Mr. Moy Kok Ming, borned in Ipoh, Malaysia was educated in Sam Tet Secondary School Ipoh and Language Centre, University of Malaya,Kuala Lumpur, majoring in Translation. He writes about politics and current affairs both in Chinese and English. Some of his writings had won awards

Friday, October 23, 2009

The moderates and the non-moderates

The moderates and the non-moderates

The failure of long ruling parties in Japan and other long ruling governments in Asia has prompted many people to fathom whether Malaysia will confront the same phenomenon in future. In fact if not for the strong support of the two East Malaysian states, Barisan Nasional might have fallen and the opposition took over in March 2008.

Actually most Malaysians especially the non-indigenous voters support the moderate political parties especially the component parties of Barisan Nasional. That is why BN and the Alliance have been in power for more than half a century. When the DAP tried to team up with PAS some years ago, it was catastrophic for Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh who confronted dismal failure even in urban areas, because the urban voters punished them for co-operating with the politicians whom they did not like.

In Malaysia the moderates were nationalist while the non-moderate has recently become internationalists, who will ban anything against their internationalist ideal including their own traditional culture. (e.g. makyong dance). Turkey is the most modern country in their religious world. The Turks even at one time banned the wearing of head scarf for women, but they cannot escape from the internationalism mentioned. Look at Indonesia, the non-moderates who had embraced internationalism, had created immense havoc for their country. They not only bombed Bali and Jakarta, they even planned to bomb the residence of their moderate President. Even amidst the earthquake calamity of Padang, Sumatra, there were shooting in Jakarta international airport. That is the peril of the existence of non-moderates in any country.

Actually, for whatever religion or belief, as long you are a moderate, you are not dangerous to other people. For instance, China was ruled by the non-moderate Communist during the pre-Deng Xiao Ping era and there were much suffering for the Chinese. At that time Malaysian could not go to China or do business there. However, after Deng Xiao Ping came to power, China had been ruled by the moderate Communist until today. Not only the Chinese do not have any more pang, their country prospers and became the fourth largest economic entity in the world, after USA, Japan and Germany. Nowadays, Malaysians can visit, do business or study in China, whenever they want, because China is no more dangerous as in the pre-Deng Xiao Ping era. Even the President of Taiwan (acute foe of Mainland China) Ma Ying Jeou commented we should not compare the present Chinese leadership with the leaders of the pre-Deng Xiao Ping period, for they are as astute as any leaders of the present world power.

Dr. Mahathir had written an article entitled “The Modern Middle Kingdom” in his blog which said that during Lee Kuan Yew’s visit to Malaysia, the Singaporean leader lectured to the Malaysians and said that MCA should help BN to win in election. We can fathom his worry. If Malaysia is to be ruled by the non-moderates, what happened to Kuwait might happen to his tiny country.

Corruption, inefficient governance, anarchism (high crime rate and large number of illegal immigrants), haughtiness etc may lead to the downfall of the present ruling party of Malaysia. Rectification is significant to maintain their power in future. However, it is difficult for them to countenance the advance of internationalism as mentioned above. The case of Kartika (who drank beer) has made some people open their eye and ponder whether the moderates are advancing towards non-moderation. Just type the word Kartika in any internet search machine and you will see how many thousands of titles pertaining to her, because the Western hypocrites who always talked about human rights are staring at us. We do not know this is a boon or a bane to the Malaysian reputation as a moderate country.

In conclusion, if the present legislator wants to avoid what had happened to Japan, the above rectification is not insurmountable, but the internationalism which spread from Iran to Turkey, Afghanistan, Indonesia etc are the most challenging. .

About Me

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BORN IN IPOH,I STUDIED IN SAM TET SECONDARY SCHOOL, IPOH AND LANGUAGE CENTRE, UNIVERSITY OF MALAYA, MAJORING IN TRANSLATION (ON JPA SCHOLARSHIP). I SERVED THE MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT SINCE 1970 AND HAD MY OPTIONAL RETIREMENT IN 1997. AFTER THAT, I WORKED AS EXECUTIVE SECRETARY IN VARIOUS NGOs IN KL & KLANG VIZ TRADE & CULTURAL ASSOCIATIONS