Prime Minister's post a bridge to cross at the right time!

By Joe Fernandez
Pas President Hadi Awang should not have said that only a "Malay" Muslim -- probably "determined" by a DNA test a la Pas -- will be Prime Minister if and when Pakatan Rakyat (PR) seizes the reins of power in Putrajaya and initiates, forms and leads the Federal Government.

Is he implying that a "Malay" Muslim is not the Prime Minister now and that "Malay" Muslims have never held the post?

What he said is not unlawful in a Court of Law.


However, it's unconstitutional to say such things and therefore not lawful, and certainly inconsiderate and hurtful of the feelings of the non-"Malays" including Muslims.

Besides, it's not the done thing to say such things and further alienate, for one, the good people on the other side of the South China Sea who are neither "Malays", despite speaking Malay, nor for the most part Muslims. Why should Sabah and Sarawak be in Malaysia if they are denied the Prime Minister's post.

Already, "Malaysians" in Borneo are saying things like that they are not really in Malaysia and claiming that they still retain the self-determination they obtained on 31 Aug 1963 (Sabah) and 22 July 1963 (Sarawak).

They are screaming internal colonisation -- caught between the evil extremes of ketuanan Melayu and grinding poverty -- and are demanding that the United Nations Security Council step in on Putrajaya's non-compliance on the four constitutional documents and/or conventions which formed the basis on which they were "persuaded" by the Malayans and British to help form and participate in the Federation of Malaysia viz. the 1963 Malaysia Agreement (MA63); the 20/18 Points (20/18 P); the Inter Governmental Committee Report (IGCR); and the Cobbold Commission Report (CCR).

Perhaps Hadi wants to discontinue the peculiar situation where the Prime Ministers so far have not been "Malay" in his mould and at the same time rule out the possibility of Lim Guan Eng, or "even worse" notorious Islam-baiter Karpal Singh -- "an Islamic state over my dead body" -- being Prime Minister.

LGE was silly enough to say that the Constitution was "silent" on who could be Prime Minister and thereby kill his chances at the top job.

Does he want to be confined to Penang for the rest of his political life? Doesn't he want to continue from where Lee Kuan Yew left off after Singapore was kicked out from Malaysia? He should not fear that Penang, like Singapore, will be kicked out as well to thwart his known Prime Ministerial ambitions.

No one can play the same trick thrice.

The first was when West Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, the North West Frontier Province and East Bengal were kicked out from India through partition to prevent Mohd Ali Jinnah becoming the first Prime Minister after independence in 1947.That's how Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister and went on to build a political dynasty which is still around.

Jinnah died of TB less than a year after Pakistan was created.

Nehru could have waited but he simply couldn't just like Lee Kuan Yew who was in too much of a hurry. Lee regrets to this day, like Anwar Ibrahim not so long ago, and like the latter keeps kicking himself every day and crying himself to sleep on having lost the chance to be Prime Minister of Malaysia. Lee even promised Donald Stephens of Sabah that he would be Deputy Prime Minister when he became Prime Minister. It seems it was the Tunku's idea. So, Stephens dropped his opposition to Malaysia.

The Constitution is anything but silent on the issue of the Prime Minister's post.

LGE should read the Constitution, like a Bible, briefly five times daily if he wants to convince himself that he's qualified to be Prime Minister. Penang should not be in Malaysia if its Chief Minister is disqualified from gunning for the top political job in the country on the dubious grounds of race and religion. If LGE can't be Prime Minister of Malaysia, even though qualified and eligible, should he "go back" to China to be one?

Why didn't Hadi give the name of the person who will be his candidate for the PM's post?

Is Anwar Ibrahim finally out of the picture at PR because he's not really "Malay" at all given his Tamil Hindu grandfather?

That means Anwar will have to "go back" to Tamil Nadu to be Chief Minister and from there wrest the job of Prime Minister of India away from Manmohan Singh. Probably, he will have some competition here from Karpal Singh. In India, one will not be denied the Prime Minister's job on the grounds of being from a minority. Jinnah was just unfortunate to run into Nehru.

Again, why "Malay" Muslim?

Are there "Malays" in Malaysia who are not Muslim?

Is this also a broader Hadi reference and "safeguard" against the non-Muslims in Umno's "Rumpun Melayu" (Malay Group) theory under which every Tom, Dick and Harry -- from Bugis and Suluk to Dusun, Dayak to Acehnese -- on the islands of south east Asia is "Malay", becoming Prime Minister? Where does the Orang Asli fit in?

Why didn't Hadi just say "Malay"?

Is the term "Malay" Muslim being used to rule out Muslims like Mahathir Mohamad who came from Kerala, southwest India and denied Tengku Razaleigh, a "Malay" in Hadi's mould, the Prime Minister's job not once but twice.

Mahathir went on to become the 4th Prime Minister of Malaysia by default and, by sheer cunning, still managed to cling onto the post even after it was discovered in Court by a "Malay" Judge from Kerala that he actually lost the 1987 Umno presidential elections but sneaked in votes from 30 illegal branches to "win" by 43 votes. The Judge, a Malayalee backing another Malayalee, refused to discount the illegal votes and award Razaleigh the Umno presidency.

Hadi's statement means that Tunku Abdul Rahman, whose mother was Thai and from across the border, was not "Malay".

Also, Tun Abdul Razak (Bugis); Hussein Onn (more Turk than anything else); Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Chinese on one side and Arab on the other side); and Najib (Razak's son) were all not "Malays" in Hadi's mould, even though Malay-speaking, and therefore cannot be forgiven.

Who are these "Malays" which Hadi keeps referring to? Will the term under PR exclude people who are not "Malay" like the Bugis, Javanese -- think Khir Toyo -- Minang, Acehnese etc but use Malay as their lingua franca and are considered "Malay" by Umno which is also infested with Indian Muslims?

Why not say Muslim since Hadi said they -- obviously including the "secret Malay Christians" -- form the single biggest group in Malaysia?

Why are the Orang Asli, Dusuns, Muruts and Dayaks -- the real Natives of Malaysia -- being denied a shot at the PM's post under the Hadi formula by the emphasis on the candidate being Muslim?

Jeffrey Kitingan -- "why can't a Sabahan be Prime Minister?" -- must be crying himself to sleep every night in the cold of Tambunan in the high country over Hadi's statement. It's an open secret in Sabah that Jeffrey wants to be Prime Minister when a hung Parliament materialises as he expects after the 13th General Election and the 3rd Force comes marching in.

In London, Kelantan-born Hindraf Makkal Sakthi supremo P. Waythamoorthy must be fuming mad with Hadi. He must be planning to go to Court to get the Pas President legally certified as insane.

It's the King who decides who will be PM -- unless Nik Aziz by some miracle becomes King -- and he will have to pick a person wiho is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the members in the Dewan Rakyat.

That person must of course be a Malaysian citizen who is not bankrupt or has not been certified legally insane by a Court of Law.

Preferably, the Prime Minister-designate should not -- "this is not in the Constitution" -- be suspected of having skeletons in the cupboard like being on the take, being on crack, hitting the bottle every night, having blood on the hands, sleeping around, being chased by a C4 ghost every night or cannot avoid creating situations in Court casting doubt on his sense of moral values.

Since Hadi mentioned "Malay" Muslim, let's consider Native status in Malaysia lest he's under some delusion that his "Malay" Muslims are Natives.

The Principle of Law in determining Native status is that Natives are the 1st people in a defined geopraphical area, we don't know where they came from, & this is the only place where they can be found.

Of course, it's not really necessary to have all the criteria as in the case of the Native Indians -- we know where they came from -- in America.

The 1st criteria would suffice and is a pre-requisite.

So, that's why the Federal Contitution does not state that the Malay-speaking communities in Peninsular Malaysia -- they are actually Bugis, Javanese, Minang, Acehnese and the like -- are Natives.

So, the Thai in Tunku Abdul Rahman coined the term Bumiputera (sons of the soil) as an umbrella term to include the Malay-speaking communities along with the true Natives viz. the Orang Asli, Dusuns, Muruts & Dayaks.

The Constitution, reflecting Umno's philosophy, defines all "Malays" as Muslims but that does not mean all Muslims are "Malays".

There's no Principle of Law on all Muslims being "Malays."

So, Indian Muslims like Mahathir for example are wrong when they claim to be "Malays", & by extension, Bumiputera.

Example: if all Pakistanis are stupid, does it mean that all stupid people are Pakistanis?

Similarly, it cannot be said that all Muslims are "Malays", & by extension, Bumiputera.

Since the Malay-speaking communities are not the Natives of Peninsular M'sia, they cannot come under the umbrella term Bumiputera either and should not claim to have a divine monopoly on the Prime Minister's post.

The Malay-speaking communities, whether Muslim or otherwise, should not deny others especially the Natives, the Prime Minister's post.

There is a Malay language, which historically began as a dialect in Cambodia, and was developed by the Hindus and Buddhists to emerge as the lingua franca of the Archipelago for missionary work and religion, education, trade and administration. That's how the Malay language became the basis for the development of a national language in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia with the departure of the colonialists.

The "Malay" in the Malay Archipelago refers to the language and not any race.

There is no such thing as a "Malay" race despite what Hadi thinks or a "Malay" Group (Rumpun Melayu) as Umno likes to claim. Indonesia -- Indos Nesos or Indian Islands in Greek -- would never agree with the Rumpun "Melayu" theory.

"Malay" Nationalism is a concept created in Singapore by Muslims from Kerala to rally support against Chinese economic domination. The Origin of Malay Nationalism by Professor William Roff refers.

DNA studies show that all the people of southeast Asia are from a common stock.

They are descended from the Dravidians -- archaic (old) Caucasoids -- who made their way from south India, along the coast, to south China and Taiwan and mated with the Mongolian tribes living there.

We should cross the bridge on the Prime Minister's post rather than delude ourself into wishful thinking, living on hope and fairy tales to convince the King in defiance of the Federal Constitution.