Oleh ZULKIFLEE BAKAR
zulkiflee.bakar@utusan.com.my
KUALA LUMPUR 6 Mei – Masyarakat Cina gagal dalam usaha mereka untuk menumbangkan kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) yang orang Melayu menjadi terasnya.

Kegagalan itu sudah tentulah mengecewakan mereka yang amat berharap dalam Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13 (PRU-13) ia menjadi medan untuk mereka ‘menguburkan’ UMNO melalui kejayaan pakatan pembangkang.

Biarpun mereka melakukan gerakan yang dilihat bersepadu di seluruh negara dengan memastikan hampir semua undi diberikan kepada parti cauvinis, DAP dan calon-calon pakatan pembangkang lain khususnya Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) namun ia belum cukup menumbangkan kepimpinan BN yang UMNO menjadi tonggak utama.

Justeru tidak hairanlah, semalam puak-puak yang dianggap tidak tahu mengenang budi ini melakukan tindakan yang memualkan apabila melancarkan apa yang dipanggil silent walk.

Program itu bertujuan menyatakan protes kononnya PRU-13 dijalankan secara tidak bersih dan mereka mahu rakyat bangkit melakukan protes berjalan secara senyap di kompleks-kompleks membeli-belah.

Malahan dalam laman Facebook dan Twitter tersebar gambar perbuatan biadab sekumpulan remaja Cina yang bergambar bersama Jalur Gemilang yang diterbalikkan.

Persoalannya apa lagi yang puak- puak ini mahu dalam bahasa mudah, ‘apa lagi orang Cina mahu’! Tidak cukupkah DAP memenangi 38 kerusi daripada 51 kerusi yang parti itu tandingi dan seterusnya menjadikan ia parti dominan dalam pakatan pembangkang.

Mungkin kekecewaan mereka biarpun diberi layanan yang begitu istimewa oleh kerajaan BN kerana pakatan pembangkang gagal memerintah.

Mereka membuat percaturan jika pakatan pembangkang menang ia akan membolehkan Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dilantik Perdana Menteri dan Ahli Parlimen Gelang Patah, Lim Kit Siang sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri Kedua.

Melalui cara itu, mereka berharap ia boleh dijadikan platform untuk membuat pelbagai tuntutan termasuklah mungkin menganggu gugat hak orang Melayu yang sudah termaktub dalam Perlembagaan.

Hakikatnya, masyarakat Cina sememangnya sudah lama menyimpan hasrat untuk memiliki kuasa politik yang kuat.

Berikutan kesediaan PKR dan Pas bekerjasama dengan DAP, masyarakat Cina melihat PRU-13 peluang terbaik, justeru mereka keluar habis-habisan mengundi dan memberi isyarat untuk menolak BN.

Segala kebaikan yang ditunjukkan Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yang mempelopori gagasan 1Malaysia langsung tidak dihargai.

Malahan kesudian Perdana Menteri melayani dan mempertimbangkan serta bertemu dengan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) cauvinis Cina, Dong Zhong turut dilupakan begitu sahaja.

Begitu juga dengan pelbagai program, projek dan tuntutan masyarakat Cina yang hampir keseluruhannya dilaksana dan dipenuhi oleh kerajaan BN.

Tetapi ternyata, mereka menjadi kelompok yang tidak tahu membalas budi. Mereka hanya bijak bersandiwara di hadapan pemimpin-pemimpin BN dengan tujuan memperoleh apa yang mereka hajati.

Apa yang mereka pohon diluluskan tetapi undi diberi kepada DAP. Kini mereka cuba pula hendak mencetuskan suasana tidak tenteram apabila melakukan pelbagai protes yang boleh membangkitkan kemarahan orang Melayu.

Kelompok seumpama ini perlu diperingatkan bahawa jangan sampai mereka dilihat terlalu melampau untuk membuat tuntutan politik mereka kerana kesabaran orang Melayu ada hadnya.

Dan apa yang pasti seperti mana kata bekas Ketua Menteri Melaka, Datuk Seri Mohd. Ali Rustam; ”… mereka kata orang Melayu rasis sebaliknya, kali ini mereka sangat rasis.”

In the last stretch before GE13, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad dropped all pretense for a Bangsa Malaysia and has gone for the Malay vote and slammed the Opposition for listening and accommodating the views and needs of the non-Malays.

State news agency Bernama quoted the country’s longest-serving prime minister as saying that Selangor must be saved from the opposition to ensure the rights and position of the Malays and Bumiputras are maintained in the state.

Dr Mahathir also said that it is up to UMNO to decide the fate of PM Najib Abdul Razak if the latter does not do as well as Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after the 2008 general election,had recently said that  Najib should hand over the reins of the administration to his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to ensure a better mandate.It predicted an uprising from beneath Umno and the BN pact against the first-term Prime Minister Najib, who will be, for the first time in his political career, leading the ruling coalition into a polls contest that observers believe

Umno watchers say the die has been cast and Najib’s failure to issue a categorical denial he did not recently suffer a stroke will only benefit Muhyiddin, who is now on high gear to take over as the next Umno president and prime minister of Malaysia.

And the target timeline remains the same – before the 13th general election which must be called before June this year.

a fallacious belief. A man who is mentally agile to be a Prime Minister and take decisions that impact on the destiny of the millions  in our  country is surely equal to the task of vigorously taking up party work.

Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan and former Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad have made their own predictions for the next general election. Whose analysis is more appropriate and whose is more accurate?

There are common and different points in their views.

The common point is both are not optimistic about Pakatan Rakyat’s chances of taking over of Putrajaya.

The difference is the former is optimistic about the prime minister’s ability to defuse the political tsunami with its top 10 achievements, leading BN to a major victory with two-thirds of majority; while the latter dares not to say that Datuk Seri Najib Razak will bring a new prime minister effect to win a two-thirds majority like how Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Abdullah Razak did in their first election battle as the prime minister.

By comparison, the analysis of Mohd Radzi, who is no longer in his official position, has apparently left more hints:

• • Although he firmly believes that BN will be able to stay in office, he also admits that BN still needs to set off a political tsunami to regain lost constituencies from Pakatan Rakyat.
• • He pointed out that among the 16 Selangor parliamentary seats of Pakatan Rakyat, 15 of them were won with more than 20,000 majority votes. How is BN going to overturn it?
• • He bluntly said that the state seats lost by BN in the Sarawak state election the year before last are under the jurisdiction of five to six BN parliamentary seats. Therefore, the state is no longer a fixed deposit for BN.

Dr Mahathir said the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had taken over Selangor’s economy and now had great ambition to control politics in the state.

“Prior to this, when Selangor was under the Barisan Nasional (BN), we could see the economic growth was prolific and the Malays and Bumiputras had a place, so we lived more happily than previously.

“If the opposition wins and administer Selangor, the position of the Malays and Bumiputras will be shunted aside. Because of this, we must act quickly to convince the people of Selangor to topple the opposition government and replace it with BN which is led by Umno.

“Our sacrifices will be in vain if Selangor cannot be saved,” Dr Mahathir(picture) said at the closing of the convoy ‘Save Selangor’ organised by Selangor Perkasa here, today.

Also present was his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali, Perkasa president Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Selangor Perkasa president Abu Bakar Yahya.

TAN-SRI-MUHYIDDIN-YASSIN says

“My definition of Malaysia is simple: ‘Malays First’. Whatever you do, wherever you work, Malays should be the top priority for all its citizens,”Muhyiddin   said as”Country is above all religions and ideologies,” he argued and asked people to follow the same. ”I agree friends that as a Malay, as a citizen who loves Malaysia, you will also agree with my definition…We might do any work or take any decision, Malays should be supreme,”

“I am Malay first, but being Malay doesn’t mean I am not Malaysian,” said Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

He was responding to DAP leader Lim Kit Siang’s challenge earlier today for him to state whether he is a Malay or a Malaysian first.

“He doesn’t understand (what) the meaning of the concept of 1Malaysia is all about,” Muhyiddin told a press conference in the Parliament lobby

He said if a government serve the people selflessly, then they would forgive its mistakes as well.

“When we get a mandate of five years, we must work on that and serve people selflessly. If we do that then people will forgive our mistakes as well,”

The west has a saying that ‘we reap what we sow’. Although I am not a Christian, I believe that this is mentioned in the Holy Book too ( Galatians 6:7 – Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap).

Dr Mahathir said, the weakness of two Malay parties in the opposition, resulted in disrespect for the race and risked the special privileges of the Malays and Bumpiutra being done away with.

“We also want to stress that Bahasa Melayu and Islam are the official language and religion of our nation. So they must respect our rights as how we respect their rights.

“But, because the leadership of the Malays in the opposition pact is very weak, they often just follow their colleagues including when pressed for the word Allah to be used (in the Bible).

“When they proposed to strip the special privileges of the Malays, the opposition, which purportedly had two parties with Malay leadership, willingly complied. If we are not careful, we will lose altogether our rights on our own soil and they (opposition) will get rid of all

efforts to develop the Malays and Bumiputras.

In Klang, Dr Mahathir reminded the people not to allow emotion to rule the day when choosing the government in the 13th general election.

No place for garbage in Malaysia Come home to Kerala,

Mahathir is correct this time. There’s a list of people to be arrested for corruption and power abuse after the opposition takes power. Guess who heads the list.PR will bring to book all crooked and corrupted Politicians with BN.Justice must be meted out impartially and they must serve out the sentence.This is not a tit for tat thing.Only when a government does this will future Politicians be careful and avoid corruption so as to safeguard the nation.Malaysia will only progress through a government that practices >accountability/transparency/competency

The opposition coalition will move against its political rivals once it comes into power, says former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

“They will take action against people who were not friendly, or they think were not friendly to them,” Mahathir said in a speech in Kuala Lumpur today.is worried that his karma will hunt him. Dun worry, PR is not UMNO. They wont arrest politician like what you did with ops lalang. They wont put you in ISA, even when the whole world knows that you have sold my country to terrorist just to votes in sabah and other parts of malaysia. The wont give gag order to the media like what you did when you were in power. Hope all the double standards, marginalisation, police brutality that you and the damn umno brought in to this country will be buried deep down under.

He said there was talk that a Pakatan-controlled federal government would arrest such people, including himself.

“Some say I should leave Malaysia before election results are announced. That the first thing they (Pakatan) will do (when in power) is to close down all the airports so that no private plane can take off.

“But I don’t think they will do that. The opposition are nice people. They may arrest people and charge them.”

Mahathir joked that he was happy the Internal Security Act no longer existed and that Pakatan, which agitated against the law, could not simply throw people in jail if it came to power.

“Without the ISA, I feel more comfortable,” he said.

Such “disruptions” to Malaysia, he said, are what will happen if Pakatan were to come to power.

He cautioned those seeking change to realise that “all change will cause disruptions” and not necessarily for the better.

Not only will there be such arrests but the Malaysian economy and development will also be arrested, argued Mahathir.

“If Pakatan is elected, there will be radical changes, but it won’t be an orderly kind of change.”

He likened the change that a change of government may bring may be like the “change” that Idi Amin brought about when he overthrew the government of Uganda.

Mahathir cautioned Malaysians not to change just for the sake of change or because they are bored of things, but only if there is real need as any change will be tumultuous.

Asked in a press conference later if he intends to take the advice and flee prior to any possible change of government, Mahathir dismissed any concern.

He said that he intends to stay on in the country, jokingly adding that while rumours may circulate that he built a secret tunnel from the PM’s residence in Putrajaya to the KLIA, the house where he is living now has no secret tunnel.

I suppose it was inevitable.

For years, I’d read about scandals in various religious communities with a sense of growing dread. The words jumped out as sensationalized headlines: Cover-ups, Christians, schools, Muslims, churches, Evangelists, lawsuits Mormons, statute of limitations, victims, settlements. The details of individual cases provided unimaginable horrors and secrets, broken trusts and shattered childhoods.

Still, that happened to other people, in other religions.

Recently, there was a well-publicized case among the Satmar sect of Hasidic Jews, in which a brave young girl confronted her molester in front of her entire community. She was threatened, ostracized — even bullied in court — but she remained resolute and ultimately got some measure of justice with a quick conviction.

Yet it still felt strangely removed; the devout Hasidim, with their ultra-strict codes and secretive practices, were probably as much an enigma to me as to non-Jews. They were the odd cousin that shows up at family events — we’re related but nobody is quite sure how.

I grew up in a traditionally orthodox Jewish household — 18 years of yeshiva education, keeping kosher, synagogues, circumcisions, bar mitzvahs, weddings, shivas. I’ve always felt a powerful connection both culturally and spiritually to my religion and wear the mantle of Judaism and my unique upbringing proudly. In the industry where I make my living — entertainment — the old axiom that Jews run the media couldn’t feel further from reality. Most people I’ve dealt with drop the term nachas with ease but — witnessing their behavior — have no idea what the core tenets of Judaism actually mean.

Finally, the day I’d always feared arrived. An email from a childhood friend with a link to a story in a Jewish paper: investigations into murky events from many years ago involving rabbis and young boys at an Orthodox school, long-ago complaints and hushed-up dismissals. As I read the account more closely, I realized that it wasn’t just my religion or my people. These were my peers. This was my neighborhood.

This was my Rabbi.

I spent my childhood with this man — listening to him speak every Saturday at our local temple, eating Sabbath meals at his house, playing with his sons. He spent countless hours preparing me for my Bar Mitzvah, my singing and learning “skills” required Job-like patience on his part. All in all, the amount of time I spent in this man’s presence is literally incalculable. I never heard, saw or experienced a single moment of anything improper in all those years, and I’d never heard anyone claim otherwise in the years since.

But here it was in print, for everyone to see, with his name and accompanying photo. In this viral age, the story spread throughout the world’s Jewish community with lightning speed, the whispers of gossip not far behind — “Did you hear?” “Did you suspect?” “Did you know?” Everyone has an opinion, with most all too willing to share.

Despite my cloistered upbringing, I live in the real world and know the facts. Bad things happen in every walk of life; regardless of religion, race, sexuality, ethnicity, gender, there’s no discrimination when it comes to wrongdoing. The sole tie that binds us all is our humanity, and it can be our salvation or our undoing.

But I suppose I see trauma through my own prism. I’m embarrassed when I hear that a crime has happened and the name sounds Jewish. History may not distinguish between a Mark David Chapman and a David Berkowitz, but I know which one was Jewish and which one wasn’t. And always, through the most public and shameful of evildoers — Bernie Madoff stole from The Elie Wiesel Foundation! — the same thought, almost logical for a religion whose already tiny population was shredded by the Holocaust: This won’t help, we all think, there are enough people out there who already hate us.

Along with everyone else, we cry for humanity whenever a child is harmed, no matter the circumstances. The most important part of any story like this are obviously the children themselves. Yet now this most horrid of scandal involving innocent kids, an all too frequent one nowadays, has arrived at the doorstep. I try to remain objective, without judgment, and pray for awareness, change, resolution, healing, protection, prevention. The truth.

Can I also pray that my faith won’t be shattered?