Thinking Allowed Kuch, Kuch, Mahathir Hai!
After the Lunas debacle, the leader of UMNO is seemingly ready for a reconciliation with his various detractors. The propaganda machinery has been whipped up to make all sorts of overtures for �perpaduan Melayu� (Malay unity) in the year 2001. The Utusan Malaysia has carried an emotional (tear-jerking?) appeal for a dialogue of the Malay-based political parties and other groups to aerate the issue. There have also been hot rumours circulating that Anwar Ibrahim will be �rehabilitated� in the near future. His medical condition will provide the gambit for a sojourn abroad and this will be seen as a goodwill gesture. All of this sounds like wishful thinking to me. Certainly KeADILan youth chief Mohamed Ezam will not fall for it. He rejected the UMNO overtures as mere UMNO maneuverings in its own interest. He could certainly vouch for the lack of goodwill shown by the Mahathir government to him and his party, with the frequency of arrests of KeADILan members, the long queue of court cases involving him and others on dubious charges. In the latest episode, Ezam and Selangor state assemblyman Mohd Azmin were picked up at the KLIA as soon as they landed after completing their umrah in Mecca. They were to be charged with �rioting� in Lunas! Tsk, tsk, Mahathir hai, now that�s no way to go about creating Malay unity! Manglished! The Malaysian tolerance level for political mendacity and doubletalk is remarkable. Look at how a former minister of education, and the one who was largely responsible for taking us down the road of �unmastering� English can suddenly make Malaysians perk up to full attention and mindlessly swallow his new exhortation to master the language. Not all of us can be fooled, however. In a so-called exclusive (read, orchestrated) interview with Bernama, the PM sounded earnest, candid and sensible on many subjects, one of which was the English issue. The interview itself, weaved with platitudinous home truths and motherhood statements, requires some deconstruction and demystifying � if you�ll bear with me. Let�s start with the English question. The Aliran president in a pithy response to the Mahathir exhortation said it all and it bears repeating: �When the switch to Bahasa Malaysia was made in the early 70s, rational voices pleaded that Science and Mathematics be taught in English.�This was shot down.�There was also the suggestion that English Literature be taught to preserve the standard of English.� This was ignored. BN MPs must decide whether they want to be Malaysians in the larger interest of the country or remain as petty politicians for their narrow interests. Mahathir, who was the education minister those days, now blames the �language nationalists� for opposing the government�s supposed steadfast efforts to promote English. Mahathir himself is now touted by the ingenuous GPMS president Suhaimi Ibrahim as a paragon of English mastery. The prime minister admits coyly that his command of the language had indeed served him well (�we can�t go to other countries and speak our own language�.�) What bugs me is how glibly and facilely politicians can twist and turn their tongues with incredibly unfazed ease, something that surely demands more than a mastery of any language! Are these paragons of English or paragons of the art of verbal deception? Or in the colloquial idiom, has the PM become the Bapak Kepala Bapak (Father of all Liars), according to a well-known opposition leader? Bye-Bye, MAS!
The prime minister was at pains in his interview to explain the deal. The unfortunate CEO evidently lost a lot of money when the stock market plunged. We can�t let poor Din, bear the brunt if it, can we? No way Jos�, let�s have the rakyat bail him out. H�mmm, this sounds familiar � were not a Ting, Mirzan, Halim and Vincent also beneficiaries of buy-backs and bail-outs when the chips were down? Economists have a term for this: �moral hazard�. The crony version of the term is �moral impunity�. It boggles the mind to think of the benefits that could have accrued to the public if only all the money used in crony bailouts had been put into some well-deserved, public-friendly projects instead. Yet another case of the high tolerance level of Malaysians for governmental mendacity � or has the Mahathir regime hit the ceiling here? An indication that toleration has buckled could be the unexpected but hard-hitting statement by the Young Graduates Association of Malaysia on the MAS buy-back. Objecting strenuously, it has called for the government to scuttle the deal. These self-same graduates were admirers and supporters of the BN government up until the 1999 November elections. But hear this one from T.H. Loi in a letter to The Star, �If I was a Tan Sri (sic), I think selling the majority stake at RM1.8 billion is too cheap for the only international airline of a fast developing country�! My dear Mr. Loi, do pause for a moment to reflect that the Tan Sri dragged a successful national airline way below bottom line with four straight years of losses at the rate of about RM1million a day before he decided to unleash a total debt of RM2.7 billion of his failing airline on you and me! Let's Do the Mahathir 'Shuffle" There was much talk of a possible cabinet reshuffle, which was supposed to have come after the Hari Raya-Christmas break. However the PM denied this in his interview of 29 December with Bernama and left us all high and dry. Nonetheless, do let me share with you some of the extremely interesting rumours that were making the rounds about possible changes � a sort of wish list you might say for those of us who would like to see some accountability and transparency in government:
What the Hack! Kudos to DAP chairman Lim Kit Siang who first alerted us that the official Parliament website had been hacked. Asked whether this could be the work of anti-government elements, Parliament Speaker Tun Zahir Ismail said: �I don�t know. Sometimes people want to experience the feeling that they can hack into a website�. Zahir and Kit Siang highlighted the need to improve security and safety features so that the site would be better protected from future hackers. The Backbenchers Club secretary further added that Parliament would need to employ IT specialists to create a new website which is more current, comprehensive and attractive besides controlling the hackers. Apparently, the hacking had not been discovered for a while since the unattractive website was one of the least visited ones. Like numerous Malaysians, the PM, too, deplored the irresponsible deed. Instead of all the important information, Parliament�s website simply contained some foreign words and a Brazilian address of the rock group Garbage. The hacker signed off �Topiera�. But does PM know something about the hacker�s identity that we don�t? Here is what he said: �The clever-minded individuals accused the government of controlling the press. In actual fact, they are the ones who are controlling power as they do not allow other news to get through the Internet. We give them an opportunity to learn. Now they use their knowledge to fight against the government and the very principles they are supposed to be fighting for�. As usual the logic is completely garbled. But his ranting still sounds like an accusation against the opposition. If PM knows the identity of the hacker, he should duly inform those in charge. Even if he has an inkling of those responsible, he should � what the heck � lodge a report. Since when did we need all the pertinent information to press charges against suspected troublemakers? Recruit the services of the former AG, he knows how to do it, as someone suggested. On the other hand, if PM does not smell a rat, he shouldn�t go around insinuating that the local opposition is responsible for hacking the website. But this is the root of the problem with No 1 these days. He�s so ready to accuse and lay blame on others even when he�s got a blocked nose. Even before Anwar�s trial began, No 1 had already publicly charged and convicted Anwar. When queried he said that all the evidence would be provided in court. In the event, the charge was amended and re-amended and the evidence still not presented. The Suqiu who presented the 17-Points Election Appeal were then accused of being extremists and associated with the �communists of the past� and the militant Al-Ma�Unah in his Merdeka Day speech. Yet, just before the November 1999 elections, the MCA president speaking on behalf of Dr M�s cabinet, announced that �none of the issues [in the Suqiu document] had caused any controversy or were rejected by the Cabinet outright�.We feel that the principles are universal and can be accepted by all�� He further stated that the appeal represented �99 percent of the Malaysian Chinese in the country�. What happened in the interim ? Did somebody hack into the Cabinet�s memory file too? And most recently after the BA had won in Lunas, Dr M readily accused the opposition of dirty tactics, fanning racial and religious sentiments and violence, and in so doing shunted aside rising criticisms within the Barisan and his own party that his outbursts had alienated the voters from the BN. Some attribute these outbursts against his critics and other people who simply do not dance to his tune anymore to a mean streak in his character. They cite his challenge and troubles with the Tunku and the fact that Pak Lah is his fourth deputy as evidence. Others, more magnanimously say that he�s grown old and cantankerous. Still others, more politely, say he�s become nyanyuk (senile). Time Bomb?
The much-publicised project, which would consist of a sort of sundial encapsulating photos of the state�s history, to be built at the Esplanade, remains in much doubt. Municipal Councillor Ooi Chuan Aik has objected to the idea and calls for a structure more symbolic of Penang . Adds Yusoff Latiff of the Penang Malay Association (Pemenang), �to remember the millennium, they should consider renovating the Penang Town Hall for public use like hosting wedding receptions, theatre performances and activities for the younger generation� (The Star, 30 December 2000.) Personally, I think this obsession with monuments is beginning to drive most Malaysians up the wall. Witness the monumental Twin Towers (also with the complement of a time capsule, propounding the achievements of our great leader). So far the towers seem to have served only the likes of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones rather than ordinary Malaysian citizens. Penang for sure is in dire need of a properly-administered and efficiently-run public transport system, and minimally a ring road, which has been many years in the offing, to ease city and residential-zone traffic. Couldn�t the state and city authorities put their minds to that problem instead of fantasizing about the future. At the rate we are all going, we may well be on course for a major present-day social implosion rather than future shock. | |||||||||||||||
This new year � the true start of the new millennium � has seen much by way of �offerings� to the public. All and sundry were treated to the Hindustani blockbuster starring male icon Shah Rukh Khan and female heart-throb Kajol. The tear-jerker ends with a reconciliation between hero and rival after the weeping bride-to-be is magnanimously yielded to the hero by his nemesis.
Dr. M also touched on the MAS buy-back, which has been hot on the lips of business wags and market watchers after the government�s announcement of acquiring 29 per cent of the shares owned by its now erstwhile CEO, Tajudin Ramli. Nothing extraordinary about that, you might say, after all it�s the national airline and any government should have a stake in a national carrier. But wait, what if the government has to buy the shares at a premium price of RM8 per share when its market value is only RM 3.68!?
The Penang government is beginning to have a penchant for white elephants � ones which are erected and literally buried for posterity rather than for the use of the contemporary denizens of our fair city. The state�s RM 500,000 Millennium Project, which included the idea of a �time capsule�, was launched by CM Koh Tsu Koon on New Year�s Eve. But thanks to sensible objections all around, the project may not see the light of day.