The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| You can leave Umno, you really can Posted: 17 Oct 2012 04:28 PM PDT OCT 18 — The typical politician wishes, for many days in a long lifetime, to wake up with his favourite mistress — power. He either uses it to affect society, raise his status or, as in most situations, both. As much as people bemoan the qualities politicians parade, primarily their lack of modesty, they cannot deny the unique attributes required to pursue a life of public service. For the politician, while there is every chance to justify one's politics — the side you pick to be on — every politician with enough years is wary of being on the wrong side of history. That their politics is not right anymore for the people they intend to represent. Factoring the "diva" element and the natural aversion to be fundamentally wrong, many Umno leaders may want to use the present lull period to reconsider their place in the ship they choose to sail in. The raging debate in Umno is to stay the course of half-baked reforms and efforts to "pretend" that more Malaysians will get a fair go in this economy, or to revert to the no-apologies "Chew it, or bugger off matey, this is our show — always been, always will" era of pre-Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Najib Razak or Muhyiddin Yassin might get their way eventually, but I doubt it, therefore the second-tier leaders in the party along with their acolytes might want to abandon ship. It's not a new fad. The judo master and a blind man Garry Kasparov, the world champion who captivated the minds and hearts of chess lovers worldwide in the 1980s, went on to set up a renegade split in the community and beat one computer too many — probably because their names were fairly pornographic. The more glaring bit in his dossier is his membership in the communist party during the Soviet-era. Chess-playing commie, but then everyone was a commie. You had to be if you wanted to be successful behind the Iron Curtain. The relevant bit is that there are not many people walking about in Russia today brandishing their membership of the party. There are lessons there for Umno members. There are dramatic exits too. Vladimir Putin must have been annoyed when the Berlin Wall fell. A KGB man based in Dresden, with a degree in law, he'd known that the world he grew up in was about to inexorably shift, and parts of it to die. He burned his "commie bridge" when he resigned from the service as soon as the KGB mounted a coup in 1991. He backed a newly democratic Russia, months-old, over those he'd worked with intending to restore a system ingrained for more than 70 years. President Putin picked the right horse, even if his detractors may point to his present obtuseness to reform. The examples are aplenty in the region. The Marcos regime in the Philippines, even after the assassination of opposition icon Benigno Aquino in 1983, was formidable. It is difficult to reconstruct with exactness how the forces of history play out but the defection of two key members of Ferdinand Marcos' Cabinet, Defence Minister Juan Ponce Enrile and the man in charge of the police Fidel Ramos, would have been huge lifts to the EDSA movements. They abdicated their spots in the regime. It could have easily backfired. Today, Enrile is a major politician and long-serving senator, and Ramos replaced Aquino's widow as president. But I must travel further to the United States for the most amazing of U-turns. By the ex-governor of the state of Alabama, George Wallace. Though as a judge, Wallace exhibited an obligation to justice, to seek higher office and to keep the power in the 1950s old south, he opted for what sold, what the gallery would go ape crazy for. He backed segregation. The practice of separate and supposedly equal, dividing washrooms, schools, universities, restaurants, buses for whites and those not blessed to be white. Every preceding US president after the Second World War was already passing, promoting or agreeing to radical equal opportunities, most of them striking at the heart of segregation in place in the southern states. He was fighting the tide of time. However, he did not care. To be governor of a state with a white majority, he felt he had to pander to the racism which won him votes. He once said: "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever." Rings strangely familiar to the defence of a way of life in Malaysia, that we should always be race-based according to a political party — "Umno dulu, kini dan selama-lamanya" (Umno before, now and forever). What would shock people senseless is that Wallace later abandoned his hate. He said without reservation that he was wrong. That the days of segregation, that to think race must dominate the thinking and the processes of a nation should end. Even Islamic history is laden with accounts of renewal. Abu Sufyan Harb led the opposition to the Muslims in Medina in the 7th century and intended to end this new "thinking" in Arab society. His wife in one of the battles devoured the liver of a Muslim fighter. His hatred of Islam was absolute. Then he became a Muslim and led from the front in many of the battles thereafter, becoming a key player in the expansion of the Islamic state. His son Muawiyah founded the Umayyad Dynasty. Even Abu Sufyan changed his mind. Changes in technicolour The world outside Umno is not perfect, it is not even complete. But that says nothing of the imperfection Umno is saddled with. The curse of Umno is it is a one-trick pony. It sold racism as a way of life and, that by adjusting to it, hoped a kind of peace would prevail. Its fixation with that agenda prevented its growth ideologically, the only sprout zone available was in the ever-fertile fascism sector. But that is not the way a country raises itself. When there is a fundamental retardation in the system, a period of rejection is necessary. The folks in Umno, even the well-intentioned ones, want to have a period of reform which will have zero impact on their way of life. They want things to change, without actually changing anything. The absurdity of the intention is not discussed enough in their own corridors, and the whispers emanating from across the street they dismiss as the disenchantment of the jealous. How to move? If there are those in Umno who feel that the party — and by virtue of its administration of Putrajaya, the country — is in paralysis, then the answer is not in reforming Umno. It is in seeking another route, another way. Umno can still win the next election, but how will the days after they win be? Can we move forward as a nation? And if in your heart you believe at best we can only keep going at this speed on a tired track then are you not denying this country a future? You are backing an Umno win, and hoping for reform. Hoping from inside does not differ from hoping from elsewhere, like in a massage chair. Since the definition of stupid is to run repeatedly at a wall wishing that on the rule of probability at some point there may be no wall, it is time to, well... stop being daft. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
| Posted: 17 Oct 2012 04:18 PM PDT OCT 18 — Apparently, there are about 40,000 unemployed graduates in Malaysia. Armed with a degree, you'd think getting a job would be easy for them. Unfortunately, employers cite lack of communication skills (most notably an impoverished command of English), bad attitude and unrealistic salary demands as a factor for turning down these graduates during job interviews. These are the kind of people Malaysia is creating no thanks to a weak education system that fails to instil leadership, ambition and drive. Not to mention the abovementioned lack of fluency in English, good attitude and realistic view of the working world. Personally, I don't blame employers who reject fresh graduates on the grounds they mentioned. Ask any successful corporate warrior today and they'll tell you they weren't choosy about their first job. They accepted any salary they were offered before working their way up. Graduates today are in this dream world of hitting it big in their first job. They have this sense of entitlement where they think they deserve to be paid top dollar so they can repay their study loans. (This was mentioned in a comment in my previous article about overseas graduate where one graduate stated he had the right to demand top dollar to repay his RM100,000 study loan for studying abroad.) In the first place, whatever loans you take is your responsibility. If you choose to buy a Toyota Camry over a Perodua Kelisa, it doesn't mean the employer has to bow down and give you enough to pay for that car loan. Employers pay according to your worth. And the harsh reality is that your paper qualifications mean little until you've been tested in the working world. A salary demand has to commensurate with working experience, skills, good attitude and personality. Without these, you'd be plain lucky to even get a job regardless of the pay. The issue of our graduates struggling to speak the lingua franca is as old as yesterday's newspapers. Yes, it's a fact that our education system has failed us. But with awareness in mind, it doesn't take much effort to master the language. Language centres teaching English are flourishing all over the city. If you don't have the money for tuition classes or English lessons, you can always learn from a friend. Back in my school days, I used to score an average of C4 for my Bahasa Melayu paper. But I was determined to learn. So I simply offered to tutor a Malay friend in English in exchange for learning Bahasa Melayu from her. As a result, she went from a C5 in English to an A2 in her SPM while I attained A1 in Bahasa Melayu for the SPM. It just goes to show that where there's a will, there's a way. So, frankly, while I note that our education system hasn't delivered what it was supposed to do, I also place the responsibility of learning squarely on the shoulders of these graduates. Unless you show accountability in improving yourself, how can you expect employers to trust that you will be able to hold any position of responsibility at his company? My advice to unemployed fresh graduates is to focus on developing yourself to overcome hurdles. Forget the high starting pay for now. Take any job even if it's not what you studied for. Life doesn't owe you a living. It's your responsibility to go out there and carve the life you want. So start somewhere. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. |
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