Ku Li And The Opposition

Veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, from my point of view, is suffering from a mental condition called nostalgia, so to speak. He said recently that he remained loyal towards the party struggles despite his many criticisms leveled at the government.

I empathise with him, as only he knows how painful it's having spent his whole lifetime contributing to UMNO and it's struggle, sacrificing a lot of things along the way, only to see the party deviates from it's original struggle when the party was formed in 1946.

Despite offers for him to join the opposition rank, he refused, believing that UMNO might one day change and be the UMNO it once was, so he stuck his believe with the party despite incredible odds stacked against his believe. First let me say here and now, the old UMNO is not coming back. The old UMNO for the average Malays, the farmers, teachers and other noble but underpaid and under respected jobs have been replaced by the new UMNO, the professionals UMNO, more notably elite Malays UMNO.

The desire to serve the Malay interests that is the main reason for the party formation, are gone, exchanging such interest is monetary gain and so on. What's left is the symbols and their slogans about Malay struggle and so on, but the true meaning of such symbols and slogans are long gone inside the hearts and minds of many of UMNO's party members.

So, for Ku Li, who wanted a party to serve the average Malays, the best equivalent is PKR or PAS, although they don't chant Ketuanan Melayu or other similar Malay struggle chants, they are helping ordinary Malays and Malaysians in their struggle by giving them a voice that they lost. For example, PKR social welfare programmes such as the giving of monetary aides to university students and so on are proof of my claim.

While BN and UMNO are busy enriching their cronies with tenders and projects, it's this two party that's going down to the people and giving their rightful stake towards the richness of the the country and state which benefit the majority Malays without sacrificing the rights of other races. Case in point the privatisation of SYABAS in Selangor, where only a few cronies benefit from it, PKR together with PAS and DAP are correcting this inequity by subsidising the water and even offering to nationalise SYABAS so that the people of all races in the state can enjoy lower water price. The average Malays benefited from low water price without affecting the non-Malays, not to mention even the non-Malays are enjoying such benefit.

Aside from that, the Malays are now not the same Malays pre-Malayan Union that warranted the establishment of UMNO, Malaysia is not the same as Malaya then too. Many of the problems facing our country require for all the races to sit down together and reach common ground. The old way of separating like that of BN will not work anymore as such practice will only be a fertile ground for race and religious extremist as such system will surely reward them compared to a multi-racial party like PKR and DAP.

Simply giving the Malays more help and aide won't work anymore, rather it will only bring the Malays down into a state of complacency and entitlement like where the Malays are right now, while the Malays deprive the non-Malays of an opportunity to further advance themselves. UMNO forte along the years was just that, give the Malays more help and more aides which in the economic sector primarily benefited their cronies, but know it requires a different more comprehensive kind of a solution.So Ku Li should know that for him to serve the Malay and Malaysian interests simultaneously, the opposition is the right platform for him.

Finally, in addition to that, as a modern society, we Malays and Malaysians alike require more openness and freedom that UMNO, due to it's conservative stand, may not be willing to give. Such freedom like the freedom of speech and association have been long been deprived by the government in order that their political ideology remains the ruling and accepted ideology.

Rules such as ISA had been misused to make sure such freedom is curtailed. Malaysians want to be included in the shaping and creating of our national agenda, thus we must be allowed to speak up and associate ourselves with groups in order to better advance their views and beliefs although it may go against the government agenda and political stand.

Pakatan Rakyat seemed more incline to give us such rights, but UMNO so far have been supporting for restriction of them. So it is wise for Ku Li to adhere to this societal demand and to do so means him joining the Pakatan fold.

In conclusion, would like to join in the fray of many opposition supporters in reinviting Ku Li to the opposition side where his ideals and that of Malays and Malaysians can be better served so that his experience and values will further strenghten the opposition in their ability to serve the people and nation, and hopefully form the government and undue the many wrongs of the current government for the sake of all Malaysians, past, present and future generations.