Burn, baby, burn- and I am not talking about the Black Panther hot sauce
There is a world of perception and a world of reality. There is also another realm, a domain of willed fiction that is impervious to reality and treats facts like enemies. Example: UMNO is very strong or has regained its lustre, or has attracted the support of second and 3rd generations, are some of the manufactured fictions. It’s the imaginarium of Dr Rais or whoever with PhDs out there.
UMNO is strong to certain UMNO people. It’s strong to people who have benefited directly from an UMNO doing business as usual. These are people who continue to spend money like nobody’s business while the government hasn’t got sufficient funds to feed students in boarding schools on weekends. UMNO is strong to those proposing to build two tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
UMNO is strong to certain UMNO people. It’s strong to people who have benefited directly from an UMNO doing business as usual. These are people who continue to spend money like nobody’s business while the government hasn’t got sufficient funds to feed students in boarding schools on weekends. UMNO is strong to those proposing to build two tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpur.
When PM Najib took over, my sense is that what motivated very many Najib enthusiasts was loathing of Abdullah Badawi and the desire to oust him and place someone cool in his place. Najib is cool but he is surrounded by political buffoons.
We accomplished this. We pressured Abdullah Badawi to leave before he does more damage to UMNO and the nation. But we never gave much thought to the public policies PM Najib and the UMNO leaders backed. We got our Obama in to replace that George Bush but now we are realising that Obama is just like Bush in many ways.
Theirs was a politics of style, not substance. They got the style and maybe most of us like that, but we don’t much like the substance. And we don’t like “the stench of crony capitalism, bailout favouritism and earmark corruption” which is increasingly creeping into PM Najib’s record. Think I am imagining? – wait till RMK10 comes out; the mega projects are already reserved.
It is the Delusion Zone and, judging by the results of a recent Merdeka Survey Centre earlier this year, large majorities of Malaysians especially Malays have been trapped there since PM Najib took up residence in the Sri Perdana.
