A Brave New Malaysia!

Vision 2020 has been promoted as the national goal that will see Malaysia emerge as a fully developed nation.

As we prepare to celebrate our 48th anniversary of Merdeka it is timely to examine what are our strengths and weaknesses to enable us to reach that worthwhile objective.

Blessed with abundant resources and sheltered from most natural disasters, we have a population that is largely hardworking and able to live in peace and harmony despite having a multitude of races and religions.

Apart from the tragic incidents of May 13th 1967, where racial tensions were exploited by extremists, our nation has grown and prospered to become one of the top 20 trading countries of the world.

No government is without weaknesses and in Malaysia, the dominant party has ruled since our independence with other parties allied to it. While this has provided political stability, it has also meant that government policies have resulted in massive leakage of capital.

Under the NEP policies and practices, Bumiputeras were accorded special treatment so that today the top 3 posts in most government departments and other bodies like universities and GLCs are closed to non-Bumis. As the AP scandal proves, allowing any race to hold all the top positions provides better chances for corruption and incompetence to develop.

What was even more revealing is that the anger was not directed at the authorities for not doing more to help the really poor and destitute but more the anger of “Why was I not given some APs too?”

How can Malaysia become a fully developed nation?

First of all, we need to jettison the idea that any one party has the exclusive right to form the government.

We need to require all political parties to stop playing the race card and instead plan a national agenda for ALL Malaysians.

We have a large middle-class population who is largely apathetic; hoping that things will just carry on as usual. These people are asleep and need to rouse from their slumber. Perhaps many of them already have PR status abroad and are just waiting for the time to move overseas?

Moving from race based parties to multi-racial parties will give us the best vehicle to establish a vibrant democracy where all citizens are treated equally and everyone is given the opportunity to develop his or her talents for the benefit for Malaysia.

It would be difficult for any political party to just surrender a dominant role in the political life of the country but if many citizens demand this, I am sure the parties will change.

One way to gauge the readiness of Malaysians for multi-racial parties to conduct a national referendum with the main issue of
“Only multi-racial political parties should be allowed to contest elections.”
We know that that great Malaysian patriot Onn Jafaar actually wanted UMNO to be a party for ALL Malaysians but his views were not accepted.

The existence of race-based parties is an anomaly, as one cannot register societies today that have race exclusion clauses.

Almost 50 years on, we should take a closer look at that idea and study how multi-racial parties can reduce the blatant posturing we see so often in the party conferences.

To compete in the global economy, we definitely need all our best talents instead of allowing them to be enticed overseas where they will compete with us.

Dear Malaysians are you ready to start this journey to a brave new Malaysia?






As we harness all the energy of a waterfall, so too should we develop all the talents of our citizens