Bouquets for Adenan, brickbats for Umno

Muhyiddin must take the lead to urge Umno not to be a major obstacle to a movement of moderates against extremism in Malaysia.

Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem, Mr. Politically Correct to many, has received bouquets from DAP’s elder statesman Lim Kit Siang for urging the silent majority on Friday to speak up and reclaim the country for the moderates from the extremists.

Lim, who is also DAP Parliamentary Leader and Gelang Patah MP, however failed to point out that Adenan had erroneously referred to a so-called Social Contract forged among the founding fathers, one other than the Federal Constitution, the only Social Contract in law. Any Social Contract other than the Federal Constitution is anathema to non-Malays!

Skipping over Adenan’s flawed take in urging the silent majority, Lim continued to lavish praises on the Sarawak leader and hurled brickbats in advance at Umno at the same time if they don’t take a leaf from this.

He wants to know, in his latest blog posting, whether the Umno General Assembly next week will send out “a clear and unmistakable message that Umno will be the vanguard and not be the major obstacle to a movement of moderates against extremism in Malaysia”.

Lim recalled that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak had mooted the Global Movement of Moderates (GMM) idea with a clarion call to moderates of the world to unite and stand up against extremists, declaring:

“The fight against extremism is not about Christians versus Muslims, or Muslims versus Jews, but moderates versus extremists of all religions. We therefore need to rally a coalition of moderates; those willing to reclaim their religion, and pursue the path to peace.”

“Since Najib’s first speech at the United Nations General Assembly four years ago proposing a Global Movement of Moderates, Adenan is the first Barisan Nasional (BN) leader to call on moderates in the country to unite and isolate the extremists,” said Lim.

“It is food for thought that Najib has yet to make a stirring call in the country to moderates in Malaysia to unite against the extremists although this is his favourite topic in international forums.”

Lim implied that Najib says the same things in English whether in the country our outside, and quite the opposite when speaking in Malay in playing to the gallery especially in the kampungs.

This kind of double talk, stressed Lim, won’t do.

He noted that Umno Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin has trotted out an old cliché, change or be changed, to warn the ruling party in a Malay daily on Saturday that it’s still in grave peril after winning the last two General Elections “by the skin of its teeth”.

If Najib is not willing, Lim wants to know whether Muhyiddin is prepared to do what his boss is not willing to do i.e. take the lead to urge Umno to be the vanguard and not be a major obstacle to a movement of moderates against extremism in Malaysia.

The first person to rein in, urged Lim, was Umno Vice-president and Najib’s first cousin on his mother’s side Hishammuddin Hussein who has indulged in offensive, irresponsible and provocative “Malay keris” antics in previous Umno Youth Assemblies.

“Hishammudin announced last week that the relevance of maintaining the Chinese school system will be one of the ‘hotly-debated topics’ during the Umno annual general assembly next week,” fumed Lim in pointing out that Hishammudin has not changed and, no doubt, would have to be changed in keeping with Muhyiddin’s call.

Hishammudin might be a lost cause, but leaving him aside, what about the other Umno/BN Ministers, Chief Ministers, Menteris Besar, Lim wants to know, in the wake of Adenan’s statement.

Lim expects to read their stand through the Umno General Assembly next week.

He will be watching out to see whether another it will degenerate into another ferocious bout of Chinese-bashing just like the orgy of Chinese-bashing immediately after the 13th General Elections in May last year when Utusan Malaysia, the Umno mouthpiece, led the attack with the irresponsible and misleading front-page headline and question “Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?” (What else do the Chinese want?).