Ku Li’s impossible 1946 dream
Today, corruption is the fastest route to power, position, and wealth. Politics is not about serving your race, religion, and country but about attaining power, position, and wealth. That is what Umno under Mahathir taught the Malays. And the Malays have learned well from the leadership by example or kepimpinan melalui teladan of the Umno leadership over the last 40 years.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah a.k.a. Ku Li wants to bring Umno back to its glory days of 1946 (READ MORE HERE). That’s like an old English gentleman wanting to bring England back to the days of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria when Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong were founded.
Those days are long gone and can never be brought back. England is on its final days and in time will be just another footnote in history, just like the Persian, Greek, Roman and Ottoman Empires which hidup segan mati tak mahu.
Umno was founded in 1946 for a reason and that reason no longer exists. The semangat of Umno in 1946 has vanished.
In the 1955 election two years before Merdeka, there were only 1 million voters, 59% or 590,000 who voted for Umno and 82% who voted for the Alliance Party. In the May 2018 general election, only 20% of the voters voted for Umno while 36% voted for Barisan Nasional. The other three Malay parties garnered a total of 3.4 million votes, more than Umno’s 2.5 million votes.
Times have changed, values have changed, and priorities have changed. Umno, as what it was in 1946, has no place in these modern times. Umno must change or else get left behind. You cannot go back. You need to go forward. That is the sad fact of reality.
The change in values and priorities started when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad took over as Prime Minister in 1981. Deputy Prime Minister Tun Musa Hitam told the Malays they must no longer be segan about being kurang ajar. Mahathir told the Malays life is about making lots of money and about being richer than the immigrant Chinese who stole what belongs to the Malays and who have reduced the Malays to hamba di negara sendiri (slaves in their own country).
That was 40 years ago, meaning two generations ago. Since then, the Malays have been brainwashed or indoctrinated into believing that only money counts, all other values can take a hike. Even Islam is secondary to wealth, position, and power.
The end justifies the means (matlamat menghalalkan cara). You must win and succeed by hook or by crook.
The Malay of 2021 is not the same Malay of WWII. When the Japanese took over in 1941, we had a different breed of Malays. Now, 80 years later, most of those Malays are dead and what we have in Malaysia are the post-Merdeka, post-1969, post-Reformasi, and post-2000 Malays. These Malays do not speak the language of Ku Li or share the 1946 spirit.
Today, corruption is the fastest route to power, position, and wealth. Politics is not about serving your race, religion, and country but about attaining power, position, and wealth. That is what Umno under Mahathir taught the Malays. And the Malays have learned well from the leadership by example or kepimpinan melalui teladan of the Umno leadership over the last 40 years.
