LET THE BLIND SEE AND THE MUTE SPEAK

The Great Wall of Malaysia
Malaysiakini

More than a decade ago, when I was in Malaysia on assignment, I interviewed a senior official of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). He was a policy wonk, who had been sent to Oxford University on a Mara scholarship.My first question to him was whether the whole MSC, the brainchild of Mahathir Mohamad, was just another one of the then premier's hair-brained schemes at shoring up Malaysian 'coming-of-age' grandiosity.He hung up. Guess he didn't like the tone of my questions.A short while later, he called back at the hotel I was staying after I had left his secretary a message to do so. He told me, adamantly, that the MSC was the next logical and necessary step in technologizing the Malaysian economy and creating a modern Malaysian society

I asked him if he was serious or merely turning on the spin. He said the Malaysian government was always serious about everything it says and does. I swear I could have died from laughter right there and then.I reminded him that Mahathir also once had said that he would usher in the scientification of the Malaysian economy. You know ... space and all that jazz. That it was part of his Wawasan 2020 plan. For nothing has come of that. So what likelihood, let alone imminence, of the Malaysian economy's technologization?Ten years later and it's clear that since the MSC was first mooted, no policy development work worth its name has been made to forge Malaysia into the future, much less in becoming the Southeast Asian hub of science and technology.Wawasan 2020 remains a half-baked concept, devoid of concrete, realistic and transparent policies. To convince anyone of the seriousness of intent by the Malaysian government of its project is akin to Japanese convincing foreigners that sushi is in fact cooked food.After all, earlier, there had been much fanfare about making Malaysia the regional financial hub. So Mahathir set up the Offshore Financial Centre - far away from prying Peninsular eyes, in Labuan. And to be sure, Labuan is a dead goose - another victim of Mahathir's follies.If the MSC was going to lift Malaysia's global competitiveness, it has failed - and miserably.So now, when news comes that the Najib government - which recently claimed that it will uphold the democratic rights of all Malaysians, ostensibly under the rubric of 1Malaysia's self-stylized ideology - is already reneging on its promises.No just Dr M deserves free speechThe MSC says its new boss Najib wants to filter Internet content in the country. It says it will clamp down on porn and other nefarious activities using the web.This is exactly what the Chinese government said too.

Mahathir, now a blogger, of whom his pitiable sycophants refer as 'ayahanda', says that the Najib regime should block porn sites, to which he refers as “filth”, but leave free political content unless it instigates violence.

Lest, of course, political dissenters want the regime's attack dogs unleashed upon them yet again.If you're intuitive enough, Mahathir syncs with Najib. Umno's supremacy rests upon the instrument of terror wielded through Internal Security Act and other anti-democracy legislation.Unlike other bloggers, Mahathir is deemed untouchable by a predominantly cowardly regime. Even Najib would not dare take on Mahathir directly. Which explains why he sent his deputy to 'tell' Mahathir about the government's decision to switch back to the Malay-language teaching of Mathematics and Science.Najib's mentor and patron is Mahathir. How many times has Mahathir lashed out at Najib since the latter took over from Abdullah? And how many times did Mahathir lash Abdullah?If Mahathir thinks it's his divine right to have the political freedom to write and criticise whomever he wants, then every other person in Malaysia should be entitled to the same right. Nobody ought to be or should be differentiated from this very same entitlement.But Mahathir is an all-time hypocrite. He's a hypocrite whenever he lashes out at the ultra Zionists within Israel's rightwing neo-nationalist faction vis-à-vis the Palestinians. But he hasn't lashed out at Utusan Malaysia for its fundamentally racist and spineless rants against the non-Malays that, in any sane mind's mind, is tantamount to inciting violence.

If Mahathir is so great a democrat, so freedom loving with his blogging and all the rest of his banalities, why did he pulp my questions when I signed up to his Che Det blog and posted them there on his management of the economy during his reign?

Beware the Najib regime and its mentor, Mahathir. There's a Chinese model slowly being incorporated into Malaysia. The Great Wall that is being used to persecute political dissidents in China also will be used to persecute Malaysian dissidents, especially the more desperate the regime becomes about grasping on to power.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MANJIT BHATIA, an academician and writer, is also research director of AsiaRisk, a political, economic and risk analysis consultancy in Australia. He specialises in international economics and politics, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific