Many must be asking whether the Red-Shirt “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally in Kuala Lumpur on Sept. 16 is finally a pro-Najib and anti-Mahathir rally in the latest round of power tussle in UMNO?

This thought must have struck many after one of the promoters of the “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally challenged the former Prime Minister to join the rally on Sept. 16 if “he is Malay enough”!

Putting aside Mahathir’s unrelenting criticisms of Najib , his call for Najib to step down as Prime Minister, even his asking Opposition MPs to support a no-confidence motion against Najib in Parliament but to keep the UMNO/BN government in power, a racially-charged and ostensible “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally but which is finally a pro-Najib anti-Mahathir gathering, is a real eye-opener.

This is really astonishing and utterly unbelievable – are the masterminds and promoters of the “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally really suggesting that Mahathir, as President of UMNO and Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years, had betrayed the Malays for over two decades to the extent that “maruah Melayu” are today facing unprecedented crisis?

If not, are they blaming Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Najib, the fifth and sixth Prime Ministers after Mahathir, for the “downfall” of “maruah Melayu”?

I fully agree with the former Law Minister, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim that the “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally, which is fully endorsed by Umno and being held purportedly to ‘redeem Malay honour’ allegedly besmirched by the largely Chinese gathering of Bersih 4, will only make Malays a laughing stock of the community.

What I cannot understand is why UMNO leaders from Najib downwards are so dim and dense that they could not grasp such a basic reality – raising grave questions about the IQs of the present batch of UMNO/BN Ministers and leaders.

The Deputy Prime Minister and successor-designate to Najib as Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi, has given his blessings to the “Kebangkitan Maruah Malaysia” rally while several other Ministers like Ismail Sabri, Salleh Said Keruak and Abdul Rahman Dahlan are rooting for the success of the “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally on Malaysia Day.

Abdul Rahman and Salleh are very poor Sabahans who could allow the significance of the Malaysia Day to be upstaged and overshadowed by the racist and pro-Najib, anti-Mahathir “Kebangkitan Maruah Melayu” rally in Kuala Lumpur.

Although time is running out, I call for good sense to prevail and urge all the UMNO/BN Ministers to make their voices heard and prevail upon the Prime Minister not to allow such a racially-charged rally, blatantly pro-Naib anti-Mahathir, to be held as it will only make the Malays in Malaysia the laughing stock of the world – including Malays outside Malaysia.