By Ali Kadir
June 26, 2011 | The Malaysian Insider
JUNE 26 — Wanted: some individuals with some modicum of intelligence and competence to lead Malaysia.
Muhyiddin Yassin and Shafie Apdal (among Umno’s best and brightest judging by fact that one is the second in line to govern the country and the other is the third in line) need not apply.
The two senior ministers are evidence of how hollow the ranks of leaders in Umno are. Today, Shafie Apdal gave credence to the line that it is best to keep silent and keep up the illusion of competence rather than open your mouth and shatter it.
Now everyone with primary education knows that the Bersih rally is about highligthing election fraud and forcing the government to play fair. This means that the current system is skewed and untrustworthy.
Easy to understand? Not for Shafie Apdal. He says that instead of demonstrating Pakatan Rakyat state governments in Kelantan, Penang, Selangor and Kedah should dissolve the state assemblies and contest the polls.
Now why would they do that when they don’t have trust in the fairness of the election system. It is precisely because of election fraud that the Pakatan Rakyat state governments know that they are fighting with one hand tied behind their backs.
So for Shafie to offer this pearl of wisdom only means that he either chooses not to understand what Bersih is about or he is just plain unintelligent. But he does not have to worry very much about losing out to Muhyiddin. This politician is not the brightest spark in the room either.
He says that the government knows that the Bersih rally is all about politics. Wow, this is really enlightening.
And stuffing the ballot box, phantom voters and widening the base of postal voters is about what, exactly. Is it about keeping Muhyiddin, Shafie, Noh Omar, Hishammuddin Hussein, Khaled Nordin, Kong Chong Ha, Ng Yen Yen, Palanivel, Nazri Aziz employed?
The fact that is shocking is that not only do we have to deal with corruption, abuse of power. But we are asked to suffer fools.
We would not tolerate some of these people as our subordinates. Why are we letting them govern us?