Judging Najib and Umno with the wisdom of Solomon
Just as the many at the Umno Assembly were yesterday 'fed' a history lesson on the May 13 incident, I, too, received the same, the day before.
I was at the Jalan Duta court complex to await the commencement of my sedition trial ( which did not kick off. A story to be told on another day ).
I was joined in the court canteen by a legal practitioner who is senior in age but relatively junior at the Bar.
We started to talk about the recent slew of sedition charges and what might be the motivation behind them.
After I had offered my two sen on the matter, he gave his.
He told me that some 40 years ago, when Harun Idris was ordered to enter his defence in his corruption trial, Harun spilled the beans on the May 13 incident as he gave his evidence.
Harun had apparently said in the witness box that, at the instigation of Tun Razak, Najib’s father, and upon the promise from the same that he would be appointed Deputy Prime Minister, Harun had orchestrated the incidents that had triggered the whole May 13 saga, with a view to toppling Tunku Abdul Rahman.
The whole business of race riots, according to Harun, was stage-managed in order to seize political power.
It did not matter that lives were lost.
Yesterday, as Najib conducted his history lesson for the Umno delegates, RTM carried in their news reports the ongoing UMNO Assembly proceedings, accompanied by the most vile of visuals intended to sow deep hatred in the hearts of Malay-Muslims towards their non-Muslim fellow citizens.
In a sense, what we, the nation, witnessed yesterday was the culmination of a relentless agenda by Umno, its cohorts inside and outside of BN, since the 13thGE, to demonise the non-Malays in the eyes of the Malays, with a view to instilling in the former a fear of the return of the ghost of May 13, 1969 to haunt the present generation.
As for the Malays, it would suffice if they swallowed hook, line and sinker the alarmist and baseless warnings carried daily by the mainstream media that Islam and the very existence of the Malays were under threat.
The drama unfolding before us yesterday will reach its closure with its minor goal a done deal : the Sedition Act, 1948 will live on, buttressed.
Keep May 13 and the present goings-on in mind, and then view the political tapestry that has been played out between these two markers, and the alert observer may notice a pattern.
Every time the ruling regime has felt threatened, a crisis is contrived.
To distract the people from the real crisis at hand.
And to seal the heart, mind and soul of the general citizenry in a 'don’t get involved' culture of fear.
In 1987, when Dr M faced a challenge within UMNO and needed to neutralize the judiciary and the media, Lee Kim Sai and Najib obliged with racist exchanges.
The two were never dealt with. Instead, 106 voices that represented the conscience of the nation were detained under Ops Lallang, to enable Dr M to go about his dirty deeds without any resistance.
How?
The 'don’t get involved' culture of fear gripped the nation.
Post-12th GE, we were 'fed' with the cow-head protest in Shah Alam, and then the High Court decision in the Allah issue.
And post-13th GE brings us to where we presently are.
Go back in history and look at every major financial scandal that hit the nation, and you will find that coincidentally, race issues proliferated then.
To distract the rakyat from the real concern that ought to have the nation’s attention.
So what is spooking Najib and UMNO so badly now, that they have gone into ‘scare the people’ mode?
Yesterday, Malaysiakini quoted Kota Belud MP and Sabah UMNO leader Abdul Rahman Dahlan as saying, in defending Najib’s U-turn on the repeal of the Sedition Act:
Is all that we are witnessing a view to shoring up the prospects of the ruling regime in the 14th GE?
I think not.
For that, they will look to the imminent delineation exercise to be conducted by the Election Commission.
What, then?
I think the mayhem Rahman spoke of is that which may be sparked by a rapidly-deteriorating economy, emerging financial scandals like 1MDB amidst rising cost of living impacting some 60% to 70% of the people, to be compounded come April next year when the GST is implemented.
To avoid any mayhem, first, jail Anwar.
Then, jail all present-day voices of conscience of the rakyat, courtesy of the Sedition Act.
Drive the urban, middle-class rakyat back into the days of old, into that 'don’t get involved' culture of fear.
And continue to keep the minds of the Malays in the heartland shackled with the lies spun through the mainstream media and the weekly sermons at the mosques.
In 1969, lives were lost to serve the political ambitions of a few.
Today, the progeny of one of that few will see the very fabric of this nation destroyed to serve his own ends.
In the famous biblical account, known today as the wisdom of Solomon, King Solomon was called upon to settle a dispute between two women claiming to be the biological mother of a newborn baby.
Solomon proposed to cut the baby into two, so that each of the women might have one-half.
One woman declined this compromise, and offered to let the other have the baby, whole.
Thus did Solomon discover the real mother, by ascertaining from their actions who loved the child, and who did not.
Apply the wisdom of Solomon to what is, and has been, happening to this nation for the better part of its miserable existence.
See, on one side, Najib, UMNO and their racist outfits.
On the other, you and I and the rest of the rakyat.
Which faction loves the nation?
Haris Ibrahim shares his thoughts here and drives his activism through his blog The People's Parliament.
He may be reached at thepe oplesparliament@gmail.com
Sounds like:
No comments:
Post a Comment