Najib makes pitch in symbolic heart of Indian Malaysia

Datuk Seri Najib Razak today became the first prime minister to make an official visit to Batu Caves since his father Tun Abdul Razak did in 1970. Though their visits to the site best known for its Hindu cave temples and the spectacular Thaipusam festival were separated by nearly forty years, the circumstances that surrounded their visits are in some ways, remarkably similar.

Both men made their visits during their first year in office. Forty years ago, the country was wracked by racial bickering. Today, the nation is still struggling to make peace with its multi-ethnic makeup.

Back in 1970, Umno and its Alliance partners MCA and MIC were stunned by the electoral setbacks in 1969. Today, Umno and its Barisan Nasional (BN) partners are grappling with electoral setbacks in last year’s general elections which saw the ruling coalition lose five states to the opposition.

The major difference betwen the two elections was, in 1969, it was largely the non-Malays who had voted for the opposition. Last year, not only the non-Malays abandoned the BN in droves but a significant percentage of Malay voters did so as well.

The approaches taken by the two men however, appear to diverge significantly.

The elder Razak ushered in an era of what many see as strongly pro-Malay measures such as the New Economic Policy (NEP), measures that had perhaps unintended negative repercussions on race relations and Malaysian unity.

Four decades on, his son comes into office pushing a reform message of “1Malaysia” which aims to bond Malaysians as “one people, one nation, one dream”.

He also took several steps to open the economy and lifted selected quotas in the financial sector and capital markets as well as in the services industry. In addition, Najib also promised a review of the controversial Internal Security Act (ISA).

While some will dismiss Najib’s Batu Caves speech as mere rhetoric, he appeared heartfelt as he hammered home his message on unity to the thousands of mostly Indians who attended the 1Malaysia Carnival organised by the Sri Mahamariamman Temple Devasthanam and Malaysian Hindu Council.

The overcast sky and soaring limestone cliffs also made a dramatic backdrop to Najib’s booming oratory.

"If we are as one people, if we are as one nation, if we are as one dream, we will be a stronger Malaysia. We must look forward to a bigger, and better future, predicated on a united Malaysia. It is imperative to make it (mutual respect among the races), a part of the psyche and way of life.

“That is why 1Malaysia is about changing mindsets from mere tolerance to one of total acceptance of a plural society. The plural society is a political reality that is an asset and not a liability. A strength and not a weakness.

“I believe Malaysia can be a gateway to the world. We have all the major civilizations. We are a gateway to China, India, the Malay world, the Middle East. We must convert this asset to a strategic advantage,” Najib said.

To sweeten his message to the Indian community, whose deep rooted feelings of being marginalised gave rise to the Hindraf movement, the prime minister announced that he will respond to the Batu Caves temple committee chairman Datuk R Nadarajah’s request for help to further develop Batu Caves into an even bigger tourism attraction and that the government will allocated additional funds to that purpose.

He also announced a few other financial allocations, such as for the Divine Life Society Orphanage and RM15 million in micro credit to help Indian entrepreneurs.

He also pointed out that in the recent Amanah Saham 1Malaysia unit trust scheme by Permodalan Nasional Berhad, the Indian quota was 15 per cent despite making up only 8 per cent of the total population.

He however, did not touch on Nadarajah’s other two requests — that Thaipusam, currently a state holiday, be made into a national holiday on account of the estimated 1.3 million pilgrims who make the journey to Batu Caves each Thaipusam, and for a cable car system to be built for the disabled to reach the highest cave temple.

“This is proof that we don’t talk rhetoric and slogans, “ said Najib. “Not in words but proof in deeds to help Indians and all races so we can proposer together. In 1Malaysia, it is not a zero sum game,” said Najib.

“If we help the Indians, it does not mean we deprive the Malays or Chinese. I believe God has given Malaysia bountiful wealth. I believe each Malaysian has a place under the Malaysian sun.”

Recent surveys show that Najib’s attempts to win over the Indian community and their votes are bearing fruit.

A Merdeka Center poll conducted in June has 74 per cent of Indians expressing satisfaction with Najib.

But at the same time, his message may be compromised by the fiery tone emanating from Umno controlled newspapers — Utusan and Berita Harian — who have written articles that appear to go against 1Malaysia and urged Malays to rise up against alleged threats to their community.

The non-Malay sense of being second class citizens was also build up over decades and will not be overcome easily.

But for now, with his greetings of “Vanakam” and farewells of “Nandry”, and numerous 1Malaysia speeches, Najib seems determined to try.

The Malaysian Insider

Is 'Vanakkam' and 'Nandri' enough?

News headlines and opinion pieces in the past few weeks have been rather telling as we hurtle to another anniversary of Merdeka.

Politicians and even journalists are trading barbs, calling one another racists - which is really the flip side of Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's 1 Malaysia slogan.

But the prime minister has remained above the fray. In fact, he spent part of the weekend visiting Batu Caves, the first sitting prime minister to do so. Indian Malaysians were happy as he gave out some goodies and said he would mull other requests.

Yes, Najib has flipped chapatis in a Sikh gurdwara, sipped some coffee in Brickfields or rather Little India and has now toured Batu Caves, complete with a giant garland that could make it to the Malaysian Book of Records.

His visits to these places dominated by the Indians have been rich with symbolism.

But has anything really changed since the last general election?

Yes. And no.

The five Hindraf leaders are free, some setting up political parties and continuing to harangue governments of the day on multifarious issues with the latest being the KampungBuah Pala issue.

So be it Barisan or Pakatan, they will bite and try to get what they want in return for their support.

But other things have not changed. Malaysians still don't feel equal in this nation that will soon be 52. Both the coalitions pay lip-service to mutual respect for one another, each vociferous about their communal rights and wrongs of the other party.

As for the Indian Malaysians, getting 15 per cent of this or that (although double their percentage in population terms) might seem good but there lies the death of meritocracy, there lies the crutch that will hobble and cripple them as equal members of the Malaysian nation.

Would it be so easy to appease every Malaysian with a visit, a smile, a “Vanakkam”, a “Nandri” and let bygones be bygones? A hello, a thank you and walk away after that and tick the boxes that say 1 Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.

Should we let the inequality, racism and divisiveness continue bubbling to keep Malaysians separate and easier to manage?

Have we seen anything that has said People First since April 3, 2009?

1 Malaysia Unit Trusts? Isn't that our money that they allow us to invest in the unit trust at a time when there is a wide range of trusts and REITS?

Have we seen anything that has said Performance Now since April 3,

2009? Has the economy improved or have we decided to debate about beer sales and the infallibility of one's coalitions vis-a-vis the rival's?

Have we seen anything 1 Malaysia? Is “Vanakkam” and “Nandri” enough?

The Malaysian Insider

Ku Li: BN power-sharing model broken, needs new one

The ruling Barisan Nasional’s racial power-sharing model is broken with the races now polarised, veteran Umno politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah charged today, adding it needs to begin anew with “our common humanity”.

The Gua Musang MP also said race was just a constructed category and called for new ways of mediating conflicts among the races in the country, despite the recent shrill cries of Malay supremacy among his fellow Umno colleagues and Umno-held media.

“The racial power-sharing model now practised by Barisan is broken. It takes more honesty than we are used to in public life to observe that this is not a temporary but a terminal crisis. An old order is ending,” Tengku Razaleigh told the Kelab Umno Australia at the Melbourne University.

He noted the major races remained polarised despite the country’s economic growth and progress towards multiracial politics although the government and opposition are still largely mobilised along racial lines.

“It is not yet time to herald a new dawn. Instead, we are in a transition full of perils and possibilities,” the Kelantan prince said in a copy of the speech sent to The Malaysian Insider.

He told his audience Barisan Nasional was put together to ensure that every community had a place at the table but it was not a permanent solution and the coalition has to wake up to the fact that it no longer worked.

“It was designed as an interim work-around, an early stage on the way to ‘a more perfect union’ and not as the desired end-state. Over the years, however, we have put up barricades around our system as if it were a fore-ordained and permanent ideal.

“In doing so, we have turned a half-way house into our destination, as if we must forever remain a racially divided and racially governed society,” said the politician popularly known as Ku Li.

He said the ideal should be a free and united society in which individuals can express their ethnic and religious identities without being imprisoned in them, adding “We must aim for a society in which public reasoning and not backroom dealing determines our collective decisions.”

Tengku Razaleigh, who lost out again for a shot at the Umno presidency last year, said the power-sharing model in Malaysia was an elite style of government justified by the virtue and competence of natural leaders of the communities.

“It does not work when political parties are led by the ignorant and the corrupt who have no standing in the communities they claim to represent,” he said bluntly, saying the country now has top-down rule and power had become increasingly unaccountable with Umno beholden to the executive.

“Our decades under highly-centralised government undermined our power-sharing formula, just as it undermined key institutions such as the judiciary, the police and the rule of law.

“Our major institutions have survived in appearance while their substance has eroded. Seen in this light, the election results of March 8, which saw the Barisan Nasional handed its worst defeat since 1969, was just the beginning of the collapse of a structure which has long been hollowed out,” Ku Li said.

He told the Kelab Umno Australia that they are generation of transition and would play a key role in determining the country’s outcome.

“We need a new beginning to racial relations in Malaysia, and you must pioneer that beginning. We need to re-design race relations in Malaysia, and you must be the architects and builders of that design,” he told his audience.

He advised them to take advantage of the perspective of distance in overseas education to reformulate questions and come out with answers for the nation.

“Begin with our common humanity. Respect for our common humanity must override all lesser affiliations, including race,” he said, noting one of Islam’s most powerful contributions to human civilisation has been its insistence on the equality of all human beings.

“Islam tolerates no notions of racial superiority or inferiority. All human beings are equal before God. That same principle of equality is absolutely fundamental to democracy, and democracy is a foundational principle of our Constitution.

The veteran politician said democracy is part of the nation’s make-up and although the citizens can gravitate to racial groupings, it should not overshadow the allegiance to the constitution and the claims of equal dignity.

“Political parties based on race or religion must never be allowed to do or say anything contrary to justice and equality,” he added.

Bucking the trend in his party that espouses Malay supremacy, Tengku Razaleigh said Malaysians must anchor themselves in the constitution and restore its primacy as it establishes the equality of citizenship.

“It gives us the framework of law and order within which we become a nation. It establishes the primacy of the rule of law, the sovereignty of Parliament, the independence of the judiciary and civil service and of our law enforcement agencies. These are the institutions which guarantee the freedom and sovereignty of the people,” he added.

Ku Li has challenged the young generation, which he calls the “generation of transition”, to move beyond making race their sole identity.

Speaking on race, he noted that while it united people in a common feeling, it can also divide and said that Malaysians are not just diverse in race but diverse in different ways, including location, class, social status, occupation, language and politics.

“We would be terribly impoverished as persons if our identity was given ahead of time and once and for all, merely by our membership of a fixed racial category. I would be a very dull person if you could tell who I was simply by looking up my race,” he said, adding it was not the most importance category in the world.

He pointed out that race would retard growth as individuals and hence as a society, apart from turning people into stereotypes and maintain a view of the world bordering on racist.

“I want to urge you, as the makers of the new social landscape we need in Malaysia, to reject taking race to be a unique and fixed categorisation, to reject race as a central category of social and political life,” Tengku Razaleigh said, reiterating it was just an identity and a constructed category.

He railed against the politics of race saying it will always divide, “and the ultimate solution to intra-racial problems it leads us to is, in the end, violence.”

“It is easy to identify the practitioners of this kind of racial politics. They will rely on veiled threats of communal violence even as they take part in democratic politics,” he added.

The Umno veteran also called for new ways of mediating conflicting claims between the races, new ways of bringing people to the table, of including everyone in the decision-making process.

“These new ways must be based on more open conceptions of who we are. Malaysia’s major races have lived together not just for decades but for centuries. Their cultures have interacted for millennia. In that time there has been mutual influence, mixture and cross-pollination at a depth and on a scale that our politics, popular culture and educational curriculum have largely pretended does not exist.

“It is time to embrace this real diversity in our political and personal lives. Our racial identities are not silos in a cornfield, forever separate, encased in steel, but trees in our rainforest: standing distinct but inexplicable without each other and constantly co-evolving,” he said.

Tengku Razaleigh pointed out that he was not recommending anything novel to the audience as it was cardinal principles in the constitution and the faiths, including Islam.

“Let us have the sense of perspective to see our ethnic identities against these cornerstone principles of religion and ethics, and let us now educate our young, apprentice our youth, and conduct ourselves according to these principles.

“And then let us have a new beginning for Malaysia,” he said when ending his speech.

UMNO Breathes Its Own Exhaust

Members of the Youth Wing of the United Malay National Organisation, who have been long considered brash and rash and extreme in their views and actions, surpassed themselves on the afternoon of 26 February when a group of about 20 of them invaded the Parliament in Kuala Lumpur intending to prevent the wheelchair bound member of parliament, Karpal Singh, 69, from entering the House of Representatives to take part in the day's proceedings and to force a retraction of his earlier utterances.

When debating a motion on the king's speeches, Karpal brought up the issue of being sent two live bullets by post. He claimed the bullets were sent by the UMNO Youth and labeled them celaka. Celaka translates as 'accursed' or 'damned.' They also wanted to confront Karpal over his alleged insult of the Perak Sultan and the Malays by stating that the Sultan of Perak could be sued in the political controversy that is raging in Perak.

Karpal also rounded off his earlier speech in Parliament by declaring 'Singh is King' presumably influenced by the title of a Bollywood flick currently being screened in Malaysia. This statement further enraged the UMNO youths, as it was construed as a further insult on the sultans.

As the UMNO Youth blocked Karpal's path and created a fracas, it is alleged that the security guards and police personnel stood by and watched, not bothering to come to the aid of the veteran disabled MP.

Karpal Singh has said he has not done anything wrong. As a lawyer, he said, he was merely stating the law when he said the sultan could be sued in court. Many senior lawyers as well as the Malaysian Bar Council have concurred that the Malay rulers are subject to civil and criminal prosecution based on the Malaysian Constitution.

Prior to this confrontation, noisy demonstrations were held by the same group outside Karpal's law firm in Kuala Lumpur. Demonstrations were also planned in Penang outside his home under the leadership of Mohamad Khir Toyo, who is seeking to be elected head of the Youth Wing in the coming party elections. The planned demonstration was stopped by the police after Karpal complained they were not doing anything to protect him.

Mahathir Mohamad, when he was Prime Minister was instrumental in clipping the powers and removing the immunity of the Malay rulers between 1983 and 1993 and making them liable to prosecution. Mahathir, when putting forward his case to the people of Malaysia on the need for such a drastic course of action against the rulers, singled out the allegedly extravagant lifestyles of royalty. The rulers of the states of Perak and Johor were singled out for mention.

UMNO including the Youth Wing were staunchly behind Mahathir and there was no talk of insulting the rulers, sedition or treason.

When the withdrawal of immunity of the Sultans and curtailing their powers was discussed and passed by both the Houses of the Parliament, it is significant to note that the Democratic Action Party, of which Karpal Singh, is the national chairman, voted against the act. It was passed with the overwhelming support of UMNO and other components of the Barisan Nasional, the ruling national ethnic coalition

What did Karpal mean by his statement "Singh is king?" Most certainly not an obsession with Bollywood. A closer look at the culture and religion of the Sikhs will provide interesting answers. Most male Sikhs are called "singh," which means "lion," the king of the jungle. Quite often princes and maharajas in India use the title of Singh to denote their royal and warring abilities. In this context, the term "king" was not a reference to the rulers at all.

More than 100 police reports alleging treason and sedition have been made against Karpal. That these reports will not stand up in a court of law is obvious. Karpal should however bear in mind that he would have caused less controversy had he used more diplomatic language, particularly in parliament.

A good grasp of cultures of the various ethnic groups as well as Malaysian history should be made essential knowledge for ALL politicians and aspiring politicians. Most Malaysians, including the Malays, are aware that the ruling Malay party is not truly concerned about the rulers, and their complaints against Karpal and the opposition grate like a broken record being played too many times, especially when not a squeak was heard from these very Malay leaders in1983 and 1993. It only shows their lack of respect and understanding of the laws of the country, parliamentary procedures, and cultures of the various communities.

The fact that the prime minister and the deputy prime minister have not commented on the invasion of the sanctity of the parliament and the intimidation of a wheelchair-bound opposition leader speaks volumes on the conduct of politics and governance in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Insider

UMNO Stalwart Questions Malaysian Aide’s Death

Teoh Beng Hock, an aide to a Malaysian opposition assemblyman, was found dead on July 16 on the roof of a building next to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission after eight hours of questioning in a case in which he was only a witness. It appeared he had thrown himself off the 14^th floor of the MACC headquarters. The 28-year-old Teoh’s death has kicked off widespread outrage against the government in Malaysia. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, the former finance minister and a long-time stalwart in the United Malays National Organisation, wrote this open letter, which appeared in the Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily.

An Open Letter From Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Mr Teoh Beng Hock's death marks a watershed in the attitude of the public towards their government. The government has plumbed a new low in loss of credibility. Many people have come up to tell me in anger or despair that they feel their country has gone off the rails. People who previously considered themselves apolitical have been roused into active engagement.

There have been too many deaths under custody. But this death is particularly disturbing because Mr. Teoh died after interrogation by a specially commissioned watchdog agency, inaugurated with fanfare last year by the outgoing administration. The very agency set up to combat the abuse of power has
become in the public eye a symbol of the abuse of power.

Mr. Teoh was a mere witness. He was questioned about the possible misuse of funds by his employer, a state assemblyman, to buy flags for the last Merdeka celebrations. The sum in question was RM2,400. He was questioned for eight hours through the night. He was found dead the following day outside the MACC's headquarters.

Mr Teoh, 30, would have registered his marriage last weekend. His fiancée is two months pregnant.

If the Perak debacle (eds: in which the ruling national coalition induced three opposition Assembly members to change sides, overthrowing the state government) members to reminded us of the importance of the Constitution, the death under suspicious circumstances of Mr Teoh Beng Hock has brought home in a heart-wrenching way how much we need our public institutions to be independent and law-abiding. A shocked public is demanding answers, and rightly so.

Questions about how Mr Teoh died cannot be shut down with the usual warning that it is "liable to confuse the public" because the public is already confused. We are confused about how an idealistic young man with everything to live for can enter the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as a witness one day and be found dead outside the next.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be swept aside with the paternalistic instruction to leave it to the authorities to investigate," because the death of Mr Teoh appears to be just the result of “leaving it to the authorities investigate." It is precisely the independence of the investigating authorities that people are questioning.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with the warning "not to speculate" when the investigating authorities were apparently able to prognosticate, ahead of their own investigations, that foul play was not involved, and some leaders appear to have special knowledge that Mr Teoh jumped to his death of his own accord.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be evaded with the low tactic of racializing the issue because the death of Mr Teoh touches us all as citizens, brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers. None of us wants to live under a government apparatus that cannot be trusted to be independent and to tell the truth.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with authoritarian prohibitions because they are about the integrity and independence of institutions that belong to the people. Those ministers who talk down to the people may have forgotten who put them into government and pays their wages, and whose questions they were put there to ask. And to answer.

To ask such questions is not to "politicize" the issue but to exercise our ownership of an issue that touches each and every one of us as citizens: our basic institutions are rotted out, and we are headed down the path of a failed state.

It is our right and indeed our duty as citizens to keep asking questions when someone dies under circumstances that put the entire government under a shadow. As we ask these questions let us accept our joint responsibility to push uncompromisingly for an overhaul of the key institutions that have rotted through under exactly the kind of authoritarianism that would prohibit discussion of the circumstances of the death of Mr Teoh Beng Hock.