Who is smarter these days: Umno or the people?

In its effort to win the 13th general election at any cost and no matter how, UMNO has exploited almost everything it can lay its hands on. Starting from getting the Election Commission to do all sorts of 'tricks' including gerrymandering, tampering with the electoral roll, diverting postal votes, preventing people from voting, making unnecessary restrictions, facilitating ghost voters as well as practicing outright bias in its dealings with the opposition. Even so, the Pakatan Rakat opposition managed to win five states in the previous election in 2008

UMNO is also using scare tactics on the voters, especially the Chinese, that if the opposition wins, then there will be riots. UMNO also scared the Chinese further by telling them that DAP will support PAS to establish an Islamic State, while telling the Malays that if the opposition wins, the country will go to the dogs and the interests of the Malays will be sold out completely. Recently in Penang, UMNO sent its members together with Perkasa to intimidate the DAP during the Himpunan Hijau 2.0 anti-Lynas rally. But their rough ways made the voters even more resolute in supporting DAP and the Pakatan Rakyat.

It was the same in Kuantan, Pahang where more than 20,000 people turned up to support the PKR's anti-Lynas rally. Although the organizers estimated a more modest figure of at least 15,000, UMNO made their media report a figure of just 3,000 to 6,000 people. So, Malaysians can expect UMNO to use all the available television networks and media to churn out propaganda and false news in GE-13. The only consolation is that the people now have the alternative media to turn to.

Government machinery including Mat Rempits

UMNO has also used the law enforcement bodies and judiciary to protect their interests and suppress the opposition. In fact, UMNO also uses all the  government machinery as if these belong to it. Religious leaders, NGOs, various institutions have not been spared either. Places of worship and religious events have been exploited to the maximum. The monarchy has not been left out. This is how all-thorough the UMNO pirate ship is in infiltrating every conceivable nook and cranny where it can loot or take advantage of.

But these are desperate moves as the people in these institutions cannot tolerate UMNO’s horrible culture and modus operandi anymore. In 2008, Sultan Mizan of Terengganu refused to accept Idris Jusoh as the Menteri Besar and UMNO could not do anything about it. The late Sultan of Johore also backed Ghani Othman to be the Menteri Besar, preventing UMNO from reshuffling the Johor division. Even the Attorney General Gani Patail has reportedly refused to sign a disadvantageous highway agreement, although many in UMNO say that he was asked by one powerful faction to highlight the issue to embarrass another faction.

UMNO has also used Mat Rempits (hooligan motor-bikers), ruffians and brute force to win elections. UMNO breeds and supports these misfits through its various associations, but pretend not to know anything about it. So you can name it and UMNO will use it and do it, even using call girls during the Perak power struggle to entrap opposition politicians, so long as it can remain in power and continue to pillage the country's resources. UMNO is a party that no longer knows shame and as Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim aptly put, UMNO no longer fears God!

Recently, UMNO used the Sungai Buloh Hospital to launch its election machinery, as alleged by the chairman of the People’s Welfare and Rights Coalition (POWER) S Gobi Krishnan. So inconsiderate and insensitive it is to the health and well-being of the patients and their visitors. No, for sure, UMNO will not stop at anything.

Can no longer hide their misdeeds from the people

But whatever wrong that UMNO has done and continues to do cannot be hidden from the people anymore. Whenever the people protest or complain against any project UMNO wants to implement, it will  just bulldoze its way through, like the listing of the Felda Global Ventures Holdings and the Lynas rare-earth refinery.

When the family of UMNO minister Shahrizat Jalil gave "too much beef" as the reason for its wish to enter the Singapore market, everyone knew it was a big lie to excuse its unwarranted purchase of properties in the island republic. Not only is the NFC far behind in its beef production targets, Singapore has never issued any permit to it to export beef there. So, what a joke! UMNO has simply run out of ideas, integrity and credibility. UMNO is illegitimate.

UMNO forgets that the people have brains and they have memories too. We can think and can still remember all the bad things and wrong doings that UMNO has done through the decades. The more abuses by UMNO, the more active our brains will be and the more profound our retaliation in the GE-13.

Who can forget the May 13, 1969 riots which were instigated by UMNO? Yes, initially people blamed the DAP, but we have the Internet now and we can think better now. People are now even questioning the accuracy of our written history and questioning what was the ”major” role that UMNO insists it played in gaining our independence! Malaysians are now aware of independence freedom-fighter Mat Indera and the sacrifices of all the races to achieve the agreement of the British to leave our shores, not just UMNO alone.

Questions galore

The people have now started to ask so many questions that even former premier and UMNO president Mahathir Mohamad cannot think of any plausible answer. Whenever he is questioned about his misdeeds, he can only suggest an alternative question and then answer his own query! What a man! Mahathir has really become a “Loyar Burok”. When there are calls for him to be investigated, Mahathir deflects attention by replying that if this is so, then "others" must be investigated too. When the people say that he is racist, he replies that those who accuse him are even more racist. This is how childish, tit-for-tat UMNO politics has become. Ad yet, Mahathir thinks he is smart because he gave glib answers, he thinks he is witty. But this is actually a reflection of a weak principled stand.

The fact is UMNO has used the race card all the time in the past 5 decades, trying to divide the people so that they can rule at their own will, whim and fancy. But ordinary Malaysians have been tolerating the abuses so far. They have kept quiet so far. But it doesn't they agree or accept what UMNO has thrown at them. When UMNO inflicts negative things on the very people who vote for, there will be retribution. Look at the officers of Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission under UMNO - they got involved in the deaths of Teoh Beng Hock and Ahmad Sarbaini and will have to answer to the Almighty for it

Yet ordinary Malaysians like the late Ong Kim Koon, the good Samaritan and unsung hero who gave his life to save a Malay couple, show that the people have not allowed UMNO to turn them into hate-filled monsters. Ong, 52, died 11 days after his leg was severed while trying to save fruitsellers Zainal Mat Yusuf, 45, and Rosamiah Hashim, 38, who were involved in a road accident at the MMR2 in April last year.

So you see, we are rational people; it is UMNO who has become insane, twisted by the hatred that it breeds and fosters. Indeed, UMNO is so desperate now, it has become irrational while the very people it tried to brainwash have not responded in the way it planned. Malaysians are certainly using their brains more nowadays.

Malaysia Chronicle