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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Monday 28 July 2008

continuing Najib's wet dreams

WET DREAMS FOR NAJIB, NIGHTMARES FOR PEKAN FOLKS.

Dato Seri Abdullah and Dato Najib have entered into an agreement. It is an arrangement between them. It was duly endorsed by the MKT, UMNO’s highest decision making body. What has been decided? An agreement whereby Pak Lah will hand over the position of president to Dato Najib.

Thieves have honour among them. One thief does not steal from another thief. Lawyers and clients have their lawyers/clients confidentiality. Doctors and patients have their doctors-patients thing. Politicians have sodomy between them? You don’t screw me, I won’t screw you kind of arrangement? Whatever profession they belong, all of them uphold certain inalienable principles serving their interests. The Cosa Nostra have omerta between them. Only among politicians, such a principle is perpetually fluid and flows according to convenience.

Perhaps, I have missed something here. I never knew that the positions occupied by Dato Najib and Pak Lah are their personal properties. If that is so, will Najib then not agree to transfer his current position to someone else? That would be in keeping to his predilection with UMNO’s tradition of giving and receiving things free.

He could make an agreement for example to transfer power to his cousin. The forever grinning Hishamudin Hussein? The man who studied at Holborn Law Tutors in London. The man with the Hummer. I do not for one moment accept that Najib will transfer power to Muhyidin whom Najib thinks, although on the plump side, has that hungry look in his eyes. And Najib cannot tolerate a person with a mean and hungry look. It gives him the creeps. Blimey! how he wished Rahim Tamby Chik is in the running. At least that bloke have similar interests to his own.

That is how we UMNO members, the downtrodden masses at the bottom of the barrel, look at the agreement. It is a contemptible attempt to stay in power in defiance to public and UMNO members true wishes. It is a political machination to preserve their interests. Pak Lah is interested in staying for another two years. Najib is interested to secure a guarantee that he will take over.

How could interested parties be present in a meeting that discussed matters in which they have an interest? Was there any undue pressure forced upon other MKT members? Who were the dissenters? Were they given space to debate on a very private arrangement between Pak Lah and Dato Najib? .

At the very least, an eastern culture that frowns upon open discussion in the face and a culture that obsesses itself with face saving behaviour, limits an open and candid discussion. It is a most basic principle that an interested party or even someone with a perceived interest should refuse themselves from attending a meeting which deliberates matters concerning them in any way whatsoever. That step is taken to allow remaining members deliberate on matters at hand with candour and uninhibited frankness.

When I was an ADUN in Pahang, any members of the land adjudication committee would excuse themselves from a meeting where their interest or their relatives’ interests are being deliberated. How do we infer unanimity in that agreement when there wasn’t any frank and candid debate?

Even if the agreement between the president and deputy president was duly endorsed by a majority of the MKT members, it was not one agreed upon by UMNO’s 3.5 million members. These top party posts are not personal properties which titles are transferable. Indeed there are no provisions in the UMNO constitution that allow such manoeuvrings. Any changes in leadership must be validated and endorsed by the UMNO General Assembly.

Conniving and conspiring to carry out a coup-de-tat is tantamount to a daylight robbery of a right belonging to UMNO members. That is the residual right by members exercisable though valid assembly, to determine leadership of the party. That right must be vested and protected by the leadership on behalf of the 3.5 million UMNO members. In fact the current leadership must find ways to allow UMNO’s 3.5 million members elect their leadership. Members must be free from being browbeaten to accept decisions which fly against their conscience. It is no longer a matter what the president and deputy president want; it’s a matter of what the UMNO members as a whole want. And what they wanted and dare to reveal is a cry for freedom from the tyranny of the status quo. To employ a much tired agreement- if our leaders are so confident of their track records, why are they scared of the members judgement?

Assume for a moment, the plan power transition ala Pak-Lah and Najib is accepted, why can’t the same principle be applied across the board? If we accept that a power transfer between president and deputy president is doable, why not allow the same arrangement between the rest of the MKT members? Let them decide and agree between themselves who to divest their positions to. If this kind of arrangement is validated by UMNO members, then the phrase honour among thieves is unmistakably reflected in it. The principle is that if allowance is given to the top two posts, the self same principle must also be enjoyed by the rest of the MKT members. In that way, we have self perpetuity. That would put the scientific discovery of biological cloning to shame.

What remains the biggest lesson from the 12th GE? In my mind, the paramount lesson is that a seismic and tectonic shift of Malay preference and allegiance has occurred. Malays are no longer the meek and docile followers. To keep Malays in total acquiescence and submission is the tradition that Dato Najib sorely misses. Its abandonment is that which frightens the living daylights of out Najib. Malays are no longer the deaf and dumb masses belonging to the halcyon days when feudal leaders like Dato Najib reigned absolutely unmitigated.

The 12th GE has clearly shown that UMNO has lost the monopoly on Malay loyalty. UMNO is no longer the natural and first choice of Malay voters. Allow me to offer you some details from the results of the 12th GE. Most of you, undoubtedly are already familiar with them.

TABLE 1: BREAKDOWN OF MALAY VOTES IN THE 12TH GE, 2008

VOTERS

Total(mil)

MALAYS

5.70

ALL VOTERS

7.99

UMNO MEMBERS

3.50

VOTES RECEIVED BY UMNO CANDIDATES

2.38

TABLE 2: PARLIAMENTARY SEATS IN 12TH GE

parties

Total seats

Votes(mil)

%seats

UMNO

79

2.381

36.0

bn

140

4.082

63.0

opposition

82

3.796

37.0

total

222

7.944

100.00

The following points are worth noting.

1. The total number of may voters were 5.7 million.
2. UMNO candidates secured 2.38 million votes or 42% of malay votes.
3. Not all the 2.38 million voters were Malays. Assuming only 2 million voters were Malays, UMNO secured only 35% of Malay votes.
4. The above two observations prove that the majority of Malays rejected UMNO. if UMNO secured only 2 million Malay votes, this means that 3.7 million Malays rejected UMNO and the BN.
5. UMNO’s nightmares do not end there. Observe that UMNO members totalled 3.5 million strong. If UMNO candidates secured only 2 million votes, that would mean, 1.5 million UMNO members rejected their own candidates. They did not vote for their own candidates.
6. UMNO has lost Malay and its members loyalty and allegiance.
The results of the 12th GE clearly showed Malay voters are emboldened and resolute to effect the seismic political shifts we spoke of earlier. They can and dare make a transfer of power by themselves and for themselves. And here’s the sting- they are certainly willing to exercise this resoluteness in effecting their own changes on the UMNO leadership.

Accordingly, the planned power transfer agreed between the chief protagonists in the elaborate political play on UMNO stage must be viewed within the context of what has been said above. To me, the planned power transfers agreed between Pak lah and Najib and dutifully endorsed by a majority of the MKT members, is an attempt to pre-empt the changes that UMNO members can and dare make. moreover, UMNO members will be failing in their sacred duty to speak on behalf of the Malays outside there, if they do speak according to its collective conscience.

The entire leadership of UMNO has been responsible for the UMNO debacle in the 12th GE. What the is the morally right thing to do? After all our leaders are all honourable people and none more so than both Dato Najib and Dato Seri Abdullah. The righteous thing that all must do, from the UMNO president to the MKT is to place their fate upon the judgement of all UMNO members.

Refusal and reluctance to do so, can only lead to members concluding that the so called power transfer agreement between the top two leaders was crafted to subvert members true wishes.

So therefore, it is not only morally right for Pak Lah to leave now to save UMNO, it is equally imperative for Dato Najib to follow suit. If Dato Najib does the honourable thing, would it not lead to the mass jumping off the Sultan Abdu Bakar bridge?

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