It was meant to be a one-day Barisan Nasional convention on 1 June. It turned out to be an Umno convention. It was dominated and monopolised by Umno leaders.
The other two BN component parties – the MCA and the MIC – were never seen or heard in the news coverage of the event as reported. Perhaps they were allowed only to be silent participants!
One would expect the highlight of the convention to be the welfare of the people and the wellbeing of the nation. One would expect the dire straits of the economy to be addressed as the main topic. One would also expect the sufferings of the poor people and their daily struggle to survive to have been BN’s area of concern as well.
No, none of these issues mattered to the BN delegates. All they were interested in was politics and how soon they could grab power and return to Putrajaya. Their strategy was to win the coming general election as soon as possible – the sooner the better for them!
They were buoyed by their recent winning streaks in Sabah, Malacca and Johor. Umno did exceptionally well, not because the party was strong, but because the disunited and divided opposition split the opposition votes to hand over victory to BN.
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Though the opposition parties are aware they were the cause of BN’s victory, nothing has materialised since then to forge a united front against BN to ensure that this mistake of fragmenting the opposition votes will not be repeated in the coming general election.
As long as unity among the opposition parties appears a far cry, Umno will push hard for a quick general election, thinking that the tide is with the party.
To the Umno leaders, come what may, capturing Putrajaya is the only goal; power is all that they crave for; it’s the only thing that matters to them. For they are aware that once they are back in power, no law can touch them. They won’t have to be accountable to anyone. They can rule as they wish and govern as they choose.
It is a selfish strategy meant to serve their political purpose, which is to be in power. Umno may shout that it is fighting for the interest of the common Malays. Don’t you believe that! It is fighting only for its members – more specifically the Umno elite.
It is abundantly clear to all and sundry that Umno, under the pretext of promoting the Malay agenda, has succeeded extremely well in brainwashing many poor kampong Malays into believing that only Umno can defend and protect them and therefore deserves their vote. This mantra had worked for 60 years to favour Umno’s grip on power.
Now Umno is fearful that this mantra will no longer hoodwink the rural Malays. It is very apparent when the deputy chairman of Barisan Nasional and deputy president of Umno admitted, “BN is considered ‘power crazy’, corrupt, abuses power and other negative connotation. (sic)
“We must do everything we can to discard the perception (that BN) is power (hungry), corrupt and immoral.”
The Umno president, Zahid Hamidi, put the question of an early election quite bluntly, “Who wants to see the general election happen this year? Who wants to see the general election happen soon?
“This is not about Najib [Razak], Zahid, or Ismail Sabri [Yaakob], no. This is about the future of BN and our country.”
Believe that if you believe that the pie in the sky can be eaten. Here’s the unvarnished truth: it is the future of Umno that these leaders are worried about.
The longer the election is dragged out, the more damage will be inflicted on Umno by the opposition. More scandals, more corruption, more abuse of power and more squandering of the nation’s wealth will surface, hurting Umno and damaging its chances in the general election.
This is the reason these Umno leaders’ sole focus is to force an early election and grab power. They will exert pressure on the lame duck PM to call for an early election.
Will he cave in or resist this demand with the help of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which has given him an extended life span?
Only time will tell!
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
I wonder if anyone can provide an answer. What the author has penned everyone knows. We all know. Even rural folks know. It is a comforting excuse to carry on thinking that the poor or unschooled don’t know what is happening. It is also true that even urbanites agree over what we all know. By the way even our millions of migrant workers know….. all you have to do is strike up a chat with them to find out. But why do we continue to end up at the mercy of these rogue politicians, robber merchants and a top level civil service that sucks on the rewards for loyalty?
I mean we are just 32 million….. not 270 million…. Not even 46 million like some of the nations surrounding Malaysia.
Such conventions perceived for personal interest/benefit and profit may also include meetings of rich & powerful leaders who meet periodically as in
WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM.
World Bank, IMF etc.
where information & expertise is exchanged and policies made on how rich & in power collude to ensure that the rich & power become richer even if the policies may mean the continued increases in their quantum of wealth & power.
The above cases are enabled by advise of best brains of professionals with relevant expertise who may have taken a pledge to serve people but may have unfortunately sold their integrity to assist the rich & in power to legally defraud innocent hundreds of million of people worldwide.
Bless all