COMMENT | Former prime minister and felon on appeal Najib Abdul Razak’s visit to Foon Yew High School seems to have triggered Tony Pua and made the normally rational political operative spew out some rather nonsensical claims like the one which opens this piece.

I have no idea whose culture Pua is talking about since we are all supposed to be about the Bangsa Malaysia kool-aid, but that slow decline in culture that Pua is worried about has already happened.

Pua said this about Najib (above): "I'm more interested in protecting the moral fibre of our next generation. Our schools need to teach our children that crooks like you must go to jail and cannot be tolerated."

I have always despised “think of the children'' type propaganda.

This idea that the school’s board of governors hosting Najib means that the kids are being taught that “… it is okay to cheat, lie, steal, abuse power and bully the helpless, as long as you are rich and powerful," is the kind of hypocrisy that fuels opposition politics in this country, especially when Pakatan Harapan decided to hook up with the old maverick and save Malaysia.

Honestly, what are the kids supposed to think when Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was demonised by the opposition for decades - and let us remember that the DAP was the opposition for decades - was suddenly embraced and made a prime minister for the second time?

Or is this not supposed to be highlighted because corruption begins and ends with Najib? Does caring about the moral fibre of students begin and end with Najib in prison garb eating his curry rice?

Mahathir was never convicted so it's okay that Harapan embraced him, even though they were calling him and his regime corrupt and racist for decades with more than enough evidence even though the Umno state never did anything about it.

If you want self-righteousness, read Martin Vengadesan's piece about Marina Mahathir and her whitewashing to understand this context.

We have a history of corruption scandals under the former Harapan prime minister Mahathir which was whitewashed by the Harapan establishment.

Even when Harapan was in power, the old corrupt grandfathers in Sabah and Sarawak were ignored because it was politically expedient to do so.

Mahathir was defined by leading oppositional figure in this way -"In the forthcoming general elections, Malaysian voters should not only pass a verdict on Najib’s non-transformation in the past four years, but also pass judgment on Mahathir’s 22 years of authoritarian and corrupt policies when he was prime minister from 1981-2003" – and if you are really thinking about the children, what does it say to them, that the man responsible for all this mess suddenly becomes the saviour of Malaysia?

If there is a malaise in the culture, it probably has something to do with the fact that the opposition which campaigned on ideas such as egalitarianism and a just and equitable Malaysia, which prattles on about Bangsa Malaysia, hooked up with a leader who they claimed not only put this country on a path to failed statehood but was also the leader of a race-based party.

Even worse, (for the children, that is) opposition leaders publicly stated that Mahathir and his race-based party was needed to get rural Malay votes.

I wonder what kind of lesson we are teaching these kids at this high school. Or is it the kind of inconvenient history that is not needed?

So is the lesson that racism and corruption should be ignored when it is politically expedient to do so, the kind of morality that needs to be instilled in children?

Cheap political points

The smiling pictures of political operatives surrounding the old maverick in better times tell us something of the revisionism that political analyst James Chai is so worried about.

These are exactly the types of questions that need to be asked if one were really interested in the moral fibre of the next generations and were not simply attempting to score cheap political points with the base.

DAP veteran leader Lim Kit Siang felt it was correct of Pua to take his digs at the former prime minister but went too far with the school board.

When it comes to Chinese education, the DAP has always been muddled as to what they actually want.

Look at the Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC) fiasco and you will understand that these institutions have always been political pawns.

I was actually hoping Pua would weigh in on the issue he thinks is important to Johoreans and what he thinks Harapan’s strategy should be to win over people who may think a return to Umno/BN is the way to go.

The ever earnest Chai wrote about Najib revisionism and he’s right. Najib is doing exactly that but that is not the problem with Chai’s piece. Chai said: “They (children) rely on our truthful stories to them – we must tell them right.”

What Chai did was list the sins of Najib but completely missed out on the sins Harapan committed in their quest to replace Najib.

What are the truthful stories that these kids are supposed to learn? That Najib is a kleptocrat but that it is perfectly acceptable to hook up with the creator of this mess if it gains you federal political power?

Is it right to talk about meritocracy, egalitarianism and justice but not put that into practice when in power?

That it is perfectly acceptable to lay the blame on a single man, be it Najib, Mahathir, Abdul Hadi Awang or the immutable bogeyman, that inspires partisan fervour but ignores the mandate for the base to rectify those problems that these “evil men“ create?

That it is perfectly acceptable to claim that you need more time and it was everyone else's fault but yours?

Are these the kind of truthful stories that children need to hear or is it perfectly acceptable to ignore these narratives and pray that children would be too busy learning by rote, to understand the hypocrisy around them?

Are “Chinese are always like that”? Like what? If they vote for Umno/BN, what does that make them? The bad guys?

I mean that is the narrative used against the Malays who vote for Umno/BN, right? So Chinese and Malays who do not vote for Harapan are the ones destroying this country?

This kind of Manichean worldview is what makes politics so toxic.

I get that folks think that Pua’s narrative is wonderful but anyone who is interested in the moral fibre of future generations would find what Pua said offensive because they should know the reality.