Umno Baru has become an even worse than British Colonial Rule

Umno – the new imperialist in our midst

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | April 29, 2012

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.