Zahid’s bad impression ‘indelible’

Barely days old as the Home Minister and Ahmad Zahid has created an 'indelible' bad impression of himself by telling the disgruntled voters off.

COMMENT

Barely hours after the new Cabinet was unveiled, its ministers through sheer foolery, had revealed their true colours.

One such minister is Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who in the previous Cabinet line-up held the Defence Ministry portfolio.

Angered by unhappiness voices over the fraud employed by the Barisan Nasional ruling alliance to win the 13th general election, Ahmad Zahid point-blankly asked those unhappy with the May 5, 2013 general election outcome to migrate.

Predictably, Ahmad Zahid who is also Umno vice-president was lambasted for his racist stance.

However, like all ‘seasoned’ politicians, Ahmad Zahid too quickly clinged to the alibi that his statement was taken out of context by certain irresponsible parties.

“I actually said those who are not confident of our political system to berhijrah to countries with political systems that suited them.

“I am not being racist… I am just being practical in saying such groups should go to countries where they can translate their political beliefs into reality,” Ahmad Zahid said in his defence.

Making a lame justification as to why he said that which he did is not going to help Ahmad Zahid make a good impression on the already fuming rakyat.

In fact, Ahmad Zahid’s explaination that Malaysia is the beneficiary of the Commonwealth system and individuals who think the system in the United States or other countries were more suitable could migrate there has made one thing clear, that the proof of the pudding is in its eating.

That said, there is little good the rakyat can expect from ministers like Ahmad Zahid or rather the entire Cabinet line-up, all of whom came in not by virtue of quality but through cronyism.

And that once again Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is ‘at loss for words’ when the rakyat is humilated speaks volumes of his dedication towards the people.

Politicians never have personal views

If the “get lost” outburst by Ahmad Zahid was not discomforting enough, newly-minted Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin butted in saying the remark was made in Ahmad Zahid’s personal opinion.

Now, can Khairy enlighten the rakyat as to when does a minister speak in “his personal capacity?”

Khairy’s uncalled for attempt at dousing the tension caused by Ahmad Zahid goes to show just how much these “Umno boys” will stoop to save their own skin.

The truth as the rakyat knows is that Ahmad Zahid is yet another Malay extremist out to subjugate the non-Malays of this country; hence, any form of damage control by any quarters is not going to change this fact.

Ahmad Zahid’s intolerance towards the Chinese and Indians is apparent, it is now a matter of wait and see as to what prime minister Najib does to tone down the highly-charged racial tension in this country, if he ever does anything that is.

As for the rakyat, they have two options – either put up with ministers like Ahmad Zahid or make it clear to the Barisan Nasional leadership that the people are in no mood to entertain bigots like Ahmad Zahid.

Zahid’s bad impression ‘indelible’

Barely days old as the Home Minister and Ahmad Zahid has created an ‘indelible’ bad impression of himself by telling the disgruntled voters off.

In fact, Ahmad Zahid’s notoriety for denying Malaysians the right to a better voting system and telling them to migrate if they are unhappy with Malaysia’s first-past-the-post system will precede all else that he does.

The question, however, that keeps popping up is – why has BN adopted the ‘deaf mute’ stand in the ‘Ahmad Zahid and migrate’ issue? Whatever happened to the BN policy of ’1Malaysia’ and ‘People First’?

The dissenting voice, as always, has come from the opposition quarters with DAP anchorman Lim Kit Siang pushing for a motion once Parliament convenes to censure the Home Minister for his “arrogant and insufferable outburst”.

With BN’s nonchalant attitude towards the ‘Ahmad Zahid and migrate’ episode, the revelation by World Values Survey that Malaysians are among the least racially tolerant in the world comes as no surprise.

The survey reported in the Washington Post, was conducted by Swedish economists showed that 20% to 29.9% of Malaysians would not like living next to a person of a different race; Malaysia was lumped together in the category with Thailand, the Philippines, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco, Mali and Zambia.

While the survey findings are far from not shocking, what however does the Home Minister intend to do to? Will Ahmad Zahid condemn all Malaysians and ask them to “get out” of the country or will he work hard at instilling the long lost ‘love thy neighbour’ culture?

And going by the racial politicking employed by ministers in the new Cabinet line-up, does the much talked about national reconciliation stand any chance at succeeding?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.