Time Mahathir stopped hunting with the hounds

Dato' Mohd.Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz.

Well said and an extremely accurate analysis of the causes and the consequences of Mahathir's rule.You should send this copy Mahathir and our current cabinet ministers plus the RAKYAT especially the Malays for their feedback,It is better to realise ones own folly early and rectify the mistakes rather than to regret forever.Good article that should be published in our mainstream media

Mahathir's take on the election results was revealing- he felt that the problem lay in the absence of a strong grassroots network which did not convert positive intention into delivered votes while Najib complained of there being too many leaders on the ground. In both cases, what is interesting is that the analysis is in effect a reiteration of a worldview that is pre-existing. What is in effect being said is that the top-down approach of the UMNO works just fine; the only hitch is that there is no one at the bottom to utilise that advantage. When it is said that there are too many leaders, the subtext is that the party has all the leaders it needs in the members of the family; what it lacks are committed followers who are able to convert charisma into votes.One would imagine that there is nothing more real or sobering than election results for nothing makes reality more naked than hard cold numbers. And yet, because it is so difficult to disaggregate election results and tease out different strands of influences at work, what tends to happen is that the results serve to reinforce existing positions rather than act as a wake-up call for the parties in question.One would imagine that there is nothing more real or sobering than election results for nothing makes reality more naked than hard cold numbers. And yet, because it is so difficult to disaggregate election results and tease out different strands of influences at work, what tends to happen is that the results serve to reinforce existing positions rather than act as a wake-up call for the parties in question.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad kata kalau Pakatan Rakyat memerintah, dia orang akan perintah selamanya. Mengikut Dr Mahathir dia tahu beberapa rahsia. Rahsia yang Dr Mahathir maksudkan itu mesti yang buruk dan yang tidak baik.

Kerana apabila PR memerintah, orang akan tahu rahsia buruk Umno- rasuah, rompakan, lanun, manipulasi jentera kerajaan, komisyen kepada menteri, KSU yang korap, pegawai kerajaan yang korap, rasuah dalam syarikat milik kerajaan,skendel pembinaan lebuh raya, pelabuhan, jambatan bengkok, skendel IPP. Semua rahsia ini menyebabkan rakyat tidak mahu lagu memilih Umno.

Umno akan jadi 4 huruf yang melambangkan segala yang mungkar kepada orang melayu yang Bergama Islam. Sebagai orang Islam , semua orang Melayu tahu bertaqwa bererti jangan buat mungkar dan menyeru kepada makruf. Umno mewakili kuasa yang mungkar dan kerana itu, orang Melayu akan menolaknya. Prinsip ini amat mudah difahami.

PR akan berkuasa lama selagi ia menjalankan dasar dan pemerintahan yang makruf. Apa yang sukarnya mengenai rahsia ini? PR bukan kerana Anwar Ibrahim. PR adalah kerana mereka mewakili suara rakyat yang mahukan kerajaan yang lebih baik.

Apa yang Umno dakwa, semua orang lain boleh buat. Perjuangkan orang Melayu? Semua orang Melayu dalam PAS, PKR, bahkan DAP pun boleh berjuang untuk orang Melayu. NGO dan pertubuhan-pertubuhan bukan kerajaan pun boleh bersuara untuk orang Melayu. Umno tidak memiliki monopoli berjuang untuk orang Melayu. Zaman Umno memonopoli semua sudah berakhir.

Berjuang untuk Islam? Dengan sumber yang ada, semua orang boleh buat. Memelihara instutusi istana? Selagi orang Melayu hendakkan institusi itu dan ada perlindungan undang-undang, ia tetap kekal. Tidak ada masaalah.

Pendeknya, apa yang Umno kata mereka boleh buat, orang lain boleh buat dengan baik. Membangunkan negara? Sedangkan Umno dengan half six leadersnya boleh buat, mustahil orang dalam PR tak boleh buat. Faktanya, kepimpinan dalam PR lebih berkualiti dari yang masih ada dalam Umno.

Bukan Dr Mahathir seorang sahaja yang tahu rahsia. Ramai lagi tahu bagaimana Umno terutama bila Dr Mahathir jadi PM dan presiden Umno mengekang minda orang Melayu. Kita tahu rahsia Umno kekal berkuasa.

Umno kekalkan kuasa dengan menakutkan orang Melayu. Umno kekal sebab orang Melayu diperbodohkan. Umno kekal kerana orang Melayu dijadikan bangsa meminta minta dan bergantung kepada Umno.

Ini sangat berlawanan dengan semangat yang hendak dibawa oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman dan Tun Razak. Orang Melayu jadi punah bila Dr Mahathir ambil alih memimpin orang Melayu.

Orang Melayu diperbodohkan dengan menanam dalam minda mereka bahawa jika Umno tidak ada, maka masa depan orang Melayu gelap. Kenapa, walaupun setiap keududukan kuasa dikuasai oleh orang Melayu, keududukan orang Melayu ketinggalan juga?

Ini membuktikan bahawa disebalik laungan Umno berjuang untuk bangsa, agama dan tanah air, kepentingan yang mereka perjuangkan ialah kepentingan segelintir yang terpilih. Pendapatan orang Melayu selepas merdeka, selepas Umno berkuasa RM100 berbanding dengan Cina (1,500) dan India (1,200). Kenapa ini terjadi?

Suatu petang sebelum pertandingan ketua pemuda Umno Malaysia berlansung, saya berada dirumah Datuk Seri Najib Razak di Jalan Duta. Antara topik yang dibualkan ialah mengenai penglibatan Dr Mahathir dalam pertandingan Umno.

Terutama kerana ketika itu, anak Dr Mahathir pun bertanding untuk jawatan Ketua Pergerakan Pemuda. Saya menyatakan apa hal Dr Mahathir ini, tidak ada yang kena bila orang lain jadi PM selain dari dia dan tidak ada yang baik jadi Ketua Pemuda selain anak dia.

Najib telah menjawab, Dr Mahathir ni nak sibuk mengenai orang lain. Dedah keburukan orang lain. Kalau kita dedahkan hal dia, pelabuhan lah, leburaya lah, TOL lah, IPP lah... banyak lagi lah.

Inilah Umno. Jaga rahsia sama sendiri.

Kita tahu bahawa DR Dr Mahathir tidak akan bertanding lagi.  Tapi oleh kerana dia sekarang sudah menjadi jurucakap kepada Umno, maka kita attack dia. Lagi dia bising, kita suka sebab ia menjadi alasan dan semangat kepada kita untuk mendedahkan keburukan Umno. Objektif kita ialah menjatuhkan Umno.

Umno bukanlah pilihan mutlak untuk orang Melayu. Orang Melayu sekarang ada banyak pilihan. Tidak ada Umno, orang Melayu dan Malaysia tetap akan membangun dan maju. Tidak ada Umno, kepentingan orang Melayu tetap dijaga. Perkara ini tidak dapat dielakkan kerana majority penduduk negara ini adalah Melayu.

Daripada 18 juta orang Melayu, ahli Umno hanya 3 juta. Daripada 6 orang Melayu, hanya seorang ahli Umno. Jika seorang ahli Umno mati, ada 5 lagi orang Melayu. Jika 3 juta ahli Umno tidak ada, ada 15 juta lagi orang Melayu. Jadi tidaklah benar, jika Umno tidak ada, maka orang Melayu akan terbiar.

Orang Melayu tak sedar, bahawa bila Dr Mahathir ambil alih sebagai PM lah , maka sedikit demikit sedikit, DEB dihapuskan. DEB ertnya, orang Melayu membangun secara organik, diberi sumber ekonomi, membagunkan diri mereka, memperolehi pengalaman dan kemahiran dan bersaing. Semangat DEB ialah memberi orang Melayu joran atau pancing supaya mereka boleh memancing hari hari dan makan ikan hari.

Dr Mahathir tidak percaya dengan pendekatan ini. dia kata cara ini lambat. Cara yang lebih baik ialah “jumpstart” ekonomi orang Melayu. Caranya ialah dengan memilih golongan tertentu supaya melajukan ekonomi orang Melayu. Ekonomi yang laju ialah ekonomi mereka yang Dr Mahathir pilih dan Dr Mahathir pilih Cina dan India sama.

Majoriti orang Melayu ketinggalan. Itulah sebabnya mengapa perbezaan pendapatan dikalangan orang Melayu sendiri adalah perbezaan yang terbesar. Pengagihan kekayaan antara cina sama cina, India sesama India lebih adil. Sesama Melayu kurang adil, sebab Umno pilih bulu.

Ini rahsia Dr Mahathir. — sakmongkol.blogspot.com

The statistics of last general elections do not justify the self-evident depression that has overtaken The shock is that UMNO could not read the internal map of every constituency as well once it did.UMNO MUST GIVE  VOICE TO THOSE WHO FEEL DISILLUSIONED OR DISENFRANCHISED BY THE CHOICE OF  THEIR CANDIDATES. BY PLACING LOCAL CANDIDATES FOR ELECTION, VOTERS WILL BE ABLE VOTE SUITABLE CHOICES. WE HAVE NO MANIFESTO OR POLITICAL VIEW, BUT OFFER THE ELECTORATE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, AND AN END TO ‘VOTER APATHY’ the factional problem of Umno has not yet been solved. Some district leaders actually ignore Najib’s plan of fielding only those with the highest chance of winning, and insist to compete. The election would not come so soon before the problem is solved.

Therefore, Umno leaders are very likely to invest in the party president the full authority to decide on election candidates at the annual party congress, to eliminate different voices in the party. Also, Umno is expected to motivate party members and implement the party’s policy at the congress.

Therefore, the possibility to have the election in November is not high. Since they have been waiting for so long, why should they take the risk now? Therefore, it is believed that the election should be held either in January or March next year.The disenchantment with the movement is in part due to its involvement in electoral politics; the paradox being that the impetus for change cannot succeed unless it becomes a variable in the elections but the very act of getting involved with anything to do with elections is seen as an act of contamination. 

Electoral reforms will help. But too much has to change before reforms by themselves can be effective. As a structure, elections cannot create intent; that must exist in the system. Without intent, the structure merely re-inforces and perhaps amplifies all that is already wrong. Even when elections are not rigged, in some ways they always are. If not by design, then by definition.

This is the first time that the long term anti-incumbency gathered by a party could not surmount the anti–incumbency of the party in power. The meaning of this is that the voters of the country do not approve of Mahathir's Perkasa in such large numbers that it can bring a Mahathirism ideology party into power. One suspects that many in the UMNO-Barisan this and reflective of this is the massive corruption in the last 22 years( when members of a government are sure of getting reelected how are they bothered about public outcry ?).

That is not to argue that no meaningful and objective analysis of election results is possible but merely that what passes for analysis in the immediate aftermath of the election results is often nothing but a form of self-justifying wish fulfilment on the part of all concerned. The media seeks grand explanations that collapse the local complexity of elections into a global feel-good story while individual parties strive to tell themselves that nothing needs to change at a fundamental level; the problem is possible to explain away using local variables.

The real question that the elections throw up might well have to do the state of leadership in India today. It appears that the need for strong local leaders cuts across parties. Wherever, at the state level we see strong local leadership, we find that the party in question, be it regional or national seems to be in good shape. The challenge for national parties, particularly in states with strong presence of regional forces, is to build credible and empowered local leaders. But in the magic mirror called election results, it seems that we can all see exactly what we want to see.

  Lim Kit Siang have just read online reports of what Tun Dr. Mahathir said earlier today, warning Malaysians that the country may never see a Barisan Nasional (BN) government again if Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is voted into Putrajaya alleging that PR "would do everything possible to stay in power forever".

The former Prime Minister who is confirming growing perceptions of Malaysians that he is "back in the saddle" as de facto Prime Minister, especially with the present premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak proving to be the most vaccillating PM in the nation's history worse than his predecessor Tun Abdullah, is now indulging his favourite pasttime of fearmongering with both immunity and impunity.

This is not the first time Mahathir has made the wild and reckless allegation that if Pakatan Rakyat wins the federal government in the next 13th General Election, it will signify the end of democracy in Malaysia as PR would never allow any future elections where it would lose power in Putrajaya.

This is utter nonsense.

End of BN does not equate to end of Democracy

Firstly, there are substantial numbers of Malaysians who will not regard the prospect of the country never seeing again a Barisan Nasional government as a national catastrophe or disaster, as they regard this as the greatest blessing for the country in view of the rampant corruption, abuses of power, socio-economic injustices, and the worsening of the politics of hatred and lies resulting in deepening racial and religious polarisation in the county.

But whether a Barisan Nasional governmant will become history, never again to be entrusted with the responsibility to govern the country, will be a decision to be made by Malaysians through the ballot box and not to be decided by the Pakatan Rakyat.

On behalf of Pakatan Rakyat, I can state and pledge that if PR is voted into Putrajaya in the 13 th General Election, PR will respect and accept the verdict of voters if they want to vote UMNO/BN back to power in the 14th General Election in another five years down the road.

I challenge Najib and Mahathir to make a similar public commitment that UMNO will peacefully effect transition of federal power in Putrajaya if this is the electoral verdict of Malaysians in the 13th General Election?

It has not escaped public notice thAt Najib snd Mahathir have been conspicuously silent on this point.

Are both Najib and Mahathir prepared to make a public pledge to accept the people's verdict in the 13th GE, i.e. a PR federal government in Putrajaya with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the seventh Malaysian Prime Minister, or is Najib's claim of wanting to make Malaysia the "world best democracy" unable to pass its first elementary test?

Time Mahathir stopped hunting with the hounds  normally don't stay on one TV channel for long. Mirrors to our socio-political degeneration, the news channels particularly depress me ahead of a news day where I would learn about more crime, corruption and gutter politics. The escape is to a channel that shows an overaged hero jiving with a heroine 15 or 20 years younger than him, or to one dwelling on the hunting habits of the big cats. Somewhat tolerable are experts who babble about support and resistance levels of stocks, and advise suckers to invest in, or get out of, a certain scrip.

A couple of days ago, I was riveted to a news channel for the same reasons that usually repel me. It was a much-touted interview with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Raj Thackeray. If his insistence on being interviewed in Hindi on Times Now, an English channel, was audacious, his utterances were shocking (but not surprising). He had, earlier this year, given another English channel an interview in Marathi. Hence, one should thank Raj for speaking in Hindi and letting a larger number of people know the danger that lies in his exclusive agenda.

The pointed finger, the raised voice and eyes flaming with anger were symbols of the rowdyism Raj's uncle, Bal Thackeray, and his Shiv Sena created in the 1960s with ample help from the Congress, a street culture which both Senas have practised through the decades. Raj's refusal to see any other point of view; the harping on alleged crime by migrants from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand; the quoting of a Bihar crime report while rejecting Maharashtra's own figures that a far larger number of people from Karnataka, Gujarat and Rajasthan have arrived in Mumbai than those from Bihar — all left no doubt that Raj (indeed, all the Thackerays and their outfits) will continue to play their dangerous identity politics.

Amid all his belligerence over migrants from Bihar-UP-Jharkhand, and Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, Raj had no mention to make of the Mumbaikar’s economic status or his living conditions. Wouldn’t a Marathi Manoos working in another state be stealing a local’s job? How should a Maharashtrian who breaks the law in another state be treated? The Thackerays will never have convincing replies to these.

The Senas, of course, claim their anti-‘outsider’ crusades have been for the rights of the Marathi Manoos. But the reality lies elsewhere. The goal is political power. When not in power, the Senas wield authority though the politics of intimidation and control. Witness how entertainment-industry personalities like Karan Johar, Boney Kapoor and Asha Bhonsle have had to kowtow to one Thackeray or another.

The Frankenstein didn’t come on its own. The Congress has been widely held responsible for the rise and growth of the Shiv Sena. An unchallenged political force in the 1960s, it is accused of funding and letting the Sena loose on the then powerful Communist Party of India in Mumbai, an offensive that would put McCarthy to shame. Bal Thackeray also tilted at other windmills: Gujaratis and ‘Madrasis’. His party’s attacks on South Indians were a shame on a Mumbai that took pride in its cosmopolitanism. Muslims have for long been Thackeray’s pet target.

The Congress has for decades looked singularly incapable of taking on the Shiv Sena ideologically. Right from the time Vasantrao Naik was chief minister, its leaders in Maharashtra have been cosy with the Sena. It has become a wimp playing with the Senas the game of "you scratch my back, I will scratch yours". Of course, the Congress (along with the NCP) has managed to keep the Shiv Sena (and its ally the BJP) out of power by playing one Thackeray against another. But that is not the point. Because the Thackeray clan is as powerful in opposition as it is in office.

To keep the Senas and the Thackerays from appropriating socio-political centre stage, the Congress must counter their divisive politics — as also the politics of those at the other end of the communal divide. The Maharashtrian must be stopped from gravitating towards xenophobes and their agendas of hate. The Congress is the only political force with the power to do so. Will its politicians allow it?