The "Social Contract" - Abused By UMNO Scoundrels.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Social contract revisited

From The Middle Ground by Romerz

Comments by Sarawak Headhunter in red.

The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah, had proposed that the social contract be explained at educational institutions to enable the young generation to have an in-depth understanding of the pre-independence agreement. (Malaysia Insider report HERE)

What is meant here of course is the pre-independence of Malaya, not Malaysia.

In an immediate response, Education Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein was confident that Sultan Azlan Shah's proposal would serve the nation well if implemented. However he added that a comprehensive study must be done first before implementation can be carried at the earliest in 2010. (Bernama report HERE)

By 2010 UMNO hopes to have brought all dissent under control, so that all Malaysians will be cowed into accepting the "social contract" according to UMNO. There will thus be no necessity for any actual study or further need to explain this purported "social contract" - UMNO would by then have bullied everyone else into accepting its revisionist version of the same - one which will put all other citizens of non-Malay origin - including the Bumiputras of Sarawak and Sabah into 2nd and 3rd class positions.

Personally, I think there remains many of us within Malaysia who either do not acknowledge the existence of such a contract, or if we do, do not know what it was all about since there are no written documents recording the agreement of the parties to this contract and all the parties to this contract are now deceased.

The fact is that no fuss was made during Tunku Abdul Rahman's time as Prime Minister about this "social contract", whether about its existence or non-existence or its implementation, since it had already been incorporated into the Constitution of the Federation of Malaya (and later Malaysia). The ultras - extremist Malays - in UMNO (whose privileged sons are in the process of inheriting their positions in UMNO) who were impatient to rise to power and wealth which they saw as rightfully theirs, notwithstanding that some of their parents may have just got off the boat not too long ago, saw the opportunity to discredit Tunku Abdul Rahman whom they saw as being too soft with the Chinese.

The Chinese therefore had to be put in their place and forcefully reminded to whom they owed their "citizenship", so that these elite Malays could claim their "birthrights", and it was for this purpose that the "social contract" was invoked and abused, even at the expense and on the backs of the not so privileged Malays (and other Bumiputras from Sarawak and Sabah who had been roped in for good measure but who would mostly remain poor for the next 40 over years).

The closest piece of written document we have to which this 'social contract' must have given birth to is the merdeka federal constitution, not the present day skewed federal constitution, which has been amended 400+ times since 1957.

I agree with both Sultan Azlan Shah and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin that it will serve the nation well if the younger generations understand the objectives behind the formation of Malaysia.

This probably refers to the independence of Malaya, since the formation of Malaysia would entail broadening the scope of the "social contract" to include the non-Malay and non-Muslim Bumiputras of Sarawak and Sabah, which expanded "social contract" has been also subject to severe abuse by the ruling Malayan elites in general and the ruling Malayan Malay elites in particular.

Shouldn't we be having discussions first on whether the social contract exist in the first place and the intentions of the merdeka federal constitution, with its conflicting articles regarding to race and religion?

The "social contract" exists only in the minds of the ruling Malayan Malay elites only, especially when they want to justify anything they do by way of (abuse of) the process of law, administration and government. The elite Malay hold on power and control of wealth depends entirely on being able to convince or bully the other races into believing that such a "social contract" exists or else the latter will find their blood being spilled. Deny it at your own peril!

These Malays (with whom many more enlightened Malays do not agree, it must be said) do not see enforcement of this "social contract" - the real essence of which, entirely different from that in their perverted minds, is in reality already enshrined in the Federal Constitution - through due process of law but rather through coercion and even deadly force if necessary.

Many NGOs have tried to organize forums to discuss and better understand our merdeka federal constitution before but the government of the day have always allowed disruptive forces to curtail such intellectual discussions.

They cannot allow any real intellectual discourse since this will show clearly how they have not only misled the entire Malay race and in fact the entire nation with their version of the "social contract" but also how they have abused it for their own personal benefits.

As a first step, if Datuk Seri Hishammuddin is sincere about Sultan Azlan Shah's proposal, then he should convince his cabinet colleagues to allow government sanctioned discussions to take place, behind closed doors if necessary. Better still the government itself organize such discussions with representations from all stakeholders of this country.

Impossible! Since when has Kerismuddin been sincere about anything? He would prefer to choke on his own keris first or preferably make you choke on it. What stakeholders, the ones with stakes through their hearts and other body parts? What rights do you think you have? The only rights that you have are those which UMNO allows you to have. Do you seriously think that the UMNO lanun will acknowledge any legitimate rights other than their own to legally rob, loot and pillage the entire nation?

And do not forget to put on the table for discussion not only the merdeka federal constitution but the 20-point Sabah Agreement and 18-point Sarawak Agreement which led to the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

They will never agree. The consensus on the Sarawak side will be that Sarawak wants out of Malaysia.

Until and unless we can come to an agreement or compromise on all these fundemental issues, we will continue to have conflicts amongst all Malaysians since we can't even agree on a common platform to build our future on.

There can never be a common platform founded on the lust for power and greed for wealth of the ruling elites of the nation.

51 years already wasted but better late than never. With royal consent, all that is needed now is the political will ....... but will this be found wanting?

I think you already know the answer yourself. Good try anyway.

Samuel Johnson said that “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” To that in the Malaysian context must be added the "social contract". These scoundrels in UMNO and the BN will do anything to stay in power.

How do we negotiate or discuss anything with scoundrels like these?