On Bonnie and Clyde, On Honour and Honourable Conduct

I am off to Rembau and Paroi tonight. Rembau is the seat of the UMNO Youth Head. Although he has asked his fellow members to fight like Churchill, I expect nothing untoward to happen. That would reflect badly on the Ketua Pemuda UMNO. We are coming just to offer our thoughts on Malaysian politics. Of course we are going to encourage as many people possible to overthrow Najib democratically. That is the honourable thing to do.

Speaking of Najib, let us speak about honour and of honourable conduct. Deepak Jaikishan who was once a close family friend to the Najibs has made accusations against the family. In effect he has accused the PM of taking money. Taking money is bribery and corruption. Deepak is saying the Malaysian PM is corrupt. He is saying the PM and the missus are stealing money.

The world now knows, unless the PM ignores the advice of UMNO’s spiritual adviser Tun Mahathir and defends his honour, the public will be inclined to believe that Deepak speaks the truth. Najib may say that Deepak is an untrustworthy fellow, but if this fellow can come out with documents and other forms of evidence, Najib is crucified. The majority of UMNO members are now inclined to believe that the two are a liability to UMNO. But who cares? UMNO’s demise does not mean the end of the Malays, the Malay Monarchy nor the end of Islam.

PM Najib makes a big deal about his commitment to defend the honour and good name of the country. But his many pompous declarations regarding these appear hollow in the face of his inability to defend his own honour. Najib has chosen to take the cowardly stance and has chosen to remain silent believing like a small kid; this problem will just fade away.

They won’t because the accusations are serious. Deepak has accused Najib, the missus and siblings of receiving money from him. Deepak has acted a fence and broker in so many deals. Deepak may indeed be a character of dubious constitution, but if he has documents and other proofs, the accusations he levelled at the PM and wife will not go away. If we remember our history, the only couple who stole was Bonnie and Clyde.

How can a person who Najib now described as one who cannot be believed become a close friend to his family? A person’s character is revealed by the company he keeps. If he keeps people like Deepak and Razak Baginda around him, that reveals a lot about Najib. That would also mean one variant of honour which involves conducting oneself properly when NOT seen by the public, holds truer for Najib.

All this while, Najib pretends to be many things he is not. But then, the company Najib keeps up with does not surprise us when we become aware that UMNO is full of such characters and Najib feels at home in their company. Conditioned as such, he would not be able to evaluate Depak until it’s too late.

So you start comparing the character, integrity and honour of today’s politicians with politicians of the old school. By the way, that rare breed of politicians is almost extinct in UMNO- the only person reflecting the values of honour in his personal conduct is perhaps Tengku Razaleigh. Alas, he is in the wrong party.

You also start comparing the integrity and honour of today’s civil serpents to yesterday’s civil servants. We can’t find people like the late Zain Azrai or such luminary like Tan Sri Sheikh Abdullah who used to be the beacon of integrity and uprightness at NST.

Najib is doing the exact opposite of what his father was doing proving yet again, as Tun Razak himself opined; Najib is not fit to be a crusader of a cause. Tun Razak wanted to give fishing rods to Malays so that hey cultivate themselves with the skills to fish. Najib wants the Malays to be beggars depending on hand-outs from him of course.

Tun Razak was with some friends on one occasion and one of them remarked to Tun, wouldn’t it be nice to have a swimming pool in Sri Taman (the official residence of the PM then). Tun Razak lowered his glasses and intoned in his typical serious demeanour- do you know how many houses for the poor could be built with the money building the swimming pool? A single storey link house used to cost around RM14, 000 in those days. A Bungalow maybe RM60, 000.

Today’s politicians are a pale comparison to politicians of the old school. In previous times (I am an only referring to our politics from the time of Tunku Abdul Rahman to Hussein Onn), honour plays an important part in shaping public life.         

Let us instruct the PM and UMNO people what honour means. In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the words and actions shown by Cassius in his exchanges with Brutus, clearly define what the concept of honour is and what actions you must take to be honourable. Brutus and Cassius were of course the chief conspirators in the murder of Caesar. But they reasoned out why the killing of Caesar was honourable. As the conspirators say, they killed Caesar to better their country -- certainly, this, in these words, becomes an honourable task. Moreover, through his words to Brutus, Cassius more clearly defines what his definition of honour is, and it is this definition that drives his actions and thoughts throughout the play.

Just as Cassius plants into the mind or Brutus that it would not be honourable for Caesar to become king, it will not be honourable for us to allow UMNO to become king.  Why? Because the "general good" must be protected, for this is the honourable thing for anyone in government to do. To Cassius it is honourable for any public official to work toward the general good.

The many accusations that Deepak has levelled and are undefended shows us that Najib and UMNO are no greater than we ourselves. Najib has shown himself to be selfish person. The placards displaying the words we love PM are at odds with the fact that in Malaysia, UMNO is more important that its president. We are not some tin pot democracies in the 3rd world, where the supreme leader is elevated to god like stature. By doing that, just as Caesar did during his time, Najib and UMNO bring dishonour to their religion and dishonour to the Malaysian people.

Najib is far from owning demi-god stature as the accusations by Deepak reveal that Najib is unscrupulous. We keep our honour by ridding the nation of such characters like Najib and UMNO. Then, the only honourable thing to do, as a member of the public  is to work for the public good, and no one's own personal interests.

What then is the right thing to do? The correct thing to do is to place public welfare above everything else. 

What is honourable? 

(1) The overthrow of Najib and UMNO is honourable because it is in the best interest of public good. 

(2) Changing the government, in the right situation as now, becomes honourable.

Posted by sakmongkol AK47