It sounds like the propaganda boys of the brand new prime minister have prepared a slew of bright ideas for him. A catchy slogan. Release of ISA detainees. Lifting of newspaper suspensions. They sound pretty good but I’ve got a few questions for Mr. Najib.

1. Does the concept of “One Malaysia” mean that Ketuanan Melayu and mono-ethnic parties that divide the nation will be a thing of the past?

2. Does “People First” mean that the economic policies of Barisan Nasional will benefit all Malaysians and not just the politically connected?

3. Does “Performance Now” mean that we will immediately have good teachers in schools, professional police officers that actually solve crimes and public officials that deliver results?

4. Does the release of the ISA detainees and the lifting of the suspension of opposition newspapers mean that both the Internal Security Act and the Printing Presses and Publications Act will be repealed in the next seating of Parliament?

I must confess that I do believe in miracles; and I certainly would like to believe that Mr. Najib can transcend the 30 years of Umnofication that he has been through, and spare Malaysia any more suffering.

However, for now, pardon me if I remain cynical until I see some real changes in his administration of our nation.

To all my fellow Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, I would like to share passages from two books — one written by a Muslim and the other by a Jew.

The passages from The Eternal Message of Muhammad by Abd al-Rahman Azzam:

“In its modern form, nationalism is a new evil, and racism is worse still; and there is no cure for either except to uproot tens of millions from their present places of residence and confine them to specific geographic areas.”

The Message of Muhammad recognizes neither nationalism nor racism in their modern contexts; the fatherland of the Muslim admits no geographic delimitations—it coextends with the faith. In reality, it is a spiritual fatherland, just as religion is a spiritual matter.”

“Racism, or a fanatic attachment to tribe, nation, color, language, or culture, is rejected by the Message as a product of pre-Islamic idolatry. The prophet declares, “He is not of us who preaches bigotry.” Islam rejects every form of bigotry. All loyalties are directed to the word of God, and no relation above the spiritual is recognized.”

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I found a definition of fascism at PublicEye.org, which says, amongst other things, “fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other loyalties… It seeks to forcibly subordinate all spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community, usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime, fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and control, and uses organized violence to suppress opposition…”

And according to Wikipedia, “fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic, by way of a strong, single-party government for enacting laws and a strong, sometimes brutal militia or police force for enforcing them. Fascism exalts the nation, state, or group of people as superior to the individuals composing it. Fascism uses explicit populist rhetoric; calls for a heroic mass effort to restore past greatness; and demands loyalty to a single leader, leading to a cult of personality and unquestioned obedience to orders.”

The above descriptions sound eerily like what’s happening in Malaysia. And, mind you, the Abdullah regime is not the first in Malaysia to be compared to the fascists. An ex-colleague of mine created a clever photoshop image of a Hitler-like Mahathir about ten years ago.
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This morning, on a whim, I checked out our Opposition Leader’s website, and chanced upon a hot-off-the-press posting by Dr. Chen Man Hin. In his posting, Dr. Chen suggested that the Prime Minister invite Raja Nazrin Shah, the Crown Prince of Perak, to be his personal adviser, in light of the latter’s speech at the first Malaysian Student Leaders Summit 2007.

For what it’s worth, I must say that that’s an ingenius and interesting idea from Dr. Chen. I wonder what Raja Nazrin thinks. (By the way, Raja Nazrin’s credentials are quite impressive. Check out the link to his entry in Wikipedia above.)
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Once again, I’d like to comment on Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s article, but this time, I agree with what he’s saying.

Basically, I agree that “when we go beyond labels such as ‘secular’ and ‘Islamic’ and connect with the substance of our three principal documents we will discover that there is a degree of congruence between the two positions.” And the three documents that Dr. Chandra is talking about are the Federal Constitution, the Rukunegara and Vision 2020.

Now, my question is, how do we move forward from this apparent impasse? It’s very obvious that the current hooha is created by the Deputy Prime Minister for political reasons. Indeed, it’s so idiotic for him to make such a statement that I won’t even go into the so-called debate.
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After chatting with a friend about my blog, I realised that I need to be a bit more positive about things, and also more constructive.

Hence, after some reflection about my “apartheid posting”, I believe there is a better way forward for Malaysia. At least in terms of patching up racial relations between the different ethnic communities.

Actually, I started writing this posting yesterday but had to stop for lunch, meetings and so forth. Anyway, it’s just as well that I didn’t finish it yesterday because I just read Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s comment in the NST this morning. Frankly, I am surprised Dr. Chandra still has so much confidence in the government and the Parliament.
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After reading Patrick Teoh’s blog, I figured we must be a member of the Axis of Stupidity. Niamah, indeed.

Oddly, whilst reading former President Gorbachev’s speech, I was reminded of how “slow” we are. In his speech, Gorbachev commented about the 5½ decades of Cold War – the confrontation, the hostility, sometimes open, sometimes concealed.

Further on in his speech, Gorbachev said:

“We have already graduated from the primary school of instruction in mutual understanding.”

Well, we’ve had 5 decades of Merdeka… Are we even out of kindergarten yet?

‘Nuff said?

What is this country’s authorities up to? It’s like after having concocted an original lie, they now have to keep piling on more lies to cover up the original lie.

What on earth do we need an Institute of Ethnic Relations set up for? Read today’s NST if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

I think most of us know how to have good relations with our neighbours, irrespective of race or colour. I don’t know about the rest of you but my elders, including my teachers and scoutmasters, have taught me to care for people, to be polite, to respect other cultures and so on and so forth.
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Something’s been buzzing in my entire being for sometime now, and I really need to get it out of my system… And to make matters worse, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I guess I’m quite anxious (not excited) that the general elections are just round the corner. The anxiety is partially caused by all the ineffectiveness, inefficiency and incompetence that I observe, and I wonder if we’re ready to face the general elections.

And now I’m getting even more anxious and agitated when I look at the front page of today’s New Straits Times. The actual newspaper has a nice photo lineup with the Prime Minister and all these other supposed members of the ‘Unity Squad’. Another half-baked idea from somebody’s backyard, but a definite sign that elections are just around the corner.
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Don’t know why, but I woke up with this idea in my head. You know, when you’re in that half-awake, half-asleep state, there’s something in your head that just doesn’t go away? Maybe it’s because I bumped my head yesterday at a shopping mall, where they have some stupid doorway that’s only about 5 feet tall!

Anyway, here’s my not-so-new idea: Gerakan, DAP and Keadilan start talks for a merger. It’s not a new idea in the sense that I’ve already mentioned this many times to friends already, and I’m sure some bright sparks out there have thought of this too (and probably dismissed it as some silly fantasy).
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