1. The United States of America (USA) is the greatest power in the history of mankind. Certainly it is the most powerful military power in the world today. It has the capacity to wipe off the whole of humanity if it chooses to do so.

2. But the Americans must remember the Vietnam War. The great power, employing all its military might, all its technology and huge sums of money was defeated by the black pajama-clad unimpressive undersized Vietnamese.

3. Tens of thousands of American soldiers died. Many more seriously wounded both in body and mind. For all these sacrifices what has America gained? Nothing, truly nothing that could not be gained by peaceful means.

4. The Vietnamese fought and died for their country. Such passionate patriotism is totally justified. That too will be the passion of other countries attacked by America or other powers. Defense and the sacrifices made for one’s country is to be expected. But those who sacrifice their lives in aggressive wars die for nothing.
5. Remember Iraq also. It was supposed to be over in three months. But it is still on today almost 18 years later. Saddam is dead but is Iraq much better than Saddam’s times? I do not think autocracy is right. But if democracy is the answer, expecting it to perform miracles overnight is stupid.

6. Iranian military chief, General Suleimani was assassinated in Iraq by the very people who condemned the killing of Khashoggi. Is there any diffirence between the killing of Suleimani and that of Khashoggi?

P.S.
The fire raging in Australia is not an Australian affair. It affects the whole world. It is an international catastrophe. The whole world should help Australia put out the fire. Unfortunately, this is not being done.

1. When a new party takes over as a Government, it would be a miracle if it were to execute all its plans and promises overnight. Certainly, when PH took over from BN which had ruled the country for the past 60 years, it would be an even greater miracle if it can implement its plans and agenda immediately. It is not taking over just any Government. It took over from a kleptocratic Government which had raped the nation for years, destroyed its finances, undermined its administrative agencies, abused its laws, borrowed well beyond the ceiling permitted, placed the country on the path to bankruptcy, made the people dependent on the Government with bribes and generally undermined the moral of the people.

2. Of course, a lot of people were happy to enjoy corrupt money and many illegal favours. They would like these bad practices to continue. But the majority of the people knew the sad state of the country and ensured that the corrupt Government was overthrown.

3. This was a miracle of sorts. A “hodge-podge” coalition of 4 parties, together with another party outside the coalition and even a person not linked in any way to the parties, took over.

4. They were united only in the desire to bring down the kleptocratic Government. Otherwise they each had their own ideology and agenda. In other countries when a common objective is achieved, the fragile unity would break up as each party would try to take over. A bitter struggle would ensue. In the end the coalition would break up. In one Middle Eastern country, the ensuing struggles ended up with the military seizing power. It was back to square one.

5. This did not happen in Malaysia. The fragile opposition coalition was sustained, even with the inclusion of a non-member party as well as an independent individual who joined the cabinet. They formed a Government. And they seem to be working together, having formed a cabinet without any written agreement as to who takes what. This is the 2nd miracle. The cabinet seems to work. At least they can meet, discuss and make decisions. Of course, many criticised their decisions. This is normal. No Government can have the approval of everyone every time. The important thing is that this fragile cabinet is still functioning.

6. But many would say, this Government is directionless. Is it? Let’s look at what it has done. Despite a huge debt of well over a trillion Ringgit, it apparently has been able to retain the solvency of the country. The creditors are not suing the Government. Indeed, some are even keen to lend more money at low rates. The Government is clearly credit worthy. The debt has been reduced.

7. Politically the country is stable. Yes, there are some disturbances in a member of the ruling coalition. But this is normal. No one has tried to overthrow the Government by a vote of non-confidence. They know it will not succeed.

8. Then the economy. It is still growing at a good rate for a country at this stage of development. Yes, there is an outflow of funds and the currency has been devalued. This is a function of the market. Malaysia still has the biggest savings. Bank Negara Reserve is very high – RM400 billion plus. Other funds, such as PNB, KWSP, and some smaller funds add up to over RM1.5 trillion. Foreign assets are big. National Oil Company Petronas is doing well with more than 100 billion income. It is 100% Government owned. Yes, the Ringgit is depreciating. In many other countries, reserves of this size would guarantee the strength of the national currency. But the market apparently cannot believe this strength of the Malaysian finances and its currency.

9. The fact is that the Malaysian economy and its currency are strong. The market and the detractors may not think so. But the Government has faith in its financial and economic policies. And so do foreign and local investors.

10. Socially, the Government has launched the Shared Prosperity scheme. For our detractors this does not indicate clear direction. But for the Government the direction is clear. We don’t want just to recover and be prosperous. We want to share our wealth equitably.

11. Towards this end we have initiated a new industrial plan, complemented by a new agricultural plan. I will not elaborate. But we know the direction we are going. Outsiders may not. But we do.

12. We are clear as to what we want to do and how we will do it. Plans may take a week or so to create but implementation will take much longer, at least two years or more. But the work has already begun. For the observers it would seem that nothing is moving. Rome was not built in one day. When Malaysia was switching from an agro-based economy to an industrial economy, it also took time. But most of us could not remember and the young never saw the transition. Most were born when the transition was accomplished. It is difficult to imagine an agricultural Malaysia today.

13. The same will happen now. The transition will take time – perhaps two years or more from now. But believe me it will happen. Indeed in some ways it is already happening. We are going paperless and soon there will be cashless. Digitalisation is already happening and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is contributing towards increasing speed of work and transaction.

14. Even for me it is frustrating to wait. But wait we must. The machinery of Government has been cleansed and is rapidly adapting to the new ways of working. Even the Ministers are adjusting to being in the Government instead of the opposition.

15. The accusation that this PH Government is directionless is made by those who refuse to acknowledge reality. Are we really the same as the Malaysia under the previous Government? Or are they saying they prefer the kleptocratic Government better.

16. We don’t steal money nor raise loans so as to have money for bribing people. We spend what we have. What we have is less money. We cannot afford to give free money to people. Our way is to increase or create jobs. But the people must be willing to take up the jobs or the business opportunities created.

17. We are doing all these. But we are not attracting attention to them. In time they will become clear contribution to the country’s economy.

18. The world today is in a state of turmoil. No one is really doing well. Look at what is happening in Latin America, the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, even Australia. Only China, Japan, and South Korea are doing relatively well, but even the countries of Northeast Asia are having intractable problems.

19. Then look at Malaysia. We are stable, peaceful and the Government respects the law. We are removing draconian laws or suspending them pending abolishment or amendment. People feel safe travelling anywhere in the country. During the celebration of the new year 60 to 80 thousand people gathered to enjoy the shows. This cannot happen even in some developed countries.

20. I will not talk about natural disasters. We have been spared though we are not quite grateful.

21. Yes. Malaysia is recovering from the disasters caused by the previous Kleptoctatic Government. Even now we are enjoying better governance.

22. Give the Government a little bit of time and participate fully in the Shared Prosperity Policies, and in two years time you will realise that the direction of the Government is right.

1. I attended the Congress on Malay dignity – (maruah) because I am a Malay.

2. It is common in this multiracial country for the citizens to retain their identification with their countries of origin even after being in Malaysia and holding its citizenship for three generations. They do not want to lose their racial identities.

3. They manifest this ethnic link through their language, culture, schools and ethnic organisations. They often hold meetings confined to their ethnic group. Sometimes I would be invited to open these meetings and asked to give keynote speeches.

4. In multiracial Malaysia, ethnicity is recognised as legitimate and proper. Other multiracial countries see non-indigenous people identifying themselves with the indigenous citizens almost completely. They adopt the language and culture of the indigenous people and break their link with their countries of origin. They even change their names.

5. It is a measure of the tolerance of the indigenous people in Malaysia that gatherings which are confined to the different ethnic groups are accepted as normal.

6. I am therefore very surprised when I was advised not to attend this Malay Congress to discuss their dignity. Obviously they are concerned over their possible loss of dignity, whatever that might mean. As usual there were extreme views but on the whole they were balanced.

7. It cannot be that while other ethnic groups can have their gatherings to discuss their affairs, the Malays cannot, that their gathering is racist.

8. And now there is even a demand that the Malay initiator of the gathering should be sacked for attending.

9. When the former colonies of the European nations gained independence, many discriminated against the non-Indigenous people. Some had to leave the country. Some were violently attacked.

10. Not so in this country. The non-indigenous people were accepted as citizens. In fact, 1 million of the non-indigenous people were given citizenship even though they were not qualified.

11. It hurts me to think in their own country the indigenous people are not supposed to have their own gatherings without being accused of being racist.

12. And now of course I will be labelled a racist for writing this.