Success is only for the cronies
Frank CastigleonePublished: Mar 28, 2001 11:34 PM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 10:21 AM
I would like to comment on the letter written by Jeffrey ([#1]The other side of the mahafir'aun[/#], March 27). Having spent some years in the UK for my degree, I have both external and internal perspectives of Malaysia.
To understand the Malay reprisal and upheaval, you must see the situation from our perspective. I can 'see' the writer's perspective from his letter. When I was an Umno supporter, that was what I saw five years ago, too, thanks to the continuous propaganda and conditioning by our blatantly biased media.
When I was in the UK, I was a high-ranking member of the UK Eire Umno Club. Name a minister and chances are, I had met him. I flew there with an Umno flag in my bag and hung the flag in my flat for three years. All this passion came from deeply believing what Umno was before, the Umno of the 1960s and 1970s, when affirmative action meant real help to the poor Malays. Felda, Felcra, Mada, Kejora, Ketengah and many more such as Tabung Haji, Permodalan Nasional Bhd were established for the nation and nation building.
But that was then. Coming back to Malaysia with this fire, this desire within me to work and help the Malays through Umno, I tried to work through the channels but alas, reality bites. The present Umno never really cared about the Malays. Whatever affirmative action was just an impetus. Those institutions were established before Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time. Nothing new has been done since then. If anything, it is done for the cronies.
The government's role is to govern and manage the people and the country's resources, not to take advantage of the people. As its CEO, Mahathir has turned the country into a business, capitalist in principle and driven by profit. Governing means to bring welfare, not to profit at the expense of the masses.
Success is not measured by towering buildings, ultra-slick racetracks, and metropolis-like airports. We measure success by literacy and poverty levels, purchasing power, low crime rate and other holistic gauges.
The Malays do not care if we have the Twin Towers - we might never set foot in it for the rest of our lives. Nor do we care about the Sepang F1 circuit - what we want is better education, cheaper living expenses, lower crime rate and other unmeasurable tangible things that make a nation great. What we do in life echoes in eternity (Maximus).
Come down and talk to the rural folk, the ones who toil the soil, who go to sea, praying that they may come back safe and sound.
On that fateful day in September 1998, I jumped off the fence to the other side. To say I was frustrated is an understatement.
As for all the writer's other arguments, I shall leave it be as ample rebuttals can be found in the alternative media including malaysiakini.
To understand the Malay reprisal and upheaval, you must see the situation from our perspective. I can 'see' the writer's perspective from his letter. When I was an Umno supporter, that was what I saw five years ago, too, thanks to the continuous propaganda and conditioning by our blatantly biased media.
When I was in the UK, I was a high-ranking member of the UK Eire Umno Club. Name a minister and chances are, I had met him. I flew there with an Umno flag in my bag and hung the flag in my flat for three years. All this passion came from deeply believing what Umno was before, the Umno of the 1960s and 1970s, when affirmative action meant real help to the poor Malays. Felda, Felcra, Mada, Kejora, Ketengah and many more such as Tabung Haji, Permodalan Nasional Bhd were established for the nation and nation building.
But that was then. Coming back to Malaysia with this fire, this desire within me to work and help the Malays through Umno, I tried to work through the channels but alas, reality bites. The present Umno never really cared about the Malays. Whatever affirmative action was just an impetus. Those institutions were established before Dr Mahathir Mohamad's time. Nothing new has been done since then. If anything, it is done for the cronies.
The government's role is to govern and manage the people and the country's resources, not to take advantage of the people. As its CEO, Mahathir has turned the country into a business, capitalist in principle and driven by profit. Governing means to bring welfare, not to profit at the expense of the masses.
Success is not measured by towering buildings, ultra-slick racetracks, and metropolis-like airports. We measure success by literacy and poverty levels, purchasing power, low crime rate and other holistic gauges.
The Malays do not care if we have the Twin Towers - we might never set foot in it for the rest of our lives. Nor do we care about the Sepang F1 circuit - what we want is better education, cheaper living expenses, lower crime rate and other unmeasurable tangible things that make a nation great. What we do in life echoes in eternity (Maximus).
Come down and talk to the rural folk, the ones who toil the soil, who go to sea, praying that they may come back safe and sound.
On that fateful day in September 1998, I jumped off the fence to the other side. To say I was frustrated is an understatement.
As for all the writer's other arguments, I shall leave it be as ample rebuttals can be found in the alternative media including malaysiakini.
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