ABU now on reverse gear like RPK? What does 'Anything' in ABU mean anyway?

I usually brush off people who complain about my poor English because1Malaysia has the best education system in the world, so how can my 'England' be that bad.

But today I realised that my 'England' may really be that bad because I do not understand the meaning of the word 'anything'. So far, I have blindly followed the meaning as taken from the dictionary. But to some Malaysians, this interpretation is wrong.

Definition from dictionary: Anything - any thing whatever; something, no matter what

But to 'some' people ...

Let me try to understand the meaning of 'Anything' as perceived by some people. Let's use an anecdote.

An organiser is promoting the biggest fruit fair in the country, a fair that everyone who goes to must buy 1 type of fruit. Pamphlets were distributed widely with the first paragraph boldly highlighted in red,"You can buy and eat anything but the big red apple" with explanation that the big red apple has been poisonous from the day the seed was planted right up to the bearing of the fruit itself.

The planter of the apple trees did not bother to find out what was wrong and kept producing the fruit for more than 5 decades. All in all, the advice and warning is clear - to NOT eat the poisonous big red apple

On the day of the fruit fair huge, a crowd was seen at stalls selling bananas, papayas, durians, etc with only a handful of people wandering around the big red apple stall.

Suddenly the organiser shouted out to the people 'Do not buy nor eat the bananas, papayas, durians etc because of speculation that those trees were poisoned 14 years ago'.

The sellers were caught in a bind! They tried to explain that the trees that were poisoned 14 years ago had already been uprooted, replanted and well taken care of and now the fruits on sale are not poisonous anymore. But the organizer wouldn't listen and insisted that the fruits were still poisonous and must be rejected at all costs.

Everyone else too was shocked but they still needed to buy 1 type of fruit and so, which should they buy? All the fruits were now poisonous, so what the heck, let's go for the poisonous big red apple!

Is it logical?

We, Malaysians are really bad, we do not like to give people a chance to prove their worth even if they have changed their ways and now show good credentials compared with their wrongdoings decades ago.

The fact that we are not giving a chance to the poisonous big red apple is simply because it has proven to be poisonous till today after 5 decades and is not willing at all to look into how to rid of the poison in its own system.

The other fruits may have been poisonous decades ago but they have proven lately that they have been cleansed of their poison. They are even willing to prove it by encouraging you to take a taste.

BUT the organizer - the one who promoted the 'Anything but the big red apple' - now wants to sell you a different meaning of the word 'anything'.

The moral of the story...

The rakyat (Malaysian populace) is rising up against an evil and corrupt regime. A certain NGO recently set up is telling the people they should go for 'Anything but the evil corrupt regime'.

The war plan is being put into place with the generals taking charge of the assault against the enemy - the evil regime. And it is no easy fight. The evil enemy has already put out their latest war equipment at the doorstep to be used to annihilate this uprising.

Yet, the generals are working and planning hard, using whatever ancient weaponry they have at hand to help the rakyat fight against the enemy's modern weaponry.

Coincidentally a few of these generals were previously aligned with the enemy but it was decades ago and they have recently changed sides to be with the rakyat, fighting side by side to win this war.

Meanwhile, the enemy can sense that they are losing the war and have begun spreading all sorts of speculation of misdeeds, corruptions, sex stories of a few generals to create a civil war between these generals and the rakyat.

Amid the speculation, the NGO that promoted the 'Anything but the evil corrupt regime' suddenly started to call upon the rakyat to turn their guns and kill off the generals instead.

To the NGO, a general must be pure and still a virgin in order to lead the war and now it becomes 'Anything but the generals must die', even if the the war is lost because of their past sins that were speculated to have happened decades ago.

From 'Anything But Umno' to 'Nothing But Umno' - WHAT A JOKE!

For God sake, we are now at war and not winning is not an option. So why now, why suddenly the questioning of the generals of their past misdeeds, true or otherwise.

Why are they not assessed based on their present performances with the four states under their rule. Are these generals still practising the misdeeds they were speculated to have decades ago?

Giving the excuse that we do not want to replace the evil corrupt regime with another is just lame without giving the generals a chance to prove their capability. How worst or corrupt can a new regime be compared to the present one?

When ABU or 'Anything But Umno' was launched, it was very clear about the path that it would be taking. No excuses, unless ABU (co-founded by Haris Ibrahim) is now on reverse gear just like RPK. That is my fear!

So hence, my query. What does 'Anything' in ABU mean? Any and all hidden clauses or exceptions must be revealed so that the rakyat can decide whether they can accept ABU right at the outset. Not when we are halfway through fighting a VERY SERIOUS WAR.

If ABU or anyone can provide facts and figures that Pakatan Rakyat is performing worse than Umno-BN in the states under Pakatan rule, I will give my vote to UMNO-BN without hesitation.

BUT please don't try to act like an angel, free of sins with the right to dig out decades-old speculated misdeeds just to spice up your good-friend-turned-enemy's accusations. SPEAK UP and DON'T TALK 'HEN'!

Richard Loh reads Malaysia Chronicle