Getting rid of incompetents
by Ibnu HakeemWill UMNO suffer if Abdullah Badawi steps down as party president? Will the country suffer if Abdullah Badawi steps down as Prime Minister? Increasingly and more clearly, the answer to both these questions seems to be a resounding NO. Neither UMNO nor the country will suffer.
The public is already aware of the many failings and the criticisms against Abdullah Badawi but the most important factor that should worry the public are not the numerous allegations of cronyism and money-grabbing. Rather, it is plain incompetence. Abdullah Badawi does not have the competency to lead UMNO or the country. As he repeatedly keeps insisting, he is a 'Saya tak tahu' Prime Minister.
And who shall replace him as party president and as Prime Minister? We have interesting possibilities here. Dato Najib Tun Razak can and should step into both pairs of shoes. But at the moment Dato Najib does not show any interest to do either. The time has come for UMNO and Malaysians to seriously consider putting Tun Dr Mahathir back into the driver's seat -- at least for an interim period to put the ship of state back on course -- if not as Prime Minister then at least as president of UMNO which appoints the prime Minister.
Removing party presidents and Prime Ministers is not unusual either for UMNO or Malaysia. As Dr Mahathir has repeatedly reminded the people, UMNO has removed its presidents when it was felt that the president was not looking after the best interests of the Malays or the nation. The two clearest examples were the case of Dato Onn Jaafar, the founder and first president of UMNO, and Tunku Abdul Rahman, our first Prime Minister and second president of UMNO. Dato Onn's radical idea that UMNO should open up its membership to all races was too far ahead of its time and was not acceptable to UMNO. As a result, Dato Onn Jaafar had to leave the party. UMNO survived the departure of its founder president and the party went on to become stronger.
In 1970, after the May 13 incident, again the party came to realise that its president, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who had led Malaya to independence from the British, was not acting in the best interests of the Malays and the nation any longer. So, once again, UMNO got rid of its president. This was possible because of the strong tradition of democracy in UMNO. UMNO did not disintegrate or break up. Instead, UMNO went on to become stronger than ever.
Dr Mahathir appears to be the most capable person to lead the country again -- perhaps in an interim capacity to put our house in order. He has to come out of retirement to do this. Not just in UMNO but even in other countries and throughout history we have seen great leaders step up to help save their people from weak or corrupt leaders.
Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings deposed a corrupt regime in Ghana in June 1979. He helped restore democracy and in just three months handed over the leadership to a new president, Hilla Limann. When the new president did not live up to the expectations of Ghana, Jerry Rawlings stepped forward a second time and deposed the president, yet again. Jerry Rawlings restored democracy and firmly held control of Ghana. In 1992, Jerry Rawlings ran for president in a democratic election and won. He finally retired in 2000, per Ghana's constitutional mandate. Ghanaians salute Jerry Rawlings as the man who saved democracy in their country.
Winston Churchill served as Prime Minister of Britain from 1940 to 1945, i.e. during the Second World War. After the War, Churchill lost the elections and stayed at home. Then, in 1951, when Britain was withdrawing from its world power status, Churchill again became Prime Minister until 1955. Churchill was actively involved in planning the counter-insurgency against the Communists in Malaya.
Long before Churchill, England suffered a treasonous king in the person of Charles I (1600 – 1649). Charles was a bully who wanted all the power for himself and he tried to deny the British Parliament any power-sharing. Being a staunch Catholic, Charles also fomented a Civil War in Britain between Catholics and non-Catholics. Oliver Cromwell, a wealthy farmer, aristocrat and member of the local militia, stepped forward to oppose Charles I. Oliver Cromwell had King Charles I executed for treason, stopped the religious wars and eventually paved the way to restore both the monarchy as well as the power of Parliament in Britain -- a legacy which lasts in Britain until today.
The example of UMNO, Jerry Rawlings in Ghana and Oliver Cromwell proves that, throughout history, strong and capable leaders have emerged to serve their people and save their people from disaster. When their jobs were done, they faded into history.
UMNO and our country are now facing grave risks. We are led by a party president and Prime Minister who seems to just say 'Saya tak tahu' (I don't know), especially when it comes to his family making money. The country is drifting aimlessly. The Cabinet Ministers are taking advantage of the vacuum in leadership and are having a merry old time doing things according to their whims and fancies.
For the first time in our history, the Prime Minister announced in his 2006 Budget speech that official growth forecasts had been reduced from 6.3% to 5.8%. Not only does this reflect his incompetence, but how are we going to achieve the Vision 2020 if growth rates do not even reach the required minimum 6%? Forget about 2020. Even the success of the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) requires a consistent growth rate of at least 6 % per annum. Does the Prime Minister care? More importantly, does the Prime Minister even know this simple detail? Or will it be another case of 'Saya tak tahu'.
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Comments by MT readers:-
- Abu Abdillah said...
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Ibnu Hakeem,
Did you do proper research before writing your column in support of Dr Mahathir?
Dr Mahathir has done much damage to the Malays and Malaysia. Consider the following:
1. In his The Malay Dlimma, Dr Mahathir said that Islam is a strength factor of Islam. Yet he didn't implement Islam as a way of life in his 21+ years in absolute control of UMNO-BN government.
Not only that, he prevneted PAS in Kelantan and Terengganu fom implementing Islam fully.
Excuse? The Constitution prevents that.
Now UMNO-BN for the past 49 years always had more than 2/3 majority in the Parliament. In that time UMNO-BN had made many changes to the original Constitution, including the abolishment of the power of the government to abolish Chinese and Tamil schools that are under-rolled.
Had Mahathir wanted, he could have done the same thing to enbale at least the Malays to fully live under Islam as a way of life, if not turning Islam into an Islamic state.
2. Mahahthir reduced federal government support for Sekolah Agama Rakyat, enshrined in the Constitution, saying that these school produced criminals.
Majority of the criminals, at least the drug addicts, who, according to the police, commit more that 90% of the crimes in my district, are 'graduates' of government schools. According to officers in charge of Pusat Serenti, many of these drug addicts are ignorant about Islam, some not knowing how to read the Quran, hence not praying, and some even do not know the syahadah.
Many of the 'graduates' from Sekolah Agama Rakyat, knowing the true teaching of Islam, are supporters of PAS. That is the 'criminal act' that Mahathir meant, I think!!!
2. As a result of poor understanding of Islam among the Malays, they have become what Allah says, that means:
"And surely, We have created many of the jinn and mankind for Hell. They have hearts wherewith they understand not, and they have eyes wherewith they see not, and they have ears wherewith they hear not( the truth). They are like cattles, nay even more astray; those are the heedless ones." (Al Quran 7:179)
It is no suprise therefore that the Malays are in the present situation.
3. The economic policy that Mahathir implemented, with emphasis on the developement of town centres, especially in the west coast states where the majority of the population are non-Malays, drew labour and capital from the rural areas to town, resulting in shortage of labour and capital in rural agricultural areas where majority of the Malays live. The value of these agricultural lands drop and are easy prey to buyers, mainly from the towns.
This has been happening for a long time, made worst by Mahathir's policies. I saw this happening in Negri Sembilan in the 70s when working there.
4. Abdullah is trying to correct this by focusing on agricultural developement in RMK9. But this agricultural policy will be the final cause of destruction of the Malays. Why?
i. There is acute labour shortage in the rural areas. The youth have been drawn to towns. There they are trapped by the drug culture and are now the majority drug addicts. They bring this culture back to the kampongs.
ii. There is high rate of joblessness in the kampong, because projects are mainly in the west coast. To ease problems faced, kampong folks sell off their land, even at low prices. The situation worsen with the availabilty of Malay agents who induced kampong folks to sell their land.
iii. For the remaining Malay farmers, their agricultural business will finally die, despite all the help that the government gives them.
Why?
Agricultural products are perishables. There is not much outlet for these Malay agricultural products. Whereas the Chinese farmers have well planned outlets for their products, such as export to Singapore, the local super- and hyper-markets, and the pasar borong, mainly controlled by them , except the Pasar Borong in Pas-controlled Kelantan, the Malay farmers don't have similar out-let.
I once visited a super-market in an area where 90% of the customers are Malays, yet had difficulty finding Malay-produced goods, agricultural or other-wise.
The few Malay-produced products available in the super-market are not well displayed, mainly placed behind the other products. Unless buyers specifically search for these products, they will not be able to find them.
These small local supermarkets fail in big towns, losing out to foreign-owned hypermarket like Giant (Hong Kong), Carrefour (French), Makro (DutcH) etc.
They move to small towns, and using the same tactics used by the hypermarkets in big towns against them, monopolise the distributive/retail business in small towns.
The small retail shops the Malays have built, following the May 13 1969 riot, crumble and are destroyed, as happen everywhere in the world. Even in USA, the local population demonstrate to oppose the opening of the giant world nomber 1 super-market chain Wal-Mart in their area.
The situation worsen for the Malays as Mahathir did not educate the Malays regarding fiqh awaliyat which teaches Muslims how to make choices.
On top of that Mahathir and UMNO-BN often breaks down the confidence and self-worth of the Malays by openly critising them , and yet failing to improve them.
Compare that to what and how Nabi Muhammad saw did to the jahilliyah Arabs, whom were in the same position of the Malays now, colonised by the Romans and Persians who control all their fertile lands. In 20 years, as opposed to 49 years of UMNO rule over the Malays, Tanah Melayu, Malaya and Malaysia, Nabi Muhammad saw was able to drive the Persians and Romans out of Arabia and establish an Islamic state. The formula for this spectular success is in the Quran and Hadis, but UMNO prefer to follow the west which is bringing man to destruction, the latest being making lawful same-sex marriage.
"I am not ashamed" said George Michael (as reported in a local paper), multi-millionaire pop star, idol of so many people, including Malaysians, when caught after having homosexual act with a jobless, pot-bellied lorry driver in a bush in a town in UK.
This is ultimately where Malaysia is heading with its vision 2020. Even now, before having achieved the material developement of the west that Mahathir so admired, Malaysia has already achived if not surpased the criminal rates in the west.
Finally, before supporting Mahathir, Ibnu Hakeem, I suggest you read Surah An Nur 245:4 to see how Allah has disqualified Mahathir from foreever being given any responsibility, let alone being a leader, and being a witness.
Happy reading. - Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:56:34 AM
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