Umno – the new imperialist in our midst
The greatest hope for Malaysia was shown in the
2008 general election when the singular action by millions of Malays to
collectively reject Umno, gave the opposition a simple tipping
majority.
Once
again I have borrowed the ideas of Walla, a blogger on my site, quite
liberally. He is an intellectual powerhouse and this time I borrowed his
thoughts on the seven indicators of imperalists and why we must wrest
power from the crazy people.
Below is his thoughts in respect to yesterday’s march for electoral reforms.
Umno Baru has become an even worse imperialist than its originator which was formed to fight this very model.
Worse because it wears the cloak of wolves to entice the flock of
sheep that it wants to keep in its fold as meat for its own dinners.
That is also why it is hard to understand how someone can say yesterday’s marchers are bad parents.
If they are bad, then Umno is even worse to have produced Umno Baru
whose yellow-livered leaders have already decided to tear-gas and
bludgeon the rakyat of Malaysia who are marching against imperialism
inside the present government.
One is tempted to ask since these so-called leaders of the present
government are yellow-livered: why are they so against those who wear
yellow? It’s just a colour, like blue. Is even colour subject to
monopoly in this land?
Secondly, the same character tried to tar the leader of the
opposition by saying he is power-crazy. But what has that leader been
doing so far other than to articulate for changes?
If indeed Umno is fighting against the opposition on the ground that
its leader is power-crazy, how then are the rakyat not to conclude that
Umno is therefore fighting against the changes that he has personified?
Since those changes are also what the marchers were asking for, why
has Umno not realised the changes more honestly, or for that matter,
protect the rights of the marchers instead of harming them at a place
with the word “Merdeka” that was first roared on the very night this
nation was freed from imperialism?
How to recognise an imperialist?
You see this same contradiction in Umno – it says it is for our
Malays but it shackles them to an imperialist order made sneaky by
friendly pats on the shoulder and thin wads on the palm while it
vacuum-cleans the entire national coffer behind their backs.
That explains why today we have one humungous national debt
How does one recognise the imperialist in our midst?
(1) How about the guy who invited the poor to his mansion of
elephantine size built on low-cost land and then explained his
generosity by saying, “if not here, how else can they taste this
luxury?”
(2) Or, the other guy who showed how good he was to be able to
negotiate a mansion at below market rate despite having given up his
dental practice?
(3) Or, the chief of a state once caught laundering money overseas
who now decides to monopolise the billboard business in a single company
so that rates can be raised tenfold, purportedly to fund his favourite
charity?
(4) Or, the quantum leap from rearing cows to rent-collecting of
expensive condos, with the rent paid by associate companies of the same
beneficiaries funded in the first place by public money issued under
dubious circumstances, money now gone up in smoke thicker than the haze
from Kalimantan because it was really a huge amount… for a low-level
appointee?
(5) Or, the slush funds amounting to hundreds of millions deposited
in offshore accounts but somehow only detected by a foreign
anti-corruption agency while the local one sits silent awaiting higher
orders from those “yang mengikut perintah yang tak akan datang”. Too
shy, perhaps?
(6) Or, the GLC honcho suspended for money politics but reinstated
out of the blue, best only for wisecracking, on the one hand, and yet,
on the other, losing his cool to tell poor farmers to get out if they
cannot accept his boss – the one who already has enough problems of his
own trying to explain why he had walked away from answering honest
questions by the rakyat? Again, shy, perhaps?
(7) Or, the super-rich shopping tastes, flying allowances,
monarch-level accommodations, super-class limousine services, not to
forget the entertainment allowances that smoothen bed sheets at discreet
rendezvous three times a week, 52 weeks a year?
New brown Mat Salleh
The only thing missing in the picture forming in your mind right now
is a lowly servant from some kampung, standing behind the new brown Mat
Salleh of this 21st century, fanning away with a large feather fan.
The new brown Mat Salleh is best at pushing paper on the table,
speaking nonsense to the masses, and generally causing trouble and
messing up all over the place.
In such a situation, how are our Malays and other Malaysians ever to make real progress?
How can real progress be made when the economy is as fake as the government leading it?
Meanwhile, despite all the machinations, bamboozling and chicanery of Umno, the people of Malaysia are united more than ever.
And that is why there is a new wave of courage in this nation that
says the rakyat will rather do the right thing and fail than continue to
see the present government do the wrong thing and succeed.
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