Dare you ask for ‘nambikei’?

Until and unless sincerity runs in Najib's blood, he should refrain from talking about trust.

COMMENT

An Islamic mufti is angry that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak dared set foot inside the grounds of a Hindu temple and that too during the Hindu religious festival of Thaipusam.

Perak mufti Harussani Zakaria best described Najib’s Feb 7 visit to Batu Caves as blasphemous. So much for racial tolerance and understanding coming from a religious scholar!

In any case, Harussani, a professional jurist who interprets Islamic law, as always, failed to understand the bigger picture, in this case as to why Najib would drag himself and wife Rosmah Mansor to Batu Caves.

Najib and Rosmah sacrificed their sleep not because they were eager to lend support to the festival but because Thaipusam was the much awaited opportunity for Najib to “buy over” the Indian community through his charming “nambikei” or trust speech.

For all intent and purposes, Najib’s trip to attend the Thaipusam festival was politically-aimed to woo the Indian community there to vote in favour of Barisan Nasional come the 13th general election, more so since 52% of the voters in Selangor consist of non-Malays.

In announcing a funding of RM2 million to set up the Indian cultural centre at Batu Caves, Najib made it clear that BN would only help the Indian community if the latter helped Najib win the coming GE.

Instead of barking up the wrong tree, Harussani should be ashamed of having a premier who has only one agenda to achieve at all cost, i.e. to retain power and lord over the rakyat of this “restless” nation.

Najib too should be ashamed of himself for using the Hindu festival to secure a vested interest. He wants to win the GE and could not care less how he goes about making that happen, even if it means displaying his desperation openly.

What is unfortunate and regrettable is that Najib went so far as to hopelessly try and impress the Indian community through his call for “nambikei” before he does anything worthwhile for them.

‘Nambikei’ comes at a price

Najib’s message in conjunction with the Thaipusam festival posted on his blogsite www.1malaysia.com.my read: “We remain committed to fulfilling all our promises to the community and we’ll do what’s needed to help people achieve their dreams.”

Typical words of a power hungry politician. Where was Najib when 41 families of the Bukit Jalil estate were last year made homeless by City Hall which in turn was bought over by a developer?

Where was Najib’s care for the Indian community when Federal Territories and Urban Well-Being Minister Raja Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin chided and humiliated these families?

And why was there no reaction from Najib after Astro on Jan 19 this year aired a comedy programme “Fikirlah Sendiri Nabil” where a guest on the show uttered the word “keling” as a derogatory reference to Indians.

Why has Najib not taken the deaths in custody of Indian youngsters seriously? Is the premier not perturbed that the police is taking the law into its own hands and executing Indians detained over various allegations?

In short, Najib has never been there for the Indian community, not in the true sense of the word; splashing money to create infrastructure with the hope of earning brownie points from this community is not going to work wonders for him.

If the Indian community does support and help BN win the 13th GE, it would all be thanks to the money politics at work and also the propaganda undertaken by MIC, the party supposedly representing the welfare of the Indian community.

To use RM2 million to buy the Indian community’s “nambikei” is a pathetic way of seeking assurance of his popularity among them. Najib’s desperation in not wanting to lose the Indian community’s support cost the tax payers RM2 million.

Show sincerity and “nambikei” will follow

All Najib and his fellow ministers have to do is to work and serve the rakyat sincerely, with no expectations. Until and unless sincerity runs in Najib’s blood, he should refrain from talking about “nambikei”.

Just like respect, trust too has to be earned and in this instance Najib and his ministers are no where near earning the rakyat’s trust and respect.

The current crop of Cabinet ministers have been embroiled in a range of controversy.

For starters, Najib himself is in the centre of a scandal involving a RM6.27 billion deal between the Malaysian government and French company DCNS and where Mongolian Altantuya Shariibuu, one of those present at the meeting, was later murdered for her alleged connection in the deal.

Last year, Information, Communications and Culture Minister Rais Yatim denied claims that he in 2007 had allegedly raped his Indonesian domestic helper.

In 2008, the then Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Jamaluddin Jarjis was said to have molested a restaurant worker in a five-star hotel.

In October last year, the Auditor-General’s report declared the National Feedlot Centre (NFC) led by Mohamad Salleh Ismail as having failed to achieve its target. Mohamad Salleh is the husband of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

Both Mohamad Salleh and Shahrizat came under fire over the misappropriation of the RM250 million government allocation to the NFC.

No “nambikei” when corruption abounds

Raja Nong Chik meanwhile was reported to have “donated” between RM2,000 and RM3,000 annually to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

Malaysia Today founder, blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin in an article entitled, “The Raja Nong Chik saga” alleged that Raja Nong Chik gave NUJ RM2,000 to play up the NFC issue against the interest of Shahrizat, who is also the Wanita Umno chief.

This, said Raja Petra, was done so that Shahrizat would not be fielded as a candidate in the Lembah Pantai parliamentary constituency in the 13th GE.

Raja Nong Chik, who is currently Lembah Pantai Umno division leader and Kuala Lumpur Umno deputy liaison chief, is said to be eyeing the seat and “donating” to NUJ was his way of ensuring that Shahrizat was not fielded as a candidate.

NUJ however denied having received instructions to play up the NFC controversy against Shahrizat.

In the face of all this mess involving both him and his subordinates, dare Najib look the Indian community in the eye and beg for their “nambikei”?

Jeswan Kaur is a freeance writer and a FMT columnist.