How fast we forget!
Today, Kadir Sheikh Fadzir is telling us that Umno is corrupt. Umno is evil. Umno bribes the voters. Umno is involved in ‘money politics’. But Umno has always been doing this even when it was known as Umno ‘Lama’. It also did this when it was called Umno ‘Baru’. And Kadir was a member and leader/Minister of both these Umnos. So why talk about it now? When Kadir left Semangat 46 to join (or rejoin) Unmo, he already knew very well that Umno plays ‘money politics’. He did not discover this just today.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Last Monday, Kadir Sheikh Fadzir quit Umno. It is said he wanted to join the opposition, in particular PKR, but since no one invited him he had no choice but to announce that he did not want to join PKR but will continue his ‘struggle’ through an NGO.
Kadir is not really a high profile Minister. His brother, Aziz Sheikh Fadzir, is probably better known. Aziz was one of the Umno Youth leaders who stormed the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in 2000 and threatened to burn it down unless Suqui withdrew its 17-point demands regarding the issue of Chinese education.
This was what Lim Kit Siang said on 21st August 2000:
Last Friday, in utter disregard and disrespect of sensitivities of a multi-racial, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious Malaysia, Abdul Aziz led an unruly, abusive and gangsterish UMNO Youth demonstration at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall in Kuala Lumpur to protest against the Malaysian Chinese Organisation Elections Appeals Committee (Suqiu).
Inflammatory and racist placards were displayed during the UMNO Youth demonstration threatening a racial conflict, reporters and photographers were manhandled and abused, while threats to “burn down the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall” were issued.
Many had questioned where were the police water cannons and FRU last Friday when UMNO Youth staged not only an illegal assembly, but a highly unruly, abusive and gangsterish demonstration reminiscent of UMNO Youth’s lawless and gangsterish break-up of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in Kuala Lumpur in November 1996.
What would have happened if the MCA Youth had been equally insensitive about Malaysia’s plural society and had staged a similar unruly, abusive and gangsterish demonstration outside say the Malay Chamber of Commerce, displaying racist and inflammatory placards and threatening to “burn down the Malay Chamber of Commerce”? Wouldn’t this have sparked off a “racial confrontation”?
What is even more deplorable is that Abdul Aziz and UMNO Youth are trying to escalate racial tensions in the country, threatening an even “bigger” demonstration if Suqiu Committee does not heed the UMNO Youth’s one-week ultimatum by Thursday to apologise for the Suqui demands. (http://www.limkitsiang.com/archive/2000/aug00/lks0458.htm)
How fast we forget!
Anyway, back to Kadir. When Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah formed his Semangat 46 in 1988, Kadir, together with Rais Yatim, Ibrahim Ali, Manan Othman, Harun Idris, etc., joined the party. Ex-Prime Ministers Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn also backed the party and gave a number of Semangat 46 ceramahs, as did Harun Idris. Basically, the entire ‘Team B’ of Umno joined Semangat 46 except for one person, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Pak Lah just stayed in the political wildness for a few years until he was ‘rehabilitated’ and allowed back into Umno — or rather allowed to join Umno Baru, which technically was a new party and different from the old Umno.
Worth noting here is that the Tunku, Tun Hussein and Harun all died OUTSIDE Umno. They never joined Umno Baru, which they regarded as the fake Umno and ‘Dr Mahathir’s party’.
Maybe many of you are not aware or cannot remember, but Kadir was the FIRST Semangat 46 leader to resign from that party to rejoin Umno — or to become a member of Umno Baru. ‘Rejoin Umno’ is not quite the right phrase to use considering that two ex-Prime Ministers regarded Umno Baru as a fake Umno and different from the original Umno formed in 1946. (And why is ‘Umno Baru’ now called ‘Umno’ and no longer called ‘Umno Baru’?)
How fast we forget!
So, Kadir left the opposition to rejoin Umno, the first one to do so. And he knew all along that Unmo is guilty of ‘money politics’, the word they use to describe bribing the voters. ‘Money politics’ is the ‘softer’ term to describe ‘bribery’. But they both mean the same thing. It means ‘vote buying’.
Today, Kadir is telling us that Umno is corrupt. Umno is evil. Umno bribes the voters. Umno is involved in ‘money politics’. But Umno has always been doing this even when it was known as Umno ‘Lama’. It also did this when it was called Umno ‘Baru’. And Kadir was a member and leader/Minister of both these Umnos. So why talk about it now? When Kadir left Semangat 46 to join (or rejoin) Unmo, he already knew very well that Umno plays ‘money politics’. He did not discover this just today.
The truth is, Kadir himself is guilty of the same thing that he accuses Umno of. He too played ‘money politics’ when he was in Umno ‘Lama’. I even know who gave him the money. It was a Chinese business tycoon. I was there in the next room when he came to the office of that Chinese business tycoon back in the 1980s to collect the money. I even shook his hands and said hello. This was before Semangat 46 was formed. Does he want me to name the place and the Chinese business tycoon who gave him the money? I can if he wants me to. I can even name the Chinese lady who had to ‘look after him’ in his visit to the office of the Chinese business tycoon.
How fast we forget!
Back to the incident of his brother, Aziz, leading a horde of Umno Youth members to raid the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall and threatened to burn it down if Suqui did not withdraw their 17-point demands. Did Kadir scream when his brother raided the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall with the Unmo Youth militia in 1990 and threatened to burn it down? In 1990, Kadir was already back in Umno. Did he protest that his brother is a racist and was pushing Malaysia to the brink of a racial conflict? Kadir was an Umno leader. His brother was an Umno Youth leader. So he supported what Umno Youth was doing — threatening the Chinese with bloodshed. He did not protest or chided his brother.
How fast we forget!
This is the culture of most, if not all, politicians. Read Lim Kit Siang’s press release above again. Kit Siang said: but a highly unruly, abusive and gangsterish demonstration reminiscent of UMNO Youth’s lawless and gangsterish break-up of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in Kuala Lumpur in November 1996.
The organiser of the Second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor (APCET) in 1996 was Tian Chua and gang, many now in PKR. The leader of the Umno horde that trashed the conference and stole the computers and other stuff was PKR’s Secretary-General, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. Today, Tian Chua and Saifuddin are comrades-in-arms. They are both fighting for justice, equality, freedom of expression, democracy, etc. At one time, back in 1996, Saifuddin was opposed to everything that he fights for today.
How fast we forget!
Hasan Ali has now left the opposition. Actually, he got sacked from his party. And now that he is outside the opposition, he is continuing his ‘struggle’ on the platform of an NGO, just like Kadir Sheikh Fadzir. And now that he is no longer in the opposition all the dirt on him is being revealed.
But that dirt was already there when he was still in the opposition. This is not new dirt. This is old dirt. His transgressions were going on when he was in the opposition. But when he was in the opposition only nice things must be said about him. Nothing bad must be said about him. Only when he is no longer in the opposition must his dirt be revealed.
How fast we forget!
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was once ‘the best Prime Minister Malaysia ever had’. Say anything bad about Dr Mahathir and heaven help you. Then, in 2006, Dr Mahathir resigned from Umno. And since he had resigned from Umno he became a pariah. No longer was he invited to functions. And anyone who organised a function and invited Dr Mahathir would not get their police permit approved unless they withdrew the invitation.
Dr Mahathir condemned Umno, the Umno Baru that he had formed. He said that Malaysia is a police state. He said there is no democracy and freedom of speech in Malaysia. He told the voters to not vote Umno in the 2008 general election. Vote opposition, said Dr Mahathir.
Dr Mahathir was the person who had formed Umno Baru. Yet, when he contested the post of delegate to the annual assembly in his division, he lost. He did not contest the post of division chief. He did not contest the post of committee member. He just contested the lowest position in the division, a delegate to the annual assembly. And even that he lost — a most shameful thing to happen to an ex-Prime Minister who is supposed to be the greatest Prime Minister Malaysia ever had.
How fast we forget!
Today, Hasan Ali is condemning Azmin Ali. Hasan wants Azmin to reveal the ‘secret’ of the tens of millions of shares he received when Anwar Ibrahim was the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Did Hasan just know about this? Is this something he just discovered? This is an old story from way back in 1999. Everyone has heard of this story even before 1999. Even everyone in PAS has heard of this story even before 1999, Hasan Ali included.
So why raise this matter now? Why raise this matter when now you are no longer in the opposition? You knew about this story even before PKR was formed. You knew about this story even before PAS, PKR and DAP formed the coalition called Pakatan Rakyat. But you kept quiet all this while. You agreed to form a coalition with a party that you knew its leaders had skeletons in the closet. At that time this was not an issue; it was okay. Today, because you are no longer in the opposition, it is not okay; it is an issue.
How fast we forget!
S. Nallakaruppan is now talking about Azmin Ali’s child and is inferring that the child may actually be Anwar Ibrahim’s child and not Azmin’s child. Nalla also talks about Anwar’s sexual misconduct. And he knows about Anwar’s sexual misconduct because he was the pimp who arranged Anwar’s rendezvous with all sorts of women. Hence Nalla has first-hand knowledge since he was the Mister Fixit. And Nalla speaks with self-righteousness because he is now heading his own party that is a member of Barisan Nasional.
But did not Nalla want to contest the by-election under PKR, the same party headed by Anwar and the man whom he now condemns? Why was Anwar a good man when you wanted to contest the election but now that you were not able to contest the election Anwar has become a bad man? Were you not, as you claim, the person who arranged all these sexcapades that you are now revealing and condemning Anwar for?
How fast we forget!
Such is the hypocrisy of politicians both sides of the political fence. When you are with me you can do no wrong. And even if you do anything wrong I will cover it up. But when you are no longer with me I will reveal all the wrong that you did, even the wrong that I was a party to and collaborated with you to do.
The problem can be traced to the mentality of Malaysians, the Malays in particular. Malaysians are very feudalistic. They kowtow to people in power. They love rubbing shoulders with monarchs, political leaders, corporate bosses, and so on. And when you are up there, you are the darling. When you are no longer up there, you are a pariah. Dr Mahathir found this out and said so. Dr Mahathir also lamented how feudalistic the Malays are and he wished they would be more republican in attitude.
What Imam Ghazali said is very true. But then, while most Malays will quote what Imam Ghazali said, how many will actually follow his teachings? Most Malays are false Muslims and hypocrites. They will talk but very few will do what they say. Bikin tak serupa cakap. When you have power you can do no wrong and we will cover up your wrongdoings even if you do something wrong. When you have no more power we will whack you to kingdom come and will reveal all your wrongdoings that have been going on for a long time and which we knew all along.
How fast we forget!
