Umno Baru running scared

Mariam Mokhtar

The 4Rs – race, royalty, religion and the rural people – have been used by Umno-Baru to divide and rule Malaysia.

When Najib asked the rhetorical question, “Where would the Malays be without Umno-Baru?”, it was a cry of desperation and an admission of defeat.

Umno-Baru’s hold on the Malays is slipping. Najib and Umno-Baru are scared. Without the Malays, where would Umno-Baru be? Domination of the Malays is not about protecting their rights. It is all about power and status.

The line that Umno-Baru has used for over five decades to divide the nation, is no longer relevant. Malay graduates who return to Malaysia do so because they have to fulfil the terms of their scholarship or loan. Try asking them what they really feel about Malaysia, about Umno-Baru and its leaders. Their stories will fill you with hope.

The current clampdown on dissent and the hunt for Malays who speak their minds is because the government is afraid. A thinking Malay is a threat to Umno-Baru. A thinking Malay who is prepared to question the leaders and make them accountable for their actions will erode the power of Umno-Baru.

Umno-Baru knows that one thinking Malay will embolden other Malays and very soon, Umno-Baru will become irrelevant.

If anecdotal evidence is to be believed, the brain drain is no longer confined to non-Malays seeking better shores. What frightens Umno-Baru is the fact that many Malays have become disillusioned with Umno-Baru and are not just abandoning the party. They are prepared to forsake their country.

In the past, Malays used to deride the non-Malays for leaving Malaysia. Many did not know the degree of unfairness with which the government treated the non-Malays, in the areas of employment, business opportunities, education, jobs in the civil service and defence.

Today, young graduate Malays, who have been educated overseas, are telling their parents that enough is enough.

They are astute enough to know that the government will make the lives of their families miserable so they leave quietly and without fuss. If the government cannot prosecute the Malay graduate who has absconded, their modus operandi is to go after their families.

In a change from the past, Malay families are now supportive of their children working and living abroad. In the age of the Internet, communication is easy and relatively cheap. Ironically, the Malays are now emulating their non-Malay peers, by turning their backs on Malaysia.

Many Malays who have found employment in the countries in which they studied are happy and glad they made the move.

One Malay doctor said, “My work experience in the (Malaysian) hospital was a bitter experience. I wasn’t just overworked but when I asked the consultant for advice, I was shouted at in front of the patients and other staff.

“It was humiliating and degrading. In the teaching hospital in Sydney, the consultants were pleasant and eager to train me. I felt appreciated.”

When you hear stories like these you know that young Malays are not prepared to believe the lies of Umno-Baru, any longer. The young Malays of today have an appetite for hard work, which is not matched by the Umno-Baru Malays or mat rempit types whom Najib is fond of praising.

Answering Najib

A Malay farmer in his sixties said, “What is Najib doing about the farmers? The youth have no interest in agriculture They are leaving the kampong in search of jobs. Many farmers are now in their 60s and 70s. Who will take over my farm when I die?

“I know that many young men who migrated to the cities, are still unemployed. Many have turned to drugs or petty theft. What has the government done to make farming attractive?”

Many civil servants claim that they are demoralised at work. They find that their time and departmental operating budgets are increasingly being used for political, Umno-Baru activities. The ones who voice their opinions are warned that they risk destroying their career prospects.

Even Umno-Baru supporters are slowly realising they are being conned. One senior party worker said that, with Umno-Baru’s help, many rich Malays drive imported sports cars and live in rumah mewah (mansions). When asked how Umno-Baru had helped uplift his life, he was dumb-struck. The penny had dropped!

If Najib Abdul Razak had asked the rhetorical question “Where would the Malays be without Umno-Baru?”, in front of ordinary members of the rakyat, he would have been drowned out with hisses and pelted with rotten eggs, or shoes.

The answer to Najib’s question is simple. Without Umno-Baru, the Malays would be better off economically, financially, morally, spiritually and intellectually. Without Umno-Baru, the Malays can restore their lost dignity. A Malay who has the courage to reject Umno-Baru will be mentally liberated and feel a weight lifted from his shoulders.

Umno-Baru has brainwashed Malays and gave them a false sense of entitlement. They were told they were owed success without the need for hard work. Only Umno-Baru would think of placing a copyright on the word ‘Allah’. Umno-Baru gave Malays and Islam a bad reputation.

Under Umno-Baru, Malays have become arrogant, insincere, work-shy, complacent, uncompetitive, demanding and insensitive. Umno-Baru conditioned the Malays to stop thinking and let Umno-Baru think for them.

Umno-Baru taught some Malays to steal the taxpayers’ money and learn the fine art of corruption.

Umno-Baru conditioned the Malay mind to think that any wrongdoing by its leaders is acceptable, because this is preferable to a non-Malay leading the country.

Umno-Baru injected fear into the Malay psyche and told him that he should be afraid of change and new ideas.

Only Umno-Baru would say that liberal Malays, Christians, Singapore and progressive NGOs are a threat to Malays and Islam.

Umno-Baru is Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s creation and the mistrust, disunity, treachery, sedition and intolerance are his true legacy.

Only an Umno-Baru leader would defend his wife’s extravagance and boast of her ability, but ignore the suffering of the rakyat. The average Malaysian family is barely surviving. Where is the breadwinner going to find an additional 15 percent more income to pay for the increase caused by the GST?

Mahathir, Najib, Muhyiddin Yassin, Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,  Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Khairy Jamaluddin and other senior Umno-Baru politicians are poor role models for Malays.

Umno-Baru is not concerned about Malays or Malay rights. Its only concern is status and power; both economic and political power. Najib realises that without the Malays, Umno-Baru could be as dead as a dodo. Najib knows that Umno-Baru is living on borrowed time.

By GE14, the only people supporting Najib and Umno-Baru will be the mat rempits and the ‘new Malays’ from Bangladesh.