It Could Not Be More Personal Than This
By the time I’m writing this, I’m sure the Whole World would have known the latest shocking statement that come out from Tun Dr.Mahathir Mohamad, the ex-Prime Minister of Malaysia. If you haven’t heard, at about 20 minutes to 1400 hours today or 0200 PM, Mahathir announced,”I’m quitting from UMNO!”
I admit that I’m almost shivering while typing this. I got mixed emotions to his statement. Part of me is anxious, disgusted and bored with Malaysia’s political scene today. Some of you might argue that,”Hey, you’re running an online business blog so skip all these political drama and stuff.” But I got news for you Brother.
Politics is very much related to business. And business is affected by politics.
Why?
My summary to that is, politics set the ground rules for business and businessmen or women. Different loacality is bound to different kind of standards and rules. Therefore, knowing the political climates is not only required but it’s essential to the SURVIVAL of a business. Agree?
But let me be straight here. When it comes to Dr. Mahathir, I couldn’t be more personal. And I think Dr. Mahathir could not be more PERSONAL than he was today. So, because this is personal, I shall address Dr. Mahathir as Che Det.
Now, I’m thinking emotionally more than rationally when it comes to Che Det and my reasons for that are:
- I grew in his era. I experienced more BENEFITS than RISKS during his leadership. I can’t say the same to the current leadership though.
- I was influenced by his way of thinking. Che Det was called ‘The Ultra Malay’ by some who were intimidated by his tenacity and focus so much so, he was put away during the reign of the First Malaysian Prime Minister under the act that Che Det championed later on: ISA. A few of my friends borrowed his ‘bestsellers’: The Malay Dilemma and I didn’t even bother to ask them back. I bought a new one each time!
- I was inspired by him. For a local leadership champion in setting objectives and making the effort to achieve them, Che Det is at the TOP of my list. No local heroes or heroins have ever come closer.
- I like his ideas. Well, MOST of it anyway especially those that touches moving forward by setting higher standard and elevating the thinking. One that shadows me until today is,“If everyone else is running, you can’t expect to keep up with them by walking. You can, if you run faster than them.”
- I admire his foresightedness. I’m aware that some people like to live for today and today only BUT I believe in living at least until tomorrow. Maybe we did not immediately see the result of our action today but we certainly can see it later or in the future (and that could be tomorrow!). Che Det promotes Malay to Master English but not at the expense of Bahasa Melayu and he got reasons for that…if only we’re looking from his angle say, 10 years from now.
It’s hard to predict the weather nowadays. We barely passed the tragedy of Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar and recently, an even tragic earth-shattering event that hit China. Che Det did that to UMNO today and it was ‘unpredictable’.
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What motivate him to make such a move?
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Personally, as one of his ‘fans’, I suspect that it got something to do with the outcome of the ‘all-famous’ Lingam’s Videp Clip investigation. Che Det is someone who don’t like to live in the past so to speak, and the motion made by the Cabinets right after the report was ‘officially’ released were really ‘disturbing’.
Not only it adds to more controversy and speculation, it turns almost everyone to a secondary school prefect whose job is to look for mistakes like keeping long fingernails, long hair, not wearing name-tags, etc. If you asked Ken Blanchard, he would say that we can change people better by reinforcing positive bahaviors than by pointing out mistakes and punishing.
(Ken Blanchard is well known for his One Minute Manager series)
Che Det sense something is not quite right with today’s leadership and he believe with the saying that ‘fish rots from its head’. And he also feels that someone got to stand up and boldly make a statement. Being a ‘near perfectionist’ as he is, he understand that: If you want to get something done and in the right way, you got to do it yourself.
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He did that to George Soros…
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…and people paid attention to him. In fact, the whole world paid attention to him. And since success leaves clues, Che Det repeats his action. Did he get YOUR attention NOW? I’m pretty sure he did!
He had reinforced time and again that the his main concern is to stop ’silent monarchy’. He said that the party is not ‘parti orang Melayu tapi parti Pak Lah’ (the party is not a party for the Malays BUT for Pak Lah). Boy, maybe now he’s thinking,”If only I could turn back time…”
Let’s not forget that Che Det appointed Pak Lah. He did that after he himself ‘cross-off’ Brother Anuar Ibrahim. Guess what, Bro Anwar said that he’s making a comeback and he’s going straight to the Most Top Post in the Cabinet Minister - The Prime Minister.
He said that he’s ‘buying’ his way in.
Well, who teach Bro Anwar all these ‘fancy political maneuvers’ eh? I wonder…
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What about Che Det ’Malay conciousness’?
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My mother-in-law said this upon hearing the news,”He had retired. He should focus more on the hereafter. Stay out of politics. He’s over and done.” That’s my mother-in-law. My father-in-law thinks differently,”He’s finally shown the right way. He must’ve come to his senses now.” Both represent how laymen respond to Che Det’s move.
What’s your respond?
I can already tell that some of my ‘Ultra-Malay-to-be’ friends will think that Che Det has lost it. He’s going insane. Maybe he’s senile (well, what can you say about 80 plus years-old still trying to meddle with political power-play?). He lost it once he steps out of UMNO.
Let me tell you, in my opinion, what’s not quite right with this…
First, it’s not right to EQUATE Malay with UMNO. If you support PAS or PKR, it doesn’t make you less Malay than those who join UMNO, am I right? I mean, who set such an arbitrary standard that somehow implied ‘if you’re a Malay, you must support UMNO’. Scrap that…
That’s really an obsolete ‘generalization’.
Second, if you’re not in UMNO, does that means you can’t bring up Malay? Come on! Where does this come from? This is equivalent to saying,”The only way to build this country, is to work for the Government!” I’m NOT buying that. Not even for a second. I’ve been working for the Private Sectors all my working lives and I’m happy at that. In fact, I can contribute more towards the development of Malays simply because I control and made most of my decisions. Not some ‘upper-level’ opinion that could cost my next year salary increase!
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So, where do we go from here?
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I’m putting a close watch to Che Det’s next move. Whatever direction he’s taking after this, I believe that it’s well thought out and calculated. Che Det always learn from his mistakes. He will never forget Bro Anwar and he’ll never forget Pak Lah. That’s enough to keep him on his toes.
And I’ll be right behind him…
Tags: Mahathir, Malay politics, Personal, politics, UMNO