Abe Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people ..."

I’ve said it, he has now said, namely:

De facto leader = Dictator

Yes, in malaysiakini Ezam Mohd Nor called Malaysia’s only de facto leader a dictator.

Please recall, Ezam was the right hand man of the de facto leader. Like Abdul Rahman Othman, the PKR erstwhile treasurer and presidential candidate who resigned in disgust recently, Ezam was with the single-issue party of KeADILan from Day 1.

So ........, well, there are those who would still resist the truth, deny the undeniable, and fantasise their de facto leader as a long awaited political messiah, who was in cold reality a mere UMNO reject – rejected not for his righteous views or reformed policies but for his (and his faction’s) hasty avaricious impatience to sit on the de facto throne of Malaysia. They had lived by the sword and they died (their UMNO lives) by their swords.

As the saying goes, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and lip. And if KTemoc was religious, I would exclaim Hallelujah, T’nee Choo Tniah and InsyaAllah Alhamdullilah*, for saving Malaysia from the de facto man by keeping him as de facto leader of a small political party rather than the scary thought of de jure leader of our nation.

* correction with thanks to Marina M

And indeed the very term ‘de facto leader’ is a democratic blasphemy. How can a democracy, whether a nation or a political party, tolerate a de facto leadership?

Indeed how?

Abraham Lincoln had said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

“You can fool some of the people all of the time ....”

Sad isn’t it? And we continue to hear some PKR members cried out defiantly that people like KTemoc should stop criticising the de facto leader who, get this, is trying to do something against the corrupt UMNO; that he is the best hope for us ... blah blah blah.

I have never failed to be amazed at the gullibility of such people, their unrealistic hopes, beliefs, and such unsupported convictions. And the sad part for the believers is that their hopes, beliefs and convictions are sincere. If only I could parcel such emotional devotions and commitments, foolish as they may be, and sell them off as 101%-proof FAITH, I would be a very rich man, reputed for my sterling goods, unlike some snake oil salesmen.

The news report by malaysiakini on Ezam’s disgust with the de facto leader of PKR has delivered a heavy mortal blow to that false image of reformasi:

Ezam had stepped down as Youth chief and Shah Alam PKR chief four months ago, but yesterday he told malaysiakini he has decided to quit the party.

The 40-year-old politician, who was Anwar’s former political secretary prior to the latter’s sacking as deputy prime minister in 1998, declared that he had lost faith in the leadership, including in his mentor and the party’s de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

PKR is truly in meltdown condition, and as I said, it has been the conduct of the de facto leader which has seen several members and leaders quitting recently.

Olde Abe’s “You can fool some of the people all of the time, ...” surely applies to those ‘some’, but we may only hope that we'll witness the beginning of “... but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”