Toppling The Malay Coconut Shell

M. Bakri Musa


 The Malay coconut shell had been toppled many times in our history, and not necessarily through our own efforts, as when those early Muslim traders entered our world. They came to trade but through their exemplary day-to-day activities and conduct, they upended our core belief system. Those Muslim traders transformed Malays from believing in multiple deities to a one All-Powerful and All-Encompassing God. That did not change our physical world but it was momentous nonetheless precisely because of that. We adapted to that new world in a smooth and seamless transition. We became better for it.

 The colonials too flipped over our shell. Unlike those Muslims traders, the changes the colonials brought about were physical and demographic, as when they flooded the country with immigrants to work the tin mines and rubber estates. Those colonialists also made their presence known in no uncertain terms, to the natives as well as immigrants, who was in charge.

 We cursed the colonials for upending our familiar comfortable world. Nonetheless their flipping over our coconut shell exposed us to a new and much wider world. At the micro or personal level, if not for the colonials I would still today be an orang hamba (slave) at the istana (palace), just like my ancestors. There are others who argue that the colonialism itself was a form of slavery. That may well be so.

 At the macro or societal level, the British colonials (though not the earlier Dutch or Portuguese) introduced modern education. Thousands benefited from that. To be sure, those colonials did not do that with much enthusiasm nor funded it with bountiful generosity. They did it in portions just enough to satisfy their collective conscience and to meet their pragmatic need for locally qualified people to help them rule us more effectively and, not to be discounted, cheaply.

 There were other less appreciated but nonetheless significant and enduring benefits of colonial rule. That may not be a politically correct assertion to make, nonetheless the British gave us Munshi Abdullah. If not for them, he too would be another indentured laborer at the istana, and Malay literature would remain nothing more than the chronicles of khayalan (fantasies).

 Another global cataclysm that toppled the metaphorical coconut shell of our Malay world was World War II. While the colonialists’ entry forced a sea change in our Malay way of life and matters physical, the Japanese invasion triggered even more. They not only changed the country physically, and it was a very terrible change, but also and of much greater significance and permanence, triggered a momentous change in the Malay psyche.

 The sight of those hitherto invincible white Tuans and their Mems scurrying in their Austins and Morris Minors chased by the short, yellow Japanese on their sardine can-made bicycles made quite an impact on the collective natives’ psyche:  The myth of white supremacy forever shattered! It was this that emboldened Malays to pursue with even greater vigor our independence.

 While external upheavals can topple our coconut shell, we cannot always count on them or predict the outcome to be in our favor. Nor could we anticipate the costs we would have to bear, which was considerable as we saw with colonialism and the Japanese Occupation. That is a crucial caveat. It would be much more preferable for us to make our own effort at toppling our shell. Then we could control its timing and thus minimize the collateral damage. We would also be more likely to get the changes we desired.

 Toppling our coconut shell begins with our freeing ourselves mentally to imagine the world beyond the present. That is the crucial first step. Once we can imagine, then we can fly, or in the words of the great Muhammad Ali, “A man who has no imagination has no wings.”

 Imagination rules the world, Napoleon once said. Once one’s imagination is ignited, there is no going back; our shell will be toppled. The question then will be whether it is done with great care so as not to incur collateral damages, or recklessly as in the rampage of a revolution. The former is preferable. However, as the promises of flipping our shell are so great, the fear of the latter should not deter us.

 A sure way of igniting our imagination is to be dissatisfied with our present condition. Change, and thus progress, depends on us not being satisfied with the status quo. Once we have this sense of dissatisfaction or even better, anger, that would motivate us to topple over and get out from underneath our shell. Immigrants are successful in their adopted land because they are driven by dissatisfaction with their native land.

 A major obstacle for Malays specifically and Muslims generally is our ingrained but misguided notion of satisfaction with the status quo, al qadar – our fate is written in the book – the passive acceptance that there is not much that we can do to alter our destiny. This destructive religious determinism is just as crippling as the pseudo modern biological one – our fate lies with our genes. The latter is from our misunderstanding of science; the former, the misreading of our faith.

 There is much that we can do at the individual level to fire up our imagination. Merely looking at and being curious of the wonderful world around and within us would open up our minds. Observing the stars above had triggered many an imagination. With it, Copernicus transformed our view of the universe from a geocentric one that we inherited from the Greeks to a heliocentric one. Many a theological and other shells were shattered by that singular observation.

 Exposing ourselves to the imagination of others is another, as with the old storytelling. Today it would be reading. Pictures and videos both expand and restrict that reach. It expands because of the richness of the images; restricts because the photographer or videographer imposes her imagination upon her viewers! Travel and experiencing other cultures too stretch our imagination. Mystics go into seclusion for extended periods to force a change in the normal rhythm of their lives to effect similar ends.

 At the societal level, the proven pathways towards igniting our imagination and thus liberating our minds include information, education, and our involvement in trade and commerce.

 Once we are aware through education, information and our travels or trading activities that there is a much wider world out there, then we are not likely to be satisfied with our own confined dark space no matter how comfortable it may seem to us at the time or what a paradise it is as per the repeated assurances of our leaders.

 All three – information, education, and commerce – apart from opening up our minds and facilitating the toppling of our shell, are also the best ways to prepare us for the new open world. The following chapters will deal with each of these elements. Before proceeding, I pause and reassess where we are, the direction we are headed, and the destination we aspire to reach.

Adapted from the author’s book, Liberating The Malay Mind, published by ZI Publications, Petaling Jaya, 2013. The second edition was released in January 2016.

posted by M. Bakri Musa

The Malay Dilemma Revisited. Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia. Updated Edition 2017

The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics In Modern Malaysia - Updated Edition

List Price: $19.90  (April 2017)
6" x 9" (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Black & White on Cream paper
408 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1543242423 (CreateSpace-Assigned)
ISBN-10: 1543242421
LCCN: 2017903018
BISAC: Political Science / Public Affairs & Administration

Few countries today have culturally or ethnically homogenous populations, the consequence of colonization, globalization, and mass migrations. Thus, the Malaysian dilemma of socioeconomic and other inequities paralleling racial and cultural divisions has global relevance as it also burdens many nations.

Malaysia’s basic instrument in ameliorating these horizontal (between groups) inequities has been its New Economic Policy (NEP). Its core mechanism being preferential socio-economic and other initiatives favoring indigenous Malays and other non-immigrant minorities, as well as massive state interventions in the marketplace. In place since 1970 in the aftermath of the deadly 1969 race riots, NEP has been continuously “strengthened,” meaning, ever increasing resources expended and preferences being imposed with greater assertiveness.

Malaysia succeeded to some degree in reducing her earlier inequities and in the process created a sizeable Malay middle class. There was however, a steep price. Apart from the marketplace distortions and consequent drag on the economy, those earlier horizontal inequities are now replaced by the more destabilizing vertical variety. NEP also bred a rentier- economy mindset among Malays and other recipient communities. Those preferences now impair rather than enhance the recipents' (in particular Malay) competitiveness, the universal law of unintended consequences being operative.

Initiated by Prime Minister Razak in 1970, his successor, Mahathir, raised NEP to a much more aggressive level, only to have that initiative today corrupted and degraded by, ironically, Tun Razak’s son, current Prime Minister Najib. By July 2016, the US Department of Justice alleges that “Malaysian Official 1” (aka Najib) illicitly siphoned over US$3.5 Billion from a government-linked corporation, 1MDB. Corruption on such a gargantuan scale was the predictable and inevitable consequence of Malaysia’s New Economic Policy and state interventions in the marketplace.

Ths book chronicles Mahathir’s and Najib’s perversion of a once noble endeavor. Najib now adds another volatile mix. Desperate to hang on to power, he adds religious fanaticism to his already corrosive corruption and destructive incomptence. He now cavorts with extremist Islamists, threatening and undermining the nation’s still fragile race dynamics. Malaysia is today still burdened and blighted by Najib’s inept, corrupt, and chauvinistic leadership, with no end in sight. This would inevitably undermone the current fragile but still peaceful racial equilibrium in the country.

Instead of arbitrarily-picked numbers and targets, Malaysia should focus on strengthening Malay competitiveness through enhancing our human and social capitals. Modernizing the education system to emphasize the sciences, mathematics, English fluency, and technical training would address the first. Curtailing royal institutions and other vestiges of feudalism, as well as the regressive form of religion as propagated by the state, would develop the second. It is difficult to wean Malays off the special privilege narcotic when the sultans are frolicking at the top of the heap.

Beyond chronicling the failures of both the Najib and Mahathir Administrations, the author offers these alternative strategies for enhancing Malay competitiveness. Apart from improving the quality of our human and social capital through modern education and responsive institutions, the author advocates removing or at least toning down the stifling influence of official religion.
posted by M. Bakri Musa

Trump’s Simplistic Strategy on Jihadism

by Robin Wright

http://www.newyorker.com

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Trying to appease Saudi Arabia and the Muslim World and isolate Iran

Six days after the 9/11 attacks, in 2001, President George W. Bush went to the Islamic Center in Washington to dampen fears of a clash of civilizations between the Islamic world and the West. “The face of terror is not the true face of Islam,” he said. “Islam is peace.” Three days later, at a joint session of Congress, Bush defined the challenge from Al Qaeda in political rather than religious or cultural terms. “This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom,” he told Congress. “This will not be an age of terror. This will be an age of liberty here and across the world.” A central theme of Bush’s Presidency was fostering democracy through nation-building.

President Barack Obama’s main speech to the Islamic world, in 2009, called for a “new beginning” between Muslim and Western nations, noting “civilization’s debt to Islam.” Declaring to Cairo University students that “we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems,” he, too, envisioned political and economic solutions to countering extremism.

“All people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn’t steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose,” Obama said. “Those are not just American ideas, they are human rights, and that is why we will support them everywhere.” He also outlined plans to spend billions in U.S. aid to build schools and hospitals, roads and businesses, and to help those displaced by conflicts in the Islamic world.

Donald Trump took a starkly different tack during the campaign. “I think Islam hates us,” Trump told Anderson Cooper, on CNN, fourteen months ago. He told both MSNBC and Fox News that he’d be willing to close mosques in the United States.  At the Presidential debate last October, in Las Vegas, he was particularly critical of Saudi Arabia. “These are people that push gays off buildings,” he said. “These are people that kill women and treat women horribly, and yet you take their money.” He continued the theme in his first days in office, with an executive order that banned travel from seven countries (later downgraded to six) with predominantly Muslim populations. It was ruled unlawful by U.S. courts, but the Trump Administration is still appealing the decision.

On Sunday(May 21), on his first trip abroad as President, Trump tried to hit the reset button in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. He heralded Islam as “one of the world’s great faiths,” and his visit as the beginning of “a new chapter” between the United States and the Islamic world. In a palace of dazzling opulence, he spoke to dozens of leaders assembled by the Saudis from the Arab and Muslim world. In turn, the oil-rich kingdom, which is weathering its own political and military turmoil, treated him like royalty, with billboards across the Saudi capital covered with Trump’s face.

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Trump does not the know the difference between Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabish and Iran’s Shiaism

Trump’s main message was  that Muslims must do more—much more—to fight militants who have proliferated from North Africa to South Asia since 9/11. “The nations of the Middle East cannot wait for American power to crush this enemy for them,” he said. Reading slowly off a teleprompter, Trump urged, even demanded, “Drive them out! Drive them out of your places of worship! Drive them out of your communities! Drive them out of your holy land! And drive them out of this earth!”

Some of Trump’s language about Islam was right out of the Bush-Obama playbook. “This is not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations,” he said. “This is a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life and decent people, all in the name of religion.” He declared it “a battle between good and evil.”

Trump notably did not use one of his favorite terms—“radical Islamic terrorism.” His national-security adviser, H. R. McMaster, has tried to get the President to avoid using the term, at least in public. During the campaign, Trump railed against Obama for not using it—and even charged that “anyone who cannot name our enemy is not fit to lead this country.” In Riyadh, Trump’s original speech called for him, instead, to talk about “Islamist extremism.” He veered off script, however, and talked about “confronting the crisis of Islamic extremism and the Islamists and Islamic terror of all kinds.” Many Muslims are sensitive to the implication that Islam and extremism are synonymous.

Trump’s strategy differed most strikingly from Bush’s and Obama’s in its largely military approach to extremism. One of the top objectives of his maiden foreign tour is to create a coalition of Arab and Muslim countries to tackle extremism, confront Iran, and foster peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The coalition has been informally dubbed an “Arab NATO“.

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First Lady Melania Trump watches as President Donald Trump poses for photographs with leaders at Arab Islamic American Summit, at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center, Sunday, May 21, 2017, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The President seems to have largely abandoned notions of promoting political openings or addressing economic grievances that have fuelled so much of the dissent and militancy, especially among Arab youth. Even oil-rich Saudi Arabia has high youth unemployment, estimated to exceed thirty per cent. The kingdom has produced thousands of jihadis who have joined both ISIS and Al Qaeda.

“We are not here to lecture,” Trump told the Muslim leaders, who were seated on throne-like leather chairs under enormous crystal chandeliers. “We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship. Instead, we are here to offer partnership—based on shared interests and values—to pursue a better future for us all.”

Trump framed his counterterrorism policy in Let’s-Make-a-Deal terms: Washington will sell weaponry to the Arabs, which will in turn create defense-industry jobs in the United States. In his speech, the President digressed from the main theme to claim that his Administration has created almost a million new jobs—adding that the kingdom’s pledge to invest billions more in the United States would create thousands more new jobs.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly complained that the United States got very little from its relationship with the kingdom. “Tell Saudi Arabia and others that we want (demand!) free oil for the next ten years or we will not protect their private Boeing 747s. Pay up!” Trump tweeted, in 2014.

That year, he also tweeted, “I just want to know how much is Saudi Arabia and others who we are helping willing to pay for our saving from total extinction. Pay up now!” In 2015, he tweeted that Saudi Arabia “must pay dearly! NO FREEBIES.”

In Riyadh, however, he bragged about the low prices his Administration was offering the Saudis. “We will be sure to help our Saudi friends to get a good deal from our great American defense companies.” His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, reportedly intervened personally with Lockheed to negotiate a better deal for the Saudis.

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Nepotism in 1600 Penn. Avenue, Washington DC

In one of his more astonishing comments, the President expressed optimism about the future of the Middle East, despite wars in Libya, Yemen, Iraq, and Syria that have killed hundreds of thousands; the greatest humanitarian and refugee crises since the Second World War; and the return of authoritarian rule—disasters which have dashed the hopes sparked by the Arab Spring.

“The potential of this region has never been greater,” Trump told the Muslim leaders assembled in Riyadh. Maybe it was the brilliant glare of the chandeliers that blinded his vision.

Robin Wright is a contributing writer for newyorker.com, and has written for the magazine since 1988. She is the author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World.”

Is stealing allowed when election nears, Dr M asks MACC

The former prime minister questions the anti-graft body for saying it will not target politicians for now.

PUTRAJAYA: Dr Mahathir Mohamad today took to task the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for saying that it was not going after corrupt politicians out of fear that political parties would use its actions as part of the general election campaign.

“So if you are a politician who stole money, it’s allowed? The others will face action because they are not joining the elections?” the PPBM chairman asked in an exclusive interview with FMT at his office in Putrajaya today.

“So the chief secretary and others cannot steal. But politicians can. Then why the action against the Johor politician, but not against the politician in the heart of KL,” he asked, believed to be in reference to the arrest and charging of a Johor exco over a land deal recently.

“If this is not double standards, then I don’t know what is,” said the former prime minister.
Yesterday, MACC chief commissioner Dzulkifli Ahmad said the commission, which in recent weeks has charged scores of civil servants with corruption, did not want to act against politicians at the moment as it could be used as campaign fodder.

But Dzulkifli warned political parties to only choose “clean” people as candidates.
“If this is not done, don’t blame us if we come knocking on their doors after GE14.

“I don’t make empty promises or populist statements. I have only one word for those who are corrupt – wait,” he told Mingguan Malaysia in an interview Sunday.

Mahathir said despite getting more powers to fight corruption, there had been a spike in the number of public servants being involved in it.

“The theft of government funds now runs in the millions. Government officers steal, so do elected representatives,” he said.

Mahathir said despite some being caught with cash worth millions of ringgit including one which took anti-graft officers “18 days just to count the cash”, it was announced that “there was no case”.
“All the reports to MACC, by Bank Negara, from the auditor-general, all these should be brought to the court to judge whether there had been theft committed,” he said.

The former prime minister was earlier asked if he now felt that Abdullah Badawi, who took over from him in 2003 was better than Najib Razak.

He said while it was true that MACC, which was established during Abdullah’s rule, had emboldened the anti-corruption drive, the commission had been silent to act on Prime Minister Najib Razak, referring to the investigation into allegations that the Umno president received RM2.6 billion of money from entitites linked to troubled state firm 1MDB.

Najib had said the money was a donation for Umno from the Saudi royal family.
Last year, in the middle of an investigation involving MACC and other government agencies, Attorney-General Apandi Ali cleared Najib of any criminal offence, saying the money was not a form of bribery.

I’ve burned bridges with Umno, says Dr Mahathir

Abdar Rahman Koya and Aedi Asri | May 23, 2017

The former leader says there is no way for him to return to a party he describes as corrupt to the core.

PUTRAJAYA: Although he has a history of being in and out of Umno, Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this time, he had left the party he led for two decades for good.

“I have burned the bridges,” he said in exclusive interview with FMT recently.
He was asked if he still had a place for Umno despite quitting the party for the second time since his retirement in 2003.

In 2008, Mahathir who had openly called for the removal of then prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, announced he was quitting the party until there was a change in leadership.
The following year, he rejoined Umno after Najib Razak took over from Abdullah.

“Although I was out of Umno, my heart and soul were in Umno,” he had then said at a meeting with Najib to submit his application form.

But Mahathir, who together with other former Umno leaders formed Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM), said this time it was different.

Mahathir was expelled from Umno in 1969 by then prime minister Tunku Abdul Rahman. He was later welcomed back to party fold three years later under the second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak.

“I have been out of the party thrice,” he told FMT in the hour-long interview.
“But I did not join other parties. I did not support other parties. It was the same case when I left the party during Abdullah’s time.”

“This time, not only am I out of Umno, but I also oppose Umno and formed a new party to bring down Umno. Umno is ruined under Najib. There is no use in opposing only Najib. We have to discard Umno. Because the whole of Umno is corrupt,” he said.

Mahathir and his wife Dr Siti Hasmah Ali quit Umno in March last year to protest Najib’s handling of the 1MDB affair, including allegations that some RM2.6 billion of money linked to the state firm had made its way into the prime minister’s personal accounts.

Following that, Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said he was confident that the former leader would return to the party.

“I believe he will reconsider his decision when the time comes,” Zahid had said on the same day of Mahathir’s announcement.

But Mahathir said there was no such plan.
“No way, Umno is ruined,” he said.

Page from the Past - Be brave like ISIL fighters, Najib tells Umno

Shiite volunteers, who have joined the Iraqi army to fight against the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), participate in military-style training in Najaf, June 23, 2014. — Reuters pic

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KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 — Umno must emulate the bravery of a Middle Eastern militant group that defeated an Iraqi force outnumbering it nearly 30 to one if the Malay nationalist party is to survive, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said yesterday.

The Umno president and prime minister was listing virtues that were needed to allow the Malay nationalist party to continue in power, during a dinner to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its Cheras branch yesterday.

“For example, when someone dares to fight to their death, they can even defeat a much bigger team.

“As proof — whether we agree or not is another matter — the group ISIL with the strength of just 1,300 people, can defeat an Iraqi army of 30,000 soldiers, until four, five generals with three, four stars run for their lives, jump out the window at night. Why? Because they are afraid of those who are brave,” he told more than 1,000 Umno members in attendance.

He also stressed the importance of being loyal to god, the party, and friends.

Najib said having wisdom and foresight in battles as well as the ability to organise is also crucial in strengthening the party.

The Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL) is a splinter group of al-Qaeda that wants to set up an Islamic caliphate encompassing both Iraq and Syria.

ISIL is viewed as a terror organisation by authorities both here and abroad.

A Malaysian suspected of being a member of ISIL was believed to have been the suicide bomber who killed 25 members of an Iraqi police team last month.

Earlier this month, three local men were arrested by police for suspected links to ISIL.

Is Najib a secret admirer of the ISIS jihadists?

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MP SPEAKS The clarification by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s statement on the Islamic State in Iraq and The Levant (ISIL) had been taken out of context raises more questions than answers.

The statement by the PMO said ISIL was “mentioned briefly and in passing” and that the prime minister “in no way indicated any support for ISIL”. It said “any allegation to the contrary is completely false”.

The PMO statement stated: “Indeed, the Malaysian government classifies ISIL as a terrorist organisation and we are doing our part to combat them, for example by arresting suspected ISIL members in Malaysia.

“The prime minister’s strong stance over many years against violence and extremism is on record and remains undiminished. The prime minister has called for a Global Movement of the Moderates, rejecting extremism in all its forms, and he will continue to advocate for moderation.”

The Prime Minister’s Office statement did not say how Najib’s reference to ISIL,  which is more commonly known by the translation of its Arabic name, the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham (ISIS), had been taken out of context, nor did it attempt to place Najib’s remarks on ISIL in the proper and correct context.

However, local media reports about Najib’s remarks about ISIL seemed to be  fair and straight reporting.

Najib had said at the dinner to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Cheras Umno: “For example, when someone dares to fight to their death, they can even defeat a much bigger team.

"As proof - whether we agree or not is another matter - the group ISIL with the strength of just 1,300 people, can defeat an Iraqi army of 30,000 soldiers, until four, five generals with three, four stars run for their lives, jump out the window at night.

"Why? Because they are afraid of those who are brave."

The local media reported that Najib had said this when he asked the Umno members to emulate the exploits of the Middle Eastern militant group ISIL, which defeated an Iraqi force outnumbering it, when outlining bravery as one of the six virtues Umno needed to survive and flourish in the country.

How had the media report of  Najib’s remarks gone “out of all context”.

Clearly, the Prime Minister’s Office was trying to deny the undeniable that Najib had glorified the terrorism of ISIL/ISIS, which is regarded as too extremist even by Al-Qaeda – although Najib did make the qualification of “whether we agree or not is another matter”.

But this only raises the further question: is Najib is a secret admirer of the ISIL/ISIS jihadists?

Be that as it may, it must be recognised that Najib’s praise/glorification of the ISIL/ISIS jihadists is a major faux pax for a Malaysian prime minister and one who had called for a Global Movement of the Moderates, advocating Wasatiyah to reject all forms of violence and extremism, whether political or religious.

Malaysians, as well as our Asean neighbours and the international community, want to believe that Najib is not a secret admirer of the ISIL/ISIS jihadists, but the statement by the Prime Minister’s Office trying to deny the undeniable is incapable of achieving this objective.

Let Najib himself state clearly and unequivocally what he really meant in his speech at the Cheras Umno division's 20th anniversary celebration on Monday.

LIM KIT SIANG is DAP’s Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP.

Dr M: Malays willing to kill their way to Heaven

Following claims that some Malaysians are involved in militant activities, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad lamented that Malays are now willing to kill their way to Heaven - both themselves and fellow Muslims.




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Johan Iskandar : a voter speaks! 1. Stop the petty bickering NOW! 2. If PAS wants to leave so be it! Move on I say! 3. Replace Wan Azizah..........

johan iskandar  
Message From A Malaysian Voter


I am 47 years old, married male and a father of 3 kids. I run a small cafe in a small town that most of you probably never heard of before. I have never voted before and will be voting for the first time this next GE.
The reason is because I feel that NOT voting this time around with all that I see happening to my country would be a terrible mistake! I feel that even if my vote will probably not change the dire conditions we are in at least my conscience will be clear.
I am powerless otherwise to effect change when half the country seems to be filled with idiots, bigots, racists and religious zealots who have nothing better to do than sow turmoil and divide us further as citizens of this great country.
I feel powerless and lost and agitated by what I read, hear and watch. WTF is happening is anyone’s guess. Be that as it may I feel my one vote will register with some numbers in the cosmos of our politics and that is a start.
As a voter, I’m aghast at the stupidity I see from both sides of the political divide. The incumbent is a lost cause as I’m sure anyone with half a brain can see but the so called Opposition is worse! Here’s what I humbly suggest IF the Opposition is well and truly sincere in effecting the changes necessary to put our country on the right trajectory for all its citizens. Remember them?
1. Stop the petty bickering NOW!
2. If PAS wants to leave so be it! Move on I say!
3. Replace Wan Azizah as the (whatever she is in Keadilan).. She hasn’t the chutzpah to go up against the ‘enemy’. She maybe strong as a wife and a mother to have to go through all that she’s been through but on the National Level she simply doesn’t have what it takes!
4. Name Dr. Mahathir as your choice of PM! Anwar can wait! Show us you’re putting the nations interest above your own this ONE time. And while you’re at it why not name the entire proposed cabinet so we can judge for ourselves.
5. Forget the BN bashing... it’s getting stale. We already know what BN is.
6. It’s the economy...Stupid! Focus on the country’s economic future! What are you going to do for the nation? What changes are you planning? In detail? Communicate that with us and you might stand a chance of defeating the incumbents whatever dirty tricks they play.
7. The rakyat (most that at least have the internet and actually knows how to use it anyway).. wants to see you win! But all these petty bickering and silly bravados is not doing you any favors! Stop it!
8. Get to the ground running. What’s your message? Just saying you want to topple BN is not enough! Bring the masses your ONE true message and we’ll listen.
9. It’s the little things. Communicate at our level, be ever humble, playing the victim is over. Get up and work for our votes!!!!! Work for it!!! It’s tough sure but you have chosen this path so stop your goddamn whining and start working!!
10. Show unity! If one party wants to go its own way then let them! Get a single common logo and do that NOW!
11. Speak in ONE voice! Or keep your mouths shut!
12. Get it together! Mission Impossible? Maybe..... But the other side of that is Never Say Never!!
13. Forget Manifestos! No one pays the slightest attention to it! Safe your money for something else. Get down the grassroots and just talk and listen.
14. Enough about race, religion already! Get out of that ‘trap’. It serves no purpose in the larger scheme of things.

Please... I implore you do all this as time is running out for you and for all of us. It’s CRITICAL that you be UNITED and has a CLEAR VISION of what needs to be done! I need you, we all do whether we like to believe it or otherwise.
You’re our only hope and I don’t feel you are sincere or seriously committed to the whole idea of one day be given the responsibility of administering this country the way it needs to be administered so that everyone regardless of race, religion, social status will be given an equal opportunity and be provided with the framework for a level playing field in all matters so that all will prosper and no one will be left behind.
So get to work will you? I mean REAL work and not this jibby jabby wishy washy pathetic excuse of campaigning that I see today. I sincerely hope that my message will reach out to those that matters the most and I wish you all the best in the coming GE and pray for your win!

A Malaysian Voter.