The Punchline

1Malaysia. It still hasn’t capture either yours, mine and millions of other Malaysian attention. Why ah?

When Tun Mahathir took the prime minister seat in 1982, he mentioned the importance of three factor that needed to be brushed up by the government service and administrative arm as a whole: Bersih, Cekap, Amanah. (Clean,Skillful and Trustworthy )

In fact, there were earlier punchlines that were well understood by the people of Malaysia. They are not much of verbal lines that would become phenomenal like Raja Lawak “lu pikirlah sendiri” or Phua Chu Kangs “dun play play”, instead, they are like words of mementos. A promise or commitment that leaders made when curtain had just opened and people had their ears anticipating the first word from a leader. Tun Abdul Razak did mention about ‘ketahanan nasional’ (national resilience) which focuses of national stability through political stability. It is Ketahanan Nasional, other political party were invited to join Barisan Nasional for the benefit of whole nation.

Back to Mahathir’s era.

Bersih, Cekap, Amanah. It was the three things that kept echoing in people’s ear. People were expecting a paradigm jump in government service with this three words being kept murmured from mouths of Pak Cik in Kedai kopi and Mak Ciks when they had to grab their clothes from the drying post behind their homes. The introduction of nametags amongst administration staffers, usage of by-then hyper bulky computers, and mandatory punch cards were tangible testaments to the government commitment towards the those three factors.

It was in 1994 when I still see the tin plaque of “Bersih, Cekap, Amanah” hung along the cement floor, corrugated zinc shaded walkway of my previous school in Mentakab, Pahang. I was registering myself for primary school and honestly had nothing to look at as I was dragged by my parents to the class.

Then came the economic boom of the mid-1980s when Tun Mahathir once again created another line that somehow remained sticky in our mind. “Malaysia Boleh” is the new cool. It convinces Malaysian that we can somehow match what developed countries could do. They mass-produce vehicle, we had ability to mass produce, promote and sells our vehicle proudly carrying our brand name. They had iron and steel smelting complex, we had ours too in the form of Perwaja in Kulim and Kerteh. They had petroleum refineries, we had them too in Kerteh. “Malaysia Boleh” become the zealously chanted words when our athlete compete in any sporting competition.

Then, when all else looks bright and promising, we moved to ‘Wawasan 2020’ , a national aim to join the league of developed nation by the year 2020 soonest. It was the anticipation of 2020 when Twin tower spurned out together with the hosting of 1998 Commonwealth games, Formula1, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and finally the administrative capital of Putrajaya. Wonderful reason why young generation tends to look at Dr. Mahathir as an icon is because we used to write about Wawasan 2020 for BM karangan most of the time. When, we wrote those karangan, there were plenty of examples to write about. F1, KLCC, KLIA they all become the generic content (isi lazim) of our karangan. We were thought that our nation is reaching out to become a somewhat ‘shining star’ among the plenty of nations we seen in Geography. There are hundreds of nations out there!

It was the evil Western fascination of categorizing nations between ‘first worlds, third worlds’ that made us played their games to achieve that ‘first world’ status without ever knowing where the heck the second world had gone missing. Utusan even had daily countdown towards 2020 printed on the frontpage some when in 1998. It counted for 7000 over days over and I was giggling and pondering will Utusan give out free editions when the countdown finally reached its destination. Or a mega party?

Yes, that was some of famous utterance that ran out of Malaysian lips nearing the late 20th Century. In 2004, Tun Abdullah Badawi took over and his first lines that were adapted for mass-information were “ Cemerlang, Gemilang dan Terbilang” (Excellent, Glorious and Respected ). It did become famous for a moment because people favor for Pak Lah were somewhat high. Yet, as people woke up each morning, this utterance clearly had no meaning or whatsoever purpose. It serves as verbal impetus without any destiny or reward at the end of road, or at least had any tangible effect. It sure rhymes, but its merely becoming too subjective to what intend those three words could bring. Of course, the slightest idea would to improvise whatever available at the moment for the better. But did it happen? Where is the big-bang of Cemerlang, Gemilang and Terbilang? Did Pak Lah impose death penalty to those who came late for work? Did Pak Lah assembled all government servant and asks them to adjust their clock to a standard time?

Government agencies building began to display huge posters bearing “Cemerlang, Gemilang, Terbilang “, something that had given two unreasonable advantage; beautifying the agencies compound and adding pocket money for those contract banner printers. Yet, I had to admit, being in architecture line, I had noticed government graphic designers were weak in employing the most effective graphics. They were more likely conformed to the presets. Maybe those banners played a small part in government dissipation of information; yet, the government should have known that graphic played a significant impact to attract and persuade anyone. They leave a psych footprint just like McD with its golden arches and bright red, yellow writing theme.

It seems Suara Keadilan Online had better graphics – never downplayed the importance of graphic – even Procter&Gamble had spent enormous time and energy into changing the cover of its shampoo bottle in such short period. Why?

Most had gone bored and began to realize that Pak Lah maybe needed some time. Instead, the three rhyming words became mere gimmick as Pak Lah came out with another punchline; this time in a form of religion-centric calls for “Islam Hadhari”. The Islam Governing agency had given the task to inform the public on the concept of Islam Hadhari which until today puzzles me. What is this Islam Hadhari? I dare not to comment. Did the Pendidikan Islam syllabus were changed to accommodate another bab regarding Islam Hadhari? Did the SPM students were forced to elaborate in a 3000word karangan on Islam Hadhari? I would have failed by then as there will be no content to elaborate. Am I a bad muslim because I do not understand this ‘Islam Hadhari’? Wauallahualam.

Now, come Datuk Seri Najib and the ideals of 1Malaysia. But what are the gains and benefits of 1Malaysia has yet to be seen. Is it a concept that is too vague and subjective that a layman just couldn’t understand? Where is the big bang of 1Malaysia because the billion-repeated already-archaic word of perpaduan has become too lame that any given Sunday, hold a poster making competition, the kids will surely draw three main races in Malaysia holding hands. The theme of perpaduan hasn’t moved beyond that.

Lets not pollute 1Malaysia. Limit its usage and educate the public with its concept first. Kementerian Belia dan Sukan recently had initiated this SatuBelia (OneYouth, not to be mistaken with OneU in Damansara Utama), I’m compelled by how many ‘Ones’ will pop out within the cabinet ministers out there. If tourism ministry came out with OneDestination campaign, then, I lose faith with the bodek-ness and lack of ingenuity of these jet-setting well exposed ministers. At least Rais Yatim were rational enough when asked to comment why P.Ramlee movies were enjoyed by all races, he openly refused to refer to it as OneMalaysia concept because its apparently clear that P.Ramlee did not come from Najib Tun Razak generation. He is just himself. Unless, the government had some sort of time travelling machine to brief P.Ramlee about OneMalaysia. Different story lah.