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Isn't Bakri Musa a dentist who was shunned from some upper post and then migrated to California?

At least that's the story from my dad...

After reading his past entries in Promuda, he has every right to fear for his safety. It can't be guaranteed.

But should that stop him?

It didn't stop Ninoy Aquino, did it?

And although I do agree with Bakri Musa on some points in his previous post, I think the major changing force in this country is politics, and that is the only avenue for change, seeing as how judicial, media and business are all controlled by politicians.

Besides, Jeff, isn't that why you threw your hat into the ring?

And of all the things, Dr. M not being elected a delegate?

After 22 years in office, the highest record of arrests and abuse under the ISA, a riot, the firing of the judiciary, the iron grip on the media, the split of UMNO...

Yeah, I'm sure UMNO's to blame for all of those....

He wrote:

"The massive Ministry of Education exists not for the children’s education but as a source of lucrative contracts for UMNO cronies."

That alone is instructive. Using his example, ten times could have been bought for the same thing bought through an Umno-anointed contract so that instead of just one, nine others could have benefited as much from the move that helped only one.

One wonders why the malays can sit still and not raise ire against such abuse of power and misuse of funds. Is it because their sense of propriety and justice is race-oriented by dint of some warped logic? But why should that be so when the other nine could well be from their own community too, whose satisfaction could have accelerated the progress that's the objective of the special assistance, whose achievement in turn could have weaned the race from the need for further hand-outs, which in turn would have liberated the whole nation from its own chains?

That is what is not seen clearly, and because it is not seen clearly, it has been taken advantage of again and again by the cronies who line up at the gates of plenty by lining the pockets of those who hold the gate keys to contracts who in turn buy votes to continue their dynasties of liberating the rakyat from their funds and future.

It is not just the progress of one race that will be retarded by this; the other communities suffer as well because it is their money which is being used for such sickening practices that is not used to help them help the nation.

In the end, everyone suffers, and that's negara berbilang bangsa, and no amount of open house will make one sniff of a difference.

Grassroot goodwill is just exchanging kuihmuih now and then, not increasing productivity from sweat or money.

One's conclusion as to why this has continued for so long is that the malay sense of justice seems to be intrinsically loaded when it comes to application of policies sold to them by the very people who corrupt the intent of those policies. So long as it benefits 'one of us' seems to qualify enough for all to look the other way, or leave it to the Almighty to sort things out later. Why should this be so and has He?

Even the most progressive segments of the malays today are swarmed by new generations of the clueless. There is no learning curve about what's right and what's wrong, and because of that, what's the right thing to do, and what's the wrong thing not to do. Each new generation seems to start with a blank slate on which gets written all the wrong things that one would have expected fifty years to have erased permanently. So many of those artificial coconut trees are no longer lit up at night because no one bothers to check on them anymore.

Because, as with a million other things about governance, they don't care.

So when we talk about caring for the malay society that's the catchline of malay politicians, where's the rendang for that line? If you can't even care about one artificial coconut tree, how to care for twenty six million? And if in caring you create a deros here, a taib there, or even imam the sailor, what example are you setting for the other communities that you have the inspiration to lead this nation, let alone those malay kids who sit glued to the tv screen today who will later wield the kerises of perjuangan later?

So to deflect attention, to shake off the stupour, to ignore the persistently recurring, to go where no one has, they launch a man into space. To spin a top at two hundred million. Six months down the line, will anyone remember this enough to work to be the next nobel laureate out of this part of the world, a small jagged promontary of Asia?

They go berserk when they see money.

Over the causeway, the hairy crab makes a jab again. The anointed here tries some rebuff. But it all comes out weak. What 'own way' can we be proud of today? A report after the ferry sinks? How will a report bring back the seven lives? And those twenty two from the bus? And the children and women who have been killed? And the apocalyse-now horror of the auditor-general's series of annual reports? Those are reports too; they make great reading.

It's all sandiwara and the play cannot end because the same type of actors keeps coming onboard to mutter the same mutt-headed script.

A nation cannot live on hope; a society cannot be small and yet have big ambitions when it remains mohliu; a people cannot remain blinded by buffoons.

Ahoy, raise the sail, choppy waters' ahead. Popeye would have been a better bet.