Scratching the itch makes good Malaysian politics

Umar Mukhtar

I should be heaving a long sigh of relief. A major, major scandal involving public funds is about to unravel. A Prime Minister, purportedly to be the architect, may be replaced. But I know deep in my heart that first, the unraveling of the scandal is not bringing the money back. And it is a lot of money, that can make a whole lot of difference to the many whe need it most.

Second, and worse still, I know that the replacing of the Prime Minister does not mean it is not going to happen again. The next guy will do it again. And the next guy, again. The way it was done before and before this. We never wanted to know when it happens really. This time, it was a bit too garish to ignore. Maybe it’s going to be done a bit differently in the future, but it’s stealing nevertheless.

We are the ones who are going let it happen. We can’t help it. It’s about being Malaysian. About being victims of circumstances, and never having the courage to be the masters of our destiny. It is a tale of meaningless, stupid one-up-manship – a sordid tale that reduces our existence to mere slavery of the fears and the exploitation of those fears by the unscrupulous.

A fact that we never want to admit is that these things can and do happen because our loyalties have been manipulated to be unnecessarily protective, and apologetic and defensive of the kind of people whom we somehow believe are our protectors against the ruthless ‘enemy’. And the ultimate enemy are those people of the other race, be it Chinese, or Indian or Malay.

For as long as these unscrupulous people who call themselves leaders can fall back to  playing up the fears cultivated by racism, that is how long we will remain their slaves. Right now the Malay leaders seem to be the bulk of the culprits. But don’t kid yourself. The little bit of power won by the Chinese have shown glimpses of the disease. Their power too was won to a big extent, which most of us don’t want to admit, through pangs of racism.

So they get away with a lot of crap. Denouncing them would mean ingratitude, silliness and leaving oneself naked, and unprotected to the awaiting evil intentions of the other race. And we buy that. For decades we have bought that. Anyone choosing to opt out of the racket is deemed a sell-out, a crazy maverick, perhaps even a communist, an agnostic or simply mad.

In the midst of this madness, a clever megalomaniac twisted our society’s defect into an opportunity, and intitutionalise it. Then he painstakingly, over 22 years, crept it within racism for protection, a governing style what is now recognised as Mahathirism. Najib Razak will go down because he is a traitor to Mahathirism. Not just because of corruption. They did them too. And it was okay.

When Najib does fall, presiding over his downfall with his cynical evil smirk will be our enemy of rational thinking, Mahathir himself. And close behind him celebrating, ironically, is his supposed enemy, Lim Kit Siang. Both will seem to be happy together at the capitulation of evil. And we will all celebrate, conveniently ignoring the elephant in the room. To notice may make one act, and to act means to be isolated and ridiculed.

Nah, Najib’s ouster is only the scratching of the symptomatic itch of the skin – the dirty blood that causes it still flows to keep the evil that embodies these two to continue being relevant till the next cycle. One needs the other. And there will be another Najib or Ngeh or Nga. This is the racist Malaysia that feeds on or from the corrupt Malaysia. One powers the other.

Eradicating corruption may be possible. But without eradicating racism first, it is highly improbable. And they won’t even let you try This is the Malaysia that I will leave for my children. So very sad. But maybe they will see the light.