Why BN must go

Over the years, most Malaysians have been living in constant tolerance over other races due to our differences. Acceptance was not apparent, due to the very nature on how our leaders themselves lead, which, as of today, are lead by racial parties – UMNO, MCA and MIC – where you can only join a certain party if you qualify through your skin colour.

Having govern Malaysia for over 54 years, and despite the fact that we could have been better off if the country were to be governed fairly (no corruption and appreciation of talents for example), most Malaysians have managed to overcome the poverty barrier and have a good education as well. However, it is also these very same people that have overcome such barriers that understand how much Malaysia is unappreciative of their talents. Hence, they leave the country which ultimately leads us to a significant brain drain (BD) issue.

How significant is this issue? Let me show you what our fourth Prime Minister has to say.

‘Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad demanded that other countries pay Malaysia for having seduced them to stay, "since, by right, the graduates' training and knowledge should be called intellectual property."’

http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2308&Itemid=400

There must be a reason for Dr. Mahathir to say this, and I am sure every Malaysian knows why. This is living proof on how much talents we have and how unappreciative Malaysia is of its children. Developed countries wanting Malaysian’s intellectual property must mean that we are something – a raw diamond if you wish – and how quick it could have been for us to be a developed nation, if only they stayed and work here instead!

We Malaysians could have stood higher than most developed countries in the world through so many ifs. If there were no race quota; if there were no discrimination; if our party leaders were better examples; if there was a transparent government system and many more. It may sound impossible because no one can turn back time and amend the mistakes of the past. However, if we were to compare to other countries that were on equal or lower footing (eg, Korea) than Malaysia 54 years ago, and compare their policy with ours, we can see that if all these ifs happened, our lives could have been very different from today.

Singapore has achieved its developed status in less than 50 years mainly through their human capital whereas Malaysia has arrived to where it is today driven mainly (majority) by it’s natural resources. If we were to apply both human capital and capital goods into the economy, a simplistic calculation would be that we would have arrived to where we are today in half the time! This means more of our parents would have the privilege to study overseas and receive greater exposure. And who knows, University Malaya may have also maintained its unique standard in the world as one of the best universities around, triggering students globally to want to come to Malaysia instead, much like how many Malaysians today are flying to Australia for example.

As for Korea, here is what Tony Pua has to say.

‘we are failing to achieve our income potential and it cited the damning but instructive example of South Korea where “four decades ago South Korea was markedly poorer than Malaysia, South Korea’s per capita income is now three times higher than Malaysia’s.”’

http://tonypua.blogspot.com/2011/05/equal-opportunity-commission-to-reverse.html

Why is this happening? Go figure, it’s not hard.

Despite all our tragic fate, we did still somehow arrive at the point where the rakyat have begun to think and be aware of what is happening; triggering the Bersih movement not just locally, but also internationally to further spread the awareness. Most of us have somehow managed to understand today that we can no longer live peacefully through tolerance in this unfair country. Tolerance simply means hatred/dislike adding on to patience. If our patience were to die off one day, only hatred/dislike remains and we cannot have a peaceful country based on this. What we need is acceptance. We need to really live on the 1Malaysia concept where, as quoted by Lim Guan Eng, “I am Malaysian first, AND Malaysian last” and not like, as quoted by our deputy prime minister, Tan Sri Muhyddin, “I am Malay first, Malaysian second”.

Malaysians have finally emerge out of the thick hard coconut shell to realize that there is a time ticking bomb of hatred that is going to explode if nothing is done to prevent it. As such, there is a great number of Malaysians today fighting this unfair and tough battle to protect the peace in the country. For this to happen, we need and must have integration within our society. We need cooperation through acceptance of one another to enter the second half of the century of Malaysia. Lastly, we need fair treatment so that our human capital can grow because there’s only a finite amount of natural resources on earth whilst our ideas are infinite.

What we can see from Barisan National, is that although they claim to be cooperating with each other, there is no apparent integration and so, their supporters will only support their race parties. They will continue to tolerate other race parties for as long as the word BN remains official in the papers. Imagine one day if either one of the three parties, say MIC for example, were to leave BN. Will the MIC supporters continue to support MCA and UMNO? My answer is to a large extent, no. The racial party system subconsciously creates a tolerating environment than an accepting one which is not healthy for our future.

Of course, if it’s not for BN, then it must be for PR. However, I want to point out that PR itself is not perfect and should change as well. PR which consists of DAP, PKR and PAS allows different races to enter (PAS allows Muslims only, so technically a Chinese Muslim can join if they want to). This supports the need for social integration which the society desperately requires. Unfortunately, this is still not enough because PAS still segregates people through their religion while DAP is still highly viewed as a communist and Chinese party. If we truly want change, our party leaders must strongly battle the tough journey ahead and push for a truly integrated party where anyone can join.

Although Malaysia may have been “used” to the system of ruling through racial parties, there is no harm in adapting and changing for a better system. This is because those that evolve faster can adapt more rapidly to changing conditions and compete more successfully in harsher environments. As such, BN as lead by Najib today must go down because their mindset are still stuck in the mid 20^th century mindset which is obviously not suitable for the Malaysia we all want for the 21^st century.