Out of the frying pan into the fire?

If Muhyiddin Yassin is our PM, will we suffer under yet another leader who does as he pleases and hides in his cave when questioned by the people?

COMMENT

by Fa Abdul

Let’s cut to the chase.

So Prime Minister Najib Razak is counting his last days. And with him gone (I am predicting this will be some time in August), the Prime Minister’s seat will be vacant.

While former premier Mahathir Mohamad refuses to endorse a successor for the prime minister’s post, all eyes are already on Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin to take over the leadership of Malaysia.

But is our second man to the “throne” the right prime minister for Malaysia?

Personally, whenever I think of Muhyiddin, the first thing that comes to mind is his infamous statement “I am Malay first and Malaysian second.”

Now don’t get me wrong – being proud of one’s racial identity is fine but glorifying the superiority of one’s race while being the leader of a multi-racial nation is stretching it a little I’d say.

We cannot deny that racial tension is one of the biggest challenges in our country. While Najib’s 1Malaysia failed to resolve the racial issues within our society, I worry it would be the least of Muhyiddin’s concern too should he come to power.

Personally, I can deal with the lack of freedom, our inefficient civil service, our politicians with their awful mouths and even a little corruption. But I cannot deal with a racist numero uno.

When a future prime minister makes a stand declaring race before nationalism, I worry that one day, racism in Malaysia will be specifically authorised, designed and enforced by the government.

If a “magic wand” was placed in the hands of a “Malay first” prime minister, who then will look out for the welfare of the 40% non-Malays in the country?

Who will lead Malaysia out of its racial based politics?

Will Mahathir still be around to save us from yet another disaster?

Even when tracking Muhyiddin’s past records, one can clearly spot a few other taints.

Do you remember his biggest moment as the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry when the National Feedlot Centre (NFC)? scandal erupted in all its glory?

Many accused Muhyiddin of negligence for awarding the NFC project to a company linked to a minister’s family, with no experience nor capability to boot. As the person responsible for granting the project, without any degree of transparency mind you, he should have done the right thing and resigned but he did not.

Is he going to be the kind of prime minister who refuses to be accountable for his actions?

Will we end up having yet another leader who does whatever he feels like doing and hides in his cave when questioned by his people?

Oh gosh, I don’t know about you but I’ve had enough of those!

Anyway, moving along the line, I have to say despite being in politics for donkey years, Muhyiddin has yet to chart any solid achievement he can be proud of.

Take his portfolio as the Education Minister, for example.

Muhyiddin was the one who decided to scrap the use of English for science and mathematics (PPSMI) claiming the use of English portrayed a lack of love for our national language.

To assuage the critics, he tabled the new Education Blueprint which was nothing but a set of recycled policies and systems.

Our education system has been in dire straits since as proven by our students’ performances in all levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) and yet nothing has been done to fix the situation apart from statement upon statement about how “shocking” the situation is.

Muhyiddin will go down in our books as the only Education Minister who was shocked at the state of our education while leading the ministry himself for six years!

While the entire nation saw only too clearly the depths our education standards had sunk to – and kept urging the government to step in, Muhyiddin went on promoting Malaysia as having an education system not only on par with but better than Germany and Britain.

Will he continue to make it a habit to politicise everything?

Will everything in Malaysia be elevated to world class status not by effort and action but by grand declarations under Muhyiddin’s leadership? I wouldn’t be surprised if it did.

Education aside, what is most shocking about Muhyiddin is that it has taken him so long to call for a thorough investigation on the 1MDB scandal. Why?

Muhyiddin once said: “As deputy prime minister, every night before I sleep, I think about how to manage the country. Someone sent me a text message (asking) what will happen to the Malays. Why is Islam being insulted and other similar issues.

“These things are definitely happening and it is worrying. We must all return to the right path. Let religion as well as our culture and customs be our strength.”

It honestly worries me to the core what we are getting into here. Are we finally finding our way out of the frying pan only to end up in the fire?

We do not need a prime minister who keeps reminding (or threatening) us of another May 13. We do not need a leader who falsely claims there are no extremists among Muslims in Malaysia. We do not need a numero uno who practises a double standard – allowing protests and vandalism by one group and throwing another into the lock up over a tweet.

We need a prime minister who focuses on the people, not his party. We need a leader who will work on elevating our standard of living, not merely making false declarations of Malaysia being world class. We need a numero uno who is proud to be Malaysian, not simply to be Malay.

Is Muhyiddin our guy?

You tell me.