Malaysia is still “save-able” and worth saving

The sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, turned Malaysia into a global “kleptocracy”.

UMNO President, Zahid Hamidi, probably holds the world record in turning a general election into a battle to ensure that UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders are not charged in court for corruption.

The ninth Prime Minister, Ismail Sabri, said he should have sacked all the 12 Cabinet Ministers who sent a letter to the Yang di Pertuan Agong to object to the dissolution of Parliament, providing further proof that he is the most useless of all the nine Prime Ministers of Malaysia.

Is Malaysia going to continue to be the butt of regional and international jokes, scorn and mockery, when Malaysia should be model nation in the third world, and in the words of Bapa Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman , “a beacon of light to a difficult and distracted world”?

The intention of Tawfik Ismail, the eldest son of the country’s second deputy prime minister. the late Dr. Ismail Abdul Rahman, to challenge the UMNO President Zahid Hamidi in a battle of “rakyat versus rasuah” sums up the meaning of the 15GE.

I walked up Kiara Hill yesterday and during my walk, a couple approached me and asked me whether I was who I was, and when I nodded, they asked whether it was safe for me to be walking alone at the Kiara Hill. I told them that I felt absolutely safe.

Malaysia has not reached the stage of a totally broken, divided and failed nation although we have fallen considerably from our expectations of a world-class great plural nation.

Malaysia is still “save-able” and worth saving.

We do not want Malaysia to be a global kleptocracy.

We do not want a general election in Malaysia to become a battle to save UMNO and Barisan Nasional leaders from being charged in court for corruption.

We do not want a useless Prime Minister who does not know whether he is coming or going.

Malaysia is at the confluence of the four great civilisations in the world – Malay/Islamic, Chinese, Indian and Western.

Can Malaysia leverage on the best values and virtues of these four great civilisations to make Malaysia “a beacon of light in the difficult and distracted world”.

In the last few decades, we have taken the wrong turn in nation-building and deviated from the original nation-building principles and policies embedded in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara, to the extent that we have Ministers who do not accept these nation-building principles and the Rukun Negara.

But we must not falter nor surrender.

Will August 23, 2022 mark a watershed in Malaysian nation-building, where a former Prime Minister was not only sent to jail for corruption offences but marked a return to the nation-building principles and polices entrenched in the Constitution and the Rukun Negara but which have been forgotten by the nation’s government leaders – constitutional monarchy, parliamentary democracy, separation of powers, rule of law, an independent judiciary, good governance, public integrity with minimum corruption, meritocracy, respect for human rights and national unity from our multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural diversity where there are no first-class and second-class citizens whether based on race, religion or region.

Since the seventies, more than a million Malaysians have emigrated all over the world to countries like the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States but they made a valiant effort in the 2018 General Election to help end UMNO political hegemony and kleptocracy.

Can the Malaysian Diaspora mount the valiant effort again in the 15GE, for Malaysia is still “save-able” and worth saving.