Riff-raff delegates don’t represent Malays

Umno members who bought themselves the right to be delegates were empty vessels tripping over themselves to get noticed by the president.

COMMENT

The main agenda of the 2012 Umno general assembly was to whip its 2,500 delegates into a frenzy, believing that good can only come to Malays by way of surrendering personal liberty and individual will to a central authority known as Umno, which some claimed as being “chosen” by God.

And as always, Umno president Najib Tun Razak played to the gallery. He performed to get the approval of the riff-raffs who bought themselves the right to become delegates.

These empty vessels were tripping over each other to get noticed by the president.

Najib, we all know, wants approval from the people; who will fight like Churchill and move like Jagger.

He is like Caesar, an honourable man. He will follow the wishes of the people even though the “people” means around 2,500 delegates in the hall.

The great deception allowed Najib to shout at the close of the assembly that one vote for PKR means compromising the Muslims’ beliefs.

One vote for PAS means hell breaking loose and one vote for DAP means doom for Malays.

In his “performance”, everyone is to be blamed for the current situation in the country among the Malays, except Umno.

In the book, “The Road to Serfdom”, author Austrian economist and philosopher Friedrich Hayek wrote: “When the course of civilization takes an unexpected turn – when instead of continued progress which we have come to expect, we find ourselves threatened… we naturally blame everything but ourselves.”

It appears Umno has done just that. It blames everyone else except itself.

Inconvenient truth

It was a climate of either them or us at the assembly. That was the mindset that produced some of the most pugnacious statements ever to come out from PWTC.

Overall, the speeches were fiery, seditious and hostile.

But here is the inconvenient truth for Umno. We (the people) are not intimidated

What was the big word Najib used? Fata Morgana? It was a word probably understood by Najib alone.

Najib must have been watching reruns of the TV series Merlin. In the series, Morgana is a female witch who created mirages to lure unsuspecting victims to their fatal ends.

The only mirages created here are those witch-crafted by Umno.

Let us be clear about one important fact. The exit of Umno does not mean the demise of the country.

The exit of Umno only means the end of world where a selected few get rich riding on the manipulated emotions of the majority.

It will be the end of a world where one gets ahead by cutting corners and leveraging political connections instead of using your own abilities.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but has now joined DAP. He is a FMT columnist.