Disciple of Jesus

Mr Prime Minister-to-be,

Allow me to speak directly to you about this country and nation you are about to lead. It is a highly fragmented, disillusioned, disoriented and distracted nation. Can you really make the difference in setting us in the right direction?

The RM60 billion stimulus package is a good initiative, but where is the detail and are Umno cronies still the conduit? Your achieving leadership within Umno is good progress, but who is your real constituency?

Dishing out goodies to Umno branch leaders may help society, but what about the Ibans who are losing their custodial lands or the Orang Asli in your home state who are yet to see development and so-called progress?

The Kadazans and Ibans have been using Bahasa Indonesia-translated bibles before their merdeka to join Malaysia in 1963; are we now saying the Indonesians do not know their theology and that our East Malaysian brothers and sisters were wrong to choose Malaysia?

I worked with your father from 1972 to 1975 in the Implementation, Coordination and Development Administration Unit (ICDAU) of the PM’s Department. I met you when you were with the Petroleum Development Unit.

Your father worked hard to improve the conditions of the Malays in Malaysia; and he will always be the ‘Father of Malay Development’. He created Mara, Felda, Felcra and FOA among others, almost all to serve only the Malays. But he did not fail other Malaysians.

Today, the organisation you lead is parodied as meaning ‘U Must Never Object’. Malaysians, however, say that we need an ‘Us Malaysians Now Organisation’ to lead us. Do you get it? Do you realise the real state of the nation?

Mr Prime Minister-to-be, please reflect on the State of the Nation and give us your assessment in your first Prime Ministerial Address. Give us your agenda in moving us forward. I agree with you that we need to become 1Malaysia, just like on the name of your blog.

But what is the second priority? Allow me to give my three senses premised on my 32 years of public service.

Nation’s singular priority

First, we need to recapture our sense of the ‘we’. There cannot be a first class and second class citizenship. When our first PM-to-be led his team to England, we got independence only because they spoke the ‘we’ language. Today we do not and may even look like we cannot. Therefore national unity should be your first and singular priority. It is the roof of the house you seek to build. If a roof leaks, all tenants will get wet!

Second, unite for what? I believe the Bangsa Malaysia agenda captured the imagination of Malaysians when it was launched; but over the last two decades or so, leadership of the nation has neglected that agenda for the wrong reasons of political expediency in other areas . The Rukunegara is still able to unite but it must remain true to the spirit of all those national principles.

The issue of ‘unite for what’ also raises the issue of ‘how?’At ICDAU, one of our priorities was your father’s New Economic Policy (NEP). When launched, it was pristine and pure; that motivated me to reject a private sector job offer. We worked for two clear, comprehensive, and mutually exclusive priorities. Both were designed to help the nation achieve national unity.

Priority One was to eradicate poverty regardless of race or geographic location. Why have we not done this even after almost 46 years of nation-building? Why are there still the very poor in Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis? Why is there massive under-development among the Iban, Kadazan and the Orang Asli? Are they not all, to some degree, also, Orang Asal?

And what about the Nyonya-Baba and Portuguese communities of Malacca? Are they not also asal residents? Why have we become so skewed in our thinking that ‘poverty eradication’ does not include other Malaysians? Are you really going to be the prime minister of all Malaysians?

Priority Two was to restructure society to reflect the plural composition of Malaysia. How then did the NEP become only Umno’s agenda for Malay supremacy in the economic sphere?

No right-thinking Malaysian would question the primacy of the Malay race, but primacy surely does not equal supremacy, does it?

Mr Prime Minister-to-be, you have one chance to get it right. The Tunku and your Dad did it right, when they could. Dr Mahathir Mohamad tried but greed overtook his followers; Pak Lah tried but Umno decided not to work with him but instead wanted him to work for them. You too have one chance but only history and providence really knows how you will fare.

I have three pieces of advice. Work for truth. Do what is right, in the right way for the right reasons. I call this Theory R. You cannot go wrong with this method.

But think it through because there are many issues that need resolution, including the Altantuya Shaariibuu case. You have denied all involvement with her – now please meet her father and convince him that you are innocent.

Truth respects no one; because truth belongs to God. Truth will prevail, even if she takes 100 years to make her point. Once there is truth, reconciliation can begin.

When reconciliation begins, forgiveness can start, and when the process of forgiveness starts, we can all begin to see things more clearly. Then we can all humble ourselves before a Holy God and acknowledge our mere humanity and frailty.

To my mind there is only one way forward for our nation – forward. We cannot afford to either look back or move backward. We can only pray we each remain faithful. May God Bless Malaysia!

K.J. John
March 31, 2009