Dean Johns | Dec 7, 2011
Malaysiakini

I’ve always had a soft spot for babies, and thus have found the fathering and nurturing of several in the course of my somewhat chequered marital career to be life-enhancing experiences.

So I was far from surprised that, of all the lovely people I was privileged to meet at the Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia dinner in KL last Saturday night, the new acquaintance I found most utterly enchanting was the youngest ‘member’ or at least attendee, a three-year-old aptly named Joy.

There were two reasons why my heart went out to this delightful little sprite. Firstly, her spirit of frolic and fun that inspired me to play so many silly games with her that I ended up limp with exhaustion and soaking with sweat, while she was still as fresh as the proverbial daisy and ready for more.

And secondly, she reminded me of my own similarly joyful daughter Sammie, whose birth in Malaysia 16 years ago transformed me from an appalled but passive expatriate observer of the local political scene to an outraged critic of the evils I saw her as having to face if she stayed in Umno/BN’s Bolehland.

Happily she’s been spared most of such problems, thanks first to the efforts of her mother, maternal grandparents and some very good teachers in Malaysia, and also her subsequent relocation into the admittedly far-from-perfect but at least somewhat more progressive Australian educational system.

But as is perhaps evident in the columns I write for Malaysiakini, I’ve maintained the protective rage that her arrival in my life generated, and remain inspired to vent this emotion on behalf of Malaysian sons and daughters of all ages, races, genders and religions.

Rage at the fact that, as almost everybody in this nation with even a shred of awareness knows by now, Umno/BN, behind its pretence of promoting and protecting Malay rights, religious beliefs and prosperity, has been misleading, suppressing and shamelessly ripping-off the Malaysian people, Malay and non-Malay alike, for decades.

Defective ‘growing-up’ milk powder

And perhaps most reprehensible, at least in the long-term, is this kleptocratic regime’s depriving millions of young Malaysians of the truly excellent and enlightened education they need and deserve, while sending its own pampered offspring overseas or, in flagrant breach of its own rules, to local international schools.

And now, apparently no longer content with educationally and otherwise victimising children and adolescents, now Umno/BN has been cheating toddlers and babes in arms by selling sub-standard milk powder to their unsuspecting parents through its lavishly publicly-funded chain of ‘discount’ stores known as Kedai Rakyat 1Malaysia, or KR1M.

Investigations by Tony Pua and other diligent opposition politicians have revealed that the now-discontinued 1Malaysia ‘growing-up’ milk powder previously sold for months in KR1M outlets contained no trace whatever of 15 essential nutrients, vitamins and trace elements, and provided a mere 4.5 percent of the calcium and just 7.4 percent of the iron that the relevant food regulations deem necessary for healthy growth and development of young bodies and minds.

And arguably even more disgraceful was that this same product for babies and toddlers was found to contain many times the maximum permitted level of Vitamin A, which in excess can lead to symptoms including liver dysfunction, reduced bone mineral density, skin discolouration and hair loss.

Yet, when faced with these shocking revelations, the Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai, the same Lai who lied when he denied that police fired water cannons and teargas grenades into the grounds of a hospital during the Bersih 2.0 rally earlier this year, rather than apologising or better yet resigning, attacked Tony Pua for revealing the truth to the previously unsuspecting public.

In fact, Lai had the hide to accuse Pua of “trying to politicise the matter”.

Fraudulent concept

Which was hypocritical in the extreme in light of the plainly evident reality that the entire KR1M operation is just another cheap and shabby attempt by Najib Razak and his Umno/BN colleagues and cronies to use their fraudulent ‘1Malaysia’ concept to politicise every possible aspect of society.

And speaking of trying to kid the Malaysian people, the head of Wanita Umno and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, was apparently too busy defending her husband and children against allegations of impropriety in their involvement in the notorious National Feedlot Corporation scandal to bother about such trifles as dangerously defective milk powder.

Though admittedly her department did lavish heaps of cash on full-page colour ads in the mainstream newspapers showing her interacting with children with disabilities to demonstrate was a truly caring person she would like to be perceived as.

But there was precious little concern shown by Shahrizat or anyone else for mothers, babies or children by, or indeed for any Malaysian families other than those of members and cronies of the ruling regime, in the recent Umno general assembly.

All we saw and heard was one infantile rant after another against the opposition, and juvenile calls for oaths of loyalty to the ever-predatory party.

Not a word about any plans to address any of the countless genuine concerns confronting Malaysian families, like the rising cost of living, the worsening of the nation’s corruption index, the massive wastages, frauds and thefts revealed by the recent auditor-general’s report, and the budget cuts on education and health to enable the purchase of outrageously-overpriced ‘defence’ items like the world’s most expensive patrol boats, and a fleet of armoured personnel carriers whose prices have mysteriously multiplied several times between their purchase in Turkey and delivery to the Malaysian army.

So it’s as clear today as it has been for generations that, for as bright a future as possible for my young friend Joy and her contemporaries, and for even younger and as-yet-unborn babies, it’s vital to put an end to the criminal misrule of Malaysia by this gang of Umno/BN boobies.
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DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published books of his columns for Malaysiakini include ‘Mad about Malaysia’, ‘Even Madder about Malaysia’, ‘Missing Malaysia’ and ‘1Malaysia.con’.