Two words that are missing from the Umno vocabulary

Two words Zahid needs to learn ...

Mariam Mokhtar, Malaysia Chronicle

Last month, Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi sparked outrage when he attributed the poor level of non-bumiputera involvement in the Malaysian Armed Forces to their “low spirit of patriotism”.

A month later, Zahid finally finds time to clarify his earlier statement. He has shown poor judgement and timing. When he realised that his callous remarks on 9 November had caused Malaysians much anguish and disbelief, he should have immediately issued a press statement and apologise.

Yesterday, in the Dewan Rakyat he said, “I feel that it is unfortunate if my answer to the House has hurt the feelings of any race…..I did not mean to hurt the feelings of the non-bumiputera community.”

There was no hint of an apology.

If Zahid had been present at the BN convention, last weekend, he was obviously not paying attention to both his Prime minister and his deputy.

PM Najib Abdul Razak talked about the four “political diseases” - delusion, amnesia, inertia and arrogance, which could “crush the ruling coalition”.

Deputy PM Muhyiddin Yassin proposed measures to strengthen BN’s struggle and that BN had to take the “courageous step” when dealing with sensitive issues of race and religion.

He said, “This is where the real challenge lies for us, that is, to maintain our political legitimacy and to be judged positively by the people who are also experiencing changes in their thinking, attitude, lifestyle and political views.”

Naturally, it takes courage to apologise. Zahid appears to lack both courage and humility to apologise, for making those offensive, insensitive and inaccurate remarks.

Perhaps the words “courage” and “apology” are missing from the Umno vocabulary.

But Zahid is not the only Umno person who is arrogant and out of touch with the electorate.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education minister, refused to act decisively to censure two school principals, when they uttered derogatory remarks against non-Malay students. In another incident, Johari Abdul Ghani for Umno Titiwangsa, claimed that Umno had no need for the non-Malay votes in order to win.

Last week, Najib said, “The fact is parties that have been in power for too long hardly reflect on their weaknesses. So the four diseases need to be prevented before love turns to hate, hope turns to anger and support turns to dissent.”

Muhyiddin declared that BN's performance in the elections would depend on how the people judged BN.

The performances of Zahid, Muhyiddin and Johari have been dismal and few of the Umno leaders are seen to practise what they preach. Despite the catchy phrases and fancy rhetoric at the convention, its leaders remain resolute in their attitudes and their particular way of thinking. 1Malaysia rings hollow.

Instead of helping the country achieve harmony, Zahid and those like him, have nothing new to offer in the way of solutions. They are part of the problem.