Following the announcement of the recent August 12 state elections in the six states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Penang, Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan, I found myself feeling rather dumbfounded with the way the voters had placed their votes.

I am neither a politician nor an active participant in the elections, but I was among the many who had urged Malaysians to go out and vote, besides voting with my wife.

Little did I know that the vote that was cast was based on caste!

The Malays, who were traditional Umno supporters, supported Perikatan Nasional which purported to fight for a race and religion, as they feared losing the rights of a race.

This is such a sad thing, as we never had any issue with regard to race and religion during our days in school.

My teachers included the likes of Mother Mangalam, Mrs. Fernandez, Pn Sabariah, and Mr. Chua Ah Tee – all of different ethnicity and beliefs, but who taught the same lessons and good values to a classroom full of students also of different races and religions.

This would have been the same scenario in any classroom of any school during the days before and also in the schools of today.

We were and are still taught to never dislike anyone because we are one family. However, the recent voting patterns beg to differ.

For those of you, dear Malaysians, who have forgotten our Rukunegara (National Principles), I would like to remind everyone of you… these words of gold were the basic tenets of national unity.

These are not mere school exercise back page cover nor a mural for any wall. This is our charter and unifier.

• To achieve a more perfect unity among the entire society
• To preserve a democratic way of life
• To create a just society where the prosperity of the country can be enjoyed together in a fair and equitable manner
• To guarantee a liberal approach towards her rich and varied cultural traditions
• To build a progressive society that will make use of science and modern technology

We, residents of Malaysia, pledge our united efforts to attain these ends guided by these principles:

1. BELIEF IN GOD
2. LOYALTY TO KING AND COUNTRY
3. SUPREMACY OF THE CONSTITUTION
4. THE RULE OF LAW
5. COURTESY AND MORALITY

We were taught, explained to and instilled with the Rukunegara from our school days.

Several leaders and almost every civil servant have gone through Tata Negara programs where Rukunegara is the base.

Yet, if we continue to move on racial lines instead in voting for our leader, then we are only guiding ourselves towards doom.

The politicians are the major cause of this shift in voting manner, and next in line is our education system whereby our younger generation is also misguided to follow suit towards the wrong path.

Malaysia is a multiracial and multi-religious nation. This means our country comprises of different races practicing different religions living under one roof.

Tolerance and respect are the main basis that we must uphold to support this way of life.

Any commoner (ordinary citizen) in Malaysia will be arrested if he/she were to say anything against the 3Rs – race, religion and royalty. However, there seems to be a different set of rules for politicians and political leaders in our country.

Several opposition leaders have openly criticized several ethnic groups and widely chastised several religions, yet no action has been taken against them.

Instead, they continue with their top-level lifestyle of luxurious homes, chauffeur-driven cars, extravagant expense accounts and also commanding a huge number of followers, too.

The recent election even enabled one of these individuals to become the Menteri Besar of a state despite him having challenged the royalty just some time ago before the elections took place.

Why are such leniencies or “perks” given to individuals of their likes? Is this fair or is it the right way for us to move forward?

The people want action. We must suppress these overnight “election heroes.” We must send them to learn the Rukunegara in our prisons so that they will be better citizens upon their release. They fan racial elements to innocent people and divide our nation.

Our real conditions include no proper drinking water, a lack of investment, a lack of jobs, a high amount of single mothers, the highest number of drug addicts, the highest number of Mat Rempits, the highest number of pornography viewers, and a high amount of smuggling — yet the people are blinded by the political heroes who promise the heaven for those who vote for a particular party.

This paints nothing but a very sad picture of our people and also our intelligence.

While I was working with the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECER) at that time the states of Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang were under the rule of the opposition party. However, I remember how the federal government was aggressively promoting these three states.

The main intention of the ECER was to bring equal development to the east coast as the other states in the country, and today the ECER is still continuing to do its best to bring investors to these states.

It also continues to build the East Coast Highway, and several roads, and focus on the coastline beautification of Terengganu; encourage goat and cow farming with acres of unused lands well utilized in these three states.

The East Coast Rail Line too is the brainchild of ECER, these were and are the great efforts of the federal government, irrespective of their political alliance.

With this in mind, a vote cast for caste should not be the way elections are run at all.

It was also recently brought to my attention something which made great sense in our current fiasco — if doctors, dentists, engineers, lawyers, pilots, architects, carpenters and every other field required a license to practice their profession, even after graduating in their related field, perhaps it is only apt for politicians to have a license to practice their politics, too.

They must have some educational background in the field of political science, and a minimum basic qualification prior to coming into practice and standing for election.

For those politicians who rule and control and administer wrongly, rob and cheat the people and the nation, corrupt and leave the people astray – they must be brought to justice immediately.

All citizens must have the right to charge, sue and prosecute any project that fails, any politician who is corrupt, any politician who brings race and religion to divide the nation, and any politician who slanders royalty.

This will be the turning point to keep our politicians sober, proper and clean.

Malaysians are tired of these wicked politicians. They are old, some have malignant diseases, and some can hardly walk; yet they have a hostile attitude towards the current leadership.

Their personal interests take precedence over the people’s interests.

Thus, they use politics and the existing Westminster system to their advantage and divide the 33 million Malaysians, causing great unrest and chaos in the nation.

We Malaysians are peace-loving and caring. We are always abiding by the Rukunegara. We want to stand united and never divide our beautiful nation.

We need unified support and cooperation from every segment of our society to bring Malaysia to the golden era of being the Asian Tiger.

We have able bodies and educated minds; all we need is a strong government to do this.

Ayuh, Malaysia! Let’s move forward to move our nation away from these insular, intemperate, callous, discriminatory corrupt leaders.

Let the Rukunegara be our guide! Our forefathers have done a great job, let’s not wreck and or rock it!

(Ravindran Raman Kutty is an active social worker.)