mystory 16 April 2008 - malaysia in history

news one.

last week i wrote that MUBARAK (Majlis Bekas Wakil Rakyat) would be meeting PM Abdullah Badawi. yesterday they did. conclusions from the meeting:

one, MUBARAK President denied that the association gave its support to PM Abdullah Badawi and wanted him to stay on.

two, the association supports the transition from PM Abdullah Badawi to DS Najib in a systematic and gentlemanly manner.

three, the transition is to restore the confidence of the public and UMNO members.

my comment:
this is another call for PM Abdullah Badawi to step down. although they no longer hold any high ranking UMNO or government positions, members of MUBARAK are prominent figures - that includes former ministers, MBs, supreme council members etc. many of them are peers of PM Abdullah Badawi when they were active in politics. so what they say still carry some weight.

news two.

Dato Seri Azalina Othman Said, the Tourism Minister said a couple of things today:

one, she only plans to contest for an UMNO Supreme Council post. she denied talk that she would challenge DS Rafidah Aziz for the post of Wanita UMNO Chief.

two, she also said that it was inappropriate for party members to ask PM Abdullah Badawi to step down as UMNO president. we should not disrecpect our leaders by telling them they are no longer wanted. It is not Malay culture for leaders to be told to step down.

my comment:
let me ask this. is disparaging our past leaders part of our culture? dont think so. Tell that to your cabinet colleagues Dato Seri.

we cant pick and choose which part of our culture to suit our intention. for example: when a muslim man wants to marry more than one, he would say to his wife - "Darling, in islam i am allowed to have up to 4 wives". yea now you talk about the religion. what about other tenets of islam - do you uphold them? maybe not. so you use part of the religion to suit a particular intention. get the drift? same case with our culture. bashing past leaders seem to acceptable, as many leaders are doing it. but to criticise the current leadership is not part of our culture - un-malay?! where is the logic. what about being accountable - is that un-malay also?