I know many Malaysians don't like KJ. The reasons are many. He was the son in-law of the former Prime Minister of Malaysia. He showed himself too ambitious for a political position. He was claimed as one of the Tingkat 4 mastermind that was the backbone in most of Pak Lah's decision. Rumor has been circulating that he married the daughter of Pak Lah because of his hidden political agenda.
Regardless of what people said, I like him. I remembered when people were raging because of the 'kepala lembu' issue, one of the minister who was the former Ketua Pemuda (hint: Keris defender) defended the act of the shallow-minded Malays who paraded the kepala lembu in Shah Alam. But not KJ. He sees thing for it to be solved not to perpetuate the already messed-up issue.
Anyway, I posted this entry after watching him in this debate. KJ vs. Ibrahim Ali vs. Khalid Samad
Fast forward to 8 mins if you don't want to watch all of it
" We don't have historical baggage in this generation.... I don't have this baggage"
"What makes Malays special is not the constitutional provision in the constitution of our special position. That does not make us special. What make Malays special is he can compete.....he can achieve excellence in education and in business on its own"
The important point is he admitted UMNO has to open their eyes and make changes in order to win the the next GE. Most of the UMNO members until now haven't realized that at all and keep on pointing fingers and making allegations towards the opposition rather than looking at their own mirror.
If he can bring our country forward, why not? Rather than giving the position to someone else who only worries about his pocket all the time but leave our country stagnant, why not give it to someone that is idealist and realist (although he might be filling in his pocket as well)?
p/s: Happy birthday Shila!
5 comments:
So I am not a KJ fan. In fact for most of his career I think he has acted just like most other UMNO politicians--waving the racial card to his own benefits.
I must say however that he spoke excellently in this video. Even his baju also excellent. hahaha.
How much of what he said can be trusted? Not more than what we can trust of any other politicians, I think. BUT I believe his point that BN is (trying to)changing because they have to, they are forced to. KJ's tone is pretty different now compared to pre-March 8th. In fact many UMNO politicians talk differently now. I am not going to praise them for this positive change though, because the people caused this change, not the politicians themselves doing it voluntarily.
The other point of his that I agree with is the lack of historical baggage. At least we don't feel the many emotions associated with the 50s-70s of M'sian history. I hope that means that we younger generation can have the will and understanding to stimulate competitiveness into all areas of Malaysia and to establish a solid common vision/goal for Malaysians. I don't think we have either of these two important ingredients that make a country progressive and great. But can we do that? Susah, because though we shouldn't have the historical baggage, the leaders are barking at us with all these racial and religious sentiments. We (generation of the 80s) really have to keep a critical and clear mind to prevail. I seriously believe that Malaysia's bright future lies in our hands, not the generations before 80s. If we fail this, we would be way too far behind other uprising countries and would be near impossible to catch up.
As to his point of Malays are special because they can compete, well,...any Bumi who earned his/her worth is just like the rest of the non-Bumi who have been earning their worth all these while. Doesn't make anybody special. He can't deny that special treatment (e.g., quota system) makes people special, just not in a way to be proud of.
He stressed that it's nice to progress with a color-blind government. We all know this. He stressed that Bumis and non-Bumis have very opposite feelings/opinions about the racial rights written in the Constitution. We also know this. He didn't say anything new. What he left hanging, what he didn't answer (and in fact didn't even establish the question), is "How to bridge such sharp contrasting sentiments within our country?".
To be fair, I don't think any single Malaysian politician has even dared to answer this question realistically. I don't think they know. Or perhaps more likely, I don't think they want to try. At least most of them don't.
I do, and I believe many of my generation do too. So it's up to us.
YH,
I think most of the UMNO politicians right now are still in the verge of 'mempertahankan hak orang Melayu'. The other UMNO politician that is playing the racial card right now is Najib but I trusted KJ more than him.
He can't deny that special treatment (e.g., quota system) makes people special, just not in a way to be proud of.----> I think he was trying to stress that we, the Malays could not just rely on the special treatment. We need to change for eg: by the meritocracy system, it was hoped that Malay from such a system could emerge as one that can compete and eventually we will no longer need the special treatment.
In all, I think you realized all of Khairy's point because you are non-Bumi but not all Bumi realized that and he was trying to make this point to all of us, the Bumi. I hope he will try to address the answer on how to bring all the races together in a color-blind government but this debate's objective was not to bring all the races in unity but to clear the perception of the Malays on how we should acted on this special treatment issue.
There's a big difference between "I like him" and being a fan, but I do think he is one of the younger generation that can bring us forward. Not Mukhriz Mahathir who I think shared the same perception with his father about defending Bumiputra's special treatment. Khairy also stressed that the younger generation has the right to speak up and that's the only way we could generate more ideas for our country to move forward.
Why I trust Khairy? He is so outspoken and some of his opinions could actually put his position in jeopardy but he just doesn't care. And that's how I know he is sincere cos he is not the kind of 'lembu yang dicucuk hidungnya'.
Ok. I better stop cos I sounded like a Khairy's fan already.
First thing first, for how many times (i'm not sure), i HAVE to admit that i impressed (eventhough i tried so hard to not) with how KJ delivered his ideas. and i think everybody agrees that he is a good speaker. First time knowing him, when i watched money matters programme few years back and that time he was nobody (in political area), and i said to myself he mighht be a leader one day. He fulfill most of the criterias (good academic background, can decide which this might not have in Pak Lah, can debate and awesome personality).
But me too among those who think that he is too ambitious..But people may ask me to define 'ambitious'...is it bcoz he is too young to be a leader just because leaders/minister normally more than 45 years old??....
But i always believe that those who are good in everything (if we look at politic's side, refers to who are good in writing and speaking)they also great in manipulate others. Bad people can easily act or pretend to be good to achieve their hidden agenda. yes i'm shallow minded...But just hope that he is not like what i thought.
Etty:
That's the problem with the current system in our country. All are based on seniority and that makes us the younger generation more difficult to bring our ideas forward. If he's young but he has a great potential, why not? Anwar was young too when Mahathir brought him in. Sorry, I know you don't like Anwar but it is just an example of how Mahathir brought fresh faces when he was our PM.
Not to be a shallow-minded Malays is to live your life in other people shoe just like what Khairy said, then you'll understand.
farina,
thanx so much!!
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