A page from a woman's diary (2)

Dearest Diary,

I need to write again about Dad. I worry for him but at 81 he seems more determined than ever to carry on. I think his criticisms must be biting, because they are frantically demonising him even as I pen these words. And who would be ‘they’ that I had just mentioned? Well, people who once kissed his hands and genuflected to him.

The pseudo-warriors of Distortion, Distraction and Deception have been let loose. The real issues must be camouflaged by throwing red herrings to attract the public’s attention – gimmicks like an unprecedented rude young man telling Dad to ‘get out’, followed by another seemingly unrelated one to mock someone he should be ‘grateful that he did not die', disgracefully uttered in an august place.

Yes, they even selected a hatchet man to lead the frontal attacks, a man who once kissed Dad's hands but who’s now just too eager to buy into the new inner circle. Then there's one more from a little afar who had previously shown his equal eagerness to fawn on the rising star - how he had lavished praises on that someone. Oh those men, their avaricious ambitions are inversely proportional to their loyalty or their dignity.

His poor successor - he may believe these people are loyal to him but it’s a case of the timeless “The King is dead, long live the (new) King.”

One casts off the old and swears allegiance to the newly crowned, ad infinitum.

And the most disappointing one of all, Uncle Zig Zag - what did he say about the hatchet man's rude and crude call to Dad to 'get out'?

"Investment won't be affected".

The demonising has annoyed Dad because they distorted his criticism of unexplained actions and implausible reasons into a case of him consorting with the opposition. They accused him of being Julie Roberts, sleeping with the enemy. By flinging the accusation of treachery, they hoped to avoid answering his queries.

The hatchet man has cast red herrings to divert attention from the unanswered queries into questionable decisions by his successor and the latter's faceless though known advisors. I wonder who the hatchet man could be taking instructions from? Unprecedented in Malay tradition or behaviour, he has publicly told Dad, his former boss, to 'get out', while feigning regrets at being disrespectful to an elder.

Is someone making a big pile of money that resulted in the cancellation of a project, which now costs more than if the project had continued, and the sale of assets worth hundreds of millions of ringgit for nothing more than a tuneless song?

Now one more person has emerged from the ranks to dispute there was mischief afoot in tying a project with the sales of material that we have. He blamed the affair on the other side of the fence, when it was the greed on our side that initiated the offer, but was subsequently caught flatfooted for wanting to corner and monopolise the sales of goods. The new spokesman has disclaimed the truth we here had been the side that offered to sell the goods.

If we examine very carefully, through the fog of distraction, the unprecedent and very crude attacks had not been rudeness per se against Dad, but designed to obfuscate the real issues by distracting the attention of the public from the avarice of the le nouveau puissant.

But even then, there really shouldn't be any excuse to discard our heritage, our culture and our tradition.

It’s a strange world when the Malays, who boast of their loyalty, seem to have lost their gratitude recently.

It’s a strange world when the Malays, who pride themselves on their soft spoken reasoning, seem to have abandoned this characteristic now.

And it’s a strange world when the Malays, who admire respect of elders, seem to have forgotten their culture lately.

It looks like it has been left to us women to safeguard and nurture these virtues for our children, to teach them to subscribe to the traditional Agama, Bangsa dan Negara, and not the new call of Kuasa, Haloba Tama' dan SAYA.

Good night, dearest diary.
M

Related:
A page from a woman's diary