Why Malaysians are silly

By MT Webmaster Last updated Aug 25, 2014

Maybe power struggles are good in a way. That allows you to get distracted from the real issue. And the real issue is Malaysians live a very pathetic life. Malaysians are actually quite poor but they do not realise they are poor. And because Malaysians are so focused on politics the fact that they live a pathetic life does not trouble them.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Since the beginning of this year, Malaysians have been embroiled in the internal power struggle involving PKR. Yes, this is precisely what the Kajang Move is all about, an internal power struggle in PKR.

PAS has seen and is still seeing an internal power struggle (and the one-name versus two-names for MB confusion in PAS is the result of that power struggle). DAP, too, has seen a power struggle. And this power struggle is not over yet. They are only waiting to see what the RoS is going to do to DAP before they commence fighting.

And both PAS and DAP have seen more than one power struggle over the last 35-40 years since the 1970s — only that many of you may be too young or were not born yet at that time so you are not too aware of this.

So the Selangor MB Crisis is not really a crisis regarding the Menteri Besar. It is a power struggle between three groups in PKR and the post of MB is just being used or exploited as the medan perang, as the Malays would say, or the battlefield to determine which group is going to end up the winner.

However, while PKR slugs it out to determine who is eventually going to end up controlling the party, Malaysians from all walks of life are getting dragged in and are getting very involved and emotional about the matter.

That is why I say Malaysians are silly.

Will the final outcome of this power struggle change your life? If Khalid Ibrahim stays as MB or Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail or Azmin Ali takes over will that make your life better?

A security guard or worker in a restaurant in Malaysia will still be earning around RM1,000 or so a month while the same job in the UK will give you £1,000 or so a month.

If the Malaysian security guard or worker in a restaurant wants to buy a BMW 3 series, he or she would have to pay an equivalent of around 27 years of his or her salary. And if he or she wants to buy a terrace house in an upper-middle class neighbourhood he or she will have to pay an equivalent of 80 years of his or her salary.

In the UK, that same security guard or worker in a restaurant would have to pay an equivalent of two years salary for the BMW 3 series and the equivalent of about ten years salary for a three-bedroom house.

Of course, we should not compare it to London because London does not really reflect UK costs. That is why many Brits live in other cities, some even as far as Birmingham, and commute by train to London every day.

Oh, and the road tax on your BMW will be only four days of your salary and you can drive from one end of the UK to the other on big highways without paying a single penny in toll charges. And on a one-to-one basis, the cost of fuel is almost the same, as is the cost of cigarettes.

So who cares who becomes the new Selangor MB or whether Selangor is even going to get a new MB. Is your life going to improve? Can you live and live well for RM1,000 a month like you can in the UK for £1,000 a month?

Even if you earn RM5,000 a month you are still poor (especially if you have a wife and children) while in the UK with £5,000 a month you can live it up, take overseas holidays every summer, and much more.

I only wear Polo shirts here (never used to when I was back in Malaysia) because they are bloody cheap here at £30-40 (one day’s salary) while in Malaysia they sell for about RM800 (almost a month’s salary — bloody crazy).

Girls carry Prada handbags, which will set them back about two weeks’ salary, while in Malaysia you need to blow five or six months of your salary. Prada purses, which will blow two or three months of your salary in Malaysia is only three or four days of your salary here in the UK.

So, as I said, even if the internal power struggle in PKR ends and they finally decide who the MB is going to be, how does that make your life better? Should you not focus on your quality of life and your purchasing power rather than get dragged in to the internal power struggle in PKR?

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK