Battlefield Putrajaya may be the final straw which tears this nation apart.
COMMENT
How do you convince the Umno Baru and Barisan Nasional diehard supporters that their diet of mainstream media news is unhealthy?
Truth, à la mainstream media, is like the dry kernels of corn which
are cooked over heat, until they puff-up. Dry corn is unpalatable, but
when cooked and laced with honey and butter, gullible readers consume
the pop-corn with relish.
Fed on a diet of Utusan Malaysia, Berita Harian, The Star and the New
Straits Times, the supporters of Umno Baru and BN believe Malaysia’s
economy is rosy. Malays and Muslims are being threatened.
The only bad people are opposition politicians who spread filth
through the alternative media. To Umno Baru lovers, writers for the
alternative media who try to give readers facts, are liars.
Have you ever been to a football match where the spectators shift
their focus from the players on the field, to a fight in the stands?
That is what the Allah debacle is all about – it is a politically
staged, and funded, sideshow to divert Malaysians from the issues which
matter more.
In Najib Tun Razak’s case, he and his government are trying to hide
from the rakyat the falling educational standards, the mismanagement of
the economy, the hike in prices which will lead to a rise in our cost of
living, the illicit outflows totalling billions of ringgits, the
squandering of the nation’s wealth, the rise in crime and criminal
activities, broken promises of GE13, and most glaringly, Najib’s failure
to contain the wastage of his government including his inability to
curb his own profligacy.
The Mahathir and Umno Baru lovers should try and be objective and
read as much as possible from knowledgeable sources about the failures,
cock-ups and cover-ups of the Umno Baru led government over the past 56
years.
Today, battlefield Putrajaya may be the final straw which tears this
nation apart. The rakyat is compelled to endure the most savage face-off
between the reigning heavyweight champion, “Nimble Najib”, and the
22-times heavyweight retired champion, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is
staging a comeback. This is the most important fight of their lives. The
rivalry is intense.
In a previous bout, Mahathir was given a bloody nose, causing him to
be unsteady on his feet, (Najib snubbing Mukhriz in the Umno Baru
internal elections), but with the Allah debacle in full swing, Mahathir
has bounced back into the ring; he knows Najib is at his weakest and he
is taking advantage of the situation.
The sparring between Najib and Mahathir is far from clean. The
Queensbury’s rules do not apply. Instead of a gentlemanly approach,
there is match fixing and all manner of dirty fighting.
The stakes are high. The winner inherits a nation, not just the prize
money, even though it is worth millions of ringgits of unwritten
contracts and other illegal deals. The winner has the freedom to run the
nation as he pleases.
Minor distraction
Utusan Malaysia alleges that Mahathir had accused the Catholic weekly
Herald’s editor Father Lawrence Andrew of “hurting” Muslims. It also
said that Father Andrew should respect the Court of Appeal decision that
‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims.
Mahathir wanted to know why Allah should suddenly be used in the
peninsula. He blamed non-Malays for refusing to speak the national
language but not when it came to using the word Allah.
Has Mahathir forgotten? It is true when he said “Melayu mudah lupa”,
although some readers would disagree and claim that Mahathir is not a
Malay.
In 2009, Umno Baru and thugs torched churches and created havoc in
the community, when they refused to respect the judgment of High Court
Judge, Lau Bee Lan.
With Taib Mahmud and Musa Aman subjugating the natives, forcing
compulsory takeovers of their ancestral lands and keeping the majority
of oil and timber revenue for themselves, scores of east Malaysians
migrated to the peninsula to improve their lives.
Mahathir claims that the non-Malays refuse to speak the national
language but again, he is wrong. Malaysian schoolchildren nowadays are
fluent in Bahasa Malaysia and to their credit, the non-Malays excel at
Malay, doubtless much to the annoyance of some Malays.
In the opening round, Mahathir tried to deliver a punch to the bread
basket of the portly Najib. He said that during his tenure, he did not
need big, fancy jets to travel, and wanted to tarnish Najib’s reputation
further, wondering why Najib required five jets, thus wasting
taxpayers’ money.
Najib may have momentarily stumbled, but he was back on his feet
before the count could begin. In perhaps, another minor distraction, the
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) announced that a minister’s
special officer and two other people were being investigated over a
cleaning contract for a ministry.
Neither the minister nor the ministry were named. Is this to make it appear as if Najib is doing something about corruption?
The Perak river, which flows through Kuala Kangsar has a reputation
for demanding a human sacrifice every five years. Is this cleaning
contract the sacrifice that must be given to the MACC? The MACC may be
happy with a sacrifice of ikan bilis, but the rakyat are not fooled so
easily. We know that the MACC only catches the small fry and lets the
big fish escape.
The Malays who consider themselves part of the establishment, and the
new Malay elite with newfound wealth, should not look the other way.
Don’t even think that our current problem stems from the attitude of
only the Malays. Umno Baru could not have continued trashing this
nation, if MCA, MIC, Gerakan and the parties of Sabah and Sarawak had
not given Umno Baru leaders carte blanche to wreak havoc.
When these two men hunger for power, everything else is immaterial.
In their pursuit of power, they take others down, including the innocent
citizens of a nation.
It is up to you, the rakyat, to save the country. If you do nothing,
you will be able to stand aside and watch Malaysia go the way of other
tin-pot, African banana republics.
Mariam Mokhtar is a FMT columnist.
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