PM Is Reduced to Haranguing the Rakyat

A Kadir Jasin

AS his desperation and that of the people grows, the Prime Minister (Datuk Seri) Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, has been reduced to haranguing the rakyat.

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In doing so, it shows just how distant he is to the everyday people. Decades of being a Wakil Rakyat had not appeared to bring him any closer to the masses.

On the contrary it seems to reinforce the “orang besar” character in him – of demanding loyalty and freely exercising his prerogative.

Incidentally he is one of the four “Orang Besar Berempat” (The Four Chieftains) of Pahang, carrying the title “Yang Dihormat Orang Kaya Indera Shahbandar”. Little wonder, therefore, that he enjoys the singular support of the Sultan of Pahang.

Mohd Najib: Orang Besar Berempat Pahang

[In the imperial Malay nomenclature, shahdandar is the comptroller of port and, hence, the chief tax collector.]

So when Mohd Najib tries to sound like one of the rakyat, his “orang besar” character and his disconnect with the people become obvious.

First there was the infamous “bangang” label he bestowed upon his own Umno-sponsored bloggers during last year’s Umno General Assembly.

He accused them of being stupid (numskull, fat-headed, nincompoop) for allegedly attacking the party instead of the enemies. Bangang is worse than “bodoh” in the Malay language. In the proper Malay households, “bodoh” is a no-no word.

In substance, however, he was not altogether wrong. There are Umno-sponsored bloggers who deserve that label.

Bangang was followed by “jemuan” when opening the Kedah Umno Convention last March. In Kedah slang, jemuan refers to a very bad person. He said Umno should rid itself of jemuan, acknowledging that there are such people in his own party.

And most recently he warned the Malays that they would be “bangsat” if Umno loses power. Some English media had erroneously translated it as bastard.

Depending on geographical areas and usage, bangsat, according to Dewan Bahasa, can mean a type of foul-smelling bug (pepijat), a bad person, like a thief, or a very poor person. The Dewan gives it English synonyms as rascal, knave, ill-bred and despicable person.

Bangsat is hardly used these days. Like pariah it is considered offensive. In the old northern slang, a poor person who left his place of birth to seek fortune elsewhere was said to gone “membangsat”.

So in my village in Kedah back in the 1950’s and 60’s, many Kelantanese came “membangsat” during the rice harvesting season to work as farm hands and many local people left for the towns to earn a living.

But bangsat is already applicable to the Malays where it connotes poverty and destitution. And Mohd Najib should know because he is responsible for it!

Since he became Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Umno president in 2009, the lot of the Malays and other Bumiputeras had worsened compared to other Malaysians.

Never in the history of the country that income gap between the Malays and the Chinese widened so drastically than between 2009 and 2012. The last time this happened was in 1970.

There was no improvement whatsoever in the monthly income of the Malay households from time Mohd Najib became the PM in 2009 to last year compared to the Chinese.

In fact, the nominal income gap between the Malays and the Chinese had widened by as much as 53 per cent. So, economically the Malays are already “bangsat”.

Mohd Najib had also been reported to label Felda settlers who were not supportive of Umno as “haram jadah” which in English is something like bloody bastard.

Less frequently heard these days are the high-sounding words and phrases like “keterangkuman” (inclusiveness), “rakyat didahulukan” (people first), “Perdana Menteri untuk semua” (Prime Minister for all), “kesederhanaan” and “wasatiyyah” (moderate) that marked the early days of his rule.

Instead, in his desperation to be seen to be close to the people, Mohd Najib has become “celupar” (inappropriate) in his public utterances. He likes to harangue the people and launches tirades against his opponents.

So it wasn’t a big deal when a woman delegate to the recent Langkawi Umno annual general meeting accused the PM of having “kencing” the people. In the contemporary Malay street parlance, to “kencing” is to tell a lie.  

Wallahuaklam.