The nation-wide furore over the derogatory, insensitive, offensive and racist speech by the Bukit Bendera Umno division chief, Datuk Ahmad Ismail, has highlighted the waste of the RM100 million spent last year on the 50th Merdeka Anniversary celebrations and the abysmal failure of the Barisan Nasional’s nation-building policy and programme.

The founding fathers of the nation would never have thought that after half-a-century of nationhood, there would still be leaders in the ruling coalition who continue to regard non-Malays as “penumpang” although their overwhelming majority are local born and even have families who have made this country their sole object of loyalty for many generations – making nonsense of the 1957 Merdeka social contract, Malaysia Agreement 1963, Rukunegara 1970 and Vision 2020 objective of Bangsa Malaysia.

Equally shocking is the woeful lack of Prime Ministerial authority and leadership in handling the Ahmad Ismail furore, illustrated by Abdullah adopting four different positions on the issue in a matter of eight days!

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