Dear Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim

I started this piece by laying out your track record to remind all of us that you have contributed immensely to the nation. However, that one slip, if I may be permitted to call it that, is going to tarnish everything that you have done. Malaysians will never remember the 1,000 good things that you did. They will only remember the one thing that you did, which they do not agree with.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dear Tunku, in 1998, you helped found Transparency International-Malaysia, the local chapter of Transparency International (TI), and soon after that you were elected the vice chairman of TI's Board of Directors, a position you held until October 2002.

No one can deny the role you played in fighting corruption and in promoting good governance in the Asia region, including propagating corporate governance, something severely lacking in Malaysia. Being a member of the Kedah Royal Family, that also links you to His Majesty the Agong, although you may be not that closely linked to the ruling family.

You served as a member of the World Bank High Level Advisory Group on Anti-Corruption in the East Asia and Pacific Region, the Asia Pacific Advisory Panel on Good Urban Governance, the Board of the International Institute of Public Ethics, and the United Nations Development Programme Advisory Panel for the 2002 Human Development Report.

From February 2006 to January 2007, you served in New York as special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan. During your tenure, you set up the UN Ethics Office.

These are certainly most impressive credentials by any standards and it is no wonder that DAP not only wanted you as its member but immediately appointed you as the party Vice Chairman on top of that.

I must admit, though, that I was quite puzzled as to why you decided in 2008 to become politically active. For 14 years you had fought for the same thing that we are fighting for. And, just like many of us, you chose to fight outside the political arena rather than within it. Then you went and became a politician.

Knowing your background and understanding how you think, I suspected that you may not have the political culture required to become a good politician, although how one would define ‘good’ is another matter altogether. 

My late father was born in 1925. You were born nine years later in 1934. You studied in England, as did my father. You worked for a British multi-national, as did my father. And both you and my father are not only members of the royal family but are pre-Merdeka Malays -- where Malays of that era, especially those from the elite class and products of a British education, were more English than Englishmen. 

Hence, while I do not know you that well -- I only met you in 2008 -- I do know what my father was like and I do understand what made Malays, in particular ‘elite’ Malays of that era, tick. And unless I am terribly wrong, you probably have the same heart and mind as my father. And because of that you are certainly not suited for a career in politics. 

Please do not get me wrong, Tunku. My father hated Umno, although almost all his contemporaries joined Umno and became members of the new post-Merdeka government in 1957. There was hardly a single corporate chief, senior civil servant, or political leader of that era who did not know my father. But he refused to join the government either as a civil servant or a politician. He just did not believe in politics.

That did not mean he did not vote though. And he not only voted but he voted opposition as well, Gerakan to be precise. But that was only because Gerakan was then an opposition party and a party of what he regarded as intellectuals from a mixed-racial background.

My father was already 1Malaysia and anti-Umno long before the concept became popular. Unfortunately, my father died in 1971 before he could retire or else I believe he may have even become politically active with the opposition had he lived until retirement age, like you did, Tunku. Sometimes I think it is maybe fortunate that he died in 1971 before he could see Gerakan join Barisan Nasional, which, I am sure, would have broken his heart.

My father was so proud that he voted Gerakan he would tell the whole world that he did so, much to my mother’s horror who would tell him to shush. He had high hopes that the days of racial politics had come to an end and that the future lies with multi-racial parties like Gerakan, which was headed by a whole bunch of intellectuals.

And I suppose that is why I think the way I think and do things that I do. My father’s ‘indoctrination’ had a lasting affect on me and made me into what I am today, whether that is a good or bad I really do not know.

Anyway, what I wanted to say is: knowing my father, and hence knowing you as well -- unless I am wrong in my assessment -- it may be prudent that you gracefully resign from DAP. Since what you stand for is not quite what DAP also stands for, your graceful exit on the understanding that you have agreed to disagree would mean you can still remain friends although you may not quite share the same views.

I started this piece by laying out your track record to remind all of us that you have contributed immensely to the nation. However, that one slip, if I may be permitted to call it that, is going to tarnish everything that you have done. Malaysians will never remember the 1,000 good things that you did. They will only remember the one thing that you did, which they do not agree with.

The trouble with you, Tunku, is that you think like an Englishman. Hence, if it is not cricket, as they say in England, you will speak your mind. But in politics you can’t do that. You need to toe the party line. You have to do what is good for the party. And if you can’t do this then you have no business being in the party.

I trust what I say will be taken in the spirit it has been said. I certainly mean no disrespect. The fact that I have drawn parallels between you and my father demonstrates the tremendous respect I have for you. It is just that the longer you remain in DAP the more they will demonise you. And for someone who has done so much for the nation you really do not deserve the things they are saying about you or what they are doing to you.

I do hope we can one day meet again, maybe here in the UK, where we can shoot the breeze and talk about the good old days when Malays and Malaysians in general were decent human beings who put the nation above self-interest.

Till we next meet, Tunku, may salam to you and the family.