Najib going for broke with Tanda Putera

YOURSAY 'This move demonstrates his desperation to hold on to power at all costs even at the risk of plunging the nation into chaos.'

'PM wants May 13 film shown to Felda settlers'

Kairos: This decision to show the biased May 13 film to the Felda settlers behind close doors is the ultimate display of racism shown by BN. To put it mildly, BN is literally going for broke to exploit the race factor to swing the Malay votes to itself.

In doing this, it has totally no regard for the feelings of the other races, especially the Chinese. This kind of action speaks of desperation and extremism that is unbecoming of a government that touts itself as a champion for moderation. What a shame!

Anonymous #10786680: PM Najib Razak is raising the stakes in the fight to control the nation. This move demonstrates his desperation to hold on to power at all costs even at the risk of plunging the nation into chaos.

By stirring the emotions of one race, he perhaps hope that unrest will result when the BN loses Putrajaya. Pakatan Rakyat needs to have a strategy to maintain peace in the nation in the event they do win the elections and they need it now, not later.

Vijay47: In their contemptuous opinion of Najib, many hold that he does not possess the mental capacity to lead anyone, let alone a nation, and that the real power behind the throne is his ambitious wife. That is not so.

Najib is as evil and cunning as they come, a most apt disciple of former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Not a single of the numerous promises lavishly made at gatherings of the naive, like the Christians kneeling in faith or the miserable Indians exuding ‘nambikei', has this man honoured.

In fact, he seems to relish that every pledge is to be callously broken with no fear of being held to account.

The making of the May 13 movie was not an unwise move by someone lacking in business acumen. Rather, it was a devious plot hatched long ago to spring on wavering Malays, when all else failed, a combustible fusion of race, religion and violence.

The subtle intent is to drive home the message that "to protect our race we must turn to killing and burning". The student now matches the master.

Wira: It looks like Umno is so desperate that they must continue to spin and lie to ensure they still hold the fort after the next GE.

That will give them another five years to 'sapu' more and make an exit before they finally surrender power. I don't know if by then Malaysia is a country worth saving financially?

Haveagreatday: I have not seen ‘Tanda Putera' so I'll not comment on its factual accuracies. But I have read and followed the controversy dogging this film and I'm sure it's not consistent with the 1Malaysia agenda been propagated by the PM.

That he has seen it fit to screen it stealthily to the Felda settlers speaks volumes for his already tarnished integrity.

YF: Ever heard of the phrase from Fredrick the Great - "He who defends everything defends nothing"?

Well, Najib is doing just that. When he spends money placating the Malays, he loses the non-Malay votes. When he spends money placating the non-Malays, he loses the Malays votes.

So now he shows a racist movie to brainwash the Malays, he loses the non-Malay votes. So where is Najib now? No better than when he first started. Duh? What kind of stupid political strategy is this?

Obviously, it is not just Najib's advisors who are stupid, it is Najib himself who does not seem to have the mental capacity to comprehend the folly of this silly strategy which will end in his political demise. Already the DPM is ready to blame Najib for the big losses expected in GE13.

Tehachapi: Beyond doubt, Mahathir is now running the show for the Umno-BN camp. The upcoming campaign for GE13 will be more characteristic of the Mahathir's variety than the enlightened economic transformation story promoted by Najib.

It seems that there had been a successful coup within Umno and power has passed from Najib to Mahathir and his gang.

The main ingredients of Mahathir's iconic political formula are as follows: first, stir up sentiments of Malay insecurity, add heaps of irrational racial and religious stereotype biases, pour more hatred and scorns on all the other races and religions, focusing heavily on the immigrant status of their ancestry and the undeserving and ungrateful non-Malays. All these, despite their contributions to nation building.

Then, after whipping up racial and religious into a frenzy, trick these unwary folks into parting with their votes willingly and condemning themselves and their descendants to perpetual slavery. If Mahathir is not a devil, who is?

There is every reason for Malaysian to be skeptical and cynical of Najib's leadership. He has squandered the last bit of credibility. What a pathetic and despicable character.

In the words of Gayle Hamilton, you can't follow someone who isn't credible, who doesn't believe in what they're doing and how they're doing it.

Democracy: Like father like son. One ‘plotted' the May 13 riot to gain power from Tunku, the other promote what his racist father did to remain in power.

LittleGiant: Going against the cabinet decision and screening the film unannounced and exclusively to the Felda settlers shows Umno's complete disregard and disrespect for all the other members in the BN coalition.

What can we expect from the spineless and gutless MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP leaders to this arrogance of Umno? Nothing at all. That is how it has been for the past 55 years and that's how it will be, forever, if BN is elected again.

By the way, why were the journalists asked to leave the hall before the screening of the film? It only confirms the suspicion that the film has highly controversial and/or very misleading scenes, favourable only to Umno, about the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

Were the scenes considered "unsuitable" by the cabinet removed before it was screened to the Felda settlers?

U Think We Stupid: The PM playing the race card again. The film has not been approved and Felda has violated the Film Censorship Act.

Someone has to file an action in court because PWTC is not approved to show the movie to the audience. Fine and prosecute them.

Bender: Who would have thought that one of Najib's last lifeline to survive the next election is actually a movie director's flight of fancy?

Najib couldn't afford to make himself appeal to the poor Felda folks that he had to resort to a movie to do the job for him (not to mention putting the master devil himself on stage for an hour with speech that doesn't bear the mark a noble statesman, more like cheap theatrics by a senile, deranged old man), hoping that the simpletons can be bought over by silver screen-induced emotional and racial sentiments.

I bet many wouldn't have thought a PM could stoop so low as to use such not-so-subtle brainwashing tool. This is yet another mockery of Najib's own concept of 1Malaysia, dished out by the man himself.

I couldn't agree more with some Malaysiakini commenters here who said that all those Chinese New Year open houses and ‘yee sang' tossing rituals that he so despicably turned into a show supposedly in the spirit of that dreadful 1Malaysia motto, are nothing but just that, a show.

YF2: From that movie snap shot, it is obvious that this movie has an ominous agenda in trying to misrepresent the non-Malays in a very unIslamic way, that is lying with the intent of creating hatred.

The country then was at war with communism so no idiots would carry pictures of Mao Zedong. They would immediately be put under ISA. Instead the evil Umno agents purposefully rewrote history and put in their own lies to turn this movie into a movie of hate against non-Malays.

Are these facts? No! Are these fiction? Yes! Is this movie an attempt to created hatred? Again yes. So why is it shown in the first place if there is so much lies and hatred? Well, the obvious answer is because Umno wants a bloodbath to impose martial law.

They tried a religious war by using Christians as the scapegoat, but it failed. Now they are trying an ethnic war and the aftermath of GE13 will determine whether these criminals have been successful or otherwise.

Eddy Grant sang a song titled ‘Gimme Hope Joanna' during the anti-Apartheid movement at South Africa. Nowadays we have ‘Gimme Hope Putrajaya'.

We know for sure hope does not come from Umno nor BN. Why? Because each time they speak, they only preach poison and threats.

Anon: Oh please! Simplified Chinese characters on computer-generated posters in 1969? Seriously? - Malaysiakini