Ah…those halcyon days.

I read two interesting piece of news:-

1. Delegates from Kelantan to the UMNO General Assembly next week may table a resolution for the party to appoint Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as UMNO Adviser and Tun Daim Zainuddin as the National Economic Advisor to help us weather the global economic meltdown.
   
2. TDM on perception: - He also commented on perception that Najib was corrupt.
   "I'm not talking about what people believe. A lot of people believe about something but there is no legal stand taken on whether Najib is corrupt or not."
   

As to the first piece of news, my reaction was: are we Malaysians masochists? These refer to people who liked to inflict pain upon themselves. It is also a sign of immaturity. Hence placed in a political context- the resolution said to be thought of by some delegates from Kelantan (?)Impute the following; UMNO people like to self inflict pain believing the suffering is a form of self gratification and be we UMNO people are actually politically immature.

The period in Malaysian politics under the watch of TDM and TDZ is arguably the golden age of Malaysian politics and economics. I say arguably, because people can still point to the many business excesses associated with TDZ and by reason of linkages, TDM. Perhaps those business and corporate excesses benefited from lack of forensic scrutiny as is presently prevalent. Then, that would of course imply, the period associated with TDM and TDZ was less open than it is now.

The pain I am referring to is however not of the above paragraph. The pain I am talking of is about our inability and political immaturity to rise to the occasion and believing in our ability and capacity that we can manage this on our own. It takes leadership, resolve, dedication and hard work. Our present social and political meltdown now can never be solved by sub-contracting it to others. The pain I am referring is our indulgence to subsist on political subsidy, an over indulgence which has led to our own all round impotence. Because of this self defeatist attitude, we think we need a political Viagra in the form of TDM and TDZ.

Apa sudah jadi to the Malay spirit? Faced with a calamity, we seem to have lost our wits and presence of mind. We want the easy way out by asking other people do the job for us. That is an attitude of a people living on subsidy and opting to remain as freeloaders for the rest of our lives. I am saddened by the attitude of this particular Kelantan delegate for not having faith in our present leadership's ability to deal with our situation.

That was why; I have advocated that we break from the political vicious cycle and the mental claptrap, mind bondage and straightjacket to usher in an UMNO leadership that is not overwhelmed by conservative thinking.

For that is what the subconscious wish which the Kelantan delegate represents. It is a proposition that blindly accepts that those who are able to this particular task of leadership must necessarily be from a select and elite group. This is a classic call for the return of ascriptive norms in our thinking.

That people continue to be evaluated in terms of who they are, that certain tasks such as leadership are only able to be carried out by particular team of people. My point is, if TDM and TDZ were able to do what they did without having to fall back to ascribed status kind of thinking, we CAN also do it.

As to the second piece of news, in the matter of perception, as the say in legal terms, res ipsa loquitur. It is indeed personal to holder.