Clarity of purpose and vision: ABU!

UMNO is full of failed leaders. More of their first tier leaders have, at one time or another, left UMNO than have stayed. Tunku, Hussein Onn, Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh, Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and maybe Mahathir again if he does not have his way in the run up to the 13^th general elections.  Some have done so out of spite, some out of a sense of moral responsibility while some chose to do politics outside UMNO. I look at Najib today and see a man out of his depth in a job he is ill equipped to handle.

He is clearly not a leader able to put two separate pieces of information together in his head – what more process the numerous inputs coming in from all angles and sources – and digest them before making the necessary decisions that would affect his party, his people and his country.    

It is tragic for us and our country that this incompetent leader is advised by people whose vested interest overwhelms all other considerations. UMNO is obsessed with one thing and one thing only – how to hang on to power. There is no competent strategy of what to do with the malaise that has now overtaken our country because of this obsession for power over these last 50 years. No competent strategy of how to move on after the 13^th general election. These UMNO goons have no plans beyond taking back power in the 13^th general election. It would seem that should power be theirs again after the 13^th general election it would be back to the orgy of plundering and pillaging of our country wealth and resources!

Who advises Najib? Mahathir? The same Mahathir that wants his so called ‘legacy’ wreck asunder by Pak Lah to now be ‘protected’ by Najib? What legacy? Abuses and incompetence would more appropriately describe the 20 over years of Mahathir’s rule. This same Mahathir has already fast tracked his son into Cabinet! Now he stands poised to ‘negotiate’ with Najib his support for Najib in the coming 13^th general election in return for what? The crooked bridge in Johore? A minister ship for his son? The protection of his crony business interest because without the OSA he would be exposed as having betrayed the trust put upon him by the people to safeguard the interest of the nation rather then to abuse it by giving lucrative IPP and other projects and contracts to his cronies? What sort of advise would Mahathir give to Najib? Surely no advise that would benefit our nations interest and its people!

He is advised by UMNO leaders? Take Isa Samad and Thamby Chik – what advise would they give Najib that would benefit the rural Malays that are under their purview? These are two UMNO rejects that has to be recycled because UMNO has need for Isa’s proficiency in money politics and Thamby Chik expertise for gutter politics. It sickens me to the core to have these still titled dregs of human society in position of such responsibilities!

What advised has Najib been given to deal with the opposition – Pakatan Rakyat? His first foray into opposition territory was infamously successful with the taking of Perak from Pakatan Rakyat – not through the electoral process but through the baiting of opposition MP’s to cross over to Barisan Nasional. I will leave it to your imagination to figure out what bait was used. Suffice to say that apart from that bait, the Sultan and the Judiciary were co-opted to come onto Barisan Nasional side. What the price was for the capitulation of the Sultan and the Judiciary is still to be tabulated but we have a fair idea what the final costs will be!

After Perak Najib embarked on a relentless vendetta against the opposition. At times even death, as in Teoh Beng Hock’s, did not dimmed the enthusiasm of the offending mechanism used to harass the opposition.  As if one death was not enough, it took another death before MACC began to get its act together – hopefully it will not regress to what it was before – a running dog for UMNO’s political agenda.    

 

And now it would seem that only the jailing of the opposition leader would satisfy Najib. What have we regressed to? Somalia, Chad, Zimbabwe or the Democratic Repblic of Congo? In these places arrest warrants and the judiciary are weapons of choice for the government to neutralize any opposition!

Dealing with the opposition was never a primary concern of UMNO  - not until the 12^th general election. And they dealt with the opposition the same way they dealt with problems within UMNO, within Barsian Nasional and within the government they had – MONEY!

Even as they use money to deal with their problems UMNO itself was not beyond being distracted by the opportunity of making even more money for themselves even as they use money to buy themselves out of trouble. Nothing demonstrated this more then the PKFZ debacle. UMNO was prepared to give this ‘business opportunity’ to MCA so that MCA will not ‘interfere’ with UMNO’s ‘business opportunity’ for its own people – but PKFZ merely became another problem to UMNO rather then being able to keep MCA leaders ‘happy’.

For what it is worth what leadership Najib has over UMNO is leadership tolerated by UMNO in as long as he is able to allow UMNO to continue with their merry money making  - as it has done for half a century!

Let us in the opposition learn from Najib’s failure as a leader.

What we now have in our country is a growing ground swell of a critical mass of people that wants to see change in the way their leaders govern. They want their leaders to be accountable and responsible to the people in what they do in government. This grassroots idealism has been fueled and enabled by technology and social media. This critical mass is serious in its focus and committed in its goals. They have the same intensity as the Arab Spring, which spread relentlessly across 16 Middle East and North African countries. And they are focus on one issue and one issue only: CHANGE! They are serious enough to brave being harmed by baton wielding armed PDRM goons. They are brave enough to risk arrests.

And they have a leader: PAKATAN RAKYAT and who leads Pakatan Rakyat leads them. For now that galvanizing force is DSAI. I just want Pakatan Rakyat to understand that no uprising, no revolution or great change happens and succeed without effective leadership. The challenge for DSAI and Pakatan Rakyat is to sustain this leadership! And we achieved it through mutual respect and humbleness between that leader and the people that he leads.

Now the critical mass is not people who are protesting for the sake of protesting. Ask anyone of them and they will tell you what change they want. Get UMNO out. Ask them whom they want to replace UMNO with. They will say Pakatan Rakyat! And after victory at the 13^th general election what else do they want? A responsible and accountable government. And good governance. And then? Prosecute those leaders who had abuse the trust place upon them by the people.

These critical mass have their distractions. No need to go back to far – just the recent ones would do: Prof Dr Abdul Aziz Bari, Adam Adil, NFC, Berahim Beruk, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang…..  and all these distractions do is to tighten the noose around Najib and Barsian Nasional neck!

But this critical mass for ABU has purpose and clarity in its vision while UMNO and Barisan Nasional does not! Let us now hope that our leaders within Pakatan Rakyat will not fail us!

As a leader, I have always endeavored to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion. Oftentimes, my own opinion will simply represent a con-sensus of what I heard in the discussion. I always remember the axiom: a leader is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not realizing that all along they are being directed from behind. – Nelson Mandela


For now we go onwards into 2012 and then onto PUTRAJAYA. Destiny awaits. You are one. With me we are two. Who else will join us!