An open letter to my PM – Yusuf Hashim

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DEAR prime minister,

I am 76 years old. I have lived through the growth, the development, the decadence, the deterioration, the destruction, and the despair of my Malaysia, under the watch of all 8 of our prime ministers, including your good self, sir. Starting from Tunku, through Razak, Hussein, Mahathir Ver.01, Abdullah, Najib, Mahathir Ver.02, Muhyiddin and now you, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri.

I lived through the post-world-war period, the Communist insurgency, the idealistic beginnings of Umno, the heady days of the declaration of Merdeka, the creation of Malaysia, the expulsion of Singapore, the upheavals of 13 May 1969, the NOC period under Razak, the birth of the NEP, the emergence of Mahathir Ver.01 after the uneventful reign of Hussein Onn, the birth of cronyism, corruption, bigotry, and all that is presently loathsome in Malaysia, under Mahathir’s watch, the sleepy years of Abdullah Badawi, the grand larcenies under Najib, the return of Mahathir Ver.02 after the rise of the rakyat in GE14, the treachery of Muhyiddin and the Sheraton rats, and now the doldrums of your watch.

I am sad that what was once a potential tiger, is now a broken country, and possibly one of the greatest kleptocracies in the world. And I blame it fully on the bad policies of the rotten political parties running Malaysia over the last half a century. I blame Malaysia’s decay, squarely on the unprincipled Malay leaders that ran this country. I blame them for creating the crony class of rent seekers. I blame them for using religion in politics. I blame them for the money politics of today. I blame them for creating disharmony among Malaysians, by portraying Chinese Malaysians as the bogeyman, and the greatest threat to the advancement of the Malays. And most of all, I blame them for dumbing down and frightening the rural Malays, to the extent that they can no longer discern between crooks and saviours, and between charlatans and men of honour and integrity.

The British left us a good civil service in 1957, and a good education system based on meritocracy. Admittedly they also left some structural issues that needed to be properly managed, but the post-independence Malay-dominated political system, have exacerbated our differences, and ruined both the civil service and education system.

Our children are now educated in a three-silo system, with Chinese children largely in Chinese schools, Malay children in the Malay-language national school system, and the children of the wealthy, including the children of ministers, politicians, and the elite, in private schools, where mastery of English is emphasised, besides the mastery of the national language.

What is unfair and depressing is that for too long, places and scholarships in our local universities have been highly racially skewed in favour of the Malays. Meritocracy is compromised, and bright Malaysian children who are non-Bumiputeras are denied places, even though their academic grades are superlative. I would like to say that not all non-Malays are rich. More children of non-Malay Malaysians who excel academically, with parents who are ordinary not wealthy Malaysians, must also be given places and scholarships in our local universities. After more than 50 years of preferential treatment, I believe it is time that places in our universities should be allocated on meritocracy, and race be taken out of the equation. I believe the Malays are now capable of competing against the non-Malays on a level playing field. The country needs its best sons and daughters, irrespective of race, to bubble to the top. Only then can our Malaysia compete effectively with other nations, to take our rightful place among successful nations.

Today Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, which were once tiger cubs like us, are rich, developed, and successful world economic powers.

The same cannot be said of us.

Why are we so broken today, with everything we once held dear in complete tatters?

I believe we are behind the other developed nations today because of the long domination of Malaysian politics by not very honourable, dishonest, and even incompetent and criminally inclined politicians. Don’t look at the Twin Towers, at Putrajaya, at Proton Saga, the miles and miles of toll roads, overhead LRT lines and flyovers, the traffic jams, the shopping malls, the soulless skyscrapers, and uncontrolled urbanization, as signs of our development.

Look instead at the rampant corruption, the bigotry, the racism, the death of integrity, honesty, honour and righteousness, the brain drain, the broken education system, the unprincipled politicians, the rent-seeking cronies, the insidious presence of government in business, our shameful designation of being one of the greatest kleptocracies in the world, and also the rape of our environment by the privileged class in timber and mineral extraction.

In the 1995 Transparency International World Corruption Index, Singapore was #3, while Malaysia was #23.  In 2021, Singapore is still in the top 4, but Malaysia has plunged 39 places to #62.

Are you not appalled by this calamity?

Do you care at all?

You have an amazing opportunity to make a difference. And to leave behind an unparalleled legacy. Malaysians thought Mahathir Ver.02 was going to be that saviour of the country. Sadly, he wasn’t the one because his deep race-based agenda was still his dominant drive. Eventually, he was demolished by his own racist lieutenants, the Sheraton rats, in a typical display of treachery and bribery politics, for which Malay politicians were becoming known for.

Malaysians are looking for decisive action by you to stop the rot. But personally, I don’t think you can deliver.

With one of the world’s largest cabinet numbering 70 ministers, and dozens of cronies, retired civil servants and expired politicians, appointed to the boards of our GOCs and GLCs, poor governance and political interference in business, we anticipate more bailouts using taxpayers’ money will be needed. And we can expect Malaysia’s corruption index to plunge further.

I hope you have a strategic plan to arrest further decline and to put Malaysia back on the right track.

I would like you to focus on some, if not all of the following areas, to make Malaysia great again:

Revamp the national education system. Champion meritocracy. Give every Malaysian young person, irrespective of race, an equal chance to enter our national universities, based on their academic credentials. Give scholarships and financial assistance to all those that need assistance, and not based on race. Those who are not very good in academia can be developed in the trades, manufacturing, and services sector.

Reintroduce bilingualism in our national school system. In fact, trilingualism is even better. Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and that should remain. But make English a compulsory language for all Malaysians to master. English is one of the international languages that Malaysians need, in order to interact fluently with the rest of the world. Being fluent in English will allow Malaysians direct and immediate access to cutting-edge science, technology and human advances, without waiting for translations to be made.

China will overtake the USA as the world’s biggest economy, so Malaysians able to read, write and communicate in Mandarin will be a great asset for Malaysia. Most Chinese young people are already trilingual. If you want the Malays to be on par with Malaysian Chinese in the new world economic order, make Malays master Mandarin and English besides just the national language.

And while you are revamping the education system, dial back a little on the overemphasis on religion in schools. Focus more on morality, on core values that all religions hold dear. Teach our children to love one another, no matter their different races, religion, or mother tongues. It is ironic that there seems to be a direct corelation between the emphasis on religion, and the amount of corruption. The more the emphasis on religion, the more corruption increases.

When I was a student, half a century ago, we had very little religious education in schools, and yet there were more God-fearing people. The words corruption, cronies, kleptocracy, GLCs, GOCs and APs weren’t even invented yet. Dedak then was animal feed. Now we are the world’s greatest kleptocracy. Politicians are the most loathed species in Malaysia. And you need Approved Permits and to export, to import everything from motor cars to meat and chickens and durians. You need some kind of permit to do almost everything.

It was Ayn Rand, in her book Atlas Shrugged, written in 1957, the year of our independence who said:

“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing,

When you see that money flows to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours,

When you see that men get richer by graft, and by pull, than by work,

And your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you,

When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – You will know that your society is doomed.”

60 years of the NEP is enough. I believe many Malays are now quite able of becoming successful and rich without so much direct government assistance. The NEP has been exploited by politicians and the crony class to create a hateful system of rent seekers. Worse, the political parties in power have been using the GLCs and GOCs and even government institutions that is supposed to serve the people as part of a wicked patronage system to keep themselves in power. Today you may be the prime minister, and you may be using the GLCs and GOCs to prop up your own administration, but what will you say if the regime that takes over from you, use the same rotten system to perpetuate their power? The honourable thing to do is to break the vicious cycle, and make things right. Privatise the GLCs and GOCs. Let them be run by technocrats and business professionals, and not retired civil servants and expired politicians.

Government should just govern. Leave the business of business to businessmen and professionals. The NEP should be replaced by a NBDP, which means a Needs Based Development Policy, where every Malaysian that needs assistance, no matter their race, religion, or political inclinations, should be given assistance. If you are a righteous, God-fearing man, this will be the only way.

Reduce the size of the civil service. With computers, automation, 5G and smart devices, many of the counter services provided by the administration can be privatised and done online. The national pension bill is going to get larger and larger, and the government should begin converting pensions to some form of self-contribution retirement plans, like the EPF for employees in the private sector.

And while you are looking at pensions for civil servants, please abolish the pension scheme, annual vacation packages, and excessive allowances and perks for MPs and ADUNs, ministers and deputy ministers, and freeloaders with ranks of ministers. Public service is NOT a career, and people become politicians as a public service, not as a job.  There should be a time bar and an age bar for politicians. No politicians should be allowed more than two terms or eight years in office. And a maximum retiring age of 60 must be set, because past 60, incumbents may not have the health and strength to carry out the arduous duties of publicly elected officials.

Corruption is the bane of this sad country. Corruption is endemic in Malaysia, and the perception is, the Malaysian government itself is perpetrating this scourge. Introduce the death penalty for corruption – for both the receiver and the giver. If that is unpalatable, how about medical amputation of the hand at the wrist for those convicted of corruption? The only way to get rid of corruption is to get serious about getting rid of corruption.

I have a personal gripe that I would like to mention. This is with regards to the abundance of state awards and titles in this country. The first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was the PM that introduced the laughable system. It is so tiresome that in speeches by public officials and especially politicians, half the speech is spent on calling out the titles of a long line of titled people. There are so many datuks and datos around, and hundreds more are being added every year, and looking at the large number, and the character and behaviour of some of these datos, many people wonder what they were decorated for.  What is very telling and alarming is many of those accused of white-collar crimes in our courts today are titled persons. Many are convicted but their titles remain with them when they are imprisoned. Even if one datukship is withdrawn, it’s laughable that they still have several other datoships from various states that are not withdrawn. Soon there will be more datuks than ordinary people in this sad country.

There you have it. I have many more issues that you need to focus on. The impartiality of many sectors of the civil service has deteriorated. The Election Commission and the Registrar of Societies are two areas that need reformation. Excessive gerrymandering has made a mockery of voters’ rights. Electoral demarcation lines have been bastardised to frustrate delineation decency. Too much power is being concentrated in the prime minister’s hands, and when we get a rogue PM like we’ve had in the past, there are no effective checks and balances.

Our Malaysia is badly broken, Mr Prime Minister. We pray to God that you will unbreak it. If you do, history will remember you as the prime minister who saved Malaysia. – The Vibes, February 7, 2022

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YOURSAY | Yusuf Hashim, you’re right about our racial policies

Patriot Marhaen: Yusuf Hashim, your words are meant not just for the prime minister but as a reminder for all Malays, including myself.

A policy of discrimination on the premise that people still need help, after decades of aid, has its limits. Poverty, sickness and hunger, like natural disasters, do not choose their victims.

Remember, people who are insulted, abused and suppressed cannot be blamed if they act to preserve their culture, race and religion. This is the right of every citizen in a democracy.

Our ailing nation needs urgent attention before it reaches a point of no return. Let us choose what is good and discard what is bad. God willing, we will rehabilitate and rebuild our ailing beloved Malaysia together.

Let’s return to the glorious days when we sang Negaraku with great pride, a lump in our throat and tears in our eyes.

The Wakandan: Our national standard can only be as good as the people who are placed there to execute it. Korea, Singapore and Taiwan achieved sublime standards because they placed the correct people in the correct places.

Some countries may not have the talents to carry out certain responsibilities, so they source from outside their countries, like the UAE. There is no shame to admit it if we lack the expertise.

Malaysia became stagnant and lagged behind because we used substandard people to carry out important jobs, which could not be compromised. This is a result of race-based affirmative action rather than merit-based policies.

We are reaping what we sowed. Years of pretending “Malaysia Boleh” has destroyed us.

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s view of other races caused all of us to stagnate, his Vision 2020 unachieved, and we lagged behind so far that Indonesia and Vietnam have begun to overtake us.

We did not produce any LG, Samsung, Hyundai or Huawei, things which we could possibly do but couldn’t because of our government policies of jealousy and selfishness.

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