Where Would You Be Today Without Umno?

By Raja Petra Kamarudin Last updated Jun 4, 2019

Granted Umno has its faults and shortcomings (or maybe even evil in some aspects). But to say for 61 years from 1957 to 2018 Umno reduced the country to a failed state is a lie and merely DAP propaganda. That is Lim Kit Siang’s favourite song and dance (alongside kleptocracy, world-class country, etc.). Kit Siang is merely copying North Korea and Communist China.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

When you hear the non-Malays and DAP-Pakatan Harapan people talking about Umno, Umno is 100% bad and absolutely nothing good. That is why we must get rid of Umno.

That’s like saying knives are 100% bad and absolutely nothing good because knives can hurt or kill us, so we must ban knives in Malaysia. Are not knives also good because without them how do you manage in the kitchen?

If you look at life that way then cars must also be banned because cars kill and pollute the world. In fact, walking is better because it makes you fit and healthy like those people who walk up and down the mountain in Tibet.

Granted Umno has its faults and shortcomings (or maybe even evil in some aspects). But to say for 61 years from 1957 to 2018 Umno reduced the country to a failed state is a lie and merely DAP propaganda. That is Lim Kit Siang’s favourite song and dance (alongside kleptocracy, world-class country, etc.). Kit Siang is merely copying North Korea and Communist China.

This was how Malays lived before Umno

Now look at the report below (The demographic situation in Malaysia).

First of all, if not because of Umno, you, yes YOU, would not be reading this article. In fact, you may not even be alive today — and even if you were you would not have the ability to read what I have written.

Yes, you are here and you are reading my article because of Umno, however bad or evil you may think Umno is.

In 1946, the year Umno was born, 95% of the Malays lived in the kampong in wooden houses, had no running water and electricity, did not own cars or motorcycles, only some rode bicycles, did not go to school, and even if they did would go to a “sekolah kampong” until standard six, and so on. And most Malays lived off the land or were padi farmers and fishermen.

In Terengganu and Kelantan, the Malays did not wear shoes, trousers and shirts. They only wore two pieces of kain pelikat, one across their waist and another thrown over their shoulders. And Malay girls did not wear G-strings for Mat Sabu’s pleasure. In fact, in East Malaysia the women did not wear bras and were topless long before it became the fashion in the west.

I still remember the days when the Malay girls would go down to the river to bathe and I would play my speedboat along Sungai Terengganu to feast my eyes on the bathing beauties (sigh…those were the good old days, which were destroyed by progress…damn development).

This is now the lifestyle of many Malays

When Umno was born the life expectancy in Malaysia was 46. (My father and mother both died around that age). Today, at 69, I am still alive and the life expectancy today is 76 (70 in Indonesia and 82 in Singapore). So expect another seven years of Raja Petra the pain in the neck.

Before Merdeka the infant mortality rate was more than 100 per 1,000 births. Today it is about 6 per 1,000.

Looking at the life expectancy and infant mortality rate alone today, compared to when Umno was born, you are lucky to be here reading my article — plus the fact if you were born before Umno was born in 1946 you would not be able to speak English, not even Mat Sabu’s level of English.

If you listen to Kit Siang and the DAP Chinese, they will tell you Umno is 100% totally useless. Then look at how the Malays live in Taman Tun, Damansara, Bangsar, etc. Then look at the cars the Malays drive. Then look at the five million Malays who have gone to university and can speak English better than the English can. Then look at the Malays who at 93 can still become Prime Minister instead of dying at age 46 like in the past. Then look at the annual Haj/Umrah trips the Malays make. Then look at the skiing holidays in Canada/Switzerland and shopping sprees in Oxford Street/Bicester the Malays indulge in. Then ponder whether if not because of Umno the Malays would have all this.

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The demographic situation in Malaysia

Author: Palmore JA; Chander R; Fernandez DZ

Source: Honolulu, Hawaii, East-West Center, 1975. (East-West Population Institute Reprint No. 70) 27 p

Abstract: Malaysia’s population grew very quickly between 1820-1970 due to heavy immigration of Chinese, Indians, Pakistanis, and some Malays, very much tied to British colonial interests, prior to World War 2, and to high rates of natural increase from the 1920s on, though accurate data on either phenomenon are available only for recent years.

By 1970, the demographic effects of immigration were no longer critical, visible only in the ethnic composition of the country; sex ratios and age distribution had returned to nearly normal levels. The high rates of natural increase were due primarily to decreasing death rates. Rates close to 30/1000 were reported for the peninsula between 1926-1930; by 1970 the West Malaysian crude death rate was 7.3/1000.

Life expectancy for the population increased from 46 to 64 over the 1947-1970 period. The precise rate of decline and the dates of onset cannot, however, be calculated for either the Western or Eastern parts of the country. It is estimated that further declines will occur as ethnic and residential differentials are eliminated.

Long-run fertility trends are difficult to evaluate due to under-registration and past heavy immigration; however, after 1947, estimates combined with registration data do permit analysis of beginning fertility declines. Rates appear to have increased slightly from 1947 to 1957 but to have decreased thereafter. Assuming essentially complete vital registration in 1970, the crude birth-rate (CBR) declined by over 30% in West Malaysia between 1957-1970, i.e., from 46.2 to 33.8.

The minimum decline in the total fertility rate was somewhere between 24-31% depending on which set of estimates are used. By using several different data sources and extensive calculations the declines can be attributed to a decline in the proportion of women married between 15-24 and to declines in fertility of currently married women due in part to increasing use of family planning after 1967.

Declines were not due to changes in the age structure of the population as a whole (41% of females were between the ages of 15-45 in both 1957 and 1970), but age structure did figure into declines in specific ethnic groups, especially in the Malayan decline. Neither did declines occur uniformly among different segments of the population; significant urban-rural and ethnic differentials remained in 1970.

Such differences completely altered the rank order in fertility rates in the latter instance. In 1957, Indian fertility was highest, Chinese 2nd, and Malay 3rd, while in 1970 Malay was highest, Indian 2nd, and Chinese 3rd. Different levels of contraceptive use have also undoubtedly contributed to differential declines and levels; urban and Chinese women have made greater use of it than have rural and non-Chinese.

Recent urban growth rates do not indicate massive rural-urban migration. That indication coupled with an unfavourable age structure, the prospect of further declines in mortality, and the fact that changes in marital patterns are not likely to contribute to future declines point to continued rapid population growth in West Malaysia. In East Malaysia, an even incipient fertility decline has yet to be detected.