Sayonara, Dollah !

21.3.2009.

Saturday, 21st. March ( D-Day minus 3). I thought I might post a sayonara messege for Dollah  now rather than later, so that perhaps I can claim some originality in my piece, when post 25th. March commentaries might render it less so. 

I believe even Dollah  at his most flippest of flops would not pull a fast one on Najib this time. So this is the end of the road for him, and I believe the whole country can let out a sigh of relief. 

In recent memory, no one has shown in public so much ineptitude while holding so high an office. In retrospect, we should feel sorry for him, really. Somehow or other many UMNO members have for many years, prior to 2004, been made to believe that this was a quiet, studious, benign and moral man, worthy of bigger things in UMNO. When he went the way of the Ku Li / Musa Hitam group, for a few years he had to suffer the political consequences, even if he did not have the guts, like Rais Yatim, to leave UMNO and "burn his bridges". 

Many members felt sorry for the mild-mannered guy. Having left the government and a bright future in the Civil Service for the bright lights of politics before, Dollah now had nowhere to go but cool his heels for a couple of years. But Mahathir being Mahathir, having listened to the voices in UMNO, pulled him back into the Cabinet, and eventually topped that by picking him over Najib to become PM in 2003. So it seemed Dollah's patience and, as he recently claimed, "ability", saw to it that he got the coveted job. 

How wrong we have been. How wrong had Mahathir been. As has been exposed in the latest grab for final glory in the Limbang fiasco, this is a man of keen scheming tendencies and surprising vanity, hiding behind the exterior of a dutiful subordinate, waiting for his turn. All the innocuous facade, the quiet gentleman, the scion of an "Ulama", fooled everyone. All the promise of Islamic ,"Hadari" notwithstanding, transparent, responsible and excellence-seeking government have been totally betrayed by incredible nepotism, corruption, inefficiency, and plain stupidity amply distorted with denials and plain bloody lies. His late father must be turning over in his grave.

There was a time, while seeking election as VP, when he would wait patiently for a single minor ADUN for one full hour so that he can personally get his vote. The place was Bkt. Chedang, Seremban. The ADUN was me. There was no money politics then. There was another time when he wandered around all alone in PWTC during the lunch break in an UMNO GA, and nobody tagged on his coattails. A delegate extended his hands and offered "you have my vote". That delegate was me. What went on his mind then, one wonders. Perhaps a mind bereft of focus was the real reason for the docile and disarming demeanour. You know, when you are not really that ambitious, you just go along with the crowd and smile to everybody. Perhaps this lack of focus again allowed him to be manipulated by those privately close to him, perhaps those who are intelligent enough to spot an opportunity that cannot be missed. This explains the bizarre behaviours - overturning matters previously agreed at the highest level, making about-faces on important and strategic decisions, and at the last resort feigning innocence and claiming ignorance. All these smelt of hidden hands pulling the strings, thus showing incoherence and inconsistencies.

The biggest mistake Dollah  has made was not only to discard Mahathir and all Mahathir stood for in UMNO, but to go out of his way to despise the old man and his sons, setting senior UMNO leaders ,who ought to know better, upon him like running dogs. Not making available for his own decision-making the time-tested wisdom of Mahathir was bad enough. Going very public about the Mahathir's relevency really top the cream of insult and more than bit the hand that fed him.

In sum total, when Dollah  turned on his erstwhile benefactor, he turned off a big chunk of hitherto very loyal and very Malay UMNO members who showed what they feel about the whole shameful affair in the last GE. The moral is, if you can do this to someone who picked you, someone who was PM for 22 long years, you can surely treat like shit all the other small guys.

The theory of hidden hands is believable if you consider the huge ambitions of the group. What they did in the last GE is obvious - a plan was already set up to put in a new team by the 13 GE. How do you explain the strange choice of candidates, especially the rejection of 70 Divisional Heads as candidates from a total of 190 Divisions ?

What Najib must now do is exactly the opposite of what Dollah  did. Call back all the old UMNO leaders and seek their council, for as much as their experiences are useful, all of them still have influence and all still have followers. And once and for all cut off the known corrupt money politics members. Let there be 100,000 honest members rather than 3.5 million corrupt ones.

In the final analysis, perhaps Dollah went over his head. Or to put it in simple terms, he was OK as a sargeant, but KO as an Inspector.

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