It is almost a week week since the 71st UMNO General Assembly but what the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said and did at the opening of the UMNO General Assembly and the winding-up still rankle rational, fair-minded, patriotic and nationalistic Malaysians who believe in what Bapa Malaysia Tengku Abdul Rahman said in 1957 about the country being “a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world” and the Dream and Vision in the Merdeka and Malaysia Proclamations of a Malaysia of excellence, justice, integrity, freedom and harmony despite the diverse races, religions and cultures in Malaysia.
Firstly, Najib’s resort to lies and falsehoods when he accused the DAP of being anti-Malay and anti-Islam, that “DAP yang terang terang Anti-Melayu dan Islam, sebagai tercatat dalam perlembagaan DAP, langsung tidak meyebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan”.
Present at the 71st UMNO General Assembly opening were the leaders of the other 12 Barisan Nasional component parties, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the Sabah and Sarawak component parties.
His criticism of DAP that “tercatat dalam perlembagaan, langsung tidak sebut Islam sebagai Agama Persekutuan” applies in equal measure to the 12 other BN component parties.
Will Najib accuse the other 12 BN component parties, and therefore the Barisan Nasional coalition, as anti-Malay and anti-Islam?
Najib attacked the DAP as anti-Malay and anti-Islam because of DAP’s commitment to a secular Malaysia.
The first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn had stood for a secular Malaysia.
Is Najib suggesting that the first three Prime Ministers, including his father Tun Razak and his uncle Tun Hussein had been anti-Malay and anti-Islam?
Secondly, his resort to the politics of fear and hatred by drumming baseless fears and hate, as when he warned that if Pakatan Harapan wins, “the Malays will be vagabonds, cursed and despised, until they ‘terbangsat’ (become bastards) in their own homeland”.
It is shocking that sixty years after Malaysia achieved Merdeka in 1957 and 54 years after the formation of Malaysia, the Prime Minister could use such language and be so irresponsible as to resort to such politics of fear and hatred to hang on to power.
Najib should know that if Pakatan Harapan defeats the UMNOB/BN coalition in the next general election, the Pakatan Harapan Federal Government will be doing its utmost in the next five years to prove that it is better than the UMNO/BN government in protecting and promoting the rights and interests of all Malaysians, especially the Malays and Islam, and no one will be “terbangsat” in their own land or it will lose the mandate to govern and be repudiated in the subsequent general election five years later in 2013.
But the greatest indictment for the UMNO General Assembly is the silence not only of Najib but of the 71st UMNO General Assembly to the international multi-billion 1MDB money-laundering scandal which has catapulted Malaysia into a global kleptocracy.
Najib and the 71st UMNO General Assembly not only ignored the condemnation of Malaysia as a rogue country, and 1MDB scandal as “kleptocracy at its worst” at an international forum on the eve of the UMNO General Assembly, news of the international condemnation was completely blacked out by the UMNO/BN owned and controlled mainstream media, both online or printed, in the country – whether the New Straits Times, Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian or The Star.
If Najib can get away with the 1MDB “kleptocracy at its worst” in the impending 14th General Election, what is there to prevent Malaysia from scaling greater kleptocratic heights after the general election with 2MDB, 3MDB and worse money-laundering scandals which will make 1MDB look like peanuts?
This is why the call by G25, the group of former top Malaysian public servants, urging the government to disclose a full transparent report of 1MDB for a proper closure of the 1MDB scandal is both urgent and timely.
In its report entitled “Invigorating Economic Confidence in Malaysia”, G25 said such disclosure should contain reasonable explanations about the planned management and proposed credible direction towards meeting 1MDB’s financial commitments and ultimately achieve its corporate objectives.
Will the Najib government heed the rational voice of G25, when it had banned the subject from Parliament and even ignored the statement of concern of the Malay Rulers on the 1MDB scandal more than two years ago?
The 71st UMNO General Assembly is proof that nothing would be known about the 1MDB kleptocratic scandal unless there is a change of government in Putrajaya in the next general election.