bobjots : redux

At the risk of sounding like a sentimental old fart, I must admit that I do love this country .. or at least what this country is supposed to be about. Sure one can say that a nation-state by nature is a construct, but that doesn’t preclude a sense of ownership, pride and belonging, even if its to a temporal construct.

Maybe that’s why I find it hard to disagree with Australian journalist, Michael Backman’s (yep .. the same guy who cheesed off Rafidah Aziz so badly the last time around) observation on the current Malaysian malaise :

.. Malaysia’s Government hates feedback. Dissent is regarded as dangerous, rather than a product of diversity. And like the wicked witch so ugly that she can’t stand mirrors, the Government of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi controls the media so that it doesn’t have to see its own reflection. ..

.. Several years ago, Daim Zainuddin, the country’s then powerful finance minister, told me that judges in Malaysia were idiots. Of course we want them to be biased, he told me, but not that biased ..

.. Many senior Malays are absolutely despairing at the direction of their country today. But with the media tightly controlled they have no way of getting their views out to their fellow countrymen. This means that most Malaysians falsely assume (emphasis mine) that the Malay elite is unified when it comes to the country’s direction ..

.. It didn’t need to be like this. Malaysia is not North Korea or Indonesia. It is something quite different. Its legal system is based on British codes. Coupled with traditional Malay culture, which is one of the world’s most hospitable, decent and gentle cultures, Malaysia has the cultural and historical underpinnings to become one of Asia’s most civilised, rules-based, successful societies.

For the full article, see The Age’s Truth and justice are no longer Malaysian way (published November 21, 2007).