Ta'mahu mandi, pakai perfume saje?

Extracts of Mariam Mokhtar's article in Malaysiakini's The baggage holding back the Malays for your perusal:

yang bukan Melayu juga 

If some Malaysians are willing to sacrifice Malaysia’s future by working hand-in-glove with former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad to change the political landscape, then perhaps Malaysia is not yet ready for reform.

When someone does not have a bath for several days and starts to smell, the lazy person’s solution is to change clothes or spray perfume on himself, to mask the odour. For him, changing his attitude towards personal hygiene and cleanliness is bothersome and hard work. Sloppy practices, disinterest, poor parenting and a ‘tidak-apa’ attitude have contributed towards his mental degradation.

If we need Mahathir to rid us of Malaysia’s many evils, then we are either still politically immature, or completely helpless. Mahathir’s idea of righting the wrongs in Malaysia is to form another race-based, bumi-only party.

When Mahathir had problems with the original Umno party in 1987, he was forced to form Umno Baru. Why should we make another clone of Umno when we can’t even get rid of Umno Baru? How many Umno Baru rebranding exercises must we undergo?

Being force-fed Umno Baru policies has dulled our brains. We cannot think of new ideas, and find it easier to swap leaders or form new parties. Returning to the analogy of the smelly person, it is easier to change clothes or spray perfume than to take a bath.

Indoctrination has reinforced our serf mentality. We merely obey, and have no respect for our leaders. We accept our place in society, and many of us fail to question our leaders. Do we fear the consequences, or did it never cross our minds to quiz those with whom we entrust our future?

The Malaysians who align themselves with Mahathir have short memories. Who hijacked Islam to further his own aims? Are we unable to see the irony of Mahathir using ‘race’ to bait the Malays, and endear him to them? Who micro-managed the nation and used laws to curb dissent? Why do we have to keep reminding Malaysians that our once-independent institutions were corrupted during Mahathir’s era?

The fight for democratic reform and clean governance cannot be considered a weekend activity. [...]

We condemned former deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin for leading a defunct Education Ministry. There was racial taunting in schools, not just among the pupils, but from the headmasters and teachers. Rural and East Malaysian schools were in disrepair, with schools being forced to function in unsafe buildings. Today, we hail Muhyiddin as the leader of Mahathir’s newly-formed race-based political party.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Because many Malaysians are so hard up for real leaders that rather than look for these real leaders (like taking a bath) they recycle useless, smelly and/or lousy ones (pakai perfume saje, wakakaka), those who had already let us down so badly that they stink. But it's OK lah as we just pakai perfume to overcome, ignore or forget about the stench of the past, wakakaka.