In one of his travels, Confucius, the sage of China, and his disciples
came across a woman weeping by a freshly covered grave.
Confucius asked one of his disciples to find out why the woman was crying so bitterly. She explained that the grave belonged to her son.
A tiger had killed him and she believed it was the same tiger that took the life of his father, her husband.
The disciple asked why she still lived in the village, why not move away. She said that although there were tigers in the area, she continued living there because the government was good and fair.
Confucius, upon learning the reason, turned to his other disciples and explained that a bad government is even more fearsome than a man-eating tiger.
Malaysians must be wondering when our government became more fearsome than a man-eating tiger. The answer is that it took many years and the process very slow. We have been dying a death of a thousand cuts.
In layman's terms, we have been living in a country whose institutions have been dismantled by mediocrity, mendacity and moral decay.
This is why staunch secularists, the Chinese voters, are willing to
vote for PAS.
That Islamic party is at least morally incorruptible.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, PAS will replace Umno in the
next general election as the majority Muslim-Malay party.
MCA's PKFZ scandal
How did the MCA, the party of Tan Cheng Lock and Tan Siew Sin, become a party now associated with the PKFZ scandal? It is true that the MCA was always associated with the ‘towkays'.
Many of its founding members were wealthy capitalists. But this was also the party that believed in moderation, ethnic-cooperation and putting nation above narrow ethnic interests.
Tan Siew Sin's stewardship of the finance ministry established the strong fiscal and banking fundamentals that established the ringgit as a stable foreign exchange currency.
Today, several MCA leaders have been linked to the PKFZ scandal.
To his credit, Ong Tee Keat has forced the matter into the public realm. It remains to be seen if the party can survive the fallout that must now take place if Ong's revelation is to have any impact.
After all, the PKFZ project, if the time-line submitted by PriceWaterhousecoopers in their report is correct, spans the stewardship of three MCA Ministers of Transport.
Incidentally, these ministers were also MCA presidents and a deputy president. Moreover, it was the Transport Ministry that stood surety for the bonds issued. Will they be asked to explain why these irregularities happened under their watch?
The problem with electoral democracy is that political parties like the MCA needs to win seats.
The MCA never had absolute support from the Chinese.
From the very start, it has had to fend off the Labour Party, the Socialist Front, the People's Action Party, Gerakan and now, the DAP and PKR.
The MCA always had to face the demands of a middle-class electorate, one that is already suspicious of its pro-business stance.
With Port Klang, these suspicions are now confirmed. There was little choice for Ong to come clean. The MCA will have to face the wrath of the public because it has lost its credibility with the urban electorate.
Any other decision would have sealed the fate of his party and, possibly, of himself.
Presumably, Ong Tee Keat, in his brash almost maverick-style, hopes to win back Chinese support ahead of the next general election through this revelation.
Najib's visit to communist state
Other BN leaders, like the PM is also working very hard to do the same. Najib is making much of his impending visit to China and, for the first time, a Chinese Malaysian may be appointed the Malaysian ambassador to that country.
Dr Teng Hock Nan, Gerakan leader in Penang, pleaded for Chin Peng's (right) return to Malaysia on humanitarian grounds.
The octogenarian was the leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) that launched a guerrilla warfare against British Malaya and Malaysia from 1948 till 1989.
Not surprisingly, calls for the government to allow him to come back to Malaysia went down badly with the victims of the emergency.
Teng quickly said that he was quoted out of context.
Information Minister Rais Yatim said that there was no place for communists in this country. Yet, the PM is leading the biggest delegation to communist China.
We can only assume that there is some room for communist cash and investments here.
The PKFZ revelation is therefore another people-friendly gesture. This is the government coming clean. The problem is that these actions are building up great expectations.
The PKFZ revelation is also an indicator that this is a government that does not tolerate negligence and conflict of interest.
As we are not allowed to draw any concluding remarks from the report, it would be best to say that the government feels strongly enough to suggest that something is not right about the project.
The decision to hand over the report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) means that the problems require scrutiny from an anti-corruption standpoint.
In short, we should expect to see some action.
And the answer is...
Just before the PKFZ report was handed over to the MACC (right), Malaysians were treated to the annual demonstration of unhappiness over governmental scholarships.
There were those who were unhappy that apparently only 20 percent of these scholarships were given out based strictly on academic merit.
There were also those who said that this should not change as scholarships are part of Malay rights. The MCA and Gerakan, either kept quiet or beat the meritocratic drum.
The Education Mininster then decided that students should be limited to ten subjects in the next Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams.
This led to a plea from Samy Vellu that such a limit would discourage Tamils from taking an extra subject in Tamil language or literature.
Once again, we are trapped by the narrow ethnic politics of the Barisan Nasional (BN).
There can be no solution because none of these parties are willing to find long-term and truly national solutions.
When did our government become more fearsome than tigers? This was the question asked at the beginning of this article.
The answer is simple. It was when politicians began to champion narrow ethnic issues, poisoning the well with their bile and bitterness.
It was when government forgot the people and the nation. But let us not simply leave the village, let us see if the likes of Ong Tee Keat can slay the PKFZ tiger and whether Muhyiddin Yassin can change the ethnic mindsets of Malaysian educationists.
First published on Jun 1, 09 2:18pm
Confucius asked one of his disciples to find out why the woman was crying so bitterly. She explained that the grave belonged to her son.
A tiger had killed him and she believed it was the same tiger that took the life of his father, her husband.
The disciple asked why she still lived in the village, why not move away. She said that although there were tigers in the area, she continued living there because the government was good and fair.
Confucius, upon learning the reason, turned to his other disciples and explained that a bad government is even more fearsome than a man-eating tiger.
Malaysians must be wondering when our government became more fearsome than a man-eating tiger. The answer is that it took many years and the process very slow. We have been dying a death of a thousand cuts.
In layman's terms, we have been living in a country whose institutions have been dismantled by mediocrity, mendacity and moral decay.
This is why staunch secularists, the Chinese voters, are willing tovote for PAS.
That Islamic party is at least morally incorruptible.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, PAS will replace Umno in the
next general election as the majority Muslim-Malay party.
MCA's PKFZ scandal
How did the MCA, the party of Tan Cheng Lock and Tan Siew Sin, become a party now associated with the PKFZ scandal? It is true that the MCA was always associated with the ‘towkays'.
Many of its founding members were wealthy capitalists. But this was also the party that believed in moderation, ethnic-cooperation and putting nation above narrow ethnic interests.
Tan Siew Sin's stewardship of the finance ministry established the strong fiscal and banking fundamentals that established the ringgit as a stable foreign exchange currency.
Today, several MCA leaders have been linked to the PKFZ scandal.
To his credit, Ong Tee Keat has forced the matter into the public realm. It remains to be seen if the party can survive the fallout that must now take place if Ong's revelation is to have any impact.
After all, the PKFZ project, if the time-line submitted by PriceWaterhousecoopers in their report is correct, spans the stewardship of three MCA Ministers of Transport.
Incidentally, these ministers were also MCA presidents and a deputy president. Moreover, it was the Transport Ministry that stood surety for the bonds issued. Will they be asked to explain why these irregularities happened under their watch?
The problem with electoral democracy is that political parties like the MCA needs to win seats.The MCA never had absolute support from the Chinese.
From the very start, it has had to fend off the Labour Party, the Socialist Front, the People's Action Party, Gerakan and now, the DAP and PKR.
The MCA always had to face the demands of a middle-class electorate, one that is already suspicious of its pro-business stance.
With Port Klang, these suspicions are now confirmed. There was little choice for Ong to come clean. The MCA will have to face the wrath of the public because it has lost its credibility with the urban electorate.
Any other decision would have sealed the fate of his party and, possibly, of himself.
Presumably, Ong Tee Keat, in his brash almost maverick-style, hopes to win back Chinese support ahead of the next general election through this revelation.
Najib's visit to communist state
Other BN leaders, like the PM is also working very hard to do the same. Najib is making much of his impending visit to China and, for the first time, a Chinese Malaysian may be appointed the Malaysian ambassador to that country.
Dr Teng Hock Nan, Gerakan leader in Penang, pleaded for Chin Peng's (right) return to Malaysia on humanitarian grounds.The octogenarian was the leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) that launched a guerrilla warfare against British Malaya and Malaysia from 1948 till 1989.
Not surprisingly, calls for the government to allow him to come back to Malaysia went down badly with the victims of the emergency.
Teng quickly said that he was quoted out of context.
Information Minister Rais Yatim said that there was no place for communists in this country. Yet, the PM is leading the biggest delegation to communist China.
We can only assume that there is some room for communist cash and investments here.
The PKFZ revelation is therefore another people-friendly gesture. This is the government coming clean. The problem is that these actions are building up great expectations.
The PKFZ revelation is also an indicator that this is a government that does not tolerate negligence and conflict of interest.
As we are not allowed to draw any concluding remarks from the report, it would be best to say that the government feels strongly enough to suggest that something is not right about the project.
The decision to hand over the report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) means that the problems require scrutiny from an anti-corruption standpoint.
In short, we should expect to see some action.
And the answer is...
Just before the PKFZ report was handed over to the MACC (right), Malaysians were treated to the annual demonstration of unhappiness over governmental scholarships.There were those who were unhappy that apparently only 20 percent of these scholarships were given out based strictly on academic merit.
There were also those who said that this should not change as scholarships are part of Malay rights. The MCA and Gerakan, either kept quiet or beat the meritocratic drum.
The Education Mininster then decided that students should be limited to ten subjects in the next Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia exams.
This led to a plea from Samy Vellu that such a limit would discourage Tamils from taking an extra subject in Tamil language or literature.
Once again, we are trapped by the narrow ethnic politics of the Barisan Nasional (BN).
There can be no solution because none of these parties are willing to find long-term and truly national solutions.
When did our government become more fearsome than tigers? This was the question asked at the beginning of this article.
The answer is simple. It was when politicians began to champion narrow ethnic issues, poisoning the well with their bile and bitterness.
It was when government forgot the people and the nation. But let us not simply leave the village, let us see if the likes of Ong Tee Keat can slay the PKFZ tiger and whether Muhyiddin Yassin can change the ethnic mindsets of Malaysian educationists.
First published on Jun 1, 09 2:18pm
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