Ariff: How Umno leaders cheat their own people

Raub MP: Ruling party caused loss of Malay dignity by only helping the top 5% elite and blaming others

KUALA LUMPUR: Umno was lambasted today for deluding the people by concealing the fact that government policies helped only the elite 5 percent of Malays.

The MP for Raub, Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz, derided Umno politicians and Prime Minister Najib Razak for talking about a so-called loss of Malay dignity in speeches at last week’s Himpunan Rakyat Bersatu, the rally of Red Shirts.

In a blog article today, Ariff urged the Red Shirt marchers that they had “better start thinking on this issue. Is their lot caused by others or by the policies of Najib’s government?”

Ariff said it was no one else’s fault if the Malays believed they had lost their dignity. “They have allowed themselves to be manipulated by the government in power,” he said and pointed out that “Malay dignity is lost when they are deceived by their own leaders.”

He said dignity was grounded on individual initiative, personal freedom and responsibility, through actions that earned respect. “Malays can’t demand respect. They must earn it,” said Ariff, a former aide to Najib, who joined the DAP in 2012.

He flayed Umno for playing on racial fears at the Red Shirt rally, during which inflammatory remarks were made about the Chinese community and the DAP, with some marchers carrying placards condemning the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang for his purported involvement in the May 13 racial riots of 1969.

Ariff said Umno had been diverting the attention of the Malay masses. He pointed out that Umno had never explained why the industry of Malays had not been rewarded by just returns. “The simple answer is, because Umno have only carried out policies that benefited the top 5% of the Malays.”

However Umno explained away the unhappiness about why the other 95% did not get their dues by fobbing off “a manufactured reason”, that the Malay masses had been robbed by others, notably the Chinese.

“They did not explain that the rest of the Malays were robbed and continued to be robbed by the Malay political elite,” Ariff said. Umno’s policies benefited the elite, and it was this elite that was now fiercely defending Najib, he said.

But there was “not a squeak about the loss of Malay dignity” in relation to Najib’s business relationship with Malaysian Chinese businessmen such as Jho Low and others who feted him, or a golfing buddy of over 20 years’ standing who won a huge LRT contract.

“Chinese businessmen contributed and donated money for Umno’s political funds, while the majority of (bumiputera) Class A contractors farmed out their contracts to Chinese businessmen and took commissions,” Ariff wrote.

However race was used as an excuse. As an example, he quoted a comment reportedly made by former MP Ibrahim Ali questioning the loss of Malay Reserve Land. “How is DAP responsible for the diminution of Malay Reserve land?,” said Ariff, describing Ibrahim as a “cerebrally challenged windbag”.

“The people responsible for the loss of Malay Reserve land are the Umno governments,” Ariff said. “They allowed Malay Reserve land to be sold, developed, and alienated without demanding in return an equivalent value of land to be made Malay Reserved.”

Ariff said Umno Malays walked around with the sense of entitlement: “they must have this and that, as of right” without having worked for, fought for, or earned the right. He said going on religious grounds, the entire Malay community was guilty of living on usury or riba, on unearned income.

He pointed out that Umno’s top leadership had given clandestine support for the Red Shirt rally, which he disparaged as Umno’s Dignity March. “It wasn’t Malay dignity they were fighting for, it was for Najib’s Umno and Najib’s own survival.”

Ariff took personal swipes at Najib and his involvement in 1Malaysia Development Bhd, and said the reality was that Umno had lost its own dignity because of Najib’s misconduct and abuse of power.

Malay dignity had suffered a monstrous a loss because the Umno Malay government that the community supported had let them down. “Malay dignity is lost when they are deceived by their own leaders,” Ariff wrote.