By Sakmongkol AK47 | May 24, 2012
The Malaysian Insider

MAY 24 — Why can’t Umno carry the Malays to greater progress? Because it’s a low trust organisation. It doesn’t trust the majority of Malays and it doesn’t trust the rakyat in general. It has ceased to become a political party. It has morphed into an organisation of black hands composed of three million members. It puts its trust on the three million members NOT on the rakyat. This is the principal reason why we must reject Umno.

It fears the rakyat and their judgment. The leader of Umno who calls others accursed bastards is willing to unleash the instruments of suppression on the rakyat, firing water cannons and spraying tear gas that immobilise people instantly. Where did the Umno government buy the new variety of tear gas? From Israel?

Umno is not trusted nor does it trust those outside itself. This is a hallmark of a backward organisation composed, like Dr Mahathir says, of a half-past six leadership belonging to an organisation which is rotten to the core, corrupt from top to bottom and made up of dullards. Mahathir said all that.

We have a simple proposition then. Can we bank our future on such an organisation? Why should we trust Umno with our future if it doesn’t trust us? We must reject Umno because we want to bequeath a better country to our future generation. We owe it to the next generation who are now struggling to cope up with the increasing cost of living, who can’t find jobs because the country is mismanaged economically, or managed by sub-standard leaders. We owe it to those who can’t afford a decent house because a house near where they work now costs RM700,000 per unit.

This coming election is for us to lose, NOT for Umno to win. We lose if we let our guard down and be complacent. We must continue to raise the people’s consciousness and reject the deceit and lies perpetrated by Umno. We must reject the Umno-controlled media instruments such as Utusex Malaysia, Berita Hairan and TV¾.

The only other organisation that operates like Umno by trusting people within an organisation and who has recently adopted the act of oath taking or bai’ah is the Cosa Nostra aka the Mafia.

Because of this, Umno can never stimulate or induce voluntary co-operation and sacrifice from others. Umno can only get co-operation and sacrifice by paying others. This ability of creating trust between social groupings which leads to co-operation is known among social scientists as social capital. The concept of social capital was developed famously by Francis Fukuyama.

The basic idea behind the concept of social capital is this. A society with high trust (trusting others beyond just its organisation or its own grouping) is able to develop and prosper better. A society with low trust will always remain low on the scale of progress, being able to prosper on the fringes and like the Mafia outside normal society.

Now, apply that concept to Umno. Umno trusts only its members. That is why it is obsessed about having three million members. If the rakyat doesn’t trust it, it hopes it can do it alone by trusting only its own members. It’s therefore a low trust organisation. Just as a low trust society occupies the lower end of the scale of progress, so does Umno.

Therefore, how can a low trust organisation that nowadays manages to invite only distrust and revulsion carry us forward? — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

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