Tunku Abdul Aziz

Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 15 – Malaysian officials and media have been generally restrained in their reaction to displays of belligerence on the streets of Jakarta.

But anger is palpable on the Internet and among ordinary Malaysians.

The government has registered its protest over threats made against Malaysians, and last week summoned Indonesia’s ambassador here to express “grave concern” over persistent accusations of cultural theft.

Kuala Lumpur has repeatedly said that it had nothing to do with erroneous tourism advertisements on the Discovery Channel featuring the Balinese pendet dance. The channel has since stopped airing the 30-second clip.

By and large, the Malaysian mainstream media have reported responsibly on the matter, quoting mainly officials and not engaging in any emotional venting. Malaysian officials have also pledged the safety of Indonesian citizens against any backlash.

But on the streets and in the blogosphere, Malaysians are increasingly outraged by what they see as Indonesians’ refusal to be appeased. Some even complained that the local media here did not play up the issue.

One letter to Utusan Malaysia newspaper called for a ban on Indonesian songs and programmes.

The reader, Inanza, expressed her disappointment over “the lack of nationalistic spirit shown by our media over this”.

“It’s not that we want to be irrational like Indonesia but at least make it seem as if we are doing something, not just closing our eyes and ears,” she wrote.

Indeed, many Malaysians were at first unaware of the spat when it erupted last month, due to the lack of coverage in the local media at that time. When Indonesians started burning the Malaysian flag and throwing rotten eggs at the embassy in Jakarta, they were baffled.

One 27-year-old Malaysian asked on the networking site Facebook: “Can somebody tell me why exactly those Indonesians hate us?” Some plan to create Facebook groups to counter anti-Malaysia groups which use profanities and hateful language to condemn Malaysia.

Clearly frustrated by the whole situation, some officials have pointed out that Malaysia is the source of employment for some three million legal and illegal Indonesian workers. Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, over the weekend, noted Indonesians made up the bulk of foreign criminals jailed in the country.

Housewife Stephanie Chee said: “There are other more pressing matters than a dance. There are people who are so poor in Indonesia that they have to come here to earn RM500 (S$203). They should only talk when they have figured out how to provide food and create employment for their masses.”

It seemed Indonesians were “bent on having a blow-up”, wrote Abd Ghani Hamat in a commentary in the financial newspaper The Edge yesterday.

Describing their behaviour as irrational, he added: “Despite politicians in both countries playing down the human error, belligerency persisted. Perhaps the Indonesian protesters want to see the whole of Malaysia kneel before them and beg for forgiveness.”

Earlier this month, former Transparency International Malaysia chairman Tunku Abdul Aziz wrote a commentary in the Chinese-language Sin Chew Daily, asking: “What else next? Stop eating satay and wearing kain batik because these are Indonesian?”

“We are not your whipping boy. Grow up Indonesia!”

Some analysts have said the hate campaign in Indonesia looked to be artificially manufactured. Malaysian intellectual Farish Noor said that “countries do not behave in a hostile manner against other countries for no apparent reason; and they do not engage in hate campaigns without someone orchestrating them”. – The Straits Times

Kenyataan Media YBM Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz, Naib Pengerusi DAP pada 14 September 2009 di Petaling Jaya

Shahrizat, Hentikan Kenyataan Mengapi-apikan Perkauman

Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP) kesal dengan pembohongan Ketua Wanita UMNO Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil yang mendakwa kononnya DAP memperalatkan orang Melayu.

Shahrizat mengeluarkan kenyataan yang tidak berasas itu kerana beliau sebenarnya takut melihat sambutan orang Melayu terhadap DAP, terutamanya dengan penubuhan cawangan DAP yang dipimpin oleh orang Melayu yang pertama di Selangor.

Ini adalah bukti di mana UMNO semakin bimbang kehilangan sokongan orang Melayu. Baru wujud satu sahaja cawangan DAP yang majoritinya orang Melayu di Selangor, UMNO sudah pun ketakutan.

Cawangan DAP yang mempunyai majoriti orang Melayu itu telah ditubuhkan di Kampung Lembah Kinrara minggu lalu. Menurut pengasasnya, Haron Abdul Wahab, orang Melayu di kawasan itu memilih DAP kerana yakin dengan prinsip parti yang memperjuangkan nasib semua kaum di negara ini. Mereka sedar DAP membantu rakyat tanpa memilih bulu.

Menurut satu laporan akhbar semalam, Shahrizat telah dipetik sebagai berkata bahawa DAP tidak pernah memperjuangkan hak dan kepentingan orang Melayu tetapi sebaliknya hanya mengutamakan kepentingan kaum lain.

Shahrizat tidak berkata yang benar kerana dia tahu orang Melayu telah menerima DAP dan sedar DAP tidak anti-Islam dan tidak anti-Melayu, malah berjuang mempertahankan dan melindungi hak semua kaum dan agama.

Orang Melayu sudah sedar bahawa kepimpinan Setiausaha Agung DAP Lim Guan Eng sebagai Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang bukan sahaja menjamin hak-hak orang Melayu dan Islam, malah menggalakkan lagi perkembangan syiar Islam di negeri itu.

Walaupun tidak sampai dua tahun pentadbiran Pakatan Rakyat yang dipimpin oleh Lim Guan Eng di Pulau Pinang, rakyat di negeri itu khususnya orang Melayu telah pun menerima sumbangan ikhlas dari prinsip Cekap, Akauntabel dan Telus (CAT). Antaranya adalah pengiktirafan tinggi kepada pelajar-pelajar Melayu cemerlang, termasuk untuk para penghafal Quran atau Huffaz, dan peruntukan RM1.5 juta setiap tahun kepada sekolah-sekolah agama rakyat.

Malah kita tidak boleh lupa bagaimana Lim Guan Eng menjadi mangsa konspirasi politik sehingga beliau dimasukkan ke penjara semata-mata kerana mempertahankan hak dan maruah seorang gadis Melayu yang menjadi mangsa pencabulan.
Malah di mana sahaja DAP bergiat aktif, orang Melayu dan umat Islam tidak pernah diketepikan, malah sama-sama dibantu dengan kaum-kaum lain yang mengalami kesusahan. Semua usaha ini tidak pernah dihebahkan oleh UMNO dan media arus perdana miliknya yang hanya mahu meneruskan agenda perkauman bagi menjamin kuasa kekal di tangan mereka yang tidak bersih, rasuah dan menyalahgunakan kuasa.

Sepatutnya Shahrizat menghormati hak asasi rakyat Malaysia untuk memilih mana-mana pertubuhan politik dan berhenti dari bermain dengan isu perkauman yang boleh mencetuskan syak wasangka antara rakyat.

Sepatutnya juga, sebagai Menteri Pembangunan Wanita, Keluarga dan Masyarakat, beliau perlu menumpukan kepada protfolionya untuk memastikan golongan yang memerlukan benar-benar mendapat perlindungan.

Sehingga hari ini, Shahrizat telah berdiam diri dengan isu tuduhan kes rogol yang berlaku terhadap gadis Penan di Sarawak, dan isu ancaman rogol oleh samseng-samseng UMNO terhadap Ahli Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor Rodziah Ismail sewaktu majlis dialog pemindahan kuil Seksyen19 pada 5 September lalu.

Shahrizat sepatutnya berkhidmat dengan lebih gigih dan jujur untuk membuktikan perlantikannya semula sebagai Menteri adalah tidak sia-sia, setelah beliau sendiri ditolak oleh rakyat dalam pilihan raya umum 2008.

DAP sedia menghulurkan salam persahabatan untuk membantu beliau dalam menangani mana-mana isu yang melibatkan kezaliman dan ketidakadilan terhadap wanita, keluarga dan masyarakat. Yang penting, Shahrizat mesti hentikan sikap mengapi-apikan perkauman kerana ia bukan sahaja zalim tetapi boleh menghancurkan perpaduan antara rakyat pelbagai kaum dan agama.

TUNKU ABDUL AZIZ

The Javanese have done it again. They have burned our national flag.

Many years ago, I was interviewed in London by BBC Radio 2 as part of a series on the great languages of the world. I was asked about some significant differences between Bahasa Indonesia and our own Bahasa Melayu. I feigned ignorance about the existence of a language called Bahasa Indonesia. I said what Indonesia claimed as its language is really Bahasa Melayu.

They had no choice but to use Bahasa Melayu, the lingua franca of the Malay world to communicate among themselves because they never had a common language to begin with. Malay is undoubtedly the basis of their language. So, if we do what they in Indonesia do so well, we should be burning their flag every day because they have purloined our national language.

An excessive display of nationalistic zeal is generally considered “ugly” in civilised societies. The Indonesians by their actions have reduced themselves into sad figures of ridicule and fun. Their claim, and not for the first time, that we have infringed their “cultural copyrights” is totally absurd. They now have got it into their heads that we should stop singing our national anthem because the tune was Indonesian. What else next? Stop eating satay and wearing kain batik because these are Indonesian?

I remember the time when Indonesia took it upon themselves to rename the Indian Ocean as the Indonesian Ocean, and had the new name put on their official map. The Indians demurred, and Sukarno the regional bully boy realised that it was not such a clever thing to do, after all.

Last year we had Wahyu Susilo of Migrant Care, an influential labour organisation telling us “We also want Malaysia to legalise illegal workers and not simply deport them home.” Then, again last year we were reminded by Indonesian lawmakers that Malaysia-Indonesia relations were “at their worst since Sukarno’s days of Konfrontasi in the sixties.”

The reference to Konfrontasi is mischievous in the circumstances. It was a attempt to stampede us into submitting to their will. Indonesians should want to forget that disastrously miscalculated adventure which ended with a bloody nose for their country. On the positive side, it brought to an end the reign of the megalomaniac Sukarno only to be replaced by the rapacious Suharto. Perhaps we had a match in our own country, and we should not gloat over it too much. As a matter of interest, even the normally calm and staid Najib when Deputy Prime Minister was moved to refer to Malaysia as the “Whipping Boy” of the Indonesian media whenever they felt they had a grievance, real or imagined, against us.

I mention all this as a way of reminding ourselves that history provides important lessons for us all. Patterns of political behaviour are often deeply entrenched in the consciousness of a nation, and in the case of our big and unwieldy neighbour, this phenomenon is more marked than is good for them. We want to continue to maintain good neighbour relations with Indonesia, but Indonesia must remember that we are not a client state, and there is a limit to how far we are prepared to go to be nice. We have to think about protecting our national security interests and not putting them at risk. After all, our responsibility is to our own people, first and last.

I recall vividly the burning of our flag in 2002 in Jakarta, that very violent capital of Indonesia. Dr. Mahathir, the then Prime Minister responded in a statesmanlike manner to the crude officially orchestrated provocation in which the petulant Speaker of the People’s Consultative Council, Amein Rais played a big role. So, in the most recent incident, we were yet again treated to a pattern of behaviour that seems to have been well integrated into the great Indonesian cultural psyche, and that is part of their culture they can keep without any fear of copyright infringement by Malaysia.

It is obviously difficult for us to engage such a volatile country without causing offence and endless misunderstandings, but we must show patience and wisdom and do all we can to keep the relations on an even keel. Indonesia is still a country in transition and has yet to find its own realistic level in international relations. It seems to lack the confidence of a potentially rich and credible nation, and therefore occupies its time in the luxury of blaming others when things do not go their way. I suppose they will now want to take back all their nearly two million nationals, both legal and mostly illegal, working hard, and robbing hard, to keep body and soul together.

We are not your whipping boy. Grow up Indonesia.

Tunku Abdul Aziz

UMNO succeeded brilliantly in putting on a well-orchestrated monologue carnival on the universally fashionable twin-theme of change and reform at their just concluded annual political jamboree. They succeeded in the event of mesmerising themselves into a frenzy. Talking change is easy, but “walking the change” is when the uncommitted falls by the wayside.

By all accounts, UMNO, of all political parties in Malaysia, is a most unlikely candidate for change. It is stuck in a time warp. Its leadership, never known for its ability to focus on critical national issues and respond quickly to the needs of the moment, more often than not, has absolutely no clue where to begin the process.

Blaming the opposition for things that do not go according to plan is well and good, but it would be more helpful and constructive for UMNO to accept and digest a simple fact of life which stipulates that the external pressures acting on you are only as influential as your internal weaknesses. UMNO’s internal weaknesses are there for all to see, but it says a great deal about its organisational culture that the leaders remain both deaf and blind to the rot that stares them in the face. This being the case, UMNO continues to stumble from crisis to crisis, quite unaware why even the Malays who should be rallying round to support it are instead turning their backs on it.
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It is not for want of trying but, for the life of me, I find it difficult to take the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission’s self-trumpeted independence seriously. Since its much hyped up launch just weeks ago, its chief commissioner, Datuk Seri Ahmad Said Hamdan, has managed to put his mouth into overdrive while shifting his brains into reverse on at least two occasions. The F1 television advertisement has obviously got through to me at last.

The first was when he claimed that there was “good and strong evidence” against the Pakatan Rakyat menteri besar of Selangor, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim even before the MACC investigation into the “car and cows” saga had got into first gear.

More recently, he was again at his favourite game of shooting his mouth and, not content with that, he succeeded in shooting himself in the foot as well when he declared, to the chagrin and utter disbelief of us all, that there were “elements of misuse of power” in the case involving the Perak assembly speaker, V.Sivakumar. This was over the suspension of the “other” menteri besar Datuk Dr. Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six assembly men.
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Najib Abdul Razak will be remembered as the most controversial prime ministerial aspirant this nation has ever known. The deadweight political baggage he is lugging around, as he sets his course on what he fervently hopes will be the last lap to the best address in the country, is enough to make a grown man cry, but not Najib, the single minded man of destiny according to his wife, Rosmah.

He seems to take his travails in his stride. Is he not, again, according to Rosmah, predestined to occupy the highest political office in the land? I am inclined to think that there may be some truth in what Rosmah has been saying about his destiny because she has already begun, to preen herself, so the gossip goes, to play the part of Malaysia’s First Lady.

Unfortunately for her, and others who might harbour a similar ambition in the deep recesses of their fantasy, our country is a monarchy, albeit a constitutional one (may it always remain that way) and as such, the First Lady is our queen, not the wife of the prime minister. Her confident prediction of Najib’s political ascendancy and immortality could, in the event, prove to be just a little premature given the murky political waters he is wading through.
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As the prime minister begins the process of winding down his stewardship of this country that he inherited from his now much despised predecessor, he would have been less than human if he did not reflect upon the highlights and the low points of his stewardship that in turn cheered and depressed him. He must wonder why, after such a promising start, fate should have intervened to deal him such a cruel hand. The humiliation of being forced to get on the bicycle and ride off alone into the political sunset prematurely has been, he must admit, largely self-inflicted. He must sometimes wonder why he was so incredibly naïve as to swallow the proverbial hook, line and sinker, the assurances and protestations of complete and undying loyalty so glibly and convincingly uttered by his closest associates. I personally would not myself touch them with a long barge pole, but then I suppose I am of a suspicious nature.

When Abdullah Badawi took over the reigns of government, I was among those invited by the media to comment on what his legacy might be. We were swept and overwhelmed by the euphoria of the moment, the dawn of a blessed new era and the end of a morally degrading and debilitating regime. Anyone after Mahathir Mohamad was a welcome change, and the country was happy to give him and the party he led the biggest ever electoral victory in the history of our country. Badawi responded by urging us, his countrymen and women to “work with me and not for me.” This catchphrase symbolising inclusiveness went down well in the beginning, but when people began to see through this as another clever spin-doctoring exercise, it went down like a ton of bricks. Badawi was suave. He could at times be glibly persuasive especially when outlining his agenda against corruption.
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What a waste of public funds! The creation of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission will go down in history as a feeble and pathetic final clutch at the straws by a sitting duck prime minister best remembered for his inexhaustible supply of good intentions but with nothing to show for them. The MACC was hastily conceived against a murky background of a web of duplicity and deceit. It was a desperate attempt at deluding the people of this country and the world anti-corruption community at large that the Abdullah Badawi administration still had a lot of fire in its belly to make corruption a high risk and low return business. The whole process was nothing more that a charade, a sleight of hand that we had come to expect of this government. In the meantime, corruption continues to be in robust good health.

In 1995 my friends and I started to look at corruption in our country seriously and to view with growing unease its debilitating effects on our society. This led incidentally to the formation of Transparency International Malaysia as it has come to be known. We saw the Anti-Corruption Agency for what it really was in operational terms. It was the weakest link in both the “supply and demand sides” of the corruption equation. We saw the ACA as part of the problem of corruption and not, as it should rightly have been, part of the solution. We thought its claim to “independence” was a joke in poor taste. It was as independent as a beached whale.
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Today, I begin a new life as a columnist for Sin Chew, an experience that I know I will enjoy enormously.

Two days ago, I had lunch with a parliamentarian and two senior bureaucrats from Germany on their first official visit to Kuala Lumpur. They came, they saw and were impressed with our capital city and the development they had seen so far as they travelled around KL and its environs. They had obviously been well-briefed by their own government agencies about the social and political climate in our country and apparently were extremely well informed on Malaysian affairs. The Germans, as we all know, are meticulous in everything they do, and so I was not at all surprised when one of them who headed his organization’s foreign department asked this penetrating question.
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