by Zaid Ibrahim
May 14, 2013
I have never seen as many vile and seditious statements invading the public sphere as I have in this past week. We’ve had Utusan Malaysia provoking the Chinese for rejecting the Barisan Nasional and UMNO leaders labeling non-UMNO Malays as greedy and easily misled. An academic suggested the abolishment of vernacular schools to encourage unity among the races and an old “historian” said that the Chinese are not actually keen on unity. To cap it off, a retired Court of Appeal judge practically made a call for “restoring” Malay rights and dignity by whatever means.
I never realised that retired judges are also involved in part-time politics, although I believe this case to be a serious aberration. In the meantime, have we heard anything from the Prime Minister expressing regret for these statements? Perhaps a promise to take some action to stop this dangerous game of provocation? None whatsoever; in fact, he defended Utusan by saying Chinese newspapers are playing the same game.
Is this the kind of Prime Minister we want? Certainly not. I have been very patient with him, as have so many Malaysians. We have always given him extra room to breathe because we thought he was surrounded by the worse ultras in UMNO. We allowed him to dabble in “double speak” because we thought it was necessary for him to maintain his equilibrium as UMNO President. But enough is enough. This man has to go. He is afraid to do the right thing for the country. His 1Malaysia is a sham. I blame him for allowing this mad, racist frenzy to pander to UMNO delegates so he can retain power at the party elections at the end of the year.
His conduct is inexcusable. If he wants to deal with a challenge from his No 2, he need not appear to be more Malay than Muhyuddin. There is no need to unleash the keris and Utusan or to get all these half-baked Malay leaders to spout hate. His mentor Dr Mahathir has given him all the ammunition he needs. UMNO is the only political party in the world where a Supreme Council decision can override any provision in its own Constitution (hard to believe but it’s true). Even the Chinese Communist party does not have this provision. So all the Prime Minister has to do is get the Supreme Council to pass a resolution prohibiting any challenge to his position. With his men intact in the Supreme Council (both elected and appointed by him), there would be no contest for the party presidency. Even if this resolution is “flawed” it could not be challenged in court. Dr Mahathir has made sure of that. With the amendment to the Federal Constitution and the Societies Act, the Court no longer has any power of judicial review of decisions made by political societies.
So why engage in this song-and-dance that can irreparably damage racial and religious harmony in the country, when all you want is another five years at the helm? UMNO delegates are easily managed if their leader has the means to address their concerns. They are not terribly difficult to deal with. Just ask Dr Mahathir. So please, spare innocent Malaysians your UMNO gamesmanship—we want peace and harmony, not hate politics.
It is very simple. The last 4 years he has been announcing lots of projects under the so-called ETP. This includes the Merdeka Tower, the new Financial Centre in Sg Besi, the Petronas RM 25 billion scheme in Johor, the list goes on. With these projects come the usual over-pricing of contracts, the usual multi-billion variation orders. You know how these work, Zaid, because you were there when Daim set up Hatibudi with his crony schemes.
Najib needs the next five years badly because that is the only means of controlling the flow of funds from the country to places like BVI and Cayman Islands. 1MDB already started the ball rolling with their over-priced asset buying spree, and also with their over-the-top bond issues privately placed with “friends” offshore so that these friends can on-sell the bonds to the market at a huge skim.
The next five years will see the bankrupting of Malaysia, but as I have always said, Malaysia needs to go through the bankrupting exercise like the Philippines before the general population would wake up and force these crooks out of office.
“An academic suggested the abolishment of vernacular schools to encourage unity among the races…” Quote
When I first read that suggestion, I laughed so loud that disturbed the quite afternoon in my neighbourhood!
I still remember when a PR leader suggested that UiTM opened its door to non-Malays, it was met with harsh response from many Malaysians who called themselves the defenders of the Malay rights. That’s why the suggestion quoted above made me laughed. Is UiTM or the MARA institutions willing to embrace that change suggested by one of its strong man? I doubt it.
No complain,though, as Malaysians have yet again voted in the same gov’t as proven by the just concluded GE13. Lets bear with it since that’s the choice of the voters !!
Lain kalilah !!
You think he will censure Zahid ? No way ! Zahid is Najib’s proxy to the right wing of UMNO. He needs Zahid to spew more venom so that Mooheedin and Mamakthir cannot accuse Najib of being soft on those who don’t support BN.
Expect more venomous words coming from certain UMNO leaders. Of course MCA is already a headless chicken but the component parties will be told off the record that it’s all for the next UMNO general assembly only. Don’t worry, be happy.
“No complain,though, as Malaysians have yet again voted in the same gov’t as proven by the just concluded GE13. Lets bear with it since that’s the choice of the voters !!”
The only problem is:
Yes the voters have chosen but the majority did not choose the BN that won because of gerrymandering!
Surely that is serious cause for concern?
Looks like the PM had withdrawn into his Putrajaya palace and chanting the 3-monkeys mantra of : “See no evil………”
Isn’t it possible that all these seemingly concerted vile and seditious statements that have invaded the public sphere after the GE were made at the behest of some UMNO ultras? Otherwise how could they connive with such irresponsible and dangerous provocations from various parties which were clearly intended to incite the Malays to hate the Chinese? To accuse the Chinese papers of also playing the same game as Utusan Malaysia is totally irresponsible. Chinese papers wouldn’t survive a week if they stoop so low as to indulge in such kind of utterly unacceptable journalism. The Government must act immediately to stop further damage being done to racial harmony.
A decent PM will take the necessary actions to rectify the problems in the Election system & rid Msia of racial slurs
He is his father’s son who started racist policies in the country. The person who wanted to soak Chinese blood in his Keris and who blamed Chinese for exercising their constitutional to choose whom they please is not fit to be prime minister.
Sure bankrupt in 5 years! He is the PM who make promises to spend and he is also the Finance Minister who will spend. Why not like those days when I was young, there was a Finance Minister to take care of spending prudently. By tradition, this portfolio belongs to Cinapek, just like JKR belongs to Ah Neh. Why now by tradition Health Minister reserve for Bentong not my playground, Panchor (27th Mile from Kuching).