and friendly way.

In time, we should do away with race-based parties and race-based politics. Let all Malaysians come together to lift up all.

Let us all accept that it is in all our best interest to see all Malaysians succeed to the best of their potential. Good education is the key together with good health, adequate nutrition and good housing.

But for now, just go out and vote. Vote for persons of vision and integrity.

Vote for those who are committed to improving the welfare of all Malaysians. Vote for statesmen who will work to bring us together, not those who seek to divide and separate us.

Just ask yourself these questions – who do you want as your next prime minister and what must you do to save your country?

DAVID DASS is a lawyer, Malaysiakini subscriber and commentator.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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