ISA for Datuk Seri Wan Azizah?

ARCHIVES 2010

By admin-s On Dec 6, 2010

By Art Harun

The suggestion made by UMNO legal advisor, Datuk Hafarizam Harun (no relation to me), that the ISA be used against, particularly, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah, is symptomatic of UMNO’s psycho terrorism response to any opposing intellectual proposition. This technique has been a feature of UMNOlitics for as long as all of us would care to remember.

Psycho terrorism, like any other form of terrorism, is aimed at creating fear. With the target in a state of utter paralysis caused by the crippling fear, the psycho terrorists move to control the target’s mind and eliminate the target’s action. Without the target’s action, there would not be any reaction. Mission accomplished.

The target’s action here is her rejection of the much quarreled about – though never properly debated or well argued – concept of Ketuanan Melayu, or the Malay Dominance/Supremacy.

Lately, UMNO’s potency, even among its own members, is suspect. While outwardly its President – also our Prime Minister – has been preaching social justice and the concept of a fair and just society and has been blah blahing about equitable distribution of wealth as well as a culture of inclusiveness in his idea of 1Malaysia, it is felt that UMNO cannot do away with its post-war-neo-nationalistic stance. Lest UMNO might lose the support of the grassroots.

Thus, a balance has to be achieved between pandering to the needs and aspirations of the young and educated as well as the middle to upper middle class urbanites on one hand and the lower rung of the society, whether in urban areas or rural on the other.

That is precisely the reason why we, Malaysians, are seemingly marooned in a state of paradox since 2008. One fine day we would hear the Prime Minister extolling the advantages and benefits of equitable wealth distribution among all Malaysians only to be told a week or so later that the special “rights” of the Malays will be defended come rain or shine.

The next day we would be duly entertained by a call from the Prime Minister to the international community not to be involved in the politics of hate only for us to be brought back to Earth by Perkasa claiming that Ketuanan Melayu is guaranteed in our Federal Constitution and Utusan Malaysia proposing with complete impunity that 13th May should be commemorated ala Christmas Day.

It would also not go unnoticed among all Malaysians that despite UMNO’s express neo-economic agenda which espouses openness, fair competition and transparency in non-Malay and international forums, it continues to dance to the tune of Perkasa, Gertak and the likes before a Malay audience.

I loath to think what the international community and investors think of us as a result of all these different posturing before different audiences. It reminds me of one of Batman’s nemesis, the creature known as Two Face.

Contrary to what analysts believe, UMNO is not at a cross-road. It is on a 6 lane highway, driving against traffic, in a car made in 1956 with a lose drum brake. It is a calamity waiting to happen.

It goes without saying that Ketuanan Melayu, its propagation and sustenance, is UMNO’s most weighty balancing act, as far as its leaders are concerned. Any challenge – real or perceived – against that concept would and could not be tolerated as that challenge would spell the cessation of UMNO’s relevancy and significance to the common denominator – the Malaysian peasantry – in UMNO’s dream of totalitarian-absolutist-feudal democracy state.

Datuk Seri Wan Azizah’s rejection of Ketuanan Melayu must therefore be checked immediately. Lest that idea would catch up and a reaction would follow.

The thought of Malaysians, especially the Malays, coming to terms with the obvious failure of the so called affirmative actions thus far implemented by the UMNO-led government – which has further divided the society into “the haves” and “the have nots” depending on the accumulation of political contacts and patronages – and the prospect of them seeing the economical and political truth behind the cries of Ketuanan Melayu, would send shivers across UMNO’s fiefdoms.

When pushed against an intellectual wall, UMNO has always resorted to fear mongering.