MALAYSIA’S STILL STUCK WITH YESTERDAY’S LEADERS IN THE GOVERNMENT, THE OPPOSITION AND THE NGOs. – PART I.
…THEY ARE YESTERDAY’S ACTORS WITH YESTERDAY’S PLOT, MENTALITY, ISSIUES AND APPROACHES.
By Mansor Puteh
SO EXPECT YESTERDAY’S CONTROVERSIES TO BE REPEATED AGAIN AND AGAIN FROM ALL OF THEM FROM TIME TO TIME…
SOME OF THE OPPOSITION ‘LEADERS’ HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR TOO LONG. THEY SPOUT THE SAME DIATRIBE AND GET ABOUT THE SAME RESPONSES FROM THE SAME PERSONS THAT ARE REPEATED IN THE SAME MEDIA.
NO WONDER WE STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH OLD AND STALE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC AND RELIGIOUS ISSUES WHICH ARE MOSTLY MEDIA AND BLOG-CREATED ONES.
And the squealing and stirrings of the minorities who feel being cornered everywhere by the fast expanding majority who have started to look more inwardly than ever before.
Are the majority to be blamed for starting to exert themselves after being too accommodative for too long?
Trying to rewrite history and change the political landscape of the country won’t do the minorities any good.
Their younger generation have accepted real facts that the earlier generation had tried to deny, and are living in the real world and not one of make-belief.
This is despite the intense propaganda being conducted by their media to sway their sentiments and cultural and social affinity to Hong Kong or India, for they are not providing them with their daily rice, bread or ‘capati’.
Unfortunately, even the intellectuals and intellectualism are also of the old generation, all of whom are still shouting outdated slogans.
Even the newspaper columnists are also from an earlier time who write on tired issues that do not matter much today.
Other countries have new generation of leaders in many fields especially politics. But in Malaysia, we seem to have been stuck with the same group from an earlier generation who does not seem to be able to move ahead, to deal with different maters of concern.
Most of them are stuck in time, so they take the whole country with them, so the society does not move that much in real sense.
The political system is such that there is a lot of respect for old men and women; that we simply cannot remove them unless if they decide to retire on their own, or are embroiled in some scandals that force them to withdraw.
But even if they are moved out of their political parties, they can still be in it by forming a new one or by joining the opposing parties.
This is Malaysia. And this is Malaysian politics.
So no wonder we still have the likes of Nik Aziz and the other oligarchs in PAS; Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang and Anwar and their off-springs; Nazri, Rais, Hishamuddin and the UMNO oligarchs to spar with each other, on pretty much the same tired and boring issues, in parliament and outside of it, and sometimes in court, too.
Where are today’s leaders in their respective parties? How do they bring into their parties new people to replace them as leaders?
It is through intra-party and inter-party disputes and bickering that they are able to see who have potential to be anointed as their new generation of leaders?
It seems this to be the case, since there is no one from any of the political party who can rise to the top echelon without having done any of those things – carry the bullhorns and shouting slogans, or be strong supporters of some of the old leaders so they can be seen to be loyal, but not necessary with good leadership quality.
No one has suddenly appeared out of the blue and impress his party in their annual conventions by saying something intelligent that can props up the party; all of them have to shout and are capable of doing a host of unimaginable things including lodging police reports of all sorts and giving tired speeches in ‘ceramahs’ all over the country.
This seems to be the way most of the political parties recruit their new leaders.
Some however, became known simply for being lucky that they were nominated to run for the general elections and who managed to win not because the voters liked them but because they hated the candidates from Barisan.
Can we have some who do not have to step on the heads of the others before them, who also do not have to promise anything just to get votes from the people, and who can deliver?
Where are the qualified persons who enter politics out of choice and not of necessity who appear from nowhere and who can take the country somewhere, and who can also unite the Melayu in Nusantara Melayu and Muslims in the Entire Muslim World?
We don’t have any of those.
So we have to make do with some who are mere followers, lackeys and hangers-on, who exhibit poor leadership potential and who have been known not to have written or said anything intelligent.
Some claimed attention by shouting slogans outside of the American embassy; the others shout in support of their idols.
They get attention and they could be counted to do the bidding for the others. Some of them had indeed been voted to parliament and the state assemblies by not having any talent in leadership but as noise and nuisance-makers.
Alas, they are the accidental parliamentarians and state assemblypersons, who do not have any potential in playing a significant leadership role either in the government or opposition and the NGO. They belong elsewhere and not in politics.
They had not shown any real concern for the people but only to one or two in the hierarchy of the political parties they have chosen to support. This is their only concern which is to attract the attention of those leaders.
It’s either they are yesterday’s leaders or nobody’s leaders, especially those who suddenly appear from nowhere and were able to get themselves to parliament and the state assemblies when they were not actually elected by the voters in the first place.
And no wonder, too, many old sensitive issues which were dealt with in the past are still being churned again and again, since they do not have new ones to deal with.
Are we short of people whom we can trust forward to lead the country? Do they have to come from only the few political parties and not from out of the blue and from the skies?
Do they have to be in the long line of aspirants who commit gaffes along the way and end up in their local and divisional leadership before they go into the national arena?
The system in Malaysia is such that one has to play the game, and it takes a very long while before one gets to the top. But unfortunately, the induction to national political life and career is fraud with pitfalls and disadvantages, in that one creates a fiefdom for oneself and around oneself, so that it becomes their think tank and the country’s interests becomes second.
Malaysians and Malaysia are basically being ruled by a bunch of people of an earlier generation who are downright rude – for insisting on staying put where they are like there is no future for them beyond politics.
None of them can ever move on in their careers after they leave politics, so no wonder they insist on staying in politics because the rules can be bent and manipulated unlike if they are in the other professions where they have to abide by stringent laws and regulations which bar them to do as they please.
Even university lecturers and medical professionals have to retire when they reach a certain age; they cannot perform as what they had been doing for so many years previously.
But in politics, one can come in and go out as one pleases; but chances are one prefers to stay since they derive a lot of fun doing that.
How many of the professional politicians from both sides can become better and more respectable persons once they leave office?
If they were in the government, chances are they would be given cushy posts in government-linked companies as chairmen or chief executive officers.
On the other hand, if they in the other side, chances are they will wilt. So that’s the reason why they prefer to stay the course no matter what, since they can still have the venom to spray and repeat the statements and comments on everything by disagreeing without coming up with anything intelligent.
What more if they have acquired such thick skin that no matter what they face; they can still stand up stoic in face of the onslaught of condemnation and criticism.
By Mansor Puteh
SO EXPECT YESTERDAY’S CONTROVERSIES TO BE REPEATED AGAIN AND AGAIN FROM ALL OF THEM FROM TIME TO TIME…
SOME OF THE OPPOSITION ‘LEADERS’ HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR TOO LONG. THEY SPOUT THE SAME DIATRIBE AND GET ABOUT THE SAME RESPONSES FROM THE SAME PERSONS THAT ARE REPEATED IN THE SAME MEDIA.
NO WONDER WE STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH OLD AND STALE SOCIAL, CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC AND RELIGIOUS ISSUES WHICH ARE MOSTLY MEDIA AND BLOG-CREATED ONES.
And the squealing and stirrings of the minorities who feel being cornered everywhere by the fast expanding majority who have started to look more inwardly than ever before.
Are the majority to be blamed for starting to exert themselves after being too accommodative for too long?
Trying to rewrite history and change the political landscape of the country won’t do the minorities any good.
Their younger generation have accepted real facts that the earlier generation had tried to deny, and are living in the real world and not one of make-belief.
This is despite the intense propaganda being conducted by their media to sway their sentiments and cultural and social affinity to Hong Kong or India, for they are not providing them with their daily rice, bread or ‘capati’.
Unfortunately, even the intellectuals and intellectualism are also of the old generation, all of whom are still shouting outdated slogans.
Even the newspaper columnists are also from an earlier time who write on tired issues that do not matter much today.
Other countries have new generation of leaders in many fields especially politics. But in Malaysia, we seem to have been stuck with the same group from an earlier generation who does not seem to be able to move ahead, to deal with different maters of concern.
Most of them are stuck in time, so they take the whole country with them, so the society does not move that much in real sense.
The political system is such that there is a lot of respect for old men and women; that we simply cannot remove them unless if they decide to retire on their own, or are embroiled in some scandals that force them to withdraw.
But even if they are moved out of their political parties, they can still be in it by forming a new one or by joining the opposing parties.
This is Malaysia. And this is Malaysian politics.
So no wonder we still have the likes of Nik Aziz and the other oligarchs in PAS; Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang and Anwar and their off-springs; Nazri, Rais, Hishamuddin and the UMNO oligarchs to spar with each other, on pretty much the same tired and boring issues, in parliament and outside of it, and sometimes in court, too.
Where are today’s leaders in their respective parties? How do they bring into their parties new people to replace them as leaders?
It is through intra-party and inter-party disputes and bickering that they are able to see who have potential to be anointed as their new generation of leaders?
It seems this to be the case, since there is no one from any of the political party who can rise to the top echelon without having done any of those things – carry the bullhorns and shouting slogans, or be strong supporters of some of the old leaders so they can be seen to be loyal, but not necessary with good leadership quality.
No one has suddenly appeared out of the blue and impress his party in their annual conventions by saying something intelligent that can props up the party; all of them have to shout and are capable of doing a host of unimaginable things including lodging police reports of all sorts and giving tired speeches in ‘ceramahs’ all over the country.
This seems to be the way most of the political parties recruit their new leaders.
Some however, became known simply for being lucky that they were nominated to run for the general elections and who managed to win not because the voters liked them but because they hated the candidates from Barisan.
Can we have some who do not have to step on the heads of the others before them, who also do not have to promise anything just to get votes from the people, and who can deliver?
Where are the qualified persons who enter politics out of choice and not of necessity who appear from nowhere and who can take the country somewhere, and who can also unite the Melayu in Nusantara Melayu and Muslims in the Entire Muslim World?
We don’t have any of those.
So we have to make do with some who are mere followers, lackeys and hangers-on, who exhibit poor leadership potential and who have been known not to have written or said anything intelligent.
Some claimed attention by shouting slogans outside of the American embassy; the others shout in support of their idols.
They get attention and they could be counted to do the bidding for the others. Some of them had indeed been voted to parliament and the state assemblies by not having any talent in leadership but as noise and nuisance-makers.
Alas, they are the accidental parliamentarians and state assemblypersons, who do not have any potential in playing a significant leadership role either in the government or opposition and the NGO. They belong elsewhere and not in politics.
They had not shown any real concern for the people but only to one or two in the hierarchy of the political parties they have chosen to support. This is their only concern which is to attract the attention of those leaders.
It’s either they are yesterday’s leaders or nobody’s leaders, especially those who suddenly appear from nowhere and were able to get themselves to parliament and the state assemblies when they were not actually elected by the voters in the first place.
And no wonder, too, many old sensitive issues which were dealt with in the past are still being churned again and again, since they do not have new ones to deal with.
Are we short of people whom we can trust forward to lead the country? Do they have to come from only the few political parties and not from out of the blue and from the skies?
Do they have to be in the long line of aspirants who commit gaffes along the way and end up in their local and divisional leadership before they go into the national arena?
The system in Malaysia is such that one has to play the game, and it takes a very long while before one gets to the top. But unfortunately, the induction to national political life and career is fraud with pitfalls and disadvantages, in that one creates a fiefdom for oneself and around oneself, so that it becomes their think tank and the country’s interests becomes second.
Malaysians and Malaysia are basically being ruled by a bunch of people of an earlier generation who are downright rude – for insisting on staying put where they are like there is no future for them beyond politics.
None of them can ever move on in their careers after they leave politics, so no wonder they insist on staying in politics because the rules can be bent and manipulated unlike if they are in the other professions where they have to abide by stringent laws and regulations which bar them to do as they please.
Even university lecturers and medical professionals have to retire when they reach a certain age; they cannot perform as what they had been doing for so many years previously.
But in politics, one can come in and go out as one pleases; but chances are one prefers to stay since they derive a lot of fun doing that.
How many of the professional politicians from both sides can become better and more respectable persons once they leave office?
If they were in the government, chances are they would be given cushy posts in government-linked companies as chairmen or chief executive officers.
On the other hand, if they in the other side, chances are they will wilt. So that’s the reason why they prefer to stay the course no matter what, since they can still have the venom to spray and repeat the statements and comments on everything by disagreeing without coming up with anything intelligent.
What more if they have acquired such thick skin that no matter what they face; they can still stand up stoic in face of the onslaught of condemnation and criticism.
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