"A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody." - Thomas Paine
COMMENT One has to wonder why the Umno narrative of ‘nambikei' (trust) is aimed squarely at the Indian community. It is as if Umno spin-doctors realise that this particular form of propaganda would not play well with the other two dominant communities.
As one Umno strategist told me, dividing the Indian community is easy since the political terrain is hostile to the Indian community with parties either dismissing the Indian vote or taking it for granted.
However, unlike some I am not too concerned with the Indian vote. Either it will shift back to the ruling regime because the propaganda works (with enough goodies thrown in) or it will play a significant role in ensuring the Pakatan Rakyat coalition sustains the status quo or even better comes into power - this depending on if Pakatan and Hindraf play well together.
Indians are reminded of their place in the order of things. Do not worry. In the end, the Malays will win the numbers game and any form of compromise will not be required. Whatever principles other than Umnoism or some form of Islam, which could have been an alternative, would have been lost.
The sad reality is that we are still playing the same game which I believe every right-thinking Malaysian is aware of (and would like to change) instead of laying the foundation for some form of egalitarian alternative. In other words, besides the whole ABU (Anything But Umno) concept, most Malaysians are aware that the opposition front is a stand in for the racial groupings of BN albeit with less corruption.
Either way the disenfranchised of the Indian community has some way to go before some sort of equilibrium could be reached with the other communities in this country. As a Pakatan supporter, I believe the road would be less treacherous if the community makes a stand with the alternative coalition, even though the said coalition has been only marginally "better" in addressing the concerns of the Indian community.
Can Umno be trusted?
No, something that has been bothering me for some time now is the concept of trust. More specifically, trust in our politicians. Pakatan supporters (including me) mock Prime Minister Najib Razak when he mocks the Indian community in their mother tongue when nothing in his tenure suggests that trust has been earned.
Meanwhile the racial politics within the alternative alliance is submerged beneath the feel good rhetoric of change and the almost daily accounts of Umno-BN malfeasances propagated by the alternative press and ignored by the mainstream propaganda organs. Trust is hard to come by here in Malaysia.
Umno says trust us. It tells its supporters not to trust Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom they accuse of dividing the Malay community. They accuse the DAP of wanting to supplant Malay hegemony with Chinese-style democracy, so do not trust them. They accuse PAS of being unIslamic or worse hypocritical to their Islamic values, so do not trust PAS too.
And if you are a Umno-BN supporter all this may seem like a reasonable proposition. However digging a little deeper, you would realise that it is Umno which is literally dividing the Malay community with the injection of foreign nationals into the polity, Project M being a glaring example. It is Umno which has supplanted Malay hegemony with a plutocracy of cronies which include members of the Chinese and Indian communities that has sustained its grip on power.
And lastly (and here is the brilliant part) as a moderate Islamic country, Umno has simultaneously silenced radical Islamic thought in this country while advancing an Arabisation process that for the most part has left untouched the ‘other' communities but which has calcified the minds of a sizeable section of the Malay polity.
This twisted scheme had the singular aim of dividing through religion, the various communities in Malaysia and at the same time, ensuring that ‘moderate' Malaysians (including Muslims) voted BN, as they kept the Islamic bogeyman at bay. We should never forget that it was a Palestinian head of state (President Mahmoud Abbas) who accused another Muslim head of state (Najib) of dividing the ummah.
But what of Pakatan? My pro-establishment friends always ask me if I can "trust" Pakatan when Pakatan is led by a politician (Anwar) who had a road to Damascus like conversion. This whole Project M debacle and the role Anwar denies he played a part in is evidence to some, that the herd is led by a wolf in sheep's clothing.
As I said before, I have very little interest in what Anwar did before or his protestation of his former political life. Arguing who is to be trusted more - Anwar or former PM Mahathir Mohamad - is disingenuous, especially if you commit to one or the other.
No, the only intellectually or morally tenable position (if one believes in second chances) is to judge what these Pakatan politicians say and do now, in their role as possible contenders to the Putrajaya throne. The only way for us to move out of this quagmire is to make a choice to change administrations and hold accountable those we claim are for change.
Breeding ground for frogs
I never understood the BN strategy of defending their corruption by pointing out the corruption of others, as I will never understand the Pakatan response of totally ignoring the evidence, as if hypocrisy and feigned ignorance were ever suitable defences.
Pakatan seems to be a breeding ground for political frogs. Perhaps it is something in the Pakatan eco-systems. While a principled politician like Zaid Ibrahim is mangled and vilified by the Pakatan machine, various potentates arise eagerly awaiting their time for a chance to benefit under the banner of change.
The corruption scandals in Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan or the hyperactive corporate activity in Penang, which the faithful choose to down play or ignore, is building up. Umno is always used as a yardstick (and rightfully so) but any attempt to warn of such dangers is shouted down or platitudes are thrown that all will be well when federal power is achieved.
Very few and certainly not many (influential) in Pakatan seriously consider a programme of decentralisation of power. Meanwhile political ineptness or maybe just plain old political skullduggery compromises agreed principles.
The ‘Allah' controversy is the perfect example. All parties and this includes BN had come to a reasonable compromise and this should have been an end to the story. Unfortunately the DAP for whatever reasons decided to stir the religious pot, the end results being that PAS has had to backtrack on principles already agreed to.
So, not only did the DAP backtrack (see the pathetic party line on how Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's speech was only meant for the residents of Sabah and Sarawak), they managed to drag their coalition partners into the mess.
Eco-terrorist wannabe
Now Pakatan can proudly say that it has an eco-terrorist wannabe amidst their ranks in the personage of Himpunan Hijau president Wong Tack. Pakatan, of course, has milked every bit of political mileage out of the Lynas fiasco and although this may be spun as an ecological issue, the reality is that it is a Chinese-dominated concern.
Some DAP apparatchiks and Pakatan kool-aid drinkers have been quick to justify Wong's threat but who is Wong to hold to ransom a democratically elected government - Pakatan or BN - with threats of violence.
Wong may think he is playing the martyr card but all those morons who think that Wong's "anguish" justifies violence of any kind should be seriously consider the realpolitik of the threat and what it could lead to considering the racial elements at play at this moment in Malaysian election history.
Wong Tack (right) dares to make this silly claim. This goes beyond concern into the territory of hubris. I doubt he even understands what it takes to bring down a facility like the Lynas plant. I know of professionals who know exactly how it could be done and if the implication is that Wong has access to the same expertise or knowledge, even more reason for him to serve a stint in a government-holding cell.
He proudly says that he would accept the consequences of his actions but what of the consequences to the rest of the opposition forces in this country and to citizens who would be drawn into a conflict that would spread beyond the Lynas issue?
If ever there comes a time for violent revolution in this country, I know which community would be out in the streets tearing each other apart and which community would barricade themselves in their homes meekly living off their stockpile of canned goods.
You want to talk about trust. Pakatan should immediately disassociate itself with Himpunan Hijau and Himpunan Hijau should immediately call a vote of no confidence against Wong Tack or whatever procedures they have in place for a change of leadership.
This brazen call for violence should not be tolerated. This is the nature of the discourse in this country - burn the things you oppose, be it Malay-language bibles or rare earth plants.
As I said, it is easy to mock Najib when he babbles on about "trust" but this close to the elections we had better make sure that the alliance that represents change earns our trust and the only way to do this is to ensure that our ABU perspective does not cloud our natural instinct to be distrustful of those who claim to have our interest at heart and we should never, ever, let the zealots be the dominant voices in the discourse.
COMMENT One has to wonder why the Umno narrative of ‘nambikei' (trust) is aimed squarely at the Indian community. It is as if Umno spin-doctors realise that this particular form of propaganda would not play well with the other two dominant communities.
As one Umno strategist told me, dividing the Indian community is easy since the political terrain is hostile to the Indian community with parties either dismissing the Indian vote or taking it for granted.
However, unlike some I am not too concerned with the Indian vote. Either it will shift back to the ruling regime because the propaganda works (with enough goodies thrown in) or it will play a significant role in ensuring the Pakatan Rakyat coalition sustains the status quo or even better comes into power - this depending on if Pakatan and Hindraf play well together.
Indians are reminded of their place in the order of things. Do not worry. In the end, the Malays will win the numbers game and any form of compromise will not be required. Whatever principles other than Umnoism or some form of Islam, which could have been an alternative, would have been lost.The sad reality is that we are still playing the same game which I believe every right-thinking Malaysian is aware of (and would like to change) instead of laying the foundation for some form of egalitarian alternative. In other words, besides the whole ABU (Anything But Umno) concept, most Malaysians are aware that the opposition front is a stand in for the racial groupings of BN albeit with less corruption.
Either way the disenfranchised of the Indian community has some way to go before some sort of equilibrium could be reached with the other communities in this country. As a Pakatan supporter, I believe the road would be less treacherous if the community makes a stand with the alternative coalition, even though the said coalition has been only marginally "better" in addressing the concerns of the Indian community.
Can Umno be trusted?
No, something that has been bothering me for some time now is the concept of trust. More specifically, trust in our politicians. Pakatan supporters (including me) mock Prime Minister Najib Razak when he mocks the Indian community in their mother tongue when nothing in his tenure suggests that trust has been earned.
Meanwhile the racial politics within the alternative alliance is submerged beneath the feel good rhetoric of change and the almost daily accounts of Umno-BN malfeasances propagated by the alternative press and ignored by the mainstream propaganda organs. Trust is hard to come by here in Malaysia.
Umno says trust us. It tells its supporters not to trust Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, whom they accuse of dividing the Malay community. They accuse the DAP of wanting to supplant Malay hegemony with Chinese-style democracy, so do not trust them. They accuse PAS of being unIslamic or worse hypocritical to their Islamic values, so do not trust PAS too.
And if you are a Umno-BN supporter all this may seem like a reasonable proposition. However digging a little deeper, you would realise that it is Umno which is literally dividing the Malay community with the injection of foreign nationals into the polity, Project M being a glaring example. It is Umno which has supplanted Malay hegemony with a plutocracy of cronies which include members of the Chinese and Indian communities that has sustained its grip on power.
And lastly (and here is the brilliant part) as a moderate Islamic country, Umno has simultaneously silenced radical Islamic thought in this country while advancing an Arabisation process that for the most part has left untouched the ‘other' communities but which has calcified the minds of a sizeable section of the Malay polity.
This twisted scheme had the singular aim of dividing through religion, the various communities in Malaysia and at the same time, ensuring that ‘moderate' Malaysians (including Muslims) voted BN, as they kept the Islamic bogeyman at bay. We should never forget that it was a Palestinian head of state (President Mahmoud Abbas) who accused another Muslim head of state (Najib) of dividing the ummah.
But what of Pakatan? My pro-establishment friends always ask me if I can "trust" Pakatan when Pakatan is led by a politician (Anwar) who had a road to Damascus like conversion. This whole Project M debacle and the role Anwar denies he played a part in is evidence to some, that the herd is led by a wolf in sheep's clothing.As I said before, I have very little interest in what Anwar did before or his protestation of his former political life. Arguing who is to be trusted more - Anwar or former PM Mahathir Mohamad - is disingenuous, especially if you commit to one or the other.
No, the only intellectually or morally tenable position (if one believes in second chances) is to judge what these Pakatan politicians say and do now, in their role as possible contenders to the Putrajaya throne. The only way for us to move out of this quagmire is to make a choice to change administrations and hold accountable those we claim are for change.
Breeding ground for frogs
I never understood the BN strategy of defending their corruption by pointing out the corruption of others, as I will never understand the Pakatan response of totally ignoring the evidence, as if hypocrisy and feigned ignorance were ever suitable defences.
Pakatan seems to be a breeding ground for political frogs. Perhaps it is something in the Pakatan eco-systems. While a principled politician like Zaid Ibrahim is mangled and vilified by the Pakatan machine, various potentates arise eagerly awaiting their time for a chance to benefit under the banner of change.
The corruption scandals in Kedah, Selangor and Kelantan or the hyperactive corporate activity in Penang, which the faithful choose to down play or ignore, is building up. Umno is always used as a yardstick (and rightfully so) but any attempt to warn of such dangers is shouted down or platitudes are thrown that all will be well when federal power is achieved.
Very few and certainly not many (influential) in Pakatan seriously consider a programme of decentralisation of power. Meanwhile political ineptness or maybe just plain old political skullduggery compromises agreed principles.
The ‘Allah' controversy is the perfect example. All parties and this includes BN had come to a reasonable compromise and this should have been an end to the story. Unfortunately the DAP for whatever reasons decided to stir the religious pot, the end results being that PAS has had to backtrack on principles already agreed to.So, not only did the DAP backtrack (see the pathetic party line on how Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng's speech was only meant for the residents of Sabah and Sarawak), they managed to drag their coalition partners into the mess.
Eco-terrorist wannabe
Now Pakatan can proudly say that it has an eco-terrorist wannabe amidst their ranks in the personage of Himpunan Hijau president Wong Tack. Pakatan, of course, has milked every bit of political mileage out of the Lynas fiasco and although this may be spun as an ecological issue, the reality is that it is a Chinese-dominated concern.
Some DAP apparatchiks and Pakatan kool-aid drinkers have been quick to justify Wong's threat but who is Wong to hold to ransom a democratically elected government - Pakatan or BN - with threats of violence.
Wong may think he is playing the martyr card but all those morons who think that Wong's "anguish" justifies violence of any kind should be seriously consider the realpolitik of the threat and what it could lead to considering the racial elements at play at this moment in Malaysian election history.
Wong Tack (right) dares to make this silly claim. This goes beyond concern into the territory of hubris. I doubt he even understands what it takes to bring down a facility like the Lynas plant. I know of professionals who know exactly how it could be done and if the implication is that Wong has access to the same expertise or knowledge, even more reason for him to serve a stint in a government-holding cell.He proudly says that he would accept the consequences of his actions but what of the consequences to the rest of the opposition forces in this country and to citizens who would be drawn into a conflict that would spread beyond the Lynas issue?
If ever there comes a time for violent revolution in this country, I know which community would be out in the streets tearing each other apart and which community would barricade themselves in their homes meekly living off their stockpile of canned goods.
You want to talk about trust. Pakatan should immediately disassociate itself with Himpunan Hijau and Himpunan Hijau should immediately call a vote of no confidence against Wong Tack or whatever procedures they have in place for a change of leadership.
This brazen call for violence should not be tolerated. This is the nature of the discourse in this country - burn the things you oppose, be it Malay-language bibles or rare earth plants.
As I said, it is easy to mock Najib when he babbles on about "trust" but this close to the elections we had better make sure that the alliance that represents change earns our trust and the only way to do this is to ensure that our ABU perspective does not cloud our natural instinct to be distrustful of those who claim to have our interest at heart and we should never, ever, let the zealots be the dominant voices in the discourse.
S THAYAPARAN is Commander (rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy.
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