A Malaysian Marcus Licinus Crassus.

In the byzantine and serpentine(sic) world of politics, anything is possible. KJ has become a character ‘ from hero to zero’. From the crowd favourite he is now trailing the other in Pemuda nominations. The latest figures show Muhkrz having 72, KT having 56 and KJ with 52. with around 11 more pemuda meetings, KJ will probably bag a few more leaving the distribution among them basically unchanged.

Supposed this theory is true; that the number of nominations reflect the mount of money received by each pemuda bahagian. Word in the street ( UMNO Street that is) is that each Pemuda Bahagian gets anything between RM50k to RM100k. Suppose its true, what can we infer from the latest developments?

1. First we would have thought that the person most identified as the Pemuda ATM machine( KJ) would have pulverise all the others right? Since this does not happen, then it would be reasonable to conclude that the identification is not tenable. Would it?
2. Second, it would support the suspicions that the person having the fastest rate in increase in nominations, is the real culprit and by association, can be identified as the real living ATM. Wis mangan wak?

The first inference would have eliminated KJ as the principal culprit. Reasonable? Most of us find KJ revolting and repulsive because of our image of him. Perhaps some of them are justified and most of them maybe embellishments of our collective envy. But we must also subscribe to a sense of fairplay. In the case of Khairy, the sense of fairplay demands that we look at KJ in an objective manner.

Sakmongkol finds it unconscionable to see KJ being treated once as a hero to now as potential political pariah. Sakmongkol has once written on the reason why Dato Najib sent smses to a leading criminal lawyer, averring to the concept of loyalty to a friend in need. Sakmongkol has also proposed that the principal reason why Dato Fauzi Rahman stuck to Anwar is because of the concept of loyalty. Sakmongkol sees the same principle need to apply in the case of KJ.

Where are the buffoons who once grovel at KJ’s feet? Where are those young punks who perhaps have gotten filthy rich by riding on KJ’s coattails or gravy train? Those who stood phalanx-like when KJ delivered his speech at one Perhimpunan Agung UMNO. ( yes in that year, Sakmongkol delivered a speech on a resolution on economics and was able to see KJ’s operatives behaving like guards belonging to the Nation of Islam. ( the Black Muslim movement in America led by Louis Farrakhan).

We can only conclude that if they have now deserted the HMS KJ, then it s because their motivation has never been loyalty but money and greed. Perhaps KJ’s slogan of esprit de corps( setiakawan) is a cry for help? Perhaps our distinguished Freudians can help out?

The second inference would lead us to the diminutive Javanese, wong jowo. KT.

When KT was the MB of Selangor he had to fend off allegations of corruption here, there and everywhere. The one time dentist is reputed to have become the richest MB around, not including the taikor in the Land of the Hornbill of course. Sakmongkol remembers that he has to rough it out warding off onslaughts from Lutfi Othman the writer and Selangor Pas leaders notably the easily agitated Hassan Ali.

The pace of development in Selangor is superseded perhaps only by the pace by which KT gives out prime lands and contracts to his friends and cronies. In that process, he has become a Malaysian Marcus Licinus Crassus. Who the hell is this man? maybe the following will reveal some parallels. .

Marcus Licinus Crassus, born into a wealthy Roman family around the year 115 B.C., acquired enormous wealth through (in the words of Plutarch) "fire and rapine." One of his most lucrative schemes took advantage of the fact that Rome had no fire department. Crassus filled this void by creating his own brigade--500 men strong--which rushed to burning buildings at the first cry of alarm. Upon arriving at the scene, however, the fire fighters did nothing while their employer bargained over the price of their services with the distressed property owner. If Crassus could not negotiate a satisfactory price, his men simply let the structure burn to the ground. Another of his profitable ventures was a school for slaves; Crassus purchased unskilled bondsmen, had them trained, and then sold them for handsome profits.

The bulk of Crassus's enormous wealth, however, consisted of his vast landholdings, acquired while he was a lieutenant to Lucius Cornelius Sulla during the civil war of 88-82 B.C. Sulla allowed Crassus to buy captured enemy property at bargain prices, but the acquisitive Roman was not satisfied with this and proceeded to seize the estates of magnates not on the proscribed list, often killing the innocent owners. When his greed surpassed every civilized limit, Crassus lost Sulla's support.

Nevertheless, through loans to nearly every Roman senator and lavish entertainments for the populace, Crassus succeeded in acquiring what he wanted most--political power. During the last years of the Roman republic, he formed the First Triumvirate with Julius Caesar and Gnaeus Pompey. Still unsatisfied, he sought military glory in Syria, but he was defeated and killed at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 B.C. According to a deliciously ironic legend, the Syrians cut off his head and filled it with molten gold.