The fallacy of Najib’s 1Malaysia
The 1Malaysia we hear about is the 1Malaysia of Najib’s design – not your 1Malaysia or my 1Malaysia.
By Subramaniam Bharathi
The casualties of this 1Malaysia initiative are inevitably going to be UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and anyone else aligned behind this design. In fact, Najib’s design is so self-compelling that the outcome in my opinion is very predictable – a complete rout of UMNO and all its conniving partners in a few years.
The people are demanding an end to treacherous rule, each in their own ways (the Malay people want an end to corruption, the Chinese people want recognition as equals, the Indian people want a just and fairer life) and have spoken that they want this country ruled according to sound governing principles. But Najib’s 1Malaysia has paradigm paralysis on this count – he just cannot, or to put it another way, just won’t see it any other way. Najib continues with his intrigues. Najib is driving in the opposite direction.
At the very beginning of his watch, it was the coup in Perak. Then his decision not to allow by-elections – not in a literal sense but in an essential sense. Now he is trying a game of “if you cannot beat them, then split them” with the tacit support he has provided to the formation of a party by an opportunist, Thanenthiran. Thanenthiran held the reins of Hindraf for a brief period by an unfortunate turn of events arising from the incarceration and exile of its leaders, which he is now using to try to carve out, for himself, a future with Najib.
What all of them fail to realize is that the people are very much more mature and in the know of things and are not easily misled – especially those in the urban areas. The people have expressed their desires in so many areas – in Bukit Gantang, in Bukit Selambau, in Perak, in Penanti, nanti ….
Najib and his coterie are proceeding on the assumption that people have short memories – as Mahathir succinctly put it recently and that anything they do now will be forgotten by 2013. Look at the Keris kissing event; it took place in 2005 but see what the electorate did in 2008 – short memories?? They continue to delude themselves that the people will forget and that by treachery alone they can continue to wield power. Such denial is only going to get them the inevitable – the boot, 1Malaysia notwithstanding.
The people in the urban areas are becoming more savvy, try as you might to keep them fed with lies, but because of the divergence of interests between Najib’s coterie and the people, people have different paradigms and beliefs. People will always only believe what they want to believe – this is a basic truth. The expectations and consciousness of the people of their rights continue to expand to the displeasure and discomfort of the coterie. Najib’s 1Malaysia does not recognize these trends in any substantial way. He is trying to sell old wine in a new bottle – that’s all. Not recognizing that the people have rejected the wine in the bottle altogether.
The latest in the series of Najib’s 1Malaysia intrigue is his approving in a few short weeks a party mooted by someone he should intrinsically consider an enemy. He picks up into his following corrupt politicians, as he did in Perak, as he tried in Kedah as he is doing with this opportunist Thanethiran now. This is his 1Malaysia. This is his paradigm paralysis.
God save Najib.
