MAHATHIR MADE THE MALAYS A BEGGING COMMUNITY,

If someone were to ask me- what do you think of the round table discussion sponsored by the Malay Consultative Council (MCC) I will answer as follows.

I did not attend that forum although I did get an invitation to go there. I was gladly spared the preaching of Ibrahim Ali and the sleep inducing drone of Mukhriz Mahathir. I have read the statements of the gadfly from Pasir Mas- Ibrahim 'Stopa' Ali( he is also known as stopa among his local supporters) and also the bloody hazy but almost sounding meaningful noises from MUkhriz Mahathir.

PERKASA Dengan Satu Melayu Pariah

Ihe economic ideas of Ibrahim Ali and his cub friends are not difficult to identify. He has supporters of such economic ideas among old school UMNO leaders. His PERKASA has the support of Dr Mahathir who can largely be credited with putting in place many of the economic measures which the current PM is seeking to dismantle.

It’s all about placing near absolute powers in the hands of an economic clique which alone will determine what’s good for the Malays at large. It’s a benevolent despot’s version of economics. It has been a system that has created, in the words of Mr. Walla the following situation:

“In the last almost forty years, the entire political script of this country has been written by a bunch of racial hypomaniacs and rent-collecting cronies which have chalked up their personal bank accounts by running this country into the ground”.

That’s the crux of the matter really. Prime Minister Najib must clearly disengage his administration from this apparition called PERKASA and Majlis Perundingan Melayu (Malay Consultative Council–MPM).

Maybe it’s just a Trojan horse backed by Dr.Mahathir Mohamad who is stalking PM Najib. How do we know, perhaps the PERKASA and MPM are actually the extensions of the hawkish side of UMNO and its presence is countenanced and supported by the life giving system of UMNO style intrigue and political subterfuge?

To allay our apprehensions and suspicions, the Prime Minister must distance his administration from Ibrahim Ali’s guerrilla groupings. Why is the Deputy head of PERKASA appointed as the boss of JASA? The truth is, Malays at large don’t require some supranational body to speak on our behalf anymore. They and those before them have screwed up everything. Let me put it in blunt terms.

Look at the whole government system. All the district officers are Malays. Most of the ADOs are Malays. The officers too. All the Pengarahs are Malays. All the MBs are Malays. The heads of the Judiciary, Police, Army and other uniformed bodies are all Malays. The Kings and Agongs are all Malays. You have Malays in power since 1957 and these Malays have put in place a governing system that is supposed to uplift all Malays.

Now look at the accomplishments. Out of the 10 wealthiest persons in Malaysia, only 1 is Malay. Out of 40 richest, maybe only 15 are Malays. Out of 10 business premises, almost all are owned by non -Malays. In almost every aspect of economic life, they are all dominated by non-Malays.

This environment is the direct result of the system put in place by the very ideas that are being bandied around by Ibrahim Ali. I want to ask the Malays this question. Suppose the entire population of Malaysia is made up of Malays. We see this kind of disparity around, who are we to blame? We blame the system that has been perpetuated and perpetrated by the social and political elite, whose membership is eagerly sought of by Ibrahim Ali.

The government will announce its NEM (New Economic Model) soon. When, we don’t know. It was supposed to be the end of March. Perhaps some people have warned the government about the ides of March when great misfortunes have befallen many a Caesar. Prime Minister Najib doesn’t want to be a Caesar and so has decided that the announcement of the NEM be done away with. No ceremony. No pyrotechnics. No dancing to be provided for by Rais Yatim. No chance for shameless Rais to showcase his latest technique in apple polishing.

(Tan Sri) Amirsham will just present his findings to the Prime Minister, who will in turn do some tweaking here and there and incorporate the recommendations of the NEM into the 10th Malaysia Plan. That will be sometime in June, I think. There have been some reservations about certain aspects of the NEP that caused some ‘trepidations’ among Cabinet members. What could possibly spook the Cabinet members to that extent so as to lead them asking for revision?

It could only be implications of the new approach to embrace competition which challenges the standard operating procedure of UMNO-BN leaders learned in the ways of command centre economics supported on the outside by one of the beneficiaries of patronage economics– Ibrahim Ali.

The government has only to ignore Ibrahim Ali. Ask him to debate about this in parliament instead of agitating for changes using extra-parliamentary ways. Why should Mukhriz be there at all in the first place other than motivated by his own selfish desire to look good among the Malay hawks?

The NEM offers an alternative to the “we-command and we control kind’”of economics so favored by people like Ibrahim Ali and his friends in the Cabinet. The Malays at large are ready to embrace a level playing field provided the tools by which to compete are made available to them.

What will happen when Malays at large embrace the competitive spirit of the NEM? Ties that were built on patronage, dependency on others for economic succor will be broken and along with these, possibly allegiance that has so far produced nothing except serfdom. The ideas of NEM are dangerous to mentally challenged people like Ibrahim Ali and his ilk.

suddenly realised this. Between the posturing of Ibrahim Ali and his MCC and the clueless MUkhriz , the whole shebang about fearing or hoping for Malay economic salvation is just hot air and a blatant excuse for some special Malays to make more money. Yes sir- it's all just an excuse for some people to make money and to ensure the way to make money stays there in the NEM.

Ibrahim Ali can continue making money for championing Malay economic interests. He can build more bridges, have money to send people for Haj or Umrah, he can get more land from Menteri Besars etc. People like MUkhriz Mahathir can also continue making more money fighting the imaginary dragons that are coming after the holy economic interests of the Puteras. If you look at his Fibre Optic business- his is probably the only Malay name of significance there and his brother's Kencana Petroleum or whatever, is just another Chinese moneyed company.

We are fooled people.

Hold on- before you readers say- you are denouncing Mukhriz because you are a supporter of KJ. Allow me to quickly say that KJ is quickly building up frustrations and disillusionment among his supporters. Young Man- stop mollycoddling the human apparition called Dhalkari. His master is Mukhriz still. Our advice to him is stop uncleToming around.

He must live up to his vocation as the real ketua Pemuda UMNO- the voice of conscience of UMNO- not the voice of the mindless herd. He must live up to what he represents- the possibilities of the nameless average Joes in UMNO. His victory in the Ketua Pemuda race previously showed to the world, that you can succeed without having to carry the name of bin Tun Razak, bin Hussien Onn or bin Mahathir. Anyone with above average intelligence can succeed in UMNO. He has proven that and must live up to that symbolism of opportunity. And remember, it was the Ketua Pemuda who decided the outcome of the contest between Dr Mahathir and Tengku Razaleigh in 1987.

But first:-

Allow me first to elaborate on what I think has become a standard operating procedure by UMNO people and their soul mates outside. Let's start by stating that Ibrahim Ali is UMNO in its worse form. Let's talk about the way they force things in their favour.

When a few churches were burnt to the ground, we didn't see any riotous response. There may be a number of reasons why that is so. Maybe its Christian teachings- I don't know which. Maybe, because PM Najib handled it the way he thinks is the best way- give money to burnt churches. We saw young Christians offering flowers to people in the streets, something strange in a Muslim dominated country.

We did not reach that calamitous level of church burnings, we can already see the different manner of reactions. Any hint at all of some impairment to the much worshipped concept of Malay dominance is likely to result in near mutinous reaction.

It has been a number of months, since PM Najib started dismantling some of what he thinks are impediments to greater competition. He has liberalised some subsectors in the service industry. In one of my articles, I have pointed out that these subsectors are of no consequence to Malay economic interests as Malay participation in those is very minimal to start with. As early as that time, Ibrahim Ali regarded that move as a challenge and threat to Malay economic interest. Inadvertently he was saying- PM Najib isn't Malay enough.

Even then, Malay groups were agitated. UMNO hawks are also seething over the abolishment of a Ministry which was tasked at looking at Malay economic interests. In effect, they were looking at the economic interests of special Bumputeras only. The abolishment of that ministry is therefore sacrilegious.

People like Ibrahim Ali responded the only way he knows best- carry out some form of riotous actions. Go to Penang, herd all those impoverished traders who were impoverished since Gerakan time with collusion from UMNO Penang. Demonstrate here and there. Create anarchy where possible. Cow the government into submission.

So UMNO some in a prized cattle or sow.

If we were to study the statements given by Ibrahim 'Stopa' Ali and the convoluted ideas of Mukhriz Mahathir, we wonder actually what the round table on the NEM is all about. Ibrahim Ali is at least true to form- he wants the NEM to reflect the dominant and overriding interest of Malays. By Malays he meant the puteras in the Bumi. Hence article 153 should be read into every economic measure taken by the government.

But Mukhriz? We don't know what his message is. No the NEM does not sideline the NEP. Maybe the MPM is misunderstood. Hello, Minister- the MPM is pressing for more intense affirmative strategies- something you should be criticizing unequivocally as they are rejecting the dismantling of the economy. MUkhriz is more interested in not offending the MPM as they have a large Malay membership. MUkhriz was careful not to jeopardize a potential support base. So he does what a generic politician will do- hunt with the dogs and run with the hare.

Its time all Malays see the real agenda of the economic measures insisted upon by MPM and the new measures that are waiting to be announced. They are actually two sides of the same coin- the same coin representing an excuse for privileged Malays to make more money.

Several years ago, I came across an article titled Six uniquely human traits now found in animals. While it was all undoubtedly interesting, tool use fascinated me the most. Until reading the article, never did I imagine that such behavior would be inherent in certain animals. The animal featured in this section of the article, the New Caledonian crow, is one of a number of species that uses tools in its search for food.

We are not talking about using ready-made tools like hammers and screwdrivers which may have been left behind by humans. Instead, it is even more ingenious as these tools are crafted by the crows themselves, from twigs and such. An excerpt from Wikipedia:

'The ability to fashion tools has always been held as uniquely primate, distinguishing us from (apparently) less intelligent creatures. But humans and apes are not alone in having tool-making

skills. Crows amazed the science community in October when footage recorded using tiny 'crow-cams' on the tails of New Caledonian crows showed the birds creating advanced implements. One crow was observed whittling twigs and leaves with its beak to fashion grabbers designed to retrieve grubs from the ground.'

Intrigued, I navigated my browser to YouTube in the hope of finding footage of these birds in action. YouTube did not disappoint, displaying a fair number of results for a rather obscure subject. There are some really remarkable videos in there and after watching them, I wondered how the term 'bird brained' was coined to describe humans who have sub-par intelligence.

These birds appear significantly more intelligent and resourceful than a large number of people that I know of and have the unfortunate pleasure of working with. Let us use this video as an example. In this particular video, our corvid friend is being put to a test where it has to earn its food. Instead of food being served to it on a silver platter, it is placed into a tiny bucket which is then dropped into a tall thin beaker. The opening at the top of the beaker is much too small for the crow's head, leaving the bucket out of its reach.

So what does it do? Sit around, mope and die of hunger eventually? As pointed out earlier, the New Caledonian crow is adept at not only using tools but also making them. The crow uses a wire that is left inside the room to lift the bucket out of the glass. It is just a plain wire and using it in its present shape is just as good as not using it at all. Some ingenuity is called for.

The crow can be seen hopping around the glass, assessing the problem at hand. Eventually, it bends the wire into a suitable shape and successfully uses it to extract the bucket from within the beaker. Dinner is served. Simply marvelous, isn't it? Even more marvelous is the fact that these birds were never trained to do this; it comes to them naturally.

Contrast this against individuals such as Ibrahim Ali and his ilk. When pitted against a problem, they behave in a rather uncouth and uncivilised manner, threatening those who disagree with them. Behavior such as this would not look out of place in the Middle Ages, which we have long since passed.

The fact is, protesting and shouting loudly is in itself not an easy task. It takes time and effort to organise these rallies and to write these hateful speeches, no matter how nonsensical they may be. If only they could channel this energy into a more productive force, perhaps they too can enjoy the fruits of their labour.

Abantika Ghosh, 08 March 2010, 04:08 PM IST

It has been sixty years since the constitution of India that guaranteed reservation for people from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes came into effect. Reservation was in place even before that. It was a means of empowerment.

Tellingly, even now, politics is played out over nights spent in the huts of people from these communities and over meals shared with them. Assemblies witness noisy scenes over an MLA being called a chamar. And a student of the country’s premier medical institute commits suicide, allegedly because he is discriminated against.

How then, has the notion of reservation as the panacea for all social ills survived? Facile politics or just an laziness in getting down to the real issues and addressing them effectively? Probably a mix of both.

The top down approach works politically almost as well as the symbolism of introducing a bill pending for 14 years on International Women’s day.

Far more difficult is to ensure right to education at all levels that would make women more equipped to empower themselves than probably fighting an election in a constituency reserved for them which otherwise, may be the husband would have fought. If reservation is empowerment then a former chief minister of Bihar should be its biggest mascot.

She became the chief minister of a state because her husband – now one of the staunchest critics of the Bill for his own entirely political reasons - wanted to keep it reserved for himself. In much the same way that passengers in Howrah’s local trains put a handkerchief or an umbrella to “book” their seats.

It is outrageous how a country that, decades after it had talked of equal rights for all in its constitution, could not even safeguard the right to live of the unborn girl child and is now talking of almost pushing her into the Parliament without even granting her the resources to present her case cogently.

Is that the kind of elected representatives we want? Somebody who will be just a rubber stamp of her fathers/brothers/husbands? Because without the wherewithall that is exactly what she is likely to end up becoming.

A survey by an independent research agency has shown how in the present Lok Sabha, women members, who make 11% of the strength, have participated in fewer debates than their male counterparts, asked fewer questions and have essentially made up the numbers when it comes to voting.

Where is the ground for the assumption that simply trebling their numbers – which would also mean a lot of women being elected merely because the parties need to be seen to be adhering to the legislation they managed to clear so painstakingly – will have a multiplying effect on their effectiveness too?

I would rather have a male MP who – hopefully – talks about issues that concern me than a woman who is there merely because of her sex. It is a waste of my vote.