M Bakri Musa
7:03pm Thu Jan 23rd, 2003

Khairy (Jamaluddin),

You have by now heard the news about malaysiakini's office being raided by the police. From your position in Umno Youth as well as with the DPM's office, you were undoubtedly aware of this ahead of time. The news of the raid is being widely reported in America, but that is not the reason I am writing you. I am doing it because this action, sadly, reflects far more o要 Umno Youth.
 
When I first heard the rumblings by your organisation over that piece in malaysiakini, I was expecting a strong and passionate rebuttal from you guys. After all I have been hearing ad nauseam how Umno Youth is now attracting bright young Malay Malaysians from Oxford and Cambridge, so I was expecting at least o要e of them (who could write a sentence or two in decent English) to articulate Umno Youth's perspective.  Instead we have the spectre of Umno Youth "running back to mama" (the police) to lodge a report!
 
Your organisation's behaviour is no different from those of the medieval Malaysian ulama who, unable to rebut the rational arguments of modern Muslim scholars, resort to petitioning the Agong! Obviously Umno Youth, like those insular ulama, cannot compete effectively in the marketplace of ideas.
 
The government has been at pains recently to prove to the world that it is leaving the information technology sector free and open. The police, in pandering to Umno Youth, has effectively breached that important commitment. Any executive of an IT firm o要 seeing pictures of all those computers being carted out would now think twice before relocating their more sensitive and important work to Malaysia. You might as well kiss your ambitious Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project goodbye. 
 
Which brings me to my more important point. Those of you in Umno Youth view yourselves as the next leaders of Malay Malaysians and Malaysia. If this is the o要ly way you can present your views and make them prevail, then God help Malay Malaysians, and Malaysia too. 
 
With the myriad of problems now facing Malay Malaysians (and Malaysia) - from the epidemic of incest to our failing national and religious schools - Umno Youth chooses to concentrate its efforts and energy to that o要e letter published o要line. I still do not know what exactly is in that piece that offends your and your colleagues' sensibilities. My o要ly conclusion is that Umno Youth is bankrupt of ideas o要 how to resolve those other pressing problems facing our people, that you now have to resort to inanities and trivialities.
 
Sadly this action of Umno Youth reveals my worse fears of the present generation of 'Umnoputras'. It is much easier to take them out of their kampong and send them to the Oxfords and Cambridges of the world; alas more difficult to take the kampong out of them.
 
Salam.
  
 

Note: Khairy Jamaluddin is Umno Youth exco member and former special assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
 
Dr M Bakri Musa is a surgeon in Silicon Valley, California and the author of The Malay Dilemma Revisited: Race Dynamics in Modern Malaysia. He is also a malaysiakini columnist.