Ariff: Umno delegates don’t really ‘understand’ 1MDB

The MP laments on the moral values of Umno members and their “spiritual poverty” pointed out by the poet Zaaba in the 1920s.

KUALA LUMPUR: Raub MP Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz reckons that although the twin mega scandals were not allowed to be brought up during the just-concluded Umno General Assembly, equally pertinent was that perhaps some 90 per cent of the delegates don’t really understand what the 1MDB scandal in particular was all about although it’s the main issue. “This explains why Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has been able to explain the twin mega scandals behind closed doors to Umno leaders and members and get away with it. They have just been fed lies and they are not any wiser.”

The MP laments on the moral values of Umno members and their “spiritual poverty” pointed out by the poet Zaaba in the 1920s. “If the members are in cahoots with the leadership which has allegedly engaged in wrongdoing, they can be held party to illegalities,” said Ariff. “Loyalty to leadership cannot be blind. There must be accountability by the party leadership.”

“It’s not quite right to say that Najib can be forgiven for his wrongdoing since he’s a fellow Malay and in the same party.”

Ariff wonders whether Umno members will forgive their leaders who enter their homes and sleep with their wives and children. “Must they be forgiven because they are fellow Malays, in the same party, and having the same religion and Rulers?”

“So, we have the spectacle where an Umno delegate was more concerned with the uniforms of female Malaysia Airlines’ cabin crew than the really important issues of the day,” said Ariff. “Others were more concerned with an Umno leader, enriched by APs and quotas and the like, getting on their chartered bus and sharing some of her good fortune with them in the form of RM50 notes.”

Taking a leaf from Ahmad Maslan and Hassan Malik who urged people to stop eating chicken if they think it was expensive and use bicycles to avoid paying toll, added the MP, it can be argued that if someone doesn’t like the uniforms of female Malaysia Airlines cabin crew, then they should avoid flying that airline. “The people are more concerned with the rising cost of living and how the economy is being managed.”

Najib’s biggest achievement, since becoming Prime Minister in 2009, said Ariff, was the payment of BR1M which next year would go up from RM300 per person to as much as RM1,050. “7.4 million people would get RM5.9 billion. That’s comes to only 20 per cent of the 1MDB debt.”

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