Year Nine into the 21st Century

No: 2/2009

9 years into the 21^st century.

2009 is not going to be any different. For the majority of UMNO members that is. We have what? 3.1 million members? 80% of which are what? Riff-raffs? Lower ranking salaried earners? Mat rempits? Security guards? Village loafers? The army of rent seeking UMNOniks and an equally bloated ranks of hands- stretched- out myrmidons? With this quality around, what makes us think that 2009 will be any different?

It will be different only to those who are willing to work hard. Willing to pull themselves by their own bootstraps. It will certainly be different for people willing to question the premises of New Economic Policy or its successor. It will be different for people willing to abandon age long assumptions and ingrained bad habits within them. A few days, ago, Muslims celebrated the coming of the new Muslim Calendar year. It will be different for Muslims, if they commit themselves to cultivating themselves in all aspects to make themselves relevant. Other than that, I think, for the majority, it will be the same and more. Even if the call to arms comes from DS Najib.

DS Najib has proclaimed on his watch, changes will take place. Well, start with the UMNO cawangans first then. Insist that all ketua cawangan must have minimum qualifications. No school jagas. Village bullies. Security guards. On the shoulders of these people, Najib expects the new dawn for UMNO to draw forth?

Insist ketua cawangans don’t have criminal records. Don’t harbour illegal immigrants. I know of one idiot who even married one as a second wife. Insist 30% of cawangan committee members be wanita, puteri and pemuda. That means 5 at least from 15. Insist the cawangan secretary have secretarial skills. Train them. Insist each cawangan submit returns each year and hold meetings once every quarter.

Every ketua cawangan wants to become the ketua kampong. Even those who have already served in that post before. They want to become ketua kampong again. Since when was it stated that a ketua kampong must be a ketua cawangan? The government is not a political party. A ketua kampong is not a ketua for UMNO members only. A ketua kampong is the village head for everyone. So the first step that the government must take is to disqualify all ketua cawangan from being a ketua kampong.

Please answer this. If the ketua kampung is just a school jaga, pray tell, what earthshaking improvements can he be thinking for the kampong? Probably at the top of his priority list is to grab as much land as possible, to victimise as many lasses as possible, to carry out a fleece scam as soon as possible. Or in the case of Pahang, on behalf of the JKKK asks from the state some timber concessions and having an EXCO member as advisor to the get rich quick scheme er..scam.

Why should I surrender my intelligence to a jaga sekolah? The next step the government must do is to insist that all ketua kampong must have a minimum level of qualification. Jaga sekolahs are out, village loafers are out, LCE dropouts are out.

In fact, maybe the best thing that the government can do is to abolish all posts of ketua lampung. Having a ketua kampong invites all year round politicking which are costly in terms of development. Each year, the government faces round after round of vicious lobbying from those wanting to become ketua kampong.

Why not create a permanent administrative post?. The government is paying RM 600 per ketua kampong. Maybe RM800 per month later. No wonder every village idiot wants his village to have a ketua kampong. The requirement is fairly easy- there must at least be 50 households.

Ok, throw a wrench into the wheel. Create an official salaried post. A post to be filled by qualified people- no security guards or jagas, no loafers, no political gangsters. There are many unemployed graduates who can be enlisted as Junior Development Officers- Pegawai Pembangunan Rendah. Each junior officer, salaried, qualified, free from political ideology, is responsible for a number of villages. His primary role is to coordinate development and serve as first line liaison officer for the government of the day.

Next the government should commit itself to abolishing the posts of penghulus. Why do you need them? These are relics of the old feudal system and in a system of parliamentary democracy or democracy, such relics are anathema to democracy. Abolish them. Instead, create the posts of Senior Development Officers responsible for say, 3-4 junior development officers. Insist that all SDO must have a basic university degree. This way, al those penghulus having nothing to offer will be cashiered.

What makes you think there will be many changes when there are people giving the customary knee jerk response of- arrest those who blight the sanctity of the prophet? Ban ceramahs at mosques and suraus? What changes can we expect when there are stupidos and dolts wandering around passing as UMNO leaders?

How do you win arguments against those giving ceramahs and suraus? My answer is through doing ceramahs of your own. Invite speakers to debunk the ceramahs by the other party.

There will be no changes as long as UMNO goons prefer the dangdut joints over suraus and mosques and don’t go to suraus and mosques. UMNO goons lament the fact that committee members of suraus and mosques are dominated by PAS supporters when they don’t want to go to mosques. They want the membership to the committee of the chairmanship be given to them free. Even then, they still prefer the dangdut joints that the mosques and suraus.

And who are these kayus who holler and howl when there are blogs blighting the image of the Muslim Prophet? Then you write good things about the prophet while debunking the ideas parlayed by the ‘evildoers’. The problem is you don’t want to read much less write.

So whether there are changes in 2009 even though the calls were made by the incoming PM, these are moot points. Nowadays, the words of politicians even that of national leaders are just a whole heap of bull manure.