"No sorry please, we're UMNO Youth leaders"

Here is something you all already know, but read it anyway, to allow your blood pressure to shoot up a bit – don’t let your heart grow complacent ;-)

The meeting at BN Youth Council recently confirmed this political truth, twice over.

First: Khairy reiterated he won’t apologise like LKY, even though he could, because that would make him insincere. He said that an apology must be sincere for it to work, and as he didn’t feel apologetic for making his racist remarks about the Chinese community exploiting a divided UMNO (and why would the powerful S-I-L of the PM feel apologetic for saying anything?), he felt any apology from him would be insincere, and thus an irrelevant gesture.

So he is big on ‘sincerity’ now! Excuse me, but my toes are laughing.

It was noted that right from the start, UMNO Youth Chief and Chairman of the BN Youth Council had declared he was ‘satisfied’ with Khairy’s explanation – which undoubtedly allowed Khairy to dig in deeper. But then, maybe poor Hishamuddin had to do so, perhaps under instructions?

You can frame your own subtext from the factual unsatisfactory outcome of that meeting, but the MCA and Gerakan participants weren’t very impressed.

Despite the brave spin that the meeting ended in a satisfactory fashion, the MCA and Gerakan members were very careful in saying they were satisfied with the conduct of the meeting rather than Khairy’s explanation - a deliberate yet oblique political statement to indirectly indicate they have not been satisfied with Khairy refusal to apologise for insulting the Chinese.

Their representatives slipped in a wee bit of overt resistance, warning Hishamuddin that they ‘cannot guarantee their members will accept Khairy’s explanation’.

Take it from me (and them) – their members won’t.

Hishammuddin put on a brave face and responded that any unhappy reaction can still be brought up for discussion at the next BN Youth meeting.

[Pssst – someone overheard Hisham shouting “Where’s that Penang bloke – I want him here, cepat!”]

Did you for one instant ever doubt such an outcome where Khairy would arrogantly refuse to apologise for his racist remarks?

Second: On the cabinet reprimand of Deputy Higher Education Minister Ong Tee Keat’s criticism of alleged embezzlement of school maintenance funds, since then confirmed by Humpty Dumpty, Hishamuddin dug in deep himself. He said the reprimand had to be made.

Obviously the subsequent vindication of Ong's statement by the Works Minsiter wasn't enough to restore a just apology to the man who was unjustly reprimanded for exposing corruption.

Hishammuddin said his ministry has thousands of staff, and it was not possible to keep an eye on all of them to ensure that they do a proper job. He said it was not fair for Ong to specifically pick two Chinese schools in his complaint and to publicly criticise another ministry. He averred that when there were problems, they must be dealt with quickly, instead of turning them into a racial issue.

Bull! It's everyone's duty to expose corruption, not just Ong's. And in fact, Ong did not air that alleged embezzlement as a racist issue. He merely highlighted corruption. There was no mention of race. That the schools were vernacular in character was never the issue - the missing 90% of the maintenance funds was.

It was Hishamuddin who turned it into an anti-Ong issue because he obviously didn’t like the idea of an MCA bloke highlighting alleged corruption in his ministry. His act of political intimidation against Ong could be seen as an act against the exposure of corruption.

Even DPM Najib knew that there had been, to use Humpty's word, 'irregularity', which was why he stressed on cross-ministerial procedures as the reason to reprimand Ong while in the same breath, stating the 'facts' of the case was a different issue. He stated: “I don’t want to talk about facts, that’s another issue".

The DPM of the nation didn't want to talk about facts of an issue, that have direct bearing to a case of corurption? Kalah ta'apa, gaya mesti ada - form takes precedence over subtance.

For more, read my earlier postings:
(1) Najib's facts, principles, goose & gander
(2) Corruption 'Fact' for DPM Najib & Hishamuddin
(3) What the cabinet reprimanded Ong Tee Keat for!
(4) Najib riled with Ong Tee Keat's last laugh!

In fact, the nasty reprimand for Ong that Hishamuddin had brought about has been a politically disgraceful case of ignoring the very important issue of public governance, merely for his own foolish pride. If he had taken up Ong’s revelation as his own, and proceeded to investigate the cases (note the ‘plurality’ of the noun) as a 'concerned' minister, he would have come out smelling of roses.

He f**ked up a god-given opportunity, presented to him by Ong, to be seen as a fearless incorruptible pro-active political leader.

Opportunity lost, tough sh*tty, Hishamuddin.

But it’s hardly surprising these two UMNO Youth leaders would never say sorry. To paraphase a British humorous quip, "No sex please, we're British", we have here a case of "No 'sorry' please, we're UMNO Youth leaders".