By M. Bakri Musa
In the heyday of UMNO the joke was that the party could field a dog as an election candidate and it would still win. The party leaders must still harbor that delusion for in the recent Permatang Pasir state by-election they fielded a disbarred lawyer. This time however, voters wisely drew the line at the dog.
The surprise was not that Rohaizat Othman successfully hoodwinked UMNO leaders to secure the nomination rather how easily those senior leaders were taken in by this shyster. Now that their candidate has been thrashed, those UMNO leaders were belatedly bemoaning the fact that their chosen man had been less than truthful to them. That is the quality of UMNO top leadership, folks!
Even after the sordid details of the man’s sleazy professional past and checkered personal life had surfaced, UMNO leaders still vigorously defended their choice. They had the nerve to suggest that those critics were trying to smear the UMNO candidate. Those UMNO leaders obviously did not realize that their man was already soiled.
Reflection on Muhyiddin
Consider UMNO Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin’s comments. He went to great lengths defending the integrity of his party’s standard bearer. He likened the Bar Council’s sanctions as nothing more than a traffic violation! I recognize that traffic in Malaysia is terrible, but really! I wonder what it would take to be branded a crook and thus be disqualified by Muhyiddin’s reckoning. I am making a huge assumption here, that is, the man has some standards.
A commentator in the mainstream media reported that Muhyiddin was apparently livid on hearing the details of Rohaizat. Only his severe poker face belied his anger, so she claimed. If Muhyiddin was truly angry he sure did not reveal it in his actions; he was ‘gung ho’ right to the end. That commentary revealed more about the writer – ‘sucking up’ to Muhyiddin so early on. She should try a better excuse next time.
It is a recent tradition with UMNO that its deputy leader be in charge of by-elections. This Permatang Pasir election was the first to be under the direct leadership of Muhyiddin. Hence his comments and actions bear scrutiny.
Muhyiddin’s decision to continue with Rohaizat’s candidacy despite all the revealed blemishes says volumes on the judgment as well as ethical standards of Muhyiddin. Not to scare readers, this character is also Deputy Prime Minister, and going by our recent history, he could very well be Prime Minister one day.
If a two-bit disbarred country lawyer could easily dupe Muhyiddin, imagine him as Prime Minister negotiating with his counterpart across the causeway on selling our precious fresh water, or his participating in crucial international treaty conferences! That is a scary thought.
The brief Permatang Pasir election campaign revealed more than we ever wished to know about this crooked lawyer and his equally slimy personal life. While Rohaizat was disbarred by the Bar Council, he could still practice in the Sharia court. This is the same court that recently sentenced a young mother to be whipped for drinking beer. That should tell us something of the ‘Islamic’ (at least the Malaysian variety) standard of ethics.
To me, the Permatang Pasir campaign revealed more about UMNO, specifically its culture and top leaders. What has been revealed should scare all Malaysians who are concerned with our nation’s future.
Muhyiddin’s ethical blind spot was disturbing enough. More reprehensible was his performance during the campaign. He fell into the predictable pattern of past ambitious UMNO leaders-in-waiting. There he was, freely and irresponsibly playing up the race card, eerily reminding me of Najib’s and Hishammuddin’s brandishing of their kerises. Aspiring UMNO leaders like Muhyiddin have this primitive urge to display their chauvinistic manhood during tough election campaigns. That is their culture.
Unfortunately, as the party still garnered over a third of the votes (presumably Malay votes), UMNO leaders will continue with their bigotry. Now they are blaming non-Malay (specifically Chinese) voters for abandoning Barisan.
UMNO of The Future
To be sure there were a few – very few, in fact only two – UMNO leaders who spoke out against Rohaizat, and did so early. Mahathir wondered out loud whether a liar could be a people’s representative. Tengku Razaleigh was much more forceful, “… UMNO is projecting the image that it lives by a different moral code from the rest of Malaysia.”
“Either that, or this is the best we can do,” he continued. Indeed!
Alas, both Mahathir and the Tengku represent UMNO’s past. To gauge UMNO’s future, look at the leaders of its Youth and Puteri wings. They not only endorsed Rohaizat but aggressively campaigned for him. I would like to ask UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin specifically whether he feels that a disbarred lawyer and a man who lied about his wife is a worthy representative of UMNO.
The situation with UMNO Puteri is even more interesting. I wonder how those pretty young girls in their distinctive pink baju kurong feel about campaigning for a man who took a second wife secretly, and then lied about it publicly. The Puteris’ stand-by-your-man stance may be praiseworthy in other circumstances but not when your man is a cheat and a crook. Instead of campaigning for him, Puteri members should be contacting the second wife to see whether her man had been providing for her.
The Permatang Pasir by-election could have been a splendid opportunity for UMNO to shine if only their leaders had been smarter and pursued a radically different tack. Imagine if upon knowing the sordid details of Rohaizat, UMNO leaders publicly admitted their mistake and demanded their candidate withdraw on pain of being expelled from the party.
Yes that would give PAS a walk-over, but that would not have changed the end results. Besides, UMNO had done this a few months earlier in the Penanti by-election. Think however, the message the party and its senior leaders would have sent to their members and Malaysians generally, and the impact that would have on all. UMNO would have won a great moral victory. As it is, UMNO lost the election as well as the moral high ground. The party had set a new low on what is acceptable.
Judging from the post-election comments by UMNO leaders, from Najib Razak and Muhyiddin on down, UMNO has yet to learn this pertinent lesson from this latest debacle. The party still harbors the delusion that even its flawed candidates could still win.
The next time around expect UMNO to reach even lower to a new bottom in their search for talent. I must admit it would be difficult to find someone more unworthy than a disbarred lawyer. Trust me however, UMNO will find one.
///Yes that would give PAS a walk-over, but that would not have changed the end results. Besides, UMNO had done this a few months earlier in the Penanti by-election. Think however, the message the party and its senior leaders would have sent to their members and Malaysians generally, and the impact that would have on all. UMNO would have won a great moral victory. As it is, UMNO lost the election as well as the moral high ground. The party had set a new low on what is acceptable.///– Bakri Musa
UMNO wanted to know how many votes would a dog get in an election, they got the answer. It is about 45% of Malay votes. Racist politics in the country is still the most important factor. That is why top UMNO leaders are fighting for race and religion, rather than to get Malays independent of crutches provided by the constitution.
Jap Premier Aso resigned as the LDP President for losing the elections, but malaysian PM stays on despite losing 7 by-elections. Thick-skinned or thick-faced?
Today, the PM’s message for the national day celebration was to rebuild the bridges and break down the wals to a united Malaysia. He should just tell this message to his deputy “Moo”yiddin and half the work is done….
Why was the PM reported to be enraged with what happened in Shah Alam last Friday re. the cow head demonstration? Are you saying he is out of the loop on what his party loyals are doing? Is he being alienated and kept in the dark? Is he losing his grip?
on the top liners of UMNO at every states,either new ,existing or senior UMNOelites,they are there by practising corruptions,they are untouchable by MACC,they carry themselves to the most extremed ways,and they will still get full support from the 3 million UMNO members and 2.5 million greedy gomen staff!
DONT UNDER ESTIMATE THEM,THEY CAN DO WONDERS!!!THAT’S WHY THEY ARE SO ARROGANT,TALK ABOUT ‘KETUANAN MELAYU AND ISLAM,TRIED TO OBTAIN MORE AND MORE SUPPORT FROM THEIR OWN RACE,BUT,THE WORLD IS WATCHING,THE ALMIGHTY GOD IS WATCHING,from TBH,s incident,they keep doing wrong things,they try to twist and turn,they are playing with times,inside the courts,they try to make TBH’s family feel troublesome to attend so frequent hearings,outside the courts,some representatives will also try to ask them to settle outside courts,LET US REMIND THEM,MAYBE A MONGOLIAN’S LIFE IS RM5 MILLION,BUT NOT TBH,YOU CANT BUY IT,IT IS JUSTICE,INDEFINITE PRICE,UNDERSTAND?????
we should emulate the look east policy now…it’s not about race, religion & culture that took the change in japan’s political landscape. it’s people power that wants change bcoz after 52 years, the japanese people have decided they need new leadership to bring the country forward. but then again, in japan, they don’t have dirty & low down tactics. the previous ruling party president resigned with dignity & humility. accepting the people’s decision in honour. in this way, they can still face the people when they go out to the streets.
Why do we keep analyzing UMNO failures and every wrong move.when we know…the real reasons…when UMNO lost?
People are rejecting UMNO and want change of government..simple as that.
Who cares who…what or why… UMNO candidate is right or wrong.
I sense an art to agree to disagree…and right now…all pro UMNO smart supporters..who write well…cannot help….but point out..how idiotic UMNO can be.
What if UMNO won the by-election?
Seen too many twisters.
Lets move on…and more by-elections will come…before 13th GE.
Permatang Pasir result…proves Najib”1Malaysia” is good for school children and innocent youngsters…first timer in voting.
Can he fool the young voters?
Engineers are familiar with the term ENTROPY which means that everything decays from the time it is created – it is a universal law.
UMNO looks like it will enter a meltdown phase – maybe the next GE could trigger that event.
“Why was the PM reported to be enraged with what happened in Shah Alam last Friday re. the cow head demonstration? Are you saying he is out of the loop on what his party loyals are doing? Is he being alienated and kept in the dark? Is he losing his grip?” by Green Bug.
No, PM is not out of the loop. He is very much in the loop. All wayang kulit, you know, shadow play. Malaysia Boleh!
Initially, people still have some respect and hope for Muyhiddin to be the next PM.
But recent by-election has reviewed Muyhiddin true color and character. He will defend even the fellow is corrupted. He will say it is a black cat though it is a white cat. No respect for this kind of sub standard top leader. Where is your integrity if any?
Hey, my dog behave better and more faithful than any ummo leaders. My dog can serve faithfully to the master than any bm leaders to the country.
Please dont spoit the good name of my doggie. Thks!
“Mahathir wondered out loud whether a liar could be a people’s representative. Tengku Razaleigh was much more forceful, “… UMNO is projecting the image that it lives by a different moral code from the rest of Malaysia.””
Years ago in the name of instilling good corporate governance the umno gobermen let some umnoputras run a series of compulsory courses for company directors in the country on certain aspects of director’s social and legal duties and responsibilities. The whole aim was to inculcate the idea of integrity. Of course we all knew well why that grand plan was discontinued after a while. It quite clearly contradicted umno’s stand on integrity and good governance! So Kuli you are somewhat correct with your observation but not quite spot on. Umno is not merely projecting that image you mentioned. More than that. Actually to me umno goes by and about without any moral code at all. Look at their attempt to present voters of P. Pasir in the recent by-election with a disbarred lawyer and their follow-up acts in defending that disgraceful cheater and the subsequent blame placed on non-malays for the predictably unfavourable by-election outcome.
Yeah. Like it or not the “MV UMNO” is indeed sinking and is sinking really quickly now. Umno ruled by fear and is also very fond of putting all sorts of fear into voters’ minds like for eg, Pakatan is raw, untested and inexperience. But for 50 yrs umno bungled up really big time didnt they? And I serious doubt that they are the best people to make observations or to pass judgments like that. Just look at LDP of japan. At Marcos and at Suharto and yes at ah bian (of taiwan) too. When the people have had enough of abuse and could take it no more, change will be happen it will be unstoppable. I mean umno represents the lowest point in our country’s history and what could be worse than umno! Putting pakatan into power would at least give the people a real choice within a two party set-up. Besides, Pakatan state government of selangor and penang arent doing too badly despite the current difficult times and umno’s persistent efforts in unsettling them and toyo’s concentrated energy in ejecting khalid and pakatan from selangor. With all their machinery and firepower directed at these two states and after more than a year, all that they could allege was a 115ringgit kickback to beng hock and some unsubstantiated corruption involving “several thousands” here and there.
We can talk all we want, criticise UMNO all we want, name call the DPM etc. Bottom line is, why did Rohaizat get that many votes … in terms of percentage, it was the same as GE12 no? I think that is more pertinent than anything else.