The past several decades can be said to be 'Malaysia's
half century of humiliation' just like China losing control to foreign
power intervention between 1839 to 1949 and dubbed as 'China's century
of humiliation'.
Like China rising like a phoenix from the
ashes, Malaysia needs a regeneration with a good leader in charge.
Malaysia literally needs a Deng Xiaoping to be followed by equally
astute and pragmatic leader like Xi to carry through the changes. But
with the racial policy deeply entrenched, it will be a difficult task
for any leader to do the job. Racial or religious politics destroys most
countries, though it may return good result for those ruling the
country and needing majority support initially. When racially endowed
voters tasted the forbidden fruit, removing that endowment is going to
be impossible.
India is morphing into what Malaysia went
through, utilizing religious sentiments to woo political support for the
ruling party, the BJP, but not without danger when that falls apart.
Nothing is forever. Support cannot depend on religious sentiments
forever, especially when jobs and living conditions are not properly
managed. Shouting religious mantras to rally support cannot generate the
jobs to put food on the table nor pay the rent.
Anonymous
Progress is a big problem for Malaysia. With race holding the political system hostage, no leader can unravel that knot and hope to stay in power. Not even for a Malay like Anwar Ibrahim.
ReplyDeleteRace is a political hot potato in any country, not just in Malaysia. But is a useful tool for ruling parties to garner support, in the short term, but not good for the longer term. It is up to the voters to make that decision of settling for short term gain and having to suffer long term pains. We have seen enough of that in Malaysia. Rich in resources, it should never have fallen behind so drastically compared to Singapore.
Malaysia is not without talented people. The problem is that talented people of other races have no chance of rising through the ranks of Government, when race is the sole determining factor. And that is causing the brain drain, with the talented moving out to other places, leaving the corrupted and dim-witted to run the country. Why blame Singapore for benefitting from Malaysia's brain drain issues when it is their own Government that is the culprit?
We saw this present scenario developing almost seventy years ago, when Lee Kuan Yew's 'Malaysian Malaysia' struck at the nerve of UMNO and was declared a threat to the dominance of UMNO in Malaysia. Meritocracy never had any chance in Malaysia, more so with the rise of Mahathir. He was to use the racial card to great advantage with his New Economic Policy, openly favoring the Malays, that until today is impossible to be removed. He single-handedly destroyed Malaysia's future generations.