2021 Budget - Lessons Not Learned

 2021 Budget – Lessons Not Learned!

 

M. Bakri Musa

 

The 2021 Malaysian Budget repeats the same old mistake – the erroneous belief that throwing money at a problem would solve it. As in the past, billions are again being allocated to Bumiputra institutions like JAKIM and JASA, as well as to MARA and UiTM. Despite such generosity, now and in the past, there has been no appreciable improvement in Bumiputra competitiveness vis a vis non-Bumiputras.

 

Stripped of their fancy acronyms, JAKIM and JASA are but public works programs for otherwise unemployable Bumiputras. Those institutions go beyond. They are responsible for Malays not being competitive. There is little incentive to; the likes of JAKIM and JASA are ready to employ you. If you want Malays to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the nation, as is the aspiration of all Malay leaders, then get rid of those institutions.

 

            As for the billions for MARA, they will continue to squander that by sending Malays to third-rate universities abroad, though thankfully not in the same massive numbers as in the 1970s and 80s where they sent Malays abroad even for Sixth Form! As for UiTM’s bountiful windfall, none will be used to recruit English and Philosophy Professors. Then we wonder why our students have abysmal English fluency, and are incapable of critical thinking.

 

            The “help” Malays are getting from their government reminds me of an old Reagan advice to ranchers in the west. “When you hear, ‘I am from the Feds and I am here to help,’ run to the hills fast!”

 

With JAKIM distracting Malays to be obsessed with getting into Paradise, there would be that much fewer left to ensure that we do not suffer our own collective Hell right here and now in Tanah Melayu. For every Malay consumed with revealed knowledge or prophetic traditions, that would be one fewer to do research on Covid-19, or clean the environment.

 

What Malays need are better engineers and architects, not more exquisite Qur’an reciters and mesmerizing ulama with their fire-and-brimstone sermons. Consider Malaysian masjids. One showpiece mosque in Kuala Lumpur has acres of open marble floors that are unwalkable because they are exposed to the blazing Malaysian sun. I suppose, to be charitable, that was part of the design – a preview of how hell would be like! Even with recently completed masjids, there are extension cords everywhere as the designers did not anticipate the electrical outlet needs. In Kelantan, the most “Islamic” state, you cannot get clean water to do your ablution.

 

When we do get those few Malays away from this obsession with religion, we do not let them practice their craft. Instead we seduce them into doing something else, like administrative chores.

 

It breaks my heart to see those few Malays of my generation who were trained in the sciences being seduced into becoming pseudo-ulama. I would have thought they would have served as much-needed role models for the young in the kampungs by being productive in their respective fields.

 

It is sad to see the first Malay PhD in mathematics now touring village mosques giving khutba (sermons) on the supposed past glory of Islam in the Malay world. A more worthy legacy would have been for him to establish Institutes of Mathematics to encourage the young to pursue the subject. Another, also of my vintage, abandoned his doctoral work in mathematics at a prestigious university to go into religion.

 

I am also saddened to see the few precious Malay scientists and professionals not being rewarded and honored, not for their sake but as a societal statement to inspire the young. The honor of Emeritus Professorship is being heaped not upon those few precious Malay pioneers in the sciences and professions, but in Malay and Islamic Studies. We already have a glut of them. Meanwhile we keep harping on the lack of Malays in the sciences!

 

My late father had an apt observation on that misplaced priority:  Membajakan lallang (adding fertilizer to lallang–a particularly tenacious weed).

 

A Christian cobbler would best show his faith, wrote Martin Luther, not by carving crucifixes on the shoes he makes but by making them durable and cheap so the poor could afford them. Likewise Muslim engineers would best demonstrate their faith in Allah not by carving intricate Qur’anic verses on the bridges they build but making sure that during floods more water would flow under than over, and that there is no unexpected right angle turns at mid-point.

 

Islam is a great faith. It has withstood hordes of Mongol invaders as well as Stalin’s brutal suppression. The faith does not need defenders, least of all from these characters in IKIM and JAKIM.

 

Islam cannot advance in Malaysia if Malays are overrepresented in the socially dysfunctional categories. Getting rid of JAKIM and JASA, as well as MARA and BTN would be a great first step. Thus far that reality has not even registered on Malay leaders.

 

Non-Malays should relax; quit worrying about all those goodies showered on Bumiputras. Heed the wisdom of Plutarch:  The man who first brought ruin upon the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesse and amusements.

 

Remember, when Malays holler “Tanah Melayu untuk Melayu!” (Malaysia for Malays!) that is not a threat, it’s more a desperate cry from those betrayed by their leaders.

Race, Religion, And Royalty: The Barnacles On Malay Society

Race, Religion, And Royalty

The Barnacles On Malay Society

 

M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)

(First of Four Parts)

 

Introduction:

 

Race, religion, and royalty have long defined Malay culture and society. Today those three elements have degenerated to be the treacherous troika of Malaysia’s increasingly dangerous identity politics. This development more than anything else threatens to radically alter Malaysia’s political dynamics, and with that, the nation’s stability.

 

There is yet another related and equally (if not far more) consequential aspect that is not appreciated. That is, race, religion, and royalty are the barnacles on Malay society that not only impede Malay progress but also threaten to sink Malay society and culture. That in turn could have a severe and adverse impact on Malaysia. There cannot be stability if the nation’s majority ethnic group were to be left behind or remained marginalized. It is unfortunate that this is fast becoming the sorry and tragic reality for Malays.

 

The narrative or “explanation” spun by Malay leaders and followers alike has been to blame others. In colonial times, the “others” were the colonialists; today, after more than six decades of independence, with the government as well as all the major levers of powers dominated and controlled by Malays, the “others” are now non-Malays and the West.

 

This weakness or tendency to blame others is not unique unto Malays. South African Blacks still wallow in their victimhood status at the hands of the minority whites. The Chinese, at least until a generation or two ago, still blamed the humiliations they suffered under the British during the Opium War. White Americans today blame illegal immigrants for what ails America, with President Trump spending billions to build a wall at the southern border.

 

That Malays are not unique in this blame-the-others game is no consolation. Nor would that help solve the problem.

 

My commentaries on race, religion, and royalty penned within the last decade examine this neglected but important proposition that the three elements have become barnacles on Malay society. They impose a severe and costly drag, becoming the major factors contributing to Malay backwardness. Unresolved, race, religion, and royalty could be the undoing of Malay society and culture.

 

 

Conflicts Based On Race, Religion, and Royalty

Conflicts based on only race, religion, or royalty have plagued mankind throughout history. Those involving any two of the three simultaneously, as with race and religion or religion and royalty, are likewise not unusual. However, conflicts where all three are invoked and in parallel are rare. I cannot think of any. Rare or unheard of it may be, that is the unfortunate grim prospect facing Malaysia today. The nation is now deeply polarized along race, religion, and attitude or loyalty towards royalty. This is never more keenly felt than within the Malay society.

 

During the last decade of the last century there was the Rwandan civil war that pitted the Tutsis and Hutus. Not too long before that, there was the Biafran War in Nigeria, with the Ibos against the rest. A non-African would find it difficult to tell a Tutsis from a Hutus, or an Ibo from the rest. Those conflicts were based solely on ethnicity, a variant of race.

 

The turmoil still plaguing India is based on religion–Hindus against Muslims. Indians are ethnically or racially similar. You can’t tell them apart by their physical features, the language they speak, or their personal mannerisms. Both Muslims and Hindus shake their heads to signal yes and no. As for intra-religious conflicts, the centuries-old Sunni-Shiite divide in Islam is still being played out today in all its lethality and brutality.

 

Royalty too is no stranger in many conflicts. Within my memory and closest to Malaysia geographically and culturally was the 1962 rebellion in nearby Brunei. Only the quick intervention by the British through its mercenary Gurkhas saved the sultan. A decade and a half later, the Iranian Revolution forced the Shah of Shahs to flee his country. The Iranian Revolution that triggered it is still ongoing.

 

All those horrors occurred during my lifetime and memory. The history books document many more, and much worse.

 

Less common but not rare is where two of the three elements of race, religion, and royalty are combined, or where their dynamics paralleled. The centuries-old and still very deadly Arab-Jew conflict reflects this combination, with tribe and religion in play. The “troubles” in Northern Ireland between the Irish and English is but a residuum and reflection of a much bigger divide between the two that has plagued the Emerald Island for centuries. That too is a combination of ethnicity (Gaelic versus English) and religion (Catholic versus Protestant).

 

To reiterate for emphasis, a conflict involving all three–race, religion, and royalty–is rare. That is where Malaysia is headed towards on its current trajectory. With all three elements involved and in parallel, once the conflagration is ignited, expect it to be much more vicious, protracted, and difficult to resolve. That makes preventing such a catastrophe from happening be the highest priority.

 

Next:  The Race Barnacle  (Second of Four Parts)