Who are Ibrahim Ali, Ali Tinju and Lester Melanyi?

Former de facto law minister Zaid Ibrahim has hit the nail on the head when he said that peninsula Malays are “always looking for a fight”.

No wonder even Sarawak Chief Minister Adenan Satem, in one of his speeches during the Chinese New Year celebration this year, had the same perception that Umno in the peninsula was always the bully of the minority.

In most countries, the government protects the rights of the minority but in peninsular Malaysia, a few idiotic leaders think they have all the legitimacy to continue suppressing the minority in the name of race and religion.

It is these leaders who have brought down the dignity of the Malays until the Group of 25 eminent Malays (G25) emerged, giving a fresh breath to what is already the floundering dignity of the Malays in the peninsula.

Noor Farida Ariffin, who is the coordinator of G25, has earned the respect of my fellow Malaysians. I, for one, went to introduce myself to her at a public meeting, telling her that I am one of her fans.

Her ability to articulate her thoughts in English and in a manner that could be understood by other respectable individuals is sadly a lost asset in both the present and the younger generations of Malaysians.

Understandably, she was the former ambassador to the Netherlands, but soon, if we continue on the present trend, we may have to send some scoundrels to represent Malaysia.

Wrong people in the forefront

Umno and Barisan Nasional should realise by now that they are having the wrong people in the forefront. This is one reason why Umno has truly become a four-letter word to many Malaysians.

Even if Umno may not be directly responsible for the actions of these scums of society, their garment has been soiled by the filth rubbed onto both Umno and BN, and to a lesser extent PAS recently. They do that with a kiss and a hug, or showing that they are in solidarity with the ruling party.

We are probably going to witness another episode of our country’s history which will totally wipe out the credibility of the religious party in the eyes of the people.

From threatening to burn the Alkitab to urging the government to label G25 as ‘deviant’, Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali, for example, has riled up the Christian community in both East and peninsular Malaysia, yet he found his way to visit Sarawak. Who has been given him the protection all these years?

During the aftermath of Bersih 4, we also heard of the red shirt movement and the silat movement. The red shirt movement was led mainly by one Umno division leader, Jamal Mohd Yunos and the notorious Ali Tinju, whose real name is Mohd Ali Baharom, while the silat group was supposedly a sports group, probably equivalent to other martial arts groups such as taekwando and karate.

Yet, we saw the Olympics-linked organisation Persekutuan Silat Kebangsaan (Pesaka) being used to stage a demonstration, led by none other than Mohd Ali Rustam, a former chief minister of Malacca and another Umno leader. We are watching to see if Pesaka would escape being kicked out of the Olympic Council of Malaysia.

Jamal is the franchisor of Restoran Ikan Bakar Sekinchan (which has since became the skeleton of a business even before his first public appearance in front of Bersih co-chair Ambiga Sreenevasan’s house), and we now know that Ali Tinju’s own veterans’ organisation, the Federal Territory and Selangor Malay Army Veterans Association, had been deregistered by the Registrar of Societies on April 1, 2014.

Then, there was this former journalist and bankrupt Lester Melanyi who claimed that Sarawak Report had falsified the information on 1MDB.

Lester was not ashamed to even tell the Malay Mail Online that he had received money from certain people to expose the Sarawak Report website. His story has since been debunked immediately by Sarawak Report owner Clare Rewcastle-Brown.

Tell me, who could have paid Lester money to cast doubts on Sarawak Report except for those who have a vested interest in 1MDB? Based on the testimony of a bankrupt, even the inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar has threatened to arrest those named by Lester.

There were also others like Ikatan Muslimin Malaysia (Isma) president Zaid Abdul Rahman, who claimed that feminism is a ‘facade used by a secret Zionist-Christian alliance to dishonour Muslim women.’

This is the strangest of all ideas for even the Christian community, as the Bible has taught that women are to be subject to their husbands, and their husbands to their wives. In short, we talk about equality of the gender (with no room for gender discrimination), whereas feminism pushes for a different agenda altogether.

Zionism, of course, is a modern term, referring to a regime that is currently ruling Israel and to equate Christianity with Zionism and feminism, a 20th century concept, is sheer ignorance on the part of the Isma president.

Blame the leaders

With the current batch of Umno leaders, one cannot help but shake the head. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself is involved in a major scandal involving billions of ringgit.

After the Sarawak Report, Wall Street Journal and the Edge exposed that US$700 million had made its way into his personal accounts, Najib has been shying away from public scrutiny. His popularity had dipped like the falling ringgit. Najib is also the first Malaysian prime minister to be investigated by foreign bodies combatting money-laundering and corruption.

Despite the urging by a number of Umno grassroot leaders, Najib continues to pay no attention to the grassroots. This is a formula for a further break-up within Umno, and an easy walkover for the opposition in the coming general election.

His own deputy prime minister has denied any link to alleged illegal online gambling kingpin Paul Phua, who was arrested and being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but tell me, what business did he have to write to the FBI when Phua was no longer a Malaysian?

Even the Royal Malaysian Police was unaware of the letter which carried the official letterhead of the Malaysian government. What a shame this has brought to the country after it was exposed.

The top people have to take the blame, especially when they themselves are not setting good examples for others to emulate.

Umno secretary-general Adnan Mansor in an outburst against Bersih supporters said, “They can meet in the stadium, and if they want to go nude, they can do it!” Adnan did not realise his uncouth words were an insult to a number of Puan Sris and Datins, and other with honorific titles, who were present at Bersih 4. Even Ena Ling, wife of former MCA president Ling Liong Sik, was at a Bersih 4 event overseas.

How then can Umno expect the people to respect its leaders and those who are out there to defend them when, as Zaid correctly put it, they are “always looking for a fight”.

“They want to fight Christians, liberals and those selling phones. Perkasa wants the group of pensioners who call themselves G25 to be classified as deviants.” People with a sound mind would be able to see between Ibrahim Ali and Noor Faridah, who is truly the ‘deviant’ animal with low or no moral values.

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. -Mkini