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Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Sakmongkol does not know or has ever met this kickdefella. He has written much on the blog. He is also a maestro at doing posters about bloggers.
He has come under fire for his recent post on we know what Najib and Rosmah did. This post has drawn the ire, fire and brimstone from other bloggers. On the other hand, his post on we know what Abdullah did, did not draw as much venom as did the post on Najib.
Why the different responses? Simply because, the bloggers condemning kickdefella also have their own agenda. That is to see Pak Lah leave the scene quickly and replace him, with by now, the sanitised, re-packaged Najib? Its no guessing game, that Najib is their prima dona- criticise him at your peril and you will certainly invite verbal reprisals.
His post has offended the sensitivities of those who view Najib as the shoo in for the UMNO president. People have invested a lot of hope on Najib, yes, HOPES. so lets not destroy them.
One blogger has insinuated that the kicker has received kickbacks. Another blogger found it so offensive that he resorted to profanities and en passant mentioned his conversation with the kicker over beer. Over beer is a snide aside sakmongkol believes, calculated to injure the sensitivities of the kicker’s current employer.
Sakmongkol asks, why do some perceptions on Najib halt at the psychological barrier of insisting that he is sainted? It is as though, that is the only memory of Najib that they want to preserve and woe betide those who attempt to question that. Thus one blogger writes with a sense of much relief almost to the level of reaching literary orgasm, that it was Pak Lah who requested the postponement of the UMNO GA and NOT Najib( phew).
Are people afraid that if they were to venture further, they would move over to the dark side? And if they do, all their fealtyand veneration for any one but Abdullah are shattered?
Sakmongkol has always believed that making revolutionary changes is not like going to a dinner part, having tea and scones( apologies to Mat bangkai) or making embroidery. That phrase of not like a dinner party of course originates from Mao Tse Tung.
" A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle,kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous."
There must be a feeling of angst and anger about it. One channels the feeling of utter disgust to effect the necessary changes. For instance, at the moment, in Malaysia there is a lot of pent up frustration at the leadership. Can it be released just by merrily going along with the incremental changes advocated by Messrs. Najib Tun Razak, Muhyiddin or Mukhriz Mahathir for that matter?
People seem to think that our problems will be solved and our lot improved, by just having the reins of power, passed on from Pak Lah to Dato Najib. For all you know, Najib is Janus faced and his ascension, if that takes place, is just stale wine in a spruced up bottle.
Ifthere isgeneral swell of anger to see about changes in the government’s leadership, that wont be accomplished just by wanting it. It will not come about bya process of accretion of uncoordinated upset feelings here and there and treated in a leisurely manner.
To fan the flames of anger, one requires whistle blowers. The baddest whistle blower is of course in Kamunting at the moment. And if the pieces were to be picked up by that Kickdefella guy, we say, hail to him. The public are in the dark about many things. Their anger must remain consistent and to remain consistent require something which they must be angry about.
And so Sakmongkol wishes to remind readers:-
A "whistleblower" provides information he or she
reasonably believes evidences:
A violation of any law, rule or
regulation
Gross mismanagement
A gross waste of funds
An abuse of authority
A substantial and specific danger
to public health
A substantial and specific danger
to public safety
As long as they do not violate the laws, the whistle blowing must indeed be supported. Because Sakmongkol is always reminded by de Montesquieu;
There is no crueller tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.
Sakmongkol is not sure whether Malay society has progressed culturally or not. Scanning through the newspapers, one gets the same old feeling. Its all about tales around the palace. Its intrigues, plots, events, protagonists and antagonists.
Thus, Dato Najib can unashamedly say that he learnt the noble ideas about leading from the late father. Surprise surprise. Hindsight is indeed a 2020. Will this mean, that everyone who aspires to be a leader must be born in such a family? The value of such a self serving declaration is exceeded only by its blatant pomposity.
The story about our leadership is a story similar to the Malay folktales of ancient time. First its a story with the background setting of the UMNO palace- its intrigues, internal strife and so on.
Second it will be a story about the princes and princesses of UMNO- the scions and progeny of former leaders. Hence we hear of Dato Najib who now has a 2020 vision( now realising that he is here to be a leader), Hishamudin Hussin who as one blogger says is slotted to become an important UMNO leader( notwithstanding his more brawn than brain jock image and a graduate from UK’s Maktab Adabi equivalent).We have Mukhriz Mahathir also another scion of the best of Malaysia’s PM,
As is the norm, the princes and princesses are sakti, strong, intelligent( compared to chimpanzees?), naturally good looking, porcelain skin, and cannot be defeated by anyone. Hence people are doing the fools rush where angles dare not routine, to the home of Najib, Hishamudin, etc.
The UMNO princesses are pure and beautiful. Fortunately they are not many UMNO princessand as to the pure, maybe Azalina can claim that honour.
So you ask, is this how UMNO answers its leadership issues? Is the leadership question resolved by scrapping the bottom of the barrel? With over 3.5 million members, UMNO can only look at a very limited talent pool to carry it out into the next phase.
Those people obsessed with seeing Dato Najib takes over the reins of power will go bezerk if there are any suggestions that injure the already sullied reputation of Najib and his ilk.
Now like the folktales of old, were the births of these scions accompanied by light drizzle, relaying lightnings and bursts of thunder and perhaps on the previous night, people dreamt that a full moon descended on the child prodigy? And at the fringes of the kingdom, people hear inaudible howling ushering the birth of a new king?
Someone asks the rhetorical question. Name one party that is not corrupt? Our inability to answer that question does not preclude us from speaking out. If any one in the position of leadership is moved to speak against corruption, that is a start. Nor does our inability to answer immediately, make what the current leadership practises excusable.
A long time ago, when Sakmongkol was much younger and curiosity got the better of him, he read among others the works of communist thinkers. From Marx to Preobrazensky to Trotsky. Some of the terms he now remembers are underbau and oberbau, substructure and superstructure respectively.
When the underbau becomes corrupted and weakened by way of weaning off the principles which once gave the organisation its character, the oberbau will soon give way. That is how Sakmongkol sees UMNO at the moment.
If one were to ask, how fare UMNO at the moment, what would your answer be? No UMNOniks can say, what happens to UMNO is the concern of card carrying UMNO members only. The whole country is interested because UMNO forms the main pillar of the BN. what happens to it, is a cause of concern to its partners in the coalition. If UMNO sneezes, the others catch a cold.
Many commentators on UMNO seem to miss the point about the transformation of UMNO’s character. It has long abandoned its kampong centric character. It has long shed the image of a country bumpkin or a HillbillyJed Clampett from the Malaysian Appalachians or Ozarks. Instead over the period of 60 years, the typical UMNO man has evolved from the simple Kampung character into a streetwise opportunistic character. The new UMNO man is more likely be a marauding contract junkie, always on the lookout for rent seeking services.
It is no longer the repository of idealism or nationalism. Nationalism in its unadulterated form is necessary to infuse a sense of national pride. Adulterated, it can evolve from a positive trait into an extreme form of racist bigotry. Along with it, UMNO’s raison detre about fighting for the Malays has also almost disappeared. It resurfaces only when UMNO leadership feels insecure and threatened. UMNO was no Meiji restoration- modernise to strengthen the monarchy, the military and all that.
Today it has degenerated into a party, where people jostle to secure positions in order to get their hands on the nation’s kitty. It is moving towards a form of kleptocracy.
The country according to UMNO is divided into 192 ‘states’ each belonging to an UMNO warlord. The warlord is theKetua Bahagian who will compete to partake in the division of the country’s largesse. Division heads compete to secure government projects, tenders, and businesses. To UMNO the country and the economy fits into the model described by the historian Arnold J. Toynbee. The country’s economy is based on Raubwirtschafft or simply, a robber economy. The pot of gold is the political power held by UMNO which holds the key to the to economic power.
Except that the internal economy of UMNO does not function on slavery but on a more insidious exploitative form of economic enterprise, the rent seeking economy. UMNO warlords will secure contracts, tenders and businesses and sub contract them down many layers.
There was a case of an UMNO division head who secured a RM400 million deal to construct a stretch of highway. Immediately he sub-contracted it for RM320 million making a cool RM80 million. The first subcontractor in turn sub-sub contracted the tender for RM 280 million. Whether the highway was completed on RM280 million was never known.
This version of UMNO-nomics tend to snuff out the rise of a genuine middle class to promote free enterprise. Perhaps this practice explains the stunted growth of the Malay economy.
How can such UMNO-nomics work? It can only do so as long as the UMNO government is on expanse, i.e. it must continue to expand the economy artificially without support from fundamentals. Once the expansion is no longer tenable, UMNO will self implode.
The pattern remains the same. A complaint brought before the UMNO’s board of discipline is almost always decided in favour of the more powerful. So when Hamid Albar or his people brings before the committee chaired by Tengku Ahmad Rithaudeen, a report on money politics, on can almost expect the natural outcome.
The person accused of money politics is Syed Hamd Albar’s opponent for the post of ketua bahagian. If he is found guilty of money politics, then Hamid Albar, wins by default.
Syed Hamid Albar just did. It will be a hollow victory for him. Can one leads when the followers find him so objectionable?
All division heads, be they sitting ministers or important ketua bahagians are guilty of money politics. The practice has reached the highest ranked in the party. UMNO can do two things to curb this rampant vote buying activities. Either it can legalise campaign expenditure or haul in the entire party leadership.
It is impossible to expect those in power to rule against themselves. And so to present a picture of impartiality, it appoints those who cannot be expected to bite the hand that feeds them to head such a committee. Its just another clubhouse hearing and investigation.
You can bring any complaints before the committee. It has another subcommittee that vets through the myriad of complaints and decide which one merits hearing. At the end of the day, who they decide to do in are those they intend to. another person amenable to them may escape the gangplanks. Look at what happened to Ali Rustam? He should have been punished like Isa Samad but he was not.
So what does that tell you about the UMNO ethics committee chaired by Tengku Ahmad Rathaudeen?In the end, its who pays the piper who calls the tune. The UMNO disciplinary board chaired by a person who knows which side of the bread is buttered, will lean to the puissant UMNO leadership.
At the top right hand corner of Sakmongkol’s blog, is a video clip of the hilarious banter between Badan and Nyawa. Both are thieves. It is taken from the film Nujum Pak Belalang. Or written as a tongue in cheek, the two characters can easily be Badanwi and Nyawajib.
The clip encapsulates what Sakmongkol thinks of what those in power are currently doing. Its kleptocracy in action. The Merriam-webster definition of a kleptocracy is : a government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed. A government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.(dictionary com) A government characterized by rampant greed and corruption. (American heritage dictionary).
In 2006, the white house released the following statement about kleptocracy.
For too long, the culture of corruption has undercut development and good governance and bred criminality and mistrust around the world. High-level corruption by senior government officials, or kleptocracy, is a grave and corrosive abuse of power and represents the most invidious type of public corruption. It threatens our national interest and violates our values. It impedes our efforts to promote freedom and democracy, end poverty, and combat international crime and terrorism. Kleptocracy is an obstacle to democratic progress, undermines faith in government institutions, and steals prosperity from the people. Promoting transparent, accountable governance is a critical component of our freedom agenda.
Our objective is to defeat high-level public corruption in all its forms and to deny corrupt officials access to the international financial system as a means of defrauding their people and hiding their ill-gotten gains. Given the nature of our open, accessible international financial system, our success in fighting kleptocracy will depend upon the participation and accountability of our partner nations, the international financial community, and regional and multilateral development institutions. Together, we can confront kleptocracy and help create the conditions necessary for people everywhere to enjoy the full benefits of honest, just, and accountable governance.
