Saturday, March 24, 2012

STATELESS- UNDOCUMENTED INDIANS

"Being said ‘No’ to by the country where I live; being said ‘No’ to by the country where I was born; being said ‘No’ to by the country where my parents are from; hearing ‘you do not belong to us’ continuously! ….. Being stateless, you are always surrounded by a sense of worthlessness.” - Lara, formerly stateless

Nationality is a legal bond between a state and an individual, also known as citizenship. A stateless person is a person who is not considered as a National by any states under the operation of its law. A stateless person then, is someone who does not enjoy the legal bond of nationality with any state. In effect, a stateless person is a non-national in every country in the world. The above definition of statelessness has been codified in the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Person (article 1).

According to the Federal Constitution, a child born in the country becomes a citizen by operation of law only if one parents is a citizen or permanently resides in Malaysia at the time of his or her birth or if he or she “is not born a citizen of any country.”

Article 14 of the Federal Constitution, Second Schedule, Part 2, reads:
Citizenship by operation of law of persons born on or after Malaysia Day,(1)(a) “every person born within the Federation of whose parents one at least is at the time of the birth either a citizen or permanently resident in the Federation,“ (e) “every person born within the Federation who is not born a citizen o any country.”

Malaysia has yet to sign the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons, 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness and the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugee.

However, Malaysia has signed the Convention for the Rights of Child (CRC) and Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), albeit with some reservations.

Statistics indicate that Indians in Malaysia comprise 7.8% or 1.8 million of the 23 million total populations. For several generations, the Indian community resided in rural areas, especially in the rubber and palm oil estates managed by large plantation companies. These plantation companies not only provided them with jobs but also took care of their social and cultural needs i.e. housing, school, temples and health care. In 1970, 47% of the Indians were engaged in agriculture of which 74% were in the plantation sector.

However, due to the rapid industrialisation program undertaken by the government, many of these estates were developed into industrial, commercial and residential areas. Employment in rubber plantations declined from 163,577 in 1979 to 11,788 in January 2006. From 1980 to 2000, it is estimated that more than 300,000 Indians were displaced due to the development. The magnitude of Indian displacement from rural plantation areas to urban areas can be seen from the official reports. In 1970, 323,435 Indian (34%) were in the urban areas and 609,194 (65.3%) in rural areas however by 2000, 1.33 million Indians (79.7) were in urban areas while 341,622 (20.3%) continued to live in the rural areas.

Despite the very large number of people involved in this involuntary stream of migration and with full knowledge of the traumatic impacts of this displacement will have on these people, sadly little or nothing had been done to prepare them for this new environment or to have a holistic transition program in order to equip them with the necessary skills to resettle this community in more sustainable and improved livelihoods. They are now forced to look at alternative ways and means to survive. However, with no proper education or skills, they ended up taking the lower-rung jobs in the cities and having to compete with the migrant workers.

These people are by birth Malaysians, but due to their lack of knowledge and awareness of the importance of such documents they are now in a state of limbo as to their citizenship status is uncertain and are at the mercy of the authorities who could due to bureaucratic reasons deny them their citizenship right. It is sad that in this day and age, there are many people who are not aware of important basic facts, such as how to register a marriage, birth or death. It is estimated that there are around 40,000 Indian children in the state of Selangor alone who do not have their birth certificates . Similarly, based on the number of cases we received at our 10 community centres from 2003 – 2006, we estimated that at least 20,000 Indian women do not have identity documents . These figures could be much higher if their children are taken into account. Therefore, they become ‘stateless’ in their own country and as a result they been denied of protection and care as a citizen of the nation state, and thus vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

One of the other reasons for this issue based on our finding is due to the refusal of some men to own up to their responsibility when the child is born out of wedlock. In other cases the non-registration happened because some parents do not register their child’s birth within the prescribed14-days mandatory period or after that because they fear of being fined or reprimanded by the National Registration officials. As a result their children grew up without proper identification documents. Hence, the consequences are far reaching as children were unable to attend school or get proper medical attention.

An adult without proper documents can't secure a proper job or get married legally. If he or she does get married without their marriage certificate and have children, chances are that their children's birth will not be registered. As a result the children are neglected within an environment that is not suitable for living or is less favourable than their peers. As a result they often lack the opportunities for development in accordance with their age; such as the opportunity to receive formal education, the opportunity to be safeguarded by the national health care system, the opportunity to work in safe and just positions (leading to labour exploitation), and the opportunity to legally travel out of their residential area. These children often become targets and fall victim to criminal gangs or enforcement officers such as the police and RELA; they become trapped in a vicious cycle.

Similarly, because they are illiterate or lack education, they are unable to converse fluently in Bahasa Malaysia. As a result, they are unable to communicate effectively with government officials and face difficulty in understanding their bureaucratic procedures and requirements. Therefore, they are often subject to rude treatment by these officials which causes them to be demoralised and give up their efforts to complete their application. This has led to serious problems for these poor Indians and the cycle of “quasi statelessness” repeats itself after their children grow up and start families.

DHRRA Malaysia has taken effort to identify the stateless or undocumented Indians in Malaysia. Among the efforts taken are, DHRRA Malaysia has conducted many workshops in order to train the community leader, as they are much closer to the community and they will be able to identify the stateless people. DHRRA Malaysia has been very vocal in highlighting this issue in every available avenue. DHRRA Malaysia was also invited to contribute towards 10th Malaysia Plan by the Economic Planning Unit, Prime Ministers Department. During these sessions DHRRA Malaysia highlighted on the issues of the stateless people, how these stateless people will benefit or will be taken into account in 10th Malaysia Plan. DHRRA Malaysia has been involved in this task since 2003. DHRRA Malaysia and other NGOs are trying to minimise the problem by raising awareness among the community of the importance of applying for birth certificates early and assisting these undocumented Indians to apply for their legal documents. DHRRA Malaysia has also established good rapport with the National Registration Department (NRD) wherein NRD has been very cooperative in resolving the undocumented issues. The 2011 data at DHRRA Malaysia, shows 2099 number of cases have been collected since Jan to 15 Jul 2011.

According to DHRRA Malaysia’s experience, among the reason for not having legal documents are:
1.Lack knowledge on the importance of legal documents
2.Ignorance
3.Administrative or procedural problems
4.Financial problem
5.Inter – religion marriage
6.Marriage to foreign spouse (no legal marriage)
7.No proof of birth
8.Illegal Adoption
9.Child abandoned without proper documents
10.Child born out of wedlock


Case Study:

Vasudevan Subramaniam
Vasudevan Subramaniam was legally adopted by a couple at the age of 1 year from the government welfare home in Johor Bharu. He did not have any legal documents. His adopted parents managed to get his birth certificate but at the age of 12 when the parents took him to get his identity card, Vasudevan was given a red identity card which is known as “Permanent Residence”. Now Vasudevan Subramaniam is 19 years. Till date he is still unable to get his citizenship. His adopted parents have made several applications but all were rejected. Due to this he is also unable to apply for an International Passport to travel to overseas with his adopted parents.
Being born in Malaysia, having lived in a government welfare home, adopted by Malaysian parents and studied in a national school but being denied of nationality. Vasudevan Subramaniam has been classified as Stateless.

Muniammah & Family
Madam Muniammah is 60 years old. She was born in an estate in Kuala Kubu Bharu. She does not know where her siblings are, as she was married off at the age of 11. Her husband was an alcoholic and did not care for the family. Muniammah has 4 daughters. The husband left when the children were still young. Muniammah tried to register the birth of her children but could not do as she herself did not have any legal documents. Now her daughters are of the age between 30 – 36 years. The worst part, Muniammah daughter’s has children of their own. In this family alone we have 3 generations of stateless people.

Norhashima bt Abdullah
Norhashima was sent to government welfare home with a court order when she was a few months old. She grew up in the government welfare home, which till today has her records. She went to a national school. The welfare home did apply for her birth certificate and her parents details are not in the birth certificate due to that, Norhashima is also classified as stateless. Norhashima is 27 years now, the only identity card that she has now is a green identity card, which recognises her as temporary resident in the country where she was born and grew. This identity card has an expiry date as well.

Tan Ming Siang & Tan Ming Haw
Tan Ming Siang and Tan Ming Haw are bothers. They both were born in Malaysia. They were born to a Thai mother and Malaysian father. Tan Ming Haw has a birth certificate but in his birth certificate it is stated as ‘Bukan Warganegara’. Tan Ming Siang’s application is still in process. Both their parents were not legally married. Since they are not legally married, both the children are not recognised as citizens of this country. To make situation worse, both of them were stopped from attending school as they are stateless.

These are some of the sample cases which are in limbo; it is doubtful if these people will be recognized as citizens of this country. According to the current policy these people will not be recognized as the citizen of the country.

Governments Effort In Eradicating Statelessness among the Indian Community

•The government has taken some effort by setting up the Special Implementation Taskforce on Indian Community (SITF) under the Prime Ministers Department. SITF initiated MyDaftar campaign from 19 Feb – 4 Mac 2011. SITF manage to collect 14, 882 cases.
•The National Registration Department has also been very cooperative in handling the stateless issues.
•The Prime Ministers Department has also provided allocation to various NGO’s to identify and assist in eradicating this issue.
•The government has also launched many media campaign.


All the above effort is appreciated but there is nothing much done on policy matters. Only with policy amendment can the issue of stateless Malaysians can resolved.


SUHAKAM’s Stance on the Stateless People

SUHAKAM has issued many statements on various stateless groups. However there has not been much effort taken in eradicating the issue of statelessness.

SUHAKAM in its capacity should conduct a study with the help of NGO’s working on these stateless people and provide policy recommendations to the government.

Accede to and implement the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness.

Lobby to the government on the basis of Child Rights Convention, that every child should have access to education.

The state of the stateless in Malaysia

Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of United Nations , Article 15 states that everyone has the right to a nationality and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Malaysia being a member of the UN should be strictly adhering to this noble declaration however in reality Malaysia has an alarmingly growing in number of stateless people that have been denied their citizenship which is their legitimate birth right as a human being.

Unfortunately in Malaysia, the ruling elite within the UMNO dominant government have been systematically using 'citizenship' as one of their ways of means to continue their autocratic rule over this country.

It has always been a 'numbers' game. There have been allegations that it appears to be a hidden tacit UMNO government policy to reduce the number of non Muslim voters and at the same time increase Muslim voters in critical areas that UMNO's dominance is seen to be weak. In Sabah particularly, several Kadazan, Dusun, Murut (KDM) leaders have alleged that 'project M' was implemented to ensure Filipino Muslims and Pakistanis were granted citizenship's in large numbers to dilute the KDM majority of Sabah. Dr Chong Eng Leong in his book 'Lest We Forget' estimates that around 600k citizenship's were issued in 1986 to Filipino and Indonesian Muslims. In west Malaysia , Indonesians are seen to enjoy the privilege of obtaining citizenship with relative ease as compared to many other races who still hold red Identity Cards even though being born in Malaysia before independence.

The new 'soft Muslim vote bank' who forever will be dependent on UMNO, provides the ruling elite within the BN government a perfect counterbalance against not only the non Muslims but also against the growing number of Muslims who have become more politically enlightened of the gross abuses and corruption that has become so widespread under the BN.

Another methodology employed by UMNO is the act of omission and commission to deny citizenship's to the softest target within the Malaysian community, the Malaysian Indians, some of whom are into their 6th generation born on this land. .

The Human Rights Party of Malaysia (HRP) estimates that there are currently 450k Indians in Malaysia that do not possess Malaysian citizenship. Though this number appears to raise some eyebrows in disbelief amongst some, the following facts may prove that this indeed could be shockingly true.

In 1976 the MIC formed a bureau to register Indians in this country who had issues concerning citizenship. Within a mere 5 years or so there were more than 40k Indians who registered themselves as being stateless.The numbers were staggering and MIC did nothing more than just getting them registered as applicants. Alarm bells rang and eventually in 1981 MIC was ordered to close down that bureau and along with it the more than 40k Indian stateless applicants were swept under the carpet. From whom the orders came from to close down that bureau is anyones guess but coincidentally it was about the time that Dr Mahathir came into power. In 1981 the numbers at the very least stood at more than 40k stateless Indians, today that figure definitely would have risen significantly. Malaysia's population stood at 13.43 million in 1981 , today the population is around 29 million. Just on that account only one could estimate today that there may be more than 100k stateless Indians, however it must be noted that MIC conducted the registrations during those years in an extremely quiet manner and as such there may have been many thousands more who would not have known about it back then to have come forward to register.

On January 21 2008, the then Selangor Chief Minister Khir Toyo had advised the Home Ministry to set up a body to look into the plight to handle 40k Indian children in the state of Selangor who did not have birth certificates. Subsequently no one ever heard anything about it ever again. If there were 40k stateless Indian children just in Selangor, what about their parents and grandparents as well as elder siblings that are above 18 years of age ? This could possibly mean, just in the state of Selangor there may be more than 100k stateless Indians today.

On 13/08/2010, HRP met with the top Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN) brass in Putrajaya. They informed the officers that the HRP currently estimates the stateless Indians to number 450k nationwide. HRP's detailed investigative conclusion that this huge problem is due to multifactorial reasons mainly:


1) Tacit UMNO government policy of ignoring this problem,

2) Lack of political will to resolve these issues both from BN as well as PR elected representatives,

3) Application processes too complicated for the illiterate and semi literate Indian poor,

4) Racial religious bias,

5) Insensitive and hostile over the counters JPN staff,

6) Sheer ignorance of these officers of the magnitude of the problem.

So it is not as if the UMNO government is totally ignorant of the gravity of the problem as well as the causes of it.

On 23/01/2011, the Deputy Secretary General of Registration and Immigration Datuk Raja Azhar Raja Abdul Manap was quoted to have said "We do not know how many of these people are without the documents ." (Source Staronline)

On 19/02/2011, the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) on the Indian community in collaboration with the Home Ministry of the government established a campaign to register, process and eventually provide fast tract birth certificates and MyKads to stateless Indians. That was the officially stated purpose but given what has transpired since, it looks like it is just another 'wayang kulit'. The campaign was run for only 8 days in 9 states through the 61 JPN branches. Even though in reality the MyDaftar team only registered each application and gave them a reference number but the propaganda that went about nationwide through the mainstream medias gave it an impression that citizenship's and birth certificates were resolved for as many numbers as they shouted about who turned up in response. Interestingly within a mere 52 hours of work, there were in total 14,882 applicants. This would roughly translate to 5 applications were made to register every 1 minute or rather one stateless Indian registering every 12 seconds. It was also stated that another 10k forms were taken for their friends or relatives but had not returned the forms. The MyDaftar team which is under the Special Implementation Task Force (SITF) with Dato Seri Najib as the chairman of cabinet committee, then chose to extend the campaign another mere 5 days even though the numbers that had come up to register were so high. The extension of 5 days however was in a very quiet manner , without much media fanfare probably fearing it may attract further larger numbers to turn up.

19/02/2011, PPP WP chairman Datuk A. Chandrakumaran reported that 8 days were not sufficient and his party received 'never ending visits' of stateless Indians. (Source Sinarharian)

20/02/2011, Johor MIC state chairman Datuk K.S Balakrishnan said that there are more than 5k Indians in Johor that still do not have proper identification documents.(Source Star)

As all methodologies used in national population statistics data in this country are not transparent and is a closely guarded state secret, protected under various draconian 'secret acts' by the government, one only can use the various data available and read in between the lines to look for the correct information that reflects the true gross critical ground reality that we see.

To look for bees one has to trace the trail where the honey is.

Considering that stateless people are deprived of the ultimate social security net which is citizenship and are hence trapped as they are excluded in virtually every sector ie health, education, employment, security and housing, it should come as no surprise that Indians have the lowest development index in the country.

They have the lowest life expectancy rate , 67.3 years compared to the national average of 71.2. Indians have the 2nd highest infant mortality rate, highest school drop out rates ie less than 5% of Indians reach tertiary level of education. They have highest incidence of alcoholism, highest incidence of drug addiction as well as highest number of prisoners in proportion to the population. Indians are involved in 45% of the country's crime and they record the highest percentage of deaths whilst under police custody > 95%. Indians constitute the highest rate of suicides of any Malaysian community 21.1 suicides per 100,000 population as compared to Malays 2.6 suicides per 100,000 population and Chinese 8.6 suicides per 100,000 population. More than 60% of the inmates at the Simpang Renggam Detention Centre are Indians. Around 40% of male Indian youth are in the grips of crime. 14% of juvenile delinquents in this country consists of Indians. 41% of the beggars in Malaysia are Indians and more than 30% of Indians do not own a home. Only a minuscle 1.5% of the nations corporate wealth of the country are in the hands of Indians and if Tan Sri Ananthakrishnan and Datuk Tony Fernandez wealth is taken out of this, it may even be less than half of that value.

Beneath all these depressing statistic is probably where lies hidden the estimated 450k stateless Indians in this country.

The stateless in this country are generally trapped in poverty. They feel marginalized and ostracised in virtually every sector in this country : hospitals, schools,institutions,enforcement agencies, government and corporate. To survive they need to seek a defence mechanism to overcome their woes and challenges. They either have to beg or to turn to crime as there is no other alternative in a government that is devoid of caring and sharing.

Mr Uthayakumar of HRP estimates that the majority of the 450k stateless Indians in this country lie within the states of Kedah,Penang,Perak,Selangor,KL, Negeri Sembilan and Johor. Coincidentally these states also represent the highest distribution of thug gangs that mainly consists of Indians.

HRP came out with several proposals to JPN to address the statelessness problem among the Indians :

1) The government should set up a special transparent unit within JPN. This unit should be adequately resourced all the way from field workers to department director. Their charter will be to :-

a) Identify all Indian Malaysians who do not have birth certificate, MyKads or have problems with their citizenship status.

b) Create a database of them and establish appropriate programs to clear them one by one by 31/12/2011.

c) Simplify the procedure for applying for delayed birth certificates and MyKads. Make the process 'poor friendly'. Do not require the applicants to fill out so many forms and to provide so much of documentary evidence which most often are redundant.

Do not require them to come to the JPN offices so many times and sending them most often on a wild goose chase. Do not reject their applications because they did not cross the 't's or dot the 'i's. Treat them with more respect and support them throughout the process.

d) Authorize senior and respected members of the community to certify births and parentage where a hospital is unable to do it.

2) Religion, race and marriage should not be made non constitutional barriers to birth registration.

3) Parents must be empowered to decide the religion of their children on the basis of equality of all religions.

4) The JPN or other religious organizations should not impose the Syariah law on non Muslims. Mixed marriages are one of the major reasons for the stateless Indian problem.

5) Empower this special unit to address this problem without interferance from any religious bodies.

6) The JPN should discard procedures that were set up a long time ago using outdated technology like photographs to establish resemblances with newer mehods like DNA profiling where necessary.

7) All that is required is for the hospital where the child is born to be made responsible for the registration of the births. The birth is registered and a birth certificate should be issued.

8) In the case of births at home or for abandoned children, a similar simple enough alternative procedure needs to be established.

9) The government should extend the e-Govt system to cover this crucial need and set up a mechanism to monitor and report on this effort in the JPN website.

10) This special unit in the JPN must be authorized to work with the Health Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Human Resource Ministry etc to resolve any associated problems pertaining to those ministeries.

So why should one care for these stateless people ?

First and foremost there shouldn't be a reason. Just based on empathy and on compassionate grounds, each one of us must take on this responsibility to put pressure on all our political leaders to make serious efforts on solving this ever growing number of stateless people in this country. Politicians that just give mere lip service and ignore this issue need to be exposed and censured.

Secondly as we notice crime is on an ascending trend in this country and it could in some way be simbiotically linked to the rise in the number of stateless people in Malaysia. It will be pointless to build higher fortified walls around our house and put up expensive elaborate security systems as well as live in gated, guarded homes but continue to choose to remain blind to the fundamental root causes of this problem. If left not addressed, Mother Nature has her own unique way of 'correcting' these imbalances.


The problem of exclusion is one universally acknowledged to be the source of all various social ills of any given society. The statelessness of the Indian poor, reduces Indian participation in Malaysian democracy and the shortsighted and self serving view of UMNO has far reaching consequences. If you were to connect the dots, you will see that the thinking that generates this shortsighted position on statelessness is what is perenially keeping us in a state of mediocrity among the community of nations. Those of you who have been fortunate enough to step out of the country and see what is happening around the world will recoqnize the true folly of this kind of myopic policy of the Malaysian elite.

Due to our selfish self centred lifestyles we could get 'bitten' in the process for not exercising our civic duty in helping these poor and vulnerable stateless people.

Albert Einstein once said that the world is a dangerous place not because of people who do evil but because good people who just look on and do nothing about it.

We are run by diversity. We become divided because we think that we are many . This feeling of diversity , the psychology of plurality, the sentiments of multiplicity lead to conflict, confusion, and chaos; whereas the feeling of unity and harmony, the sentiment of synthesis and the experience of oneness is unity.

Let us all be united in bringing the state of the stateless in Malaysia to its valid and justified attention.






Dr Paraman VS

Racism and Corruption in Malaysia: The Ongoing Saga


Many of us may have asked: when and why did the racial divisions in Malaysia start and who is to blame? Obviously, the racial divide did not exist in old Malaya, where the different races could live together in harmony in the kampongs (villages) and small towns.

Now, it seems that we are forever at the brink of racial tension or even racial war. In fact, jihad (holy war) has been declared several times by the UMNO-linked PERKASA against the Christians as well as the Chinese.


The starting point
When UMNO was formed, Onn Jaafar who was one of the main founders and who was the then president, had to leave the party because a group of new faces disagreed and fought with him over the political direction to be taken. They insisted their ideas were better than his and this inevitably led to the changes in policies, rules and objectives.


Whereas Onn was more for uniting the Malays from all walks of life, with the Chinese, Indians and other migrants under one organsation, and then jointly struggle for independence, the group of UMNO leaders led by the late Tunku Abdul Rahman was more interested in meeting the qualifying terms set by the British for achieving independence – no matter how onerous.


The idea of a non-communal political party
Onn Jaafar (right) – the grandfather of the current Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein – had indeed been farsighted and visionary; he felt the need for racial harmony and a non-communal political party was the best way to secure a prosperous future for Malaya. No doubt the British did create the Malayan Union comprising all races with equal rights, and even diluted the powers of the Malay rulers, but the British were not really sincere at all.

The British did not really want Malayans to be united as one, like in Onn’s vision. Neither did the British really want the Malayan Union to succeed. So the Malays were led into rejecting the Malayan Union, paving the way for its dissolution.

Had the British been sincere, they would have backed Onn’s idea. Instead the British supported Tunku when he was elected the new UMNO president after Onn resigned. Onn had to quit after failing to garner the majority support from the delegates on his multiracial vision after his speech in the UMNO General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur in August 1951 backfired. The Malays have never been united since then.

The idea of non-communal political party still lives on
But did Onn Jaafar really have so little support? The answer is no, he had the support of the Malays all over the country and at the grassroots level. In fact when Tunku tried to manage UMNO, he found out that most of the people were not aware that Onn had left the party. The staff manning the UMNO offices were also reluctant to work with Tunku as they still supported Onn. In the end, Tunku had to abandon the old UMNO office bearers and create a new set-up, appointing his own people to manage the party and its activities.

Further proof of the British ill-intent was when they told the Malayan entourage negotiating for independence consisting of UMNO, MCA and MIC that Malaya could not be given independence since the three major races were not united! Onn’s multiracial proposal was the best and it still is and the British also knew that. Yet, they managed to convince the Malayan delegates to agree on an Alliance with UMNO, MCA and MIC the pioneer members.

To their discredit, all three of them fell for it. Presumably this had been outlined by the British for Tunku to implement.

UMNO failed us from the start
Here UMNO has thus failed twice. Firstly, to unite the Malays and consolidate their political power and losing the opportunity to unite the various races under one non-communal party. Secondly, to really lead a more meaningful struggle. Unlike the other true independent struggles seen all over the world, UMNO just “negotiated” for a ‘walkover’ from the British.

UMNO may argue that it was the ingenuity of their leaders that helped Malayans gain independence without bloodshed. This is not true! There was indeed a lot of bloodshed but not amongst the UMNO people. What about the struggle led by other groups and individuals?

Let us also not forget that during this period there were many other groups and individuals struggling and fighting for independence and with the inevitable bloodshed. We were not informed about their struggle as if the Alliance was the only one who struggled. PAS Deputy President Mat Sabu had exposed this one-sided history for us. Besides the Communists, there were many others from all the races.

Nations that experienced, endured and managed to overcome all obstacles leading to the true sense of independence are usually of a different breed. The struggle instills real patriotism and their citizens really value what they have achieved unlike Malaysians too, who need to be lured to fly the Jalur Gemilang almost every time we try to celebrate the National Day.

In the end, the UMNO-BN celebration of the 31st August National Day has become something of a mediocre, wasteful, and meaningless effort, without zeal and substance, without the real feeling of patriotism at all. The annual procession is just for show as the number of people flying the Jalur Gemilang keeps dwindling year after year till the number of road vehicles flying the national flag can even be counted on our fingers. The national day celebrations are only being looked forward to by the Mat Rempits and the like.

UMNO and Malaysia under Tunku Abdul Rahman: Going Nowhere
Malaysia under Tunku was not really independent, it had to depend on the British and they were more than willing to maintain their support, mainly due to economic reasons. The British had invested so much in Malaya in plantations, mining, banking, media and education. Furthermore, Malaya was one of the growing markets for everything English.

After gaining independence, the Tunku was not able to really achieve anything more substantial. He was not even able to defeat the ragtag Communists, and Malaysia was still backward in every sense of the word. The young democracy and new nation was just at its infancy and without any coherent policy, objectives, vision and actions although there were some sort of localized economic activities in the towns, and racial harmony in the kampongs.

With the Communists still active not only in the jungles but also in the urban areas and their ideology spreading in the University of Malaya, real peace and unity as a nation were not attained during his administration. Even Singapore was separated from Malaysia. The economy was not doing well since Malaysia was more on a commodity-based economy, and at the mercy of the British who controlled prices and the trade itself.

At this stage of the nation building, Malaysians had nothing to celebrate or cheer about. There was nothing to hold on to, nor was there a sense of belonging. Not only were the business, finance and money still under the British, the Supreme Court was also in Britain. Nothing substantial belonged to Malaysia. The Malays in particular had nothing except for the small plots of land in the kampongs and the Malay rulers to be proud of. Tunku did not have any real plans for the Malays despite UMNO being so-called the United Malays National Organization.

Racism during Tunku’s period
The Tunku fell into the trap set by the British when the racial based coalition, Alliance was formed. He had not done enough to set any solid foundation for the country and he realized too late how fragile racial harmony was after the 1969 general election. The Gerakan and DAP had celebrated their wins with a victory parade in KL on May 12, 1969. Then UMNO led a counter march the next day, and this is when the racial riot known as the infamous May 13 racial riots erupted. May 13 also led to Abdul Razak Hussein taking over the nation’s leadership.

But was it really a racial riot? Were both the Gerakan and DAP really so insensitive to the political situation that they organized the march and failed to control their members? The Alliance managed to win 77 out of 140 seats in Parliament; UMNO still held power. Furthermore it was very interesting to note that Malay opposition parties saw a sharp increase in votes in the peninsula, rising drastically from about 15% in 1964 to 25% in 1969. UMNO did not have the full support of the Malays and apparently the Malays did not agree fully with UMNO even then!

UMNO under Razak: His inaction led to the next stage of failure
Razak, the father of current Prime Minister Najib Razak, was quite thoughtful and managed to bring about some changes. He started the process of nation building by introducing the word “pembangunan” which is development. For this, he was eventually bestowed the title of “Bapa Pembangunan”. After the infamous May 13 racial riot, he introduced the New Economic Policy (NEP) which had good and noble intentions although it was miserably abused to the core in later years.

The NEP was meant to restructure society, encompassing education, business opportunities, employment and preferences to eliminate identification of race with economic function anf eradicate poverty amongst Malaysians, irrespective of race.But UMNO leaders took advantage of this policy to fatten their coffers leaving both the Malays and other poor Malaysians behind. We can clearly see and understand the situation now.

Razak also empowered FELDA (which was formed by the British in 1956 for their own reasons) to aggressively embark on opening new land schemes and making Malays do something to upgrade and improve themselves. The FELDA story is still unfolding now.

As the Malays were earning some extra income, Tabung Haji ( the brainchild of Professor Ungku Aziz) was formed to inculcate the habit of savings for the rainy days and to help save enough money to perform the haj. Sad to say, as has been reported, Tabung Haji was not safe from the dirty hands either.

The siphoning of money that we see now, the unscrupulous civil servants and their abuse of power and unchecked corruption also started during Razak’s premiership. He was not able to closely monitor all the things that he had implemented.

One glaring example is the construction of the wooden houses for the FELDA settlers. But instead of houses, the settlers got what were basically just pieces of sawn wood nailed together with some sort of roofing to protect the inhabitants from the elements of nature. Yes, the ‘house’ was just a shed. These houses can still be seen in the FELDA settlements as a testimony to the plundering of the allocations by unscrupulous groups of people.

This was the beginning of the money-making schemes, and those in UMNO saw the doors opening to all the golden opportunities that had never existed for them before. The government officials too found the opportunity and took what they could and as much as they could.

When RISDA was formed to help the rubber smallholders, they were provided with free fertilizers, weed poison and other incentives like the money to keep the rubber plantation clear of all other plants, shrubs and small trees. This was to ensure improved rubber production, easy maintenance, safety and prevent the rubber plantation to be any form of hideouts for vermin, wild animals and the communists.

While they were supposed to be given the items free of charge, the officials still demanded money from the small holders and a substantial amount of the fertilizers and poisons went into the wrong hands and were eventually sold to the hardware shops to be re-sold to others. The money-making schemes were carried out openly to the extent the RISDA emblem on the sacks could be clearly seen. Yet, the authorities did nothing to stop the corruption.

Almost all the projects awarded to the UMNO-putras during this period was executed as Ali Baba schemes leaving the UMNOputras with just 5 percent of the profit which was too little. Since they were not real businessmen, they spent extravagantly within a few months finished all their gains. Thus more projects had to be given out to fulfill their lust. The Ali Baba business trend began here.

It was the same with other government projects and procurements. The instant noodles supplied as army ration were paid by the Ministry of Defense at RM0.65 per packet while the market price was just RM0.25 each.

The Police and the Army were also in a world of their own with free cigarettes, cheap alcohol, partying in their messes. They were oblivious to their surroundings. The police were so callous in their duties that the IGP was shot dead point blank by two assailants on a motorbike when his car halted at a congested road on his way to the office.

The inefficient civil servants were preoccupied with so many tasks in their offices. Hospitals and medical staff were few in numbers, and the school teachers were the most respectable group of people in society then. But unfortunately not anymore now.

The Biro Siasatan Negara (National Bureau of Investigation) was operational but they did nothing. At this stage, the UMNO government ignored all the warning signs of blatant corruption, misuse of funds and pilferage. As such, the next stage of failure was inevitable and more so under Hussein Onn.

First huge scandal under Tun Hussein Onn
Hussein Onn was like Abdullah Badawi and unlike Badawi, he was a reluctant politician. He was not able to fit into Razak’s shoes. Hussein Onn left the country on auto-pilot. Thus, more corruption and wrongdoing spread all over the country including to Sabah and Sarawak which had huge amounts of natural resources especially timber.

Sandakan in Sabah once held the world record of the highest numbers of millionaires (from the greedy rampage and corruption of the timber industry) per square mile. Sabah is now without a virgin forest except at the national reserve. This too will not be spared for long and Sabahans still remain poor today.

The first huge scandal for UMNO which was the RM2.5 billion losses by Bank Bumiputera Malaysia Bhd, which began in 1976 with its wholly owned Bumiputera Malaysia Finance (BMF) lending money to property developer Carrian Group in Hong Kong. The mess unfolded in 1983 kicked off the UMNO plundering tradition on a huge scale.

You see, no one was punished for the crime. UMNO leaders condoned such debacle creating a precedent that when one is a strong UMNO man and with proper connection, one can get away scot-free. The bailout tradition too began from this point on. Since Malaysia was on auto-pilot, the ordinary citizens had to survive on their own.

Mahathir: All forms of failure and a sad lack of vision
This was a very interesting period for UMNO. There were failures galore – all and every form of failure that could happen did happen. There was systematic failure at all levels of government to understand the magnitude of the situation, from stripping the Malay rulers of their powers, using the full force of the ISA on the opposition, breaking up UMNO, looting the nation’s funds, antagonizing the West, full-scale bailouts of cronies, destroying the integrity of the Police and Judiciary to being a dictator. Obviously, this resulted in resentment throughout the entire society leading to the formation of Pakatan Rakyat.

Mahathir was the one who broke the national piggy bank, blazing the trail to unmitigated government borrowings. He failed to provide enough funds for rainy days. Many of his supporters boasted that he was famous for his vision, but time has proven that Mahathir in fact lacked it. He lacked vision simply because he was not able to see beyond himself.

Mahathir failed to understand the inherent economic cycle and be prepared for eventual downturns. He knew Lee Kuan Yew had special funds to be used under the power of the President. But Mahathir siphoned out the only real funds we had in PETRONAS, thus even the once rich PETRONAS has to borrow money now.

The Police under Mahathir was for most of the time working for him and not much for the rakyat. The police was used to defeat the opposition, harass individuals, put people in jail using the ISA and determining the most suitable time for a general election. Crime was high since the PDRM was preoccupied with UMNO and Mahathir. Lawyers were know to be unscrupulous but it was during his time that the judiciary system was turned into shambles and judges could be openly bought, thus ending the integrity of the entire law and order of the country.

Mahathir also failed to defend the monarchy by stripping the Malay rulers of their powers. The Malays have lost their last bastion of pride and for the rest of the Malaysians the last bastion of justice, as can be seen in the awkward position of the Sultan of Perak being manipulated by UMNO in the Perak power grab of 2009. The Perak Sultan sanctioned UMNO’s coup d’etat, while the Agong only had enough guts to acknowledge BERSIH as legitimate, while the Sultan of Selangor had to play safe in the JAIS -DUMC case with UMNO breathing down his neck.

Mahathir in his endeavour to make Malaysia a developed nation by 2020 failed to safeguard the nation from being plundered by refusing to prevent and take action against corrupt people. This could be because he was himself a cohort in some, if not most of the fiascos. The Tajuddin Ramli-MAS scandal is an example and a living testimony to the failures of the Mahathir-era, while the RM12.5bil PKFZ scandal is still unfolding.

Mahathir also failed to see the inept capability of Badawi and the hopeless Najib who both have no real ability of their own. Nonetheless, one cannot turn back time or erase the systematic failures Mahathir caused. In any case, he was ready to pass the baton to Abdullah Badawi by 2003.

Badawi sleeping away
Badawi was not able to fit in the shoes of Dr. Mahathir. He tried to undo several of questionable projects started by Mahathir. But even this, he fumbled and bungled.

Badawi tried to create some economic corridors, have some fancy slogans like working together with him and Islam Hadhari, which he himself found difficult to explain. Till now, the questions ring: what are the corridors, the slogans and Islam Hadhari really all about?

The economy became stagnant and to spur development Malaysia had to borrow more money. He was able to create some sense of economic activities but just for the elections. Fortunately for him but unfortunately for the rakyat, he had the fourth floor goons headed by his beloved son-in-law, Khairy Jamaludin who made things worse.


Our nation was in jeopardy because it was being managed by a twenty-something de-facto prime minister. Although Khairy was an Oxford graduate, he was not savvy enough to run a country much to the disgust of Mahathir. Both the nation and UMNO are now in disarray. A classic example of a Khairy deal gone awry is the failure of the Shahrizat-linked Gemas NFC debacle.

Badawi did form the MACC but for what? They are just the same people from the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) in different uniform.

Free for all, grab what you can now under Najib
Najib is long on ideas but short on action, thus has no results to show. Basically, this is due to his ideas being copycats of other systems, such as the Pakatan’s Buku Jingga or economic blueprint.

But first of all since he was not elected to his post and his image was tarnished by the useless and unsinkable Scorpene submarines that also led to the murder of Mongolian national Altantuya Shaaribuu.

Najib engaged APCO and FBC Media for a full scale image makeover, spending at least RM55 million of tax-payers’ money for expensive propaganda to glorify himself, his government and his policies and having it screened on international channels like CNN, CNBC and BBC.

To repair the damage to his image, Najib should have rectified the mistakes and not try to whitewash them and incurring more blunders in the process. There is really no point in putting on thick make up during the day when everyone can see the thick layer of ‘paint and powder’.

Transformation programs that go nowhere
Then Najib went on to try to transform several major things but he failed to see what the causes were that led to past failures. All the sounds and bombast of his Economic Transformation Program may have seem rather impressive to the layman, but what are the results so far? Unfortunately we have not been able to feel good about anything that Najib and his ETP people have announced.

His main showpieces are the six National Key Results Areas (NKRA), twelve National Key Economic areas(NKEA) – all part of his Economic Transformation Program. On November 23, Bernama reported that Najib underlined six high impact programs to boost the growth of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to 8.7 by 2020 but, what about now or next year?

The economic policies that the UMNO-BN government under Najib have been undertaken but show no improvement in the economy. Thus, until now, it has been ‘nothing for nothing Najibnomics’.

As for Najib’s Political Transformation Program, it has proven to be a farce – heavy on proclamations and full of doublespeak as in the recent Peaceful Assembly Bill, which actually restricts our freedom and not grant greater democratic space as he had promised.

Old habits die hard
Even at this very critical juncture, in the last lap to the “Mother of all Elections”, UMNO still continues to award contracts without following the proper procedures. At present there are several projects under the various ministries that have been allocated to their cronies and when the time comes, by hook or by crook, these projects will come to light whether UMNO-BN wins the GE-13 or not. So too will all the money-making schemes planned with guarded secrecy, the PKFZ scandal, the Scorpene scandal and the Gemas NFC debacle.

The Najib government has also told the rakyat that it will not be involved in financing the mega-projects he has announced; they are mostly under the Private Financing Initiatives (PFI), he assures. But we were not told that the UMNO cronies will have to borrow from the banks and none of the clear minded private banks would ever lend them any money.

The private banks know that these projects are just money-making schemes without any guarantee of success and will eventually need bailouts. Thus all the burden of financing has been given to Bank Pembangunan, the government bank, with money from the government. Still the money will be taken from our already depleting EPF and Tabung Haji or borrowed somewhere and bringing Malaysia closer to becoming another Greece.

Chaos at the ministries
The Ministry of Defense has set the plan moving for the purchase of new fighter planes from Russia as reported in a defense magazine but Ahmad Zahid Hamidi denied this recently. The ministry will also continue with the building of the exorbitantly expensive naval ships and boats.

The Ministry of Education has embarked on building several campuses in Perlis and Pahang and even the HUKM pediatric hospital in KL and being awarded to their cronies.

The Ministry of Transport has already approved the KVMRT project, the Integrated Transport Terminal in Subang Jaya with another going to be in Gombak and in Melaka and as we all know Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd has a free hand to impose any charges on passengers and complete the KLIA2 tour at whatever cost.

The Ministry of Agriculture will eventually bail out the failed Gemas NFC project and the wasteful rice bowl “National Rice Bowl” project in Sarawak will get more money – some to be reinvested and the rest pocketed.

The Ministry of Finance will continue paying the PKFZ thieves and continue dumping more money into MAS despite the purported win-win share swap with AirAsia as MAS has already announced RM400 in losses recently. PETRONAS has been set to bail out TNB by absorbing the gas cost.

The Ministry of Tourism too have their money-making schemes through various advertisement projects, while the Ministry of Information uses FINAS through the loans and grants issued for movie productions and the misuse of FINAS assets for some influential individuals. The other ministries too have their problems and these could be revealed later.

Enough is enough

Najib has turned Malaysia backwards by not trying to reject the wrong doings of UMNO-BN. Where his father was too busy, Najib’s problem may be because he has his own scandals; thus a change of government is the only true means of saving this country. The recent UMNO AGM showed the country the party’s true colors; its racists/fascist bent and the fact that it had no real agenda for the country.

So after tracking through the 6 Prime Ministers, all of whom came from UMNO, it is clear the party is the cause, the main ingredient, the catalyst and the main element of all the failures that have befallen the nation.







by Nawawi Mohamad, Malaysia Chronicle