First posted on
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
These Malays who
are the leaders in UMNO....they were once decent people. There were once Malays
who had the well-being and welfare of other Malays in their hearts. They wanted
the Malays to succeed in education, in business and they wanted the Malays to
be able to stand with pride amongst the other races in Malaysia. They started
their life in politics with these thoughts.
It changed when
Mahathir took his place as Prime Minister. This was no ordinary man. He had
intellect. He had intelligence. He worked hard and he knew exactly what he
wanted and how to go about getting it. He was a man who had the power to do
much. If only he had used his power for good rather then for evil.
As he was talking
about racial harmony he understood the need of the racial divide to keep the
people off balance and he used the racial divide to weave his politics of
divide and rule. As he consolidated his hold on his cabinet he understood the
need to have Minister who were corrupt, weak of the flesh and
susceptible to the lure of money and every other imaginable persuasion so that
he could use these weaknesses to exert control over them. Truly Mahathir is a
disciple of Machiavelli - adept in using cunning and deceitful tactics in politics!
What happened with
Pak Lah totally defined Mahathir. Nothing matters except what Mahathir wants.
Not what UMNO, Barisan Nasional, the people or what the country wants. He will
have his way no matter what. God did not give him the grace to understand that
others are different in thoughts and deeds to him. In the end that will be the
epitaph of this man.
And now to where we
are at now. Does Najib ever stop to look at the people in the country that he
is Prime Minister of as individuals? Does this Zahid who is so fond of issuing
threats and ultimatums from his Ministry of Home Affairs ever stop to think
that these people that he issues those threats and ultimatums are made up of
individuals – Malay, Chinese, Indians, Sikhs, Ibans, young and old, men and women…that
each and every one of these individuals are able to think for themselves and
decide what they want to do with their life and their votes? Or are all these
leaders on an ego trip?
For me the
spectacle of Najib trying to impose some semblance of dignity and authority to
the position of Prime Minister of our country is sad because:
“The obvious is that
which is never seen until someone expresses it simply” Kahlil
Gibran.
Najib you cannot
build a house on sand. It is futile for you to expect the people of this
country to allow you to govern them until you have earned that right.
So you came into
office with blood on your hands–Pak Lah’s blood. It was a well-organized
assassination. UMNO at its best. Not only were Mahathir and you able to turn
UMNO against their own President but also you even managed to get the people of
Malaysia to come along for the ride.
At that point of
time Najib presented a clear break from the excesses of Pak Lah and the
‘excesses’ we most disliked was the power (real or imagined) then being wielded
by Khairy Jamaluddin. We would even have accepted Mahathir back as Prime
Minister if it meant we could rid ourself of that young upstart call KJ!
So that alone meant
that Najib came in as Prime Minister on a high. But wither goes Najib after
that? The growing unpopularity of a once much loved and popular Prime Minister
affectionately called Pak Lah had propelled Najib, albeit with much help from
Mahathir, into a post he badly needed to ensure his political survival even as
another potentially deadly threat looms -ALTANTUYA!
In my humble
opinion where Najib erred was in his handling of the Altantuya situation. His
early appointment as Prime Minister was not, as he thought, the solution to
this problem. It merely gave him time to regroup. He should have used his entry
into office to sit down quietly and figure out what he could do to diffuse the
Altantuya problem – not use the Prime Minister’s office as a refuge from it.
Yes there were
questions about his past judgement in his days as MB of Pahang and in Federal
Politics that could embarrass him on a personal and political level but who in
UMNO did not have skeletons in the closet? There were also worries about the
propensity of Rosmah to act more ‘Presidential’ then Najib but even this, with
common sense, could be managed.
In other things
political Najib had vision but lack substance. He was unable to maintain the
mood of the people. When Pak Lah took over from Mahathir there was much hope
for change for the better and this was reflected in the results of the emphatic
2004 election victory that the people gave to Pak Lah.
But this mood
changed quickly when promises were not followed by action especially in today’s
over wired news availability through the Net. As impressive as Pak Lahs “Work
with me not for me” utterances were…cakap bukan serupa bikin…and his inability
to rein in KJ and failure to deliver what he had promised to do, costs him the
Prime Minister’s job.
But Najib was
unable to build on this. What he has done quite well without help from any
quarters is to dig a hole too deep for him to climb out of – and there is
nobody around willing to give him a helping hand to escape oblivion. Ahhhh the
arrogance of power overcomes all of us…not just the strong and powerful, not
just the little Napoleons…but also even those Mata Mata in uniforms on their
money seeking beats around the streets of our towns and cities! They fail to
understand that Malaysia belongs to many who are already dead, the few that are
now living and the countless numbers that are still unborn!
For over fifty
years the leaders in UMNO have been beating this country of ours to near death.
It would do them all good if they stop to understand that we are all
individuals amongst the faceless masses that they see. Listen to what we have
to say. Understand what we aspire to. Or, better yet, understand that we, like
them, simply want the right to earn a decent living, a roof over our heads and
the freedom to live our lives to the best of our ability in peace.
Humankind
has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound
together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle, 1855
If you understand
this, then maybe you will understand the need to have compassion, decency and
aspire to do well to others in your time as Prime Minister…in your time in
life. ….but maybe…just maybe…it might be too much to ask of you and of those in
Barisan Nasional.
First Posted
by Hussein abdul
Hamid at Wednesday,
August 18, 2010
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