Letter

For illustration purpose only. Photo by WE staff, Clarissa Anne.

Time for Malaysia to grow up

I think the time has arrived for us to stop associating the country’s premiership with one particular race only. I belief there is no such law in the Federal Constitution that calls for such a practice, where candidates for the prime minister post should come from only Malay leaders.

Having seen the prime ministers of the past, the Good, the Not-So-Great and the Big-Time Failures, Malaysians would have wised up by now and they must surely have their personal set of criteria on what type of leaders are needed to administer the country – free from greed, corruption, racism, favouritism.

I have mine.

The candidate must pass English, BM and one other Malaysian language at least at the secondary school level. If they have more qualifications, these should not be held against them.

The candidate must not have any history of racial offences. He or she must be able to see a human being as a human being, not as a person from a particular race.

The candidate must believe in God but must not belief that his belief is the most superior. He must respect others’ beliefs.

The candidate must have the intelligence to know the difference between race, religion and culture.

The candidate must have clarity in thinking, honesty in his speech, understanding of people’s personal liberty

Must be smart and wise enough to plan the country’s future well with a capable, hard working, caring, and intelligent team.

Must not be a dictator. Must be a team player. Must go to the ground.


Must help everyone and not just his Bangsa, whichever Bangsa he is from.

Must learn the real history of the country. Not cover it. Must know how the country was developed. On whose blood, tears, sacrifices. Must know who did tin mining. Who worked on rubber trees. Who brought Islam into the Malaysian mosquito-infested jungles and cleared the roads and were school teachers, businessmen, doctors, court advisors, pioneers in the medical field, banking, aviation and so much more.

Be proud of the real history including the past rulers’ whose remaining legacies and proof of existences have been mostly wiped out or hidden.

Must be thankful for the borrowed cultures, tradition, languages and RECIPE and remind all the boastful and ignoramuses how these things really came to be Malaysian today.

The candidate must believe in Equality and promote equality, not pit one race against other in the name of Bangsa and agama. Islam is strong enough and does not need a mortal’s Defence.

The candidate must be confident in his or her own skin, whatever the colour. Humble and genuinely love his or her fellow human beings.

Then he or she may qualify as a PM candidate. That would be the qualifying grounds. Then there will be the CEO KPI that will have to be met.

It is time to grow up and let Malaysia grow the way it can, and achieve so much more with the true potential of all its people, especially the young, and also the old, whether Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban, Eurasion or any other ethnicity.

AS. Mani