Greetings everyone,
I hope everyone is doing well and that this holy month has brought happiness to your life.
Praise to Allah for still keeping Malaysia in harmony. Today, i felt like writing about my take on what is happening in Malaysia.
I love my country, Malaysia. We live in such a wonderful country, we live in harmony despite having 3 different races in one country. I'm proud at the fact that most Malaysian respect other races and religion as they are. I love the food in Malaysia, I love the people and in general, there's so much to love about Malaysia.
Growing up, I wanted to be a politician, because when i was a kid, i remember my late grandfather, Mohd Jiwa, he told me, 'Ap, kalau ap besar nanti, ap kena selalu tolong orang, ap kena 'Jiwa' besaq. ' For some reason, i still remember that, and i was in the impression that politician help others.
At that time, Tun was the Prime Minister, and i was in awe of him.
When i was a kid, i loved helping out in the surau near my house and i was quite famous among the surau people. I was only like 5 or 6 when i started doing that. Also, I always carry my teacher's books in school and when i come in the class or go out of the class, i would go and Salam my teacher as a sign of respect and to get their blessing.
I remember when i was in Kolej Tuanku Jaafar, i went to my teacher to salam, and my teacher was shocked, and when i offered to carry her books and bags, she was even more shocked and soon i became the teacher pet. People thought i was sucking up to the teacher when i was just doing my responsibility as a student towards my teachers.
When i was a kid, it was a normal thing to do those things. My mom and dad taught me when i was younger to always help others and in one way or another you will get the help that you need when you need it.
These are some normal culture then. I'm sure if you ask the teachers today, they would tell you how many rude students they have. Before, we used to just respect someone who is older than us, but now, the concept is different, it is, 'Why should i respect you if you don't earn my respect?' Respecting other should be in everyone nature, not just when you get respect.
It is sad to see what our country has become. We have people like Tun Mahathir, who has built the nation, being disrespected. It is really sad to see.
Let me just put things in perspective on what Tun has done for us. We have experience extraordinary economic growth during his tenure. In 1975 before Tun was a PM, Malaysian GDP percapita was USD 1750, and in 1998, almost 15 years after Tun took over, It was at USD 4251.
He Eliminated extreme poverty and hunger with his policies such as the NEP(New Economic Policy) and the NDP(National Development Policy) which complement the Vision 2020. The vision 2020 was formulated in the year 1991 and actually projected a vision for 3 decades to come.
Tun formulated our core development philosophy policies and plans suited to our circumstances and needs.
From those policies, with his strong leadership, the people became smarter and stronger, he made education accessible and asked us to look east instead of the west. If you look at Japan, they are actually more islamic than us the islam when it comes to their behavior. They respect everyone, they word hard, they have real good values.
As a result of his leadership, my very father became a successful businessman. He didnt help my father directly, but his policies made it easy for people like my father to become successful. There were a lot of business oppurtunities back then for people to grab.
As a result, Malaysia progress so fast, like never before. We have skyscrapers, we have our own national car, we have our own people being an astronaut, we lived in a harmonious condition and everyone was happy and grateful. We have to thank Tun for all that he has done.
Tun lead the whole country and step down as a prime minister in 2003. I remember feeling very sad, because my definition of a politician was Tun Mahathir, and when he step down as a PM, i was no longer interested in becoming a politician.
I may be very young when Tun was the PM, but i remember when i first saw Tun, as he walked in the room, with no announcement, people just stood up and started clapping and cheering for Tun M.
He has his own aura and i think everyone in their right mind would appreciate and thank Tun for what he has done for Malaysia. He may be a 'dictator' in the western media, but we needed someone like him to lead our country at that stage. We needed a moderate leader that shuts extreme views. These extremist are the minority, but they speak up so loud that they seems like the are the majority.
If only the moderate stand up, we would be in a better place. The moderate should lead our society not the extremist.
We really need a leader that has strong values. We need leaders who understand about the people, who loves the country more than their position and money.
From my observation, many of our politicians today are slaves to money. Yes money is important, but as a politician, their responsibility is not to make money, their responsibility is for the 'rakyat' and they have to decide on what is best for the 'rakyat' not what is best for their family and friends. If you want to make money, be a businessman, not politician.
At the age of 90, Tun Mahathir is still fighting for the people. He is still fighting for his principles and for what is right. The media, or anyone can say what they want, i still believe Tun is doing this for the love that he has for our nation, Malaysia.
Power is such a big responsibility. If you have power but no responsibility and values, it can be very worrying for others. Especially a leader of a country, if the leader has no values and practices corruption, chances are, the whole society will follow. It might feel good in the short run, but the consequences for the long run will be very bad.
Tun once said in his speech, 'If you give a Chinese man 1 million dollars, he will use is as a capital to start his business and from there make many more millions, but if u give it to a Malay man, you will see him with a new car, a new watch, and possibly a new wife'. Okay i added the new wife part.
Do u wonder why? It is because the Chinese had thousand of year worth of experience in trading while the Malays were just working in the villages. So the Chinese were more exposed to business and did better at it than the Malays then.
Tun actually changed how the Malays think. He created campaigns like 'Malaysia boleh' and they glorified Malaysian that did well. It changes how we the Malay views the world today. We now believe we can be as good or even better than the Chinese or the whites. Many of us are already starting to believe in our dreams.
I'm proud to say i'm a product of Tun's leadership. We the Malays are stronger now compared to the 1970's. All thanks to the great Tun Mahathir. The best part is that, he made the Malays strong, without neglecting other races. During Tun's time, even the Chinese was happy, and was happily counting their cash.
A lot of our people say, 'if you want to take can, take la, but don't la take so much, leave some to the people la, people also want to buy diamond rings'. I don't necessarily agree.
I believe as a leader, you should lead at the interest of the people. You should put the nation interest in the long term before your personal interest. We, the younger generation will suffer if our leader today are selfish. So let our voices be heard.
I pray and hope for a better future. I hope something major will happen in the near future. I hope people stay true to the values and do what is right. Money come and go. Only values defines a real man.
I hope this post of mine doesn't offend anyone. Its just an opinion of a young man who has so much to learn about life.
I hope and pray to Allah that Tun continue to live in a healthy conditions. We still need Tun to guide and correct what is wrong. We all love you Tun!
Asyraf Khalid