Umno, as it prepares to take its final bow

Love is blind for many. When a person really loves somebody, common sense, logic and anything negative about the other person simply won’t work. It won't change the feelings of the one who loves.

A man can be ugly, smelly, have bad breath and even rotten teeth. He can be poor without possessions, bad tempered, fat and even an arrogant idiot, but once a girl falls in love with him, nothing can change her feelings towards her guy.

And if you tell her that he is unfaithful to her, she won’t budge either. It is the same for a man. It is called blind love.

The zombies

And it looks like this is how some Malays love UMNO. Many are still convinced that UMNO is Malay and Malay is UMNO. Anything and anyone else is a fake, not kosher. There is nothing the Opposition can do about this group of Malays. They are fixed in their mentality and won’t even question the UMNO warlords even if it is proven that these guys were the culprits stealing their lands, houses and belongings.

The UMNO diehards are willing to sacrifice for the party, they will cry day and night if UMNO is defeated. The oddest thing is that they are not even UMNO members, but merely supporters. It really boggles the mind but they exist and in quite large numbers.

PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu used to tell the audience in his ceramah (political lecture) that if one were to inflict a cut on their bodies, blue blood will ooze out - not red. This means they lack common sense. These are the UMNO zombies.

The members

UMNO members are of another kind. It is not passion or blind love that dictates their behavior. They are just yes-men. They don't seem to have any faculty of their own to think and will just swallow whatever their leaders tell them - no matter how tall the tale or big the lie. They will just say “yes” to everything because they have been conditioned by decades of propaganda and brainwashing.

UMNO members indeed are the most obedient people in the country, if not the world.

If anyone is too outstanding or rises too quickly or shows an ability to think out of the box, he or she won't last long in UMNO. Some plot or other will hatched to get rid of them, just like the Sodomy I scheme hatched by former premier Mahathir Mohamad to sack Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.

The leaders

Then there are the UMNO leaders. This is a different breed; they are clever, rational, scheming and have vision. They too will do whatever is necessary to support UMNO but their objective is to ensure that their hold on power is not jeopardized.

This then is the differences between the UMNO leader, the UMNO zombie and the UMNO member. It is stark indeed. The UMNO leaders do not love UMNO; they only love themselves. They are also completely ruthless and lacking in conscience. After all, would we harm the ones we love - would we not do everything to care and protect the ones we love?

Mahathir

Let's look at Mahathir, who was Umno president for 22 years.

If Mahathir really loves UMNO, he would want to make sure it has a promising future. He would have allowed some dissent, worked hard to groom younger leaders, remove the bad apples and clean up the party and get rid of all bad elements and practices. Like a good parent, Mahathir would have made sure he set an example for the future leaders, point towards what's right and what must be upheld.

But Mahathir only thought of himself, his position, his power, his family and his cronies when he was the UMNO president. He boasted and took pride only in his own achievements and how brilliant was his 'vision' and his 'legacy'.

Until now, Mahathir has not admitted his mistakes. He has not repented although it has become so evident the damage he and his selfishness have wrought on the nation because he has no conscience - no guilt.

Najib

It is the same with Najib.

Najib would not have bought the 2 Scorpene submarines if he cared about Malaysia, not when when it was evident the submarines were just not suitable for our shallow waters. The subs simply cannot hide their presence because the sea is not deep enough.

But not only did Najib pursue the purchase, the whole affair evolved into a tremendous overseas scandal and now UMNO is implicated. One wonders, has the latest news scoop on the Scorpenes have anything to do with his media advisers trying to get him off the hook and pointing the finger at UMNO instead - it wasn't for Najib's personal wallet but for UMNO's bank account!. But does that make it better?

Such is the dog eat dog world of the UMNO leader. The unscrupulous Scorpenes purchase plus the Altantuya murder by two of his former body guards is really bad for UMNO and obviously for Malaysia. It is a huge blow to UMNO, the party that has for all intents and purposes governed Malaysia since independence in 1957. It is a tremendous shame for the party and country to fall so low in esteem of the Malaysian public and the world community.

But just like Mahathir, Najib was only thinking about himself. Ask not what your party and country can do for you but what you can do for them. It looks like Najib and Mahathir have never heard of such a saying or even thought there was anything wrong in the way they used UMNO -  chopped and cut it up to fit their purposes.

No love for UMNO or Malaysia at all

It doesn't matter if UMNO and Malaysia bleeds to death in the process as long as they survive and most importantly, they and their families continue to be wealthy beyond imagination. No, Najib did not care about the repercussions on UMNO or even Malaysia. No, Najib does not love either UMNO or Malaysia.

Until now, Najib has merely denied any involvement in the scandal but refused to order a Royal Commission of Inquiry to look into the matter of the RM570 million Scorpenes commission swindled from the people's hard-earned wealth. Najib must remember the RCI is not just to clear his name but to find out the truth and seek justice for the people, which obviously is the more important.

Najib does not feel guilty; like Mahathir, he does not seem to have any conscience at all.

NFC - an UMNO scandal through and through

Then in the RM250million NFC corruption debacle, involving UMNO Women's chief Shahrizat Jalil, which is getting stinkier by the day, top UMNO leaders like Abdullah Badawi, Khairy Jamaluddin, Muhyiddin Yassin and also Najib were all involved in one way or another. Talk about all in the family.

All these top UMNO leaders knew from day that Shahrizat's family had no experience in cattle breeding. How can they make a success of the National Feedlot Centre? Still, the UMNO bigwigs - all of them - closed an eye and handed the project together with a RM250mil government soft loan to Shahrizat's husband and three children to manage - or should the word be 'mismanage'.

Not a second thought was wasted on the project or the impact on UMNO if it fails. None of them even bothered to monitor the project  and when it turned into a mess, none of them even felt a twinge of guilt or remorse. All they did was rush to brainstorm to find a way to get themselves off the hook. No one cared that RM250 mil of the people's hard-earned saving could have gone down the drain just like that.

Even Najib lied through his teeth. As the Finance minister, he should have immediately frozen the NFC's assets and those of its directors. Worse still, he assured the NFC assets had been frozen, but this has been proven to be untrue. Furthermore, as PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli pointed out just a day ago, the Shahrizats are now busy trying to cash out of their assets, especially those bought corruptly through leveraging on the NFC soft loan.

Has Najib responded on this or said anything yet? What sort of a Prime Minister, Finance Minister and UMNO president is this?

1 UMNO - another Najib falsehood

So, no. There is no love in UMNO itself. The zombies and the members may love their party. The leaders may profess to love their party. But there is no love inside the party - not for each other at all. Only selfishness and personal agenda.

It is telling that despite the mountain of wrong doings and scandals, UMNO leaders still refuse to make any improvements or reform. Look at how Najib only cares about improving his own image. He doesn't care about UMNO's image or reputation at all. This already should be a warning sign to the zombies and the members. But they won't wake up or face the truth. And this why, like previous UMNO leaders, Najib won't bother to change either. He knows there are the zombies and members who will always be blindly in love with UMNO.

In the end, as UMNO prepares to take its final bow and leave Malaysia's main political stage to the Opposition, all that is left is selfishness, greed, bickering, corruption, scheming and shamelessness.

Sad to say, this is what UMNO is really all about these days and what Najib should declare in the party's coming 66th celebrations is that the 1 UMNO - yes, the final piece in his 1 Malaysia branding - he envisages is actually for the leaders only. Zombies and members only get to clap and cheer and say 'yes'.

Malaysia Chronicle