Flashing more cash and trash

You have to laugh at former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s recent message to his fellow Umno/BN crooks to “not to flash their wealth” in order to change the “perception” that the ruling coalition is so corrupt that it is “disgusting”.

He’s apparently still unaware of the fact that the very mention of his name or the sight of his face is enough to lash millions of Malaysians into a fury at the mish-mash that he and his cronies, successors and supporters have made of Malaysia.

During his 22-year premiership he systematically trashed the nation’s judiciary, civil services and media, cost the treasury an estimated RM100 billion to US100 billion in cold, hard cash, and vastly enriched himself and at least some of his sons.

And his portfolio of splendid residences, let alone what he’s got secretly stashed both in the country and offshore, is every bit as crass and splashy as corruption-flaunting mansions like those of Khir Toyo and many a great many other leading Umno/BN kleptocrats.

But perhaps his richest and most costly legacy has been his trashing of the truth with statements like this latest one, that the ruling coalition’s disgusting corruption is a matter of “perception” rather than stark and sordid reality.

But as pre-eminently notorious as Mahathir is for talking lashings of trash, he’s by no means on his own. In fact current Prime Minister Najib Razak gives the master a real run for his money by uttering nothing but a pernicious pack of lies.

All the way from his mendacious “1Malaysia. People first. Performance now” slogan through his lying denials of “I help you, you help me” buy-election briberies to his rash recent announcements of false democratic “reforms”.

And he was hard at it again last week, bashing the ears of the audience at a Hari Raya rally in Kuala Selangor with the lying line that “only BN was capable of delivering real change and instituting reform,” and making a big splash of the fact that he and some of his underlings that some Umno/BN assemblypersons had “humbled themselves by staying at the homes of ordinary people in the PAS-held local constituency”.

As if genuine, honest-to-goodness “common” people should feel somehow grateful or even honoured by being permitted to host Umno/BN thieves and parasites in their homes.

Apparently believing that this patronising exercise in false humility would help dispel public “perception” of Umno/BN’s breathtaking arrogance and pomposity, he then gassed on that “if we act as if we are more special than others then people will feel disgust for us.”

Then, warning “leaders” not to make promises they cannot fulfil, and to be more publicly accessible, he echoed Mahathir’s “don’t flash your wealth” sentiments with the remark that “if we act as if we are more special than others then people will feel disgust for us”.

“Don’t hide your car behind your house and instruct your wife to tell people you’re not home,” he urged, claiming that “this is actually a true story.”

Clumsily concocted “true” stories such as this seem to be currently in vogue in Umno/BN circles, as Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin claimed in his speech at the closing of the BN State Assembly Club in Selangor that “a man told me ‘I want the election to be called soon, so I can vote for BN because I feel tortured living under the rule of Pakatan in Selangor.’”

In this blatant attempt at early and thus illegal campaigning for the forthcoming general election, Muhyiddin also announced that the government had allocated a previously unplanned RM29 million to build a school in Bukit Kapar.

Besides splashing out, as usual, with lashings of public money, like Najib he also praised BN assemblypersons for coming down from on high to bunk in the homes of the local citizenry.

Such a humble gesture was an important “touchpoint” to win back the people’s support,” he said, adding that “staying at the homes of ordinary people does not cost a lot of money.”

“The hosts feel happy and will remember this their whole lives, and will vote for BN forever,” he said. Especially, I found myself thinking, if the hosts later find some of their household valuables missing and their maids or daughters pregnant.

If Najib, Muhyiddin and the boys thought that this risible rash of cash-flashing, trash-talking and opposition-bashing would win them lots of friends, however, it seems their hopes have been dashed by the latest outbreak of public teeth-gnashing.

Not since the death of Teoh Beng Hock in the custody of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), and the endless deliberations resulting in a finding of ‘neither homicide nor suicide’ have I heard or seen such a an outbreak of Umno/BN-bashing that has followed the recent verdict that the demise of the MACC’s latest casualty was a case of nothing but “misadventure”.

According to coroner Aizatul Akmal Maharani, the court found that senior customs officer Ahmad Sarbaini Mohamed “fell” from the ledge of the MACC office after mysteriously “being” on the ledge of the building, and thus the “theory” that the MACC was involved in his death “cannot hold”.

This despite the fact that the court was told in the course of the inquest that the MACC’s CCTV was found to have been tampered with, and that 22 hours of recording, including the time when Ahmad Sarbaini was present in the building, had apparently been erased.

As hundreds of outraged Malaysians have since commented, this is yet another clash between the false perception of truth, transparency and justice for the people, and Umno/BN’s usual brash and crass dash to amass even more power and cash.

And thus yet another giant leap towards this criminal regime’s long-awaited and richly-deserved crash.

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