Speakers' Corner: Occasional contributions from readers, which do not necessarily reflect the views of Sarawak Report but may be published at the discretion of the site.

Public Opinion

The most effective force against dictatorship is public disapproval. Once it is established that the people are against the ruling party/person then there remain few options. Basically it is a matter of freedom or force

The people can always opt for freedom. It may involve a struggle, but in the end it will prevail because oppression is always the tactic of a minority. With majority approval there is no need for force or any other oppression. So the future of any country is effectively in the hands of its people.

All dictatorships rely, in the end, on force though they may initially prefer to resort to bribery. The problem with bribery is that it is too expensive to be deployed towards everybody and reliance on a purchased minority will always prove fatal in the long run.

Applying these basic factors to the Malaysia of today what does one see? In the beginning, majority support for the Malay political party promising to safeguard the majority community. Then pressure to use this majority support to increase the benefits for the Malay community at the expense of other Malaysians.

This, while generally acceptable in principle to other communities, rapidly degraded into benefits for a small group of Malay politicians and neglect of the mass of the Malay community; the former getting all the money and the latter nothing more than propaganda. In time this has produced a culture of criminal behaviour on the part of the Malay “elite”; terminating in the position today where the head and the leaders of UMNO are publicly shown to be stealing the money of those they are supposed to represent and protect.

Hardly anyone in the Malay community is ignorant as to what has happened or of the bribes he offers for their support.  No true Muslim condones the actions of this clique of criminals and all Malays who have justifiable pride in their community and its heritage ought withdraw support for them and demand that they go and that the will of the people be ascertained by the democratic mechanism of elections.

Some leaders of the Malay community have already called for these wrongs to be righted and the criminal Najib has not failed to act against them. Now is the time for all Malays to demand redress and to ask the head of their community, who is also the head of  Malaysia, to take the action that only he can take to dismiss the criminals and let the people choose who will be their new leaders.

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