IS THIS THE PROFILE OF THE MALAYSIAN LEFT AND STREET PROTESTERS?

…AND THE FLAVOR OF THE MONTH – THE 1MDB AND WHY UMNO AND THE GOVERNMENT HAVE FAILED TO COUNTER THEM INTELLIGENTLY..

By Mansor Puteh

There is really not much left of the Malaysian Left; they had been pushed to the Left too much until they have smashed their faces into each other; they do not have anything to grouse about; they never did.

They only tried to highlight some issues that had been highlighted before in America, but they did not realize that they are a few decades too late.

And not enough trying to become Fake Americans with their Pseudo-American ideals, they had to go beyond taking American fast-foods and speaking in Fake American Accents, that they had to take to the streets to try and show to everybody how Americanized they are, despite the fact that most if not all of them had never been to the country for a considerable period of time to know that the America they see in Hollywood films and American television serials and in the media is not the Real America.

That they had not studied and lived in America and who like to copy those protesters in the country do all the time using almost the same slogans and making the same speeches all the time.

I hate to say this. But the truth is that those few Malaysians who like to take to the streets to protest on anything really are not that political; they are mostly those who have a certain profile, and social and cultural misfits, who had geared themselves to go to the Left and on the wrong side of everything.

This is not a political matter but mostly a psychological one.

Many of them who like to do that have this profile in that they are mostly those who had not studied and lived in America for any considerable period of time.

Some of them had studied in England, so they are left behind in many things, especially after the country gained independence from Britain on 31 August, 1957.

And most of those Malaysians who had studied and lived in America do not take to the streets. I am not saying that they are better citizens but at least they have better sense.

And most of the things that the protesters do is to take to the streets things and issues that those in America had done long ago, from the 1960s, before many of the Malaysian who are not in the streets were born.

So basically, by going to the streets with banners and making loud speeches, they think they have reached the level of the Americans of an earlier era.

Worse, the Malaysian street protesters do not do what the American protesters do, by dirtying the streets and protesting in the most crude and ugly way shouting slogans that are borrowed from elsewhere particularly from America.

They say they want to make Malaysia a better place to live in to make it clean, but they do not take issues with the streets that they are dirtying and the drains that have been clogged for ages and the toilets that are stinky, and the roads are full of potholes and also open burning and the garbage that has piled at many residential areas in the city and country.

They also do not want to talk about how to solve the problems of the illegal pasting of stickers on public properties and the stealing of metal mostly done by the Chinese and Indians or prostitution is mostly done by the Chinese from China and gambling done mostly by the Chinese.

These issues do not give them wide media coverage.

They prefer to talk about press freedom. But they only know how to shout slogans.

They do not realize that freedom of the press involves invoking or dismantling some basic laws on defamation and civil liberties, and mostly changing some basic provisions in the Constitution, without which the freedom of the press cannot happen.

In the past some of them had some issues to tackle, namely AIDS, but since this dreaded disease seems to have been forgotten, those who were active in the movement to highlight the perils of this disease are not with such issue.

Many of them have gone on to tackling other matters, by looking at the front-page of the newspapers and rumors posted in the blogs and portals for inspiration, one which they are now up against concerns 1MDB.

The 1MDB is now the flavor of the month, which unfortunately has become stale.

But why are those on the side of the government with their many institutions and networks not able to counter all the unnecessary allegations that had been leveled against them, with impunity and no threat of persecution?

The government or more specifically Umno does not have enough smart people who could see what is coming; they let things happen before they take action and the more they are seen to be doing so the more the other side will charge them for a host of imaginary flaws.

And in this way the original spin will take another turn and yet another turn.

 But it is to say that the government and Umno have to take stern action against their common and obvious enemies, but by engaging more better qualified persons to serve their party and not those who are hangovers and who have not had enough being in it and assuming some posts so they can go on benefiting from them.

It is not just enough for Najib to reshuffle his cabinet recently and for the first time. He must do it occasionally so no one in it can be made to feel that they belong they as long as they want to be in it.

They are only there if they know how to serve the cabinet and government. And they must be thrown out of the cabinet if they are not seen to be doing that.

If this can be done, then surely the opposition and their supporters operating the portals will know that the ploys they can use are really limited; they can become the toothless tigers that they often like to charge those in Umno and the government.

It’s time to turn the tables against the opposition and their supporters.