Dr M is caught in a racial time warp
I was enjoying my evening snack of ‘ubi kayu’ when a notification of a new article popped-up on my iPad: “Nothing to fear being governed by Malay parties, says Dr M” (FMT March 26).
There is a direct link between my dish of tapioca (or singkong) and Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who became prime minister in July 1981.
In his first few years, he closed several companies owned by government agencies. One of those that suffered his wrath was an ‘ubi kayu’ processing factory called Ubiyu, outside Kuantan, Pahang.
Cut off from the proletariat
The factory was set up by a government agency before his time. Apart from processing, Ubiyu’s role was to purchase the root grown by Felda settlers in Pahang and Terengganu as a cash crop while waiting for their oil palm to bear fruit.
It was a no brainer to close it down. The factory was believed to be running at a loss from mismanagement. But it was not smart not to take into account the effect the closure would have on the poor farmers, who no longer had any large buyer for their produce.
Mahathir was a politician in a hurry at the time, driving towards a new heavy industry policy. Closing down a cheap tapioca factory was nothing to him especially when compared to a huge, multimillion-ringgit iron and steel plant, Perwaja, that he was building, in Kemaman, Terengganu, further up the road from Kuantan.
I thought the agricultural sector was also important and we should have had an agro-based policy alongside his new heavy industrial policy.
The Ubiyu episode got me thinking about how disconnected the prime minister was from the proletarian section of society at that time. Where do we stand today in heavy industries? The prime minister in a hurry had obviously failed in his attempt to transform the country.
Failed divisive politics
The FMT article reconfirmed my long-held belief that Mahathir has truly disconnected himself from the rest of the country and is still pursuing his failed divisive party politics. His approach is way off the mark.
He may be truly altruistic in thinking about the Malays as his new party’s main base, but surely, he must have realised by now that even the Malays have abandoned him and his party in droves.
As much as I disagree with his approach, I also feel sorry for him. After all those years and all that experience, it shows how much he has failed in his understanding of the lower-income group who unfortunately still form the bulk of the Malays today.
Except that today, they are no longer living in the rural setting.
Poor urban Malays
The Malays took up his challenge of industrialisation and migrated to urban areas. They are now caught in many poor enclaves of our urban sprawl, in the dwellings they can barely ill-afford, given the cost of living.
The majority are still toiling for pittance as in the Malay proverb of “Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang” (to live from hand to mouth) in a country which is now controlled by corrupt Malay elites that Mahathir indirectly created.
The lower-income Malays (B40 group) as well as the middle 40% (M40), have suffered a great deal from being hoodwinked by politicians like him and his cohorts in Umno for so long, under the guise of the Malay-based party, Malay leadership and the Malay agenda.
What Malay agenda is he bringing this time? What new approach can he bring to the table for these urban Malays?
Apart from other racist and divisive policies like the New Economic Policy, what else can his party offer? We all know that it is not about race but leadership, which the country is lacking.
Can he at least get himself reconnected with the housing problems of the urban poor? But this affects all the races, not just the Malays.
He has now demonstrated the fact that in the course of his political sunset, he has never truly understood Malaysia.
It’s not about Malays and the non-Malays as migrants. It’s not about Malay leaders allowing others to do business. It’s not about Malays versus British administrators. Nobody knows or remembers that anymore today. His narrative is rather outdated.
It’s about our plural society, the need to be secular, united and moving forward as Malaysians. It’s about assisting the B40, it’s that simple. No complications and not complex at all.
It goes to show how disconnected he is with the progressive, multiracial and young Malaysians.
Stuck in a time warp
He should not be still thinking along racial lines.
It should be on how best to integrate Malaysia. Perhaps, start with a more proper and comprehensive education system, a unified system and not the current three divided streams with little hope for unity in the nation.
While parties like PKR, Warisan and Muda have progressively moved into the next level and dimension, Mahathir and his cohorts of deposit losing candidates in the recent Johor elections, are still caught in a time warp capsule of fighting for the one race agenda.
Doesn’t he realise that after 22 years of helming the country (1981-2003) and again for 22 months under PH, he has failed badly, mainly because no political reforms were made to steer the country in a new direction?
That splitting the voters and formulation of race-based policies no longer worked. In fact, it has been hijacked by Umno elites many times over and such a policy to favour Malays and treat others as migrants is a big disunifying factor that has failed the country, too.
He failed in his 22 years in power. So, what will make the youngsters of today believe in his old, out of sync, time-tested and failed model, if introduced yet again?
Anyway, for the record, today the cassava (another marketable name for tapioca) market is worth more than US$1 billion, much more than the value of Perwaja, before it was closed down for good.
No comments:
Post a Comment