VOXPOP The same people who proclaimed Malaysia multiracial also led their Umno members at their annual assembly in outdoing one another to insult, threaten non-Malays.

DPM: M'sia one of 'most successful multiracial nations'

vox populi small thumbnail Talk sense: Don't understand why Hua Zong invited this racial instigator Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin for their dinner (or were they forced to invite him?)

It is a real joke when the same people who proclaimed Malaysia as multiracial will every year without fail lead and instigate their Umno members at their assembly to outdo one another to insult, threaten and scream vulgarities at the non-Malays, and turn their gathering into a licensed forum to instigate and encourage the Malays to be violent on an imaginary crusade against the non-Malays.

Swkdayaks: After scaring and telling the Malays not to support the multiracial/multi-religious Pakatan Rakyat, the DPM shamelessly preaches multi-racialism to the Chinese.

One second he says this, the next second he says the opposite. That is Umno/BN leaders' mindset, character and politics. Please, Malaysians stop voting for Umno/BN.

Calvert Yap: Today Malay first, Malaysian second, then telling the Malays they will lose everything if DAP comes to power, then showing the keris, then saying the Chinese want to snatch things from the Malays, then now a successful multiracial nation?

We are successful because we, Malays, Chinese and Indians are born with the culture of harmony. This is not because of you, Umno or BN.

At least Anwar is saying the same thing about the racial issue in Malaysia since Day 1, not like Umno with MCA and MIC, changing stories based on their audience... shame on you

Change agent: This race-based trade body sees the need to engage government ministers, as a way of 'paying respect' - part of the patronage system constantly perpetuated by MCA, Umno, etc.

As they fear being marginalised they need to be seen and heard. MCA continues to be the go-between; they would rather have a half-a-loaf than nothing, and are prepared to even accept crumbs.

This is where all the 'dealings' start. Sadly it is at the expense of national interest and society is the biggest loser.

Multi Racial: Muhyiddin's version of a successful multi-racial nation is that one gets to bully the rest. I have a dream that one day a truly multiracial party will lead the nation to great progress and I have a feeling my dream is coming true soon.

Bring it on, Pakatan tells Umno

Thana55: Well done, Pakatan Rakyat team. You have showed tangible results since you took over, you kept race and religion out of the rhetoric, you demonstrated maturity and proper engagement with the people you serve.

Truly, a class act compared with the rowdies at the Annual Racist Convention. We look forward to the day when you move into Putrajaya. We can!

Pemerhati: Pakatan has to think of ways and means of overcoming its severe handicap of not being able to constantly get its message to the rural voters, who will probably decide the outcome of the next election.

These simple rural people are not computer savvy, and hence cannot be reached by the alternative media to counter the brainwashing and false propaganda by BN because it has the complete monopoly of the print and electronic media.

One method could be for Pakatan to have a distribution system, whereby the speeches at important rallies like this one and the response of the crowds are recorded on CDs, and sent to the rural households.

Alan Goh: Who are the three Umno clowns? One belongs to the katak species and now a senator, who wants to save Selangor from the opposition.

The semua-nya OK fella owns a huge palatial mansion in Shah Alam, bought on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis with a huge discount of RM3 million.

The other is now an agriculture minister, who has yet to explain to the rakyat what happened to the RM73 million fund yet to be disbursed to the padi farmers. There's also the scandal of the RM250 million cattle breeding project granted to a high profile Umno leader's family.

Lastly, the fellow who in the past claimed to have at least six boxes of documentary evidence relating to corruption of Umno ministers, now remains muted, after being appointed a senator.

Are these the Umno winnable candidates who can save Selangor from Pakatan?

‘M'sia's CPI ranking, score worse under Najib'

FellowMalaysian : Corruption has been so intricately entwined into our society that it is viewed as a necessity mode of doing business.

It has found its 'usefulness' in every level of society, just like the need of oil in keeping machinery working. From top government officials to office boys, corruption has permeated throughout the entire network.

And all this is happening because our ruling BN government is keeping its eyes closed to such malpractices.

The reason they do so is simple. They themselves are the proponents as well as the benefactors of corrupt practices. And this explains why government projects are awarded based on negotiations rather than on open tenders. This has resulted in the projects costing many folds over.

When will they ever learn? Never! As long as they stay in power, the Umnoputra will indulge themselves with corrupt practices until they milk the country dry.

Armageddon: It is hard to eliminate corruption in this country because only the rakyat is anti- corruption, but the official corruption busters are too busy pleasing the BN government.

Milosevic: While it may not be in Umno's DNA to fight against corruption, it is inherent in Umno's DNA to generate corruption on a grand scale.

It is not moral lapses that are behind the deterioration.

It is the very institutional design of the country, from group-based preferences in the economy, bureaucracy and religion to weak democracy that blocks universal criteria to judge success and failure, and punishes wrongdoing.

In other words, Malaysia has built an enormous edifice permitting rampant moral hazards in society (i.e. perverse incentives that encourage corruption and greed).

The reward system and the flow of funds are outside any system of checks. The problem is too deep to be self-correcting. In the end the country needs to reward effort, honesty and excellence, rather than punish these traits.

We pretend religion or socialism will solve these problems, thus postponing doing the obvious.

Onyourtoes : Even if Malaysia's CPI is dropped out of the list, I believe there will still be no comment from the BN/Umno leadership.

The reason is simple and it is not due to lack of political will. The reason is that all those in positions today are no longer able to condemn corruption without it boomeranging back to them.

This is how critical and endemic corruption has become in this country. Have you noticed the government only talks about transformation programmes, more spending, more projects, but nothing on ethics, integrity, performance and output of programmes or projects?

That is why I have always said, BN/Umno can't talk facts, can't talk performance/outcome, can't talk ethics and integrity. They can only talk about religiosity, insecurity, threats, race supremacy, more privileges and more jingoism.

Not Confused: Is anyone who has even the slightest interest in the current affairs here in Malaysia surprised at this analysis of our performance in the corruption index?

Umno has succeeded, over the past 54 years, to develop and steadfastly maintain a siege mentality among a large proportion of the Malay population.

Umno itself ably demonstrated this defensive posture during its AGM over the past few days.

It spent 3-4 days patting itself on the back, but doing nothing concrete in explaining its raison d'étre, other than to continue the status quo and "protect" Islam and the Malays - from what, no one quite knows, or understands.

Another Umno leader wants Shahrizat's head to roll

Cannon: Umno leaders dip their hands into our national treasury or are waiting for their turn to do so. Those behind the queue are getting impatient as the window of opportunity is fast closing for them to have a dip in the honey pot.

Even Najib is under pressure from his deputy and is calling for the 'unwinnable' candidates to step aside in order for him to co-opt his own men. Time is running out and the Umno cows are running helter-skelter. The stampede is on to get on board the gravy train before it pulls into the station.

Anonymous_40ca: Could you also ask their family to pay their monthly director fees for the last few years back to the taxpayers? Chairman on a RM100,000 per month director's fee and their three children drawing RM25,000, RM35,000 and RM50,000 respectively per month.

Guess you can't, as it is a limited company, with an annual loss of over RM9 million. And where do they get the money to pay themselves every month? From the RM250 million of taxpayers hard-earned money under the name of NFC soft loan.

Chipmunk : RM250 million project, government "soft loan" and 5,000 acres of land. Wow! And only 3,289 cows were produced. RM250 million / 3,289 cows = RM76,000 per cow (thus far).

Two to 2 1/2 year old cows can be sourced from Thailand for as low as RM2,000 per head. This is considered a good price.

More expensive ones are imported from Australia. However, the average price is about RM8 per kg for a live weight cow. So a 300kg live weight cow will cost up to RM2,400. After say four months feedlot feeding and reaching 400kg weight, the same cow would fetch a price of RM3,200.

This gives a gross margin in excess of 33 percent (which is not bad business).

So what we have is: RM3,200 per Australian cow vs RM76,000 per NFC cow.

Too many Umno people and BN people are unhappy that something like this is being treated so casually. They may not be saying much but they are not happy. The public is even more unhappy. GE13 will answer their ignorance.

PornStar Melayu: Does Shahrizat's resignation solve the whole issue? What about the abuse or misuse of taxpayers' money - who is accountable?

Swkdayaks: Shahrizat, clearly some Umno colleagues of yours at the instigation of, or on instructions from Umno top people, were the ones that disclosed this alleged scandal involving your family to Pakatan Rakyat, which then exposed it to the public.

Some top Umno leaders want you out and want you to be sacrificed (like Tun Ling Liong Sik, etc) in order to make it look Najib, Umno and the BN are serious in fighting corruption and even go after the big fish.

This is part of their election strategy to win votes. So why wait, spill the beans on them now. Please do so for the sake of Malaysia!

Hermit : Umno's power comes with the help of cash cows. Why should Shahrizat quit? Continue milking till it all runs dry.

 

The above is a selection of comments posted by Malaysiakini subscribers. Only paying 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 .