Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
May 25, 2011

MAY 25 — Let us demolish one pet belief of Umno people and those who think they speak for Umno. It’s time for the real Malay to speak for the Malay. Where have the real Malays gone?

How can we force ourselves to suffer fools by allowing ourselves to consume the hate spewing writings of some bloggers whose Malay-ness are questionable? Why isn’t the peddler of rancid curry speaking on behalf and for Kimma members? He looks more kitol-ish that the person he castigates as Kitol. Why isn’t the gold nugget seller doing the same? We thank you but no thanks.

Jadi jadi lah kita orang Melayu kena tipu.

I find myself in strange territory listening to people like Reezal Merican, or Azeez speak for the Malays. I would have thought, Malays are better off if these people speak on behalf of KIMMA. I think Malays have got enough talented people to speak for ourselves.

Then we have those who pretend they speak for Umno but are themselves not Umno members. Can they have the same thinking dynamics of an Umno member? And I am not even differentiating between good and bad thinking- just undifferentiated Umno thinking. Why is this important?

It’s important because then, what we say can be leavened with realistic assessment. Then we can appreciate the Umno spirit.

Without the Umno spirit, what you write is mechanical.

The real Umno man wouldn’t speak of an imagined clash of Christians and Muslims or spun the story about Christians taking over this country. I think Malays are already suffering from an overdose of ghost stories and will NOT want to add to their consumption , manufactured tales about DAP becoming PM or Christians taking over this country.

Does a Malay cease to be a Malay if he is not Umno member? Being Umno is not an absolute requirement to fight for a Malay cause. Even being Malay is not an absolute guarantee that Malay interests are taken care of. Both require the right Malay with the right values and the Umno Malay with the right values.

Consider the record before us. From the day we got independence, most of our MBs are Malays. The top bosses in the Police and the army are Malays. The KSUs and TKSUs are almost invariably Malays. The top government officers are Malays. All the District officers are. All penghulus are Malays. All the Kings? All are Malays.

Now, one would be justified into assuming that given the fact that almost all the important office bearers are Malays and the governmental institutions we have are peopled by Malays, the lot of the Malays would be greatly improved or would have been vastly improved. Wouldn’t it?

Well, in terms of control of the economy, Malay economic interest is just about 20 per cent. That’s 20 per cent of the overall wealth being shared by 65 per cent of the population.

We would further imagine that Malays would own more land in this country. We would also imagine that Malays owned better housing. Their education would be of higher standard.

With Malays in power, there would have been more rich Malays than rich non Malays. Yet in the top 20 richest in Malaysia, you would find probably one fellow. In the top 40, you start getting more Malays but you also get more non Malays.

So what conclusion can you deduce from these observations? The only valid and justifiable conclusion, is having Malays up there does not readily translate into Malay prominence in any of the fields we mentioned. It follows from here, that positioning Malays in strategic offices is not necessarily beneficial and advantageous to Malays.

The other conclusion is those Malays in power have not helped other Malays. So if Umno insists that Umno is Malay and Malay in Umno, then by extension, Malays in power do not help the rest of Malays will also mean, Umno in power does not help the rest of the Malays.

Umno people must be realistic on this. One doesn’t stop becoming Malay if one dismisses Umno. People are already doing that if you still don’t realize it. 1.5 million Umno members protested by not voting in Umno candidates. That should be interpreted as a rejection of not merely the candidates but perhaps more so of the policies and vision that Umno projects. 1.5 million members didn’t share in the vision of Umno. 3.7 million Malay (including the 1.5 million) voters didn’t subscribe to the Umno ideals peddled by Umno leaders.

Yet the leadership is hyping themselves, aided by a pliant audio visual and print media into believing all is well. Ignorance is really bliss. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).