Ku Li: Loss of faith undermining nation

Malaysians are losing faith in the country despite living in a relatively successful nation because the institutional infrastructure of a civilised society are disappearing, according to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.

"We have lots of infrastructure. Lots of malls and highways. Especially tolled highways. It is not for want of physical infrastructure, dubious as some of it is, that we feel we languish," said the veteran politician.

In the speech that he gave at the British Graduates Association's 22nd Anniversary Dinner on Nov 1, Razaleigh ( below ) noted that unlike many other nations, Malaysia did not have to undergo a violent struggle for its independence.

"Our independence was negotiated, and the constitution which grounds our existence was built out of consensus.

"We took an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary path. This is not to deny or downplay the political struggle leading up to independence," he said, adding that a government with viable practices and skills were already intact in 1957.

Among them were a parliamentary system modelled on the British system, civil law grounded in a constitution, a capable and independent civil service, an excellent teaching service, armed forces and police as well as sophisticated trade practices and markets.

Having a well-grounded and orderly start, the MP for Gua Musang said, the government did not have to be crafted "from some imagined Ground Zero or mythologised past".

However, he noted, that in the past 30 years, the country has diverted to take on a more "ethno-nationalist and authoritarian tone" and there is tendency to picture Malaysia "as a violent rupture with the past".

"Nationalism glorifies the fight and undervalues the much harder, rarer accomplishment of coming to an understanding, forging a consensus, building a nation," he said

Although, it is comprehensible for post-colonial nations to reflect on their past, Razaleigh, said: "It has obscured an aspect of our history which distinguishes us among other states and was an important source of our early success as a nation.

People not under delusion

Musing on the older Malaysia, the former finance minister said that despite having faced with the challenges of development and nation-building, leaders had tackled them with "an independent judiciary, a professional civil service and a well-defined set of relationships between a Federal Government and our individually sovereign states".

"Indeed we were able to face these challenges because these institutions functioned well. Institutionally, we had a good start as a nation. Why is it important to recall this?"

"For one it makes sense of the feeling among many Malaysians and international friends who have observed Malaysia over a longer period that Malaysia has seen better days.

"There is a feeling of wasted promise, of having lost our way, or declined beyond the point of no return," he said.

And it is not a just a nostalgic sentiment to be sidetracked as the country is losing out on the best and brightest talents, he asserted.

"The illusion of nostalgia does not explain why parents fight to send their children to private and international schools rather than the national schools they themselves went to.

"The very same politicians who recite nationalist slogans about our national schools and turn the curriculum into an ideological hammer send their own children to international schools here or in Australia and Britain.

"They know better than anyone else the shape our schools are in. It is no illusion that people do not have the faith in our judiciary and police that they once had," he said.

The sense of loss, he reiterates, is simply generated from the erosion institutional intangibles such as the rule of law, accountability and transparency the basis of a people's confidence in their society.

Crude nationalism equals suicide

He pointed out that cultural progress was a "story of borrowing, adaptation and learning", and advised that time has come for Malaysia shed "the crude nationalism which refuses to acknowledge things not invented here".

He added that the it was akin to committing cultural and economic suicide to ignore rooted practices.

"This country had a great start in life because we had inherited a system of laws, rights and conventions that had been refined over more than seven hundred years.

"We inherited a civil service that for all its woes continues to keep the ship of state afloat despite the sometimes irresponsible actions of politicians.

"We inherited the English language, and with that a strong set of links to the English speaking world.

"We acknowledge and celebrate our ties to British education and British institutions not out of sentimentality but out of an understanding that these are foundational influences that have had much to do with stability and competitiveness as a nation," he said.

He recommended to the nation to understand the importance of the emulating the British model of governance and administration.

"We need to affirm these links without political blinkers, understand their cultural, political and economic importance to us, and build on them," he said.

For one, Razaleigh suggested that leader should stop and rethink their disposition on the English language as of now it is also a Malaysian language.

"It would be sheer hypocrisy to deny its value and centrality to us as Malaysians. Do we continue to deny in political rhetoric what we practice in reality, or do we grasp the situation and come up with better policies for the teaching and adoption of the language?" he asked.

He said that elite schools like the Penang Free School, the Royal Military College and the Malay College ( above) , to name some, have become mediocre.

"At great cost to the quality of our leadership and in a way that imperils our unity. It is time to restore them to their former eminence.

He also encouraged the leaders to look into parliamentary and civil service reforms, as in Britain, which is similarly facing the challenges of "European integration and its transformation into an increasingly multicultural society".

"At both the institutional and people to people level, we should connect with Britain as it is today, a fast changing society facing many of the same problems we do, rather than recycle stale colonial era stereotypes," he said.