Kuok saga just latest in long history of distractions

Malaysian politics has always been a game of distraction. Every action seems geared to distract people from major issues, such as the unending revelations in the 1MDB scandal and the escalating cost of living taking its toll on most of us.

When Dr Mahathir Mohamad was the president of Umno, he too had pointed a finger at business magnate George Soros for creating the Asian financial crisis.

Analysts long predicted that it was coming; most of us who had lived long enough by then knew what had caused the bubble to eventually burst. But Soros came into the limelight as the main culprit behind the financial crunch.

It is not surprising that now even Robert Kuok is dragged into the miry clay when someone wants to leverage on his success as the country’s richest man.

Let’s put the record straight. Firstly, even if Kuok intended to fund the DAP, or even the Mickey Mouse Party to replace the BN, it is his prerogative how he uses his own money.

He can do it openly or he can do it discreetly. It is nobody’s business. Not incumbents who he is believed to be trying to unseat, if any, and certainly not a blogger like Raja Petra Kamaruddin.

As to his motive and the reasons why he chooses to do so, it is entirely his. He can choose to give RM1 billion to Umno, RM500 million to MIC and RM100 million to DAP, and zero to MCA and Bersatu. This is entirely Robert’s prerogative. Why the big brouhaha over it when a business magnate chooses to give his money to help political parties?

After all, did we not read that some RM2.6 billion had flowed from a Saudi Arab prince into the personal accounts of the Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak himself? We are told there is nothing wrong with that, even though the source is clearly foreign.

Secondly, most of us no longer even read RPK’s blog. To me, he lost his credibility even before the last general election. Most would agree that he wrote about Kuok is just more spin. But is it part of a larger script?

Thirdly, even with golden opportunities given by any sitting government, without sheer hard work, Kuok would not be who he is today.

No free lunch

Because of the hardships that our forefathers went through, some of us have learned that there is no free lunch.

An opportunity is an opportunity, and unless Kuok had worked hard to make it happen, he would not be the country’s richest man. In the process, he had also contributed to nation building. For that, I wonder why no leader has even expressed appreciation to the man himself.

When Kuok started Malayan Sugar Manufacturing Co Bhd, Najib was just a small boy. Therefore, any appreciationexpressed by Kuok, can only be attributed to Najib’s predecessors, which include Mahathir.

This leads to my final point. Umno, during the late Tunku Abdul Rahman’s time, was well-respected by the Chinese community. The Chinese leaders saw Umno as its working partner. It was a totally different party before 1969.

We had back then fairer leaders who saw the need to build a nation that is stronger with the participation of all Malaysians. I need not mention names, but one particular man was the late Ismail Abdul Rahman, whom Kuok has also referenced in his autobiography.

Based on my own observations as an ordinary Malaysian, things only went bad when certain individuals were trying to remove Tunku as the country’s prime minister. Since 1969, we see people being chased by their own shadows and whenever something goes awry, the Chinese Malaysian community becomes the easy punching bag.

This is one reason why, as a Chinese Malaysian myself, I told myself, “Enough is enough.”

The same script is played again and again. In the lead up to the last general election, a particular church was raided by a state government agency that did not even have direct reporting line to the menteri besar.

When that happened, politicians from the other end of the political divide suddenly seized the opportunity to show that they are now close to the community.

And we see these theatrics this being played out again in the Kuok saga.

Certain political parties have never grown out of the mould that shaped it. When the master, and now its terminator, himself decides to go to Pekan, we saw how certain individuals reacted with threats to create violence in Najib’s own “fortress.”

Surprisingly, we have not even heard any national leader, including the incumbent, openly condemning the threats issued by a grassroots leader. I am sure if the late Tunku were still alive, he would have silenced this man himself.

So I tell myself, yes, I would vote for Umno in the coming general election – but only if there are no other names on the ballot.

But even if the opposition decided to field Mickey Mouse against any Umno candidate, that’s who would get my vote.

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