If the fence eats the padi, the fence-builders should wake up

Umar Mukhtar

For many of us who spent our lifetime in the corporate world, when we see or smell the smoke we know there’s a fire and we know it doesn’t take much effort to follow the money trail to find the fire. It’s a no-brainer.

Putting the perpetrators in jail takes a little bit more effort and a bit more time-consuming. Our judicial system is quite demanding that our prejudices do not victimise the individual. Anwar and his loyalists may not agree but that’s another matter.

In the case of 1MDB, even at the onset, the smoke is so obvious to us. They are so suffocating and the fires are still burning. We have to set our priorities. Damn the crooks and say good-bye to the money. Do we want to recover our money by selling Paris Hilton’s underwear? We want to put the perpetrators in jail?

Ali Baba did it alone? No forty thieves? No sycophants managers who shiver at the mention of certain names? No grateful over-the-hill deadwood so beholden to some mortal God that they chose to look the other way? And this mortal God didn’t lend it’s name to the whole ruse for nothing? So won’t Ali Baba sing like a canary if we catch him? That’s why you won’t find it easy to catch him. I mean knowing our enforcers, they won’t look for him in the palace grounds would they? Metaphorically speaking, that is.

The point is, it is time for damage control. Devote our meagre resources to stop the rot now. Then only we go after his ass. The money? Take what you can and thank heavens for the crumbs. From our experience, these crooks don’t burn holes in their pockets and the proceeds are stashed beyond our control.

How do we stop the rot? By making noise so loud that even the kampung rakyat begins to hear us. That ought to stop them and their clueless conspirators in their tracks. But good faith is an imperative factor. No hidden or side agendas. They have a way of messing up the plot. It is customary defence propagated to their loyalists that our efforts are just a ploy to bad-mouth or fitnah and oust a government that is their only benefactor dulu, kind, dan Salamanca?

I am still surprised at those who buy that. I am no less a Malay than the next guy but I do think, however erroneously they will say, not for myself but for those who come after us. And as long as I make thinking a practice, God in his infinite ways will bless and guide me to what is right. No mortal God, no matter how powerful or how generous will take away my right to think.

I am not surprised at the warlords and the beneficiaries and the sycophants and the free-loaders and the paid SPM school-leavers-bloggers reading narratives from the MOF circulars-instructions  which they barely understand, and even the highly paid English-speaking bloggers with their new-found riches, at their anger at anything that might rock the boat.

That is a given, it’s the nature of the beasts. That is why it pains me when I see the opposition leader wannabes screaming themselves hoarse at proclaiming how monstrous these people are. They are, but the general populace especially the Muslims don’t like such kind of approaches.

Spend your resources well. The Sarawak Report and The Edge, walked softly but carried a big stick. We should be disseminating what they found out to the Ordinary Joe on the street, the lebais at the madrasah and those whose vocation in life is not beyond their daily struggle to live. Cut out the one-upmanship or at least tone it down. People will listen better. Not only to Internet-savvy Malaysians who mostly know better. Why just only preach to the converted?

But I am surprised at people who are not from those groups that I had mentioned who defend the status quo simply because they hate anything they are not comfortable with. And they are no less educated. Which is fine by me but they don’t defend with specific arguments but angry noises, unfounded accusations which they don’t prove, call for faith, patience and no pre-judgements of the mortal Gods whom they hold up in such high esteem as if they owe their very existence to them. In reality, the mortal Gods don’t give a shit about them.

The chickens and eggs are not in their coops and the people who are supposed to protect your chickens are gallivanting in Hollywood. Isn’t that smoke enough? Of course you need proof to arrest them. I have an easier way: Just kick them out, irrespective. That way their replacements would know that we are tough customers

Don’t play, play! You want to lead the rakyat, stay away from whatever that we see as lavish spending. That’s not fair if it is their own inherited money? Then choose another career. Memories of First Lady Imelda Marcos are still fresh in our memories. We don’t care if a private citizen duet with a Hollywood singer the way we didn’t care when Jho Low was licking Paris Hilton’s neck. Now we know better.

That goes for the present opposition leaders too.