SOALAN

Tunku Abdul Aziz bun Tunku Ibrahim meminta MENTERI PELANCONGAN menyatakan penyertaan negara di ‘Pavilion for Shanghai 2010’ yang mana tender RM19.99 juta itu diserahkan kepada Venturepham Asia, sebuah syarikat ubat-ubatan yang diberi kepercayaan mengendalikannya.

JAWAPAN

Tuan Yang di-Pertua,

Lantikan syarikat Venturepham Asia Sdn Bhd sebagai pengendali penyertaan negara dalam World Expo Shanghai 2020 adalh berdasarkan syarikat tersebut memenuhi syarat-syarat lantikan yang telah ditetapkan seperti berikut:

i. mempunyai sijil kod bidang kerja yang berkaitan, dan berdaftar dengan Kementerian Kewangan;
ii. mempunyai pengalaman mengendalikan kerja seumpamanya, antara Matrade 50th Anniversaru, SMIDEX 2007 & SME Conference dan East Asia Business Exhibition 05; dan
iii. harga tawaran untuk pembinaan astaja adalah di dalam lingkungan harga anggara Jabatan.

Selain daripada itu, reka bentuk yang dikemukakan oleh Venturepham Asia didapati paling kreatif, menarik dan memenuhi spesifikasi dan tema pameran iaitu: “1Malaysia: Harmonized City Living” berbanding dengan reka bentuk yang dikemukakan oleh syarikat-syarikat lain.

In the interest of self-preservation, we have been doing just that finding accommodation with our racially and culturally assorted neighbours.. And, so, it is not entirely surprising that the same Malaysians that Prime Minister Najib is so desperately anxious to unite should feel a little peeved, and confused especially when rumour has it that enormous sums of public money – dare I venture to mention slush funds, have been expended to mount a campaign that has all the appearance of a damp squid, with apologies to all the squids of this world.

Malaysians are fed up with being continually bombarded and harangued by Najib on his slogan the significance of which he is not sure about. To the millions of us preoccupied with making ends meet on a daily basis in Najib’s economic haven, 1Malaysia cannot be disguised as anything but what it is; a hellishly wasteful and hollow symbol by any reckoning. And, that is putting it as charitably as I can.

His latest attempt at giving substance to a brain dead concept was on Al Jazeera a few days ago. No rumpled suit for him, but the discomfiture was writ large all over his face when he failed to make sense of what he meant by 1Malaysia. His convoluted response was downright shifty Najib knew that his savoir-faire had just, when he needed it most, deserted him, leaving him looking like a very dishonest second hand car salesman.

He was mercifully let off the hook when the comely interviewer suddenly and gratuitously changed tack, describing him as hailing from “a political aristocracy.” He lapped it all up, and there was imperceptibly a trace of ill-disguised suppression of delight at the reference to his elitist pedigree. Najib, I am pleased to say is human after all, and is not averse like all of us to a little flattery.

Even an accomplished aristocrat-turned politician like Najib, on occasion, is not above being a trifle economical with the truth. A truthful and honest politician is a contradiction in terms. That said, he is not, in my book, a practised compulsive liar, and I put this down, in part, to good breeding. His one single act of Machiavellianism in the Perak affair has blotted his copy book, marked him out as an immoral, nasty piece of work. It will be a badge of infamy that will now be part of his excess baggage to lug around..

When Najib became prime minister a year ago, I said in a column I wrote then that I would impose on myself a year’s moratorium before commenting on his performance, in place of the time-honoured 100 days so beloved of political commentators. It would be churlish to deny him, on balance, his pass mark. He is known for his grand standing, the broad brush big picture artist, or perhaps more appropriate, the ultimate grand illusionist. Not for him the despairingly soul-destroying realities that dog this country in social, political and economic terms, such as the debilitating impact of the ever widening circle of grinding poverty among our rural and urban communities alike, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak. While it is not really fair to blame Najib for the ills of the world, he must address the issue of poverty holistically and comprehensively now, including confronting corruption in the executive mansions and suites in Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Many of the problems associated with the plight of our fellow citizens in The Land of the Hornbills and The Land Below the Wind have been brought about without exception by a succession of callous and unbelievably corrupt chief ministers who have been robbing their people blind, in broad daylight.

Let us see whether Najib the Prime Minister has the stomach for a grand putsch against the architects of Grand Corruption who have raped and impoverished this potentially rich competitive nation. Najib must naturally lead by example, not always easy, in this and as in other matters of critical importance to the future of his 1Malaysia, already in danger of joining the ranks of the mythical Camelot.

I am not opposed to the idea of 1Malaysia simply to be bloody minded, but it has to be a Malaysia that is fit for all Malaysians. We cannot expect people to swallow some vague promise of a bright future for all while in the same breath he declares that the NEP will forever remain a sacred cow. How on earth can he hope to reconcile special treatment for the Bumiputeras for eternity and equal opportunity for all Malaysians? I do not expect UMNO to see any contradiction in this formula for a happy country. I think the NEP as cobbled together after the 1968 race riots was a brilliant attempt to redress the economic wrongs of the past. Unfortunately, the overarching objective of alleviating poverty across the board irrespective of race was deliberately ignored in order to make way for the corrupt and the greedy to gorge themselves off the same grubby trough. Therein lies the critical challenge for Najib.

Sometimes, the one chosen to conduct a course is more important than the content stipulated on paper. In the case of courses run under the National Civics Bureau, there have been complaints over what is being ‘preached’ and the controversy has raised all sorts of allegations.

IT’S always the same old story. A programme is designed for a specific aim but the implementation takes it off its course. An exemplary case of this would be the courses, particularly the Kursus Kenegaraan (Nationhood Course), run under the National Civics Bureau or Biro Tatanegara (NCB).

What is on paper is in keeping with the objectives of the bureau – to foster patriotism among citizens, targeting civil servants, and students who have been offered scholarships to study abroad – but the reality bites very differently.

Testimonies from those who have attended the courses bear witness to how far the programme has deviated from its objectives and has instead taken on strong racial and political notes, often shrouded in some sort of secrecy.

Officially, NCB runs the Kursus Kenegaraan to inculcate a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the elected government, which is to be carried out professionally based on ethical principles.
Stirring up patriotism: The NCB runs the Kursus Kenegaraa n to inculcate a sense of patriotism and loyalty to the country. It is to be carried out professionally based on ethical principles

Although the NCB is supposed to play a part in national integration and unity, feedback from certain participants says it does the exact opposite.

Established in 1974 as the Youth Research Unit (Unit Penyelidikan Belia) under the Culture, Youth and Sports Ministry, it was later placed under the Prime Minister’s Department in 1981 and renamed NCB in June the following year.

A total of RM74mil was allocated for the NCB this year, while RM62mil has been allocated for 2010. Over the past 10 years, the total budget for the NCB is RM548mil.

Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Machang MP and a former secretary of Umno Youth, says he used to be part of the system and has intimate knowledge of how the NCB works.

He says the course is designed for civil servants and students of public universities.

“It is a captive crowd, and the present practice is that it is compulsory to attend before they (civil servants) can be promoted. It is only a matter of time; sooner or later everyone (in public service) will attend it,” says Saifuddin who is now the PKR election director.

“On paper, the syllabus looks fine and is even beneficial. There is nothing wrong with the structure and objectives of its modules. However, you have to look at what is tersurat (written) and what is tersirat (hidden).

“The syllabus is one thing, but the person who conducts the course is another. Now, facilitators and speakers do not follow the syllabus,” adds Saifuddin.

But Deputy Education Minister Dr Mohd Puad Zarkashi describes some of the allegations as “unfair”.

He told the media recently that NCB courses promote the 1Malaysia concept and that its objective is to foster national unity.

“The rakyat needs to understand what we are trying to achieve; there is nothing wrong with the NCB courses,” he said.

Terengganu Umno chairman of Training and Cadre Bureau Datuk Abdul Rahman Bakar, too, has defended the programme. He has been reported as saying that it should, however, be upgraded to reflect the times. From his years of experience in dealing with NCB courses in the past, he said, facilitators were the key component in the courses and their selection had to be done carefully.

“Sometimes they get carried away and incorporate their own ideas.”

MP Datuk Johari Abdul (PKR-Sungai Petani), a NCB director from 1986 to 1990, shares that the aim of the agency then was to inject a sense of competitiveness, awareness and patriotism among the bumiputra students who were given Government scholarships.

“They were not performing as well as the non-Malays even though opportunities for the non-Malays were fewer,” he says.

He accepts that there were certain racist elements in the course during his time at the NCB, but claims that he was not comfortable with it even then.

“Personally, I did not like certain things about the course,” he says.

Johari admits he played the role of Joseph Gobbell (Adolf Hitler’s Propaganda Minister), but says he has repented for his “sins”.

But no hatred was preached towards the non-Malays back then, he adds.

Most of the speakers or lecturers at the course were civil servants who were highly committed people, he says. “They worked hard for certain purposes, depending on what their bosses wanted.”

Johari alleges that the NCB was then used to as a tool to spread propaganda among students.

“I feel that it has been derailed from its course,” he says.

Things came to a head when the Selangor state government barred all its civil servants, students in state-run higher learning institutions, and employees of government-linked companies from attending the course. In its place, Selangor decided to organise its own version of the programme called Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, Emotional, Social, or SPIES, which could materialise as soon as next month.

The Penang and Kelantan state governments followed suit, with immediate effect.

Following the uproar arising from the decisions, politicians from both sides of the divide called for the abolition of the course although there were politicians from the Government who defended it.

In what was seen by some parties as an admission of the NCB’s shortcomings, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz said if the course was for only one racial group, then that is not 1Malaysia.

“The co-curriculum will be brought in line with the Prime Minister’s 1Malaysia, which means it will be more inclusive and will not divide Malaysians,” he said recently in response to the developments.

Nazri added that the NCB would overhaul its courses following a Cabinet meeting, and the decision was made “long before” the Selangor government’s decision.

The minister took a swipe at the Opposition by adding that its members who had previously been in the Government, such as Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had been involved with the course and were well aware of the contents.

MP Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang) also backed the closure of the NCB, claiming that he was a victim of its controversial courses when he led an opposition front.

However, former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said there was no need to revamp the training modules as they were fine in instilling the patriotic spirit among Malaysians. In response, Nazri labelled Mahathir racist for defending the training modules, and a public spat between them ensued.

Saifuddin discloses that NCB is run by party loyalists and the current culture in the agency is a reflection of what they hope to achieve. Although there has never been any direct instruction from top party leaders, the system allows a free-for-all.

“The modules mention nothing about promoting any hidden agenda but it happens,” he says.

Saifuddin claims that in the past, when Anwar was in Government, all the state NCB directors were inclined towards Anwar.

“There was no direct instruction, but they ‘knew’ what to do. Similarly, I do not think (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib (Tun Razak) has condoned what is happening now,” he says.

However, he says, even in the past, the NCB had allowed itself to be used by certain factions within Umno to push their own political agenda.

“If the head of a particular division knew someone was going to challenge him, and if he had good connections with the state NCB, he would ask them to organise a course for his division members.

“It was for his own interest – he could go there and speak, or even request a minister to speak on his behalf,” he claims, adding that it is usually worse before party elections.

“This cannot be denied by anybody,” says Saifuddin.

Tunku Abdul Aziz Ibrahim, former special advisor on ethics to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, says that courses supported by public funds should ensure public interest is served above all else.

“If we are really keen on promoting 1Malaysia with all that it implies then obviously all these racist and supremacist elements must be wiped out completely,” says the DAP vice-chairman.

Tunku Abdul Aziz believes that although the content may look acceptable, selecting the right people to conduct the course was important.

“If the Government is thinking about revising the syllabus, then it should also ensure proper screening of the course conductors. The presenters should be people who believe in the idea of Malaysia for all Malaysians. People who believe in unity and equal opportunity.

“I think it is important that they look at this exercise carefully. If they want a united Malaysia then all racist elements have to be re­­mo­ved,” Tunku Abdul Aziz adds.

But there are those who still support the courses run by the NCB, including Prof Zainal Kling, a committee member of Gapena. He says the NCB was set up to educate civil servants, the public, NGOs and local students on public policies and the formation of the nation.

“It is obvious that the ruling party will want the people to fully understand all these issues,” he says.

When asked about the racist elements in the course, Zainal says it is the way some people decided to interpret the course.

“We are talking about the country’s history and the Federal Constitution. Is that racism? They are interpreting it in that way for their own political reasons,” he says.

Nevertheless, he says, the current curriculum could be revamped to suit the ideology of 1Malaysia.

His suggestion is echoed by Irmohizam Ibrahim, the information chief of the Fede­ration of Peninsular Malay Students Asso­ciations (GPMS). He does not agree to the course being revamped, feeling it should be upgraded to keep up with the current ideologies promoted by the Government.

He says he was unsure about the racist elements although there are discussions about Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which safeguards the special rights of the Malays and Bumiputras.

“The interpretation of racism has to be clear. I feel the course was run according to the spirit of the Constitution,” he says.

Irmohizam attended NCB courses in 2005 and 2006 and says they promoted patriotism and team building among the participants.

As for the bashing of opposition parties, he says he did not come across any of these elements.

“We gained knowledge from the courses and increased our patriotism. I urge the public not to be negative about the programme,” he says.

Najib’s 1Malaysia propaganda campaign, now in full swing, has taken on the uncanny appearance of a blitzkrieg that would have the Fuehrer of the Third Reich double up in the Reichstag in uncontrollable ecstasy. It really is that funny. The single-minded mindless saturation bombardment of the media, at what financial cost we will never know, has already begun to show all the tell tale signs of mental fatigue and psychological rejection. I am told that it is not unlike the metal fatigue that put a premature end to the promising start of the world’s first commercial jetliner, the Comet operated by British Overseas Airways Corporation more than four decades ago. Perhaps there is a lesson the 1Malaysia strategists could learn from history about over indulgence. There can be too much of a good thing for their own good.

I have been asking our prime minister, as indeed many others, to venture beyond sloganeering and spell out in terms that are concise and clear what he has in mind when pontificating on what appears to thinking Malaysians to be nothing more than a party dogma being shoved down their throats as part of a ploy to regain the non-Bumi electoral support. If Najib really believes that voters are going to buy his half-baked1Malaysia cake as an article of faith- that is more form than substance, he should put it to the test by going back to the country for a fresh authority or mandate to govern. His legitimacy is in serious doubt. The UMNO process of succession is open to question.

The unfortunate impression I get is that 1Malaysia is all about the pathetic charade of bonhomie and back-slapping of the ‘open house’ variety. Please do not get me wrong: I am not an unsociable sloth. I do like some people, believe it or not. My point is that if it is national unity that the admirable prime minister really wants for Malaysia’s sustainable future, then the trick is to work towards achieving smooth and seamless integration that will stand the test of time.

National unity is not a product that can be created by legislation or administrative edict or order; it is a process that requires a complete change of behaviour and attitude, a mental overhaul that can only be achieved through a dynamic social, economic and political regime that puts equality of opportunity at the very top of our national agenda. We need to put great store by equal opportunity in education in particular because to me it is immoral and ethically unacceptable to discriminate against the innocent and vulnerable young by depriving them of their rights to higher education. How, in heaven’s name can we expect them to identify themselves with the country of their birth if, in spite of their achieving more than the standards set, still fail to gain a place? A policy of exclusiveness can produce only one outcome–disaster! There is plenty of evidence to be seen in our society of the futility of pursuing this evil policy. Equal opportunity must be the cornerstone of national unity.

While I can readily understand the underlying imperatives of the New Economic Policy, I do not accept that you can justify positive discrimination except by implementing it in strict observance of its aim which is to alleviate poverty of Malaysians irrespective of ethnicity or religious leanings. But as we all know, the spirit of what was intended to be a great social leveller has from its inception been blatantly violated for the benefit of the few politically connected self-proclaimed Melayu Baru, a breed happily mired in corruption in all its manifestations.

For true national unity to emerge, we must go back to basics, revisiting the freedoms and rights guaranteed for all Malaysians. The NEP must be applied to all who need support. The draconian Internal Security Act as applied to date has no place in our society. Enact a new Anti-Terrorism Act for that specific application, and not to use it to terrorise and inflict pain and suffering on our own people. I wonder if Najib’s ideas which underpin his 1Malaysia will ever converge with the modest and legitimate expectations of our multi-cultural society.

I am inclined to believe that people should be left to their own devices, and just as water eventually finds its own level, so do people. The duty of the government is to govern in ways that put the welfare and the interests of the people above all other considerations. In effect this means a system of governance based on best universal practice that, by implication, is free from corruption which according to Transparency International is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. Could the founding fathers of TI in 1993 have been thinking about our political leadership when they developed this formulation? I wonder.

If there is one person whom I admire for his sustained contribution to tackling corruption in societies across the world, it is Bertrand de Speville, the author of a soon to be published down to earth practical book, written specially for high level anti-corruption decision makers in the cabinet rooms, and the legislative chambers, in the developed and the developing world.

This book is destined to become a standard work for those who, by virtue of their high political office, are assigned the unenviable task of developing national anti-corruption policies. They will obviously need to have a grasp of the essentials in order to confront corruption decisively. This is where this book, written in language that is direct and concise, comes into its own.

It does not claim to be the last word on preventing the spread of corruption, about which much has been written by academic theoreticians and international institutional experts. Typically, the author chooses to offer his work instead as a modest “briefing note” for those with responsibility for developing practical and effective policies to fight the scourge we now call corruption that impoverishes nations and retards orderly and sustainable social, economic and political growth in communities that need it most.

Fighting corruption, like corruption itself, has taken on the status of a growth industry, and the proliferation of books on this subject is bewildering. Unfortunately, they are nothing more than interesting academic exercises and, from my standpoint, have little practical value for a busy decision maker or a legislator who wants to get straight to the heart of the matter.

This book, which I have been privileged to cast an eye in draft, lives up to its author’s aim of helping those who provide advice to governments on what it takes to get the job done good, and done well. Its appearance could not have been more timely as nations are shedding their natural ambivalence towards corrupt practices, and are showing greater determination to get to grips with a condition that they realise, from examples elsewhere, can be brought under control with a combination of strong political will, appropriate legal framework and public support.

I have for many years followed closely Bertrand de Speville’s anti-corruption strategies from the time he was appointed Commissioner of the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Hong Kong, right up to the present. He has reinvented himself since Hong Kong where he made his mark as a thinking, pragmatic leader and built the Independent Commission Against Corruption into the world’s leading anti-corruption outfit. The ICAC Hong Kong model is synonymous with high standards of professionalism and dedication that other anti- corruption organisations can only dream about.

This excellent book reveals a side of the man who today is a much respected and sought after international consultant; his highly developed sense of fairness and equity even as he suggests tough measures to make corruption an unprofitable enterprise speaks volumes of his personal integrity. He believes that much as we want to bring corruption under control, we must never let our passion and outrage get in the way of the rule of law.

Bertrand de Speville has shown us that there is no substitute for strict observance of the legal niceties in pursuing our anti-corruption objectives. His legal training and subsequent distinguished career, culminating in his appointment as Solicitor General Hong Kong prior to his heading the ICAC must have influenced the way he reshaped what was to become, during his stewardship, a respected fighting organisation that carried out its difficult remit by showing the people of Hong Kong that there was really only one law for all.

In the years I have known Bertrand de Speville professionally, I have come to the honest conclusion many share with me that what he does not know about fighting corruption is not worth knowing.

I commend this publication when it appears in the world’s bookshops to all whose job it is to develop and implement national anti-corruption policies and strategies. It will, no doubt, I am sure, be equally useful to those who want to add to their knowledge on what it takes to get the job done.

OCT 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not disappoint. He is true to his values whatever they might be. He upholds his principles with messianic zeal. His principles are of indeterminate provenance, but Najib is not known to worry himself to distraction over such small matters. He has made many of us happy. It has nothing to do with his 1 Malaysia vision that he seems incapable of articulating to save his life, let alone convincing Malaysians who have decided that half a century of untruths and specious, convoluted political and social arguments should be more than enough for even the most sanguine of them.

Najib has made us happy not because in a fit of mental aberration or misplaced exuberance he has added to his fantasy world the even a more preposterous 1 World vision that flashed across his mind. I bet it was a very brief moment in time. Najib has made us deliriously happy because he has just done something blatantly cynical to confirm what we have known all along about his attitude to corruption. Najib does not disappoint.

His choice of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as the BN candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election has left absolutely no doubt in our minds about Najib’s real attitude to corruption. He, ever the pragmatic, suave man about town leader of a country already systematically mired in corruption, sees it as nothing more that a necessary evil. If you cannot fight it, join it.

His matter of fact response that “Even those convicted by the courts get another chance” must surely single him out, like a sore thumb even among the corrupt leaders of 1 Malaysia, as someone totally devoid of ethical values. It also points to a complete lack of the political will to curb corrupt practices in our country. The gap between his rhetoric and constructive action against corruption is growing ever wider under Najib. Just in case he forgets, the Kuala Lumpur-based diplomatic corps and the wider international community are watching this development with some concern. Najib does not disappoint.

Bagan Pinang is a little backwater of a community on the Negri Sembilan coast. However, the choice of a candidate that even Umno, the party that sits well with corruption and takes it in its stride, was constrained to discipline marks a low point indeed. The much detested and reviled corruption-tainted and Isa has now been declared perfectly “kosher” to represent the country’s ruling coalition. Politics is indeed the art of the possible.

Can we trust a government that is prepared to trade integrity? And for a rural state assembly seat which, the winning or losing of which, is not going to have a material effect on the political fate of BN in overall terms? I, unlike Najib, do not subscribe to the second chance dispensation because political corruption will ravage national values and systems. Are we blind to the fact that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s special brand of corrupt political stewardship, now still in place unfortunately, that has stifled our potential for dynamic growth, and kept us, in spite of the resources at our disposal, at the wrong end of the global competitiveness league table?

Political corruption if not dealt with decisively will destroy our nation because the national decision-making processes will be distorted and manipulated. “State capture” by corrupt elements will be the end result. We cannot allow the country’s future to be hijacked by unprincipled politicians, by default. Fighting corruption is our individual and collective responsibility as citizens. It cannot be left to the tender mercies of the corrupt in the corridors of power.

Now that Najib has dropped all pretence of queasiness about bedding down with corruption, he could do us all a big favour and save taxpayers a lot of money by closing down the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Institute of Integrity and all the other related agencies because he has made his position on corruption so clear. They are of no use to man or beast.

And while we are about it, Najib may want to propose a general amnesty for all who have been convicted of corruption as well as those who have committed corrupt acts, but lucky enough not to be caught. This is totally consistent with his belief that the corrupt deserve a second chance, an official passport to Najib’s 1 Malaysia where anything goes and the devil looks after his own. Najib does not disappoint.

Malaysians are now being treated to a display of arrogance unprecedented in the history of BN administration, and the choice of Isa, in all the circumstances, flies in the face of what little is left that is decent and honourable in our national life, worth preserving. Even by Umno’s and, by extension, Najib’s own standards, this is a very low point, and that is putting it charitably. Najib does not disappoint.

Little Bagan Pinang will without a doubt deliver the seat that Najib so devoutly yearns to have. He needs it to prop his shaky leadership. Bagan Pinang will in the end be remembered in history as the place where Umno lost its moral bearing, credibility and legitimacy to lead the Malays. Umno’s ugly nakedness in surrendering ethical values and principles to political expediency is here for all to see: it will be its undoing. Najib does not disappoint. He never does!

SEPT 26 — I was in Seoul last Monday to participate in the World Forum for Democratisation in Asia (Third Biennial Conference) on “Sustaining Democratisation in Asia: Challenges of Economic and Social Justice” with some 200 delegates from Asia and the United States.

The conference brought together people from diverse backgrounds and of all ages, to seek ways of strengthening, and arresting the rapidly declining state of democracy in their countries. These men and women, all with impeccable credentials as human rights advocates, shared many of the same democratic values that have inspired human beings through the ages, all over the world, to make great personal sacrifices against humanly impossible odds in the name of justice and freedom from the tyranny of state-sanctioned human rights abuses, such as we are subjected to in Malaysia regularly.

I spoke on the panel on “Citizen Participation and Political Accountability.” In the audience were participants from Indonesia, the US, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia and Mongolia, among others.

I thought I was doing well, having made some rather important points on the need for citizens to take charge of their own destiny as freedom was far too important to be left to the tender mercies of politicians, many of whom were charlatans at best and untrustworthy to boot. I mentioned as an example how citizens’ active participation in the March 2008 general election in my country had succeeded in changing, albeit ever so slightly, the 50-year corrupt political landscape, a feat that was nothing short of miraculous given the corrupt and repressive environment against which they were fighting to change.

I must confess that I was somewhat surprised that interest in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “baggage” had extended beyond the shores of Malaysia. Blame the borderless cyber technology for this unwelcome attention. Before I could finish my final remark, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the personable Yale- and Princeton-educated Ms. Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, advisor to the President of Mongolia. She wanted to know, in the nicest possible way, why Malaysian citizens had voted for a person of Najib’s known reputation to assume the highest political office, and, she continued, was it true that in the Altantuya Shaariibuu trial, the Malaysian judiciary was acting improperly to protect Najib?

We do not, of course, have direct prime ministerial elections in Malaysia. I explained that the prime minister was elected by his party; Umno. It says more about the integrity of the party than perhaps the person it elected to high office. Now, I am not unused to being asked all kinds of questions in my years of public speaking, both at home and abroad, but this, about the murder trial of Altantuya threw me off balance. Ms Tsedevdamba was putting the proverbial cat among the pigeons. It caused a real flutter in my dovecot, no pun intended. My character and integrity would be put under close scrutiny, effectively on trial, and as in any trial, telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would, I thought, be the best policy.

I am fiercely patriotic, proud of our many achievements in a number of important areas, but like many of you I often hang my head in utter shame and humiliation when I see the cynical manipulation of democratic principles by a government that seems to have lost its moral capital by developing an unethical and immoral political behaviour into a fine art form. To them who govern this country, the end would seem to justify the means.

In this respect, it is useful to remind ourselves what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was Prime Minister, used to proclaim, without a tinge of embarrassment, that we were a democracy because we held regular elections. It was not important to the emasculator (or perhaps constrictor is a more appropriate word in his case) of human rights that they might not always have been free and fair. What Dr Mahathir and his Umno friends have never appreciated, or deliberately failed to acknowledge, is the fact that democracy is not just about elections. It is what happens between elections that really is the point at issue. I hope Najib will not allow this grotesquely vintage Mahathir blind spot to rub off on him. It could lead to further electoral nightmares he can do without.

The “Umno-led by the nose Barisan Nasional” government has always been preoccupied more with the form rather than the substance. To them democracy is a product you could pick and choose as and when you like, much like buying a kilo of sugar over a supermarket counter, in the same way they buy votes by the thousands at party election time.

Democracy is a process that requires active citizen participation and direct involvement because it belongs to the people irrespective of race. They should, therefore, be free from the shackles of corrupt political and bureaucratic practices that have become embedded in many of our once proud national institutions but, which today, have become nothing more than the sordid tools of an unprincipled government. The people should be liberated from the clutches of unjust and undemocratic laws such as the ISA.

Don’t these Umno leaders see any contradiction between sending their own fellow citizens to indefinite detention without trial and celebrating Merdeka religiously at great public expense each year to mark the nation’s freedom from the injustice and degradation of alien rule? You cannot have 1 Malaysia without first dismantling those policies and systems that have done untold damage to the development of democracy in our society. These must be replaced by those that are consistent with the dictates and aspirations of a Malaysian Malaysia with all that this implies.

The end of the year is the season for overseas conferences. I will be speaking at three in the next six weeks and I wonder if the likes of the delectable Ms Tsedevdamba will be in the audience to plague and ply me with questions as I was in Seoul about the Najib-Altantuya nexus, the submarine and other arms contracts. Najib should have realised by now that his every word, gesture and action will be scrutinised and analysed by the people of this country. It is their right to know what their prime minister is up to in the public domain. It is the price he must pay willingly under our democratic system.

I suppose if my listeners ask me awkward questions about Najib, I will have to tell them that I am not, thank heavens, Najib’s keeper. I suppose, also, that is the price I pay for living in the shadow of Najib’s 1 Malaysia.

SEPT 26 — I was in Seoul last Monday to participate in the World Forum for Democratisation in Asia (Third Biennial Conference) on “Sustaining Democratisation in Asia: Challenges of Economic and Social Justice” with some 200 delegates from Asia and the United States.

The conference brought together people from diverse backgrounds and of all ages, to seek ways of strengthening, and arresting the rapidly declining state of democracy in their countries. These men and women, all with impeccable credentials as human rights advocates, shared many of the same democratic values that have inspired human beings through the ages, all over the world, to make great personal sacrifices against humanly impossible odds in the name of justice and freedom from the tyranny of state-sanctioned human rights abuses, such as we are subjected to in Malaysia regularly.

I spoke on the panel on “Citizen Participation and Political Accountability.” In the audience were participants from Indonesia, the US, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Singapore, Malaysia and Mongolia, among others.

I thought I was doing well, having made some rather important points on the need for citizens to take charge of their own destiny as freedom was far too important to be left to the tender mercies of politicians, many of whom were charlatans at best and untrustworthy to boot. I mentioned as an example how citizens’ active participation in the March 2008 general election in my country had succeeded in changing, albeit ever so slightly, the 50-year corrupt political landscape, a feat that was nothing short of miraculous given the corrupt and repressive environment against which they were fighting to change.

I must confess that I was somewhat surprised that interest in Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s “baggage” had extended beyond the shores of Malaysia. Blame the borderless cyber technology for this unwelcome attention. Before I could finish my final remark, I was stopped dead in my tracks by the personable Yale- and Princeton-educated Ms. Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, advisor to the President of Mongolia. She wanted to know, in the nicest possible way, why Malaysian citizens had voted for a person of Najib’s known reputation to assume the highest political office, and, she continued, was it true that in the Altantuya Shaariibuu trial, the Malaysian judiciary was acting improperly to protect Najib?

We do not, of course, have direct prime ministerial elections in Malaysia. I explained that the prime minister was elected by his party; Umno. It says more about the integrity of the party than perhaps the person it elected to high office. Now, I am not unused to being asked all kinds of questions in my years of public speaking, both at home and abroad, but this, about the murder trial of Altantuya threw me off balance. Ms Tsedevdamba was putting the proverbial cat among the pigeons. It caused a real flutter in my dovecot, no pun intended. My character and integrity would be put under close scrutiny, effectively on trial, and as in any trial, telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth would, I thought, be the best policy.

I am fiercely patriotic, proud of our many achievements in a number of important areas, but like many of you I often hang my head in utter shame and humiliation when I see the cynical manipulation of democratic principles by a government that seems to have lost its moral capital by developing an unethical and immoral political behaviour into a fine art form. To them who govern this country, the end would seem to justify the means.

In this respect, it is useful to remind ourselves what Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was Prime Minister, used to proclaim, without a tinge of embarrassment, that we were a democracy because we held regular elections. It was not important to the emasculator (or perhaps constrictor is a more appropriate word in his case) of human rights that they might not always have been free and fair. What Dr Mahathir and his Umno friends have never appreciated, or deliberately failed to acknowledge, is the fact that democracy is not just about elections. It is what happens between elections that really is the point at issue. I hope Najib will not allow this grotesquely vintage Mahathir blind spot to rub off on him. It could lead to further electoral nightmares he can do without.

The “Umno-led by the nose Barisan Nasional” government has always been preoccupied more with the form rather than the substance. To them democracy is a product you could pick and choose as and when you like, much like buying a kilo of sugar over a supermarket counter, in the same way they buy votes by the thousands at party election time.

Democracy is a process that requires active citizen participation and direct involvement because it belongs to the people irrespective of race. They should, therefore, be free from the shackles of corrupt political and bureaucratic practices that have become embedded in many of our once proud national institutions but, which today, have become nothing more than the sordid tools of an unprincipled government. The people should be liberated from the clutches of unjust and undemocratic laws such as the ISA.

Don’t these Umno leaders see any contradiction between sending their own fellow citizens to indefinite detention without trial and celebrating Merdeka religiously at great public expense each year to mark the nation’s freedom from the injustice and degradation of alien rule? You cannot have 1 Malaysia without first dismantling those policies and systems that have done untold damage to the development of democracy in our society. These must be replaced by those that are consistent with the dictates and aspirations of a Malaysian Malaysia with all that this implies.

The end of the year is the season for overseas conferences. I will be speaking at three in the next six weeks and I wonder if the likes of the delectable Ms Tsedevdamba will be in the audience to plague and ply me with questions as I was in Seoul about the Najib-Altantuya nexus, the submarine and other arms contracts. Najib should have realised by now that his every word, gesture and action will be scrutinised and analysed by the people of this country. It is their right to know what their prime minister is up to in the public domain. It is the price he must pay willingly under our democratic system.

I suppose if my listeners ask me awkward questions about Najib, I will have to tell them that I am not, thank heavens, Najib’s keeper. I suppose, also, that is the price I pay for living in the shadow of Najib’s 1 Malaysia.

OCT 10 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak does not disappoint. He is true to his values whatever they might be. He upholds his principles with messianic zeal. His principles are of indeterminate provenance, but Najib is not known to worry himself to distraction over such small matters. He has made many of us happy. It has nothing to do with his 1 Malaysia vision that he seems incapable of articulating to save his life, let alone convincing Malaysians who have decided that half a century of untruths and specious, convoluted political and social arguments should be more than enough for even the most sanguine of them.

Najib has made us happy not because in a fit of mental aberration or misplaced exuberance he has added to his fantasy world the even a more preposterous 1 World vision that flashed across his mind. I bet it was a very brief moment in time. Najib has made us deliriously happy because he has just done something blatantly cynical to confirm what we have known all along about his attitude to corruption. Najib does not disappoint.

His choice of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Samad as the BN candidate for the Bagan Pinang by-election has left absolutely no doubt in our minds about Najib’s real attitude to corruption. He, ever the pragmatic, suave man about town leader of a country already systematically mired in corruption, sees it as nothing more that a necessary evil. If you cannot fight it, join it.

His matter of fact response that “Even those convicted by the courts get another chance” must surely single him out, like a sore thumb even among the corrupt leaders of 1 Malaysia, as someone totally devoid of ethical values. It also points to a complete lack of the political will to curb corrupt practices in our country. The gap between his rhetoric and constructive action against corruption is growing ever wider under Najib. Just in case he forgets, the Kuala Lumpur-based diplomatic corps and the wider international community are watching this development with some concern. Najib does not disappoint.

Bagan Pinang is a little backwater of a community on the Negri Sembilan coast. However, the choice of a candidate that even Umno, the party that sits well with corruption and takes it in its stride, was constrained to discipline marks a low point indeed. The much detested and reviled corruption-tainted and Isa has now been declared perfectly “kosher” to represent the country’s ruling coalition. Politics is indeed the art of the possible.

Can we trust a government that is prepared to trade integrity? And for a rural state assembly seat which, the winning or losing of which, is not going to have a material effect on the political fate of BN in overall terms? I, unlike Najib, do not subscribe to the second chance dispensation because political corruption will ravage national values and systems. Are we blind to the fact that it was Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s special brand of corrupt political stewardship, now still in place unfortunately, that has stifled our potential for dynamic growth, and kept us, in spite of the resources at our disposal, at the wrong end of the global competitiveness league table?

Political corruption if not dealt with decisively will destroy our nation because the national decision-making processes will be distorted and manipulated. “State capture” by corrupt elements will be the end result. We cannot allow the country’s future to be hijacked by unprincipled politicians, by default. Fighting corruption is our individual and collective responsibility as citizens. It cannot be left to the tender mercies of the corrupt in the corridors of power.

Now that Najib has dropped all pretence of queasiness about bedding down with corruption, he could do us all a big favour and save taxpayers a lot of money by closing down the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Institute of Integrity and all the other related agencies because he has made his position on corruption so clear. They are of no use to man or beast.

And while we are about it, Najib may want to propose a general amnesty for all who have been convicted of corruption as well as those who have committed corrupt acts, but lucky enough not to be caught. This is totally consistent with his belief that the corrupt deserve a second chance, an official passport to Najib’s 1 Malaysia where anything goes and the devil looks after his own. Najib does not disappoint.

Malaysians are now being treated to a display of arrogance unprecedented in the history of BN administration, and the choice of Isa, in all the circumstances, flies in the face of what little is left that is decent and honourable in our national life, worth preserving. Even by Umno’s and, by extension, Najib’s own standards, this is a very low point, and that is putting it charitably. Najib does not disappoint.

Little Bagan Pinang will without a doubt deliver the seat that Najib so devoutly yearns to have. He needs it to prop his shaky leadership. Bagan Pinang will in the end be remembered in history as the place where Umno lost its moral bearing, credibility and legitimacy to lead the Malays. Umno’s ugly nakedness in surrendering ethical values and principles to political expediency is here for all to see: it will be its undoing. Najib does not disappoint. He never does!

Kekayaan negara masih lagi tidak diagihkan dengan sempurna. Bahasa Malaysia tidak digarap sepenuhnya oleh masyarakat. Dan terdengar sana sini suara-suara agen provokasi melaungkan sentimen rasis dan agama, mencemari sistem pilihanraya yang pincang.

Layari laman berikut untuk saksikan temuramah tersebut:

http://www.tvantara.com/v1/video?id=1414