Monday, May 21, 2018

The End of Umno’s Hegemony




In the name of God, the merciful and the compassionate

I HAVE never started my post with a reminder. But I now have. The opinion expressed here, in this blog, is entirely mine. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my position (for now) as the head of media & communication of the Council of Elders (CoE).


As has been for the past 12 years, this blog is mine and the content herein is mine. They do not represent or purport to represent other individuals or organisations.


I have to make this absolutely clear because of late some journalists and media organisations had either intentionally or out of ignorance linked my opinion here (and also in my Facebook) as representing that of the CoE.


The CoE has nothing to do with my blog and Facebook, my writing in Sinar Harian and Dewan Masyarakat. So I appeal to journalists and organisations quoting from my blog, Facebook and my columns in Sinar and Dewan Masyarakat not to link it to my for-now position as an apparatus of CoE aka the Council of Eminent Persons.

[Anonymous comments will not be published. Please use real or pseudonym. Thank you.]

NOW to my opinion. This time it is about the end of the Umno-Barisan Nasional political hegemony.

As we now know, the hegemony of the United Malay National Organisation (Umno) and the BN came to an unceremonious end on May 9.

On the way to conceding defeat
The 72-year old Malay party and its BN coalition were swept away by the “tsunami Malaysia” after being in power continuously since independence in 1957.

The self-proclaimed Bugis warrior, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, had finally steered his Bugis pinisi into the eye of the storm and sank.

Remember his famous heroic cry? "Saya ingin mengulangi, setelah layar telah dikembangkan, apabila sauh telah dilabuhkan, pantang ketua kapal dan anak-anak kapal menoleh ke belakang.”

Literally translated, once the sail had been raised and the anchor dropped, the captain and its crew would not look back.

Unfortunately, Najib the sailor wasn’t like his seafaring ancestors. He got his command wrong. He asked for the sail to be raised but ordered the anchor dropped.

The mast broke, the sail torn and the ship sank. The BN lost the federal government and eight out of 12 state assemblies up for grabs.

It would appear that Najib really believed that it would be plain sailing for the BN until the counting of votes commenced in the evening of May 9.

The first sign of trouble was when older voters in the 1st and 2nd streams did not all sided with the BN.

In the past, voters in these two streams, who are made up of pensioners and older people, overwhelmingly supported the BN. But it wasn’t the case this time.

It soon dawned upon the BN representatives at the counting centres that they would fare worse when ballot boxes from the streams comprising of younger voters were opened and counted.

Their fears became a reality and the people soon got wind of the ouster of the BN when television stations were slow in broadcasting the results.

The pro-government Election Commission went an extra mile to delay the announcement in the hope that the postal and early votes would lift the BN’s fortune. But the BN was in such a deficit that these votes did not help.

By early morning of May 10 it dawned upon Najib that the BN did not have enough seats to form a government hence the phone calls to the Pakatan Harapan’s Ketua Umum, Anwar Ibrahim, through the good offices of the latter’s good friend, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

They were futile calls. Why should Anwar want to cooperate with the Bugis pendekar (martial arts exponent) when his party and its coalition partners had won more than enough seats to form the government?

It was clear that Umno and the BN did not expect the shift to be so large that it could not be made good by early and postal votes.

The rest is history and now the once belligerent Najib will have to face the music. Umno and the BN had gotten rid of him. He said he resigned. But I would like to believe that his position had become untenable.

Tomorrow he would have to report to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) in Putrajaya to have his statement recorded.

For several days now the police have been carting away an extraordinary amount of cash, gold bars, fantastically expensive wristwatches and handbags, and documents from Najib’s Taman Duta residence and hideouts said to be owned by tycoon Desmond Siew Choon of the Pavilion fame.

A preview of what is likely to happen to Najib can be based on the case involving his good friend, Mohd Isa Samad - the disgraced chairman of Felda.

On August 15 last year – incidentally also a Tuesday – Isa was arrested at the MACC headquarters after having his statement in relation to the purchase of hotels by Felda was recorded. The following day he was taken to court and was remanded for five days.

The same could happen to Najib. But unlike Isa, who was not charged for his offences, Najib may not be so lucky.

The whole world knows that there is a case pending against him – the SRC International Sdn Bhd’s money that allegedly went into his personal account.

So, the Bugis pinisi had not only sunk but its master now faces the risk of being charge with piracy.

As for the crew who survived the May 9 tsunami, they have to decide if their “Javanese” first mate is good enough to take them to the stormy seas once again.

Wallahuaklam.


16 comments:

  1. I guess when you know when to stop, this thing will never happened. 1MDB issue will be best remembered for his downfall.It begin with a simple question,but it ends with a difficult answer.
    Anyway, due to doctrine of power separation, Lets the court decide.
    Selamt menyambut Ramadan,Sdr Kadir.

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  2. Nicely written. Sums up accurately in beautiful prose.

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  3. Hud Hud6:20 PM

    Saya ingin membuat cadangan mengenai strategi utk menang di kelantan dan terengganu.

    Salah satu caranya ialah dengan menyakinkan rakyat di sana yg tidak ada sebab kenapa undi mereka untuk parlimen dan dun mesti sama.

    Olih kerana PH sudah memerintah di putrajaya, maka adalah lebeh baik bagi mereka jika kerajaan negeri juga di bawah PH. Mereka akan mendapat manafaat yg banyak. Lantaran itu mereka perlu mengundi PH.

    Tapi mereka tak perlu undi PH untuk parlimen. Mereka bolih terus mengundi Pas atau Umno supaya dalam parlimen ada pembangkang yg juga kuat yg bolih membawa suara mereka.

    Tapi pendekatan ini hanya untuk negeri pantai timur sahaja. Di pantai barat, pengundi2 mesti terus mengundi PH untuk parlimen bagi memastikan PH kekal di putrajaya. Untuk tentulah mereka perlu terus mengundi PH.

    Kita perlu mengajar pengundi2, terutama orang2 melayu, untuk bijak menggunakan kuasa undi mereka.

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  4. Budak jawa7:01 PM

    Aslm dakj,

    Sekiranya ds najib disabitkan bersalah, tertulislah dalam lipatan sejarah pemimpin-pemimpin barisan nasional terutamanya umno yang telah menggunakan kedudukan mereka untuk bermati-matian mempertahankan seorang penjenayah dan jenayah yang dilakukan.

    Mereka-mereka ini kesemuanya pada saya tidak layak untuk menjadi pemimpin sampai bila-bila kerana tidak mampu berkata benar mahupun menyoal untuk mencari kebenaran tentang perkara yang sangat meragukan.

    Malah mereka bersatu menyerang pihak yang ingin mendapatkan penjelasan dan kepastian. Dan sekarang apabila ketua yang disanjung itu dikalahkan, nampaklah kita wajah jijik mereka yang kononnya sedar masalah yang mereka hadapi tetapi tidak menyuarakan masalah yang dihadapi.

    Mereka-mereka ini ingin menyucikan diri mereka kononnya kesalahan mereka hanyalah tidak memberitahu, sedangkan kita tahu semua mereka, zh, hho, saj, kj dan kesemua pimpinan umno dan bn telah bersubahat dengan seorang penjenayah untuk melakukan kerosakan terhadap negara malaysia tercinta.

    Siakap senohong gelama ikan duri
    Cakap bohong lama-lama mencuri.

    Nukilkan dalam sejarah tentang mereka ini yang telah mengkhianati agama, bangsa dan negara serta amanah yang diletakkan kepada mereka.

    Wallahualam

    Budak jawa

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  5. Pengundi Pekan7:08 PM

    Umno sudah rosak hingga ke roh nya.

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  6. I think there is an error in this line:
    "Literally translated, once the sail had been raised and the anchor dropped, the captain and its crew would not look back."

    The anchor should be weighed or raised before setting sail.

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  7. 1. The weird thing is a crime suspect is able to attend events including giving public speeches, officiate meetings and more.

    2. A crime suspect have "friends" and "supporters" visiting him , not to mention some tahfiz children.

    3. Still some people including some MPs say a crime suspect's house should not be raided at night or in the holy month of ramadan. From my knowledge, a raid show be conducted in the most unsuspected time. Perhaps this is a new rule that I don't know of.

    4. Our country's debt is alarming. We must get back all our assets, money or even birkin bags, just about anything that can pay back our debts.

    5. No more mercy. This Tuesday we hope to hear that the rule of law is being upheld again.

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  8. All for one and one for all10:15 AM

    Datuk,
    Najib had all the govt machinery and resources at his beck and call, his minions in EC, PMO, ROS, MACC, and such, whose officials disgraced themselves by betraying the rakyat. So in the end, it was the rakyat at the forefront the brave Tun Mahathir and PH team who brought him and his team down because they could no longer depend on "untrustworthy" officials to save them.
    It was a Malaysian tsunami and it was a total victory, if you want to count the PAS factor, because even PAS won at the expense of UMNO. The day of reckoning for Hadi, Abduh and his ilk is coming soon.
    Tun Dr Mahathir and his cabinet must be swift undoing the evil doings of the former PM. The DPM must give her total support to Tun and his team as we have seen she has not the capacity for the job.

    And Anwar? Of course talk is cheap and sounds good and say the correct thing to the correct audience. But ability to govern the country well for all races and religion? Btw, his sudden appointment with the Sultan of Johore, was it even necessary?
    Was Tun informed ahead? The words used by the prince "fork-tongued" is still in the hearts and minds of the rakyat and not forgiven and forgotten. The tearing out of Tun's image on posters and billboards is another example of one of the reasons why Johore UMMNO and BN lost to PH?

    Tun M and his cabinet must be given the space and time to carry out the reforms, and Anwar has pledged his full support for Tun M and the govt, so no more distractions please.

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  9. Anon 22-5-18 thank you very much for pointing ou the spelling mistakes.

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  10. KK Aw that what Najib said. He gave wrong command. Do read the Bahasa quotation.

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  11. Zalman A10:53 AM

    Datuk,

    Yet some Umno members are saying "it is not unusual for Najib to own these things".

    You may recall this case from 3 years ago.

    The First Lady's PA deposited RM2 million over the counter in Affin Bank.

    http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2015/07/10/published-details-of-rosmah-and-roslan-verified/

    Back then it was also "not unusual"....

    "Tourism and Culture Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz defended the RM2 million reported to be deposited into Rosmah Mansor’s bank account as ‘transparent and legal’. The sum of money deposited has the computerised bank record for checking, and therefore it is transparent, legal and not an abuse of power, Nazri said. Responding to Sin Chew Daily in Kuala Kangsar yesterday, Nazri said it should not be surprising if Rosmah, as the prime minister’s wife, has RM2 million in her bank account. It would only be a surprise, the minister added, if her account only had RM5,000."

    So, it is also "not unusual" that BN lost power after all these feeble attempts to cover up corruption.



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  12. Dato', cuma satu kenapa lah Tun lantik org yang ada kes Mahkamah sedang berjalan, jadi Menteri Kewangan.

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  13. Nenekghuffran6:01 PM

    Salam DAKJ...
    Nenek nak tumpang tanya... apa khabar agaknya si Pompuan dan Waghih peminat setia Pendekar Bugis tu...kesian.....

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    Replies
    1. Merayau rayau mencari tuan baru ..selagi belum jumpa maka bergentayanganlah mereka dari satu kementerian ke kementerian yang lain ..

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  14. Asalamualaikum Datuk, boleh tak dicadangkan Sesi CoE berkaitan 1MDB bersama pemberi maklumat dan mereka yang terlibat dilakukan secara terbuka dan langsung melalui "FB Live Telecast" sepertimana Mark Zuckerberg's Senate Hearing....

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  15. THE DON10:18 AM

    Salam,

    I think its fair to mention the actual debts the country is facing so that the Rakyat knows about it. By doing so, the current Government will not be blamed later for not telling the Rakyat as regard to the debts owed by the country. As for fund managers, as I see it, they do not bring any real value. US is in a mess since they place too much attention on Wall Street instead of concentrating on production. Fund Managers just come and go unlike real investors that commit their capital in this country. Once the economy is stable, the fund managers will come back.

    I was even thinking that GST should be charged voluntarily to help the Government pays its debts based on an amount to be agreed upon i.e. whether the consumer wants to contribute to GST when they pay their bills.

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