E Contrario

An unprecedented Razakpuja was organized last week. The PM who has all along followed the cult of Abdul Rahman, suddenly embrace the cult of Abdul Razak.

The move to reenact the statue of Tun Razak signifies Dollah is reconciling with Najib. Khairy Jamaludin has gone extra miles to flatter Najib. Tun Razak was given tribute as a leader of Melayu Glokal(?!). I am not any of the participants attending the two-day seminar “Legasi Tun Abdul Razak” organized by Akademi Pemuda Umno understood how Razak came to a “Glokal”.

Come to think about it, our history really tells us very little about Tun Razak. Today nearly half of Malaysian populations— those who are bellow 30 years old—have no impression of any prime minister apart from Mahathir.

The homage to Tun Razak manifests a ruling elite with incestorial relationship. Currently two aspiring premiers—Najib and Hishammudin are members of Razak family. In the seminar, Najib declared PM Abdullah as the “political son” of his biological father Tun Razak. Implicitly, this statement carries along Khairy as the political grandson-in-laws of Razak.

The theatrical pronouncement of Najib confirmed our speculation that a deal is to be struck between No.1 and No.2. It definitely includes a settlement to exonerate Najib from the case of Altantuya.

It is not pure coincidental that Razak Memorial Seminar was organized just the weekend before Altantuya trial began on Monday 17 June.

Najib took the opportunity to declare his reaffirmed loyalty towards Abdullah Badawi. Najib also claimed that his father taught him to be a loyal no.2. However such comparison is not reassuring at all.

Razak has been credited for many great endeavors, but never a loyal No.2. The latest documents of May 13 revealed that Tun Razak conspired to sideline Tunku Abdul Rahman after the bloody riot. Essentially Razak staged a coup and led the young turks of Umno to unseat Tunku.

In the light of recently revealed information of May 13, Malaysians need to have a critical reevaluation Tun Razak. We realized now Razak was responsible for the present structure of centralized political regime of Malaysia today. We are living under an autocratic Umno and corporatist racial coalition created in Razak reign.

The NEP which begot disastrous economic consequence in our time was part of Tun Razak’s legacy. We cannot blame the short-sighted policy entirely on Razak but we must certainly recognize its design flaws by now.

Abdullah has inherited the faulty political legacy from the 1969 coup. And he was not imaginative enough (or too lazy?) to create a new political configuration for future Malaysians.