MANY fear that the green wave in last week’s elections in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu portends an ominous future for Malaysia.

This sentiment, harboured by non-Malays but also shared by many Malays, is misplaced.

The Islamists’ victory was but a rare rogue political wave that had crashed on a shallow beach. Spectacular to behold maybe, more so to landlubbers. As for lasting impact, none except for some superficial changes in sand dune contours.

I have yet to see in the modern world any successful Islamic nation. Muslims’ hopes soared with the Islamic Revolution in Iran. Today, the ayatollah drove more Muslims out of our faith than even Stalin could ever hope.

Those three states are marginal in all respects – population wise, the quality of their people as measured by their health, education and other measures, as well as economic output and other meaningful indicators.

Kelantan leads only in the number of pornographic downloads, child and spousal abuses, sexually transmitted diseases and divorce rates.

Although overwhelmingly Malays, only one in six Malays reside in those three states, and their exodus continues.

These states contribute less than 7% to the national economy. If you further consider, the bulk of that are from their small non-Malay population; the five million or so Malays’ combined economic contributions to the national output are in the low single digit, percentage wise. Their political impact on Malaysia is also minimal despite observers making a big fuss about it.

However, it would be a great tragedy not only to them but more so the nation if we were to ignore their grouses and frustrations.

I share their lament and frustrations in being bypassed by the economic development of the country. Theirs are justified, more so as those issues have long been ignored or if attended to, not effectively.

Like Malays elsewhere in the country, they see themselves increasingly marginalised. Their blaming the non-Malays generally and the predominantly Chinese DAP in particular reflects their helplessness and impotence. More satisfying emotionally, as well as buttressing one’s nationalist credentials, to do so rather than blaming our own corrupt incompetent leaders. These leaders continually promise heaven in the hereafter for their followers.

Meanwhile, their followers endure hell right here on earth. This frustration of the natives and envy of others, more so non-Malays, are not unique unto Malays. To wit, poor whites in rural America; hence Trump’s continued popularity.

While I share the lament and frustrations of these poor Malays, I disagree profoundly with their and their leaders’ diagnoses of the issues, and even more with their remedies. The problem is not with the “others”, rather our leaders.

My solution would be two-prong: bring economic development and improve the current abysmal education.

The first is easier. Consider Kedah’s proposal for an international airport. At least the menteri besar is thinking in the right direction.

However, with the Penang airport nearby and with two bridges across the strait, that is less urgent and would not be the best way to spend precious funds.

How about a mega agricultural co-operative comparable to Canada’s Alberta Wheat Pool to develop those rice farmers? Make Kedah an efficient productive rice bowl able to export rice.

An international airport in Kuala Terengganu would make far more sense. That would boost tourism to the region.

With rich Chinese tourists and others flooding in, those natives would have a different view of foreigners.

Now that China is Felda’s greatest customer, those Malay settlers have a decidedly different view of that country and in tandem, its people.

A few years ago, the Monsoon Cup was the sailing world’s celebrated event. Now, that event is long gone. The east coast could easily compete for international tourists with Bali, Phuket and the Maldives.

Along the same line, I would have the headquarters of many federal agencies moved to the area. Learn from the British. They had a teachers’ college in Tanjung Malim, Malay College in Kuala Kangsar, Forestry Research Centre in Kepong. Why not move Petronas’ headquarters to Kuala Terengganu, nearer to the oil fields?

As for improving education, the system is now so rotten that it would be easy to make spectacular progress and in the process, endear yourself to the people.

Start with improving the physical facilities and providing high-speed internet, and giving secondary school students laptops. Money would be more productively spent there than subsidising haj and umrah or building crystal mosques.

Revamp the curriculum to have science, mathematics, Malay and English taught daily. As there are only so many hours in the school day, that would mean a corresponding decrease in hours devoted to Islamic studies. There, the emphasis should be more on the humanistic values of our faith, less over the rituals.

I find it downright idiotic to teach students funeral ablution rites. By all means memorise the Quran, but that should be an after-school activity, done in the afternoon as with music, arts and crafts.

Build a magnet school in every district, with 80% of the students drawn locally. Recruit capable foreign teachers, not the dozen or so through the Fulbright Program but hundreds as they do in Japan.

I was visiting Terengganu back in the 1980s and saw a beautiful campus for a Petronas International School. It was later abandoned as few expatriates wanted to live there. Instead of letting local children use that facility, Petronas boarded it up, complete with laboratories, libraries and luxurious teachers’ quarters.

There are many lessons from the state elections. Fear of the Islamists taking over Malaysia is not of them. – August 18, 2023.

* M. Bakri Musa reads The Malaysian Insight.

* 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.