Ramli wish we can futher “tapped” Tun Dr.Mahathir’s mind and innovations so that we can think of new better ways of making Malaysia Greater than what he have made Malaysia so far today!Let Tun Dr.Mahathir answer his fate with Allah SWT for all that he have done as Malaysia’s 4th PM and also as a Political Leader cum Entrepreneur,Doctor,Carpenter etc..voicing his concerns and thoughts to all that seek his advice and views!Like all Great Persons especially in Malaysia we seem to hate or show little gratitude when the person is alive still but when they are gone,buried and no more around we start to miss them,love them like crazy and show our recoqnition and rewards when it is too late or no more important to that person!That we must take note seriously…
some regular articles written about YABhg Tun Dr.Mahathir Mohamad…
Saturday, July 2, 2011 (Ref: http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.com/2011/07/mahathir-his-contributions-to-decline.html
Mahathir: His contributions to the decline in political morality in Malaysia.
What distinguish the UMNO of today and that of the time before Mahathir can be said in a few words : compassion for and the respect of the rights of the people : or to be more exact the lack of it after Mahathir became Prime Minister. With Mahathir came the decline of political morality and a corresponding decline in the moral fibre in the civil service. Since 1981 the indiscretions of elected officials and those in the civil service have become the hall mark of all things Malaysian to the extent that Malaysians are now accepting that the realities of corruption, greed and vested interests colors all government transactions. An acceptance that we are now a country in decline without much hope for recovery in the foreseeable future.
As if to emphasize this decline we are continually bombarded with scandals after scandals of the worse kind – financial, sexual and the abuse of power by high ranking public officials. What the murder of Altantuya, PKFZ, death in PDRM and MACC custody and the massive financial abuses of the nation’s wealth confirms is that Malaysia is indeed a nation in moral decline bereft of any decent political leadership : in short a nation that has lost it’s way.
And as if this was not enough our increasing economic woes are now compounded by a social and racial divide that has been deliberately and irresponsibly concocted by the BN government to divide and rule the people of our country – and by so doing have manged to hold on to power for the last 53 years!
Not only have this been done by creating a social and racial divide amongst the Malays and non-Malays but the BN government of the day has found it expedient to accelerate this racial divide by the giving of citizenship’s to legal and illegal Malay immigrants further exacerbating an already precarious and delicate racial and social problems that is now plaguing the country. Imagine what social harm the massive influx of unskilled and uneducated immigrants would do to any country that is not even able to provide basic welfare care and education to its existing people. Surely this is the act of an irresponsible and self serving government without regard for anything else but their own political survival!
At all levels of our society we now see our people in distress. Financial distress. Social distress. Moral distress. And surely a society in which its political leaders are without the controlling influence of decent morality is a society in real distress? That is the situation we now find ourselves!
The BN government has succumb to the lowest level of politics : GUTTER POLITICS : gutter politics is where the worse of human nature and behaviour in politics have not only been unleashed but rewarded! There is simply no precedent in the once grand tradition of UMNO/BN politics or of our country for the shameful manner in which UMNO/BN has now descended. In the Malaysia of today we see our Prime Minister using his office as a sanctuary from prosecution in the Altantuya murder. We see lewd behaviour by BN politicians rewarded with an ambassadorial posting to Washington! The President of MCA is more well known for his sexual hi jinks in a pornographic video then for his political prowess. Our Chief Justice though guilty of thinking with his penis rather then with his distinguish grey matter was rewarded with his judicial post giving credence to this adage :
Chief Justice : Honorary tittle given to leader’s best friend!
And none distinguishes the depths that UMNO/BN has sunk to then the relentless attacks against DSAI – the latest of which required the use of one Child Rapist Tan Sri and two slimy Datuks.
Following the examples set by this BN government our society has followed suit. We have a corrupt and brutal Police Force which is just short of becoming a willing appendage of UMNO. The corporate world is a willing, eager and generous participant where prudent business practices are cast aside for the more lucrative political patronage on offer from corrupt politicians where the spoils on offer is breath takingly profitable at the expense of the public.
And where does all this lead to? The simple answer is to look at where we are to day : 2nd July 2011. We have a government that has virtually declared war on its people for wanting a fair, free and open election. We have a government that is prepared to risk the lives of its people in Gebeng Kuantan for Lynas – big business against the little people.
We have the Prime Minister talking up a RM 4 billion redevelopment of the city riverfront – this at a time when minimum wages are still just “to be discussed” next year, when subsidies are being “restructured” and when our hard core poor can still be seen wandering the streets of our capital and major cities, and the old are still without adequate care. What madness is this to prioritize these mega projects when matters of affordable housing and putting food on the table for the nations poor should really be the priority?
These are some of the reasons why today in Malaysia compassion for others who are less fortunate are no longer a consideration for this BN government. Why we no longer trust this BN government to do what is right for us and for our country. And of course where moral decency has gone the same way as this BN government has gone – into the abyss where the dregs of society resides!
Are we at the point of no return?
To answer this we need to look at what has happened after Mahathir became Prime Minister. The manner in which Mahathir consciously used race to divide and rule the country would put Malaysia on the same level as South Africa that had used Apartheid to “manage” racial inequality. Initially as the restructuring of the Malaysian society got underway there were visible images of the Malays getting their share of the nations wealth. The non-Malays accepted the necessity of this social re engineering with grace and possibly an acceptance that this must be the way to go forward if we were to be 1Malaysia.
But soon, much too soon the cosmetics redistribution of wealth amongst the Malays became in reality a grab by UMNO politicians of the nations wealth for their own keeping. The executive power vested in UMNO politicians made this too easy a task for UMNO to do and do it they did with gusto and a greed that brought with it the culture of money politics into the consciousness of the Malays in general and into UMNO in particular.
I would think that the irreversible slide towards this moral decay started when UMNO within itself accepted the use of money politics and factionalism within itself as a means of buying and staying in power. Thus began the transformation of UMNO into an organization where the needs justifies the means – and the end is always to hold on to power at any costs. Because power open doors to great wealth. No longer was UMNO there to fight the battles for the Malays. No longer were the Malays the reason for UMNO’s being. Money was the be all and end all of all things UMNO. This new reality brought along with it the troubles and abuses that we now have today.
Malaysia is now a country governed by corrupt politicians.The races no longer lived in harmony because it serves the interest of these politicians for the various races to be at each other’s throats. Gone are the interest of the people, their dreams and aspirations – in its place there was one and only one overriding need of the BN government – to stay in power!
All this started when Mahathir became our Prime Minister in 1987. We now have a new generation, maybe even two generations of our young and not too young, brought up to turn away from the ways of “pre Mahathir” to grow up to become parents in this new “1Malaysia” where ketuanan Melayu and the rights of government to pillage and plunder our nation’s resources was, for a time, tolerated.
But not anymore! With the advent of the electronic media and the world wide web and the Internet our people are now able to access information of the abuse and wrong doings of this BN government. No longer can the BN government keep from us the massive losses incurred in wasteful public spending, excessive infrastructure costs and all in all incompetence of the BN government in the Mahathir years which still continues till today.
The Malaysian people have now realized just how far this BN government should be held responsible for the ills we all now face.
All the dominance Malaysia once had within the Asean, if not global economy has now disappeared because of the lack of prudence by this BN government in our times of plenty – so much so that we now question our ability to regain economic stability.
What else does this BN government need to see before they realize that their past and current policies whether in education, business or racial balance have failed miserably? That changes must be made now if we are to ever regain our place again amongst our peers in the East? These economic reforms and national transformation programs must be done to address the necessary changes most needed not for political grand scoring or vested interests of the BN cronies but to guarantee that our economic future will be assured.
I cannot see any other way forward for Malaysia then to do away with this corrupt and self serving UMNO/BN government. What is to come after BN is still to be seen. Much too often human beings have the ability to change for better or for worse when called upon to do so circumstances of their own making or by factors outside their control. If BN is voted out of office at the 13th general election then let those that will take its place understand that the momentum to ensure change rests with the people. Ignore the people at your peril!
Posted by Hussein abdul Hamid at Saturday, July 02, 2011
Labels: Mahathir political morality decline
| [March, 2010] |
[ Printed Version ]
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Means and Ends: Mahathir Mohamad’s
Mixed Legacy
By David Plott |
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Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times
By Barry Wain
Palgrave Macmillan, 368 pages |
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| As Malaysia’s longest-ruling prime minister — from 1981 to 2003 — Mahathir Mohamad was never fond of an independent press, especially the Western press, given how prickly he could be toward real or perceived criticism. So it is with some irony that Australian journalist Barry Wain’s biography, Malaysian Maverick: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times, turns out to be a remarkably balanced portrait of a political leader who has, in turns, been vilified by his critics and idolized by his supporters, both at home and abroad. It is also a book that promises to play a pivotal role in defining Mahathir’s legacy, precisely because of the lengths to which Wain has gone to research and candidly assess Mahathir’s spectacular successes and failures.
What gives this biography special appeal is that Wain, a former editor of The Asian Wall Street Journal, had access, through numerous interviews and e-mail exchanges, to Mahathir himself; his wife, Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali; two of their seven children, Marina and Mukhriz Mahathir; and a wide variety of political enemies and allies, including Mahathir’s long-time confidante, Daim Zainuddin. Wain also exhaustively researched the complex business empire that grew up over the years around the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) — cementing its decline into corruption and cronyism — as well as the intricate machinations that Mahathir engaged in during his 22 years in power to maintain control over the party and the levers of government.
The result is a portrait of Mahathir that provides ample evidence for both those who argue that he should almost single-handedly be credited with Malaysia’s dramatic transformation from an economic backwater to one of the world’s top 20 exporters and for those who argue that he should be blamed for saddling the country with a political system marked by deeply entrenched corruption, brittle institutions and a legacy of wasteful mega-projects. In short, both Mahathir’s detractors and admirers will find their man here.
Wain’s delicate balancing act — deftly managed in prose that is always lucid and at times eloquent — is successful primarily because he remains focused on what fundamentally motivated Mahathir during his long years in power. He was a determined nationalist and an avid champion of the country’s ethnic Malays, and his unwavering ambition was to drag Malaysia into the ranks of the world’s modern economies, restore national pride in the wake of the country’s colonial era and command respect for Malaysia on the world stage. He was also driven by a desire to ensure that the country’s multi-ethnic and multi-religious society pursued a secular path that maintained social stability.
By articulating in such detail the consistent goals that shaped Mahathir’s behavior at every stage of his political career — and the underlying personal experiences early in his life that gave rise to those goals — Wain subtly builds a framework for assessing Mahathir’s legacy that requires an open-minded reader to distinguish between the means Mahathir employed and the ends he sought.
This is a rather more sophisticated approach than one might imagine, and it has important consequences. It explains, in part, why this exceptional biography comes across as both deeply sympathetic to Mahathir’s vision and scathing in its account of some of the things he did to realize that vision. It also helps explain the extraordinary lengths to which Mahathir went to remain in power and to cripple anyone who might represent a challenge to his authority. He believed that unless he was at the helm, the goals for which he had devoted his entire life would be at risk. Put simply, the ends, for Dr. M, justified the means. |
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The first of the three parts of this biography are devoted to Mahathir’s early years and his rise to prime minister at 56. Born into humble beginnings in a poor neighborhood in Alor Setar, the capital of Kedah state, the young Mahathir learned early the stinging effects of colonial Malaya’s dominance by the British and the social hierarchy within local society itself. The discrimination he experienced growing up because of his socio-economic background had a lasting effect on him and made him keenly sensitive to personal snubs of any kind, genuine or perceived (Britain, as well as Malaysia’s royal families, would years later experience the withering effects of Mahathir’s wrath when he introduced the “Buy British Last” campaign and moved to reduce the influence of local royalty on politics). Characteristically, however, he didn’t wallow |
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| in his predicament, but instead he worked himself into a position that commanded respect, becoming a practicing physician before eventually entering politics.
From the outset, he stood apart from others in government and politics. “Not only did Dr. Mahathir not smoke or gamble, he strongly disapproved of the lifestyles of senior civil servants and politician who spent their leisure hours in bars and dance halls — and on the golf course, a game played by the first three prime ministers.” But it was his bare-knuckle approach to political combat, and his uncanny sense of how to maneuver through the organizational complexities of party politics, that set him apart from rivals for leadership of UMNO. Not that this was easy. These were treacherous years in Malaysian politics, and there were several occasions during his rise to power when he barely escaped being outflanked and even arrested and jailed — leaving him with a “take no prisoners” approach to political opposition that was to characterize his years in office.
When he finally became prime minister on July 16, 1981, “he gave little indication initially that he would rewrite the political rulebook and become the longest-serving and most controversial premier in the nation’s history,” Wain writes. “Although he swept into office with the intensity of a typhoon, Dr. Mahathir moved cautiously to consolidate his position as leader of both UMNO and Malaysia.”
In the years that followed, which are covered in the second and longest part of this biography, Mahathir was continuously engaged in a Herculean struggle on two fronts simultaneously — to transform Malaysia into a modern, dynamic and secular developing nation and to maintain control of a ruling party that was periodically convulsed by internal divisions and challenges to his leadership. On both fronts, he proved to be brutal in pursuing whatever means it took to achieve his ends.
And on both fronts, he took steps that intertwined business and politics in ways that enabled him to push forward his many modernizing projects and solidify the financial strength of UMNO so that its political patronage would ensure its hold on power. But ultimately, Wain argues, this came at an enormous price in terms of wasted state resources, widespread corruption (although Mahathir himself never personally benefited) and a weakening of vital institutions such as the judiciary and the police.
Wain’s fascinating account of Mahathir’s years in power is filled with startling revelations and plenty of previously undisclosed material. Surely the one most likely to provoke controversy is his contention that under Mahathir the government squandered through corruption and ill-conceived business ventures and mega-projects some 100 billion ringgit in taxpayer’s money (or around $40 billion at prevailing exchange rates). Mahathir has publicly challenged that figure, calling on the government to convene an independent panel to investigate the claim and suggesting he might sue the author. Wain also suggests that an invitation by the Australian government to visit Canberra early in his political career, which was then withdrawn, so irritated Mahathir that he was left with a lifelong animosity toward Australia that might have negatively influenced his views on Australia’s place in any future East Asian community.
Like so much else in this biography, Wain’s effort to assess Mahathir’s legacy, which makes up the third part of the book, is finely balanced. “He put Malaysia on the map, and most Malaysians were pleased about it,” he writes. But he did so at a price. “For while he held Malaysia together for 22 years, the political-administrative system atrophied and decayed under his personalized brand of governance.”
It may well be that if the political reform movement in Malaysia — led by former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, whom Mahathir ignominiously sacked in 1998 and jailed — eventually succeeds in breaking UMNO’s hold on power, Malaysia’s political system will develop in such a way as to erase memories of the negative legacies of Mahathir’s years in power. Should that happen, perhaps history will only remember the many positive contributions Mahathir made to Malaysia. That would be the ultimate irony.
David Plott is managing editor of Global Asia. |
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