If you love the country, why steal from it?

comments     John R Malott     Published     Updated

COMMENT One evening in April 1775, the English man of letters Samuel Johnson made a famous remark.

 

"Patriotism," he said, "is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

 

Johnson was criticising what he called false patriots - people who invoke the name of their country to advance their own political agenda.

 

In America, we often refer to that kind of scoundrel as "people who wrap themselves in the flag." It means people who pretend to do something for patriotic reasons or out of loyalty to their country when their real motives are selfish, and their real goal is their own personal and political gain.

 

It means people who "play the patriot card" and try to diminish their opponents by suggesting they do not love their country, or are even traitors to it.

 

So it is in Malaysia. Anyone who has the courage to disagree with the Umno regime today stands the risk of being arrested for sedition. Meanwhile, many hundreds of millions of dollars disappear because of corruption. The needs of the rural poor, primarily Malays, still are not being met after more than half a century of promises from Umno...

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