— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 29, 2012

MARCH 29 —

Oh what a tangled web we weave,

When first we practise to deceive!

That’s the whole problem with Umno in short. It has deceived the country and most of all it has deceived the Malays into believing that only Umno can deliver the Malays to the Promised Land. And it continues to weave the web and got itself entangled that the only way to free the Malaysian races is to destroy the web of deceit.

Let’s us now resolved to do just that. Kick out the band of robbers and the trader of false hopes. Let us kick out the deceivers.

It forfeited what it got- power since 1957 to accomplish what it set out to do — uplift the Malays. Why? Because it started on the wrong premise, and that premise wasn’t adapted and evolved into the engine to uplift the Malays first (since Umno’s struggle and raison d’etre is to serve Malay interest) and this country.

What’s the fundamental flaw in that premise? The fundamental flaw is, and this is what I believe personally, you think by having Article 153 in our constitution the position of the Malays would be automatically improved. No one in Malaysia, including the DAP leadership, disputes the meaning and intention of Article 153 as far as it involves the protection of Malay rights and so forth. Umno rule of over 50 years has proven to us one thing — that legislating rights do not confer the desired effects without applying dedication, quality leadership and determination over well-thought of policies to accomplish what Article 153 sets out to do. Umno hasn’t provided those other than living off Article 153 and stoking the fears of the Malays, believing that just by having that article Malay position would be automatically improved.

Let’s have a small debate over this fundamentally flawed premise which we can only resolve by offering a better alternative. But first, let us do away with some minor irritants.

I find it pitiful the half-spirited responses of Umno supporters here in my blog. The way they responded show they are in sixes and sevens. They can only do the ad hominem attacks and make unreasoned judgment calls. Example, I reasoned out why Umno will be rejected, they can only respond with a miserable and very personalised statement — no! Umno can triumph.

Here, we present to you a reasonably argued position and you can only respond by giving one or two sentenced rejoinders with expletives and exclamations? You are at liberty to hold that view but please honour us with some reasoning. That which is written cavalierly cannot be expected to be taken seriously. If you insist you want to respond in such a wishy-washy manner, may we recommend some of the gutter quality pro- Umno blogs?

But I also understand their frustration. They must say something. Even making an incomprehensible noise. Then there is this habitual spiteful question asking me whether this morning I have already sucked Guan Eng’s or Kit Siang’s ****. That’s the Umno quality. Umno is the sugar glider hiding in the pouch of Article 153 as they interpret it.

Umno has reached its end. Malays don’t have to feel sentimental about it. We can’t hasten nor postpone its demise. Umno has survived on several myths spun and drilled into the Malay subconscious over generations. It has survived on the myth that the Malays and Umno are inextricably linked.

The myths we mean include:

(1) The fate of the Malays rests on the fate of Umno.

(2) The fate of the Malay Rulers is linked to the fate of Umno.

(3) The fate of Islam depends on the fate of Umno.

This is Umno’s trinity of falsehoods. These formed the foundation of Umno’s legitimacy with the Malays. It makes itself out as the protector of Malay rights, protects the Malay, their religion and their country as represented by the Malay Rulers. Expose the myths and Umno loses legitimacy. This now is the overriding fear of Umno because it can no longer defend its legitimacy and therefore its reason to continue to be in power.

The only and principal reason why Umno is coming to its inglorious end is because these myths are no longer sustainable. A party that survives on falsehoods and not sustained by principles can never endure. This is the gravest mistake of Umno. Its claim to be pragmatic really means it makes up whatever is convenient as it goes along.

After over 50 years of leading the nation, what has Umno achieved for the Malays? Development? Umno has overrated itself.

Development is not something unique to Umno. Every party that has power can carry out development. We should be able to separate government and political party. A political party does not own the government. It legislates yes, but the implementation is carried out by civil servants beholden to the constitutional Ruler. So Umno can’t go around claiming only they can bring on development. The governments in Penang, Kelantan, Selangor, and Kedah also carry out development, indeed the development there has been achieved on more meritorious grounds. These states have better reserves, operated and achieved surplus budgets and have been able to avoid wasteful spending. Those are sterling qualities of good governments.

Last week PM Najib, leader of the party that lives on falsehoods and deception, lectured the people not to repeat their mistake. What mistake? The only mistake which people are now realising is that Umno and BN havs fleece the country. This is a government that subsidises its falsehoods on mounting debt. The public debt in relation to our GDP is almost reaching the camel back-breaking point. Yet the country’s incompetent and ignorant leaders are proclaiming it’s all right. And we have not even counted the value of guarantees given by this government to incompetent GLCs which, if they default, places all the questionable loans given to questionable people with questionable business proposals on the shoulders of the people.

RM1.3 trillion of ill-gotten money has been spirited out of the country over a period of 10 years, RM130 billion of which could be injected into the national budget to finance development funding. In addition we have RM20 billion a year lost on leakages, an euphemism for corruption. We try to convince ourselves that using a refined term is able to assuage our sensibilities. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).