An Open Letter To My Prime Minister

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Dear prime minister,
I am 76 years old. I have lived through the growth, the development, the decadence, the deterioration, the destruction, and the despair of my Malaysia, under the watch of all eight of our prime ministers, including your good self, sir.
Starting from Tunku Abdul Rahman, through Abdul Razak Hussein, Hussein Onn, Dr Mahathir Mohamad Ver.01, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib Abdul Razak, Mahathir Ver.02, Muhyiddin Yassin and now you, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
I lived through the post-world war period, the Communist insurgency, the idealistic beginnings of Umno, the heady days of the declaration of Merdeka, the creation of Malaysia, the expulsion of Singapore, the upheavals of May 13, 1969, the National Operations Council period under Razak, the birth of the New Economic Policy, the emergence of Mahathir Ver.01 after the uneventful reign of Hussein, the birth of cronyism, corruption, bigotry, and all that is presently loathsome in Malaysia, under Mahathir’s watch, the sleepy years of Abdullah, the grand larcenies under Najib, the return of Mahathir Ver.02 after the rise of the rakyat in the 14th general election, the treachery of Muhyiddin and the Sheraton Rats, and now the doldrums of your watch.
I am sad that what was once a potential Tiger, is now a broken country, and possibly one of the greatest kleptocracy in the world. And I blame it fully on the bad policies of the rotten political parties running Malaysia over the last half a century.
I blame Malaysia’s decay squarely on the unprincipled Malay leaders that ran this country. I blame them for creating the crony class of rent-seekers. I blame them for using religion in politics. I blame them for the money politics of today.
I blame them for creating disharmony among Malaysians, by portraying Chinese Malaysians as the bogeyman, and the greatest threat to the advancement of the Malays. And most of all, I blame them for dumbing down and frightening the rural Malays, to the extent that they can no longer discern between crooks and saviours, and between charlatans and men of honour and integrity.
The British left us a good Civil Service in 1957, and a good education system based on meritocracy. Admittedly they also left some structural issues that needed to be properly managed, but the post-independence Malays dominated political system, have exacerbated our differences and ruined both the civil service and the education system.
Our children are now educated in a three-silo system, with Chinese children largely in Chinese schools, Malay children in the Malay language national school system, and the children of the wealthy, including the children of ministers, politicians, and the elite, in private schools, where mastery of English is emphasised, besides mastery of the national language.
What is unfair and depressing is that for too long, places and scholarships in our local universities are highly racially skewed in favour of the Malays. Meritocracy is compromised, and bright Malaysian children who are non-bumiputras, are denied places, even though their academic grades are superlative.
I would like to say that not all non-Malays are rich. More children of non-Malay Malaysians who excel academically, with parents who are ordinary, not wealthy Malaysians, must also be given places and scholarships in our local universities.
After more than 50 years of preferential treatment, I believe, it is time that places in our universities should be allocated on meritocracy, and race be taken out of the equation. I believe the Malays are now capable of competing against the non-Malays on a level playing field.
The country needs its best sons and daughters, irrespective of race, to bubble to the top. Only then can our Malaysia compete effectively with other nations, to take our rightful place among successful nations.
Today Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, which were once tiger cubs like us, are rich, developed, and successful world economic powers.
The same cannot be said of us.
Why are we so broken today, with everything we once held dear, in complete tatters?
I believe we are behind the other developed nations today because of the long domination of Malaysian politics by not very honourable, dishonest, and even incompetent and criminally inclined politicians.
Don’t look at the Twin Towers, at Putrajaya, at Proton Saga, the miles and miles of toll roads, overhead LRT lines and flyovers, the traffic jams, the shopping malls, the soulless skyscrapers, and uncontrolled urbanisation, as signs of our development.
Look instead at the rampant corruption, the bigotry, the racism, the death of integrity, honesty, honour and righteousness, the brain drain, the broken education system, the unprincipled politicians, the rent-seeking cronies, the insidious presence of government in business, our shameful designation of being one of the greatest kleptocracy in the world, and also the rape of our environment by the privileged class in timber and mineral extraction.
In the 1995 Transparency International World Corruption Index, Singapore was #3, while Malaysia was #23. In 2021, Singapore is still in the top 4, but Malaysia has plunged 39 places to #62.
Are you not appalled by this calamity? Do you care at all?
You have an amazing opportunity to make a difference. And to leave behind an unparalleled legacy. Malaysians thought Mahathir Ver.02 was going to be that saviour of the country. Sadly, he wasn’t the one because his deep race-based agenda was still his dominant drive.
Eventually, he was demolished by his own racist lieutenants, the Sheraton Rats, in a typical display of treachery and bribery politics, for which Malay politicians were becoming known for.
Malaysians are looking for decisive action by you to stop the rot. But personally, I don’t think you can deliver.
With one of the world’s largest cabinet numbering 70 ministers, and dozens of cronies, retired civil servants and expired politicians, appointed to the boards of our GOCs and GLCs, poor governance and political interference in business, we anticipate more bailouts using taxpayers’ money will be needed. And we can expect Malaysia’s Corruption Index to plunge further.
I hope you have a strategic plan to arrest the further decline and to put Malaysia back on the right track.
I would like you to focus on some, if not all of the following areas, to make Malaysia great again:
1. Revamp the National Education system. Champion meritocracy. Give every Malaysian young person irrespective of race, an equal chance to enter our national universities, based on their academic credentials. Give scholarships and financial assistance to all those that need assistance, and not based on race. Those who are not very good in academia can be developed in the trades, manufacturing, and services sector.
2. Reintroduce bilingualism in our national school system. In fact, trilingualism is even better. Bahasa Malaysia is the national language and that should remain. But make English a compulsory language for all Malaysians to master. English is one of the international languages that Malaysians need, in order to interact fluently with the rest of the world. Being fluent in English will allow Malaysians direct and immediate access to cutting edge science, technology and human advances, without waiting for translations to be made.
3. China will overtake the USA as the world’s biggest economy, so Malaysians able to read, write and communicate in Mandarin, will be a great asset for Malaysia. Most Chinese young people are already trilingual. If you want the Malays to be on par with Malaysian Chinese in the new world economic order, make Malays master Mandarin and English besides just the national language.
4. And while you are revamping the education system, dial back a little on the overemphasis on religion in schools. Focus more on morality, on core values that all religions hold dear. Teach our children to love one another, no matter their different races, religion, or mother tongues. It is ironic that there seems to be a direct correlation between the emphasis on religion, and the amount of corruption. The more the emphasis on religion, the more corruption increases.
5. When I was a student, half a century ago, we had very little religious education in schools, and yet there were more God-fearing people. The words Corruption, Cronies, Kleptocracy, GLCs, GOCs and APs weren’t even invented yet. Dedak then was animal feed. Now we are the world’s greatest Kleptocracy. Politicians are the most loathed species in Malaysia. And you need Approved Permits to export to import everything, from motor cars to meat and chickens and durians. You need some kind of permit to do almost everything. 
It was Ayn Rand, in her book Atlas Shrugged, written in 1957, the year of our independence who said,
• “When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing,
• When you see that money flows to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours,
• When you see that men get richer by graft, and by pull, than by work,
• And your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you,
• When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You will know that your society is doomed.”
6. 60 years of the NEP is enough. I believe many Malays are now quite able of becoming successful and rich without so much direct government assistance. The NEP has been exploited by politicians and the crony class to create a hateful system of rent-seekers. Worse, the political parties in power, have been using the GLCs and GOCs and even government institutions that are supposed to serve the people, as part of a wicked patronage system to keep themselves in power.
Today you may be the prime minister, and you may be using the GLCs and GOCs to prop up your own administration, but what will you say if the regime that takes over from you, use the same rotten system to perpetuate their power? The honourable thing to do is to break the vicious cycle and make things right. Privatise the GLCs and GOCs. Let them be run by technocrats and business professionals, and not retired civil servants and expired politicians.
Government should just govern. Leave the business of business, to businessmen and professionals. The NEP should be replaced by an NBDP, which means a Needs Based Development Policy, where every Malaysian that needs assistance, no matter their race, religion, or political inclinations, should be given assistance. If you are a righteous, god-fearing man, this will be the only way.
7. Reduce the size of the civil service. With computers, automation, 5G and smart devices, many of the counter services provided by the administration can be privatised and done online. The National Pension Bill is going to get larger and larger, and the government should begin converting pensions to some form of self-contribution retirement plans, like the EPF for employees in the private sector.
8. And while you are looking at pensions for civil servants, please abolish the pension scheme, annual vacation packages, and excessive allowances and perks for MPs and assemblypersons, ministers and deputy ministers, and freeloaders with ranks of ministers. Public service is not a career, and people become politicians as a public service, not as a job.
There should be a time bar and an age bar for politicians. No politicians should be allowed more than two terms or eight years in office. And a maximum retiring age of 60 must be set, because past 60, incumbents may not have the health, and strength to carry out the arduous duties of publicly elected officials.
9. Corruption is the bane of this sad country. Corruption is endemic in Malaysia, and the perception is, the Malaysian government itself is perpetrating this scrouge. Introduce the death penalty for corruption – for both the receiver and the giver. If that is unpalatable, how about medical amputation of the hand at the wrist for those convicted of corruption? The only way to get rid of corruption is to get serious about getting rid of corruption.
10. I have a personal gripe that I would like to mention. This is with regard to the abundance of state awards and titles in this country. The first prime minister Tunku was the PM that introduced the laughable system. It is so tiresome that in speeches by public officials and especially politicians, half the speech is spent on calling out the titles of a long line of titled people.
There are so many datuks and datos around, and hundreds more are being added every year, and looking at the large number, and the character and behaviour of some of these datos, many people wonder what they were decorated for.
What is very telling and alarming is many of those accused of white-collar crimes in our courts today are titled persons. Many are convicted but their titles remain with them when they are imprisoned. Even if one Datukship is withdrawn, it’s laughable that they still have several other Dato ships, from various states, that are not withdrawn. Soon there will be more datuks than ordinary people in this sad country.
There you have it. I have many more issues that you need to focus on. The impartiality of many sectors of the civil service has deteriorated. The Elections Commission and the Registrar of Societies are two areas that need reformation.
Excessive gerrymandering has made a mockery of voters rights. Electoral demarcation lines have been bastardised to frustrate delineation decency. Too much power is being concentrated in the prime minister’s hands, and when we get a rogue PM as we’ve had in the past, there are no effective checks and balances.
Our Malaysia is badly broken, Mr Prime Minister.
We pray to God that you will unbreak it. If you do, history will remember you as the prime minister who saved Malaysia. - Mkini
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor, Yusuf Hashim and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

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