Are we overlooking Ku Li to our detriment?
It appears that none of the mainstream political leaders can put us together. All of them seem to want a winner-take-all victory. They forget about the losing minority and how they will fare.
UMAR MUKHTAR
Sometimes when you face a wall that blocks your move forward, you have no choice but to dig deeper into your pockets for that something that can trigger a solution.
Malaysians are generally in that position today. Faced with the realities that a mob of self-serving hoods are occupying positions of power, and an uprising that conveniently employs sectarian biases are threatening to destroy the fabric that put this country together, we can do with some innovative thinking.
The pain is like, if one supports the issues that fall within the belief system of one side, one is viewed automatically an undesirable to the other side. For example, if you believe in greater transparency about 1MDB, you are a lackey of the racists in DAP. Similarly, if you are game to experiment with another penal system close to your personal belief system and foreign to the anglo-saxon justice that we are used to, you are viewed as that close-minded person that cannot discern everyday realities. And so on and so forth.
Are our differences so fractious? Or are they purposely made to look fractious so that racial and religious sensitivities can be employed to support these demagogues’ arguments? There has got to be a solution to temper these mischievous tendencies. Otherwise, nothing good can come out of it and Malaysia is doomed.
On the fair assumption that prominent players carry with them the caricatures of what they fight for, it appears that none of the mainstream political leaders can put us together. All of them seem to want a winner-take-all victory. They forget about the losing minority and how they will fare.
So let’s look outside the box, beyond this apparent two-party crap that hold us at ransom to limited choices of solutions. One solution outside the box would be Dr Mahathir or his nominee. But Dr Mahathir has outlived his leverages of influence in his old party to make any significant dent and has stepped on too many toes to attract new fans.
So why not a mild-mannered man of all seasons who does not instill the fear of marginalisation, of revenge, of undying enmity between ordinary Malaysians. Tengku Razaleigh may be a bit advanced in age but his reasonableness and moderation has been consistent in his decades of political life.
Look at him hard. Is he someone who can put us together? Is he the one opposing sides can trust? Does he speak sense, not that “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” simpleton’s rhetoric? He may not be your dashing go-getter but he can charm you out of your vote if you give him the chance. His vast experience, his empathy and his affinity to all that are Malaysian is legendary.
He has no political machinery of his own after long ago scrapping it for mainstream politics which in the end marginalised his talents. Malaysians need to adopt him so that he can be free of the restraining bonds of patronage. How do we do that? That’s for him to know and for us to find out. Talk to him. He had two adversaries that cramped his style; Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim. Both can now be written off, not through his doing though.
We need a peace-maker. He is a natural choice for that. However brief. In fact it was his short stints as a maverick which he was unaccustomed to that spoiled his amiable style and hurt his image. He is the last of the Mohicans that we have the good fortune to be our solution.
Or we can doggedly confront each other negatively for decades on end. And then win over a people weakened by decades of hatred and unfounded righteousness. By then the world would have passed us by and our suffering grandchildren a reminder of a perverted ancestry.
