A bucket of shit has hit the ceiling fan and UMNO members have no place to hide...

 

 

"Umno people are easy to appease. Their antidote is this (rubs two fingers and a thumb together), and positions, but that too must be done in the right way." For those who are not wise in the way of party politics, “rub two fingers and the thumb together” signifies “Money Politics”! And when money and “position” are the offerings, rest assured that there will be no rebellion.

By Matthias Chang

Just when you think that the troubles are behind you, someone comes along to deflate your misplaced confidence that UMNO and its members are capable of change, to change for the better.

Tun Mahathir Mohamad on his return from his annual holiday in Argentina made a call to UMNO members to make way for “winnable candidates” even if they are not members, to secure victory for UMNO in the coming General Election. It was a positive call but, I had my doubts whether it would be adhered to as party politics is about survival and the slippery ascent to power. Self-sacrifice is not a common trait among the contenders for power.

It is with much regret that I have to admit, after months of contemplation that UMNO and for that matter Barisan Nasional, is incapable of change and to be reformed.

The Malaysiakini interview on the 2nd April, 2012 given by Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad who wielded enormous power during the premiership of Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn, and who is intimate with the current leaders of UMNO was the turning point in my assessment.

On being asked whether there would be a challenge to Najib’s leadership should he fail to secure a thumping victory in the 13th General Election, Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad opined that if a challenge is mounted against Najib, it would be from the second echelon leaders and not from his deputy, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin. He then made this telling observation:

"Umno people are easy to appease. Their antidote is this (rubs two fingers and a thumb together), and positions, but that too must be done in the right way."

For those who are not wise in the way of party politics, “rub two fingers and the thumb together” signifies “Money Politics”! And when money and “position” are the offerings, rest assured that there will be no rebellion.

Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad is not your ordinary UMNO member. His opinion counts and his advice are sought by past and present leaders of UMNO. And he has spoken candidly as a politician. He is saying that Najib can retain power and get away with “money politics” provided it is done in the right way. But, can corruption be done in the right way?

I am giving the benefit of the doubt to Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad that it must have been painful for him to admit thisreality. UMNO prides itself as the “champion of the Malays, Islam and the Monarchy” and the “guardian of Malay rights and privileges”! So, when this UMNO stalwart and former leader admits to all and sundry that,

 

"Umno people are easy to appease”

and all that is required is money and positions, I believe that Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad is admitting that the organizational culture of UMNO has always been money orientated and in his own peculiar way is confirming that the soothsayer’s warning of the Ides of March should be taken seriously – that there will be a coup in UMNO, post the 13th General Election. 

UMNO was formed in 1946 and since Independence in 1957 has ruled uninterrupted and if truth be told, an envy of many political parties. But it has degenerated. The why and how is not for this article to explore but suffice to say that the Malay community that had pinned its hopes on UMNO for over 50 years must embark on a soul-searching exercise to eradicate this cancer.

  

UMNO is loud in its proclamation that it is a devout adherent to the fundamental tenets of Islam and it is its guardian. UMNO brooks no interference from any quarters. Perkasa headed by the maverick Ibrahim Ali and together with Hasan Ali, the expelled Selangor state leader of PAS (and now leader of JATI) are being perceivedas the unofficial storm-troopers of UMNO. They have been very strident in pointing out the sins of almost everyone save their Muslim members and that of UMNO, but they cannot and or refuse to see the sins within their own organisations.

I know that I will be condemned by my former colleagues in the Barisan Nasional and organisations headed by Tun Mahathir Mohamad in which I once served, but I take solace in the comforting balm of Rudyard Kipling’s much loved poem,

If

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run –

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

I’m sure that Malaysians do not expect that every member of Parliament to have the qualities of Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela but, I am certain that it is within their contemplation that they do strive to have the qualities so well-enunciated in the above poem.

If only ….