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Aliran Monthly : Vol.26(10) Page 1 PP3739/12/2006 ISSN 0127 PP3739/12/2006 ISSN 0127 - 5127 / RM4.00 / 2006:Vol.26No.10 Aliran Monthly : Vol.26(10) Page 1 COVER STORY Lost on the way to 2020 A commentary on the Umno General Assembly 2006 by Khoo Boo Teik hose who had their eyes, TT ears, heads, and hearts TTT assailed by the live tele- cast of the Umno General Assembly last month may be driven to find some balm in the following words: Today we have Malays and Bumiputera as heads of departments, scientists, actuaries, nuclear physi- cists, surgeons, experts in the fields of medicine and aviation, bankers and corporate leaders. In fact, some are already managers of major conglome- rates worth billions of ringgit and able to acquire bigger companies in the open market or participate in mergers and acquisitions which are complex and sophisticated. Alien pride Thus spoke Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad with undisguised pride in Malay attainments after a lifetime’s anxiety that to be Malay was to be backward. Yet his anxiety was never fully assuaged. He left office warning of a ‘second Malay dilemma’, downcast at the thought that he and the Malays had let each other down. But his sense of pride, even though it came before the fall in July 1997, must have been alien to the delegates who made up Aliran Monthly : Vol.26(10) Page 2 EDITOR'S NOTE In the lead story, Khoo Boo Teik comments on how UMNO got lost on the way to 2020. CONTENTS If the goal is 100% national unity, the UMNO of 2006 has taken us 30% forward, 70% back- COVER STORY ward. As we prepare to celebrate 50 Years ••• Lost On The Way To 2020 222 of Merdeka, we must look elsewhere for a better, kinder and fairer idea of progress. FEATURES In this regard P. Ramakrishnan speaks to all ••• Pity The Poor Keris 777 Malaysians in the back cover story. As eth- ••• Lifting The Paraquat Ban - nic relations worsen, he calls upon the silent In Whose Interest? 111111 majority to wake up. ••• Kampong Demolition Opens Villagers' Eyes 141414 We carry three stories to remind us of Hu- ••• The Freedom Film Fest 2006 191919 man Rights Day (10 December). Rani Rasiah ••• Survival At Stake 242424 documents the demolition of Kg. Berembang ••• A Clash Of Interests 282828 in Kuala Lumpur and how the urban pio- ••• Why Was PNB In The Dark? 313131 neers fought back. Jennifer Maurin focuses ••• Troubling Times 404040 on the decision of the government to lift the ban on the use of paraquat — “one of the REGULARS most highly toxic herbicides to be marketed.” ••• LettersLettersLetters 323232 This policy reversal invariably will endanger ••• Current Concerns 353535 the lives of our plantation workers. Mary Magdalene reminds us of the plight of our OTHERSOTHERSOTHERS Orang Asal. She proposes that we move quickly to develop a special curriculum to ••• Subscription Form 171717 cater to their special education needs. ••• AppealAppealAppeal 181818 ••• Aliran's AGM 363636 Finally, read our centre pages which tell of the Freedom Film Fest 2006 which was like a breath of fresh air into the humdrum of everyday living Penang. Blessings and Peace for 2007. Published by Aliran Kesedaran Negara (ALIRAN) 103, Medan Penaga, 11600 Jelutong, Penang, Malaysia. ALIRANALIRANALIRAN is a Reform Movement dedicated to Tel : (04) 658 5251 Fax : (04) 658 5197 Justice, Freedom & Solidarity and listed on the Email : [email protected] roster of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Founded in 1977, Aliran welcomes Homepage : http://www.aliran.com all Malaysians above 21 to be members. Contact the Hon. Secretary or visit our webpage. Printed by Percetakan Tujuh Lapan Enam Sdn. Bhd. No. 16, Lengkangan Brunei, 55100 Pudu, Kuala Lumpur. Aliran Monthly : Vol.26(10) Page 3 Umno’s General Assembly last month. In Mahathir’s absence – better than a voiceless attendance, I’d think were I a Mahathir loyalist – the delegates merrily outdid one another in telling the world, or whoever would listen, that the Malays were ‘behind’, ‘still be- hind’, ‘lagging behind’, victims yet again of others who live in this country and in the same heartless world, ad nauseam. Umno election 1993: Anwar and the ‘Wawasan Team’ Perhaps only in that manner and his ‘Wawasan Team’ swept ‘threat’, ‘insult’ or ‘disrespect’ could they persuade themselves Ghafar Baba, Abdullah Badawi to the ‘special position of the that they weren’t being comical in and Sanusi Junid from Umno’s Malays’, would allow one to their so-called debates on the only leadership. In a reflection of the cannibalise any vision so as to communalist agenda openly pro- shared hopes of the time, the discard what’s politically in- moted without a hint of embar- ‘anointed successor’ paid a tri- convenient, save what’s expedi- rassment in this nation. bute to our multiculturalism: ‘Wo ent, and attach it to whatever men dou shi yi jia ren’ (‘We are one serves one’s interests. A century ago family’). Serve yourself It’s just as well that Mahathir ut- What of Umno today? tered those words, cited above, at Take the NEP’s original ‘two the Umno General Assembly of Mind games prongs’. Delegates at the Assem- November 1993, in a time and bly barely paid lip service to the mood that now seems ages ago. At the pre-Assembly Johor Umno first prong of ‘poverty eradication Convention, Abdul Ghani irrespective of race’. They end- Recalling those words, and look- Othman and Johor Umno poin- lessly highlighted the second ing at the recent Assembly, one tedly denied that there could ever prong of ‘restructuring’. They sees how far Umno has subverted be a Bangsa Malaysia. No less loosely linked quotas and figures its own once proud and some- than Najib Tun Razak thought it to whatever struck their fancy. what credible claim to spearhead such an original thing to say he nation-building. couldn’t find ‘Bangsa Malaysia’ We shouldn’t fall for Umno’s good in the Constitution. (No one can, cop-bad cop routine by turning to In 1993, Mahathir’s Wawasan but what’s his point? Can he find its rowdies to illustrate the point. 2020 had resonated across ‘Malay supremacy’ in the Consti- Malaysian society, valorised by tution?) Look at Najib. Whereas the Out- the prosperity that interacted with line Perspective Plan of the Sec- a huge surge on the Kuala Then followed a twist: Bangsa ond Malaysia Plan, bearing his Lumpur Stock Exchange. The Na- Malaysia was only a ‘state of father’s imprint, specified a span tional Development Policy had mind’. (Really, and who would of 20 years, Najib said there was officially replaced the NEP, and a have known the state of ‘no time frame’ to NEP’s restruc- unifying dream of Bangsa Malay- Mahathir’s mind then, or at any turing. sia made it appear that the future other time?) was ours. Listen to the words of the callow But that sort of attitude, always Khairy Jamaludin: ‘What if I say The same year, Anwar Ibrahim scanning for the remotest we accept the [Asli report’s] 45 Aliran Monthly : Vol.26(10) Page 4 per cent figure and having ac- too late. cepted it, we ask for 70 per cent?’ Like it or not, we are globally con- Umno claims to be faithful to ‘the nected. At least three things Old Man’s vision’. However, its would have told newspaper read- delegates would only find the ers, television viewers, internet goal of ‘developed country status’ surfers and bloggers across the seductive. They would reject its world that Umno’s self-pro- Bangsa Malaysia social base as re- claimed capacity to ‘speak for all pulsive – a ‘rojak of races’, Ghani races’ was hollow. Othman had called it. First was the arrogance to which Those are ways to mangle NEP the son of the humble Tun and Wawasan 2020 into forms Hussein Onn repeatedly gave that one can love to have and to voice: ‘Do not challenge us.’ That hold. puerile attitude, which belied all talk of transparency, openness The result is to peddle a sort of and democratic discourse, was wawasan potong (cut vision) that, grounded in Umno’s unique na- like a kereta potong (cut car), is tion-building notion of ‘Malay cheap to assemble, difficult to supremacy’. Voice of harmony: Do not challenge us! maintain, and fraudulent to sell. Besides, there would have been broke out at different levels in dif- Speak for yourself this assessment of Umno’s post- ferent locations. Leaders contra- Mahathir strength: Pas is beaten dicted one another on policy mat- It’s this pathetic shrinkage of and Umno has recovered its ters, ranging from language to Umno’s ‘vision’, rather than Malay vote. Hence, the non- ‘meritocracy’ to the economy. whether certain speeches and par- Malays, who saved Mahathir in ticular antics were seditious or 1999 and backed Abdullah in Malays of different political per- offensive, that exposed the noi- 2004, can once more serve as bo- suasions, from Anwar Ibrahim to some and wearisome tone of the geyman and scapegoat in Umno’s M Bakri Musa, had called for an recent Assembly. demonology. They can be told to end to NEP. Others had criticised lump it if they feel let down by a the widening intra-Malay in- After the Assembly, many people resurgence of ‘Malay supremacy’. equalities, uncorrected economic within Umno, BN and the main- inefficiencies and lack of leader- stream media fell over themselves Desperation ship. applauding Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for ‘speaking Second was desperation. Umno had for all of us’, in Lim Kheng Yaik’s had a difficult year.
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