Ex-MIC strongman says he ‘cheated’ in 1977 party polls
(The Malay Mail, 7 September 2009) – FORMER MIC strongman Datuk V. Govindaraj has made public a dark secret that could have altered the presidency of the party.
Govindaraj has confessed that he pocketed 30 votes meant for Datuk S. Subramaniam in the contest for the deputy president’s post against Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu 31 years ago.
Subramaniam ended up losing to Samy Vellu by a mere 26 votes and the latter became president when then president Tan Sri V. Manickavasagam died in 1979.
——————–
It’s strange how our Malaysian MSM seems to be inconsistent lately, no? It’s very unlike the Mahathir heydays where you would read a consistent story in every paper. And the MSM almost never exposed any BN politician’s scandals. Even if it was reported, it was usually played down and quickly forgotten.
And those days, whatever stories printed followed a consistent script across all the papers. All the papers strived to make all BN leaders look good. It was good politics for the BN to present a united front to the country. The MSM toed the line and followed the same orders. But these days, we get big career-destroying scoops like this on the front-page. Like I said, strange. No?
Some other examples of inconsistent spin would be the Ong Tee Keat, MCA & PKFZ crisis. The Star makes OTK out to be a hero with positive spin in every crisishe faces, despite the other English rag NST running widely divergent coverage.
Utusan we all know spews seditious ultra-Malay nonsense while the rest of the papers give glowing articles about Najib’s inclusive 1Malaysia concept.
And now, the Malay Mail gets the scoop of a stolen MIC Presidency that put Samy Vellu in his lucrative position for 30 years?
Why the divergence? Is it due to more freedom allowed for the media to write as they see fit? Is that why the MSM seems to have some new-found leeway to front-page career-destroying news of senior leaders in the BN?
All these seem a little disconcerting until we step back, take a deep breath and take a look at the bigger picture. And then we can see a pattern emerging.
You will notice that all these scandalous news are about any BN leader except UMNO leaders. For UMNO it’s consistent across the board – spin them positive no matter how stupid they talk or act.
An example would be Hishamuddin’s double U-turn about the cow-head protestors. First he said he viewed it seriously as it had potential to cause racial tension, then he said that he didn’t think it was necessary to penalise the protestors (!), then he said charge them. In this case the MSM merely reported what Hishamuddin said, without bringing any attention to the inconsistencies with his previous statements.
You will also notice that it is the UMNO-owned press – Utusan, NST and Malay Mail – that are running all these image damaging exposes on these non-UMNO BN party leaders.
So what’s happening now?
While we wait for firm proof or insider validation of what is really happening behind the scenes in the MSM, may I offer a theory?
The BN, as we know it, is history.
UMNO has abandoned all pretense of racial unity and power sharing. This is evidenced by its aggressive ultra right-wing campaign stance. It is going all out by fair means and foul to consolidate its complete control over the country on its terms alone – its hegemony legitimised by the apparent support by a majority the Malay populace. The way to achieve this apparent Malay support is through spin, propaganda, disinformation, race-baiting, provocation, new alliances, crossovers, persecutions, etc, as we can see happening today.
This aim is also evidenced by several articles that openly belittle the BN’s non-UMNO parties – both in the MSM and the many, many UMNO-controlled blogs.
Taken together, all these signs point to a strategy of UMNO positioning itself for complete hegemony, by hook or by crook. No more power sharing, no more nice-nice to other races, no more token political partners. It’s going to be UMNO’s way or get out of the way.
As the influential UMNO blogger Syed Akbar Ali put it so succintly:
“It is high time UMNO stopped subcontracting Chinese and Indian affairs to others. The way forward for UMNO is to establish Chinese Bureaus and Indian Bureaus within the party…It does not mean that party rolls must be opened to non Malays but there should not be any obstacles for UMNO to field a Chinese as an election candidate. The party can also appoint such candidates as Ministers in Cabinet or even invite capable representatives of the Chinese community to become Cabinet Ministers.”
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s out in the open.
UMNO wants to go it alone, with complete political hegemony. oh they’ll throw 1 or 2 bones to the non-UMNOs as a token of goodwill. Because as Tuan Syed says ever so eloquently:
“The “ketuanan” must be a comprehensive idea – the Lord of the Manor must oversee to the welfare and benefit of all under the realm.”
So shall we all non-UMNOs also dress in servant’s black-and-whites and serve tea to the UMNO “tuans” of the land?
[Source: Eyes Wide Opened]
No comments:
Post a Comment