I refer to the Malaysiakini report Khairy: Anwar and kin no threat and wish to express my utter shock at the scathing and uneducated remarks made by the Umno Youth deputy chief, Khairy Jamaluddin.
Perhaps it is about time Khairy learned that there is a lot of truth to the old adage that ‘in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. Surely, Khairy's tirade of insults, slander, innuendo and name-calling of PKR de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim, whilst among blind Umno followers waiting in line for more handouts and Datukships, will win him many claps.
But should Khairy repeat his tirade to the ordinary man-on-the-street, the rakyat who have been cheated and sidelined and whose trust and faith in good governance has been shattered through repeated cases of multi-billion ringgit corruption, judge fixing and sheer incompetence, among others, he would be booed off the stage.
And if the marginalised Indian community were present, they will sure throw their well-worn slippers at him for repeatedly calling them berok .
Also, we must not forget that his father-in-law and prime minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, had only days ago called Anwar ‘nothing’. Obviously, Abdullah did not get Khairy's permission before making that statement. The ‘nothing’ Anwar seems to be very ‘something’ for Khairy to devote an entire tirade against him.
Khairy has called Anwar corrupt. But the fact remains that till today, despite the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) government cheating him of six years of his life through imprisonment, there has not been a single iota of evidence to prove that Anwar had stolen even a single sen of tax-payers money.
In contrast, in late 2005, Khairy had used Abdullah's influence to facilitate a controversial merger between ECM Libra Capital Bhd and the government-linked Avenue Capital Resources Bhd. This resulted in the creation of ECM Libra Avenue Bhd.
In December 2005, Khairy claimed he was granted a ‘loan’ by some of the shareholders of ECM Libra Avenue Bhd, all of them Umno cronies, to purchase one percent of the firm's shares at 71 sen per share.
Following a public outcry, a public audit committee alluded to nepotism on Aug 11 when it concluded that there was a ‘conflict of interest’ and that the share purchase had not been referred to father-in-law Abdullah's cabinet, effectively forcing Khairy to transfer his entire holdings in the company to another crony. Now tell me, who is corrupt?
Khairy's claim that the BN had managed to maintain the Pantai Dalam seat as a stronghold even during the 1999 polls, and can do it again this March 8 is absolute nonsense, to say the least.
As one who was there the night in 1999 when the Pantai Dalam votes were counted, let it be known that incumbent, Sharizat Abdul Jalil, would have lost the seat had it not been for the postal votes which, by some magic, were almost all in favour of the BN.
Calling Anwar a ‘traitor and hypocrite’ may be all right for Khairy. But let us not forget that Khairy is the same racist who keeps making seditious statements against non-Malays. Of course, he gets away with it as all BN politicians and cronies do.
Khairy can claim that Malaysia will become as poor as the African nations if the country provided free education, healthcare, and reduced fuel price as called for by PKR. But the fact is, Khairy has been consistent in his inability to provide a single statistic or fact to back his contention.
This is all fine when addressing a mindless Umno audience. But dare Khairy face an intelligent, educated crowd? His cheap rhetoric and bankrupt Umno Youth views will not work. Non-Umno Malaysians have wised up to the corruption, nepotism and sheer greed of the Umno-led BN government.
If Khairy thinks making cynical references to the framed sodomy charges against Anwar is funny, let it be known that educated Malaysians are watching him with disgust. Backdoor politicians like Khairy are empty vessels that just make a lot of noise, refusing to recognise that their comments are distasteful.
All this while, thinking Malaysians have been ignoring the nuisance that is Khairy. After all, his only claim to fame is the fact that he is Abdullah's son-in-law. What contribution has Khairy made to Malaysian society, other than his seditious and racist comments against Indian and Chinese Malaysians?
Malaysians know that it is Khairy who is the opportunist. As the prime minister's son-in-law, he has been eased into mainstream Umno politics through the back door, and can organise street protests without the need for a police permit.
Meanwhile, peace-loving Hindraf supporters who were made up of the ordinary rakyat , on the other hand have been labeled extremists, terrorists, and called berok by Khairy and the BN machinery. They have been beaten up and brutalised by the police, and have had their temples illegally demolished by local council enforcement officers.
To their credit, Hindraf supporters have consistently remained calm in the face of such attacks. They have never once retaliated against the government through violence, but have instead carried roses for the prime minister. Even this was met with police brutality. Now, Malaysians are saying no more to the likes of Khairy and his snoring father-in-law.
Even Khairy's claim that Anwar started the money politics and ‘corruption in Umno’ is incredulous to say the least. First, the statement ignores the fact that corruption was practiced as an art form in Umno and the BN government even before Anwar joined politics.
More astounding, Khairy's statement now leaves no room for doubt that Umno is indeed corrupt. No politician with any brains would admit to this in public about his own party, and that too, during an election rally. Yet, this fact has come out of Khairy's mouth. Obviously, this is the height of his Oxford intelligence.
Khairy would do more for the BN's campaign if he shuts his mouth rather than shoot it off. If anything, he is only convincing more and more Malaysians to vote for the opposition.
