After more than 2 hours inside the quite crowded selection center waiting for my daughter to finish her pre-selection interview at Uitm Shah Alam last Sunday evening, feeling so weary and bored, I went out of the building to have a smoke. I sat near a man of about my age who seemed restless too.
Initiating a quick conversation, I found out that he was a resident of Shah Alam and so it prompted me to ask him a few questions about his feelings under Pakatan Rakyat. Below were some his replies:
- Now that Pakatan Rakyat had taken over, he will judge the party’s performance. If the party brings benefits to the people, why not keep them.
- He too was surprised by the election results and blamed UMNO’s poor performance on the selection of their candidates.
- He too heard that PM was not doing much with the word going round that PM’s been sleeping.
- He voiced his utter amazement that even the small Chinese traders knew and could describe about the notorious acts of the infamous SIL. Too much, he said, to take a 10% cut from any contract is understandable but the SIL took too much – about 30% and the contract amounts were so huge while the commissions ran into many millions.
- Then he said that UMNO members are proud, arrogant maybe that’s why they lost. He did not give any reasons, just that he felt so.
With regards to his last statement, I gave the rational that subordinates normally follow the culture of their Bosses. If the Boss and especially his SIL are ‘sombong’/ arrogant, the subordinates will just emulate them. So for UMNO to eradicate that bad culture, the head (s) must first be cut; in this respect, the Bosses (PM and his SIL) have to go sooner than later. A new leadership can then provide the new role model. He seemed to agree with my rationale. Our conversation abruptly stopped when I saw my daughter smiling as she came out the building. Bidding him farewell, I took my leave.
His statement about ‘orang UMNO sombong’ kept contemplating in my head, if what he said is true, it does not spell well for UMNO. Several of my friends and neighbors are members of UMNO and they seemed okay, most of them as humble as could be. Anyway an issue would be to address that guy's feelings. Everyone has pride, for one reason or other, God given I suppose. Many realize its shortfalls and make the necessary amends while others don’t. However being consistently arrogant and without any sense of humility in showing off high position, power, wealth and Pig headed stubbornness is just sinful. Perhaps the guy was referring to PM, the young SIL (and other members of the 1st family) and other similar UMNO members who stood proud of their officially positions and wealth while not responding to rumblings of the grassroots.
If I remembered the teachings correctly, Pride and Arrogance was the essence of the time immemorial story of Satan, the nemesis of man, an arch angel, who did not submit to Reality and therefore punished without grace.
At present, much confusion and anarchy reigns in UMNO, badly fractured from its worst GE performance with its members trying desperately to confront the changed realities and the ramifications. The party continues dwindling into the darkest pits of oblivion as the pretext of upholding UNMNO’s traditions are being manipulated by its members to the very end. Tradition seems to supersede urgency and logic. At the very top, the boss like a nincompoop arrogantly and pig headed continues prolonging his stay in office purport not in the best interest of UMNO or Barisan but more for the sake of his own (family) interest, so people say. His dissidents keep drumming for his immediate stepping down, blaming his weak leadership being fully responsible and accountable for the party’s woes, desperately trying to stop him from causing further damage. The urgent calls by various Malay NGO’s for greater Malay Unity during these trouble times is a clear message that the present leadership has failed. Yet the leadership’s propaganda machinery spins ever more in successfully creating more confusion and despair.
Just plain ‘Bodoh Sombong’ in ignoring the wishes of many grassroots and Malay quarters is the general perception of the present leadership and his bunch of (desperate) supporters. The situation bears resemblance of the hallmarks of history where the proud and arrogant will fall without grace and hard. With nature at its best, UMNO’s many general and legionnaires as well as the carpetbaggers and opportunists are amassing to squander the spoils of war.
UMNO, as the pride of the Malay politics, should understand that humility is deeply rooted in its (Muslim) culture. The new leadership in UMNO .in coming to terms with the day’s relevance should set the new role model for the members to amend and demonstrate humility in reaching out to their traditional supporters and public. Thus the urgent call to UMNO members to adhere in refining the traits of ‘Sombong, Proud, Bodoh Sombong and Arrogance’; totally discarding them would be impossible since being human we are not without faults.
End
No comments:
Post a Comment