By Mariam Mokhtar Malaysiakini Dec 1, 2014
Watching the succession of cabinet members spewing inflammatory rhetoric at the Umno Baru general assembly (GA) was like observing notorious class bullies playing to a crowd of their most loyal sycophants. The men and women who took to the podium are an embarrassment to their party, the nation and their community. The Father of Independence,Tunku Abdul Rahman, laid the foundations for a united Malaysia. Najib Abdul Razak consigned Tunku’s ideals to the bin.
At the finale of this year’s Umno Baru conference, Home Minister Zahid Hamidi told the delegates to adopt a “war mindset”, to “attack our enemies on the outside” and that “the best form of defence was to attack”. He claimed that Umno Baru’s training and research bureau had the blessing of the PM to use cyber and psychological war tactics to win the 14th general election (GE14).
Since when do leaders of a nation lead a clarion call to wage a war against it own people? Shame on you, Zahid and Najib!
Why are Umno Baru’s party conferences filled with hostility? Where are the words of reconciliation, national unity, 1Malaysia, harmony and cooperation, to address corruption, injustice and to uplift people’s lives? These supposedly illustrious men of the cabinet, including the disgraced former women, community and family development minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, behaved like thugs.
The public are disgusted with blatant corruption, injustice and abuse of power. They only desire a harmonious, multiracial, secular Malaysia.
The leaders may spew hatred, but the tacit agreement of the delegates who appeared to condone their leaders’antics is more shocking. Equally bad, is the lack of protest by Umno Baru’s coalition partners – MCA, MIC and Gerakan.
When Umno Baru’s Penang delegate Mohd Zaidi Mohd Said claimed that the Chinese had obtained their wealth through illegal means, only one MCA politician objected. MCA vice-president Chew Mei Fun had more guts than the rest of the MCA pack. If the coalition partners cannot fulfil their responsibilities towards their electorate, their leaders should disband the parties. Why become political eunuchs?
A weak leader plays on peoples’ emotions and sentiments. Najib screened footage of the May 13, 1969 riots during his speech, then announced that only Umno Baru could protect Islam, royalty, the bumiputeras and the Malays.
He should speak to the Orang Asli of peninsular Malaysia and the Penans of Sarawak before making such ridiculous claims.
It was also during this GA that Najib finally admitted that he had used cybertroopers to attack anyone who was critical of Umno Baru. He also censured pro-Umno Baru cybertroopers for criticising Umno Baru leaders and reminded them that Umno Baru was their paymaster.
Now that Najib has acknowledged the presence of Umno Baru cybertroopers, we would like to know where the money to pay them came from. Are the taxpayers funding Najib’s vanity project? Has Najib recruited a group of makciks to sell kueh mueh and nasi lemak to earn the millions of ringgits needed to fund this propaganda warfare? I don’t think so!
A displeased Najib chastised the Umno Baru cybertroopers for not conducting sufficient attacks against the opposition. He lashed out and called them, “bangang” (bloody stupid).
Najib and Hadi cast from the same mould
Some leaders never learn. Weak and inadequate bosses should know not to admonish their staff in public, nor call them derogatory names. Both Najib and Hadi Awang, the PAS president, appear to be cast from the same mould.
Hadi publicly called two Selangor assemblypersons “baruah”, for supporting Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in her bid to be Selangor menteri besar. Both Najib and Hadi need a lesson in basic manners and general courtesy.
The party conference also screened shots of Islamic State (IS) militants, armed with knives, marching their prisoners to execution. Zahid wanted to use these scenes to urge delegates to support Najib’s White Paper on the new anti-terror law.
How ironic that a few months ago, Najib got it wrong and praised IS activities. How could a prime minister be so obtuse? What sort of advisers does he surround himself with? Has he got 46,000 “bangangs” in his Prime Minister’s Department?
Zahid had the audacity to say, after the screening, that, “We do not want this to happen in Malaysia, so support the prime minister’s White Paper to create a new anti-terrorism law”.
Does he not realise that Najib’s silence on Muslim extremism within the country has caused untold damage? Najib’s continued silence will take Malaysia down the path to a world ruled by religious madmen.
Despite Najib’s claim that Umno Baru protects the royals, the converse is true. Umno Baru politicians use the royals to advance their own positions. Last week, it was announced that road changes were to be made for some KL roads. We were told, that, at the Conference of Rulers, the monarchs had said that too few roads had been named after them.
One wonders if some Umno Baru politicians are itching for Tan Sri-ships and Tun-ships* and therefore, made this proposal, by claiming it had been a royal request.
Yesterday, following public outrage over the name changes, Umno Baru politicians, principally Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, claimed that it had been the politicians’ idea and not the royals. The backpedalling is revealing.
So, who fears the backlash more?
All in all, the GA can be summed-up in one word – FEAR. Fear is what makes the Umno Baru politicians spew hatred and issue threats of violence. Umno Baru are afraid of losing GE14.
A confident Zahid claimed that in the “war” for GE14, the word ‘Keris’ was significant. This is my alternative version.
K: Kleptomania – fondness for stealing. E: Embarrassment – that leaders do not act in the national interests, but only for self-preservation. R: Regressive – Umno Baru is not progressive. Its members are rabid with racist and religious rhetoric. I: Incompetent – Umno Baru leaders are incompetent, indolent and irrational. S: Stupid – this word needs no explaining. Stupid sums up most Umno Baru leaders.
(*Datuks and Tan Sris are two-a-penny. It is alleged that even one of the baggage handlers at Heathrow is a Datuk.)
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).