Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Is The Road To Hell Paved With Good Intentions ?

Hantu Laut

The famous Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be". Will the prophecy of so many people about Najib's administration come true. Anwar Ibrahim has prophesies the same here.Would it be a case of "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and whatever good he does would still not be good enough? Is he a victim of wrong public perception ?

Najib will be the most controversial figure to ascent the highest office.He became prime minister by default rather than popular choice and came with a heavy load.

His late father Tun Abdul Razak took over the nation when it was in turmoil and emergency law was passed to stop further violence and bloodshed.Razak headed the National Operations Council.The May 13 tragedy culminated in the Tungku handing over power to Razak in 1970.Parliament and political parties were suspended, press censorship imposed, all political activities banned and use of the ISA to detain troublemakers. Within less than two years Razak managed to bring back peace to the country and Parliament was reconvened in 1971 with the formation of a new coalition government, the Barisan National (BN) comprising all political parties, except the DAP. PAS joined but was expelled in 1977.

In hindsight, without emergency rule and use of the ISA the situation could have been been worse and dragged on much longer.


There is similarity in Najib's and his father's ascension to the premiership, albeit in a different environment. His was a peaceful and planned transition, while his father's came at very difficult times and leadership was thrust on him as the Tungku was seen as a weak leader and his policies not benefiting the Malays. To certain extent Najib replacing Abdullah was of the same nature, Abdullah was also perceived to be weak.

In the early 70s the Malays economic and living standard were still low. Almost 75% of Malays living below the poverty line and excluded from the modern economy.The May 13 tragedy was the result of this disparity and the near loss of political power. The Tungku, for lack of experience, had only wanted political power for the Malays and the civil service to be manned mainly by Malays.He overlooked the economic power. Money can buy material comfort, favours, sex and lately as we all found out can also buy politicians.Therefore, money and lots of it can do miracles, almost anything.Without money life can be miserable and society can be cruel to those who doesn't have it. This is the root of UMNO's problem, money ! money ! money ! every one in UMNO wants a lot of money and they don't care, in the eyes of society, how they obtain it, ill-gotten or otherwise, as long as it's easy, fast and big. They have forgotten what they are there for, they have forgotten what sacrifices previous leaders had made to bring this nation to what it is today.They have forgotten the basic principal of decent human behaviour and lavished themselves with the trappings of power. They have not an ounce of guilt or shame that the money they have are not acquired through hard work or entrepreneurship but through an easy ride on the gravy train.

You hear of horror stories of wives of politicians buying Hermes handbag worth RM90,000.00 and holidays paid by Chinese towkays.You hear of politicians making million of dollars without any business to their names. This is what Najib needs to stop if he wants UMNO to regain its past glory. If things are done within reason nobody will complain, it is the excesses that have driven the people away.


When the late Tun Razak introduced the NEP in 1971 to help narrow the economic gap between the Malays and other races mainly the Chinese it was a sincere and benevolent act to remove the economic imbalance and bring the Malays to higher economic level. Never in his wildest dream he invented the NEP to enrich only the Malays in UMNO. It was mean for all Malays.

Najib must do a serious examination of where UMNO has gone wrong, not only the Chinese and Indians are running away but educated urban Malays are equally disillusioned and have shown their discontentment at the last general elections by voting the oppositions.


Now that Pak Lah will be out of the picture will Najib revert to his father's original idea of what the NEP should be about and put a stop to the gravy train, or at least minimise it, or would he follows in Mahathir's
footstep and bring back authoritarian rule and continue with the status quo?

Is the road to hell paved with good intentions?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

HL,

"Is the road to hell paved with good intentions?"

Who's perspective? That should be the question!

That's how one should paraphrase Hamlet!

"..leadership was thrust on him as the Tungku was seen as a weak leader and his policies not benefiting the Malays.."

That leadership was hijacked by Razak, NOT as u assumed! It was planned all along. And looked now, by hindsight, what policies benefit the Malays now, except the elites & well-connected fat cats!

"In hindsight, without emergency rule and use of the ISA the situation could have been been worse and dragged on much longer."

In hindsight, without the political back-stabbings to oust Tunku first & 'rearranged economic cake' to the well-connected umno elites, the May13 could never happened!

The Tunku, been a true gentleman, sticked to the bargains as the only outcomes for the British to give Malaya Merdeka. He was NO weaklings, who had been wrongly accused to have No heart for the poor Malays.

NEP has been a tool to enrich the umnoputras, right from the start. Those Malays who happenstance to be on the manna crumbs of NEP, remain that - a 'collateral damages'. And damages they r as the stigma of NEP remains.

So Najib? Chip of the old block? Nothing much can/could come out of him. Especially the perspectives of umnoputras r that much dichotomous now. Worst still with a blood-sucking wife following closely!

HL should stick to Sabah happenstances! There is enough for one to chew on.

anomie

Anonymous said...

The warning came a lot earlier.
The following have been best described of Malays mutation with their newly acquired wealth:
Melayu Baru: Malay with new found riches with no effort
Melayu Glokal: Malay soon want to go abroad to spend their new found riches rather that improving their own kind
Melayu Mudah Lupa: "What me worry" Malays who think the other Malays are taken care of by the state

gram.kong said...

Anonymous,
I can write about anything.It's my choice, not yours.

Ever Onwards said...

Hi Hantu: I agree with the general thrust of your article. So nothing much to add. If anything, my vision if even bleaker: many of the so-called good intentions are actually evil and self-serving, but packaged as being good for the people.

Donplaypuks® said...

No, the road to HELL is paved with $ billion CCRONY CONTRACRS!!