Divining the Political Future

It is now confirmed that the UMNO Deputy President’s post will be contested by 3 people:-

1. Muhyidin Yassin
2. Ali Rustam
3. Muhammad bin Muhammad Taib.

The DPM’s division has made no nominations on these. Sakmongkol has proffered his take on this matter in an earlier blog. The DPM has made it known, the more the merrier. Needless to say, that statement is very loose and capable of being translated according to anyone’s wishes.

UMNO people can say, by saying the more the merrier, Dato Najib has not made Muhyidin Yassin his clear choice. Those against muhyidin can say, if Najib wants Muhyiddin, he would say so in clear terms. This argument cannot be defended on grounds of Najib’s record of inscrutability when it comes to revealing who he wants. He keeps his cards close to his chest. Can it be inferred from his non committal statements that he wants Ali Rustam or Muhyidin Yassin?

How can we make an intelligent guess as to who Najb prefers? Of course people will say that who becomes the DP is not Najib’s say. In theory yes, but UMNO will look for tell tale signs, nuances, subtle signals statements by Najib’s Ghurkhas as to whom has received the boss’s blessings.

The next few months, the UMNO rank and file, will become experts in divining the political future of the personages in UMNO. And so let us also indulge in this game.

Divination is the practice of foreseeing the future or finding out hidden knowledge by some means or other.

Melaka has a famous zoo at air keroh. The son of Melaka who is contesting the DP post, Ali Rustam may perhaps want to vist the zoo to se the behaviour of the birds in Air Keroh. He will want to see the flight of a particular bird or birds to determine whether March elections will augur well for him.

If Ali Rustam does this, then he of course follow the method employed by ancient Romans to divine his future. Ancient Romans studied the flight of birds to determine whether or not the day was favorable for some action. This method of divination is called augury. The verb to augur means “to predict or indicate the future.” One could say, missing a step on the way out of the house, That does not augur well!.

since we are on the subject of animals, Ali Rustam may ask his bomoh to sembelih some animals to study their entrails. He will again follow the Roman style. Romans had a specialized diviner called a haruspex who cut open animals and examined their entrails. This practice is called haruspicy.

Muhamad Taib is friendly to many Chinese businessmen. Perhaps they can introduce him to the science of geomancy. In particular the Chinese geomancy known as Feng Hsui.

Several words that end in -mancy refer to methods of divination. Geomancy interprets markings on the ground, or the piles or patterns made by dirt when it is tossed. When it comes to dirt stirred, Muhammad Muhammad Taib stands the best chance of winning. He has thrown up royal dirt by concealing his one time marriage to a Selangor princess. He has even stirred up international dirt and threw them in the face of the Australians when he was caught with bringing cash in/out of the country.

Muhammad Muhammad Taib is the king of dirt. The geo comes from the word for “earth.”

Or Muhammad M Taib can also bring into his services the many bomohs who can summon the spirits of the past. If he resorts to this method, he follows a long line of tradition leading back to biblical times. Necromancy involves summoning up the dead, the way King Saul did when he called on the Witch of Endor. The necro comes from the Greek word for “dead.” Sometimes necromancy is used to refer to any kind of black magic that involves the summoning of demons. In Selangor for example, he can employ the services of toyols to canvass for votes.

Now, Muhyiddin is quite a religious fellow. His father, like Pak Lah’s grandfather was a religious teacher famous in Muar and Johore. Muhyddin can probably look into the Islamic boon of dream interpretations. Oneiromancy is divination by dreams. Or maybe, Muhyiddin will wake up in the middle of the night, performed special prayers and read the Quran. The verses he choose may well be his salvation. Christians practise Bibliomancy which is divining by opening a book at random and reading the first phrase that one’s eyes light upon. Although the Bible is often the book used for this form of divination, other books are used. The biblio comes from Greek and Latin words for “paper” or “scroll.” The Bible is literally “the Book.” Another word for this practice is sortes.

Some other familiar types of divination. Palmistry is divination by reading the lines on the palm of the hand. Phrenology is divination by feeling the bumps on a person’s head. This practice was really popular in Victorian times. Many novelists have their characters talk about it. Astrology predicts a person’s future according to alignment of the stars and planets. Dowsing is a method of finding the location of water or other underground substances with the use of a forked stick or wire. Clairvoyance is divination by “second sight”.Numerology is divination with numbers Sortilege is divination by casting lots. Priests do it in the Old Testament. Tasseography is the word for reading the future in tea leaves at the bottom of a cup. Scrying is what the gypsy does when she looks into her crystal ball and tells you that you are going to come into a large sum of money.

As is common in UMNO, the next few months, bomohs, shamans, medicine men, feng hsui masters, gurus in India, kiyais in Indonesia will soon be enjoying a bumper harvest in income.

In the meantime, sakmongkol will look at past records to discern the future. That will in part 2.