Millions of Youth Gathering in Putrajaya: Najib's thirst for wasteful vainglory

At a time when Malaysia is facing many serious issues that need the urgent attention of the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, Najib Razak is not doing that at all. Instead he continues to organize one grand, wasteful and irrelevant event after another - with the Millions of Youths Gathering now following hot on the heels of the May 11 Gathering of 1 Million Malays, which had turned out to be a fiasco .

What is the purpose of gathering so many youths in Putrajaya, where they are likely to waste their time? Is it not a mere public relations exercise to help Najib 'save face' in the wake of the 250,000-strong Bersih 3.0 rally and the Umno 66th anniversary fiasco?

What could the youths achieve that has lasting impact and implication for future generations? What is Najib going to promise them this time? And why should they believe him when he has broken all his previous pledges.

Najib's tenure marked by mega public relations exercises

If Najib is trying to lull them into forgetting their daily problems, or into forgiving all the wrongs that UMNO has committed or to deflect their worry about their future and into supporting and giving 100% of their votes to UMNO-BN in the 13th general election, then he is either naïve or out of his mind.

The success of Himpunan Jutaan Belia will not translate into votes for UMNO-BN, but its failure will deal another critical blow to the coalition. Already weak, UMNO-BN will lose even more of the public's confidence.

If in organizing the event, a sum of RM1-00 is spent on each an individual, then RM1 million will just go down the drain if just 1 million youths attend.

But surely with all the preparation, transportation, food and beverages, lodging, free t-shirts and some pocket money, it is possible the actual expenditure per head may hit RM500. In the 1 Million Malays event at Bukit Jalil stadium, the cost in bringing in UMNO members from around the nation was around RM300 each.

Corruption and nonsensical double standards

Such huge sums can easily cover the RM250 million NFC debacle. For UMNO, which has been blamed for the NFC scandal, finally, it would be money well-spent. Yet Najib is unwise to leave the corruption debacle hanging in the air whilst pursuing such mega and ill-advised public relations stunts.

Of course, UMNO will say that the gathering will give youthful entrepreneurs much business opportunities whereas they and their NGOs are at the same time trying their best to intimidate Bersih co-chief Ambiga Sreenevasan by getting stall holders to protest in front of her house for loss of business during the April 28 event.

Such conduct is not surprising as this is the way UMNO has been training the Malays to do business for the past 5 decades. Ride on the Malay status, think short-term, be an overnight successful and go bust the next day.

Yes, just for three days and two nights, these youthful entrepreneurs may get some UMNO support but after that they are on their own. UMNO has never trained the Malays to be resilient and be a sustainable business community. Till now, the majority of entrepreneurs will cling onto UMNO to survive and this is what UMNO wants, so that it can continue to dictate to them, and of course, to control them - heart, mind and soul.

The Muslim community has been critical about this event because it apparently lacks spiritual content. Many conservative Muslims blame the 'wild' activities of the youth today - evident in unhealthy pursuits such as drugs and 'Mat rempit' or biker-gangs - on the hollow materialism offered by the UMNO-BN.

For political reasons or not, a religious program slated for May 26 and due to be conducted by the famous Ustaz Azhar Idrus has been mysteriously cancelled by JAKIM, a religious authority with close ties to UMNO.

Another big waste of taxpayers' money

Based on other gatherings that Najib has organized, including the most recent fiasco in London where he was booed and chants of Bersih Bersih Bersih drowned out his speech, there won’t be a 1 million turnout during the next 3 days.

Some pundits estimate that since the number of people that UMNO managed to gather during its 66th anniversary celebration earlier this month at the Bukit Jalil stadium was less than 50,000, the Youth gathering in Putrajaya may see just about 150,000 or so turning throughout the 3-day period.

Of course, that won't stop Information Minister Rais Yatim from using the grid techniques of the official media to extrapolate a total figure of 1.5 million youths!

But if the event is as successful as UMNO touts, Rais would have made sure that RTM carried live TV coverage of the event to showcase his boss Najib's 'moment of Glory' to the entire nation. But right now, Rais does not even dare to take the risk.

Even the Staronline - despite putting the headline “Youths ‘invade’ Putrajaya” - shows a only a photo shot at eye-level portraying some sort of a crowd. If the photo had been taken from an aerial view, then the number of people could easily be estimated and it would have fallen short by far.

The Millions of Youths Gathering in Putrajaya will bring nothing good for UMNO.

Malaysia Chronicle