I BEGIN this column with “whither 1Bangsa Malaysia of Vision 2020?”. Obviously, the question is directed at our prime minister, who launched and sold the dream to all Malaysians from 1991 to 2003.

My question in the first week of 2020, 30 years later, is designed to raise issues related to Malaysians’ Vision 2020 dream. Was its failure because of a lack of visual clarity? Or, is it now obvious that it has been abandoned for another back-door agenda?

Why the back-door question?

The Book of James, Verse 4: 17, which I first memorised, says: “He who knows the truth and does not do it, to him it is wrong.”

There are various translations, but this verse clarifies “whatever is good, right and true”, and the observer who understands such a truthful reality must act accordingly.

Therefore, my argument is that it is incumbent upon the PM, who had sold the idea to Malaysians for so many years, to explain why the vision has not been realised, and whose fault it really is.

Assigning blame to another is always lame, and always an excuse to my mind and heart. We can rationally and analytically question all such matters.

I am reminded of our teaching productivity measures, that there are three different time frames for such measures. That was in 1986 at Intan.

First is the output of any action or reaction to a stimulus. Second is the outcome of the action or reaction, especially within the environment. Finally, there is the impact, where we conduct a full review of the unintended consequences of both the output and related outcomes.

Given this, we cannot simply accept blaming the other person, as that may only be an excuse. What are the root causes of the failure?

Transparent, open reasoning?

Dear Dr Mahathir Mohamad, let me try a personal, logical reasoning method, which was how I grew up learning such truths. I learnt truths vide stories my dad and mum told me.

For example, my dad told us that you were always honest and truthful, and sought to do good works, in all your 12 years of business dealings with him. Since dad has passed on, I cannot review the accuracy of my knowledge of this truth.

My dad also told us that your original pharmacy in Alor Star was called MICO Pharmacy. Is that not the truth? You even confirmed it in your foreword in our book for dad’s 90th birthday.

Your exact words were: “I have to state that this is the honest truth about MICO Pharmacy. When we were going to name it, I simply used the acronym for Malays, Indians, Chinese and Others to make the name.”

Then, you affirmed that Bangsa Malaysia was essentially the same concept. It was a new concept of nationality that we needed to strive towards, but instead, we argued over the nine challenges we faced to become Bangsa Malaysia.

One Bangsa of Malaysians?

The word “bangsa” in Bahasa Melayu has two meanings: one is an ethnicity or race, and the other is nationality, as in, “the United Nations” in BM.

If the PM 30 years ago had sold one vision for all Malaysians, and did not change his mind after 22 years of leadership, is it unfair for me to assume that the original dream and her meanings have not changed?

For sure, the macroeconomic numbers have changed, but that process started in 1986-87, and again in 1997-98, right? The PM was then credited for “freezing the exchange rate” and saving the country, even by international sources.

But, was it not also the same PM and his business cronies who taught Umno 2.0 (an Umno B spin-off) to cheat, steal and lie? I call that agenda “CSL”. And I don’t mean former MCA president Chua Soi Lek.

Did not the correct move by the PNB dawn raid become the framework for the institutionalisation of CSL through other corporate and institutional means? Please consider what I mean.

Did not the not-so-transparent process of taking over public facilities and assets get formalised as a legitimate restructuring under NEP goals? Case examples are TNB and Telekom Malaysia, but they remain unquestioned by mainstream policies, whether through MIC or MCA or Gerakan, or even the public service.

Dear sir, as the seventh PM, you cannot assume that Nos. 5 and 6 had failed you simply in a personal way, and you are now given the chance to correct those failures alone. Systems have failed, too. We must improve and correct our systems.

You passed the baton to your political appointees. That was your biggest failure, to tolerate such incompetent leadership, and to pass the baton in support of corruption and the corruptible.

Sir, you should have picked a truly competent individual who can arrest the corruption problem.

My personal faith in 1991 was that you had spoken as if “during my tenure, the cancer of corruption did set in, so what we need now is candidate XXX as the next PM, because he’s the best oncologist/surgeon for the job”. Pak Lah was Mr Clean, too, but that was not to be. Can we set that right now?

Our Malaysian future

Dear Dr Mahathir, there’s nothing I’m saying here that you do not already know. But, it is worth repeating. There are significant reasons why the Bangsa Malaysia vision has not been realised.

The root cause was Umno’s displacement of Tun Ghafar Baba and the “cikgu class” as the champions of Malay culture and tradition in favour of modern brokers and capitalists.

While I understand that Umno was challenged by PAS’ older vision and desire for an Islamic-type nation-state, you are also aware that such a vision lacks international credibility, especially after 9/11.

Is that not the fault of many Islamic governance systems even today? Did we in Malaysia not break that glass barrier when we switched to being a rule-of-law state, which can now also become an administrative state?

Our federal constitution, the supreme law of the nation, is our history and legacy of two “New Malaysia” contracts.

Can we really change it? How could we amend Article 121(1A) and not face confusion in other categories of truth? We simply would not be able to comprehend the full consequences. Therefore:

1. We now have deep state actors who are above the country’s laws;

2. We had an IGP who was “confused” and could not execute the law of the land because of the said confusion; and,

3. Many other forms of injustice remain without the due process of justice in the courts.

Sir, we are an Islamic nation owing to our demographic majority, and surely, we do not want to be globally known for deceit and murder.

Are we not, in fact, a shining light among Muslim nations because of our rule of law, and not because of our unique form of Islam? We are famous for our history as a Commonwealth country and our system of administration based on the rule of law.

Do we really want to follow the Islamic model of either Iran or Saudi Arabia? Yes, Turkey and her modern Islamic values may be worth learning from, but I think even President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lost the plot.

Yes, we can become a shining light among Muslim countries, but surely it cannot and never will be by abusing Malaysia’s non-Muslims, who are the ones balancing out some of the more extreme elements in Malay culture.

We, the non-Muslims, helped define modernity in a clear, politically balanced way by swinging between two social contracts – one in 1957, and the other in 1963. This includes our Sabahan and Sarawakian brothers and sisters.

My suggestion is that we declare ourselves a “2020 developed country”, ignoring the original quantitative figures and moving ahead under a system with the following three ethical and social/moral values at its core:

1. Good governance, wherein the elected government defines governance policies;

2. Good administration based on the rule of law, guided by our history and culture, without any deception, cheating or lies; and,

3. Good management with a public service that practises professionalism and does what is right and true in the public interest.

The public service must be neutral, and rid of deep state elements.

May we realise “1Bangsa of Malaysians” as a worldview of “Middle Moderate Modern Malaysia”. – January 5, 2020.

* KJ John worked in public service for 32 years, retired, and started a civil group for which he is chairman of the board. He writes to inform and educate, arguing for integration with integrity in Malaysia. He believes such a transformation has to start with the mind before it sinks into the heart!

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.