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Ada rakan-rakan saya yang agak kritis tentang tweet dan posting saya di dalam blog saya akhir-akhir ini hanya kerana saya membuat komentar mengenai UMNO dan malah memuji-muji Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Mereka yang kurang sofistikated telah mentafsirkan perkara itu sebagai cara saya cuba untuk kembali ke pangkuan UMNO. Tetapi, sebenarnya, sekarang musim pemilihan dalam UMNO, dan apa jua yang berlaku di dalam parti berkenaan, suka atau tidak, bakal memberi impak kepada kita semua. Itulah sebabnya saya menulis posting berkenaan. Harapan saya agar sesetengah daripada apa yang saya katakan itu sedikit sebanyak bakal mempengaruhi para perwakilan dan ketua-ketua parti berkenaan.
Some of my friends have been somewhat critical of my tweets and blog posts lately, simply because I have been commenting on UMNO and even praising Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The less sophisticated have interpreted this as my way of trying to get back into the UMNO fold. But the truth is it’s UMNO season and whatever happens in the party will affect all of us, whether we like it or not. Given that, I write with the hope that some of what I say can, in some small way, influence the delegates and the party chiefs.
After the most closely contested general election in our history, many of you probably want to know what will happen next. What do the results of GE13 mean for Malaysian politics, and for us? It’s a big question to tackle over lunch, so I have decided to address it from a limited perspective, and that is: what kind of leadership is in store for us after this past election?
GE13 revealed several pertinent issues that the nation needs to reflect on. They include the clear emergence of a younger generation that wants to have a say in the way the Government runs the country, the widespread recognition that we must have an impartial and independent Election Commission (which both political sides need, given that their roles may one day be reversed), and the ultimate willingness of most people (except PKR) to accept the electoral results, despite some grumbling and unhappiness. That leaves one more outstanding issue: given all of this, which leader can take us forward?
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This speech was delivered at Amnesty International, London, in conjuction with the 50th anniversary of Malaysia's Internal Security Act - organized by The Solicitors International Human Rights Group and the Abolish ISA Movement UK - on April 2nd 2011.
The Internal Security Act, the ISA, is a source of constant consternation for Malaysian society. It is a piece of legislation that has succeeded in instilling fear into the hearts of every one of our citizens. So much so that parents no longer use the threat of the boogeyman to get their children to behave but rather the home minister and the ISA enforcer that will come and get them in the middle of the night.