Murderers In Our Midst

There are multiple first degree murders that are currently taking place this very moment of our dreary Malaysian existence. These merit a whistlestop discussion at the very least.


Murderers In Our Midst


May 13 is just around the corner, another four days from the date of this article, in fact. Malaya and now Malaysia has never really gotten over the racial riots of May 13 1969. It’s nearing 39 years since the date Kuala Lumpur literally went up in smoke and still Malaysians are talking about this dark spot in Malaysian history as though it only happened last week.

Declassified documents and exclusive articles, new allegations and counter allegations still surface every once in a while, and usually after the UMNO general assembly. Kua Kia Soong’s account and analysis of May 13 1969 provides an insightful look and an alternative view of the events leading up to the massacre that claimed an underestimated 194 lives as per official government statistics.

To summarise Kua’s findings and analysis in one sentence, the May 13 incident was unlike other state of emergencies in the world. Far from being a string of unfortunate events, the carnage that enveloped the newborn nation of Malaya was in every sense a well-orchestrated social meltdown.

Despite the damages and deaths that occurred between May 13 and July 31 1969, the aggressors throughout the whole episode were never fully penalized, procecuted and brought to justice. Many who participated in the slaughter, plundering, rape and arson are currently still roaming about us as apparently innocent citizens. They are as faceless and nameless as those who were murdered and violated. These assailants could be anybody – the well-dressed CEO of that public listed company, the goat-bearded, skull-capped seditious state imam or that chest-thumping, keris-wielding unruly UMNO politician.

People believe that we should stop harping on the past and instead look ahead in order to progress in life. The discussion on May 13 shall therefore end abruptly here in this web log. I am after all no expert in Malaysian history and I certainly do not fancy the idea of being charged for sedition for stating the obvious.

There are multiple first degree murders that are currently taking place this very moment of our dreary Malaysian existence. These merit a whistlestop discussion at the very least.

The National Service Program is currently into its fourth year of instalment. It has recently claimed its 24th victim recently. The young lady, Too Hui Min suffered a ‘stomach upset’ together with 177 other National Service participants, was sent to the hospital, discharged and soon after readmitted for a worsening condition. She died nine hours after the onset of her symptoms. The NS program is easily the most corrupted, stupid and lethal Barisan Nasional project in history. It costs close to RM 450 milllion annually to run the program. Until an imminent change of federal government, that annual half a million ringgit will be spent till eternity or when Jesus comes back, whichever is sooner.

Mention National Service and one expects our young men and women to be bigger, leaner, stronger and older upon completion of a National Service stint. They end up instead in crowded camps eating unhygienic food cooked by dirty UMNO cronies and spend weeks held up in rooms listening to wearisome UMNO humdrum. We might as well sponsor these young souls for a holiday in the sun, building sand castles and watch Iron Man en masse.

The deaths occurring at National Service camps and program are anything but justified. Those who have lost their lives rarely ended up so not because of any advance weapons training or brutal martial arts sparring. These young men and women ended up dead at a premature age because of simple ailments that were potentially treatable and downright preventable to begin with. The very fact that the National Service Training Department director-general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil employed the term ‘stomach upset’ is a clear demonstration of his blatant ignorance about simple health conditions. The presence of qualified medical personnel as opposed to paramedics could have given the young lady her fair chance at growing up and be a useful person in society, much unlike the esteemed Datuk himself.

Malaysians make a big hoo-ha about snatch thieves and armed robbers, and make boisterous claims that they want to protect their family and children from all hurt and harm. They have no qualms however, sending their pampered, home-grown children into the abattoirs of the Ministry of Defense.

Healthcare in Malaysia is easily among the most assessable in the world. Heck, even foreigners with no identification, no passport and no visa are receiving equal healthcare as bona fide Malaysian citizens. I am done whining endlessly about how foreigners are accorded full medical treatment at the expense of our taxes.

I shall dwell on foreigners on the other side of the mirror this time.

The Malaysian Ministry of Health employs a great number of foreign doctors. These expatriates hail mostly from Burma, Pakistan, India and the Middle Eastern nations. It remains a mystery why the Health Ministry look to these nations for a supply of medical manpower. Anyway, these doctors are employed as clinical specialists to fill the void left behind by the exodus of local clinicians. While a few of these foreign contract doctors are well-trained and qualified to heal and treat, the majority of them have failed to demonstrate adequate clinical competency that inspires confidence. By any standards, their level of knowledge, skills and clinical assessment are dubious at best.

Sabah appears to be a favorite dumping ground for foreign doctors. This is especially so in the districts.

An Indian orthopaedician who can’t fix bones, a Burmese anaesthetist who can’t gas patients, a Middle-Eastern surgeon who can’t cut, – these are among the rewards the Barisan Nasional government has presented to Sabahans for their undying loyalty over the last half century. I am not convinced things are very much better over in Peninsular Malaysia.

Patients have suffered a wide range of morbidity directly and indirectly under the care of these expatriates These doctors were not screened or assessed prior to their employment. Non-union fractures, intraoperative heart attacks, leaking peptic ulcers, wrong psychiatric diagnosis, and unnecessary deaths have all occurred and conveniently forgotten.

Our local doctors are in no way perfect, faultless and unblemished. It is simply a fact that medical errors are more prevalent among foreign contract doctors. It is all the more shocking and incredulous that these foreigners are paid more than our local clinicians despite the fact that the amorous Chua Soi Lek himself once admitted that even paramedics are more skilful and experienced than the expatriate doctors.

In short, the Malaysian Ministry of Health is vicariously employing hired killers to go on a slaying spree masked as medical treatment. Murderers are murderes, even if they carry a doctor’s title before their names.

Most folks think that the ingenious Project IC/Project M has done little harm apart from keeping UMNO in power for eternity in Sabah which, in itself is already a grave insult. The mass immigration of Filipinos, Indonesians, Timorese, and to a lesser extent Pakistanis has brought not only a change in the demographics of Sabah, but also in the prevalence and incidence of infectious diseases. UMNO’s desired citizens have brought with them more than their family and baggages. As they entered Sabah en masse, they brought with them tuberculosis, HIV, Hepatitis B and C, syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases and are more than keen to share these conditions with the local Sabahans. It appears that they too have adopted the muhibbah concept.

The foreigners and ‘other bumiputeras’ have increased their representation from 8% to 34& of Sabah’s population in less than one generation. For this, the appreciation goes out to the strong endorsement provided by the Immigration and Registration Departments.

Unlike the quick, fast kill adopted by the foreign doctors, Project IC citizens prefer to murder Sabahans in a slow, painful and sadistic manner. Patients with tuberculosis cough their lungs out for years, enduring episodes of high fever, chills and night sweats and finally succumb to their acquired ailment when the tuberculosis bug has spread to the whole body system. The process of dying from HIV and hepatitis is not any more comforting.

Once in a while, say every other day, the Poject IC citizens emulate their doctor counterparts by getting it over swiftly. Their involvement in rape, robbery, abduction and murder are testified by the local Sabah papers. It’s not to say that local Sabahans do not commit crime, it’s just that when crime is committed by persons who are not even supposed to be in the country in the first place, the crime becomes all the more heinous and deplorable.

Once again, it makes me wonder how many murderers and pillagers are lurking behind the veil of a hardworking butcher and a sweaty labourer.

Speaking of butchers, perhaps there will be no butcher more distinguished than the tyrant who served as Malaysian Prime Minister from 1981-2003. The mighty Mahathir was the mastermind behind many a grandiose national project. While they were hailed to be farsighted and revolutionary twenty years ago, many of his pet projects have since proved costly, ill-conceived and ultimately fatal.

His introduction of the approved permits made foreign vehicles too expensive and beyond the means of an average Malaysian drawing an above average income. Proton cars came into being and market conditions were manipulated to favor Mahathir’s prized legacy. Made of metal more suited for Milo tin cans and ketchup sardines, countless of individual Malaysians and their families have met their Maker driving substandard Proton cars along our treacherous trunk roads.

Admittedly, road ethics play a major role in traffic safety and in this sense, the Mat Rempits losing their lives and limbs every day deserve it all. It will remain mere hypothesis whether the outcome of road mishap victims could have been better had they been traveling in foreign-made vehicles. I am no statistician or physicist, but the mangled states of Proton cars after a mid-impact accident seem to support my hypothesis. Mahathir should indeed be held fully accountable for placing blind nationalism over citizen safety.

Mahathir has been a bold and vocal critic of his successor, accusing Abdullah Ahmad Badawi among other things, of turning Malaysia into a police state. He seems to have forgotten how Malaysia was just as repressive under him when he was in power. While Mahathir will be revered as the prime minister who curbed the previous immunity of ‘royal families’ from any legal repercussions, Mahathir will also go down in memory as the one who ruled the nation with an iron fist with little discernible separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government.

One wonders how many unjust and wrongful verdicts have been delivered during Mahathir’s reign and constant interference with judicial appointment. How many innocent Malaysians have been wrongfully sentenced to death and incarceration while Mahathir was in power?

Malaysia started taking on a police state outlook under Mahathir as well. During the peak of Mahathir’s supremacy, the number of deaths under police custody from May 1989 to 1999 came to a total of 635, and these are merely the official, reported figures. Something ought to be gravely wrong when the very people entrusted to deliver safety and justice to society also take on the role of a self-appointed executioner and cold-blooded punisher as well. Anwar Ibrahim may survive a black eye and some cyanide poisoning, but not everybody is so lucky. It is not outrageous to reason that many cops who participated in their orgies of torture and butchery ten years ago are currently in positions of higher power and authority and giving press conferences on the latest drug bust.

Wars are not always synonymous with jet planes and missiles. Economic sanctions and the severing of foreign relations are wars in their own rights. Similarly, murder need not always involve the physical body and result in bloodshed.

Killing a child’s fertile and blossoming mind of all curiosity and creativity is just as despicable as bodily harm. For half a century now, Malaysian school children and even university scholars have been inundated with pro-Malay, pro-UMNO propaganda. They are taught a version of Malaysian history that is sanctioned, approved and filtered to UMNO’s favor. The role of all races in the independence of Malaya has been drastically watered down, and all non-Malays are taught to be grateful for their Malaysian citizenship and be content playing the role of unwanted citizens of Tanah Melayu.

Our young minds are taught not to question any form of authority, even when it reeks of tyranny. From young, we are reminded repetitively not to disagree with our teachers, not to go against all rules and regulations, not to challenge the status quo, not to rock the system in place. Since then, we have learnt to revere the religious figureheads and desendants of ‘royal families’ even when they make comments inciting hatred and disharmony.

The brainwashing and mind-numbing elements of Mahathirism and now Badawi-ism has produced the current Malaysian generation, youngsters who see talent in Akademi Fantasia and find role models in Mawi.

Our whole education system has been nothing less than a massacre of talent and potential.

I am guilty of murder as well. As a matter of fact, I am committing murder this very moment. By writing four pages of Microsoft word about the obvious murderers in our midst, I am achieving nothing and am guilty of killing time.