The Poor Malays are Victims of UMNO Baru

by Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

http://www.theantdaily.com/Main/Poor-Malays-they-were-but-Lenin-would-term-them-as-useful-idiots

QUICK TAKE: The former US Ambassador to Malaysia John R Malott wrote an interesting article about Martin Luther King and the poor Malays. There are many points that he had raised which really knock the nail on the head.

He used the term “useful idiots” the term that Lenin had coined to describe certain sections of the community. In other words, this group is no more than a group that had been used by the group in power in order to maintain that power.

He was describing about the rich whites in the US making use of the poor whites to maintain their economic status. He equated these whites as being like UMNO Baru in Malaysia. UMNO Baru had been using the poor Malays as its tool to retain power. It had used the mantra that these poor Malays need UMNO Baru to protect them.

But the poor Malays had remained poor even under over half a century of UMNO Baru’s protection. Just like the rich whites in the US putting the blame on the blacks and others for the bleak condition of the poor whites, UMNO Baru had also utilized this tactic to trick the poor Malays. Its leaders started blaming the non-Malays for the predicament suffered by these poor Malays.

It is indeed interesting to note that the rich and the powerful all over in the capitalist world use the very same method to deceive the people. This hapless group will again elect the very same people who had betrayed them into power and position. Hence. Lenin had termed these people as “useful idiots”.

Malott quoted what King had said in his speech on the steps of the State Capitol Building:

“How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.

 “How long? Not long, because you shall reap what you sow.

“How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

How long then will this deceit of the poor Malays go on? From the look of it this will not be very long. A new generation that had managed to free themselves from this mental block had already emerged. The number of these “poor Malays” who have become “useful idiots” to UMNO and UMNO Baru is reducing itself. But to maintain the status quo, gangsters and agent provocateurs are being used.

NGOs consisting of those who had been trapped by ethnic and religious distortions had been given all the leeway by the government to act as they please to create tension thus frightening whatever poor Malays still left to forever seek the so called protection of UMNO Baru.

His politically motivated imprisonment will galvanise the Poor Malays

But there are other factors that will destroy the faith of the remaining poor Malays. One of the main factors will be the injustice meted out to Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. His imprisonment on a case which is touted as being politically motivated will cause UMNO Baru to lose this “useful idiots” group as its election asset.