Greedy politicians who sacrifice the people for personal interests

Ainuddin Hanif, NST

Let us, voters, remember those Umno leaders who want the 15th General Election to be held during heavy flooding in a few states and a deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

Let us remember those who put aside the people’s suffering, hardship and pain for their personal political gain.

These few Umno hawks – its president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Ahmad Maslan plus a few others, and now, the latest, Datuk Seri Ahmad Jazlan Yaakub of Ketereh Umno – have indeed put aside the people’s interest to achieve their political goal.

Their ulterior motive – to have their court cases “thrown out”. They do not seem to care for the people.

Ahmad Maslan has been reported by the media to have said that “cruel court cases” were the reason for Umno’s gripe with the Perikatan Nasional government who had allowed for the cases to continue.

Therefore, should we, the rakyat, with the increasing number of Covid-19 deaths daily, and with thousands of our homes submerged in floodwaters, tolerate this move by greedy politicians to have the GE? These politicians would rather satiate their greed and political agenda to save themselves first. This is what they are aggressively doing now. For them, it’s a “do or die” mission.

Remember when Najib was prime minister and he was busy playing golf with the then US president, Barack Obama, while more than 120,000 flood evacuees in Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang were forced to flee their homes in 2014? He came under fire for that.

And now, he is making himself busy with flood evacuees in Pahang while calling on the government to take care of those affected. Doesn’t he know that the King and Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin have been on the ground to see to those in distress and need? The government, through the relevant agencies, have been doing their level best to assist those affected.

Millions in financial aid and food kits have been distributed to agencies such as the state natural disaster management committees as well as the Civil Defence force.

The National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) with the cooperation of some ministries, including the Rural Development Ministry and non-governmental organisations, had conducted community-based risk management programmes on a face-to-face basis virtually. These are the unsung heroes who are helping the people.

Those agitating for general election now have the pisang goreng mentality – that was what was said by Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin. With daily Covid-19 cases reaching an all-time high, holding a GE would pose a grave public health risk, he said, adding that this was just not the right time.

He also said “if we don’t want to support the current administration because the government does not want to interfere with the ongoing court cases (of several politicians), then that is the level of goreng pisang mentality. Previously, it was lobak (carrot), now it’s goreng pisang,” Khairy said.

Those calling for the general election are irresponsible. They do not deserve to be voted in the next general election to represent the rakyat, simply because their selfishness will always outweigh the people’s interests.