vox populi small thumbnail 'The DPM warns against inciting the rakyat, and yet Umno members threaten to fight to the death. Now who is inciting who?'

Zahid: We'll defend Najib to our death

Anonymous_408d: These Umno drama queens and their shameless chest-beating hysterics are extremely embarrassing. Malaysians have nowhere to hang our heads in shame.

First, PM Najib Razak does a big song and dance about "defending Putrajaya at all costs", and now Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi takes his cue and talks about defending his leader to the death. Where does he think he is - Libya?

Get real, this kind of drama is most unbecoming of the country's leaders. They should stop being so shameless, especially when their public image at stake. Where is their dignity? More importantly, where is their maturity?

Righteous: DPM Muhyiddin Yassin warns the opposition against inciting the rakyat, and yet time and again we have Umno people threatening to fight to the death or to spill blood. Now who is inciting who?

Kawanlama: In 1997, when Anwar Ibrahim was the DPM and Zahid was head of Umno Youth, this same fellow said the same thing about Anwar.

Onyourtoes: Defence minister, why such drama - blood, veins, dead bodies and all? People don't buy this kind of stuff anymore. You must be more creative lah , ask those transformation programme boys and girls to give you some fresh ideas from Martin Luther King's speech - shared destiny, nation at the crossroad and so on.

Heard of the phrase, ‘patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel'?

R Venugopal: To die for the country is virtuous, but to die for a leader shows how desperate these people are to protect their ill-gotten gains. Many leaders say such things but if Najib ever falls, you will see them changing their tune.

A good follower must be bold to correct his leader and not follow blindly.

Keturunan Malaysia: Zahid, oh Zahid, why "to the death"? Are we practising the law of the jungle or are we still practising democracy where the will of the majority is supreme? From history, I can expect Zahid may well sacrifice Najib to save his own life.

Compass: Does this mean Zahid and his friends are going to perform ‘harakiri' if Najib loses the general election? What infantile ideas!

EC: Lenggeng Adun is still state rep

Ketuanan Rakyat: Does this not show that the Election Commission (EC) is part of the Umnoputra's ‘Boleh' government? Will all other elected reps be treated the same way by the EC?

Lim Chong Leong: If it was Lim Guan Eng, that seat would have been declared vacant the moment the Umno judge pronounced guilt. He will say a judgment is binding until set aside or reversed or stayed, which is normally the case.

Now the EC can stay a judgment until all avenues are exhausted when the law clearly provides that a judgment is binding until ordered otherwise, and an appeal does not by itself operate as a stay. BN law boleh !

Anonymous_4135: Don't worry, Mustafa Salim. Your political masters will take care of you. After all, your offence is only RM2,000 corruption. Others who have purchased a RM24 million house and so on are also protected, depending on which side they're on.

P Dev Anand Pillai: This clearly shows that the EC is nothing but another branch of Umno. If this assemblyman were from the opposition, the EC and the MACC would have been at his front gate demanding that he vacate his seat immediately.

The same should have happened in Perak when the three ‘frogs' jumped. The EC should have just accepted the speaker's ruling as he was the right authority under the Federal Constitution and proceeded to conduct by-elections, but instead the opposite happened.

Anonymous_40a7: Coming from a lame duck who cannot decide on what is corruption, this is hardly surprising.

The 'tongkat' may be weak, but Malays still need it: Dr M

Justice Kini: The tongkat is not getting weaker, the Malays are. If a child is spoon-fed for 20 years, it will tend to want to continue to live in that manner. What you are doing is over protecting the Malays. The real bang comes from comparing Malaysian Malays with the Singaporean Malays. With no help, they still manage to be as good as Chinese there.

KSN: So is he recommending for an indefinite NEP? The Malays and other poor at first needed assistance and hence NEP, but it has since been hijacked and sabotaged by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, his cronies and Umno.

But the Malays generally cannot say that they have not benefited from it. They did, beyond what was supposed to be theirs in comparison with the other races, the poor among the Chinese, Indians, Kadazans, Ibans, Orang Asli, etc.

Cala: Who weakens the Malays by offering the tongkat ? Mahathir tells only half the story. I believe the report is an over-simplified version of what actually goes on.

Mahathir is only correct if he refers to multi-million ringgit projects awarded to Umnoputra contractors, who because of the nature of procurement (no-bid contracts) have the luxury of conducting themselves as commission agents, leaving the work done on site to third parties.

In this manner, will you expect them to learn and to perform? If the recent experience under Lim Guan Eng's administration in Penang is true, many Class F Malay contractors are happy since they are awarded contracts based on ability, not on connections to Umno.

Certainly over time, a new crop of Malay contractors would have evolved without relying on the tongkat . So who is making the Malay contractors weak?

Zz2XX: Mahathir said that "the New Economic Policy did not achieve its goal."

Mahathir, the NEP will never achieve its goal - not in the next decade, not in the next century, not ever, as long as Umno is happily squandering the country's wealth like it is the party's personal bank account.

 

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paid subscribers can post comments. Over the past one year, Malaysiakinians have posted over 100,000 comments. Join the Malaysiakini community and help set the news agenda. Subscribe now .