PAS has urged Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin not to use the 1MDB issue as a means to oust Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
Old malaise or new generation mindset?The widening gap between the real and imagined
When first world outrage meets third world reality, what we get is a surfeit of legislation and a spiraling deficit of justice. We can enact all the laws we want, but in a country where very few interactions with the forces of administration occur without needing force or inducement the law on paper not only becomes ineffective, but it often turns into an instrument of exploitation. We seek minute perfection at the top, but make do with routine injustice at the bottom, and react only when the injustice turns horrific, preferably in a large metro town involving someone from the educated middle class. The disinterest in fixing the realities on the ground means that every new incident that displeases us, creates fresh outrage and new acts of tokenism. The cycle is seemingly never-ending, and hopes that someday, the realization will dawn that nothing has really changed, have so far been belied.
PERKASA–Potential UMNO rival
PERKASA–Potential UMNO rival
The theme of PERKASA’s Annual General Assembly this year was “Social Contract and Rukunegara, the core foundation for peace in Malaysia”.
Unsurprisingly, leaders and members of the Malay rights group zoomed in yesterday on Malay and Bumiputera rights, and the need for stricter laws and policies to protect the country’s ethnic majority.
During debates, delegates lamented how UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) have not done enough to adequately safeguard the interests of this majority group, with one leader even suggesting that PERKASA turn itself into a political party to lead the country.
UMNO, complained the leader, has fallen short of expectations. PERKASA’s President, the outspoken Datuk Ibrahim Ali, even labelled those from UMNO who have criticised the group as bangsat (bastards) and declared himself the true hero of the Malays and Islam.
Taking a leaf from their leader, others used the assembly for the same purpose – as a platform to rebut criticisms against PERKASA, an NGO that has successfully muscled its way into mainstream politics and planted itself firmly at the forefront, as a presence that even UMNO dare not ignore.
Here are three lessons we learned from PERKASA’s 5th General Assembly:
1.The threat is not liberal Malays, it’s about daring to challenge the status quo
Ibrahim’s rebuttal to the recent open letter by 25 prominent Malays was that liberal-thinking Muslims are now out to destroy Islam in Malaysia, taking over from other anti-Malay and anti-Islam proponents from the the country’s non-Muslim communities.
The PERKASA President insisted that the views of the 25, whose open letter questioned Islamic laws and the religious authorities, were not representative of the majority of Malays here.
He said: “In 2015, we will be haunted by issues involving Islam’s defence. Malay liberals have now replaced those who want to destroy Islam”.
But Ibrahim may have got it wrong. The threat is not the fact that the 25 former civil servants and influential leaders defended the supremacy of the Federal Constitution over all other laws in the country. The threat is that they dared to challenge the status quo, and the fact that PERKASA believes their myopic views on religion and race represent how most Malays here think.
The 25 prominent Malays had only reinforced the view held when Malaysia’s founding fathers drafted out the country’s highest laws – that while Islam is the religion of the federation and there is the Shariah Court, which deals with Muslim matters, the Federal Constitution remains the highest law of the land. This supreme law was made all-powerful simply because it recognises and caters to multi-ethnic and multi-religious Malaysia.
2. Corruption – a hindrance to both the Bumi agenda and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s reform plans
Interestingly, corruption within the civil service and political parties, a succinct issue, was briefly mentioned at PERKASA Annual General Assembly.
The group’s leaders admitted that the issue remains unaddressed and claimed that it seriously affects the government’s efforts in ensuring the Bumiputeras, who make up the bulk of the country’s hardcore poor, receive an equitable slice of the economic pie.
“Malays make noise when they do not get positions and when they don’t get projects. They (Malays) are so easily impressed if they get to ride inside a Deputy Minister’s car they won’t be able to sleep for three weeks,” Ibrahim said during his closing speech at the groups annual assembly here yesterday.
Similarly, PERKASA Vice-President Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said that corruption was evident in all communities — Malay, Chinese and Indians.
“The Chinese, the Indians they corrupt our leaders. That is because they are smart. Now, even the Malay corrupt our leaders,” the PERKAS leader had said.
3. BN survival in GE14 still a toss-up, and PERKASA knows it
UMNO is no longer the political animal it used to be in it’s heyday. Ibrahim hit the nail on the head when he predicted that there will be no landslide victory in GE14.
PERKASA has in the past, and at least for now, been a pressure group in support of UMNO. They may criticise the Barisan Nasional lynchpin, but it is no secret that many in PERKASA are also active UMNO members.
Fearing PERKAS’s hardline stance may force BN to lose middle ground votes, UMNO has been subtly and gradually attempting to distance itself from the Malay rights group.
But the refusal of the ruling party’s upper echelon of leaders to publicly denounce PERKASA has shown one thing – UMNO can ill-afford to offend the NGO as it could find itself losing the support of the conservatives, who form the bulk of the Malay party’s traditional vote bank.
Recognising their worth, UMNO’s conservatives have grown bolder and have repeatedly urged their party leadership to be more decisive when fighting for the Bumiputera agenda.
But others, however, like Khairy Jamaluddin and Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad, feel the 57-year old party should slowly revitalise itself, and gravitate closer to the centre while still retaining its core roots.
PERKASA’s open attacks on UMNO today paints a picture of the BN party struggling to find its footing in modern society – where the younger generation of voters want to move beyond race policies and more on bread-and-butter issues.
Yesterday, PERKASA Vice-President Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman said UMNO and BN have grown weak, and suggested that the group take over as the country’s next ruling party.
“I would urge PERKASA to fortify efforts to become a political body which will rule this country. “Once you run this country, no need to complain (to UMNO and Barisan Nasional),” he said in his speech. Whether or not this suggestion will come to fruition in the near future remains uncertain.
But with BN now seen to be at its weakest, and its foes in Pakatan Rakyat still bickering over key ideological differences, a PERKASA political party could very well prove to be a formidable opponent to both the troubled coalitions in the next federal polls.
Now I feel that each blade has its unique spot on the earth from where it draws its life and strength. So is a man rooted to a land from where he derives his life and his faith. Discovering one’s past helps to nourish those roots, instilling a quiet self-confidence as one travels through life. Losing that memory risks losing a sense of the self.
your credibility rating is zero now. You better respond to this otherwise, your words will only record the pettiness of a man out for self interest. And by the way, your perkasa connection does not help either.
Buoyed by a new and unexpected wave in Zahid: favour now prepares to launch a pincer attack against Najib on all fronts and her alleged vote bank politics. Only on two crucial matters their agenda is hopelessly unfinished, finding a credible prime minister to lead their campaign and engineering a major split in the faction-ridden UMNO. On both fronts, however, disparate moves are afoot to achieve a breakthrough.that it is a conspiracy. What is the prehistory of this novel political clash that is shaping up in UMNO?
Home minister must think Malaysians are fools and believe every word he says. When Zahid said, "standard procedure", he means wait for the PM's phone call and do according to what he says.
Umno vice-president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has described the police report filed by a party division leader against the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) as a personal matter.For a large section of the Malay middle class, visibly annoyed and disenchanted with the ruling dispensation, Malay ’s collective political consciousness only the Left in all its variants seemed remained a distant, almost alien entity, a party that represented a miniscule section of affluent elists, preaching an incomprehensible political ideology.
The empire made of sand is crumbling...... Let all the fingers start pointing to one another ... But remember the other 3 fingers are pointing to yourself
Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has charged that PERKASA’s rising popularity among Malays was due to the failure of the UMNO Youth leadership to champion the cause of the race.
Tengku Razaleigh also said that current UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin’s ostensibly staunch support for party president Datuk Seri Najib Razak was just a ploy to get a Cabinet position.
“There is a vacuum in UMNO Youth, when it should be the spokesman for the Malays. But the present UMNO Youth leadership does not articulate the Malay plight.
Khairy’s support for Najib was superficial, Ku Li said.
“This is splitting the strength of UMNO,” Tengku Razaleigh told The Malaysian Insider in an exclusive interview here yesterday.
The Kelantan prince popularly known as Ku Li claimed that UMNO Youth had lost its tenacity and vigour in championing the community, with the leaders engrossed in eyeing positions for themselves.
“This sounds very pathetic, they say he (Khairy) wants to become minister, so that’s why he has to support the prime minister, at least that’s what people say.The fact remains that UMNO Youth used to question a lot of issues concerning the plight of Malays. That has always been the role of UMNO Youth,” said Tengku Razaleigh.
The Gua Musang MP noted that the current mood in the party made it ripe for Perkasa to recruit more disgruntled UMNO members.
“According to (Datuk) Ibrahim Ali, there are 200,000 members. Out of these numbers, 80 per cent are UMNO members,” claimed the former UMNO vice-president.
Outspoken Pasir Mas MP Ibrahim Ali started PERKASA as a one-man pressure group for Malay rights. It now has branches and divisions in every state in Malaysia. “It is a question of leadership. (Tun) Dr Mahathir (Mohamad), a determined leader is giving support to PERKASA while the leadership of UMNO is in utter neglect,” the Kelantan prince said of his former rival.
Tengku Razaleigh also claimed that UMNO branch meetings were not attended by their Youth and Puteri wings, to the point where meetings could not make quorum.
“I’m told that branch meetings did not meet the desired quorum. There are enough people attending, especially from UMNO Youth and Puteri. If there is no quorum, you are back to square one in 1987, where UMNO can be declared an illegal party as the party is not adhering to the constitution,” he said, referring to the split after he lost to Dr Mahathir in a bid for the party presidency.
The former finance minister said he believed the reason for the lack of attendance was because there were no party elections this year.
“They are so used to being pampered. They will only attend when there is elections within the party.There is so much patronage, that when there are no elections, there is no interest,” added Tengku Razaleigh.–
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