– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
6 July 2014

Umno leaders have no compassion for the poor. MCA is a monkey of a party. Monkey does what monkey sees.

The singular characteristic of Umno leaders which is more pronounced than anything else is their arrogance and holding in perfect contempt the rights of others. Perhaps this stems from being in power for so long, which generates a feeling of invincibility and infallibility.

Hence, Tengku Adnan Mansur announces punitive measures to get rid of soup kitchens.

He has issued a directive that no soup kitchens can operate within 2km limits of Lot 10. He is afraid; the sight of vagabonds, homeless and beggars will offend the sensibilities of patrons and denizens in the citadels of luxury and opulence in the Golden Triangle.

The only sin of the soup kitchen organisers is to provide hot food to the destitute and poor in the city. The measures ought to be commended but BN holds such efforts in contempt, because it embarrasses them that the world will know there are many poor people in Malaysia.

Feeding the poor is not a glamorous act like presenting demands at the immigration department to secure the release of a teenager remanded by the authorities.

In this country, only Umno has rights that supersede all else. If Umno were the party to initiate the soup kitchens, such acts would be hailed as exemplary, caring and commendable. Praises would be heaped and the TV stations will be running congratulatory salutations and tributes to no end.

But because, Umno cannot claim ownership over such a humanitarian act, it pronounces the acts by others as contemptible and can lead to embarrassment of the government. More so, if the soup kitchens are initiated by opposition parties.

We have a sound welfare system that provides shelter and nourishment to the very poor. That is what is claimed by the government. The claim now seems to be at odds with what is really happening on the ground.

The fact that soup kitchens have operated and have received good response is an indictment on the efficiency of our own welfare system. It can suggest that there are too many poor people who are loose on the streets; it can mean that our welfare infrastructure is deficient to cope with the large number of the poor; it can mean that work to feed and clothe them has not been done properly.

I have been to welfare homes in Raub, for example, and will not be quick to disapprove work done by the welfare department. I think this part of the welfare department’s portfolio is sorely underfunded.

On the care and treatment to residents at welfare homes, I can only empathise with the people doing their job. I want to say thank you to them.

It is demanding to work with the homeless, the aged and the marginalised people. At the same time, efforts carried out by other people should not be held in contempt and should be regarded as complementary. We are all moved by a common desire to alleviate sufferings of others. The acts of kindness by others do not diminish at all the efforts carried out by our welfare departments.

The announcement by Adnan deserves to be held in utter contempt by the public, especially by the volunteers of the soup kitchens. These volunteers who are citizens of this country are moved by the plight of the poor, the vagabonds, the drifters; they are not motivated by pursuits of popularity and glamour. These are the unsung heroes of our society who deserve support and encouragement, and definitely not threats of punitive measures.

The efforts of these people, mostly unknown to the rest of us, should be celebrated as the act of conscience on behalf of the many of us who do not have the inclination or the courage to do what these volunteers do.

The world of Malaysia is defined as how Umno wills it. Umno of course has conferred on itself almost god-like, and therefore unimpeachable, qualities.
If the world is racist, abusive, crude and coarse, that world is not of Umno making. It is the world crafted by others.

The DAP, for example, is being singled out as the main culprit. The recent outbursts of the former minister Zainudin Maidin, is typical thinking of Umno leadership. The standard reference of all contemptuous conduct and behaviour is that of the DAP.

If others challenged the official, and therefore, the only politically correct view as defined by Umno, the violator has caught the DAP disease. After all, the DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, anti-Malay rulers and is a godless communist party.

MCA, its pet poodle is aping DAP by uttering what MCA did. And what did MCA do that has irked others? It has only questioned the narrative of events surrounding the pig’s head thrown as Rayer’s house. All civic and right thinking Malaysian citizens ought to condemn this heinous act and whomsoever condones, justifies and excuses such dastardly act, deserves to be condemned too.

The DAP has been right at the front in condemning Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s inane narrative of the act in question. Zahid, despite earning a doctoral degree, has never been known for intellectual finesse.

Equating the recent acquired conduct of MCA with the consistent commitment of DAP in the struggle for political decency is an insult to the DAP.

Between MCA and DAP, is a wide divide as large as that between the sky and earth. No political party can be markedly different as that between DAP and MCA.

DAP speaks for the marginalised, the abused, the wronged, the common people. Its leaders exemplify the character of the people it represents by being down to earth and unassuming, committed and serious in their role as the voice of the voiceless, the poor, the disenfranchised, and the wretched.

MCA speaks on behalf of special interests, that of the Chinese Hongs and the Chinaman who thinks Chinese culture is represented by a sumptuous feast featuring Empress Dowager’s Dim Sum exotic morsels.

While pouring out scorn and contempt towards MCA and even declaring MCA can go to hell, I find Zainudin’s concluding comments perplexing and enigmatic. While using DAP as a barometre measuring all that is contemptuous and vile, he has suggested that it’s better for Umno to cultivate DAP.

Now, why should pure and pristine and unimpeachable Umno would ever want to cultivate DAP? That can only mean that DAP’s unshakeable belief in democratic principles and its commitment to a fair and just society have earned the respect even from its enemies. – sakmongkol.blogspot.com, July 6, 2014.

* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de guerre of Raub MP Datuk Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz.