Razak wanted socialists to join Barisan, says scholar Kassim Ahmad

Malay intellectual Dr Kassim Ahmad says the wrong message was passed to him by an aide of second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein. – The Malaysian Insider pic by Hasnoor Hussain, January 16, 2014.

Malaysian politics might have seen a socialist party in the ruling coalition had Malaysia's second prime minister, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, not died just six years into his administration.

Malay intellectual Dr Kassim Ahmad, who was president of the opposition Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) during Razak's administration, said Razak was an open and inclusive leader, and had offered to bring PRSM into the ruling alliance, the Barisan Nasional (BN).

But there was a miscommunication when the message was conveyed to Kassim, and it never happened.

"Razak gave me a message through (his press secretary Datuk) Abdullah Majid, telling me to take PSRM into BN but the message I got was not clear.

"I was told to go work for Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP or the Institute of Language and Literature).

"I was reluctant because I didn't want to be tied to a government-related organisation. The offer surprised me... When I finally got the correct message, Razak had died of leukaemia. So it didn't happen.

"It was most unfortunate that Razak's administration was short. He brought so much change and to me, he was the best of all the prime ministers we have had," Kassim told The Malaysian Insider in an interview at his home in Kulim, Kedah, for a series commemorating Razak's death on January 14, 1976.

Kassim, 82, said it was unfortunate Razak was only able to govern the country for six years.

He said the late prime minister was a man of great vision for the changes he introduced after the bloody racial riots of May 13, 1969. These included the New Economic Policy (NEP) and forging diplomatic ties with China in 1974, the first Southeast Asian country to do so.

Razak succeeded Tunku Abdul Rahman and became prime minister in September 1970.

"He headed Mageran (the National Operations Council, or NCO), restored Parliament after the emergency; and then he introduced new policies like the NEP, and established bilateral ties with China after he became prime minister.

"He did things 100% differently from Tunku. The change was a good thing. When we obtained our independence from the British, I disagreed with Tunku's administration. It felt like we were still colonised, inheriting the British system.

"Razak's vision for the country was different – much wider and more open. He had a 'kitchen Cabinet' with people from the left and the right who discussed policies and sent proposals to him for the final decision," Kassim said.

Tunku's leadership during the troubled times was criticised by some Umno leaders led by Razak. The NCO was the emergency administrative body that took over power to restore law and order in the country. The council, headed by Razak, governed the country from 1969 to 1971 until it ended when Parliament was restored.

Razak was the architect of the NEP, a social re-engineering and economic affirmative action programme with a two-pronged strategy to eradicate poverty in all races by 1990, and to reduce and eliminate identification of race by economic function and geographical location. Razak believed that this identification would hamper national unity.

The NEP has since been continued in subsequent government policies which have been criticized for being pro-Bumiputera to the extent of sidelining other Malaysians, as well as for abuses and corruption in the implementation of the policy.

Kassim said Razak's NEP had once been necessary for Malaysia when the country was in a transitional period, but said it should end as it had become a weakness of the Malays.

"According to government data, the objectives of the NEP have yet to be achieved. But I think the Malays have this consensus... these special privileges that have made them comfortable. They have this comfort zone where they face no challenges.

"Because of this, they don't see the necessity in putting in the effort to progress. So they are weak and lack competitiveness. It is better to end something that does no good to the people anymore," he said.

"People just have to be re-educated. Many have become 'Pak Turut' (sycophants or 'yes' men). To think is hard to do," said the critical 82-year-old scholar, who himself is in trouble with the law and faces Shariah charges for insulting Islam.

Kassim also believes in single-medium schools, and said the Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools allowed by Razak in his education policy, called the Razak Report, was necessary at the time to meet "the demands of all races" then.

"In time, I believe we will gradually move towards a single-type school to enable our education system to achieve excellence," he said.

Kassim viewed vernacular schools as a bridge to the ultimate goal of achieving a Malaysian nation, something he felt would take at least three generations to reach.

"The timing has to be right. Even the DAP's campaign for a 'Malaysian Malaysia' in the early 1960s failed to take off when the slogan was used initially," he said.

Kassim pointed out that it was also the same with political parties, that the country was not totally ready for multiracial parties.

Datuk Seri Onn Jaafar, the founder of Umno, had also tried to open the party to all Malayans but failed because the time was not right, he noted.

Kassim said Malaysia was still years from being a "Malaysian nation".

"We are still in a transitional period. To build a nation, you need three generations, as I have said. If you study history, this was what happened in all civilisations.

"We may still need another decade before we are all ready for political parties that are truly Malaysian and before all citizens can regard themselves as Malaysians first," he said.

Kassim was a former Malay Studies lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. He turned down a permanent position at the university to pursue his interest in Malaysian politics and his passion in writing.

He said he had never personally met Razak even after he had returned from Britain, but the prime minister knew of him as the president of PSRM.

Kassim also believed that people were afraid of Razak.

"He was a serious man. In those years, there was no Internet and there was the Internal Security Act (ISA) so people were more guarded," said Kassim, who was detained under the ISA after Razak's death for almost five years until 1981 for allegedly being involved in the socialist or communism struggle.

Razak died while seeking treatment in London, less than six years after becoming prime minister. He was buried in the Heroes Mausoleum in Kuala Lumpur and posthumously called the Father of Development.

Of his five sons, the eldest, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, is the sixth and current prime minister.

Asked what he thought of Najib, Kassim said the prime minister had to display greater strength as a leader. But he also disagreed with the way people were condemning him, or even his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, in social media.

"As citizens, we must be patriotic. Don't condemn without rationale. Concentrate your criticisms on the thinking of your leaders, and don't waste time criticising without thinking."

Kassim said had written to Najib after the latter announced in December 2013 that Umno would amend its constitution to recognise Islam as the federal religion and only followers of the Sunni sect, or Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah, as true believers of Islam.

The Malaysian government prescribes the Sunni sect as the prevalent ideology of Islam. Any other Islamic schools of thought, including Shia, are considered deviant.

"In the Quran, it is forbidden to make tribes within the religion. I wrote to (Najib) about that, and I don't think the matter was brought up again... I think my letter had an effect," said the scholar, who himself is in trouble with the law and is facing Shariah charges for allegedly insulting Islam.

Kassim, who joined Umno in 1986, said he had also recently written to Najib again about corruption problems in the party and how most members had forgotten why Umno was formed and its ideals.

"I know about how it has been difficult to be a member in the last decade or so. Umno was formed in 1946 as a party full of idealism. Its members went to meetings on bicycles, but now they fly there first-class.

"You find extended families in the party but they hardly understand how politics work or even the history and philosophy of Umno. You have branch leaders setting up party branches because they are aiming for projects," he said, urging Najib to call an emergency general meeting to correct the situation.

"As BN chief he has to get the other component parties to do the same... Najib speaks of transfomation but he only talks. He doesn't have the methodology.

"It is a herculean task but it must be done. He has to do it, secure the mandate and bring change, otherwise Malaysia will be destroyed... I will write to him again," Kassim added.

- TMI