Tokenism won't erase memories of UMNO's overbearing arrogance
No doubt KhirToyo is commonly despised by Pakatan supporters but he has a point in hisstatement that many non-Malays have been turned off by UMNO's overbearingdominance - see The Malaysian Insider's Over-dominantUmno will cost Selangor BN, says Khir Toyo.
Mind you, blokedidn't use the word 'overbearing' but rather 'over-dominance', but 'overbearing'it had been prior to March 2008. By 'over bearing' I mean 'rudely arrogant'.
This remarkablecharacteristic of modern-day UMNO was brought into sharp focus in the televised UMNO party general assembly where (committed or just politically expedient) extremists usedthe occasion and opportunity of the televised event to demonstrate their 'ultra'credentials. They wanted to be ethnic heroes in the eyes of the heartland, andwith that, more assured ascendancy in UMNO's party hierarchy and consequentially appointment tolucrative official posts.
The individual's self promotion of 'ultra-ism' was in many ways due to a weak UMNO president then, AAB, whoseseemingly lack of wibawa (unlike stern Dr M) encouraged a mad scramble forparty positions and hopefully ministerial appointments.
Every man jack(and jill) in UMNO was striving to demonstrate his (and her) ethno-worthiness todefend the heartland – ! < span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;font-size:large">readmy November 2007 post http://ktemoc.blogspot.com.au/2007/11/malay-sacrifice-chinese-sacrifice.html">Malay 'sacrifice', Chinese 'sacrifice' when I commented on the lamentablebehaviour of UMNO delegates at their party's annual assembly, where ambitiousdelegates or those worried about their party positions would strive to provetheir ethnic credentials, by hammering their favouritewhipping boy, (usually) the Chinese Malaysians - to them, a suspiciousgroup of non's who still need to prove their Malaysian credentials despite 50years of citizenship and more than 200 years of domicile.
As a first-step solution to winning over the nons,Khir advocated giving MCA and MIC leaders more 'face' and apparent powers likeallowing them to announce grants, funding, etc.
While I mentionedthat Khir has a point in pinpointing a grievance among the non-Malays, he failed miserably to raise the real cause of BN's lossof their support. Apart from an overbearing UMNO which allowed its leadersat even divisional level to insult the Chinese whipping boy every which way, andthus antagonized them, the marginalization of the nons (especially the Indians)could no longer be stomached.
Educationscholarships, job opportunities in the MCS, Armed Forces an Police Force forthe nons were only at token levels for window dressing.
WhileMalaysians could work around official corruption, as they had for more than 50 years, that perpetuated by modern-day UMNO wasso overpowering (and worse, arrogantly and unabashedly displayed) that even themost accommodating Chinese and Indian could no longer stand its stench.
Alas, today's UMNOsuffers not only from the jinns of avarice released from its much-abused NEP PandoraBox but also from humongous expectations gle! aned fro m examples of itsleadership – an ironical reflection on Dr M's prophetic 'Leadershipby example' slogan in the '80s, as well as that exhibited by Khir Toyo himself wakakaka.
For an UMNO member, it was not justenough to get rich, but it had to be Midas rich and lightning fast as well.
With such an attitude, the associated rotset in, where we witness lamentable examples in cracked road bridges, collapsed (newly built) stadium, unfinishedcontracts but more than paid up in full, substandard work accepted and/or covered up (orremained floating instead of submerging), rights to collect road tolls exceeding reasonable duration, public money-ed bailouts galore, gaming licenses awardedto individuals or private companies instead of a non-profit organization (say,to support sporting or welfare activities), etc.
Corruption in Sarawak is as big as the State itself and a classic case of rottenness yet to be addressed.
And worse, allabove have been all virtually untouchable.
Thus, the incongruityof hounding a young DAP man to his death on flimsy allegations of corruption ofa mere RM2400 will continue to remind many Malaysians of sheer blatant injustice, and which consequences must deservedly haunt the BN.
Today, we even hearallegations of the nation's two top law officers, the former IGP and the current AG being involved with theMalaysian Mafia, yet the Najib government drags it feet to investigate such adrastic accusation.
No sirree, it won't help the BN at all by the mere tokenism of allowing the MCA, MIC or Gerakan to announce allocations of funds to some vernacular schools.
Nottingham Kini : Freedom Notts
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