Najib’s gambling with ‘perceptions’

Are thinking Malays willing to be regrouped in the same category as the illustrious Ibrahim Ali?

COMMENT

With Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at the helm; the future of the nation is being decided in accordance to the laws of gambling.

In Kuantan, bookies are willing and bold enough to give 100:1 odds to Barisan Nasional.

They are willing to give RM100 to RM1 if Umno can win in some areas. That is surely a vote of confidence in the PM’s leadership.

Najib enjoys, we are told, an approval rating of 69% while Umno is languishing in the 40 percent range.

So, the Umno president must not disappoint his ‘adoring’ public and punters.

And so a few weeks ago, Najib entered Selangor in style accompanied by thousands of motor bikers and declared, he will retake Selangor.

Of course, you will Najib! Could it be any other way?

The Umno president and PM mustn’t disappoint the millions and millions of Umno ground troopers who will shout Hidup Melayu at the drop of a leaf, if you asked them so.

Again, it’s a gamble.

Can’t budge the Chinese

Since his advisors have been selling Najib instead of Umno, then, as a matter of strategy, in order to beat Umno, all we have to do is destroy Najib’s credibility as a leader.

That should not be too difficult.

The fact that nobody expanded on his achievement means people are already set in their perceptions. They don’t give a rat’s ass on what any surveys tell us now.

The Chinese have already made up their minds since 2008. Urban Malays and the Malay middle class are rejecting Umno.

If we don’t, then we Malays fall in the same category as Ibrahim Ali and his band of brigands.

Are we Malays willing to be grouped in the same category as the illustrious Ibrahim Ali?

Hence Najib and his band of desperate individuals go around the country admonishing Malays that if Umno goes down, nobody will look after (i) the Malays (ii) Islamic religion and (iii) Royal Institution.

But Malays do not depend on Umno at all for their destiny. Islam certainly does not suffer if Umno isn’t around.

The constitutional monarchy is accepted by all races as long as it’s constitutional.

Laws protect us and our faith in these same laws secures the monarchy.

‘Umno is full of crap’

So imagine my shock, when someone uttered the unthinkable – that Bersih 3.0 would serve only to whip up Malay nationalism.

You believe because of Bersih 3.0, Malays will gravitate towards Umno?

Some 3.7 million of them abandoned Umno in 2008 and the majority will stay there. Once black, they will never go back to the red side.

Umno is in the red on so many fronts – good governance, integrity, clear vision, quality leadership and the list never ends.

The Umno doctor (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) said it well when he said Umno is full of crap and half past six pretenders.

So why should the majority of Malays ever want to go back to Umno?

Seriously, what can Umno offer – another half a century of pillaging and subjecting the nation to ruinous policies which allowed RM1.3 trillion of money to be spirited out of this country and almost RM30 billion of ill-gotten monies to be smuggled out each year?

Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz is a former Umno assemblyman and is now a DAP member. He is a FMT columnist.