Fixing the Malay dilemma

Jahabar Sadiq Jahabar Sadiq Updated 7 years ago · Published on 11 Nov 2018 12:00PM · 8 Comments

Dr Mahathir Mohamad's recent actions show he is concerned that the time he has left in the prime minister's office will not allow him to personally fix the country's problems. – The Malaysian Insight file pic, November 11, 2018..

THIS past week and six months after winning power, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad met Malay ministers and deputy ministers in his second coming as the country’s chief executive

State news agency Bernama, which reported the closed-door meeting, quoted Dr Mahathir as saying the pow wow was to remind the ministers of the country’s history. 

“I have to remind them about the history of our country, so that they really understand how we began, so that we will not repeat the bad things that had happened before,” said the prime minister.

The Malaysian Insight understands that Dr Mahathir basically lectured about past Malay leaders who had failed the community and advised this current batch of ministers and deputies to be honest and to fix the problems.

It would be fair to assume that he did not include himself as a Malay leader who had failed the community in the 45-minute monologue with his ministers and deputies.

The meeting ended inconclusively. Sources said the meeting had showed Dr Mahathir’s concern that he himself cannot fix the problems in the time he has left in the prime minister’s office.

Hence the lecture to a group of ministers where the majority have never been in government or even held a job that paid mandatory contributions to a pension fund. Some have not even run a burger stall to know what risk in real life means.

That the Malay community specifically and Malaysian society generally have a host of problems and issues is not a surprise. Fixing the problems is another matter as the slew of proposed solutions finally merely profited a few and left the rest none the wiser and all the poorer.

When Dr Mahathir first took office as prime minister on July 16, 1981, Malaysia was waiting and prepared to go all the way beyond the agrarian and nascent industrial economy to greater heights. It did.

Politicking got in the way a few years into the Mahathir Administration and then it became just a parade of deputy prime ministers and finance ministers with their education and economic  programmes to push Malaysia forward.

Malaysia went forward, stumbled, picked itself up, raced on, faltered, fell and meandered from an Asian tiger to a fat cat kleptocracy aptly symbolised by 1Malaysia Development Berhad  (1MDB) and its rather prescient tagline – Forging Partnerships, Advancing Growth.

It forged a lot and advanced growth for the few.

Today, six months after Pakatan Harapan won the polls on May 9 and formed the government a day later, Malaysians see a fractious election in the pact’s biggest party PKR.  And ministers from other parties within the pact make headlines about themselves rather than their jobs.

Dr Mahathir has cause for concern, as do other Malaysians too. The ministers need to know what their job is all about – fixing problems rather than finding ways to hold on to power.

They need to fix this new Malay dilemma of running for election for power instead of to actually serve the community as many profess to do – even without a political or ministerial post.

* Jahabar Sadiq runs The Malaysian Insight.
__

Sign up or sign in here to comment.

Comments

  • DR. MAHATHIR?..

    Posted 7 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

    • Is Dr. Mahathir contemplating rewriting his 1969 book "The Malay Dilemma" into a revised 2nd edition to hit the bookstores when he (regrettably) steps down in 2O2O?..

      Posted 7 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

    • Way back during his 1st tenure in office as PM, Dr. Mahathir was dubbed as being "a man in a hurry", as he scurried from meeting to meeting to lay the groundwork for his grand design of Vision 2O2O: Malaysia as a developed country. Now we see him hurrying again, to see out the 2 years as PM to honour his agreement with Pakatan reached prior to GE-14 based on what was known then. But post-GE14 has thrown up an entirely new kettle of fish, in the form of enormous problems an inexperienced govt will not really be able to cope with successfully after Dr. Mahathir's departure? ..

      Posted 7 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply

  • In all honesty, some ministers shouldn't be ministers but the best they could be are deputies. Many come from Bersatu, whom Tun hand-picked. Being a minister is a huge responsibility not just position. Tun has to humble enough to reshuffle his Cabinet to allow those who could perform to take over, not just because of race or religion. We have our nation to build.

    Posted 7 years ago by Awang Bilis · Reply

  • The Gordian knot of Malay dilemma is their inability to separate race and religion versus competency and capability, and their tendency not to question questionable things thrown at them by their political and religious leaders.

    Posted 7 years ago by Rupert Lum · Reply

  • It is a real pity that TDM is bringing a racial and religious focus back to public discourse instead of focusing on building a Malaysian identity. This is a very dangerous development.

    Posted 7 years ago by Anak Kampung · Reply

    • We can see that Mahatir himself is lost and clueless too in uplifting the Malay race. As mentioned by you the race and religion making a comeback by Mahatir will only dig deeper the shithole for them all to plunge in. The majority of malays are having the malady of the 3Rs coupled with the false beliefs in the off spring of Ketuanan will forever plague and afflicted the race into an under develope race privillage to rent seeking process.They do not have to challenge on the principles of fittest survive. . They are already being spoon fed for umpteen years and letting go such a comfy lives is too drastic and unfathomable in consideration. The require changes in their mind set will never even see the light of the day for the resistance to changes is unfortunately and obviously dampen in their upheld on their sacred 3Rs doctrination. Blame it on the 2nd PM till Mahatir himself and supported by Anwar in those days where the leaders are muddled in the thoughts of making stronger the 3Rs in their political play. They forgot that there is a price to pay for it only leads to complacency. Right now they do not have the means and actually do not know how to stop that wrecking processes.

      Posted 7 years ago by Lee Lee · Reply

    • THE VERY HARD QUESTION TO ASK, BUT NEEDS ASKING GIVEN THE GRAVITY OF THEIR THINKING & SITUATION, IS HAVE THE UMNO MALAYS (ESPECIALLY) BECOME THE WEAKEST RACE IN THE WORLD TODAY?..

      Posted 7 years ago by MELVILLE JAYATHISSA · Reply