Mahathir told reporters
"I think he understands the need to cater to all communities and not forgetting his own community," he told reporters.
Prime Minister Najib Razak marked his first year in office by defending ultra Malay rights group Perkasa as not extreme, even as it went on a Chinese 'bashing' spree demanding apologies from two Chinese leaders and threatening to have them suspended or even sacked from the Barisan Nasional coalition.
The Rise of Non-violent Hate
They say Perkasa’s popularity with right-wing Malays is a reminder to the prime minister to cut back his reformist zeal and pander to the “not so extreme” rights group as he had described them in an interview aired by the Al-Jazeera satellite news channel last night.
“The question that all Malaysians want answered now is whether Najib plans to stick by his concept and take middle ground or succumb to the pressures of Perkasa,” he asked.
The Ipoh Timur MP accused Najib of procrastinating since he came into office a year ago and blamed Perkasa as one of the main reasons behind the policy delays.
“It is a crucial task now for him to see whether his 1 Malaysia, his New Economic Model, is going to be a meaningful and a major transformation progress for the country,” he said.
When asked if he felt Najib could afford to ignore Perkasa’s cry for the protection of Malay rights in the NEM, Lim said, “This is Malaysia in 2010. This is not Malaysia 40 or 50 years ago. It is time. The NEM has already documented the economic decline and the stagnation of the country.
“In fact, the NEM says there is no option; time is of the essence and that the nation cannot wait.”
In his speech earlier this week on the NEM, Najib had spoken of the need to roll back affirmative action policies which encouraged rent-seeking and patronage and claimed that in the NEM, affirmative action would be needs-based and not race-based.
Perkasa, which has the patronage of former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, has been fighting for the present affirmative action policies to be maintained, citing fears that Malay rights would be sidelined in the government’s more liberal policies.
Lim said that Najib needed to be bold and not allow himself to be bound by the wishes of a single group.
“Why not? I think he can indeed shore up more support for himself if he is brave enough to show he is a statesman and that he is committed and able to stand the test of time, rather than to just be a Prime Minister who mouths off slogans like the previous ones,” he said.
PKR’s strategic director Chua Tian Chang took his criticism of Najib’s defence of Perkasa one step further by suggesting that the right-wing Malay rights group was really the brainchild of the Prime Minister.
“It could be one of two things actually. For one, you can see that Perkasa is holding the ideological ground of Umno while Najib’s 1 Malaysia is the Machiavellian plan to attract external Umno votes.
“So when Perkasa came out in contradiction and is holding the very core values of Umno, Najib is in an awkward position. He cannot reject Umno’s core values,” he told The Malaysian Insider.
He said that the other possibility was that Najib and Perkasa were playing “a game” together, at the expense of the people.
“Perkasa holds the Malay ground so it will always help to deliver support back to Umno eventually by warning the Malays that they need to be united or risk losing all to the Pakatan Rakyat.
“So Najib is crusading on one side to gain support and at the same time, he is getting support from the other groups… it is just a part of the strategy to cover more ground,” he said.
If this were truly the case, said Chua, then it showed that Najib was not sincere in transforming Malaysia.
“It is similar to what the deputy prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said about being Malay first and Malaysian next. He is saying that not because he is truly committed to the Malay identity because I can respect that but he is saying it because he claims that he cannot say he is Malaysian first or he would risk being shunned by the Malays.
“It is the same argument here… he is designing it such that he can cover lost ground in Malay extremist support,” he said.
After 52 years, Malays like me still don’t have a taste of 2/3 of wealth. Only 1 or 2 per cent of Malays hold majority share of the total wealth of the Malays. You can guess who these are.PERKASA adopts communism ideology where they use sheer headcount to justify their entitlement to the country’s wealth and not hard work. So going by the ISA’s original intents, PERKASA members should be detained under ISA! See they will come out to support ISA or not.
No wonder other races are questioning our rights. I’m quite certain, that, there wont be much difference in the 52 years, if the method of ’sharing’ wealth among Malays dont change.
IT is so thoroughly sad to hear what PERKASA has to say. The Reid Commission was called in a time when there was hardly any Malay participation in higher education, public service or business. These have all changed today. What is important is that as Malaysians, we are all in the same boat – the same leaky boat called Malaysia. Any more bickering over who deserves more instead of plugging the leaks will lead us only to one place – the bottom of the ocean. And at the bottom it does not matter who owns more of the sunken ship – we are all losers. When will PERKASA realises that as Malaysians we either float or sink together.Why does a lady from Madras be appointed as head of Pepsi Cola a fortune 500 company in the US ? Could not the Americans find an American for the job ? The answer is a simple one. The Board thought that she was the best person for the job. The exclusion of other races from so many jobs and positions in our society simply means that we lose the benefit of the talent that resides in those communities. it is wrong when Chinese companies only employ Chinese and it is wrong when Malay controlled companies employ only Malays. Who takes responsibility for nation building ? There will be chauvinists or ‘nationalists’ in every race. Disable them. Empower those committed to building a nation. Not to those bent on destroying it.annoying that it blames the failures of the Malay on the Chinese. Success is mostly about hardwork, integrity, being humble and also a bit of luck. I fail to see why after 52 years of continued support from the government that this blaming game is continuing from the Malays.In past decades, the Malays, Chinese and Indian in Malaysia have not been able to live without finding themselves surrounded by constant racial issues and disputes. If the government thinks that this thing has become a normal part of our life in Malaysia which would not hamper Malaysia’s future growth, then they are gravely wrong. In fact, racial issue has slowed down the development of Malaysia in the past, compared to other countries like Taiwan, Korea or Singapore, and it will slower it further and deeper, with the quick unravelling of the impact of globalisation. The Chinese and Indian have begun to feel sick of facing the same issues after 50 years and they are moving out of the country, bringing together their assets and wealth. You have to face the fact that Malaysian Chinese and Indians have more choices nowadays where they want to live, compared to 50 years back. Other countries, who are more realistic and have foresights, are trying all means to lure these people to their countries, with only their own country turning on blind eyes on them. It means Malaysia is loosing these quality Chinese and Indians who could actually contribute to the growth of Malaysia, who dreams to become a developed country in 10 years time. It is sad because the government seems different. It is a pure stupidity act if you ask any sensible person living in this century. Well, then good luck. The fact is those who stay back in this country because they have no choice, are either middle or low income earner. A normal person will know Malaysia is facing an uphill task to depend on this middle and low income earner and the large group of foreign labour, if they are just too large to be excluded from the population pool, to help achieve its 2020 Wawasan. What Perkasa is proposing is contravening to the goal of 2020, because it merely chases away the professional and wealthy Chinese and Indians, who are critical in helping the country to achieve the Wawasan 2020. If Najib is smart enough to see the impact, then he would not have defended Perkasa, while he is asking all Malaysian to help achieve the goal of 2020 and materialise the concept of 1 Malaysia. Malaysia is moving one steps ahead with the brilliant concept of 1 Malaysia, but is taking two steps back by also accommodating Perkasa and the leaders’ flip flop stands on whether country or race should come first. If race is their ultimate agenda, then our aim should be transform the Malay race to a developed and wealthy race, instead of transforming the whole Malaysia to a developed nation by 2010. Please be consistent with what you are doing and your goal.
Personally, as a Chinese, I am not born with knowledge (as with anyone). I have to work hard and strive to acquire it. Along the way, I have to be humble and learn from successful people, irrespective of race. I can’t keep on blaming that the government is restricting me or downtrodding me with all its racist policies. Its about mind set. Malays should drop this mindset that “others” are out to get them and “they” should be helping them all the time. They should start helping themselves and work hard to achieve success on their own 2 feet.
By Wong Choon Mei
Indeed, Perkasa’s daring in making such heated and public demands has sparked concerns that racial tensions were set to worsen in Malaysia.
Instead of pushing through landmark social and economic overhaul advised by experts, pundits say Najib is more likely to steer his multiracial country into yet another politically-engineered identity crisis in order to stay in power at his increasingly mutinous Umno party.
“Suddenly, we are faced with questions like Malay or Chinese or Indian or Kadazan-Dusun-Murut first and Malaysian second or vice versa. But a lot of the verbal bashing against the Chinese in particular has to do with the fact that Umno knows it has lost their support. They won't vote BN for a long while,” Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad told Harakahdaily.
“The MCA is more divided than before and its credibility with the Chinese voters is even lower now under Chua Soi Lek than Ong Tee Keat. As for Gerakan, it is still comatose. So no wonder Umno dares to hit out because they know the Chinese won’t vote for them anymore, not after Najib’s fiasco in Perak.”
Still form over substance
Indeed, on the first anniversary of Najib’s tenure as Malaysia’s sixth prime minister, the mainstream press has been careful to launch an all-out assault aimed at hammering to the public that he is a leader to reckon with.
Opinion polls were published showing his popularity had soared to 68 percent from 44 percent a year ago. Even the most obscure of his policies were dusted out and painted as major successes.
Not forgotten were the usual corporate captains and prominent citizens, who were duly roped in to praise Najib's premiership. Even foreign dignitaries were even rounded up to ‘laud’ his performance and achievements of the past 12 months.
Yet the efforts only underscored the man's vanity and his distinct preference for form over substance, a quality that pundits also attribute to his wife Rosmah Mansor’s love for showy public relations.
“We have to take the ratings with a pinch of salt. A survey can be professionally conducted but the sample used can be deliberately chosen to elicit a certain response,” PKR strategic director Tian Chua told Harakahdaily.
“If Malaysians systematically go through month by month what actually took place in the past 12 months, they can see for themselves how very little Najib has achieved - much less than even Abdullah Badawi.”
Greatest loss of national credibility
Indeed, a retrospective look at the past year shows Malaysia lost the greatest amount of credibility under his leadership than any other premier, including former dictator Mahathir Mohamad.
A year ago, Najib started off on the wrong foot with the Perak power grab but his refusal to retreat has compounded his failures. His insistence on holding onto to the state government by forcing the judiciary to issue questionable rulings condemned by legal practitioners and academicians throughout the Commonwealth have dealt immeasurable damage to the country's reputation.
So too has his desperate ploy to jail his political arch rival Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim on trumped-up sodomy charges that again have been condemned by lawmakers far and wide, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Nonetheless in an interview with Al-Jazeera, the 57-year old Najib chose to insist there was nothing political in Anwar’s prosecution and that his government only wanted to ensure fair play for the complainant.
“It is in this sort of facetious replies that Najib creates even greater disbelief and distrust for himself and his government,” PAS vice president Salahuddin Ayub told Harakhdaily.
“It has been a year where almost every month, something negative happened and Malay’s image got tarnished. Even this month, by picking on Anwar again - this time for revealing that his public relations firm APCO may have Zionist links - has hurt Malaysia’s standing with the Muslim world and the OIC countries.”
A year of fiascoes
Apart from the unpopular Perak crisis - still a sore point with the people of the state - the past year also saw another Najib plot go awry. Emboldened by the Perak coup d'etat and refusing to heed warnings of the political consequences, he tried to pull off a similar move in Selangor.
Speculation remains high that he – along with other top Selangor Umno leaders - had ordered the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission to fabricate graft charges against Pakatan Rakyat leaders in the state. Their ruthlessness resulted in the tragic death of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock.
A record-high RM67 billion Budget aimed at reinvigorating the economy yielded little result but left the country with its highest-ever fiscal deficit of 7.4 percent of gross domestic product. Despite promises of prudence, few economists expect Najib to implement unpopular cost-saving measures to reduce the deficit in any significant way.
In fact, so little faith did investors – both foreign and local – have in his leadership that they pulled out US$35 billion or about a third of the country's total international reserves in 2009 – the highest outflow ever seen not just in Malaysia but throughout Southeast Asia.
Then at the start of 2010, Najib stepped into a new minefield by directly instigating religious tensions over the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims. His tacit approval for Muslims to hold demonstrations led to a series of Molotov-cocktail and vandalism attacks against churches, a temple and a Catholic school.
Again, the incidents created massive negative international attention on Malaysia, with the U.S. and the World Council of Churches expressing concern.
The worst is yet to come
But Najib not only refused to take responsibility, he and his Umno party gave the green light for the formation of Perkasa – a right-wing group led by maverick politician Ibrahim Ali and whose patron is Najib’s mentor Mahathir Mohamad.
It is widely believed that Umno hopes to use Perkasa to rev up Malay sentiment against the other races, thereby consolidating its grip on power.
Already Perkasa has warned Najib against dismantling affirmative action policies that favor Malay groups. Whether the warning is real or contrived in collusion with Najib himself, pundits say it will limit his ability to introduce an effective New Economic Model - on which he had hoped to make the cornerstone of his administration.
“Perkasa is also considered as one of the biggest dangers to a peaceful and harmonious Malaysia. Ibrahim Ali and Mahathir will ruin the country,” Kota Baru MP Wan Rahim Wan Abdullah told Harakahdaily.
“Najib is not powerful enough to stop them. He doesn’t have the political will or the moral courage to intervene. He will just stand by and watch which way the wind blows. Politically, this may be the safest for him but for the country, it is the worst.”
(Wong Choon Mei is the Consultant Editor for Harakahdaily - English Edition)
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