Meeting Ibrahim Ali- part 2

Part 2.

I find my meeting with Ibrahim Ali unnerving to many people. This is unnecessary. I am trying to assess Ibrahim Ali as objectively as possible. To answer one commentator- I have no problem in meeting up with Anwar Ibrahim if he is available. It will be motivated by the same urge to seek objectivity.

In answer to one commentator- what kind of warped logic has it that because I went to see Ibrahim, therefore he, Ibrahim is one up on me? Up one in what terms? My own sense of intelligence remains intact. The same fire burns in the belly. Indeed I have always regarded as the finest victory, when one dances in one's adversary's ring. Ibrahim to me remains as a vacuous chatterbox as before.

But even while we want to dismiss Ibrahim as a political quack offering snake oil remedies, can you dismiss the crowd that attends his conventions? The people in skull caps, in baju Melayus? The golden citizens carrying in their bosoms the hopes and fears of an earlier generation that have remained still unfulfilled? People who have given their trust in UMNO? These represent the living Malays. If I were to dismiss them and if PM Najib is oblivious to them, then UMNO is gone.

So, better to meet up Ibrahim and discover what has he done to attract the Malay crowd? Each step forward he makes means one step backwards UMNO takes.

I want to say that he, Ibrahim Ali seems ok because he is so. Even so, I have no problem in saying things about how he looks like, directly to him. If you have met Ibrahim then you know he has a thick skin. Say anything to him, he behaves nonplussed. Unless, he assumes a different personality as a front, he does come across as a personable fellow.

But I wasn't planning to adjudicate a male beauty contest. Like the Merdeka Centre research that says Najib is popular among the jobless.

I wanted to pry open his thinking. To me this meeting will serve my purpose. My purpose being to show really that UMNO diminishes as Perkasa expands. Whose fault will that be?

I say it's the UMNO leadership's fault. The leadership as a whole is vacuous and incorrigible about what to do that can restore UMNO. The rot has overtaken and overwhelmed the top leadership such that asking the rotten leadership to correct itself is futile. While the rot does indeed start at the head, it would be sheer stupidity to ask the rotten leadership to heal itself. Hoi! The correction must come from the broad masses- the ordinary members beginning at branch levels.

The only course open is to change the top leadership as radical as possible. That can be done not by the top leadership as in top down restructuring, but at grassroots levels. Leadership quality at the grassroots level must change and be changed so that new values, demands, impose natural forces of change within UMNO.

Perkasa is useful to me because it exposes the hollowness of UMNO and its leadership.

How is Perkasa related to UMNO? Let's move beyond just saying...Oh, UMNO is behind Perkasa... Oh Muhyidin is behind perkasa. These may not be true. Even if it's true, UMNO still has to come across as credible to the Malays. UMNO is suffering from a credibility problem at the moment. Its leaders are talking at cross purposes. Najib is talking from the angle of a liberal mindset; Muhyidin is talking along the traditional UMNO mindset of the importance of being Malay first. His stance strikes more resonance from Najib's.

Because UMNO operates on a discordant note, that has opened a window of opportunity for perkasa to seize the high ground. Perkasa has emerged as a credible funnel for Malay voices treated dismissively by UMNO. Ibrahim Ali may have his own agenda but my purpose is to show that PERKASA and UMNO are inversely related. As PERKASA becomes more relevant to the Malay psyche, UMNO's relevance is increasingly diminished. Secondly it will prove that UMNO is emasculated. 3rdly, it will prove later on, that this current UMNO leadership is out of touch with the Malay reality.

I find the mindset of those disgruntled voices who are alarmed at the exposure given to Ibrahim Ali very much similar to the mindset of grassroots UMNO politics. Ibrahim Ali does not need exposure by others. He is a one-man publicity making machine. But what do I mean about similarity in the mindsets?

You see, the standard practice of UMNO people vying for any posts, including those of lowly statuses, is to be insanely jealous whenever they see those whom they see as their supporters merely talking to their rivals, or just sitting having coffee. They then start to be irrationally suspicious of their own supporters.

Ak47: what is the cause that you are pressing on? You literally scared the wits of Professor Normah the other day. She wasn't ready and prepared kan? Wasn't it Prof Mahani the person who was invited?

IA: that was a good convention. Many people got their message across loud and clear. See these? Pointing to his hand phone. Text messages inviting me to kenduris. 400 boys and girls stranded with no funding in Middle Eastern universities got their funding.

IA: Tell me, which UMNO leader has done this. I mentioned this to PM Najib the other day. Dato Sri I kneel and kiss your knees. There are 400 over students stranded with no funding in Egypt and other Middle Eastern countries. MARA said they had no money. Please help them. But Najib didn't respond to my pleading. I thought he wasn't planning to do anything. He was shaken by the intense anger at the convention. You should see his reddened face.

Can you imagine this? Non Malays getting JPA scholarships and Malay students getting nothing? Where were the affirmative actions? You know, it cost the government only RM 300 thousand per student to study medicine in Egypt and it cost RM 1.2 m million to study the same thing in UK.

So I say again- no use being an UMNO member kalau khianat kepada bangsa sendiri.

But since then I heard, Najib has instructed somewhere- Baitulmal I think to solve the problem. So today as you can see, some parents are here to say thank you to me. At least Perkasa has achieved one thing which UMNO cannot do.

A man came over to whisper something to Ibrahim. Holding a paper, Ibrahim pointed out it's a letter from the relevant government department saying the man's son's study finance in Al Azhar is settled. The man bowed to Ibrahim in a very grateful gesture.

Ak 47: what's your beef with the NEM?

Ibrahim: you see, this is all a ploy by the liberal Malays and their preference for free market solutions. Najib asks a group of economists and academicians. Some of these people were rejected by Dr Mahathir last time, but somehow Naijib asks them. He asked: please come up with a economic model for my country so that we can compete with a world without borders.

So these people, without the background knowledge, including that Chinese guy who lectures in LSE or somewhere came out with proposals. Open up the economy, meritocracy, other performance driven measures- so called performance driven and all that- did they study the environment upon which they want to impose this model?

What do we have? We have our economy now being held 60% in non Malay hands, Malay students finding it hard to get scholarships, the people in the kampongs being left on the waysides all that.

AK 47: whose fault is that Dato? I say, you don't fault these experts- they came out with what they know. You should fault the one asking the question. You ask stupid question, you get stupid answers. Is garbage in garbage out kind of thing.

You should blame the UMNO leadership then. But then, I didn't see you blaming the UMNO leadership under whose policies, we find ourselves in today.

Wait for the final part please.