COMMENT I am compelled to respond to Federal Territories Umno Youth chief Razlan Rafii who listed some of the evidence that he said the DAP “disrespected” the Malays.

In an earlier article, I used the headline ‘A disconnect with the rakyat’. This is a sequel to that article which appeared on Jan 1 this year. Both articles clearly spell out why people are fed up with Umno.

As I am not a member of the DAP, I do not come under the party’s discipline the way former DAP grassroots leader Hew Kuan Yau had to face the music when he openly urged supporters to “screw Malays”.

Using the same words that he used, I would say that it is people like Razlan, Mohd Ali Baharom (Ali Tinju) and Jamal Mohd Yunos that I would want to ‘screw’ as hard as possible.

Let me qualify my statement, before someone reads too much into what I have to say. By screwing, I mean there are some ‘worthless’ people in our midst whose ethnocentricity and lack of being Malaysian first, need to be really fixed.

Put simply, they are loose parts of an item of furniture that unless you screw them, their brains are too scattered to be of any use to the larger population. They cannot contribute towards nationhood because of their inability to look beyond race and religion, and in our Malaysian landscape today, we need people who belong to that one race we call the human race.

These lackeys may be useful for Umno’s own political mileage, but at the same time, to the rest of us, they are bringing embarrassment to their own party and their own race, through their uncouth behaviour that do not truly reflect the true Malay culture.

How refined is the Malay culture perceived when a Malay man led a group of his kind to perform a buttock dance in front of Ambiga Sreenevasan’s house? Even if you do not agree with her, at least be respectful to a senior lawyer in our midst!

It is for this reason, among others, that I have said that Umno is a four-letter word to many people in recent years. The rest, with the exception of Gerakan, have only three letters to their party acronym. Period.

People I wouldn’t screw

There are many Malays in this country whom I would not even thinking of screwing up. Instead, I salute them.

For example, Rafizi Ramli. I respect him because of his great courage and his willingness to stand up for the truth. In the latest article in Malaysiakini, Rafizi has revealed what transpired between him and the Second Finance Minister Johari Abdul Ghani over the case of non-payment to a group of bumiputra entrepreneurs who had successfully completed a boiler construction job.

While Johari had said it is unfair to use taxpayers' money for bailouts, has he done exactly that in dealing with the complaint raised by the Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA)?

Johari said the IPIC complaint will be settled amicably, but as far as I know there is no reason why IPIC would accept any excuses other than money owing being paid back in full. Whose money are we using to settle the case?

In an article by Bernama, which also appeared in Malaysiakini, the question was asked: “Does the LCIA publish its awards?” And the answer was: “For the same reasons of confidentiality, to which the answer to the above question refers, and by virtue of Article 30 of the LCIA Rules, the LCIA does not publish its awards, nor parts of awards, even in redacted form.”

In short, whatever amount paid by the Malaysian government as a bailout for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), will never be known by the rakyat. What reason do I have to trust someone like Johari even if he denies that our money was involved in the bailout?

After all, some RM2.6 billion was supposed to be donated by a Saudi prince, but the fairy tale has become untenable after the investigators revealed the money trail in what is now known as the world’s biggest case of money-laundering.

I tend to concur with the Malay politicians from the DAP. I think their presence in DAP will help to make it more multi-racial as a political party and we need that kind of mix to change the political landscape in the country.

The other person on whom I do not need to tighten the screw is Marina Mahathir. She has a mind of her own, and her thinking faculty is sound. And, of course, without failing to mention that her mother is someone I have respected all these years.

It is people like Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali who make the Malays a people to be respected. She was the first Malay doctor in the country. At eighty plus years old, she started learning the violin. In fact, it was after watching a video clip of her playing violin that I started attending violin lessons, but I gave up after three or four months.

I am sure if Ali Tinju or Jamal had spent more time on their academic pursuits when they were younger, they would have become a pride of the nation instead of earning the reputation, at least in my opinion, as a bunch of Umno scoundrels.

It is a question of legacy which you are willing to leave behind for the future generation of Malaysians, and the more you try to rewrite history, the more you become disconnected with the people.

While people like Mohamad Sabu are able to connect with the ordinary Malaysians, the likes of Razlan are putting the people off.

Again, Razlan quoted the example of MPs from the DAP attending Oktoberfest, which he claimed to be “not the Malaysian culture”, but does Razlan even condemn Malays who are found in a casino and using money allegedly siphoned from 1MDB to pay for their debts?

I did not say this, but the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) revealed it in their civil suit against several people, including Riza Aziz, the stepson of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak. Their allegations are backed by hard facts and documents, not a matter of hearsay.

In fact, I have strong objections to the booze element of Octoberfest, but it is wrong of me to impose my values on others. Only God judges, I am in no position to cast a stone on others unless, as alleged by the DAP Malay politicians, one is feeding on dedak (animal feed), only waiting for the slaughter.

If Razlan is so against the slaughtering of pigs in what he claims to be DAP in Penang “celebrating their victory”, what about parading a cow’s head in front of the Selangor state secretariat office and the already high consumption of imported beef in a country where there are also Hindus?

Talking as if he supports the hudud law, why does Razlan not push for hudud punishment for acts of corruption? I would salute him if he even attempts to push for it and succeed! Is God’s law only meant for the small thieves, while the bigger ones get away because the law does not deal with their wrongdoings?

I do not have to mention other Malays whom I respect, such as Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the post-Umno version of Anwar Ibrahim and their eldest daughter, Nurul Izzah Anwar who has never been tainted by Umno politics. The family have my respect, because they have sacrificed a lot for the sake of change.

Umno is disconnected

It is Umno, in my opinion, which is disconnected with the people and the rest of the world.

Despite the hue and cry raised by the people regarding the 1MDB scandal, its president continues to turn a deaf ear. So, who is Malaysian Official 1 (MO1)?

While everyone who tuned in to the DOJ’s press conference knew how to solve the jigsaw puzzle leading to a conclusion who MO1 is, it is Umno and Najib who do not appear to know who that gentleman is.

When former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad was still in Umno, he, too, was disconnected from the rest of us. But, after he has started tasting his own medicine, he is beginning to connect more with the larger population.

Even Anwar who is in prison now seems to resonate with the people, because each time we read about his family being unable to visit him, we feel the anger as if he was one of our family members.

Ask yourself this question: Why, in the last general election can a so-called ‘democratically-elected’ leader, still lose the majority vote?

I sincerely pray that in the coming general election, the majority vote would swing even greater to the opposition just to teach Umno a bigger lesson that it cannot continue to operate the way it does things.

Despite the 1Malaysia slogan used, there must be some reasons why the majority vote in in GE13 had swung towards the opposition.

Is it not because there is a disconnect somewhere?

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.