Apa Patut Rakyat Yang Meluat Tentang Isu MB Kedah Patut Buat? ... Bantah TPPA La!

Setelah melihat segala drama serta usaha jijik bagi membuang DS Mukhriz Mahathir dari jawatan MB Kedah oleh barisan pemimpin UMNO Kedah yang Korup lagi Kenyang dari Putrajaya, jurublog ini telah membuat rumusan. Rasanya tindakan ini, yang ura-uranya didalangi dari pejabat DS Najib sendiri, terlalu cetek akal dan tergesa-gesa kiranya memang niat sebenarnya adalah untuk membuang DS Mukhriz. Maka melihat senario nasional, usaha ini sebenarnya digerakkan untuk mengalih perhatian Rakyat dari isu TPPA!

DS Najib, dengan bantuan DS Mustapa Mohamad, DS Wahid Omar serta (sudah tentu) Datuk Ahmad Maslan, sedang berusaha memaksa Ahli Parlimen kita untuk menyetujui penyertaan Malaysia ke dalam Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA). TPPA merupakan usaha terkini Amerika Syarikat untuk mengikat Malaysia serta negara lain yang terlibat dengan lebih erat kepadanya sekaligus menjauhi pesaing-pesaingnya seperti negara China dan Rusia yang tak dijemput pun menyertai TPPA!

Maka melalui 'Trade Agreement' atau 'Perjanjian Perniagaan' konon, di mana 88% dari perjanjian 6000+ mukasurat tersebut tak ada kena mengena pun tentang perniagaan! Punyalah power TPPA ini sehingga Tok Pa sendiri terpaksa mengakui lebih 20 Akta akan terpaksa dipinda sekiranya Malaysia bersetuju menyertai TPPA! Itu yang beliau akui... lagi benda-benda lain apa lagi yang kita tak ketahui? Yang jelas, DS Najib nampak begitu ghairah inginkan Malaysia menandatangani TPPA dengan tergesa-gesa seawal bulan depan!

Malang bagi DS Najib, kredibilitinya sudah tiada, sehinggakan tak kiralah berapa banyak gambar beliau berdoa dalam ihram di Mekah dikongsi ramai, Rakyat malah lebih meluat dan tertanya-tanya, DS Najib, DS Rosmah dan kawan-kawan pergi Mekah tu dengan Riba 1MDB ke, dengan derma Pak Arab mana-mana ke atau dengan duit Rakyat! Maka alangkah terkejut DS Najib yang kumpulan yang bertentangan sebelum ini seperti Perkasa dan Bersih, sudi turun padang berarak membantah TPPA bersama-sama pada esok, Sabtu, 23 Januari, bermula jam 2 petang di Dataran Merdeka.

DS Najib pada awalnya ingin mengembirakan rakan main golfnya di Hawaii masa banjir besar dahulu, Presiden Obama, dengan menunjukkan Malaysia menyokong TPPA dengan memaksa persetujuan Parlimen terhadap perjanjian tersebut. Tapi kini, bukan sekadar parti pembangkang semua bersatu hati ingin menolak TPPA, tetapi Ahli Parlimen BN pun dah goyang, memandangkan kelihatan Rakyat Malaysia jelas kebanyakkan menolaknya! Malah, Malaysialah negara di mana Rakyatnya paling ramai menolak TPPA berbanding negara lain!

Kiranya penolakkan TPPA dilihat jelas dari perhimpunan esok, macam mana DS Najib nak eksyen, menayang kepada Obama yang TPPA sudah dipersetujui Parlimen Malaysia? Kalau pun beliau dapat memaksa majoriti Ahli Parlimen BN menerima TPPA, takkah nampak pelik serta tak demokratik bila Parlimen membuat keputusan bertentangan dengan hasrat Rakyat! Maka dalam kegawatan inilah, minda-minda yang sebelum ini cukup bijak melaksanakan GST, ucapan Kangkung, selain pelbagai ide hebat lain, mencadangkan agar politik Kedah diganggu...

Ya, Politik Kedah diganggu bukan nak jatuhkan DS Mukhriz sebenarnya, tapi saja nak alih pandang Rakyat dari isu lebih besar, yakni TPPA!

Oleh itu, jurublog ini sarankan, kalaulah betui hangpa semua dok geram pasai celaru hak geng Datuk Bashah ni dok buat kat kepimpinan DS Mukhriz di Kedah, berilah balasan setimpal kepada dalang-dalang sebenar isu ini di Putrajaya. Turunlah beramai-ramai ke Dataran Merdeka, Sabtu, 23 Januari 2016, 2 petang untuk bersama-sama menolak ide tebaru dan terbusuk DS Najib yakni TPPA!

Kita berjumpa di sana... insya Allah...

Najib's Transformation Of Malaysia Into An American Satellite

It began as a political ploy, and not a half-bad one either as Najibite ploys go. Having succeeded as BN leader without a 2/3 majority in Parliament and with many states, especially the most affluent ones, in opposing party hands, DS Najib and his team began planning for political recovery by PRU13. Unfortunately, instead of looking closely at his predecessor's miss-steps, they chose to focus on threats from the opposition instead, and homed in on the political rival DS Najib feared the most, Anwar Ibrahim.

The problem was, how does DS Najib hope to beat Anwar, the leader he had been in the shadow of since UMNO Youth, through to their UMNO 'Team Wawasan' defeat of Tun Ghafar Baba for the party's succession and even in Tun Dr M's Cabinet? DS Najib could never beat Anwar head-to-head in a debate. In fact, in terms of overall image, DS Najib had a problem when it comes to facing Anwar's well nurtured religious-firebrand turned liberal-consensus-builder image, especially with an 'immoral mythology' haunting his own!

And so a plot was hatched... no, not to return Anwar to prison... but to cripple what DS Najib and his political advisors believed was the source of this great rival's strength, his strong relationship with the United States' political and financial establishment. EH? Doesn't DS Najib fear Anwar the man? His oratory skills and charisma? His ability to organize and unite political figures as well as factions led by Hj Hadi and Lim Kit Siang, with such differing political principles? He fears Anwar the man but he chooses to attack Anwar's foreign backing?

This is where readers need to remember DS Najib's own political 'philosophy', that "Cash Is King!" We see this behavior being practiced by him in UMNO, heightened significantly since his position has been threatened by the 1MDB scandal, leading to the infamous 'derma' scandal. We see this being showcased with the continued obsession with using BR1M as a means to 'help the poor'. We see it with the incessant attempt to reassure the populace that the economy is doing great in the face of questions of integrity, sackings and the Ringgit's fall.

So, it should be no surprise that DS Najib hence identifies the undermining of Anwar's support from the US as the principle activity key to winning PRU13! And so great effort, and resources, were channeled to this effect, including:

1. Tasking the government think tank ISIS to focus on studies and other efforts towards building a relationship with the United States. This was conveyed to this blogger by ISIS' late CEO, Dato' Dr. Mahani Zainal Abidin, some 1 year prior to her unexpected death.


2. Tapping Ezam Mohd Noor, Anwar's former close confidant and liaison to many of his overseas links, for information on key US figures and organisations supporting PKR, the Reformasi movement and other associated NGOs. It was in return for his cooperation in this area that Ezam was later made a Senator.


3. Appointing a number of consultants such as APCO for relationship building with an eye for developing stronger formal relations with the wider American political establishment.


4. Most significantly, appointing the late TS Jamaluddin Jarjis (JJ) to the position of Malaysian Ambassador to the US with ministerial status as soon as DS Najib became Prime Minister in 2009. TS JJ developed strong relationships with both key Republican and Democratic power brokers, made evident by the meeting organized between DS Najib and John McCain (Republican, Baptist former US Presidential Candidate) and Joe Lieberman (Democrat, Jewish former US VP Candidate).


5. Allowing DS Mustapa Mohamed (Tok Pa) to keep Malaysia on the negotiating table for the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), which is a key backdoor FTA critical to US trade strategy against China. This blogger does not believe the intention was for Malaysia to sign the TPPA in the beginning, as it would really cramp Malaysia's political economy. However, it was key to keep the TPPA going for DS Najib to get chummier with the US power-brokers.

By the time PRU13 arrived, DS Najib's confidence in winning with his 1Malaysia and Transformasi policies was likely reinforced by this growing relationship with the US. The problem was that in focusing so much energy and resources on undermining Anwar, including the grassroots attack on his sexual deviance, many other relationships were allowed to stray, such as the key one with significant part of the electorate, more pointedly the Chinese. Internal UMNO weaknesses also remained unaddressed and if anything, festered.

BN's performance in PRU13 was of course, worse, with the exception of their winning back Kedah and retaining slim control of Perak. However, the real measure of BN's success, or in this case failure, was always on its performance at the Federal level, at which DS Najib's performance was worst than Pak Lah in 2008. And since then, things have gotten worse for DS Najib. Key yet unpopular Economic Transformation policies such as subsidy reductions and the GST had to pursued with a weaker Parliament... and with Anwar still at large!

In the meantime, the US has been continuing its pursue its backdoor Free Trade Agreement cum economic cartel to curtail China's trade influence, the TPPA. As part of DS Najib's 'pro-US to undermine Anwar' policy, DS Mustapa Mohamed as MITI Minister had been left stringing the US along on this a little too long, to the point where Malaysia was the only nation in ASEAN other than Singapore (already a US satellite) and Vietnam (likely China's double-agent) still at the negotiating table! And it was now crunch time! Could Malaysia still withdraw?

With another of DS Najib's hobby horses, 1MDB, going to pot, this blogger believes our PM's new 'friends' in the US chose to 'encourage' the signing of the TPPA by putting the considerable media brands of the New York Times (NYT) and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) behind accusations of wrong-doing in the running of 1MDB. That the accusations were true was of little consequence to the NYT and WSJ, but what was important was to bring pressure to bear on DS Najib so as he will sign the TPPA for Malaysia.

In return for the signing of the TPPA, which would effectively anoint Malaysia as a new Trade Satellite of the US, surely DS Najib will be spared further bludgeoning by the US Media on 1MDB... unless of course it is DS Najib and Malaysia that is being played all along. Gaining Malaysia as a Satellite would be a major coup for the US, as in one fell swoop, it would gain economic and indirect political influence in a key Non-Aligned and Muslim nation, indeed a key Islamic Banking hub, whilst denying the Chinese and Russians of a ready friend.

It would also then allow the US to curtail Malaysia's past morally leading positions at odds with the US, such as our support for Palestine, our opposition to Apartheid, our support for Bosnia, our opposition to the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq... all moral positions troublesome to the US, curtailed...

And so Malaysia's enslavement to the US, beginning with the TPPA, will likely be the likely greatest legacy of DS Najib as our 6th Prime Minister... unless of course he realizes that the honourable thing to do is to save Malaysia from this fate, by his resigning from the post of Prime Minister. Perhaps there is room still for us to forgive if he does this before the TPPA is ratified and the chains our forefathers, including DS Najib's own father, have gradually freed us from, begin to bind us again, but to a new master... the US.

From Jho Low To Low Yatt, A Nation In Leadership Crisis Well Before #1MDB

The Tragic Irony Of 2 Lows

 

Even before the 27 July 'pogrom' which saw the sacking of our Deputy Prime Minister, a senior Minister critical of the #1MDB scandal and the Attorney General actually investigating the same said scandal, our country was already at a low. This was exemplified by the 2 Lows that has had a hand in showcasing this, the first being Jho Low, the man who led the #1MDB experiment down a path of destruction, the second being Low Yatt, the iconic shopping centre that is the site where the illusion of our racial harmony under 1Malaysia has been laid bare over the space of 1 evening in Ramadhan!

 

Leadership is about many things, among them, moral courage, the realisation of ideas, and for a leader to be seen as successful, it is the results of his actions that is judged. And so we see 2 great ideas that have been the cornerstone of the Najib government in judgement in the week Ramadhan came to a close. The first, 1Malaysia, is deserving of its prominence, the second, #1MDB, has the distinction of being elevated now as a tragedy of an unwanted child from the 1Malaysia concept.

 

The basics of 1Malaysia are pretty straightforward, and with racial disharmony being felt in the undercurrents leading towards the fall of the previous Prime Minister, Pak Lah, one would be forgiven that with it, DS Najib had brilliantly chosen an easy aim of reuniting the nation as the cornerstone of his first years in power. However, in the great excitement of pursuing 1Malaysia, its notion as a spirit or guiding principle for the next stage of nation-building somehow got lost in the 'branding' of it. It was almost as if 1Malaysia got away from DS Najib such that it was...

 

And so when the results of the 13th General Election or PRU13 rolled in as one of the most polarised since 1969, one would be forgiven for thinking that was the death of 1Malaysia even as a concept. Unfortunately, 1Malaysia and its many 'acronyms' had been so synonimous to DS Najib's administration, more so than the economic transformation program which continued to prove unpopular with UMNO's core Malay support base, the loss was explained away as due to a 'betrayal' of Chinese voters or a 'failure' of BN Chinese component parties.

 

And so DS Najib persisted with 1Malaysia post-PRU13, only the slogan or brand now rang hollow as a cry for unity, and its 'acronyms' marched into greater prominence. Regretfully, it is not BR1M or PR1MA that has since grown to such prominence as to likely now be the one that define's DS Najib's legacy, but 1MDB... readers will not however that this posting is not about the great scandal being the potential demise of the Najibite regime, but that it was already doomed even before...

 

Weaknesses Post-PRU13 Not Addressed

 

Months have passed since the 1MDB scandal gained prominence in the minds of Malaysians. It is interesting to note that issues of 1MDB was first raised by Malaysia's opposition, but failed to gain traction. To many observers, including this blogger, the lack of response by the Rakyat to PR's attacks on 1MDB was just confirming our view that the PR opposition's strong performance was not due to its strength but as a result of BN's continued weakness under DS Najib's leadership. In the end, it took the attentions of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to spark concern.

 

It would be worth noting here that whilst PRU13 showcased the failure of the 1Malaysia concept as DS Najib's cornerstone agenda, DS Najib's subsequent reaction to its results strengthened the hand of none other than Tun Dr M! BN and UMNO was saved in that elections by a firm return swing of the Malay vote to a majority of its MPs. This was exemplified in the state of Kedah in particular where Tun Dr M showed his enduring love for the party, campaigning harder that leaders half his age to return BN to the state capital. Was it not UMNO though that drove Malay voters back to BN?

 

It was not! If anything, the 'Asal Bukan UMNO' or ABU campaign had taken root among many  younger middle-class urban Malays. This was at the root of surprise losses by leaders like Dato' Raja Nong Chik at Pantai as well as many parts of Selangor that did not seem to benefit as greatly from the Malay swing. The swing though was much stronger in the rural Malay heartland where pro-Malay and Muslim NGOs such as Perkasa and ISMA were highly influential. There UMNO benefitted as the NGOs decided to support BN in order to reject Anwar Ibrahim's bid for Prime Ministership.

 

And so the one part of the UMNO strategy that worked was the demonisation of Anwar Ibrahim, where at long last, even many of his old friends from his younger ABIM began denouncing him for his loose morals and inconsistent as well as compromising political stands. However, it was the Malay NGOs that held the greatest sway in convincing Malays that BN was still worth voting for if anything to protect Malay rights from the risks of Anwar's immorality and political ambition, despite many Najibite policies prior to PRU13 being decidedly no longer pro-Malay.

 

A political strategy based on demonising your greatest enemy of course is not sustainable and became outright defunct the moment Anwar was convicted for another substantial jail term that effectively marks the end of his political career. Rather bizzarely, despite the support of Malays and their NGOs as well as the rejection of Chinese voters, DS Najib's government continued to pursue policies that moved away from the 'Malay Agenda', with only token almost rhetorical crumbs thrown their way. UMNO's mainstream was also then encouraged to alienate Perkasa, Isma and co as potential rivals!

 

It is this persistence of a failed strategy that has continued to weaken UMNO and BN's position under DS Najib's leadership post-PRU13, added to it the botched implementation of the GST, PRU14 was a sure-lose proposition! In desparation, many BN strategists talk of a major win during PRU14 due to the apparent disunity in and among the opposition Pakatan Rakyat parties. However, this is a false hope as firstly, as mentioned above, BN's losses over the last 2 elections have been more about its weaknesses rather than PR's strength and secondly, one this unites the opposition always, hate of BN!

 

The False Hope Of Peace At Ramadhan

 

Of course, DS Najib now continues to contend with the #1MDB scandal. There was much hope in his camp, apparently partly fueled by premonitions by bomohs and gurujis believed by those by his side, that his #1MDB problems would be over by the end of June or come mid-Ramadhan. Even as this was being predicted, DS Najib himself did not believe it, and so the plan to quash any internal opposition or any risk of conviction of him or his close allies on #1MDB was hatched.

 

Ironically, despite Tun Dr Mahathir honouring his word to his close associates to be less provocative and be more reflective in Ramadhan, other parties stepped into the breach. The attack by WSJ for instance, despite the belief of pro-Najibite social media activists, have noting to do with Tun Dr M, but has more to do with certain parties in the United States wanting to keep the pressure up on DS Najib in order to compell him to sign the Tran Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA)... or at least that is what this blogger believes.

 

And so no peace has settled in the Najib camp, but this should not surprise anyone. DS Najib's government was well on the way to losing PRU14 anyway before #1MDB. His 27 July progrom will at best help him to survive UMNO's efforts to topple him till the general elections - and even that is not a sure thing as calls to reject the posponement of UMNO elections gain voice at UMNO Division meetings. And one then wonders, why bother at all with all these political shenanigans if in the end he will lose his Prime Ministership with little to no dignity left to his name?

 

And will Malaysians ever forgive a Prime Minister that has showcased such selfishness to retain power even as we continue to suffer his leadership? ...