The UMNO party elections campaign have rocked the country with intolerant, incendiary, racist and even seditious pronouncements by contending UMNO candidates which run afoul of what former Deputy Prime Minister and one-time Deputy UMNO President, Tun Musa Hitam had cautioned UMNO candidates against in a recent interview where he said:
“… often times, to show one’s Malayness they become anti-other groups or accuse others of being anti-Malays. Only then they become heroes. This cannot be.”
Two UMNO politicians who had blatantly and irresponsibly played the race card utterly reckless of the damage they do to 56 years of nation-building in the country are Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in their campaign for the UMNO vice presidency on Oct. 19.
In a bout of Chinese-bashing, Ali Rustam blamed the Chinese voters for his defeat in the Malay-majority Bukit Katil parliamentary seat in Malacca, oblivious of the fact that he would not have lost in the May general elections if he had not also lost the support of the Malay voters in his constituency.
Is Ali Rustam going to blame the Chinese again if he loses in the UMNO Vice Presidential elections next Saturday?
Zahid’s racist, incendiary and seditious rantings are more serious as it compromised his high office as Home Minister.
If the Inspector-General of Police has transgressed the law, the Home Minister with the support of the Prime Minister could initiate proceedings against the No. 1 policeman in the country, which had been done when Tun Dr. Mahathir initiated action, proven to be unconstitutional and a gross abuse of power, when he removed the No. 1 man in the judiciary in 1988 – Tun Salleh Abas, the Lord President.
But if the sitting Home Minister has committed a crime, what can the Inspector-General of Police, as the top police officer to uphold law and order in the country, do if there is no support from the Prime Minister and the Attorney-General?
This is a question many Malaysians are asking after Zahid’s controversial speech that the police “shoot first” when dealing with suspected criminals at the “security briefing ceremony with community leaders” in Malacca last Saturday.
Ali and Zahid are so far the worst examples of what Musa had warned UMNO candidates against, that they should not try to become Malay “heroes” by showing “one’s Malayness they become anti-other groups or accuse others of being anti-Malays”.
This is also a total repudiation and negation of the 1Malaysia signature policy advocated by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak but who has fallen silent on the policy in the past five months since the 13th general elections.
While the country, in fact the world, awaits the response and stand of the Prime Minister to the intolerant, incendiary, racist and seditious pronouncements of UMNO leaders and even his Home Minister, whether he is prepared to dissociate himself from such blatant flouting of the law of the land, ordinary Malaysians must reaffirm their support for a Malaysian Dream, which is not anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Dayak but pro-all Malaysians.
It is most deplorable that in the five months after the last general elections, instead of national reconciliation efforts for Malaysians to unite behind a common Malaysian Dream, racist lies and falsehoods were escalated to cause greater racial and religious polarization in the country – from lies about my contesting in Gelang Patah to cause a confrontation between the Chinese and Malays before the general elections to the equally dastardly lie after the May 5 general election results that
the DAP “wants the Chinese who already dominate the economy to dominate Malaysia’s politics as well”.
This fitted both the Umno and MCA agendas – the former to allow UMNO leaders to play the race card by creating the false sense that the Malays are under siege while the latter to permit MCA leaders to claim that Malaysia is facing a two-race confrontation instead of a two-coalition system to ensure justice, freedom and fair play for all Malaysians.
Before, during and after the 13th General Elections on May 5, DAP had advocated a Malaysian Dream, which I spelt out on April 8 as envisioning “a plural society where all her citizens are united as one people, rising above their ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences” with “undivided loyalty to the country…to develop the greatness of the country deriving from the best from the diverse races, religions and cultures so that Malaysia can become one of the leading nations of the world in all fields of human endeavour”.
At a period when some Umno politicians are irresponsibly playing the race card, it is all the more urgent that Malaysians should reject such extremist, intolerant, racist and religious appeals and instead, reaffirm their commitment to the Malaysian Dream, which is not anti-Malay, anti-Chinese, anti-Indian, anti-Kadazan or anti-Dayak but pro-all Malaysians to build a nation which all Malaysians can feel proud and stand tall in the world.
The fact of the matter is UMNO broke this country called Malaysia. In particular Mahathir made it possible and encouraged it based on his own perverted pathological sense of righteousness.
Its a party that hopped up on hallucinogen of corruption and abuse of power. Asking the public to confront them, to right something so out of control, is not only unlikely, its downright unleadership.
Nothing less than heroic effort, greatness can change the inevitable ruin we are heading to. If there are no heros or not enough, then it will still end – in ruins..
As usual, if the candidates do not show they are racist and extremist, you would not be elected.
The party is politically and morally brankrupt.
Decent ordinary people should distance themselves from these grossly misguided politicians whose behaviours are totally unacceptable and destructive and harmful to the country.
Zahid Hamidi respond to his critics of his wrong doing is “what about the rights of victims and police” rather than the more appropriate question of “what about the right of everyone to have responsible and not low-quality minister”??
The man is a PUBLIC MENACE..He won’t fix the problem fundamentally and will soon boast the cosmetic soon enough but in reality sent the system into future chaos which we will have difficulty holding him responsible for..
We have been living peacefully and harmoniously for so long……the formula is very simple….We should uphold what has been agreed upon by our forefathers….dont question the privileges/special rights etc…
There is no such prejudice and discrimination against anyone in this country… Everyone has the equal right…it is just a sentiment played by DAP for political survival…
Why talk about Malaysian dream when you guys reject the idea of Sekolah Wawasan
So simple sentence even a primary school pupil can understand
Follow logic. Everyone wants to live. It is because everyone wants to live that fighting should be out of the question. You are busy thinking about how to live your life instead of how to fight the other person.
cintanegara, if we were to uphold those agreed by our forefathers, BN should not have amended the constitution umpteen times and making “Keluhuran Perlembagaan” meaningless. It has been agreed that NEP is to be abolished in 1991 yet today UMNO B is still practising it causing the exodus of Malaysian talent.
Cintamyfoot, your sekolah wawasan is based on meritocracy or kulitocracy? What’s the point if you still want crutches to get A’s? Might as well stay at home and give you an A.
Also, LKS, why are there so many MP from pakatan not attending the PCA Bill second reading in the house?
You guys talk so much on it but no action. Why?
Mr Lim,
Heaven forbid that any UMNO politician affirm the Malaysian Dream because he/she would not be in UMNO for long.
Ali Rustam and Zahid Hamidi are definitely gunning for the VP spots with their rabid rantings of hate.
What I find curious is that the other four candidates seem to be keeping out of the news.
I can understand Mukhriz Mahatir saying nothing as he normally has nothing to say, and his Daddy is gonna get him a VP seat anyway.
Similarly, Hishammuddin Hussein is probably saying nothing because he is relying on cousin Najib to get him back in.
But Shafie Apdal and Isa Samad have been unusually quiet. Maybe they are keeping their powder dry, I dunno.
UMNO, for all intents and purposes, is anti_malaysian and pro-umnoputras.
Period.
Racist sore loser Ali had accused the Chinese of being involved in “illegal businesses” and getting rich from these businesses. Who in the first place issued the licences for such businesses? And if these businesses are “illegal”, the tax collected by the Government all these years must have been “illegal revenue” as well. Is UMNO going to return the “illegal revenue” to the Chinese? I think the amount collected over the past 30 years from “illegal businesses” like 4D, Toto, Big Sweep, horse racing, Genting Casino, brewing companies etc must have exceeded RM 100 billion. It is much more if we take inflation into consideration. Many Government buildings in Melaka must have been partly funded by this “illegal revenue”. Is Ali prepared to advise the Melaka state Government to demolish all these buildings?
I got a good one.
If Zahid Hamidi says that its OK to shoot without warning, then the same legal principle means that is OK to throw UMNO/BN leaders in jail when they get elected because they seems always corrupted???
What morons UMNO leaders are and only prove again how the entire party is hopped up on corruption and abuse to worship morons.
BigJoe,
“… is OK to throw UMNO/BN leaders in jail…”
No good, buddy. Not going to work because UMNO/BN leaders are above the law.
Might be better to apply Zahid’s directive instead – shoot UMNO/BN leaders without warning when we have evidence that they are criminals?
Heheheheheh!!!
If Zahid Hamidi says it is OK for the police to shoot-to-kill, then it is no wonder that criminals would also do likewise. They also ‘shoot-to-kill’ the policemen knowing that there will be no chance to talk to the police and to surrender. No wonder they are all always shot dead by the police who would take no prisoners or witnesses and their actions sanctioned by the Minister and the government. Such is the ‘standard operating procedures’. We are in the wild, wild west situation.
///in fact the world, awaits the response and stand of the Prime Minister to the intolerant, incendiary, racist and seditious pronouncements of UMNO leaders…///
How can the Prime Minister talk about “moderation” at international forums when he himself cannot even rein in extremists in his own party?