The Walk of Life

The Political scenario in Malaysia is maturing. Since our Independence, Malaysia is governed by the Barisan Coalition comprising of race-based political parties namely UMNO (Malay), MCA (Chinese), MIC (Indians) and Gerakan (mixed but predominantly Chinese).

Of late, especially in our last General Election in March 8th 2008, the political scenario took a major change. I guess brought about by the younger generation of Malaysians. It was a milestone in the sense that for the first time in more than 50 years, the Barisan lost its two-third majority although they are still the ruling Coalition.

As for me, belonging to the older generation of Malaysians, I find this change really exciting and I am all for change. I would not go into the reasons behind this call for change for I had grumbled about these issues in my earlier posts on Malaysia. However I just want to share on one particular aspect that is unique to our Malaysian situation and very much tied to our Independence and that is what many call the "Social Contract".

One popular local Blogger Art Harun has done an excellent post 'The Bastardisation of the Social Contract' and you can read more about this Here. Ever since the Barisan loosing it's two-third majority plus a few States to the Opposition Coalition, the Barisan, out of desperation, tried to use Fear Tactics and Threats to coerce the people to vote for them or else all sorts of bad things could happen in the country!

Ex-Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir and the notorious Ibrahim Ali of PERKASA shouting and reminding the non-Malays that Malays sacrificed very very much to accommodate them, granting them citizen status in Malaysia. They waved the "Social Contract", the Keris too and demanded submission and no questioning of the Special Bumiputra Rights in Malaysia.

In the first place, there was never any challenge to the Special Rights of the Malays! Most non-Malay citizens was asking for justice, fairness in the various allocations such as business, education, land etc. etc. The NEP (New Economic Policy now renamed to NEM) was something of a necessity back in the days of the early 70's but after more than 30 years, I think it is due for a review and should not be a blanket type of policy that goes on perpetually. Moreover, due to being the government for 50 over years, Barisan has grown Arrogant! They make decisions as and when they like, implement policies how they like plus much of the wealth of the country was shared by UMNO members and their cronies. In fact, very little trickle down to the ordinary Malay folks who are still struggling to earn a living which the NEP is suppose to do! The non-Malays are also sidelined in the process except some cronies who are closed to the ex-PM or UMNO! Corruption, abuse of power are symptoms of so many governments who remain in power for a long long time! It is true that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Of late there were some views given on this Social Contract by non other than our ex-PM who ruled for 22 years and of course the clown Ibrahim Ali. In my personal opinion, these views are more of their own selfish interpretation more than an open minded discourse! Art Harun's post on this helps to clarify the issues! I strongly recommend all Malaysians to read that!

We Malaysians are ever so thankful to the Internet which is instrumental in giving alternative views (often the real picture) of what is happening in our own country! Well, our local News and Media are government controlled and we read only their views and what they want us to believe! Today's young people are very tech savvy and internet savvy so UMNO has a lot to worry about less more citizens of Malaysia wake-up from their slumber and demand for a country where we are all truly Malaysian first and our ethnicity and religious beliefs second or third! Thank God!