Reading the 10th Malaysia Plan
The philosophers journalists have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
People are just simply tired at being treated as dumb. They read between the lines. This makes the one way direction of old school journalism, steeped in its tradition of reporting simpliciter, sans analysis, sans critical assessment, being sidelined. Along with it, the peddlers of the old school.
The reading public now demands critical diet. This is part of the effects of reverse mental migration. People in the kampongs have sons and daughters, millions of them now, working in the cities bringing back with them new ideas and outlook. Old people, previously relied on by UMNO to moderate and control young minds, are now wising up. They get to know, through the agency of their children; how government is and should be run. More important bringing with them, challenges to the low culture.
Low culture being the simplistic perceptions by which, ordinary people see things. Example: in the past, people see UMNO as the only political party capable of representing and articulating Malay interests or that UMNO represents the one and only true version of Malay interest. Let’s call them the Tun Razak generation. To these people UMNO is Malay and Malay is UMNO. Simple and low culture.
The most important effect of reverse mental migration, the most important as I see it, is the demolition of UMNO’s monopoly on the mind of the Malays. Instead of accepting UMNO as savior, they accept the POSSIBILITY that UMNO uses the language of the besieged in order to subjugate Malays mentally. UMNO knows only one set of thinking- Malays are threatened here and there. The minority is plotting to overthrow the Malays and so forth. The present day generation asks- which Malays? The privileged or the ordinary Malays? Who allowed the wealth to be controlled by a minority helped along by Malay rent seekers?
I want to write with a caveat. This is not finalized yet. I shall wait for feedback from the public. This commentary on the thick book referred to as the 10th Malaysia Plan is just to show you that I am not sleeping as the former PM. I am wide awake.
