Either you are for the working class or against it, Anwar. You can't run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds

Either you are for the working class or against it, Anwar. You can't run with the foxes and hunt with the hounds


26 Apr 2024 • 10:30 AM MYT



TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

Image credit: Focus Malaysia


It is an open secret that most of the elites in the country contribute nothing of value to the country. The overwhelming majority of the CEOs, Managing directors and decision makers in the business world have a parasitic relationship with the organization they control. The lion’s share of value and wealth that any organization generates actually comes from the B40 and M40 workers in the organization, but the lion’s share of the organization's wealth is parasitically sucked up by the elites, who have little to no part in the value creation of the organization.


Even Anwar’s own government has reported that our current model of the economy enables up to 53 percent of our subsidies to be sucked up by just the top 20 percent of the population. Subsidies are not the only way that the elites parasitically suck up the resources and wealth of the country, by the way. Other than national subsidies, they also suck up the wealth and resources that organizations and business entities in the country generate.


Anwar recently said that government must not be hasty in implementing reforms as it needs to consider the repercussions of the changes that are made.


“Any promised reforms by the government must be implemented carefully to ensure the people are prepared to embrace the changes,” he says


According to Anwar, there is a lesson to be learnt from what took place in France in the 18th century after the French Revolution, when the people’s living conditions became worse because of the radical changes made by the new leaders.



“Therefore, we should not hastily fulfil the desires of the elite without considering the political implications, stability, and the repercussions of such changes.


“There is a major disconnect between the idea of immediate change and the readiness of the people,” he claimed at PKR’s 25th anniversary special convention at the Ideal Convention Centre here recently.


I find it strange and disturbing, to hear Anwar claim that it is the elite that are desirous of change, but he has to restrain their desire, because he does not want their desire for change to affect the people’s lives negatively.


I find it strange because it is almost impossible that the elites, who are the ones that are chiefly benefitting from the exploitative model of economy, which not only exploits millions of our own B40 and M40 workers, but downright oppresses millions of foreign workers, are clamoring for change.


If our elites were the sort that clamors for change, our economy wouldn’t be the sort that exploits local workers or oppresses the foreign workers in the first place!


Also, why would the vast majority of people in the country need time to embrace the changes, like Anwar claims, if the changes that he seeks to implement is to demolish the control mechanism that these parasitical and exploitative elites have imposed on the country, to undermine the value that M40 and B40 workers generate for the nation, pilfer the wealth of the nation, oppress millions of foreign workers and cause the nation to not only be permanently stuck in the middle income trap, but bleed the nation to the extent that we have been slowly drifting back to the third world nation status that took our forefathers generations to rise out from.


I also find Anwar’s statement disturbing, because although he coats his words with the language of reason and sensibility, if you inspect what he is saying and who is he saying it to, it would seem that Anwar is actually speaking in support of the status quo while appearing like he is a force for change.

If he is really a force for change, he would have spoken to the elites and told them to prepare for change, not spoken to the people and asked us to be wary of change.


If Anwar was really sincere about the politics of reform, he would have asked the elites to repent and give up their addiction to wealth that is generated by exploitation, not portray them as heroes who are so desirous of change, that the prime minister himself has to step in to reign in their desire, less they too quickly change the economy from one that is exploitation oriented to one that is value generating!

Anwar has to choose sides.

That there is a powerful exploitative class in the country is of no doubt. Without a powerful exploitative class in the economy, there wouldn’t be millions and millions of exploited and oppressed foreign workers in the country. Having normalized an exploitative mindset, it is very unlikely that this exploitative class will just limit their exploitative ways on the foreign workers. In the same way that they apply exploitative tactics on the foreign workers, they surely do so on the local workers too. The difference is just in degrees, not in principle.


That this exploitative class will wrap their exploitative ways in a cloak of reason, sugar-coated language and presentation of goodwill or charity is also expected. The most exploitative CEOs in the country will take extraordinary steps to prevent themselves from being seen as people who suck the blood, tears and sweat of the working class to enrich themselves. Instead, they will always portray themselves as sweet and loving people, who despite earning their wealth by their own merit, are always charitable to the working class and ever seeking for ways to improve the lives of the people. Everything they do, they will portray, is only for the interest and wellbeing of the working class. If they have their way, they will even make it sound as if they are the ones who are most eager to dismantle the exploitative economic model that they created and profit from, and it is only for the sake of the working class that they exploit, that they resign themselves to accept the exploitative economic model.


Anwar must show that he can see through the illusions that the exploitative elites conjure to perpetuate the system of exploitation in the country.


If he can’t see through their illusions, but instead shows signs that he has been deluded by the illusions they conjure, he will start sounding like his sympathies and concerns are for the working people, but whose behaviour and actions will indicate that he is more interested in exploiting the working class that helping us.


If Anwar starts looking like he identifies with exploitative elites more than he does with the working class, then all his talk about reform and changes will be nothing more than a sham.


It will look like all his talk of reform was merely geared towards creating an image of being a pro-working class, so that he can win votes and become a prime minister, in the hopes that once he become the prime minister, he will be courted and welcomed with red carpet by the elites into their fold.


Once he is in the fold of the exploitative elites, he will do exactly what the exploitative elite has always done to the working class. They will collude with each other to control the platforms, institutions, organizations, resources, processes, procedures, laws and opportunities in the nation, and use their control to exploit the working class to their benefit.


If Anwar does not want to be seen in that light, he must change his language.


Stop portraying the exploitative elites as heroes. Stop asking the people to be patient with an exploitative and oppressive system that oppresses and exploits them. Advise the exploitative elites to change and turn over a new leaf, not ask the working class to be patient and enduring of their oppression and exploitation. Tell the exploitative elites to give up on the practice of colluding and creating illusions to exert control over people, resources, institutions and procedures, for the purpose of siphoning wealth that other people created, and instead free and enable the working class to generate true wealth by adding real value into the economy.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, The Star, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.