LETTER | Our PM has resigned. So what?

LETTER | I think my wife was somewhat disappointed with my lukewarm response when she told me that Muhyiddin Yassin has resigned. I was neither surprised nor excited. Unless you’ve been living in a cave or practising ostrich head-in-sand exercises for the last few weeks, it’s quite obvious he had to step down very soon.

On the other hand, despite the failings of the Perikatan Nasional government under Muhyiddin, I am not particularly glad that he has stepped down not because I want him to remain PM but because I believe that his departure will not make much difference for Malaysia and ordinary Malaysians, both in the short and long term.

Why do I say that? Well, Dennis Ignatius wrote recently, “In the name of race and religion, our governance system has been so abused that it is now beyond repair. A different prime minister or even fresh elections won’t resolve our problem if the system remains unchanged. We either reform or we perish.” And I agree with him.

Indeed, it’s a belief that I have had for some time now. I believe that the fundamental problems of Malaysia will never be effectively resolved as long as one particular category of Malaysians is accorded a special position that comes with perks and privileges denied to the others. I do not wish to get into the details of this belief here as there is another point that I wish to make.

When I read Ignatius’ conclusion in his recent blog post, it struck me how similar it was to my own thinking. I took the opportunity to conduct an informal poll with my Malay friends to see how many would agree or disagree with that sentiment.

Interestingly, a Malay friend not only agreed, but she also said, “Only twits would not agree, and those thinking of making big bucks. Even Malays [sic] in the B40 who are worst hit by C19”. In response, I said, “I think there are at least three distinct categories of Malays who would disagree. And the distinct reasons for their disagreement are 1. Ignorance; 2. Greed; 3. Fear”.

Then I added, “And, in the ultimate analysis, it will still boil down to ignorance.” She simply replied, “Sad but true”.

What do we do when we come across ignorance? What can we do? Well, the easiest thing to do would be to ignore it. However, that would be the ignorant thing to do, wouldn’t it? After all, the words “ignore” and “ignorant” have the same root.

Another common response to ignorance is to either mock or criticise it, i.e. react adversely to it. Whether we want to admit it or not, the fact is many of us – even the best of us – sometimes fall into a mode of judgement where we relish the superior position from where we can look down on those below.

And that reminds me of a quote by Jesse Jackson: “The only time you should look down at someone is when you are helping them up.”

This brings me to what I believe is the best thing to do when we encounter ignorance. I consider ignorance to be a form of darkness that stops us from seeing the truth, reality, or simply things as they are. Unfortunately, despite all the incredible advances in human capability, there is no technology that can be bought off the shelf to remove darkness.

Indeed, we can never remove darkness by itself. The only way to get rid of darkness is to bring light. And to enlighten people, i.e. get rid of their ignorance, we start with Education in the broadest sense of the word (note the capital E). Alas, Education is held captive by the ignorant, greedy and/or fearful in this beloved nation of ours.

And that’s why, I consider Muhyiddin’s resignation to be an insignificant, inconsequential event.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.