Sakmongkol AK47
Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz
We, those who are opposed to the sons of bitches and bitches who are ruining the country, actually like it when Najib enjoys a personal rating of 69 per cent. What was the population sample taken? And we don’t know the composition of the sample. But if we started off by selecting the population sample on which we want to draw conclusions beforehand, we only arrive as spurious and deceptive conclusions. If we grant the survey the benefit of the doubt and accept the conclusions face value, it serves our purpose really. That means while Najib is enjoying a high, Umno’s reputation travels south. Najib got A++, means Umno gets E++. Then it’s only necessary and strategically opportune for us, to just show Najib’s political infirmities. As to his personal characteristics and moral foibles, I leave that to others. We just need to go after the leader.
Once he is destroyed his outfit crumbles. So enjoy.
A long time ago, the overriding ‘ideology ‘ to which Umno committed itself to was Alif Ba Ta — Agama, Bangsa dan Tanah Air. Let us examine what are these and what they should mean.
Agama of course refers to Islam. If Islam is already complete, it requires no further gloss. It needs guardians to ensure it remains pure. We accept this role. We also accept their prescriptive role — suggesting to us, how we should behave and act.
The truer role of the guardians of Islam in Malaysia should be directed at making what kind of Muslims we want to be. Are we going to be the claustrophobic Muslims who rejected the presence of Erykah Badu because, once upon a time she acted in a film which demanded that her body be temporarily tattooed with the names of the Gods worshipped by people of various practices? Her recent photo didn’t show any of those markings.
Yet the rich and the powerful, their sons and daughters and their kept women in tow, crossed over to Jakarta to watch Erykah Badu sing there. So the pristine morality to which they claimed guardianship is for the hoi polloi, the lumpen-proletariat, the underclass — while they, the rich and the powerful and the refined, practise and adopt less strict morality demands.
The poor want bread, so we give them bread. We treat ourselves to scones, cheese and fruit preserves.
If every religious denominations start to impose their sectarian moral values onto a national scale, what results from that behaviour, can only be a divisive state.
Where was the PM during this time? Busy asking Poad Jelani to erase evidence that it was the PMO which arranged the payment for the engagement do of their daughter? I am inclined to believe that it wasn’t the PMO that actually paid for the expenses. Poad Jelani can easily summon some of his benefactors to pay and the money went through him. Maybe the contractor of the aborted crooked bridge? His stupidity was to make it out as though it was the PMO which paid for it. Or perhaps as is the common practice, the PM’s boys, demanded a certain payment and after the usual deductions, paid the required amount. There must be a fee for people who serve as mules, right?
The PM as leader of this country is doing a big disservice to the country by stepping aside and allowing divisive sectarian and religious values undo harmony. In the case of Erykah Badu, the people who wanted to watch her sing here, wasn’t made entirely of Muslims.
The Muslims who did not want to watch should have chosen the more pragmatic step of just staying away. It’s no skin off our noses really if people, including some Muslims want to watch and enjoy Erykah Badu sing. But they should not impose their religious morality onto others by demanding the concert be banned entirely.
But then, stepping aside and doing nothing has always been the personal credo of the PM. I have already said he is a schemer by nature — aligning him with sectarian groups and working to ensure his groups triumph. He knows sectarian and religious clashes will only produce fissures in our society and yet chose to step aside because, divisions and disunity actually serve the purpose of ensuring he stays in power. That is the measure of the man. He is running the country just as he running Umno Pekan. Those below him can slug it out; he watches idly by and aligns with winning groups.
Does the PM actually have the IDEA of a Malaysia?
Are we going to be progressive Muslims, confident and self-assured?
As to the Bangsa, what we should mean is a Malaysian race — consisting of Malaysian Malays, Malaysian Chinese and Malaysian Indians and Malaysian other races. We should morph into a single description of just a Malaysian. Tanah air really means this country of ours to which of all us belong and under whose patronage we enjoy the same laws, assured of the rule of law as opposed to discretionary rule of the rich and powerful aided by leeching judiciary.
In short the overriding ideology is something that the present Umno claims to have a copyright but rarely exhibits in its character. Since Dr Mahathir’s rule, Umno is one big hypocritical party.
Why is Umno (Umno actually fading away, while its president is enjoying much publicity and high personal rating) stalling on the cowgate affair? The business owed by Shahrizat’s famly was given a RM250 million grant for the specific purpose of appointing the funds to businesses related to rearing of cows. How the funds are to be handled are set out by the terms of conditions of the grant/loan agreement.
The terms and conditions are the governing guidelines, not the Memorandum and Articles of association. Whoever justified the use of the funds as justifiable in turn by the terms of the M and A must be an imbecilic. So we give grants to imbecilic and stupids.
Why are we stalling to act against the alleged irregularities committed in the application of the 250 million grant? A long time ago, I have written about the stupidity of Umno (a party to which I once belonged) owning up to the wrongs and misdeeds. In doing so Umno becomes the owner of misdeeds and wrongs committed by its leadership. In doing so Umno adopts the culture of corruption and abuse of power as its ideology. It has abandoned its Ali Ba Ta.
Why should I concern myself with what Umno does if I am no longer a member? The answer is I have an interest to kick out a party claiming copyright over how Malays should behave. Also, because I reject its claim on the ownership of the Malay mind. Umno doesn’t own the monopoly. I am speaking against a party claiming a monopoly on how to define the Malay. Also, because it’s in power at the moment — so we strike at the one in power. This isn’t rocket science.
Nobody can believe that Najib is unaware of what the man Shahrizat goes to bed with does in the NFC scandal. People can now conclude that the institutions which the PM has at his disposal have been deliberately kept weak by politicians and government in power so that they can get away with their misdeeds.
We want those in power to crack the whip on corruption. We want the cases of corruption in the country exposed and disproportionate assets of scores of officials and politicians explained what troubles us, is that the government has not taken appropriate action in any of the cases. The plan to ask ministers give full disclosure about their wealth is met with objections from some ministers. The powers of SPRM seems limited, hence they cannot move court to prosecute the corrupt.
The law has been made by politicians like Najib and gang, so, naturally, no matter how strong an outfit SPRM becomes, the results are not going to be up to the mark. But this does not mean that the SPRM is a useless institution. Give it the power and the institution will definitely deliver.
Najib’s fibbing stand will cause Umno and BN dearly in the coming elections. It will show that this government is in cahoots with offenders when the government refuses to take action against ministers in matters where prima facie a clear case for a prosecution was made out. It would lead to a situation where people in power may break law with impunity, safe in knowledge that they will not be prosecuted as requisite sanction for prosecution will not be granted.
Umno has been ruling the country for over 50 years after independence and takes credit of the development done in the country after 1957, hence the responsibility of corrupting the system also lies with it. So many stings and big scams have taken place in Malaysia, of which all occurred during Umno rule.
What about the so called overriding principles upheld by Umno? Sycophancy rules and individuals have become important than ideologies. Today, winning elections has become the only aim of political parties and in the process, money, mafia, muscle, and masjid have been introduced in the system to influence voters. The political arithmetic to win elections is not about getting majority votes but how to get maximum votes by applying various divisiveness combinations, by fielding dummy candidates, by using muscle to prevent weaker sections from voting, by using money to buy floating votes etc.
We want to save this country from ravenous politicians who have made ‘politics a business’. We want this government to provide as a matter of public record, the total assets of all the MPs. We want to know how ministers can live beyond their means. What are the assets per BN MP? We all know that politicians take vote from people but work for corporate. Is this the best democracy?
The election-centric politics (instead of people-centric) with an aim to grab power at any cost has been then main cause of corruption. Hundreds work for a party but few become MP or ADUN. The rest survive on ‘cuts and commissions’ or by grabbing government contracts. The elections are mostly funded through illegal means. After winning, the office is used to earn several times than investment. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com
* Sakmongkol AK47 is the nom de plume of Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz. He was Pulau Manis assemblyman (2004-2008).
No comments:
Post a Comment