YOURSAY | This Merdeka we must stand up for our country

 

YOURSAY | ‘It is indeed shocking to see Umno members losing all sense of justice and morality.’

COMMENT | Save the country or give in to the mob

MS: The things that differentiate the mob at the Umno special briefing gathering on Aug 27 from the rest of us are very powerful. The once shared interest in a progressive country subscribing to what is universally accepted as right and wrong is no longer decisive.

It is no longer politics which divides, it is something far deeper, something more fundamental. The Rukun Negara, once quoted by all and sundry as governing principles, has been discarded, and in its place, the interest of criminal ‘leaders’ reigns supreme.

The country is unevenly divided in terms of morals and values with the majority not giving a toss to the rules of the game of what makes good governance. And the gap grows wider by the day. The point is that we are not the same, we don't share the same values. Maybe we never did.

The country is on a slippery slope and the events of the last fortnight have revealed to what extent the criminals will go to maintain the status quo as an established, unrepentant kleptocracy.

It has exposed the rot in the system which harbours criminals who will sell secrets without qualms. It has spotlighted how the rich and powerful retain their privileges even after conviction.

No agency of the government, it appears, is free of the rot. As the minority in this failed experiment as an independent country, all we may do is watch as the inversion of values (with good becoming evil and evil becoming good) is normalised.

Kilimanjaro: Umno and its component parties that form the BN are washouts. It is not just the blind loyalty of its members but also the epicentre of a culture nurtured by warlordism and money.

It is a foregone conclusion that Umno will not change for the better and will never be able to provide a clean, fair and honest government.

Umno's stand after former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak has been imprisoned for his crime reveals a most disturbing and frightening prospect if it is allowed to rule again.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, like leaders before him, lacked the political will and backing to run the full mile.

When a powerful party like Umno exerts control, as in this case, the political outcomes have to be what that party wants.

Former prime ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Hussein Onn were the casualties of an Umno that became arrogant and corrupt.

Fifth prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did try to bring in some fresh air and hope after the ‘iron rule’ of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but the collective forces of Umno drowned him as always.

Losing heavily in 2008, Abdullah did have a wake-up call. But what he couldn't do when in a position of power, he failed when in a weakened position and that sealed his fate.

Muhyiddin Yassin's tenure was the worst we have witnessed so far. It was so bad that, in an unprecedented retort and rebuke from the palace, it was made abundantly clear that he and the then de facto law minister Takiyuddin Hassan from PAS had misled the people on issues of emergency.

Unfortunately, most of the leaders of Malay parties are untrustworthy and lack credibility and some of them are horrendously corrupt. Even those leaders who emerge from these parties may wish to swim away from the tide. But the ‘dark’ forces within the party establishment prevent such a possibility.

Ismail Sabri lacks the will and initiative to go through such a path and journey. It will almost certainly be a lonely and unsupportive venture and most probably, politically suicidal. Add to the fact the mistrust non-Malays have over his skewed racist views and stand.

None of the Malay parties - Umno, Bersatu and PAS and now Pejuang - can be expected to lead a multiracial government that is premised on fairness and excellent governance.

Despite the vague promises and cheap talk, this country is not going to be at peace unless there emerges a leader who will be able to unite the country instead of dividing it.

The possibility of a hung Parliament after the upcoming election, the possible party horse-trading and the possible ensuing instability will weaken the country. Without a genuine reconciliation between the Malays and non-Malays, there is very little to look forward to.

Vent: This is a classic textbook case of the rise of the rabble and a page right out of former US president Donald Trump's playbook and the “great lie” believed by delusional Republican devotees. After all, who are the grassroots of Umno?

But I fear the worst. The prime minister seems to be buckling under the immoral pressure mounted solely to save the kleptocrats. Why is the national budget being fast-forwarded by three weeks?

I never thought I would say this but it appears that we should now be supplicating ourselves on our bended knees to the Man in the Sky to save us. We are more desperate than the Umno mob to save ourselves now!

Hrrmph: It is indeed shocking to see Umno members having lost all sense of justice and morality.

Yes, the bigwigs have always escaped unscathed, but when one of them is finally nabbed, to see them demanding his release when he is proven to the whole world to be a crook is appalling and disgraceful.

A thief is caught robbing your home, and the whole neighbourhood turns to you and says "so what?"

If BN wins, the looting and the double standard of before will be nothing to what will come to pass. They will openly steal and pillage, and then laugh in our faces.

I am truly worried for the future of this country because I do not know if the majority of its citizens still understand what is right beyond their benefit at the expense of everyone else.

Faustus: Some 50 years of socioeconomic engineering – “conditioning” if one wishes to use the term - has caused the consolidation of some manner of reckless arrogance minus the fundamentals for reasoned moral and responsible patterns of behaviour.

The continued erosion of various institutions may seem to be in imminent threat from unreasoned passions as observed in this specific Umno gathering.

But there is hope in an early election as compared to continuing with what is now perceived to be a government without popular will legitimacy.

The decline of a lucky country and the failings of a nation due to insanity in parochialism will be in the minds of all voters hereafter. And multicultural Malaysia with a Malay majority will rise to a new occasion given the steep learning curve impressed upon us before the election.

Especially now that a cataclysm event in favour of the rule of law has been registered.

Apanama is Back: Now it is back to Malaysian voters to decide which route to take when they are at the crossroads. The meeting and briefing by Umno on Aug 27 should be an eye opener to all the voters, especially the younger generation.

Their true colour had been exposed once and for all. Even the so-called reformists could not hold their temptation to attack attorney-general Idrus Harun and chief justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.

Remember, they are sending a hint that “if we win the election and form the government, we will do this, this, this, this and this”. This means the slow destruction of our institutions.

If Umno forms the government after the 15th general election, I can say “game over” for Malaysia.

BlueMinnow3865: Raise the clarion call. Sound the trumpet. We must do it again.

We did it in GE14, we must do it again in GE15. Never let the crooks back into power. - Mkini