Najib, Alibaba and the 'Flying Pig'
The future is yellow. Najib Abdul Razak’s infamous slogan, ‘You help me, I help you’, has been exported to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where Najib’s ailing 1MDB has been given a lifeline.
Najib stands with Jack Ma on one side and his spouse, Rosmah on the other. The contrast is particularly galling. Jack Ma is a self-made billionaire, Najib became one after a RM2.6 billion Arab ‘donation’, whilst ‘she’ is a ‘self-styled’ First Lady of Malaysia (Flom) and can induce a billion headaches.
Najib’s trip is a victory for people with vested interests, but the Malaysian taxpayer will bear the cost. Signing 14 deals worth RM144 billions with PRC industrialists, is like opening the floodgates to the PRC. It is a betrayal of Malaysia. He has openly snubbed Malaysians of Chinese descent, and his worshippers, the Malay nationalists and Ketuanan Melayu types, at the same time.
For many years, he encouraged the red-shirts and ministers like Ismail Sabri Yaakob to criticise Chinese Malaysians.
Whilst these two groups confronted one other at the front door, Najib quietly invited the PRC to enter via the back door, and told them to make themselves at home.
Chinese Malaysians have been blamed for everything from the high cost of cooking oil to chickens, from fish to flour. With more PRC visitors and workers arriving soon, who will the red-shirts blame for the increased cost of goods and services?
Despite the Islamic ties, the Arabisation of the Malays, the Wahhabi ideology practiced at home, Najib turned his back on the Saudis. With depleted oil reserves, and the Saudi taps running dry, it did not take long for Najib to turn to the east, in a move which mirrors that of a former PM.
Angered by the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) case, Najib sought vengeance by aligning himself with the PRC. Perhaps, he thought he could wrest control of many of the disputed islands in the South China Sea by jumping into bed with the PRC.
Whilst in China, Najib appointed Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, to advise the Malaysian government on Malaysia's digital economy and its e-commerce activities.
This should be a marriage made in heaven, as Malaysians are no strangers to Ali Babas.
First, is the well-known story about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from ‘The Tale of the Arabian Nights’.
A victory for people with vested interests.
The future is yellow. Najib Abdul Razak’s infamous slogan, ‘You help me, I help you’, has been exported to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), where Najib’s ailing 1MDB has been given a lifeline.
Najib stands with Jack Ma on one side and his spouse, Rosmah on the other. The contrast is particularly galling. Jack Ma is a self-made billionaire, Najib became one after a RM2.6 billion Arab ‘donation’, whilst ‘she’ is a ‘self-styled’ First Lady of Malaysia (Flom) and can induce a billion headaches.
Najib’s trip is a victory for people with vested interests, but the Malaysian taxpayer will bear the cost. Signing 14 deals worth RM144 billions with PRC industrialists, is like opening the floodgates to the PRC. It is a betrayal of Malaysia. He has openly snubbed Malaysians of Chinese descent, and his worshippers, the Malay nationalists and Ketuanan Melayu types, at the same time.
For many years, he encouraged the red-shirts and ministers like Ismail Sabri Yaakob to criticise Chinese Malaysians.
Whilst these two groups confronted one other at the front door, Najib quietly invited the PRC to enter via the back door, and told them to make themselves at home.
Chinese Malaysians have been blamed for everything from the high cost of cooking oil to chickens, from fish to flour. With more PRC visitors and workers arriving soon, who will the red-shirts blame for the increased cost of goods and services?
Despite the Islamic ties, the Arabisation of the Malays, the Wahhabi ideology practiced at home, Najib turned his back on the Saudis. With depleted oil reserves, and the Saudi taps running dry, it did not take long for Najib to turn to the east, in a move which mirrors that of a former PM.
Angered by the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ) case, Najib sought vengeance by aligning himself with the PRC. Perhaps, he thought he could wrest control of many of the disputed islands in the South China Sea by jumping into bed with the PRC.
Whilst in China, Najib appointed Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, to advise the Malaysian government on Malaysia's digital economy and its e-commerce activities.
This should be a marriage made in heaven, as Malaysians are no strangers to Ali Babas.
First, is the well-known story about Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, from ‘The Tale of the Arabian Nights’.
Familiar business arrangement
Second, is the familiar business arrangement which thrived under former PM Mahathir Mohamad. The Malay businessman (Ali) is awarded a government contract. He sub-contracts the work to a non-Malay (Baba) company. Ali earns a commission for the use of his name. Baba benefits from technology transfer, networking, business contacts and experience. Ali is content to be idle, in exchange for a commission.
A smaller scale arrangement happens in markets or Malay shopping malls like Wisma Yakin. The licence for the stall is in the name of a bumiputera. The industrious Indonesian or Bangladeshi migrant worker makes several thousand ringgits, but the Malay stall holder is content to earn a few thousand ringgit for the use of his name.
Will the same Ali-Baba arrangement be used in the mega projects signed by Najib and the PRC businesses? Will PRC workers be preferred over Malaysians? Malaysian ‘pendatangs’ have an advantage because they speak the same language as the PRC taikos.
Why are the Ketuanan Melayu types silent? Are they regrouping? Will they demand more ‘donations’, or team-up with Mahathir to get rid of Najib?
The three ‘Cs’ - Chinese, communists and Christian, have been a useful, catch-all excuse for blame. Najib and the inspector-general of police (IGP), Khalid Abu Bakar, banned the interment of Malayan Communist Party (MCP) leader Chin Peng’s ashes in his family crypt in Sitiawan.
Perhaps, dead communists are considered more dangerous than living ones. Chin Peng had the last laugh, because he died on Malaysia Day, and Najib is now paying homage to Beijing.
More visitors from the PRC will invariably cause an influx of China Dolls. Will ‘Immigration’ scrutinise every single PRC woman entering Malaysia?
How will the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) handle the Chinese fondness for pigs? Last week, a PRC Muslim urged Alibaba to restore the name of its original travel booking App to ‘Alitrip’. The name of the App had been changed to ‘Flying Pig’ in Chinese (the English name is ‘Fliggy’).
The Muslim Uighur businessman, Adil Memettur, said that the pig was considered taboo to Muslims. Other Chinese ridiculed Adil Memettur and asked if the pig should be erased from popular culture and literature.
One critic said, “We each have our own way of life; we do not force you to live according to our rules, but you cannot force us to change the law.”
Jakim will have to brace itself for a furious backlash from over a billion PRC citizens if it dares to criticise the pig or anything that is common to Chinese tradition, cuisine, literature or folklore.
Perhaps, Najib is doing Malaysians a favour by making Jakim and extremist Malays become more humble and tolerant.
It was also reported that Najib will meet the owners of the Wanda Group and Tencent Holdings, to help boost Malaysia’s economy.
This may confuse the Umno-Baruputras. We already have many local ‘TenCent’ franchise holders. If unsubstantiated reports are to be believed, the spouses of MBs are always known as ‘Mrs TenPercent’, for obvious reasons.
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, Twitter.
