Hisham, the keris will never be forgotten

It’s said that a picture tells a thousand stories. Or maybe just one.

Looking at the pictures posted in the Malaysiakini report, ‘The end of the road for the keris’ , there is only one story to tell from those pictures. It’s a story of sycophancy dribbling by the bucket and a string of lies.

Outgoing Umno Youth boss Hishammuddin Hussein may well say that the unsheathing of the keris is a Malay tradition but to then say that the ugly episode is “closed” is just another of his barefaced lies.

In 2005, Hishammuddin brandished the keris at the Umno AGM, unsheathed it, and in the name of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’, suggesting that non-Malays would face bloodshed if they even dared to think of challenging Malay supremacy.

The sleepy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi showed all of his weaknesses as Umno leader when he barely blinked at Hishammuddin’s action. Because that is what it was.

Complaints were made about Hishammuddin’s act of 'gallantry' but where was the police chief, and what did he do about even investigating if the Umno Youth chief may have breached the law?

In 2006 Hishammuddin again brandished the keris at that year’s Umno meeting ( right ). Again Abdullah chose to ‘fall asleep’.

Here’s the best part: the following year, Hishammuddin promised not to produce the keris at the next Umno summit. Instead, he would bring a cangkul - a garden hoe. He might as well have brought an axe or a parang .

By any political standards, it would have been thought that Hishammuddin was digging his own political grave.

What did Hishammuddin do?

He lied.

He again brought the keris, and warned non-Malay Malaysians against questioning Malay rights. And the police chief continued to sit on his hands, while Abdullah continued in his stupor.

Nobody lifted a finger

Any decent Umno delegate would have seen Hishammuddin’s actions as deliberate, provocative, and inciting violence and racial hatred. Any decent Umno delegate, with the slightest morsel of morality, would have ticked off Hishammuddin.

Nobody lifted a finger. Nobody dared. Nobody cared. Why? Because Umno is the state, and the state sanctions and glorifies racialism.

And as for those who stood in uniform behind Hishammuddin’s last stand with the keris today - even though this time, for his own selfish political reasons he kept his mouth shut - what does it say about these sycophants who want to be Malaysia’s future leaders?

It says they’re immoral. It says they’re cowards. It says they sanction racism. It says they cannot and should not be trusted.

And guess what? They will never be trusted.