Perception

I find today’s Malaysian politics strange. The individuals who most loudly assert that they are completely “clean” are frequently the ones who are in charge from within the very house that was built by the “devils” that they dislike. The hypocrisy of these loud individuals has reached the point where they do not even acknowledge the slightest good that Barisan Nasional (BN) has contributed to the nation.

Despite that, BN has continued to carry out its role in the Unity Government with honesty and humility; however, a dangerous narrative has been presented to the public by their own partner within the Unity Government. We are compelled to hear Pakatan Harapan (PH) behave as though they are better than everyone else. They probably consider themselves the only rightful leaders of Malaysia, holier than any other leaders in the country, and deserving of accolades, titles, praise, and perhaps even guaranteed tickets to heaven.

PH consists mainly of DAP, PKR, and AMANAH, which, in most years before they became the government today, were in the opposition- opposing mostly anything that the BN was trying to do for the benefit of the Malaysian people. The Malay and Muslim majority parties, yet considering themselves as multiracial, such as PKR and AMANAH, present themselves as “the sole heroes of reform”; while DAP, a non-Malay-dominant multiracial party, claims to be the “hardest-working” party that relies solely “on merit”, while, on the other side of the spectrum, PAS uses religion to claim it is the “purest among all”. Together, they have established a false impression that corruption and dirty politics in Malaysia only occur in Malay nationalist parties such as UMNO and its allies.

Now it is time to stop this unjust perception.

Corruption is not a problem confined to one political party. In fact, it is a flaw inherent in human nature and a fault of the system as a whole, where it can happen anywhere, by anyone in this world. If an immigration officer or a police officer is paid a small salary that can be easily offset by a single bribe, then the fault lies with the system itself, because this shows a lack of adequate compensation, proper education, and a real understanding of religion. Yet the current government refuses to address this fundamental cause. Instead, it exploits it to attack its opponents.

Consider the speeches given by our 10th Prime Minister, popularly known as PMX. PMX has a habit of using the common term “sakau”, which means to steal public money. He talks about a culture of stealing that only he can put an end to. But have you noticed that he almost never mentions anyone by name? By making broad statements about previous leaders, he makes the entire Malay political group appear guilty, as if every single individual within the system and previous governments are equally evil and branded as “sakau” lovers.

It is a well-known psychological tactic; it’s like trying to get someone else’s ex-wife to marry you by saying, “You must choose (to marry) me, or if you remarry your ex-husband, he will make you suffer because he was not a good husband! Remember what he did to you?” Saying that voters must choose PH or the nation will be robbed is not a real proposal; it is merely a manipulation of people’s minds to make them vote out of fear. It is like you are imposing all the negatives that had happened to the country before, which were solely because of BN and nothing more. It is like (as if) PH or the opposition leaders back then did nothing at all (to paint a bad image of this nation), which made investors choose other countries to invest instead?!

The idea of looking down on others, in that way, is even more absurd if you consider how this nation was actually founded. In the late 1990s, when Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters took to the streets, shouting “reformasi”, they strongly criticized the major projects that the BN government had begun. They argued that building Putrajaya or KLCC’s Twin Towers was a massive waste of public money. They keep tarnishing the image of this country to the level that even if the government tried to build another dam, or an electric train’s rail system, or a highway (with tolls, of course), and many other solutions for the public, all of these will eventually “enrich the cronies and billionaires”, instead of bringing in value and benefits to the people of Malaysia. Yet now, they never touch or condemn any billionaires, who of course continue to grow their wealth quietly; instead, they even work with these billionaires, including those overseas, on more projects.

So, let’s consider the present day: the image of PMX, now at ease in the Prime Minister’s Office in Putrajaya and benefiting from the world-class facilities and well-organized services provided over the past years. It is utterly arrogant to mock the people who built the house while you live comfortably in it and your supporters claim that you are “the greatest prime minister Malaysia has ever had, outdoing Tun Abdul Razak and Tun Dr. Mahathir combined!”

Dear citizens of Malaysia. The real successes, such as FELDA, Tabung Haji, and NEP, were actually drawn up by the very Malay-led BN governments that modernized Malaysia. To say that BN is nothing but a group of thieves is to ignore the very foundation that enables the current government to function so smoothly today.

This leads us to yet another source of annoyance: the slogan “MADANI Bekerja”, which means “MADANI is working”. During election periods, PH leaders use this slogan to display their commitment, pretending they alone are “working so hard” to save the nation (from the ghosts they themselves created in the past). They completely overlook that the federal government also includes Barisan Nasional. Are they saying that only PH is working hard within the MADANI government, or that BN is also part of the hardworking government they are so proud of?

If we are honest about the situation, BN leaders in office often work more professionally and efficiently. They know how to administer the country because they have built the system themselves. Nevertheless, whenever something positive happens, PH leaders immediately jump in to claim all the credit and make it seem as though BN leaders would be lazy or useless without them.

To further add salt to the injury, which hurts our feelings in today’s political environment, beneath all this lies a deeply unfair racial prejudice. A widespread belief is being promoted that if a government enjoys strong support from non-Malays, such as PH, it is automatically regarded as excellent, clean, and progressive. But as soon as a group is led by Malay supremacy and nationalist principles, such as BN, people quickly label it as low quality or corrupt. This kind of bias is entirely false and amounts to an insult towards the intelligent, hard-working Malay leaders who are actually the ones who have taken this nation into the modern age, as we have seen today.

We must not allow those skilled in protesting but ignorant of the art of building to rewrite Malaysia’s history. The genuine foundation of Malaysia—its peace, its racial harmony, and its robust economy—has always been closely tied to strong Malay leadership and Barisan Nasional’s demonstrated success. We should no longer accept the false notion that the party is completely dirty. Instead, we should embrace the fact that for the past 70 over years, Barisan Nasional has transformed this country from just a backwater commodity-based economy into one of the Asian Tigers that we have seen today.

We also need real solutions to the system’s problems, not vague political accusations about people stealing or “sakau”. If Malaysia is to achieve true success and remain true to itself, the same individuals who created its glorious past must guide its future. The era of pretending to be perfect is over, and we now need to return power to the real builders. Not only to return the power to the real builders, but also to the owner of this land, called Malaysia.