Nation Building In Malaysia - Did it Actually Take-Off?

 Nation Building In Malaysia - Did it Actually Take-Off?

I refer to a statement from Housing and Local Government Minister Dato Sri Dr. Sim Kui Hian dated 1st Oct 2021 and carried by the Borneo Post and also to a statement from Minister for Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah dated the 29th Oct 2021. Both statements referred  to are in relation the ongoing Timah Whisky controversy. 

Both statements alludes to the adverse effects on racial harmony in Malaysia caused by the numerous comments made by netizens on the issue. 

Many have dismissed the furore the controversy has raised, saying it was purposely stirred by some quarters to distract the general Malaysian public from the Pandora Papers and more specifically, the muslim population in Malaysia from the RUU355 issue. 

The leadership of PAS had promised their constituents that RUU355 would be among  their top priority once they are the federal government or part of the federal government. They are now part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) federal government, together with the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) but the RUU355 has not been tabled in parliament. In the meantime, the Melaka state election has been scheduled for the 20th Nov 2021 and PAS has announced that they will be contesting in the elections.

What I would like do here is to sincerely invite all Malaysians in general and Sarawakians in particular, to reflect on where our Malaysian society is heading in terms of nation building and what we can do to head-off the slide into national decay stage 4.

There is plenty of evidence to indicate that the Rukun Negara (National Principles), built on what has been referred to as the ‘ 7 Pillars of the Nation’ was crafted and agreed upon by our early leaders to be the building block of our nation. One such evidence is to be found in our education system. Malaysian students, from their earliest years in school were drilled in the Rukun Negara. The back page of exercise books had the Rukun Negara printed on it.

We could have easily find ourselves  in our own utopia had our leaders, both in the present and in the yesteryear internalised the ideals of the Rukun Negara and conduct themselves by it. Unfortunately for us the common man on the street, they did not.

The state in which we find ourselves today is saddening to say the least. Malaysians have become so polarized around race and most especially around religion that sometimes it seems that Malaysia is no longer the haven that Malaysians, of diverse racial and religious backgrounds, had hoped for. When a sitting Prime Minister saw it fit to attend a massive and chauvinistic gathering of one particular racial group in which other races were   derided and when an MP saw it fit to bring bigotry to our legislative body by running down Christianity in parliament and subsequently refusing to apologize for that most offensive act, it becomes difficult to continue to pretend that all is well in Malaysia.  

The recently started and still ongoing Timah whisky controversy, into which two of our state ministers have waded, seems to indicate that Malaysia is firmly on the road to becoming an apartheid state where the interest and well being of other races is subjugated to the interest and well being of just one particular race. 

Many of our leaders appears to have forgotten that respecting the sensitivities of others is a two way street. Appreciating that fact, internalizing it and practising it is what caused someone to earn the respect of another who is of a different racial and religious background.

Today just listening to patriotic songs on the radio can become  an excruciatingly painful experience.

When PM Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob launched his Keluarga Malaysia concept on the 8th Oct 2021, he said that the concept was founded upon the Rukun Negara. There was hope that this Keluarga Malaysia concept will prove to be the beginning of the reversal from the slide into total decay for Malaysia. Sadly the national Budget 2022 quickly put an end into the illusion of a better tomorrow. 

Budget 2022 allocated RM11.4 BILLION for empowering the Bumiputra, a term or acronym which dayaks in Sarawak understand not to include them. The children of Sarawak and  Sabah were allocated a combined sum of RM10 million to enable them to better understand culture and heritage. 

Of  the RM75.6 billion allocated for development expenditure, Sarawak was given a measly RM4.6 billion or just 6.08% of the total allocation. It must also be pointed out here that in 2020, Sarawak was the 4th largest contributor to the national GDP. And just to further emphasize the point, the size of Sarawak, at 124,449 km sq , is 94% of the size of Malaya. The injustice in the development budget allocated to Sarawak is as glaring as the mid-day sun. 

In short, the answer to the malady that we are wallowing in now is not to be found with the PN federal government or any other government led by the ultras from UMNO and from PAS or from any other Malaya based political parties that does not have the stomach to reign in the ultras within their ranks.

Believe it or not, this terrible state that Sarawak is in today is our own doing. Too many Sarawakians choose to elect leaders whose mouths are closed up almost immediately after they win in an election and becomes part of the government. 

Today we see some of our elected representatives in the upper echelon of the government, after realizing that they are under close scrutiny, taking to social media to express their disagreement with their colleagues who brazenly continue to tear at the fabrics of our Malaysian society with their inflammatory statements and actions. Some have taken to quoting  verses from the holy scriptures of their religion to discourage their constituents from certain acts that has the potential of triggering the so-called sensitivities of their colleagues. 

Among the acts discouraged is drinking alcoholic drink.

These ‘ leaders ‘ have failed to realize that we elected them to be our voice in the legislative bodies that we elected them into and it is not their ‘ melepas batuk di tepi tangga ‘ that we need to rescue us.

I now called upon our leaders to both recognize this predicament that we are in and the need for them to be effective voices for us whom they represent. Accordingly, they must start to act and taIk in parliament and in Sarawak’s DUN the way we need them to - fearless and single-minded in voicing our needs. It is not enough for them to be just facilitators of development projects in their respective areas.