By Mariam Mokhtar | Jul 25, 11
Malaysiakini

The rakyat is angry with all politicians, not just BN or the opposition.

We have had 54 years of Umno/BN rule and have things really got any better? The rich appear to get richer, whilst the numbers who make up the poor, are increasing.

The old class system was royalty versus the serfs. Then it was the colonialists against the Malayans. Now it looks like it is the Umnoputras versus the rest.

The Umnoputras are the new elite. Even royalty depends on the largesse of those who lead Umno/BN to get funding from the civil list.

When it suits them, BN will use emotional blackmail on the Malays to say that their heartland and their birthright is being threatened.

The British left us with a country that had enormous potential. Malaya had an abundance of wealth, from tin to timber, minerals to mining.

Singapore was only a trading port for all of Malaya’s riches. Look at Singapore now.

Malaya was rich in natural resources and it was these riches that helped fund the British war effort in the First World War. However, one untapped resource then as it is now, are its people – the Malaysians – Orang Asli, Malays, Chinese, Indians, the East Malaysians, Eurasians and all the rest.

Over the years, all these people contributed towards the success that we now see in the country. It is not BN or Umno or the Opposition who are responsible. It is the hard work and fortitude of those Malaysians who love their country.

However, the Umnoputras are the new royalty and they are siphoning away riches that should be shared with the rest of the rakyat. They take but they never give. They forget that all Malaysians deserve the same considerations and protections as other individuals working in the country.

Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak (right) was not elected to the post. He leads the country by default. He has shown very little ability to govern or to engage with the rakyat.

He only pays lip service to his speech to delegates of the 65th United Nations General Assembly; he said that extremists should not be allowed. At home, Malay extremists were permitted to express their insensitive racist and religious views without being punished.

Tighten belts

His administration tells us to tighten our belts but it appears he does not have to heed his own advice. He freely uses taxpayers’ money on his personal comfort. How does he have the gall to spend RM63 million on renovations on Seri Perdana when some people do not have a decent roof over their heads?

Taxpayers’ money is also used to fund his expenses abroad. One trip to the US was combined with his daughter’s graduation ceremony. Another trip to Kazakhstan with a large entourage of officials coincided with his daughter’s engagement ceremony. Quite a few regarded it as morally wrong.

When Najib’s wife, the self-styled “First Lady”, appeared in the New York Times centre-fold, the rakyat was irked further when it was alleged that US$4 million had been spent on this self-publicity drive.

Perhaps Najib is not at all bothered about emptying the public purse. In comparison, if we owed a government department one ringgit, we would be hounded like criminals.

Najib and his administration are devoid of morality. He need not go on about the opposition and their spending when people who have been found practising money politics to head government institutions.

How can he claim that other Muslim nations should follow Malaysia’s lead, because Malaysia’s system of governance is based on moderate Islam and has worked?

What about corruption, the abuse of power, the use of racial or religious sentiments to divide the public and the lack of credibility of the country’s institutions?

Why can Najib not make decisions which will lead to monumental improvements in democracy in Malaysia?

Instead he wants to build monuments to his vanity like the proposed 100-storey Warisan Merdeka. These are mere phallic symbols for Umno/BN.

Intolerance increasing

In Najib’s Malaysia, levels of aggression and intolerance by some Malays towards non-Malays or non-Muslims have increased. Malays who make racial and religious slurs go unchecked, despite Najib’s promises to eradicate extremism.

Bersih, which called for free and fair elections, has been outlawed by Najib. Is he not interested in clean elections? Does he not wish to prove that Umno has won every election by fair means? Why is he afraid of free and fair elections?

Why is he afraid of allowing international observers to oversee the elections? Surely, international observers would scotch all of the opposition’s claims that Umno tampers with the election results.

On the other hand, the recent deportation of French lawyer, William Bourdon, can only mean one thing. There is something to hide.

Bourdon, who is representing local NGO Suaram, believes that details of beneficiaries and kickbacks from the RM7.3 billion Scorpene submarine deal will be revealed when the matter is raised in an ongoing French corruption trial against defence giant DCNS.

If all is above board the parties involved would surely want to clear their name. Or even prove that the Scorpene scandal has nothing to do with them.

The shame is that other Umno/BN members are aware of the truth and that Najib is an incapable leader. However, these people are not willing to help the country because they only want to save themselves. Perhaps, they are themselves implicated or maybe they fear for their own safety.

But we, the rakyat, are telling Najib that it is time he went.

If he is still unconvinced that he is not the man for the job (of leading the country), he should have known by now, that being PM is a poisoned chalice.

—-
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.