Sakmongkol: If you want to know, yes that is what we are doing...
Bloggers all: Aspan, Kit Siang and Sakmongkol at last month
Blogger Sakmongkol AK47, the former Umno assemblyman Mohd Ariff Sabri, is to join the DAP together with fellow blogger Aspan Alias, journalist, writer and an Umno veteran in Negeri Sembilan.
“If you want to know, yes, that is what we are doing (joining DAP). I am impressed by DAP. They are principled, I like their professionalism,” he told Free Malaysia Today, ending two weeks of speculation since he attended a bloggers’ forum in Penang in mid-December, at which Aspan was master of ceremonies.
In a blog posting late last night Malays should not fear the DAP, Sakmongkol made a backhanded hinted that he and Aspan were about to join the DAP. He wrote: “I am not going to respond to the xenophobic responses around news that Aspan Alias and Sakmongkol are about to join DAP. No explanation will be able to change preconceived biases. So why bother? So we are about to join or have joined DAP.”
Tackling the "traitor" issue
On Sunday, Aspan had also tackled criticism in a posting » Siapa yang pengkhianat? Introspeksi betul-betul dealing with Umno’s favourite theme that those who did not see eye-to-eye with Umno were always labelled as so-called traitors to the Malays. Ariff was an assemblyman for Pulau Manis, Pahang, and until 2004 was information chief in the Pekan division, the home town, base and constituency of Umno president Najib Tun Razak. He was not fielded in the 2008 elections. Aspan is a veteran of Umno Negeri Sembilan.
Sakmongkol explained in his blog posting he found common ground with the DAP, despite the public image of a Chinese chauvinist party, an image relentlessly promoted by Umno over the past four decades. “The DAP is a democratic party committed to the rule of law, good governance and good government,” he wrote. “It abhors corruption and abuse of political office. To me those are attractive propositions.
“UMNO on the other hand has turned its back on these. It harps only on one primal worry of Malays — when UMNO is threatened it shares the threat with Malays at large. So a threat to UMNO is translated mindlessly into a threat to Malays as a whole. Nothing can be farther from the truth.”
Addressing Umno bloggers and Malay rights nationalists, Sakmongkol said: “Don’t read our move as blasphemous or treasonable. I believe the DAP is more relevant and functional in achieving a more democratic and abuse-free society than Umno. As a Muslim, we are changing wadah not aqidah…that is what Umno fears. It fears that its monopoly over Malays is broken. Umno has turned its back on corruption and abuse of political office. DAP abhors these traits.”
A typical reaction among Umno bloggers was a posting DAP merekrut Melayu Bankrap Politik antaranya Aspan Alias, to which Sakmongkol wrote: “Why the paranoia? If we are not good, failed Adun (assemblymen), bankrupt politicians, it will be cinch for any winnable Umno candidates to beat us. So, it’s no cause of concern or a sleep depriver.” Free Malaysia Today speculated that Dato Ariff may be fielded by the DAP as an election candidate in Raub, against MCA vice-president Ng Yen Yen.
Besides Ariff and Aspan, the DAP’s most prominent current Malay members are Transparency International Malaysia founder Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim, now DAP vice chairman, Zairil Khir Johari, stepson of former Umno education minister Khir Johari.
Other promiment Malay members of the DAP in the past have been unionists and activists such as Ahmad Nor, president of Cuepacs, the civil service union federation, Zainal Rampak (now a senator), Daing Ibrahim Othman, a former party secretary-general; Haji Hassan Ahmad, Mohd Salleh Nakhoda Itam, Fadzlan Yahya, and Zaharah Ibrahim.Ibrahim Singgeh was the party’s first Malay MP, winning in Tapah Road in 1969. Ahmad Nor was also MP for Bayan Baru, Penang, for one term.
Free Malaysia Today said DAP leaders have been meeting Malay opinion-makers in closed-door discussions on issues such as Islamic state, hudud and Bumiputera affirmative action, with Zairil, party strategist Liew Chin Tong, and DAP Youth chairman Anthony Loke working to woo selected Malays.
There is a story, now somewhat legendary, that John Kennedy once gave as a birthday present to his friend and court jester Dave Powers a silver mug with this engraving:
Only three things are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since we can do nothing with the first two, we must do what we can with the third.
Serious people increasingly find American politics an exhibition of human folly. And, though certain conservative forces have sought for some time to insert God into the equation, it borders on sacrilege to lay at His doorstep this human folly brought on as much by the God-politicizers as anyone.
Arguably the most profound political question of our time is how to treat with the ultimate seriousness it deserves a political process that seems to wish to spiral downward with almost demented insistence. Great leaders, including great presidents, inevitably have their flaws. This is so because they are humans and thus subject, to greater or lesser degrees, to errors of judgment and performance.
But what can account for the virtual disappearance of greatness in presidents, senators, members of Congress, governors and others? Thoughtful observers have sought to explain this by combining the disappearance of privacy, an intrusive media, exorbitant campaign costs, and the overall loss of dignity and respect for leadership. It goes without question that many of the best, the most capable, the most honorable people in our society shun elective and, in too many cases, even appointive office.
Is it possible today to be a visible public servant and retain a sense of honor, dignity, and self-respect? All the leveling forces at work in our society would seem to answer no.
To follow the Kennedy prescription, then, is to resort to laughter. And many are doing so. Edward R. Murrow has been replaced by John Stewart and Walter Cronkite by Stephen Colbert. Thus laughter is not only the best medicine, it is the most effective way of responding to human folly on a political scale.
Students of American history know this is not without precedent. Ridiculous eras in times past have always produced a Will Rogers or even a W. C. Fields. Such figures have served our nation well and enabled us to laugh our way through tough times. But, sooner or later, reality requires us to confront our conditions and devise solutions or find those who can. When the laughter dies, as inevitably it must, we are still faced with unemployment, homelessness, hunger, and sickness.
For many of us, politics is not the art of making the rich richer in the hope they will dispense a farthing or two in the beggars cup or the church collection plate. A thousand points of light do not begin to dent the misery abroad today in every American city and throughout our countryside. Politics, to paraphrase one of Plato's dialogues, is the art of caring for souls.
So, while witnessing widespread human folly and praying that a kind God will somehow raise up great leaders, we must laugh. But, as the great bards of history have demonstrated the proximity of comedy and tragedy, let us late at night in the privacy of our own dwellings shed a tear for those whom Fortune has not favored, for the impoverished child who has yet to learn the cause of our laughter.
Still support UMNO no matter what
Ever since the PKFZ and Scorpene submarines debacle, more scandals have been exposed nonstop. As we watched each episode of these steamy and torrid tales of UMNO corruption, the urge grows stronger to ask those who still support UMNO a very pertinent question, which is, 'are these people nuts?'
After all, it's not as if they have been living somewhere else when news of these scandals broke. They were here when successive UMNO prime minister and finance minister introduced silly short-term economic policy after policy. The direct and indirect impact of the bad faith UMNO-BN display in the way they govern the country affect us every day. Everyone including the UMNO supporters knows what is going on. Nor are they unaware that billions of ringgit are involved and being filtered out. Yet out they've come, in support of UMNO!
Why do they do it? The answer is not really complicated. Many UMNO supporters have been bred to believe their party elite can do no wrong, that the masters or chieftains know best. This is why UMNO is accused of being a feudal party. It is the right of the elite to plunder and be forgiven by their people. UMNO members consider the wrong doings of their leaders as legitimate.
These members are rudderless and insecure in their thinking that if there is no UMNO, there will be no more savior. So deep has the propaganda been embedded, they don't even see any alternative to the status quo.
Sad to say, many are also refusing to see the truth because they are mere sycophants. They are the ones who have their own self interests to protect. For example, government officers would want to get promoted or at least get easy transfers. It is known that those who are against UMNO will be stationed at the far end of the country if not the world!
As for business people, they need to get contracts for supply of goods and services and construction projects. They need to support UMNO to expand and grow their businesses. Even media people need to earn money and survive since UMNO is controlling their publishing permits. Huge corporations need to maintain their share value.
The NGOs and bloggers are simply being paid to do what they have to do. But for the politicians who jump over, it is simple. They have been bought!
THE AGENDA IS TO FIND THE TRUTH, TO PUNISH THE PERPETRATORS AND TO PREVENT SIMILAR THING FROM HAPPENING AGAIN. THIS ISSUE IN PARTICULAR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “MALAYS” BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH “UMNO”. SINCE PAS IS VERY VOCAL IN CRITICISNG MACC REGARDING TEO’S DEATH AND 45%-50% OF MALAYS SUPPORT PAS… WE KNOW THAT THIS ISSUE IS NOT ABOUT MALAYS VS NON-MALAYS BUT IT IS ALL ABOUT THE RAKYAT VS THE EVIL UMNO AND ITS STOOGES.
RACE RACE RACE. THEY TRY TO MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT RACE. I THINK WHAT WE ARE ALL ANGRY ABOUT IS HOW THE MACC IS SO EAGER TO INVESTIGATE THE OPPOSITION, BUT HESITATES TO INVESTIGATE BN. RACE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I WANT THE MACC TO INVESTIGATE LING LIONG SIK AND ONG TEE KIAT JUST AS MUCH AS I WANT THEM TO INVESTIGATE KHIR TOYO.
THE AUTHOR IS JUST AN UMNO PUPPET. THEY DON’T HAVE ANY INTEGRITY AND DIGNITY TRYING TO PLAY RACIAL CARD. THIEVES, LIARS AND MURDERERS SLAM THEIR CRITICS.”UMNO-CONTROLLED NEWSPAPERS, BERITA HARIAN AND MINGGUAN MALAYSIA, TODAY SLAMMED CRITICS FOR DEMONISING THE COUNTRY’S GRAFT-BUSTERS OVER TEOH BENG HOCK’S DEATH, WITH ONE SUGGESTING THERE IS AN AGENDA TO WEAKEN MALAY-CONTROLLED INSTITUTIONS”TRYING TO PLAY RACIAL CARD HUH, BERITA HARIAN AND UTUSAN? I DON’T THINK 45%-50% OF THE MALAYS WHO SUPPORT PAS (AS WELL AS PKR) WILL BUY YOUR CHEAP STORY. YOU CAN SELL IT TO UMNO-MALAYS AND THEY WILL DEFINITELY BUY YOUR STORY LIKE GORENG PISANG PANAS.”WHY DID THE SELANGOR MB, A MALAY, QUESTION THOSE OF HIS OWN RACE TO ACT FAIRLY?”, WROTE ZAINAL. HEY ZAINAL! DID ANY OF THE PR LEADERS MENTIONED “MALAY” AFTER THE TRAGIC INCIDENT? YOU BLOODY RACIST! STOP POISONING THE MALAYSIAN’S MIND! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY, IT’S NOTHING TO DO WITH RACES OK?MACC IS A PUPPET OF UMNO AND NOT OTHER PARTY COMPONENT OF BN. I HOLD UMNO RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DEATH OF TEOH. I BELIEVE THERE ARE ALSO PLENTY OF MALAYSIANS FELT THE SAME WITH THE WAY UMNO ABUSING POLITICAL POWER TO MAN-HANDLE THE SUPPOSED IDEPENDENT AGENCIES SUCH AS MACC.IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH RACE DIED AT THE HANDS OF THE UMNO REGIME’S MURDEROUS AUTHORITIES. WHETHER THEY ARE INDIANS, CHINESE OR EVEN MONGOLIANS, WE THE PEOPLE OF ALL RACES IN THIS COUNTRY WILL BECOME VERY ANGRY INDEED. OUR ANGER IS NOT BECAUSE THE VICTIM IS AN INDIAN, A CHINESE, A MALAY OR A MONGOLIAN. OUR ANGER IS BECAUSE THE BLATANT ABUSE OF POWER AND THE CRUELTY INFLICTED BY THE UMNO REGIME’S APPARATUS TO INNOCENT PEOPLE. THEY ARE THE RACISTS WHO TRY TO INCITE RACIAL TENSION. YET, EVEN THE SO-CALLED MANAGING EDITOR (I WONDER IF HE HAS A DEGREE/DIPLOMA IN JOURNALISM) IGNORED THE REAL SITUATION. “WHY DID THE SELANGOR MB, A MALAY, QUESTION THOSE OF HIS OWN RACE TO ACT FAIRLY?”, WROTE ZAINAL. HEY ZAINAL! DID ANY OF THE PR LEADERS MENTIONED “MALAY” AFTER THE TRAGIC INCIDENT? YOU BLOODY RACIST! STOP POISONING THE MALAYSIAN’S MIND! WE ARE FIGHTING FOR DEMOCRACY, IT’S NOTHING TO DO WITH RACES OK????
THIEVES, LIARS AND MURDERERS SLAM THEIR CRITICS BY THE WAY, TEOH’S DEATH WAS NO ACCIDENT.WHATEVER YOU WISH TO PRINT ON YOUR ‘BAKUL SAMPAH” STANDARD NEWSPAPER ALSO DOESN’T MATTER TO US. TO US, WHAT HAD HAPPENED WAS MURDER OF THE FIRST DEGREE!TODAY WE PRAYED FOR TEOH BENG HOCK AND FAMILY IN CHURCH AND THIS WAS THE REVELATION GIVEN IN 1 TIMOTHY 2:1-6 I URGE, THEN, FIRST OF ALL, THAT REQUESTS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSION AND THANKSGIVING BE MADE FOR EVERYONE–2 FOR KINGS AND ALL THOSE IN AUTHORITY, THAT WE MAY LIVE PEACEFUL AND QUIET LIVES IN ALL GODLINESS AND HOLINESS.3 THIS IS GOOD, AND PLEASES GOD OUR SAVIOR,4 WHO WANTS ALL MEN TO BE SAVED AND TO COME TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.5 FOR THERE IS ONE GOD AND ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS,6 WHO GAVE HIMSELF AS A RANSOM FOR ALL MEN–THE TESTIMONY GIVEN IN ITS PROPER TIME. RACE RACE RACE. THEY TRY TO MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT RACE. I THINK WHAT WE ARE ALL ANGRY ABOUT IS HOW THE MACC IS SO EAGER TO INVESTIGATE THE OPPOSITION, BUT HESITATES TO INVESTIGATE BN. RACE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT. I WANT THE MACC TO INVESTIGATE LING LIONG SIK AND ONG TEE KIAT JUST AS MUCH AS I WANT THEM TO INVESTIGATE KHIR TOYO.THE AGENDA IS TO FIND THE TRUTH, TO PUNISH THE PERPETRATORS AND TO PREVENT SIMILAR THING FROM HAPPENING AGAIN. THIS ISSUE IN PARTICULAR HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH “MALAYS” BUT EVERYTHING TO DO WITH “UMNO”. SINCE PAS IS VERY VOCAL IN CRITICISNG MACC REGARDING TEO’S DEATH AND 45%-50% OF MALAYS SUPPORT PAS… WE KNOW THAT THIS ISSUE IS NOT ABOUT MALAYS VS NON-MALAYS BUT IT IS ALL ABOUT THE RAKYAT VS THE EVIL UMNO AND ITS STOOGES
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