– Muhammad Azaham Wahab
The Malaysian Insider
24 May 2015

I am a member of Umno who had served the party for a good 40 years and was a Branch Chairman for 23 years.

I also served for a few years at the division level and consider myself a grassroots leader of Umno and am qualified to say that I embody the sentiments of members at the grassroots level.

As a branch leader for more than 20 years, we have always obeyed the higher ups in Umno and slogged at every election to ensure the success of Umno-Barisan.

I was proud of Umno and my MCA and MIC friends because for whatever weakness Barisan had we were brothers in arms to develop the country.

I trusted the leaders and they did not betray my trust because the country was peaceful and development in all sectors was satisfactory although it could be much better.

However things have changed and corruption and misuse of power had reared its ugly head. The Barisan leadership condoned corruption and used their power to cover up their corrupt practises on the economic and business sector. Corruption is now so embedded in society we seem to accept it as a normal practice.

We Malaysians knew what was happening. But, Malaysians as a whole are forgiving and tolerated all the nonsense. But our “tidak apa” attitude will lead our country to the path of a failed state. We must not be complacent and let things go on unchecked.

My worry is Umno-Barisan has taken the public’s patience and complacency for granted and now have no respect for them .We are taken for a bunch of fools that do not know what is going on and do not know our rights.

The Umno-Barisan leaders have transgressed the limits of our patience blatantly and the public must show our utter disappointment and disgust for all the wrong doings of Barisan.

We cannot trust the top leaders in Barisan to arrest the malpractices and we need change .When top leaders of the government consistently lie and twist and turn facts to justify their wrong doings and who breed a swarm of cheats under their wings the time has come to say enough is enough.

All of us have been reading the goings on in 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). When leaders of Umno lie and MCA and MIC leaders try to mellow down the ugly misdemeanour, they have lost our trust.

When the Finance Ministry can tell a blatant lie about funds in BSI Bank Ltd Singapore, the ministry and all the members of the of 1MDB board are a bunch of liars and must be censored.

How on earth can such “learned” professionals stoop so low as to lie to the people of Malaysia?

The final straw for all of us is when 1MDB put their dirty hands in the coffers of pilgrims’ fund Lembaga Tabung Haji, Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Retirement Fund Inc (KWAP).

The money in Tabung Haji is from the poor Malays who save to perform the Haj. And the money in EPF and KWAP are from the public’s hard work to save for their old age.

Shame on all the 1MDB board members for putting your dirty hands in these funds to finance your dubious dealings. The money of the poor could just vanish.

Can we trust you my dear board members? We know you are all professionals and clever people but can you be trusted. I am afraid to say we cannot trust any of you and the sad truth is that you are powerless to do anything because there are hidden hands pulling the strings and you are forced to take responsibility. – May 24, 2015.