What does it take to remove an alpha male lion from its pride? If a cackling hyena comes to overthrow an alpha male, wouldn’t the whole pride stand together and repel the aggressors? A pubescent lion, too, won’t have much luck in trying to get rid of the alpha. Only another mature male lion (or a group of male lions) of similar or greater strength can replace the alpha, taking over the pride.

This sub-Saharan rule of nature is parallel to what we have currently in our political system. We tend to forget Umno is a strong political party that has considerable machinery. This pride would never let outsiders come in and jeopardise their alphas. As long as they are well-nourished and their security taken care, of the Umno juggernaut will continue to steamroll in elections.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there’s no point barking up this tree. Nothing will happen and the best you could hope for is not getting a sore throat. I see too many people making too much noise that will not make any difference overall but only affecting their health and well-being. Why get wound up for things that you have no control about?

No way the Umno leadership will relent to Pakatan, Bersih, one-off cawangan leaders or any other institution that demand immediate change, that’s not the Malay way. The process of change will happen, only at its own slow pace.

It’s difficult trying to be apolitical in Malaysia, anything and everything is related to politics or we would like to believe so. In a land of abundance and prosperity, many would be angry and outraged with the recent scandals but to what extent are we willing to take action? Many have too much to lose and too little to gain in expressing their dissatisfaction, bar those full time politicians and activists.

In all likelyhood most of these activists and politicians are already well-off and fixed for life, hence they are looking for causes to fight for or other satisfaction life can give.

Stating all that, we will never see a popular uprising or people’s revolution here in Malaysia and hoping for such things to happen is just a pipe dream; winning the lottery or sending a Malaysian astronaut to the Moon would be a more attainable scheme.

The recently announced Bersih 5 will not make any difference to any decision made by the government. It may however be the staging ground for undesirables to create trouble. Bersih will never be able to get support of a substantial number of people to make any difference. Most would prefer to spend their time at the malls than bake in the sun.

Having an issue hovering around for so long doesn’t help the cause as well, public mental fatigue will only increase and lessen any impact. Any initial anger is replaced by cynicism and that, too, is replaced by indifference and finally when all hope is lost, one can only jest and joke about it.

ADLI GHAZI is Bangsar South Umno Youth chief.