AKU BUKAN UMNO!

Today if you are against corruption and the divisive policies that UMNO promotes to ensure that their hold on power continues unabated after 53 years what do you say?

When a Malay is embarrassed and shamed by the use of Ketuanan Melayu to enrich UMNO leaders and their cronies what can he say?

If a non-Malay have had enough of being kicked around and treated as a non-entity and second class citizen in a country they call home what do they say?

And when you come across the abuse of executive powers by those in high public as evidenced in the many Government contracts and tenders awarded on the basis of who you know rather than what you know, in PKFZ, in NFC, the award of KIDEX to Tun Zaki and the imminent IPO of Felda Global – what do you say?

You can say ABUI!
All these abuses and duplicity by UMNO, by UMNO’s coalition partners in Barisan Nasional and by UMNO leaders in the state they control and in the Federal Government can be sum up in one word, ABU!

The advent of ABU has coalesce the critical mass into the realization that we are really one people living tenaciously in a society whose own government has threaten us with dire predictions of racial and religious Armageddon for as long as we can remember! We are living on the very edge of this threat and many times we are the victims of it, and yet somehow we have overcome being totally overwhelmed by it only through the goodwill and respect that we have for each other. We are certain that we no longer want this threat to be used time and time again by this government as their excuse to have their way with us.

As their excuse to plunder and pillage our country for their own vested interest. As their excuse to stay in power! We want to rid ourselves of this government that has been the cause of this curse. ABU shall be the catalyst for this change.

In this one word : ABU : lies our hopes and aspirations for what we want of our future. Today it has become the word that we greet each other when we want to convey to the other our solidarity under one movement. ABU! - That thumbs-up and that determined smile tell the other that we are together in this move to oust UMNO. You and me against UMNO!

In my memory there have not been many movements in our nation that have been able to capture the mood and the imagination of our people of the people with just one word. MERDEKA and REFORMASI comes to mind. HARTAL maybe it but HARTAL is too confrontational and it is a passive movement….a boycott of things we are against.

ABU is pro active, not static. It is alive and well and keeps growing by the day! Any RAKAYT fed up with this corrupt, arrogant and abusive UMNO is with ABU.

Today we all have ABU. UMNO has Ketuanan Melayu. What a difference! ABU belongs to all Malaysians. Ketuanan Melayu only to UMNO. ABU tells us of everything that is wrong with our country. And UMNO is the cause of it.

The tragedy and curse for the Malays is also the tragedy and curse for all other Malaysian. It is simply this: For 55 years we have had the same political masters: UMNO. All that we are and are not today can be directly attributed to UMNO – the good and the bad. And if we are honest to ourselves the bad by far out number the good.

In the multi ethnic and multi religious society that we live in we need to start first with religion and race. Any responsible government would use this diversity as strength to pull the people together and ensure that we understand and celebrate each other’s differences. Instead race and religion is deliberately and irresponsibly used by UMNO to divide and rule the people for their purpose of retaining power and government. And this power is used for the acquisition of material wealth through any means possible.

This started in earnest with the coming of Mahathir. I said in earnest because what we have in Mahathir is an evil genius personified. He made the getting, the holding on to power and the use of that power as the be all and the end all of everything that he did in government. And he succeeded in doing all that and more! Suffice to say that the two UMNO Prime Minister that followed Mahathir were the inheritors and keepers of the corrupt and abusive government that Mahathir perfected to the detriment of our nation, our people and our future.

The good that UMNO does is purely physical. And the gain is more to those within UMNO who profited in the construction of these monuments to UMNO’s abusive management of our country’s resources.

Massive highways that straddles the North, South, East and West of our country. Putrajaya, KLIA, KLCC…all massive physical monument to waste and corruption.

We now have many people hoarding great wealth stolen from the people through their collusion with UMNO. And the greatest blight burdened upon our people is the culture of materialism that now permeates every aspect of government, society and the life of our people. And the damage this has done to our people, past, present and certainly the future will be with us for a long time to come.

From Mahathir onwards all our Prime Minister and their family have unashamedly profited…no I think the right word should be stolen billions of Ringgits of the people’s money for their own keeping.

This culture of materialism is repeated eagerly in various permutations from the Prime Minister down to the lowest ranking government official and political appointee that we can find. All this is done at will and with the tacit if not active collusion by UMNO. It ranges from the RM$5 you fork out to the office boy to the RM500 million given to Razak Baginda by Najib for ‘services rendered’!

NFC, the latest exposure of our ex CJ’s Tun Zaki Tun Azmi foray into the ‘business world’ are merely manifestations of this disease that UMNO has within itself call materialism or kebendaan - and all those that it touches will be terminally affected by it. And this disease if not eradicated from our midst will destroy us all by the rapidity of its spread amongst those who are susceptible to the promise of easy money and an even easier life – something we are all partial to! The very people who are now agitating for the eradication of corruption in UMNO can easily succumb to the promise of great wealth if that promise comes his or her way. It cuts both ways.

In this orgy of deviousness and duplicity that we see before us anyone will have difficulty in sorting out the facts from fiction. The lies from the truth. The right from wrong. The good from the bad. But even in these situations there are events that defy belief simply because there is no other possible explanation except that what was done is wrong!

The death of Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock, Kugan, Aminurasyid, Sarbaini and all those deaths while in PDRM’s custody - all these are unnecessary deaths!

Any other death that we feel has been unnecessary and can be attributed directly to the actions of UMNO or its affiliates falls into this category – ranging from Memali to the recent death of that cameraman in Sudan! There is nothing this UMNO led BN government can say or do that can mitigate their ultimate responsibility as all these deaths happened under their watch. Each one of these deaths is a national tragedy that questions our ability to continue to have faith and belief in the decency of our own government. Life is intangible and yet the consequence for UMNO of these intangibles will be counted in lost votes and lost opportunities for UMNO to do good.

We know the consequences of greed. From the backhand to the Policeman to the ‘donations’ made to UMNO - we see evidence of money politics and human failings that combines into a lethal cocktail that seeks to destroy even as it quenches the thirst of the drinker!

So what have we all become now? Each one of us is the recipient of a vast reservoir of information and knowledge of wrong doings by our political leaders that seeks an outlet to express itself. Most of us have already processed this information and need no other inputs save further confirmation of our thoughts on the unsuitability of the present UMNO leaders to govern.

Now we want change.

And nothing focuses our mind to change then the thought of a coming general election. We think that what we do will make a difference to the outcome of the election….and of course it will if there are enough of us that think the same way. Hence ABU!

And that is why ABU has caught the imagination of the people of our nation.

Altantuya? That is why we want ABU.

NFC? Another reason for ABU.

KIDEX – ABU again!~

Every ill within our country that can be traced back to UMNO clarifies our need for a future with ABU! The simplicity of ABU sweeps all before it.

Now that the juggernaut that is ABU is well underway there is a need to focus it on specifics that will give direction towards where all the energy now being generated will go. ABU belongs to all of us and yet it belongs to nobody. And here lies the danger of ABU being hijacked to serve the purpose of individuals or groups. And when, rather then if that happens, then ABU will fragment and fail.

I think it is time all of us including Pakatan Rakyat, BERSIH, the family of all those murdered by this BN government ….all of us that has a stake in wanting to evoke change ……we should all work towards giving ABU a formal structure and start the advance towards Putrajaya with recognizable leaders and the right strategies to dovetail with the aspirations of all of us for change! The coming together of the forces!

How all this will happen is beyond me but it has to happen if change is to come our way. The euphoria that ABU is the way forward must be used to its advantage.

Where is ABU now and where will it be when it is time to make the intangible tangible? When votes are to be cast for Abu to whom shall it go? It is better that we ask this questions now then to carry on regardless. All other issues, all other groups, individuals or vested interests must find its place within ABU with the interest of the greater good paramount. Malaysian has not been very good when confronted with this sort of situation. They have willingly abdicated their right to good governance to UMNO for the last 55 years. Let us pray that this ABU movement will provide the impetus to finally awaken our people from this ‘tidak apa’ slumber.

Our votes will be for you if you declare that you are ABU (Aku Bukan UMNO!).

Our votes will be for you if you tell us you are ABU (Asalkan Bukan UMNO).

Our votes will go to ABU (Anything But UMNO).

Here there is clarity in what we have to do! Here there is a sense of purpose to what we must do.

ABU ABU ABU!