WIN AND BECOMES CHARCOAL, LOSE AND BECOMES THE ASH

Umar Mukhtar

Almost USD700 million ending up in Prime Minister Najib Razak’s private bank account? So it is alleged by unnamed Malaysian investigators to Wall Street Journal. The biggest installment was close to RM2 billion, two months before PRU13. What a stupid PM we have. If that is true, he deserves whatever is coming to him.

On the other hand, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Except that it’s not a woman but the septogenarian in the person of Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, said by reports by Asian Sentinel to be the source of these revelations.  It wasn’t really specific about the money being 1MDB’s but RM2.5 billion is quite a lot of money, even by 1MDB’s standards.

If that was true, then it was wrong. No two ways about it or which ever way you choose to look at it. RM2 billion Corporate Social Responsibility money from 1MDB for the deserving? That’s just comical. Anyway, its CEO has just denied he ever passed on that kind of money to Najib. So it couldn’t be a secret CSR payment! And since it couldn’t be for The Elections Commission, which has its own source of government funds, it did look like it was money to help Barisan Nasional win PRU13.

It used to be such money came from the towkays of MCA. But now that MCA is not even worth betting on, it looks like UMNO has to scrape a few ringgit here and there on its own. Mahathir must have known what the money was for. He must have known that for a while already. He couln’t stand keeping a secret anymore?

Actually, all these allegations by Najib’s administration of e-mail tampering, blackmailing and arrest of a disgruntled ex-employee, and the postponement of party elections, was beginning to look like a Najib fightback that must be put down. Come what may. Reveal!

UMNO becomes the collateral damage? What the heck! After all, by hurting the country you had helped built by making allegations in the foreign press that may colour its credibility, you have already done that. Now hurting the party you found (UMNO Baru) by revealing an embarrassing scenario of dubious ”fund-raising” is just the icing on the cake.

Anything, but anything for the sake of revealing the truth because you love the truth so, so much. It’s the brick and mortar of your life. Excuse me, while I puke.

“Menang jadi arang, kalah jadi abu,” or in English, “Win and be charcoal, lose and be the ash,” is a saying that normally describe desperadoes fighting each other. They are so pissed off at each other that nothing else matters. Not the country, not the party, not their people, not their own standing, not their past, not anything. (It helps too if your children are already billionaires).

Of course, you can be cynical and say “Ayam menang, kampung tergadai“, or “Your fighting cock has won the duel but your village has just been pawned by that victory.” But me, I prefer “Berludah ke langit kena ke muka sendiri“, meaning in English, spitting skywards, it will hit your own face. Because it is a communal face, not unless you have never been affiliated with it, deep in your heart of hearts.

Don’t get me wrong. What is not right, is not right. Stop the belligerent practice. Nothing can justify it. But there are many ways to skin a cat. If you are a vigilante for what is right, I would understand. But not using it as a weapon, when your similar list is a mile long. Where is your class? This is the work of a megalomaniac, pure and simple. “Whoever dares to ignore me, the mighty one, he will pay.” The other collateral damages? Who cares! He wants to die a happy megalomaniac.

Spectators with vested interest may be excited with this apparent scenario. Achieving what you have tried to do for decades, to invalidate, erase and stomp over what you perceive as your enemy’s hypocrisy, secrets and lack of integrity.

Well, don’t go overboard, please, because the other millions who are watching with sadness will remain to be not on your side, not because they don’t love honesty, but because they were not even vicariously responsible to what had happened. No referendum was ever asked of them prior to that kind of act, if true. For that matter, no accounting and no reports were for their approval.

Are they despondent at the state of affairs? Not at all. So don’t have any idea that they are so demoralised that they are so weakened as to tolerate mischief. Cool it bros, surely we don’t want to be charcoals and ashes. We’ll sort it out.

We are done with megalomaniacs who cheapened the demeanor of our community by pretending to support truth at all costs. “Kalau nak melentur buloh, jangan sampai patah beribu.” Meaning if you want to shape the bamboo, avoid breaking it into a thousand pieces.

I see that a self-fulfilling prophecy had been initiated. Najib will lose, and Mahathir the megalomaniac will be proven right? But the village would have already been pawned. This country will never be the same again. Change for the better? I hope so. Some other people need to change too, but it will get worse before it gets better.