Zaid should be the new benchmark that the opposition uses in what the candidates should look like unlike umno ball suckers

Did it matter to the Malays in Kampong Raja Uda that Charles Santiago is Indian? Should it matter to the Indians of Hulu Selangor that Zaid is Malay? Or are the Malays more matured than the Indians?

In my line of work, the perennial question is: why do you care? Why should anyone bother with Malaysia’s problems?

A common sentiment is that the people deserve the government they get. Malaysians have returned the same bunch of power-abusing, ineffective louts to power year after year. They deserve whatever is coming their way.

Now this might be a good argument to bring up when chastising your friends who don’t care about what happens to Malaysia — but this isn’t an empowering message. If you think about it, at its core, this implies: If others don’t care about Malaysia, why should you care?

This attitude may well explain a lot of things about our country. Why is there so much littering? Well, if others litter, why should I bother to be clean? Why is there so much corruption? Well, if others take bribes, why shouldn’t I?

The unspoken assumption is that we should let others determine the way we lead our lives. I reject this false assumption. Sure, we can’t change others — but there are a lot of things we can change about ourselves.

Let’s go back to the question of why I care. I care for Malaysia the same way I care for my family. I care because it’s a part of who I am. It’s something which belongs to me, and something I belong to.

More importantly, I care because if Malaysia becomes a failed state like Somalia or Zimbabwe, I can’t get cheap, good nasi kandar or teh tarik anymore. And really, if I have to go to some crappy restaurant in Boston or London or Melbourne just to get an, at best, half-hearted and expensive facsimile of Malaysian food, is life still worth living anymore?

In all seriousness, whether Malaysia succeeds or fails matters a hell of a lot to all of us. And the reason it matters is the same reason littering should matter to you: if you make a mess, the stink affects you, too. It affects your friends, your family, your neighbours. Sure, maybe others don’t care — but if you care about yourself and the people you love, you ought to care about Malaysia.

I go back to the littering example because people often think you need some grandiose gesture like forming an NGO or staging a rally to prove you care. All you need to do to care is to make your community a better place in some way — and there’s no easier place to start than by not littering. Putrajaya can come later — if you don’t even care enough to toss your rubbish in a bin instead of the longkang, you shouldn’t be complaining about a government that can’t keep the drains clean.

It’s easy to get hung up on all the reasons we supposedly can’t contribute to. But it’s all about taking possession of the problem, instead of declaring “tu masalah orang lain punya (that’s someone else’s problem)”.

If you believe you own this space, of course you will be upset about people litter. If you believe you own this country, of course you will to be upset about your government “misplacing” a couple of jet engines. And once you have a sense of ownership, you’ll do whatever you can to set things right, instead of honing in on the reasons you can’t do anything.

There is a famous prayer which runs: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things that I can; And the wisdom to know the difference.” Maybe you really do care — you just believe there’s nothing you can do to fix it.

But it really — I promise you — only takes one person to make a difference. If you want a public servant to do something, all you have to do is tell them. (It’s not that hard; a lot of them are even on Twitter these days.) You don’t even need to cut a cheque to a political party or NGO — I’ve donated money to these groups (yes, in Malaysia) with a click of the mouse before. We can even maybe pick up some litter which other people carelessly threw away — who knows?

We shouldn’t even be asking why we ought to care. We all know the reasons why. And frustrating as it is, the best expression of our care is not reading the news or ranting about yet another scandal. Rather, instead of seeing an intractable problem, let’s see an opportunity to contribute — and then take that opportunity.

Looking at the smear campaign that Barisan Nasional is embarking upon it appears that they have really nothing much to throw at Zaid. He has deep pockets. He has baggage. He is an outsider and a ‘parachute’ candidate. Why a Malay and not an Indian candidate? And all such trivia and petty issues.

So what if Zaid has deep pockets? Does this not prove that he is a self-made man? How many road or construction projects did the government give him? How many APs or permits did he get? How much sand or timber concessions was Zaid awarded?

Zaid used to head the largest law firm in Malaysia. So that made him rich. Is that not good? Should Perkasa and Umno not sing his praises and stand tall and be proud that there are at least some Malays who can make it on the ‘open market’?

So it looks like not all Malays need crutches if you go but Zaid’s success and track record. Does not Umno want more Malays like these, Malays who can succeed even when faced with stiff competition?

Earlier today, in a keynote speech to commemorate the 44th anniversary of Mara, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the Malays must not be proud of always getting aid from the government. “Aid is like a crutch... to be given when we are weak. It is better if we can stand firmly on our own feet. Do not be proud with such aid. In truth, we are not masters because of aid,” said Dr Mahathir as he lamented the attitude of the Malay community who always looked for the easiest way of getting rich.

Even Dr Mahathir, the man who supports Perkasa, said that the Malays should not be proud of their crutches. This can be rephrased to mean we should be ashamed. Should this not also mean we should be proud of Malays who can make it without crutches? And in that case, going by this argument, should we not be proud of Zaid who made it without crutches?

So why are they whacking Zaid for having deep pockets? Why are they not singing his praises instead? Zaid did not rob the rakyat? Zaid did not pilfer the government’s coffers. Zaid did not steal the taxpayers’ money. Zaid worked hard to put bread on the table. And that is a crime?

Hundreds of other Malays have also become successful lawyers. I can name dozens whom I personally know and who are now very rich. I know many more Chinese and Indians who are now rich because of their successful law practice. And this is supposed to be a bad thing?

When Malays get rich the wrong way we lament and sigh. But when they get rich the right way we whack them. So what is it that we want? Ini pun salah. Itu pun salah. Tak pahamlah minda Melayu.

Actually, Malays are like crabs. They can’t walk straight and they are trying to teach others how to walk straight. Then, when you place crabs in a basket, they will bring down those who try to climb out. So, in the end, not one crab gets to climb out of the basket because they would pull each other down every time someone tries to climb out. I suppose this is why most Malays are basket cases.

And this is the real issue here. Malays just can't bear to see other Malays becoming successful. PHD: perangai hasat dengki.

So Zaid is Kelantanese. So what? Why can’t a Kelantanese stand for elections in Selangor? Terengganu once had a Kelantanese as the Menteri Besar. When it comes to Malays we worry about which state or which town they come from. Were Lim Guan Eng, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Gobind Singh, and whatnot all born in the town they contested in?

Mat Sabu of PAS has contested in Kedah, Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu and all over the place and won most times. No one asked him where he was born or accused him of being a parachute candidate. If I wanted to contest the general election then where would I contest? I was born in Surrey, England. Does this mean there is no seat for me anywhere in Malaysia?

Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was not born in Permatang Pauh. Yet she not only won that seat but became the Opposition Leader in Parliament as well.

We need to break away from this old pre-Merdeka culture where you must be born in that town to be able to contest a seat in that town.

In the old days it took five days and four nights to travel from the tip of the East Coast to Kuala Lumpur. Today, it takes only an hour. In the old days it look a week for a letter to arrive. Today, we can communicate in real time.

Times have changed. We now live in a global village and a borderless world. You can be born in the UK, like me, and still contest in Hulu Selangor, Ulu Kelantan, Ulu Terengganu, Kuala Kedah, or wherever. It does not matter. What matters is that you can serve your constituents.

And I believe Zaid Ibrahim can.

Zaid is not concerned about race. He is concerned about human rights and justice. He worries about the underdog.

In short, Zaid is colour-blind. And that is what matters. That is what we want the New Malaysia to be about.

For more than half a century since Merdeka the Malays in Kampong Raja Uda in Kelang, Selangor, voted ruling party. They never once voted opposition. For the first time in history, on 8 March 2008, the Malays of Kampong Raja Uda voted for Charles Santiago as their Member of Parliament.

Today, Charles Santiago is a Member of Parliament.

Did it matter to the Malays in Kampong Raja Uda that Charles Santiago is Indian? Should it matter to the Indians of Hulu Selangor that Zaid is Malay? Or are the Malays more matured than the Indians?

Yes, Zaid will help the Indians. But he will help deserving Indians and not Ananda Krishnan. Yes, Zaid will help the Chinese. But he will help deserving Chinese and not Francis Yeoh. And Zaid will also help the Malays in the Felda settlements and the Orang Asli in their reservations.

Maybe it is good that PKR finally fields a candidate with deep pockets. Then Umno can’t pay him RM2 million to cross over. Maybe that should be the criteria in future. Make sure that the candidate is not bangsat and therefore can be easily bought.

without the agreement of the Chinese and Indians, the Brits would not granted independence. Citizenship to Chinese and Indians were part of the conditions for independence. It was NOT the Malay’s sacrifice.

Najib Tun Razak teaching Malay youth through his son how to “protect” Malay culture.

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What worried Zaid was that the majority in Umno were now hardliners, perhaps in reaction to Abdullah’s apparently weak and ineffectual leadership. They saw Malay supremacy as the most effectual stick to beat back any dissent against the government.

“Adnan is constantly accusing and insulting me. Some people say that he was one of the strongest proponents of my sacking from Umno,” said Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s latest high-profile signing.He has vowed not to rejoin “the present Umno”, which he said practised double standards. He has, however, denied rumours that he would join the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

The son of Kelantanese farmers, Zaid became a member of Umno in 1985, then “got entangled” in politics so as to win back Kelantan after Umno lost all its seats in the state to the opposition Pas in 1990.

The former Scotch-tape salesman, who trained as a lawyer on a government scholarship, founded his law firm the same year he joined Umno, and made it Malaysia’s largest, with offices in Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand. He has since sold off his share in the firm. “I needed the money,” he said.

The father of three now wants to help groom tomorrow’s leaders. He set up My Future Foundation two months ago to build bonds among Malaysian youth through various artistic pursuits in the hope they will forge a Bangsa Malaysia.

When Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng invited Zaid to his DAP dinner in the state last month, it did occur to Zaid that accepting the invitation might get him into trouble with Umno.

He recalled: “Guan Eng has always been very polite, very nice to me. So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll come.’

“And then they asked me to say a few words. And I said, ‘Oh, no’. Of course, they were 99 per cent Chinese. But they were clapping and very happy. So I said a few words about Bangsa Malaysia, what I was trying to do with my foundation. I said, ‘I got no job. I want you to help me achieve this success’.

“It was just a five-minute speech.”

What worried Zaid was that the majority in Umno were now hardliners, perhaps in reaction to Abdullah’s apparently weak and ineffectual leadership. They saw Malay supremacy as the most effectual stick to beat back any dissent against the government.

The problem with that approach, in Zaid’s view, is this: “You cannot have peace and stability by force. And if you don’t have peace and stability, then you don’t have the economic ability to be productive and competitive. And the world doesn’t deal with people like that anymore.”

He bemoaned the fact that over-confidence in the 1980s saw Umno veering from its early days of seeking consensus with the other races on major issues. “It was a simple formula of Umno being the major partner but always in consultation, always open to ideas, always able to keep the pieces together.

“Not by a show of power, or a show of strength, but by a show of magnanimity.”

Zaid on…

The problem with Umno today

“They see provocation, they see enemies everywhere.”

What his detractors say about him

“They say, ‘Ungrateful Malay, you benefited from the system and now you criticise it’ — you know, that sort of stuff. Some say I should not be a Malay. I don’t know how that is possible… But it doesn’t really hurt me that much.”

Being chummy with the opposition

“My problem is that I always don’t view politicians from the other side as enemies. They’re all my friends. (DAP veteran Lim) Kit Siang is my old friend and Anwar (Ibrahim) and everybody.”

Attending the opposition events that got him sacked

“I was merely being naive or being silly but they were my friends, what’s wrong with that?”

Being kept in the dark over the sudden detention of three civilians under the Internal Security Act in September

“I read about it in the papers. I thought that, as a minister, especially when you describe me as a Minister for Law, you know, it’s a bit embarrassing when I don’t know anything about it.”

How much Malaysia has lost out to Singapore

“I was in school in Johor Baru in 1967, and I’d go to Singapore on a bus over the weekend. Singapore was then a shanty town, of no significance. But today, it is the pride of the world. If they can do it, why can’t we?”

Why he thinks differently from most in Umno

“I did not join Umno when I was young, so I was not subject to much conditioning.”

Talk that prime minister-in-waiting Najib lacks fire in the belly

“Yes, exactly. He has never shown himself capable of enunciating something. He can sound good, but all prime ministers sound good at the beginning.”

Those who want a Malaysia for only Malays

“How do you benefit? In the first place, how do you let the Chinese go? Where do they go? Where do you send the Indians? Where do you send disgruntled Malays like me?”

Malaysia’s future

“I worry that we will become a Fiji or Zimbabwe, that we will be dominated by a certain group using the machinery of government to keep control.”

The problems that the Indians are facing is NOT the disease. It is merely the symptoms of the disease. If we can eradicate the disease then the symptoms will disappear. We can't cure the symptoms. We need to cure the disease.

Zaid should be the new benchmark that the opposition uses in what the candidates should look like. That would ensure we will not see ‘cheap sales’ every month of the year.

the voices from the street

'From the start when Samy insist Palanivel as the sole MIC candidate, he is actually 'killing off' his deputy. Samy knows very well that should Palanivel stand and win, his demise as MIC chief will be hastened.'

MIC info chief Kamalanathan picked as compromise

Doc: Let's face it, S Samy Vellu and MIC will inevitably do Umno's bidding whatever Umno's decision. It has happened before, it is happening now with this G Palanivel issue and it will happen again in the future. Whatever Umno demands of MIC, MIC will comply (after a bit of drama first).

After the election, if Pakatan Rakyat wins, Umno will blame the Indians for deserting BN, and MIC will blame Umno for their wrong choice of candidate. After a few weeks, MIC will suck up to Umno and things will return to normal, where Umno is the master and MIC the Umno's minion.

OhMalaysia: Umno is working to see if they can win the Hulu Selangor on its own. If they can, they will be pretty convinced that they would have Malaysians eating out of their palm with their 1Malaysia slogan.

This is a precarious by-election for Malaysia. I hope and pray the Malaysians in Hulu Selangor will prove beyond doubt that Malaysia has earnestly matured and are ready to call a spade a spade and tell Umno to go fly kite.

OMG: If Umno was sure of winning, they would have nominated their own candidate. Umno has "graciously" allowed MIC to be their fall guy and absorb the brunt of any blame for losing this by-election. MIC should recognise it is being used.

Yuvan: If P Kamalanathan had performed well in his task to rebrand the MIC after the party was butchered in the last general elections more than two years ago, he should not have much problem convincing the Indian voters in Hulu Selangor to support him.

But that alone is not enough for him to win the seat. Would he be able to convince the PKR supporters that he is better than Zaid Ibrahim. I doubt very much.

Alphonz: This works out really well for S Samy Vellu on hindsight. If Kamalanathan wins, it's all MIC's effort but if he loses it's all BN's fault, and he can sit back and say, 'I told you so'. Good move.

Isana: Bravo Samy, your game plan worked. This just goes to show what a shrewd and cunning a politician Samy is. From the start when Samy insist Palanivel as the sole MIC candidate, he is actually 'killing off' his deputy. Samy knows very well that should Palanivel stand and win, his demise as MIC chief will be hastened.

V Mugilan's name was brought up just as an excuse to challenge Palanivel and then present Kamalanathan as the compromise choice. All this are well-thought out and strategically planned by Samy for his own survival. Palanivel, you have been played out big time by your chief.

Govindasamy: This is 'sandiwara' by Samy Vellu, and directed by DPM. Samy wants (his son) Vel Paari, but he is still not ready to steer the ship due to his age and the baggage he carries.

If Palanivel wins, there is no way Vel Paari can come in. So it's better to put up a drama, propose Palanivel outwardly, but quietly stand by Kamalanathan, prop up and sacrifice Mugilan to heat up the scene, and finally compromise on Kamalanathan. Sorry Palanivel, you have been stabbed.

Jaghannathun: Why is Samy Vellu running here and there to get the approval as to who should be standing for Hulu Selangor? Just leave it to Umno and then quit en bloc and put a candidate of your choice as an Independent.

Samy, you are too old to be running around and the funniest part is that you don't seem to realise that Umno is not interested in your opinion or choice anymore.

Md Imraz Muhammed Ikhbal: Be it Mugilan or Kamalanathan, it is Umno's pick and certainly not MIC's. It was only yesterday that MIC unanimously resolved that they would not allow Umno to interfere into their internal party matters and that they will accept only Palanivel and no one else as the candidate for the by-election.

Will they now stand by what they resolved or will they instead settle for the crumbs Umno throws at them? Senator and deputy minister post or MIC's dignity? Be what may, there isn't much value to the latter anyway.

Gandhi: What happened to all the hype by 30 MIC branches? They are acting the way Samy Vellu has been doing over the last three decades. Samy just wanted to live up like the old days that he's the one to call the shots. But this time he has to kowtow to Umno and lost his usual self-confidence.

This may be his last show of as a tough guy. Both Palanivel and Samy should pack their bags and go home. It's evident now that in the real world Samy can't demand anything from Umno. Since his candidate is not selected, the only thing honourable act he should do is to go.