Pak Lah and his Truth or part of it.

I am very glad indeed that Pak Lah has reminded the newspapers to tell the TRUTH. In 1959, Lee Kuan Yew said that there is no single factor which has so great an influence on the minds…as the newspaper. Nowadays I will quickly add, that single factor is the internet. Most certainly it has an invigorating effect on minds of the bi-linguists.

Then, I would like to tell Pak Lah since he says he has big ears and because of that, he has a predisposition to be all ears to everybody and also because Dato Najib moonlights as Agony Aunt to emotionally distressed pretty boys, the following.

Many of my colleagues and I in cyberspace, in our own blogs have been somewhat preoccupied with the mundane business of telling blunt truths to simple people, and where necessary, in the business of sugar coating the blunt truths for sophisticated people like our politicians.

So what can we say, about Pak Lah’s belated insights? Its never to late to clever up. Cheers for him!

When Pak Lah continued by congratulating Bernama for launching its web TV so that viewers and internet surfers can get an on line real time stream of news, we bloggers feel honoured too. Because Pak Lah has finally acknowledged the role of the internet in disseminating information. And by extension, those troopers of cyberspace, the galling bloggers who sometime or most of the times, unnerve him and his more xenophobic cabinet colleagues.

His colleagues may sneer at us but the truth of the matter is the internet is an instrument to arouse and educate the masses and awaken them. Hence, by our divergent news, for each is moved by the beat of his own drums, the reading public is offered a veritable menu of opinions and thoughts which they can adopt and apply.

But by and large, we must caution Pak Lah, we shy away from the public’s addiction and love to hear the strange, the exotic and the sensational. Instead, we offer them the blunt truth and the bitter pill.

One such bitter pill to swallow, is that UMNO has lost its natural legitimacy among the Malays. And in our country, whether one likes it or not, it is the Malays that decide the pace of the social revolution that is now going on. Hence, for UMNO failure to regain the Malay trust would prove to be fatal.

The fatal mistake of the Abdullah-Najib leadership was all they wanted is to win elections on false premises and promises. They promised to govern, they did not do so properly. They promised transparency, but the opacity of things accentuate. They promised good governance, but what we get is dismal performance.

In the final analysis, it is the worth of the leadership, its intellectual discipline and its drive and determination which determines its effectiveness and usefulness to society.

It is one thing setting out esoteric ideals and convoluted interpretation of religion for example, it is another thing having to use the administrative machinery that exists, and despite many deficiencies therein, to make the best of it.

The cardinal principle of governing which should have been the credo of the Abdullah-Najib leadership is to govern firmly and also do so with the consent of the majority of the people. Firmly is such an alien word to Abdullah and the consent of the majority of people, especially the Malays, seem so distant. To be firm is to have a stout heart, a strong mind and decisiveness. Sadly, these qualities have deserted our present leadership.

Once again, to rephrase Colonel Jessup in A Few Good Men, I am afraid, the truth may be to hard to handle!