Our cousins from Malaysia

Sufi Yusoff is Malaysian. I met him when I sought an interview with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad some years back. He was his confidential secretary and we hit it right away when I told him why I wanted the interview. I was particularly interested on his position on parliamentary government. He has said often enough that it is the better system of government. He has had to govern for 17 years to turn Malaysia around.

At that time the enemy was Anwar Ibrahim who had many friends in Manila. He took great pride that Jose Rizal was called the great Malayan and often told me that they do not have his equivalent in Malaysian history.

We became FB friends since then and he writes me every now and then about political developments in his country. Najib Razak was in the ASEAN meeting in Manila. He is the same Najib who is suspected to have made back door arrangements with Aquino for peace in Mindanao.

The talk of the town for weeks after the Malaysian defense secretary came to Manila was about a lot of money changed hands and that it was a wasted investment of Najib on Aquino.

With Duterte’s election it will be difficult to continue the Najib “bribery” if there was indeed one. I wonder what was talked about during the ASEAN meeting? Here is Sufi’s latest FB post to me. It is headed “HIGH VALUES 19 Apr 2017 It is amusing to read about Dato Sri Najib urging Malaysians to have high cultural and moral values. Even more amusing is his demand for the world to respect his Malaysia.

But then Najib does not believe in leadership by example. He apparently believes in doing what “I tell you to do and not what I do.”

But whether he believes in leadership by example or not his followers cannot help but look up to him as their model. Accordingly his UMNO followers have become as corrupt and immoral as him.

4. How on earth does he expect that in 33 years time, through his 2050 transformation slogan, Malaysians would possess high moral values and culture?

5. Najib is not an example of a person of high moral values. In the first place he believes that cash is king.

This simply means that people can be corrupted to make them do anything; to vote for BN in the next election for example. As a result Malaysia has been classified as one of the then most corrupt countries in the world. Do people respect a highly corrupt country?

6. And the money for corruption will come largely from stolen 1MDB money. Incidentally there seems to have been no audit of 1MDB money over the last two years. Is this something which will make the world respect us?

7. Now we hear reports of senior civil servants having hundreds of millions of Ringgit which had obviously been acquired corruptly. Far from achieving higher moral values, it seems the values have deteriorated under Najib. Morality and culture are going from bad to worse. Merely introducing a new slogan about transformation in 33 years is not going to spin Malaysians around to possess high cultural and moral values.

8. Actually Najib’s call to Malaysians to achieve high moral values and culture and for the world to respect Malaysia is ludicrous. Currently Malaysia’s name is mud to the world. Malaysians are ashamed to admit they are Malaysians when abroad. Such as the reputation of Malaysia caused by Najib’s 1MDB losing billions of Ringgit, money laundering and the billions found in his banking account.

9. Worse still is the fact that he is still the Prime Minister of Malaysia. In Brazil and South Korea, mere suspicion of corruption has resulted in suspension and arrest. But in Malaysia Najib is safe and is brazenly telling Malaysians to be honest, and demanding the world to respect this corrupt country.”

The burning issue in Kuala Lumpur when I interviewed Mahathir was Anwar’s trial. He was once Mahathir’s protégé but later became an ungrateful ward and later an arch-enemy. There were rumors the current trial was only a repeat of the first in the 1990s. It was unfair not to hear Mahathir’s side. So I sought an interview even when I was told I would not get it.

Although he has retired, Mahathir seldom gives interviews and spends most of his time in Perdana L’Ship Foundation in Putrajaya that also serves as an archive for other former Malaysian prime ministers’ papers. He was leaving for abroad and had to cope with a very tight schedule that day. So it came as a surprise when I got a text from Sufi that I could come at noontime and he would squeeze me in even for a short time.

That was great. I had admired the man from a distance and more closely now that I visit Kuala Lumpur every now and then. I marvel at the country’s splendid infrastructure. It is a pleasant place to live in – good roads, efficient affordable electricity, working internet connections, lots of greenery and of course, the twin towers of Petronas as a fitting monument to a job well done.

“Some people seem to be annoyed that a 90+ man is not doing the natural thing for people of 90 i.e. rest, play with grandchildren and prepare for the next world.

Yes, I am not doing the right thing for a 90-yearold. It is not always my choice. I am responding to the appeals by numerous groups of Malaysian people for me to do “something.”

Very early after Najib took over the premiership a lot of people, mainly Malays but also non-Malays seemed to be unhappy with Najib’s leadership and direction. Small businesses and contractors had to fold up because they were unable to compete.

Yes, he was doing away with the alleged cronyism by me but they claim his cronyism is working against them. The private sector could not be penetrated by them. They needed Government’s positive discrimination.