In his obligatory Christmas day message , Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi called on all Malaysians to transcend their “narrowly defined demands” by putting their country’s interests first.

And in his effort to look an effectual leader - a term that belies his entire political career, and certainly since taking over power from Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 2003 - he labeled the regime’s critics as ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘intolerant’.

All this, so far, from the unbridled and trusted the Star - always good for a laugh. And, of course, it was headline news. Such loyal sycophancy is not unremarkable; it is expected. The Star , after all, is embedded - by law and money - deep in the bowel of Umno-ruled regimentarianism.

Like the New Straits Times , the Star is one of the tools of government propagandism and social control; in Orwellian terms, the country’s Thought Police. Through the media, in part, the regime applies and mandates its own narrow-mindedness and intolerance.

It is precisely these traits which, since 1957, and certainly since 1969, the Umno-dominated regime has ‘inculcated’ among Malaysians of all races through the perverse national ideology, Rukun Negara .

Where does Abdullah get off preaching his increasingly ridiculous, condescending lies, farce and hypocrisy? Can he be any more incompetent?

Look at his government’s reaction to the Gerakan Youth vice-chief S Paranjothy’s comments on the way the ruling coalition treats Indian Malaysians - many of whom, incidentally, are born in Malaysia - as “fourth-class citizens”. Isn’t this the truth?

Even filthier is that S Samy Vellu is supposed to represent Indian Malaysian interests through his ‘leadership’ of the MIC’s partnership in the ruling coalition.

Unless he buys them off, most Indian Malaysians know only too well that Samy Vellu cannot - and should not - be trusted.

Which is one of the key reasons why Hindraf took to the streets - and justifiably so - in the first place.

‘Ethnic cleansing’ too far-fetched

Admittedly the Hindraf 5 who labeled that treatment of Indian Malaysians as “ethnic cleansing” was a little far-fetched. To be fair, perhaps in the heat of the moment, it was a highly emotive call.

But it can’t have been any more emotive and racially provocative than Hishammuddin Hussein’s keris-brandishing and kissing Oscar-winning performance at the last Umno general assembly, can it?

Or does Abdullah think Hishammuddin is above the law and therefore untouchable by the regime’s sedition laws?

Hishammuddin was point-scoring - for his own narrow-minded sectional political interests within Umno. He is jockeying for a more senior post within Umno and the regime than his thus far lowly position.

That’s despite the fact that he holds the education portfolio. But what a botch of that position he has made by being a pathetically inappropriate role model for the country’s students.

If Hishammuddin’s Umno general assembly act was designed to attract media attention, then it can be said, with fairness, that so was the “ethnic cleansing” remark by the Hindraf 5.

If anyone is ‘intolerant’ and ‘narrow-minded’, history shows that it is the government, that it is Umno, and it is Umno’s partners-in-crime, the MIC, MCA and Gerakan.

And none of this ought to discount the pathetically weak opposition parties - the DAP, PKR, PAS and so forth - who also act on racial motivations primarily.

Umno’s ultra rightwing factions

Nevertheless the regime’s quite unremarkable over-reaction was a politically and racially calculated response to a situation that the government has been fostering, unremittingly and deliberately since 1969.

If black South Africans’ non-stop, active demonstrations against the white Afrikaners’ apartheid system were considered legitimate and just and right, then the demonstrations by the Hindraf 5 - and Bersih - are equally right and just and legitimate.

The way in which Gerakan’s Penang Chief Minister Koh Tsu Koon has moved to sideline and discipline his party’s Paranjothy is merely symptomatic of the way in which lesser parties so voluntarily bow to political pressure from the ultra rightwing factions within Umno.

Certainly nobody in Umno, including Abdullah, had exerted the kind of pressure necessary on Hishammuddin’s antics. Today, Hishammuddin has tried to distance himself from suggestions that he demanded Gerakan punish Paranjothy for criticising the government’s ineffaceable history of racism.

Yet Abdullah has the gall to call Malaysia a ‘democracy’. This isn’t political spin; it’s hogwash - plain and simple.

How to move forward?

So, how are Malaysians to ‘move forward’ if the government keeps silencing its critics who dare to criticise it openly and democratically by applying its barbaric, anti-democratic laws?

Abdullah says Malaysians are charitable people. Are they? Let’s see who in this sphere leads by example? Abdullah wants Malaysians to help the flood victims in the country. So, as prime minister, he ought to take the lead.

Now, here is his example from last year’s floods in Johor: Where was Abdullah? A quick visit, then, in a blink of an eye, he was in Perth, apparently opening his brother-in-law’s nasi kandar shop .

“Malaysians must believe that the country was [sic] truly greater than the sum of her parts,” the Star reported Abdullah as saying. Bah, humbug. It’s the people who make a nation great, not a country that makes itself great.

Malaysia is a country; it is not a nation. And it won’t be one until the government’s racism ends and until the Chinese and Indian minority parties say to their Malay political masters that that is exactly what needs to happen, and quickly.

Don’t hold your breath, though. These parties won’t because they know ‘Malaysians’ are too gutless to go out in the streets to demand change of this abominable and corrupt Malay-led regime.