The Rot Started With UMNO

One begins to wonder how the individual interests of Malaysian private businessmen for 1 day is tied up with the national interests of the whole country or whether they are just trying to stop reforms in Malaysia?

By batsman

When the US got into deep financial trouble under the Republicans, they elected a Democrat to be President and sort out the problem, since Democrats are supposed to be more people friendly. Now tent cities (no doubt better looking than the ones in the 3rd World) are springing up in California, the US unemployment rate is dangerously high and the Chinese are getting very worried the US will default on its loans. But guess what? The US is still employing drones to bomb Libya and Pakistan, but I suppose they can’t help it since the US is the policeman of the world (if only the blurry and confused US
Senate realized this).

When Greece got into trouble and needed bail outs, a Socialist who is supposed to be people friendly was elected to sort out the mess. But it looks like the mess is bigger than his ability to solve it, so Greece is now in danger of finally and officially going bankrupt, not being governable with people rioting in the streets and the whole of Europe is worried the contagion will spread.

Even the Malaysian government is worried that the planned peaceful Bersih 2.0 demonstration will turn into a Greek-style riot and while the Home Minister and his police force say they are neutral, Perkasa and UMNO Youth seem to have tasked themselves to ensure all goes well and that national security is well protected from any peaceful rioters.

Malaysians are saying that planned peaceful demonstrations to demand clean elections and reforms to put Malaysia on a healthier footing are threats to national security and public safety. Crony businessmen are drummed up to cry foul that the peaceful demonstrations will affect their business of the day. They don’t want anything like Greece to occur here.

Unfortunately for Greece, it is already too late and the rot started a long time ago. The riots are only an angry expression that the rot that started a long time ago is now turning their lives into one long misery. So one begins to wonder how the individual interests of Malaysian private businessmen for 1 day is tied up with the national interests of the whole country or whether they are just trying to stop reforms in Malaysia?

Looks like Malaysians are playing patriot games. Who are actually the patriots and who are the traitors? There is a lot of deafening name calling for sure.

Lets go back to the beginning. Even RPK likes to go back to the beginning to show that UMNO was created on the back of street demonstrations in spite of the fact they claim Malay culture frowns upon street demonstrations.

The British who ruled Malaya then was world famous for the practice of divide and rule. This colonial policy enabled them to rule Ireland for 700 years and allowed them to conquer the whole of India with just a few thousand soldiers.

So of course the British used divide and rule in Malaya. But they were an external power and the people who comprised Malays, Chinese and Indians had excellent relations amongst themselves. Many old timers still remember how good race relations were then even in spite of the fact that the British used divide and rule tactics.

Unfortunately when the British handed over power to UMNO, UMNO continued to use divide and rule tactics. The big difference was that UMNO is now the internal independant government not an external colonial power.

Given this situation there is no chance for Malaya to become a peaceful united country. There is no chance for healthy Malayan and subsequently Malaysian nationalism to thrive. UMNO lives only on Malay nationalism and practices divide and rule.

When UMNO promotes Malay nationalism in the context of a multi-racial country like Malaysia, it acts as a splittist trend. This splittist trend has subsequently turned into a divisive racist style Ketuanan Melayu ideology. The rot started from UMNO.

When UMNO subverts true Malaysian nationalism in favour of narrow divisive Malay nationalism, it cannot be said to be working for the interests of the whole country anymore, even when it tries to cover this up by cobbling itself together with the MCA
and MIC to look multi-racial. Malaysia has become a quarrelsome country split into races and religions without any true loyalties to the country as a whole (think Hindraf), united only by racist force and abuse of power.

UMNO therefore stays in power by racist force and abuse of power and it retains its power through massive corruption and wasteful spending to win votes and turn race against race and religion against religion through favouritism (i.e divide and rule). In the meantime the country is running up massive debts – just like Greece and just like the US. The rot started with UMNO.

So when RPK says he cannot understand the Malay mind, I am suggesting he start with UMNO. Money, not loyalty or patriotism is the key factor in Malay minds. In fact, it is the key factor in Chinese and Indian minds too. (Fortunately for me, my friends say I have only sex on my mind. Fortunate too that I have an obedient wife).

“Loyalty” and “patriotism” is now dependant on money.

There is no longer any outlet for true ideals and honesty except in faith – everything else is money. Malaysia has turned into a country of mercenaries obsessed with money (the same way businessmen are worried about their miserable day’s takings) and the rot started with UMNO.

Bersih 2.0 is only trying to make small changes by demanding clean elections in a peaceful demonstration. Even this is seen as a threat to public order and national security.

I guess the operative word here is not “demonstration” but “demand”. UMNO cannot tolerate any demands since it rules by force and abuse of power, but where does that leave the people? And democracy?