Malays in the rural areas are not exactly insular in their outlook and they too can read between the lines.
Allow me to share this posting which I received from a reader.
“Dengar cerita CEO National Feedlot Centre (suami Shahrizat Abdul Jalil – Minister of Women, Family and Community Development) dapat gaji RM100k sebulan, anak sulung (aged 31) dapat gaji RM45k sebulan, anak kedua (aged 27) dapat RM35k sebulan, anak ketiga (aged 25) dapat 35k sebulan. Jika ini betul, ia sesungguhnya memalukan. Ambil duit rakyat buat bayar gaji besar. Anak saya pun graduate juga. UPSR, PMR, SPM dapat semua A. Umur 24 tahun. Kerja swasta. Dia pun work hard. Balik kerja paling awal jam 9 malam. Kadang-kadang sampai 1 pagi. Gaji dia RM2,700/sebulan. Adakah anak saya akan sokong BN/Umno kalau begini keadaannya? Saya dah tahu jawapannya. Umno tak boleh kelentong orang cerdik. Umno is not capable of changing, not with the current leaders. When more than 50% of our working population is earning less than RM2k/month, tak tahu malu ke mereka-mereka ini. Merompak siang dan malam, 7 hari seminggu. Perompak Ali Baba P Ramli pun ada cuti hujung minggu.”
Even if we refuse to admit it, the above is an outpouring of bitterness.
This kind of anecdotal and very personalized tale of feeling marginalized and alienated reflects the wider bitterness of Malays with Umno.
There is nothing that Umno can do about it now. It’s a discredited brand. It’s synonymous with pillage and plunder, corruption, arrogance that can only be the result of being far too long in power.
The 2011 Umno general assembly was an occasion for an orgy of vituperative shouting match.
Listening to the maddening speeches by Umno delegates, I am reminded of what Arthur Schopenhauer in his Essays and Aphorisms said:
“Every miserable fool who has nothing at all of which he can be proud, adopts as a last resource pride in the nation to which he belongs; he is ready and happy to defend all its faults and follies tooth and nail, thus reimbursing himself for his own inferiority.”
That is what Umno has become – an inferior good. It is a good that decreases in demand as social awareness increases.
Malays in rural areas are not exactly insular in their outlook. They read the papers, understand what’s written in between the lines. Their children come back and inform parents.
Umno can’t fool all the people all the time with its scare mongering tactics.
People know. They talk among themselves. They know Umno has become a huge money making juggernaut.
The ones making money are the Umno chieftains, cronies, families. Umno operates a giant Ponzi scheme, not dissimilar to Bernard Madoff’s multi-level marketing.
It can’t defend itself on its track record other than reminding people that Umno has done much for the people and country.
Umno elite ripped off Malays
That claim sounds hollow because all governments in the world carry out programs and implement policies.
Mubarak of Egypt did the same thing. Gaddafi gave Libyans much development and personal help to people.
The Tunisian president did much development for Tunisia. Therefore what Umno did, is not unique in that it is sufficient for people to feel beholden and enslaved by Umno.
I feel sorry for the people who think and dismiss as a flash-in-the-pan the widespread disenchantment with Umno since 2008.
The disenchantment is real. Ordinary Malays are disputing Umno’s empty claims of fighting for the interest of Malays.
The fact is it is the Umno elite who is ripping off Malays.
The RM 500-million fee from the purchase of the submarines? It was divided among top Umno leaders and it’s rumored that a former prime minister got RM160 million.
Who threatened the royal houses? Umno did during the constitutional crisis years. Umno was behind the exposure of scandalous behavior of members of the royal family. It wasn’t the Chinese.
The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman and a FMT columnist. This is an excerpt from his blog sakmongkolak47
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