The 50th Merdeka Anniversary has seen a most unusual political phenomena — the MCA and Gerakan waving the Malaysian Constitution and reciting Rukunegara at their respective meetings in response to the keris-waving by the Umno Youth leader, Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein at the earlier Umno Youth general assemblies.
It is a pathetic proof of the impotence and irrelevance of the MCA and Gerakan in the Barisan Nasional, whether at the national, state or local government level, that they have been reduced to waving the Constitution and reciting Rukunegara at their respective meetings instead of ensuring that the Cabinet and the government at all levels uphold the core nation-building principles of the Merdeka “social contract” which have found expression in the Malaysian Constitution and Rukunegara.
Why wave the Malaysian Constitution and recite the Rukunegara principles when MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders are unable:
- firstly to ensure that Umno and other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders fully understand, respect and uphold the fundamental nation-building principles spelt out in the Merdeka social contract, the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara; and
- secondly, to set the example of themselves standing firm, true and loyal to the Merdeka social contract, Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara by refusing to betray these fundamental nation-building principles even if they fail to convince Umno and other Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders to do the same.
What is the use of waving the Malaysian Constitution and reciting the Rukunegara principles at the MCA and Gerakan meetings when MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders dare not wave the Constitution or recite the Rukunegara principles in Cabinet, Parliament, national, state and local governments to ensure that every government policy, decision and action is informed by the core nation-building principles agreed by the forefathers of the major communities and spelt out in the Constitution and the Rukunegara?
Why are MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders staging the Constitution-waving and Rukunegara-recitation at their respective party meetings when inside government at various levels, they are prepared to be party to decisions which abandon these nation-building principles?
Malaysia would not have been declared to be an Islamic state after 44 years of undisputed and unchallenged status as a secular state, buttressed by public pronouncements by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein, if the Merdeka social contract, the Malaysian Constitution and the Rukunegara had continued to be recognized as the core nation-building principles of the country.
The fourth Rukunegara principle is the “Rule of Law” — but for 19 years, it had suffered ravages with the protracted crisis over the independence, integrity and meritocracy of the judiciary since 1988.
What is the use of reciting the Rukunegara principles if there is no courage of conviction to end the state of denial of 19 years about the crisis of confidence in the judiciary and to demand the immediate establishment of a Royal Commission of Inquiry both into the Lingam Tape and the rot in the judiciary in the past 19 years?