Beyond Lee Kuan Yew’s Visit
The problem with MM Lee Kuan Yew's visit to Malaysia is that it elicited two types of responses. One is the bashful adulation which leads many people to find greatness by association.
Meetings with Mr Lee were accordingly turned into publicity spectacles probably used to supplant political prestige. Two, the visit also elicited unflattering condemnation.
Both types of responses prevent our leaders from seeing beyond Lee Kuan Yew. The ethos which Mr Lee represents was lost either in the gushing effusion of adulation or rejected outright on account of revulsion.
What Mr Lee is doing is perhaps to gauge firsthand, the thinking of a representative cross section of the people in Malaysia. Can Malaysia compete with Singapore given the political leadership, economic policies, its resolve, civil service and the social discipline that it has? He has seen people from the government of the day, the opposition, even the PM's wife. He has already sized up the potential of Malaysia and her position with Singapore. He would come back and say- No threat.
In the meantime, the groundswell of public perceptions especially among the Malay grassroots is marginalised. Maybe our leaders have not heard this. Or if they have heard, they pretend it's not true. It's like Dato Nazri Aziz saying, he doubts the poll on corruption. Of course it's dubious if it's damning you. The unmistakable voices from the grassroots are saying UMNO is no longer believable. But then, as Dato Nazri says, that is doubtful.
