In his interview with Sin Chew Daily in the past two days, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi made the most sensible and commendable comments on nation-building in Malaysia.
The greatest pity is that he did not adopt them when he has the real power to influence the government and nation in his heyday as Prime Minister.
Firstly, in “Change Or Perish, Pak Lah Tells UMNO”, Sin Chew reported:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Malays have changed their old thinking and value system, only that UMNO seems to have “forgotten” that the Malays have indeed changed.
He said the Malays have changed, but if UMNO remains unwilling to change, then the party will eventually head for destruction.
“UMNO has forgotten that the Malays have changed their own thinking and perspectives. It has forgotten that the Malays have changed their value system. The Malays are no longer what they used to be. They unreservedly express themselves. They even wave the DAP flags!”
Abdullah said during an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily at his private residence in Kuala Lumpur that during his five-year tenure as the prime minister, he has managed to change the mentality of the Malays.
He said young Malays believe they can stand on their own feet, and this is the major value that has changed the young Malays today.
“Young Malays feel that they need the opportunities, so they begin talking about DAP and PKR. They believe they have better opportunities there.”
Secondly, in “Pak Lah: NEP No Longer In Existence”, Sin Chew reported:
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi emphasised that the New Economic Policy is no longer in existence today.“The NEP is a policy which is no longer in existence. The objective of this policy has been to eradicate poverty, as you all know.”
He said during an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily at his private residence in Kuala Lumpur that the way the NEP was implemented had triggered the dissatisfaction among many people, including some Malays, adding that Malaysians needed a more transparent policy and open market.
The first question is whether the rest of the Umno leadership, led by the Umno President-elect and Prime Minister-in-waiting, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, are prepared to publicly endorse Abdullah’s “Umno – Change or Perish” analysis – accepting the reality that when Malays support the DAP or PKR, it is not because they are traitors to the Malay race but because they reject the political fallacy equating “UMNO with Malays and Malays with UMNO”, regarding themselves as Malaysians first and Malays second, just as their other Malaysian counterparts who must regard themselves as Malaysians first and Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans second!
Similarly, does the rest of the Umno leadership led by Najib accept that the New Economic Policy “no longer exists” as it is a specific policy meant for 20 years from 1970 and 1990, although the objectives of eradication of poverty regardless of race and restructuring of society to reflect the country’s multi-racial character in all sectors of society should be continuing programmes.
If this had been Abdullah’s clear-cut nation-building policy and philosophy from the first day he took over as Prime Minister five years ago, the country would have spared many nation-building crises arising from high-handed, arbitrary, hegemonic and most divisive extension of the New Economic Policy till 2020, giving rise to keris-wielding excesses and “ketuanan Melayu” demands.
Will Najib and the rest of the Umno leadership endorse Abdullah’s most sensible philosophy on nation-building, viz:
· that Malays have changed including supporting the DAP to further the legitimate aspirations of the Malays and that UMNO will perish unless Umno could also change; and
· that the New Economic Policy is no longer in existence and the country should no longer be divided by irresponsible calls for the extension of the NEP while the country should continue with its national objectives of poverty eradication and multi-racialisation?
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