Abdullah Ahmad Badawi or Pak Lah demonstrated once again, with the right words at least, that he is truly a prime minister for all Malaysians. In his keynote address at the 57th Umno general assembly, he spoke as the leader of all Malaysians, and not just Umno.

He used his 12 pillars framework to explain his approach for achieving Vision 2020. I applaud the PM for his speech. I further congratulate the PM for assuring all Bangsa Malaysians a future in this country, at least while he is at the helm of Umno. I will however await his actions until the next general election to decide if I can believe his words.

The Bible teaches Christians that \”love believes all things,\” and so I am willing to \”believe the promises\” of our currently elected leaders by holding them accountable and responsible for promises made at the last general election. Then, I will choose to exercise my Constitutional privilege of being a Bangsa Malaysian to decide who should be my next MP and Adun as well as who should form the next government.

Nonetheless, as a non-Muslim and non-Malay Malaysian who was given the privilege of \”virtually attending the Umno general assembly for the very first time,\” thanks to Astro, I will use this column to communicate my greatest fears which Pak Lah sought to assure and assuage, wrought by the emotion and language of the many Umno speakers. The readers can decide whether we should remain convinced about the talk or political rhetoric versus action and whether Pak Lah is \”walking his own talk.\” My attitude in writing this piece is that of a friend who likes Pak Lah\’s style and promise, but who has some sincere questions about his leadership capacity for delivery on promises.

My sincere and greatest concern therefore, in this analysis, is the application of the concept of integrity, which the PM has introduced into our national lingua franca . Integrity is defined positively when there is the absence of a gap between one\’s espoused theory and the theory-in-use. Premised on the above definition, here goes my performance review of the PM\’s 12 promises in my order of priority.

Between culture and faith

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First is the issue of religion in Malaysia. Islam Hadhari was Pak Lah\’s response to the neo-conservative agenda of an Islamic state by PAS and her supporters. The PM was absolutely on target to ask the question: \”When did we become so intolerant that long accepted practices like greeting other Malaysians on the occasion of their festivals and joint open houses are now condemned? How did we become so ultra-conservative? We cannot, must not, allow this.\” I absolutely agree. To me, the core issue is that the ultra-conservatives (or our neo-cons) do not know the difference between culture and personal spiritual faith. Culture is a sociological phenomenon of externally observable practices that are habitual for a particular group of people; it is their way of life. Faith is a personal adherence to a belief system which defines one\’s convictions about right and wrong, permissible and prohibited, and good and bad.

Faith is not visible but a matter of one\’s \”intent or niat .\” For that matter, the scriptures record that Jesus even communicated with a prostitute whom the Pharisees and Scribes accused of wrong-doing; challenging their faith and questioning their personal \”intents\” about their proposed actions, thereby exposing their sin and wrong-doing as well. They quietly dispersed without any more \”holier than thou\” accusations. Culture and personal sin were clearly differentiated here! Jesus told her \”to go and sin no more!\”

In this context, I believe that the PM has also made some wrong implicit assumptions here about the so-called Article 11 coalition. He appears to be continually wrongly advised, it would seem. The Article 11 group has never questioned the role or position of Islam in Malaysia; as already enshrined and guaranteed by the Constitution. It is therefore a blatant untruth to say so or believe otherwise. The Article 11 only raised issues related to specific role of Article 11 in the protection and preservation of the faith and practice of \”believers of all faiths\” as guaranteed by the Federal Constitution: with regards the distinction and difference between culture and the exercise of personal faith as a basic human right.

The Article 11 coalition was born as a response to the loss of legal remedies of the particular persons in their respective cases. Furthermore, the Article 11 coalition has no direct links to the IFC issue, except for the presence of some common actors. Some may argue that the IFC is an appropriate resolution but obviously not. Nonetheless, the Article 11 issues remain to be resolved; if not via the IFC then by some other mutually acceptable methodology, as the issues are very real. For those who are not neo-cons and are genuinely interested in the subject and remain unconvinced please refer to the site www.accin-badailies.org for a comprehensive statement of the facts and falsities over this issue.

But for PM Pak Lah, I hope he would take the time to appreciate the real issues as it relates to the core issue of what it means to \”believe anything.\” Almost by definition, \”a believing faith\” will remain a personal issue and can never become a merely sociological or legalistic phenomenon. The core issue remains: whether one can force such a faith down another\’s throat or whether it will always remain a personal matter of conscience and personal belief.

Rule of law

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Second is the rule of law. Thank you prime minister for restating that no one is above the law. To my mind there have now been three publicly visible Umno law-breakers; with ample public evidence of their offences. The latest being the delegate who asked Minister Hishammuddin Hussein to use the keris and show blood! His statement, made publicly and reported in the newspapers, incites racial hatred and encourages criminal intent; especially when stated within the Malay sociological context. The earlier two became headlined law-breakers before the Umno assembly.

What action is your Umno-led government going to take against them? \”Justice must be seen to be done,\” as you stated at the Integrity Day launch. As an ordinary citizen, if I do not see \”legal action taken against these lawbreakers,\” to me there is no real justice yet; as it appears that some in Umno are above the law. These law-breakers cannot even claim Parliamentary immunity for their actions and statements. Neither do such cases have to be really won in the courts per se; they only need to be won in the media; by simply charging the law-breakers in court. That will demonstrate the principle that no one is above the law, as demonstrated in the recent murder case involving a Mongolian model.

The very act of accusing and charging already punishes these \”publicly known offenders\” and especially when their offences are already obvious to all, even by Malay sociological standards. Otherwise our rule of law principle is only hogwash. So, Mr prime minister, I wait to \”see the actions to be taken.\” To quote you on this matter, \”It will be a travesty and a subject of ridicule if the law only applies to the weak and those without position. Umno leaders should be the first to display exemplary behavior by adopting a culture of respect for and abiding by the law.\” If the monarchs in Malaysia are now no more \”above the law,\” surely Umno members cannot have higher immunity.

Open dialogue

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Third is the media\’s freedom to open up space for dialogue. The PM said, \”The truth is that I would rather see heated exchanges in the pages of the press than raging riots on the streets.\” All intellectual Malaysians will agree with you.

Although I am not a formal member of the Article 11 coalition, my question still is – why did the police take sides with the law-breakers and demonstrators and not protect the law-abiding citizens\’ freedom of intellectual discourse, when we had demonstrated our ability to do the same at the first Article 11 meeting in Kuala Lumpur with more than 800 people of all races?

Our right to communicate with civility cannot be denied by an \”illegal mob\’s right to break the law.\” Dialogue in an honest and sincere form is the only civil way of communication without needing to wave banners or even \”to pull out the keris \” or to speak with heated emotion about using the keris . As you well demonstrated Sir, speaking softly and gently can achieve the same objective. Maybe it is time for the rest of Umno to mature and seek the more excellent way.

While I respect the need for the police to be vigilant, allowing peaceful demonstrations is also a form of non-violent protest. Real \”racial clashes happen\” when the pent-up anger is beyond restrain and explodes at the wrong trigger point because of lack of room for expression.

NEP issue

Fourth is the New Economic Policy (NEP); now euphemistically called the Never Ending Policy. You are right that we have lost the original philosophy and focus of the NEP; to eradicate poverty and restructure society to achieve national unity. But, my question is: How has the NEP eradicated poverty for all the bumiputeras and all Malaysians at the lowest 30% of our society? That was the first NEP target!

My fear is that most Umnoputeras speak only about and for their \”putera-interest\” and much less about the \”bumi-interest\” of all races at the lower end of the totem pole who have yet to experience the very basic needs-based development yet. Yes Sir, this includes the poorest of the poor in Sabah and Sarawak and particularly the Orang Asli in Peninsular. After all, they are all also bumiputeras too by our very own definition.

While you talk about a \”balanced development with equity,\” I do not hear enough Umno members talk about Umno\’s role in continuing to lead this nation focusing on spreading growth even before demanding equity. Their talk about \”equity\” is narrowly-defined by Umnoputera Malay equity based on the rent-seeking model. While \”ownership\” remains an important measure of \”the share of wealth,\” why not also focus on the \”share of poverty; or poverty ownership as well?\”

When we originally discussed \”distributive equity\” within the NEP context, it was always argued and premised in the context of economic growth. Sir, my greatest fear is that we are no more \”attractive for traditional FDI flows,\” based on the traditional \”cheaper land and labour costs argument\” The MSC was our original \”blue ocean strategy\” of \”productivity driven growth,\” to borrow the model from Umno deputy president Najib Abdul Razak\’s speech. It was meant to be our \”knowledge value creation strategy.\” But, like everything else, most of the players could only see rent-seeking opportunities, and therefore missed the wood for the trees.

Therefore, your new strategy for \”growth through innovation and value creation via the knowledge economy\” is the right focus, but the mere \”operative model of rent-seeking partnerships\” does not create wealth nor guarantee growth per se. I fear even for your SJER (another MSC Version II) that most players can see only the \”mirage of rent-seeking physical opportunities in the infrastructure development and not the community or content.\”

In conclusion of this part, let me congratulate you for being the PM of all Malaysians but that alone is not enough. Our core problem is our mindset and \”a third world mentality of emotions driving statements and actions.\” To develop a first world mentality, first we must be able to deal with facts and figures and learn to speak rationally without becoming emotional. Sir, you have tried to be the prime minister of all Malaysians and demonstrated it with your \”Malaysian agenda speech.\” It was an amplification of your Parliament speech but with substantive actions taken to date from your point of view; especially based on your personally crafted 9th Malaysian Plan. But Sir, all this is only empty talk if your own Umno members take no heed of the real and core issues. The same issues remain why former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad shed tears while he was the Umno president. Your leadership asked and directed that racial statements and religious issues be avoided, but to what avail? Your delegates raised racial and religious issues \”with impunity.\” There can be no leadership without followership.

Sir, my appeal to you is please demonstrate to us in unequivocal terms that you are truly the prime minister of all Malaysians, that no one is above the law; that the Federal Constitution is the supreme law of this nation, and that becoming Bangsa Malaysians is what the social contract is all about.