Unity (2) We need true national leaders.

When leaders are racial in their thinking, so are the people they lead. This is evident in our everyday life.

If I were to bring in the example of Malay police officers catching some youngsters stealing petrol from cars and releasing them upon discovering that those youngsters were Malay teenagers, I would not be able to produce any proof except that some friends have seen that happen.

If I were to say that I saw with my own eyes a police patrol car not stopping to apprehend some Malay kids riding their motorcycles without crash helmets, I could be called racial in my accusation although my own eyes could never lie to me.

Even if I were to point out that the authorities were slow in taking action on Malay protestors who kicked a cow’s head to demonstrate against the proposal to build an Indian temple, the authorities would claim I was merely finding fault.

And if I were to tell you my own brother-in-law left the Malaysian Air-Force in frustration as his Malay juniors went up the promotion ladder faster than him although his passion was the Air Force even when he was still in the secondary school and his language proficiency was above average as he was born and bred in a Malay village in Tikam Batu,(He is still around to tell his story.)someone would say he was not better than those juniors.

However, the civil service is always there for us to see. Look at the civil service and what do we see. I will be surprised, and would certainly like to know the reason, if I could still see a head of department who is not a Malay. Why? Is it possible that the Chinese or Indian citizens are not capable enough, not intelligent enough or not hard-working enough to occupy even a few posts as head of departments? It is an acknowledged fact that the non-Bumiputras are some of the most hardworking, intelligent and capable people in Malaysia, if not the world. So, can anyone fault me for coming to the only possible conclusion that there is racial discrimination in the promotions to those posts?

Before the Mahathir era, there were non-Bumiputras appointed to the top posts. I know that to be a fact as one of them was an uncle of mine. The father of one was my lady friends held one of those posts too. In fact, there was a time, unlike today, when non-Bumiputras held many positions in the civil service. They were there because the leaders of this nation then chose citizens who were hardworking, intelligent and capable to hold important posts regardless of race and religion.

The unfortunate part of Malaysian history is that Chinese and Indian political parties which joined the dominant party to rule the country had allowed the dominant party, UMNO, to get away with carrying out such racial policies despite professing to uphold and protect the rights of the minority they claim to represent. The minority citizens themselves must bear part of the blame as they forget their problems and the gloomy future they face whenever such non-Bumiputra parties sweeten them with all kinds of promises and insignificant presents just before elections.

It is evident that the present need to improve unity in Malaysia is due to the actions and policies, one of which is the compulsory attendence of the racialistic civil service course, of the government which preferred to look into the interests of only one community. When this is so, how can we get national leaders? Leaders who are more interested in the welfare and progress of one particular community can never be national leaders. Without national leaders who will regard all citizens as equally important to the development of the country, it is no wonder the country, despite its enormous resources, is getting poorer while many Asian countries which have less resources are progressing economically. Without unity, how can a country be healthy in every aspects?

Unless and until we get true national leaders who are interested in the citizens as a whole, we can forget unity or progress; for to not look into the interests of all the citizens is to not look into the interest of the whole country.

The people of Malaysia must hope for true national leaders to replace community leaders to lead our country to a brighter future for every Malaysian. Let us pray for this.