Khaled Nordin was right on the need for a formula of genuine power-sharing and not to resort to appointing token non-Malays in the government but wrong to claim that UMNO, MCA and MIC are the best candidates
UMNO vice president and former Johor Mentri Besar Mohamad Khaled Nordin is right that Malaysia needs a formula of genuine power-sharing and not to resort to appointing token non-Malays in the government but wrong to claim that UMNO, MCA and MIC are the best candidates.
The Alliance formula proved to be a failure in the third general election in 1969 and was given the funeral rites by Tun Razak. But Razak’s Barisan Nasional formula was destroyed by his own son with his kleptocratic and UMNO hegemonic ways.
By the time of the 14th General Election in 2018, there was no genuine power-sharing formula but only token non-Malays in the Cabinet.
The best hope for a genuine power-sharing was in the 22-month Pakatan Harapan government but this was destroyed by UMNO and the Sheraton Move conspiracy with lies and the disinformation that the non-Malays have displaced the Malays and have taken over power in the country.
As a result, the democratically-elected Pakatan Harapan government was toppled ushering in two backdoor and illegitimate governments, with presently an UMNO Prime Minister whose writ does not run in UMNO, and with the most token non-Malay representation in government in the nation’s history.
The most burning issues of the day are Azamgate and the loss of public confidence in the Malaysian Anti-Corruptions Commission (MACC) to fight corruption, the disastrous management of “once in a century” floods and a kakistocracy where even the National Action Council on Cost of Living meeting to reduce the maximum retail price of chicken by 20 sen to RM8.90 and to maintain the price of eggs became a scandal because the 26-second video-clip on it showed the members of the committee were served Evian mineral water costing RM4.50 each, three times the price of local products.
But the most token non-Malay Ministers in the nation’s history have absolutely nothing to say on these burning issues of the country.
From current trends, Malaysia is likely to be overtaken by China and Indonesia in the Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) by 2025.
How can a system of governance which oversaw Malaysia’s national decline in the past half a century, with one nation after another overtaking Malaysia – Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam – be a successful formula of governance, when Malaysia has potential to be better than China, Indonesia and India in various fields of human endeavour?
Can UMNO return to the times of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, where corruption and kleptocracy are utterly reprehensible, and in the words of former Shell executive, Yusuf Hashim, where Malays “believe deeply in meritocracy, integrity, morality, honesty, honour, fairness, social democracy and righteousness”?
I don’t think Khaled will answer this question as the only formula to successfully govern Malaysia to become a world-class great nation is one based on “Malaysia first” approach and objective.