This morning UMNO Perhubungan Negeri played host to the delegation from Veteran UMNO Pusat, which gave notice of its intention in writing 3 weeks ago. To support that request, Veteran UMNO NS paid a courtesy call to Setiausha UMNO Perhubongan last week, and obtained his verbal agreement.
The delegates were impressed with the food and reception at party hq headed by the executive secretary in the absence of his boss and the Big Boss.
The fate of Veteran UMNO at state and national levels is best described by the whole thing this morning.
Veteran UMNO NS's lament was earlier voiced to the executive secretary, about the lack of response from the MB's office on the written request to seek audience submitted personally two months ago. Veteran UMNO Pusat's lament was voiced in the individuals' presentation during the morning ceremony. In fact the convincing-sounding complaints were more so because they reflect actual personal experiences - Sulaiman Sidek's sadness for being passed over in all those lost candidatures for past elections; the other's sadness for being forgotten and left out of party business, and so on.
The truth of the matter is, life goes on, with or without the veterans. The complaining to each other goes nowhere. Bigger and more current issues grab the people's attention, not the veterans' needs. The veterans should do well to participate in the debate on the drastic Ministerial argument for the removal of all types of subsidies to help avoid "the Greek Tragedy". The shenanigans in MCA and MIC merit immediate reaction by UMNO. The dark forebodings of GE 13 must be exposed. The veterans' personal displeasures don't figure too highly in the scheme of things.
Old men ( and women ) keep repeating themselves. Their claims of past glories carry no value. "Dato Onn this and Dato Onn that" is well worn, even if true. Speakers become "merepek" when they keep playing old records.
Let's listen to the young. This is not the same as giving in to the young. Let's not let the generation gap compound our differences. There are new things going on, and they're not all bad, even if we old guns say they're in bad taste. Let's face it - we're the old generation. We've had our chances. Now it's the new people's chance, and we must give them fair shakes. But we can tell them, in a language that they understand, where the pitfalls are. That's how we're wiser. That's how the future can be better. That's how we oldies show we're not bitter.
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