UMNO - 100-storey building yes, school bus fare no!

Malaysiakini - PSM: 70% Malay support vital for Putrajaya win.

PSM's sole MP Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj revealed that in his Sungai Siput constituency, some Malays can't even afford to pay their electricity bill and some can't send their children to school because they can't afford the bus fare. Thus he warned Pakatan that an issue like ‘meritocracy’ frightens rather than impress these people. He advised Pakatan to back off from promoting the meritocracy issue because it's meaningless to the poor.

It reminds me of a lecture on the Vietnam War where the USA talked about democracy and freedom to a deaf Vietnamese population who were more interested in the basic 3 bowls of rice each day.

As a real socialist, Dr Jeya knows what he’s talking about, though of course it doesn’t mean Pakatan shouldn’t continue promoting meritocracy; however Pakatan should also highlight more effectively its affirmative action programs for the needy, especially the poor Malay peasants and fishermen.

The state of such extreme poverty among Malay in Sungai Siput is also a terrible indictment on UMNO. After 53 years of its rule, it's a disgrace for UMNO and a repudiation on its nonsensical claims of being a party for Malays when there are still Malays who can't afford bus fares for their childrent to go to school or to pay for their electricity.

Yet UMNO talks about the importance of building 100-storey tall building, while in the past it had squandered billions building Petronas Tower, Putrajaya, bridge to nowhere, sending astronauts into space, adventure jollies to the Poles, Mt Everest and god knows where else, and generally wasting billions and billions of soon-to-be-depleted petroleum revenue. The list of UMNO profligacy goes on and on, while the poor Malays fell through the cracks left behind by UMNO's high rollers.

Unfortunately most of those Malays in Sungai Siput Malays and elsewhere will continue voting for UMNO because they believe UMNO's propaganda that it's the party to protect Malays, when the truth of course is UMNO is a personal profit (profiterring) club, of UMNO members for UMNO members by UMNO members - or why else would there be such heavy corrupttion of money-politics in UMNO party elections?

And regretfully, nothing will ever change in UMNO, based on what Najib, Muhyiddin and the UMNO crowd have said at their annual meeting. It's going to be business, UMNO business, as usual!