One more for the Road- to the people of Kuala Terengganu

Tomorrow, when our KT brothers, sisters, uncles, unties, grandpas and grandmas go out to vote, please remember:-

Shaping the destiny of a people should not be timed!

Since 1955 when the first general elections took place, the BN in a previous or in current form has been in power. That’s 53 years. That is already too long states RPK. Ask yourselves, whether the destiny of a people can be measured in terms of the number of years?. Shaping the destiny of a people should not be limited by a time frame. It’s a never ending process. As long as there are things to accomplish and as long as the destiny of a people needs to be shaped and reshaped, the number of years being enough, is unimportant. Even if people insist that a time frame is needed to assess the effectiveness of the BN government, please use the entire 53 years to balance what the BN government has done. If on the balance, the BN government under the leadership of all the PM’s has more credits, then as rational people, we should continue keeping them.

50 over years has been too long. That time has permitted UMNO to be arrogant, corrupt, insensitive and detached from the people. We have already answered that.

You would think UMNO and BN are not capable of undertaking internal transformations? Think again. The source of greater changes have always been from within. External stimuli are just catalysts for changes. UMNO for example is not insensitive so as not to undertake its own corrective measures.

Towards the end of 1960’s, UMNO and the Malays in particular were not happy at how the great Tunku Abdul Rahman was managing the affairs of state. UMNO wasn’t insensitive. It listened and effected a changing of the guards when Tun Razak took over. In our own time, the people have spoken. The voices within UMNO have also been voluble. The result of its internal dynamics will see the departure of Pak Lah this March. But we don’t effect changes by lobbing off the heads of our leaders as suggested by PR people.

UMNO’s own internal dynamics will see to it that corrective measures will take place. That process will see the removal of the less desirable elements within UMNO. I have no doubts that UMNO’s internal dynamics will correct its own excesses, rid itself of elements no longer amenable to UMNO’s desired image as a clean and efficient party. Even Dato Najib when he comes to power will be subjected to the same internal dynamics. Don’t ever think that UMNO members are dungus blinded from seeing the rot within UMNO.

So it does not matter whether it’s more than 53 years. The people of KT must be willing to reject a time constraint where welfare and the destiny of a people is concerned. Within UMNO there are enough elements to carry out corrective measures to improve UMNO.

Were the things that took place in Permatang Pauh proof that UMNO remains belligerent and arrogant? Do not confuse the exuberance and excesses during periods of heated campaigns as indicator of inherent arrogance. Whether its vote buying or ID snatchings, these things take place not because they are allowed by law, but because they are impossible to prevent in absolute terms. That is not excusable and the perpetrators should be punished. The majority in UMNO are committed to a conscientious voting process free from such shenanigans. The people of KT must resist the temptation to infer wholesale moral depravity or even demonic designs on the larger whole if some elements with BN/UMNO carried out those dastardly acts. They deserved our harshest condemnations.

I know, this kind of wrongdoing does not turn into a virtue by criticising it on my part and its wrongness not lessened by noting that vote buying is not an alien practice as RPK would want us to believe. We can ask Anwar Ibrahim himself, as the master of money politics about vote buying when he was in UMNO. Would we countenance the idea that by doing that, Anwar Ibrahim is inherently a bad person? The PKR people won’t entertain this idea. They will say, those are just persuasive and creative techniques used by Anwar Ibrahim. No doubt the same things are happening in KT.

But as the PR people themselves say, they have absolute confidence in the people. Let’s hope the number that succumbed to selfish act of vote selling is small in number.

Let us do a reality check. What do PAS and PR offer? They offer those lofty ideas about unity, fraternity, civil rights other highfalutin intangibles. Intangibles are tricky. Things like transparency, integrity, democracy and so forth are very much susceptible to manipulation. To the artful dodger like Anwar Ibrahim and his storm troopers, these assume different meanings to different audience at different times. So when he asked what’s wrong with the letter he sent to TDM tat that time, which the renegade Ezam Mohd Noor showed, one immediately senses the man’s duplicitous and double-dealing ways.

Imagine all those fanciful ideas that are being marketed around by PR people- democracy, transparency, integrity, rule of law, things mentioned about judiciary and so forth- these are just political playthings with Anwar. That’s the irony about all these fanciful, intangible ideas. The manipulators trick us all the time.

Better to vote for tangibles and measurables. Development, children’s future, the economy, more schools, more business opportunities, education for the children, proper housing, and so on.

So I will vote for these tangibles all the time rather than being manipulated by those political tricksters. Those things I can think for myself. Terengganu people! Stop being manipulated!

There are these showy surveys of the people of KT preferring a clean candidate who eschews corruption and other nauseating descriptions. These are overrated labels which bear no importance on leadership. Don’t believe me? Ask yourselves, when Pak Lah assumed power, wasn’t he described in similar glowing soubriquet? Did those help in shaping his leadership? No they didn’t right? So people, don’t overrate all those nice things you hear about the PAS candidate. In the end, as one esteemed blogger used to say- its more hustle to the bustle, more shadow to the substance.

Having said my piece, I beseech the voters to appreciate the import of verses 26-27 of Surah Ali Imran.

3: 26- Say: "O Allah! Lord of Power (and Rule), Thou givest Power to whom Thou pleasest, and Thou strippest off Power from whom Thou pleasest: Thou enduest with honour whom Thou pleasest, and Thou bringest low whom Thou pleasest: in Thy hand is all Good. Verily, over all things Thou hast power.

3: 27- "Thou causest the Night to gain on the Day, and Thou causest the Day to gain on the Night; Thou bringest the Living out of the Dead, and Thou bringest the Dead out of the Living; and Thou givest sustenance to whom Thou pleasest, without measure."

Vote wisely my brothers.

3: 26- Katakanlah (wahai Muhammad): Wahai Tuhan yang mempunyai kuasa pemerintahan! Engkaulah yang memberi kuasa pemerintahan kepada sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki, dan Engkaulah yang mencabut kuasa pemerintahan dari sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki. Engkaulah juga yang memuliakan sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki dan Engkaulah yang menghina sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki. Dalam kekuasaan Engkaulah sahaja adanya segala kebaikan. Sesungguhnya Engkau Maha Kuasa atas tiap-tiap sesuatu.

3: 27- Engkaulah (wahai Tuhan) yang memasukkan waktu malam ke dalam waktu siang dan Engkaulah yang memasukkan waktu siang ke dalam waktu malam. Engkaulah juga yang mengeluarkan sesuatu yang hidup dari benda yang mati dan Engkaulah yang mengeluarkan benda yang mati dari sesuatu yang hidup. Engkau jualah yang memberi rezeki kepada sesiapa yang Engkau kehendaki, dengan tiada hitungan hisabnya.