Malaysia's bumbling ruling elite

Fiasco over missing airliner just the latest example of country's inept leadership.

As errors, misstatements, retractions and head-scratching rationalizations tumble over each other in the case of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, the world is coming to recognize what the country has known for decades — that Malaysia's leaders are accustomed to getting away with murder.

Sometimes figuratively: For example, with elections looming and Prime Minister Najib Razak losing popularity, top opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim recently was sentenced to five years in prison on a sodomy charge. Two years ago, Anwar, who enjoys support in Washington, was acquitted after spending six years in prison on the same charge.

And sometimes perhaps literally: In October 2006, the gruesome remains of a human body were discovered on a remote hilltop outside Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's principal city. There was no corpse, really, just hunks of flesh and shattered bone. DNA determined that the victim was a 28-year-old Mongolian woman who had been involved in a long love affair with one of Najib's closest advisers.

These instances of real-life political shenanigans and pulp-fiction-style crime share deep cultural and behavioral traits with Malaysia's clumsy handling of the mysterious Boeing 777 and the 239 people on board.

Spinning dubious stories

In the cases of the murder and the missing plane, Najib and other political leadershave felt free to spin their own dubious stories. The big difference is that this time, the world is watching as the leaders repeatedly are caught in their own web of claims and denials, allegations and refutations.

Where does this arbitrary political culture come from?

In 1969, following traumatic, bloody rioting between Malays and the substantial ethnic Chinese minority, the government granted a broad array of privileges to Malays, in effect ensuring them of perpetual power.

This quota system also enabled the ruling party, which has held office for 60 years, to ride roughshod over the facts, as we now see regarding the missing plane. Questions such as how two Iranians carrying false passports were allowed to board were bungled. The matter of the jetliner turning off course went unreported.

A full understanding of Malaysia's ineptitude on the world stage today isn't possible without recognizing the power elite's belief in its open-ended unassailability.

Until the jetliner flickered off Malaysian radar screens, that misplaced cockiness was best seen in the case of the murdered woman, Altantuya Shaariibuu. She had accompanied Najib, then defense minister, and his adviser, Abdul Razak Baginda, her lover, on a trip to Paris to purchase two French-built submarines and an overhauled Spanish sub for Malaysia's Navy.

The package was worth nearly $1 billion. French authorities are investigating whether the defense company gave a $100 million "commission" to Baginda. Shaariibuu, according to witnesses at her murder trial, demanded a $500,000 slice for her services as "interpreter."

Blind eye to justice

Once her remains were discovered, the short-reined domestic press turned a blind eye on the prime minister's evident connections, which he blithely denied. Baginda,an Oxford Ph.D., was imprisoned on charges of abetting the woman's murder.

A year later, the high court acquitted Baginda. He left the country. A private investigator he had hired quickly filed a stunning declaration in court, implicating the prime minster and his wife in organizing and covering up the crime. Baginda quoted a text message the prime minister allegedly sent him after the woman's remains were discovered: "I am seeing IGP (inspector general of police) at 11 a.m. today … matter will be solved ... be cool."

Within 24 hours, the private detective, without explanation, replaced his declaration with a new one that erased all references to the prime minister. Then he fled Malaysia.

In both documents, the detective identified two junior police officers on the prime minister's security detail as having carried out the killing. They were arrested, tried and sentenced to hang. That never happened. Last August, the pair were acquitted.

After eight years, the murder case remains unresolved.

Anwar is in limbo, appealing his sodomy conviction yet again.

Najib, prime minister for five years, until now has remained aloof and secure from the world's stares. With the disappearance of Flight 370 and the world pointing repeatedly to all the faulty information coming out of Malaysia, business as usual finally might be coming to an end.

Lewis M. Simons, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was based in Malaysia with his wife and two daughters, who were born there.

A disease that could kill Malaysia

 A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing went missing in the wee hours of 8 March 2104. After more than two weeks of an unprecedented international search operation, the disappearance of the ill-fated aircraft remains a mystery, although debris has been spotted southwest of Perth. My heartfelt thoughts go out to the family members of all the passengers and crew.

The tragedy that struck MH370 has put Malaysia under international scrutiny. One of the main talking points has been the way the Malaysian authorities have handled (or rather mishandled) the crisis. “They’re handling a huge global issue as if it was domestic politics,” lamented Clive Kessler, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of New South Wales. Kessler is a well-respected scholar on Malaysian politics and society.

Others went as far as pointing fingers at the incompetent leadership of the BN-led government for the lack of progress in the search operation. Even Chinaexpressed its frustration at the Malaysian government for the perceived holding back of vital information and its slow response to the crisis.

Dominant party syndrome

These criticisms, which did not come from Malaysian opposition leaders, are fair and spot on.

Clearly, the MH370 saga reveals the BN-led government’s long-standing deficiencies. The focus of international criticism against the Malaysian government is not so much on the failure to locate MH370. Critics acknowledge the challenges and difficulties in the search operation.

But the Malaysian government’s lack of leadership, slow response,questionable assets, flip-flopping statements, lack of empathy, authoritarian attitude and an obsession to blame the opposition for all its failings has become a source of bemusement and ridicule. These shortcomings have long been embedded in Malaysia’s system of governance due to the BN’s long dominance of Malaysian politics. These symptoms are merely reflective of a secretive, oppressive and incompetent regime.

Litany of stupidity, incompetence and abrasiveness

Unfortunately, Malaysians have had to live with the BN’s dominant party syndrome for over five decades. In fact, a great majority of Malaysians have accommodated the BN’s failings.

Recently, Malaysians were again reminded of this BN syndrome. Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar showcased BN leaders’ tradition of making stupid and senseless comments by informing Parliament that child rape statistics are higher within the Malay community since Malays are less willing than non-Malays to accept child rape.

When elections have been continuously rigged by the dominant BN, incompetent and backward individuals end up winning. Worse, they are then made Ministers or Deputy Ministers.

Over in Sarawak, the newly-minted Chief Minister Adenan Satem also portrayed another manifestation of this BN syndrome. While campaigning in the Balingian by-election, Adenan urged voters to vote BN as a show of appreciation for the outgoing Balingian state assembly member and formerchief minister, Abdul Taib Mahmud. According to Adenan, failing to vote for the BN would amount to being tulah (cursed).

In a dominant party system like Malaysia, the incumbent does not bother to engage the people through policy or debates on issues. It merely buys support or, in the case of Adenan and Balingian, simply coerces them.

And when the dominant party smells resistance, it would quash threats as evident from the conviction of two top opposition leaders recently.

Sadly, the litany of the BN’s dominant party syndrome is likely to plague Malaysians. This is the cost that Malaysians have to bear as a result of continually returning the BN as the country’s dominant ruling party.

Enough is enough

It has taken a mammoth crisis like MH370 to expose Malaysia’s worrying state of affairs. Let us not ignore another manifestation of this BN dominant party syndrome like what we had to during the Lahad Datu intrusion last year. The opposition and several groups took the Malaysian government to task for the way they mishandled the intrusion. But the BN-led government and the general public merely brushed aside these criticisms as ‘being unpatriotic’ and unfair.

By ignoring the BN’s dominant party syndrome, we are allowing the BN to destroy our beloved country. Let us save Malaysia which deserves better. Enough is enough. A majority of the Malaysian electorate want to put a stop to this rot as evident from their rejection of the ruling BN in the 2013 elections. What about the rest of you?

Dr Faisal S Hazis

Co-editor, Aliran e-Newsletter

Most people don’t know enough about Malaysia and its government. Here’s what you should understand

Malaysia’s government is in the spotlight due to its handling of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared just 40 minutes after leaving Kuala Lumpur en route to Beijing on March 8.

It’s an unusual situation for the country. Malaysia doesn’t usually make headlines — it’s not a huge tourist destination, like its neighbor Thailand, and it hasn’t had a recent disaster like the Philippines or Indonesia. Instead, Malaysia has mostly become known as a quiet success in Southeast Asia in recent years, where GDP per capita was well ahead of Thailand and Indonesia and the economy was expected to grow between 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent in 2014.

Now, with the Malaysian government facing scrutiny from all corners, everyone is beginning to wonder: Is there more to Malaysia than meets the eye?

The geography and history of Malaysia

Look at a map of modern Malaysia and the geography of the place may strike you as unusual. Roughly half of the country exists on the Malay Peninsula, bordering the lowest tip of Thailand. The other part of the country is on the northern part of Borneo island, which it shares with Indonesia. In both of these two parts there are smaller states: the city-state of Singapore, which sits just off the coast of the Malay Peninsula, and Brunei, which is in the Malaysian part of Borneo.

The modern Malaysian state began with the Federation of Malaya’s independence from the British Empire in 1957, but the area had been populated for a far longer time — in Sarawak’s Niah Caves in East Malaysia, there’s evidence of human remains from 40,000 years ago. The first independent state covering the region is commonly considered to be the Malacca sultanate, an Islamic Malay monarchy that controlled the area from 1400 to 1511, when the city of Malacca was captured by a Portuguese invasion. After a long period of Portuguese rule, the Dutch took it over in 1641, with the British Empire gradually taking over Penang in 1786, Singapore in 1819, and Malacca itself in 1824, ultimately securing control of what would later become Malaysia.

British rule continued until World War II, when Japanese troops were able to overrun the unprepared British authorities and take over the area. After Japan lost the war, the British returned but could not regain the authority they had before due to their war. An anti-colonial insurgency known as the “Malayan Emergency” began in 1948, compelling Britain to create the Federation of Malaysia that same year, which in turn became became independent in 1957. In 1963, modern Malaysia was created with the Malaysia Agreement; North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore joined it in a new independent state, though Singapore would be expelled two years later. (Brunei, which had once been at the center of the Bruneian Empire, remained an independent, and oil-rich, sultanate).

Malaysia’s complicated ethnic politics

Toward the end of British rule, the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) emerged as a political force dedicated to protecting ethnic Malays and the Islamic religion. Since independence, the party has been a part of every government alliance.

Today, Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, loosely modeled after the United Kingdom: The head of state is the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, effectively a monarch elected by Malaysia’s traditional Malay rulers. The prime minister is the head of government, officially appointed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to lead a majority in Malaysia’s lower house of parliament. While the constitution of Malaysia, which came into force in 1957, says all Malaysian citizens are equal, Bumiputera (a designation that refers to the indigenous people of Malaysia, including ethnic Malays) are singled out for special treatment in Article 153. That section of the constitution begins:

1. It shall be the responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to safeguard the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article.

The logic behind Article 153 was that Chinese and Indian immigrants to Malaysia had been favored during British rule, and both had subsequently gained economically while Malays and others remained in poverty.

After independence, these economic disparities had begun to cause problems in the country: Singapore’s removal from Malaysia was based in part upon a number of race riots that took place in the country between Chinese and Malay groups in 1964, and Kuala Lumpur had its own race riots in 1969. In 1971, economic measures referred to as the “New Economic Policy” (NEP) were implemented to favor Bumiputera, offering them positive discrimination in the civil service and business in a bid to improve their economic standing.

The quiet, yet successful, economy

Under British rule, Malaysia became one of the world’s biggest exporters of tin, palm oil and rubber. And as one of the three countries that controls the Strait of Malacca, an important shipping route, it still plays a key role in international trade. High-tech manufacturing has  become a successful part of Malaysia’s economy, and Kuala Lumpur is now a global center for Islamic banking. The city is also home to Petronas Towers, which replaced Chicago’s Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) as the world’s tallest building in 1998 and held the title until 2004.

All this has resulted in a pretty favorable economy. The Doing Business Project recently ranked the country as 6th in its annual rankings, and GDP per capita is higher than neighbors like Thailand and Indonesia.

Despite these good signs, there have been criticisms that the country’s ethnic policies were in effect creating a lack of competition and stifling opportunities for non-Bumiputera. The Economist recently noted that 25 percent of the population is thought to be Chinese and to control much of the country’s business, while Indians were said to be around 7 percent and overrepresented in professional careers. The magazine warned that Malaysia faces a brain-drain unless more opportunities are put in place for non-Bumiputera ethnic groups.

An angry opposition

As you might expect, 50 years of virtually uncontested rule has resulted in some problems. Writingrecently for Bloomberg Businessweek, Joshua Karlantzick argued that the country’s ruling coalition only managed to win elections last year due to “gerrymandering, outright thuggery, and opposition parties’ inability to stop squabbling and make connections with rural voters.” Despite some minor signs of change, the NEP remains a significant factor in Malaysian political life and its business world, with the ruling parties apparently afraid to alienate the Malay majority who make their base.

The Malaysian government’s manner of dealing with opposition leaders also appears to show it’s on the back foot. The best-known opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was sent to jail on corruption and sodomy charges in 2000. While the sodomy charges were overturned in 2004 and he was released, Anwar is now facing the threat of jail again on more sodomy charges.

An ethnic Malay and former member of UMNO, Anwar was once deputy prime minister of Malaysia but fell out with leaders. He now leads a multi-ethnic three-party opposition group called Pakatan Rakyat, running on a manifesto that aims to end the NEP ethnic policies and promote a system of meritocracy.

Why this all matters to MH370

The response to the disappearance of MH370 from the Malaysian government and Malaysia Airlines (a state-run company) is seen by many as evidence of a lack of ability among the country’s political and business elite — a result of decades of positive discrimination in favor of Malays and a lack of competition in business and politics. Malaysian officials aren’t used to dealing with a free and open press, and they have blundered in their attempts to deflect questions about the plane. While they are no longer suspected of involvement in the plane’s disappearance, the fact that two passengers were traveling on fake documents has embarrassed both the airline and the state.

It’s possible Malaysia’s internal politics could have played a direct role in the plane’s disappearance. It’s true, for example, that pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah was a member of an opposition party and distantly related to Anwar (Anwar himself has said that the speculation about political motives was “grossly unfair” to the pilot). The country’s Muslim Brotherhood-styled Islamist party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS), is also a part of Anwar’s opposition coalition and increasing in popularity, though speculation about an Islamist-backed terrorist attack remains just speculation.

A more likely problem for Malaysia is that of perception. A country once known for its quietly strong economy is becoming better known as something else: a disorganized, unmeritocratic country completely unable to cope with a real emergency.

MALAYSIA SPM results a smokescreen.

The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) results do not reflect the real state of Malaysian education as students do well in the local exam but perform poorly on the world stage, an opposition lawmaker said today.

Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar questioned if Putrajaya was trying to pull the wool over people's eyes about the real state of education in the country by manipulating the SPM results.

The 2013 SPM results released recently showed an overall improvement over the previous year, where a total of 13,970 candidates obtained distinctions in all subjects compared with 13,720 in 2012.

The results also showed a better performance in Bahasa Melayu, English and Science, and although Mathematics results declined slightly, there was improvement in 55 subjects, including Additional Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Additional Science.

In a statement, Nurul Izzah said that it was difficult to be convinced of this good showing since the passing marks and grades were a government secret.

"How can we be convinced that results show a real improvement when the passing marks and examination grades are secrets protected under the Official Secrets Act?

"The rakyat should in fact be able to evaluate to what extent the results can be deemed satisfactory in the context of the true achievements in national education," she added.

Nurul Izzah said that in the latest SPM results, the number of students who passed had dropped to 85.5% compared with 91.2% in 2012.

She added that since many students – 68,208 out of 470,395 – had failed the examination, the Education Ministry should investigate the reasons for this.

According to Nurul Izzah, a different picture of the standard of Malaysian students always emerged when compared on the international stage, namely the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.

In the 2011 TIMSS results, Malaysia’s world ranking in Mathematics and Science dropped during the 2003-2011 period, with Mathematics slipping from 10th to 26th place, and Science from 20th to 32nd place.

In the PISA 2012, Malaysia was ranked 55th out of the 65 countries surveyed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In comparison, neighbouring country Singapore was ranked No.2 worldwide, while Vietnam, a low-income country, performed better than Malaysia by grabbing 17th spot.

"This only proves that the SPM results do not give us the true picture, it  does not reveal the true standards of Malaysian students in education," she said.

Given such a scenario, Nurul Izzah said there was an urgent need for the Education Minister to discuss with stakeholders, including members of the teaching profession, politicians and government representatives, to find the best solution to address this decline in standards.

She added that she had written to Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin on this.

She also said that it was imperative that Putrajaya take a more open and inclusive approach in coming up with education policies so that Malaysian students could have a fair chance on the world education stage. – March 22, 2014.

Education has been suffering since 1969 - 45 years. The Mission, Chinese and Tamil schools have undergone BN or "Benign Neglect" treatment and either had to become more self-reliant or close their doors. Indoctrination of the young has been a key plank of Umno's plan, since May 13th 1969, to : 
(1) stealthily subdue and marginalize the non-Malays; 
(2) winning over/retaining Malay base by outdoing PAS in becoming more Islamic while actually the Umno elite are generally completely Westernized and don't give a damn for religion 
(3) ensuring a host of policies to nurture children of the Umno elite and clever Malays through heavy funding of Residential Schools and imported British" Native English" speakers 
An outlandish system of preferences and bias is used to make Education another vehicle to maintain Malay domination. 
"Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair!" the three witches cried and MacMalay listened, nodding.

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