Spat and Failure As From History

The heat between UMNO and Perkasa still goes on with both sides squabbling one another.

Once, in the 18th century, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (the Musical King) tried to implement various policies for the advancement of mankind. His philosophy was largely influenced by Enlightenment but he was ultimately failed by the subjects whom rejected most of his policies. In this context of history, it can be applied to Najib himself. Again, NEM, 1Malaysia and his various projects will never hit at the top because of pressure from the other face of UMNO: Perkasa and some of the NGOs. As the result, he has to roll back some of the things that are supposed to be implemented.

It is very interesting to note that UMNO and Perkasa will end up getting whacked one another with the more and more shouting matches going on and on. But in reality, they need one another for their own survival, so says Azmi Sharom:

“Umno needs Perkasa,” he said. “It is uprooted from the ground which makes it difficult to dismiss the fact that Perkasa is filling the void it has left. From this point of view, Ibrahim is absolutely spot on.

In the case of Mahathir, despite having a blog and a good amount of visitors, he still needs Perkasa which serves as a platform for him to speak out his stuff. Obviously, he can't do that in UMNO himself as previously when he criticized Pak Lah, he did not get to represent the Kubang Pas. If Mahathir tries to speak out as UMNO member, other people including those in the AJK level (e.g, Nazri) will whack him up and down. But sometimes you have to watch out of Mahathir particularly to the point where he might no longer need Perkasa.

It seems that Mahathir right now is trying to do the same thing he did with Pak Lah, that is to plan and take off Najib. Sure, Najib is split into doing the right way or keeping Mahathir's legacy of work and style intact after all the 22 years of work as PM. 

Being the head of BN is no easy job having to juggle with 22 other component parties. And there's the pain of treading the fine line of commuting for other people vs Ketuanan Melayu thing. If there's one thing that I can say about this that the surface of Perkasa is showing a side of people that merely wants fish but does not know how to fish.

Having read the first part of Malaysian Maverick book, it shows a prime example of a Malay man who unlike a typical normal heartland person who works very hard to achieve to the top of the society. There are certain Malay Malaysian icons that goes under the same category defined above. In turn, Mahathir tries to get his fellow Malays to emulate the model of a successful hardworking man but the attitudes including complacency and inability to pick up from what was taught would eventually be the greatest failure for him (evident in his poem, "Melayu Mudah Lupa").

Perkasa and those who would vouch for Ketuanan Melayu are akin to people who were taught to fish once but simply are not able to fish out themselves to feed themselves. That is why whenever people want to engage in healthy discussions, there are those who would wave cliche card (including warning of never questioning rights, threats of this and etc..) . It's more or less the expectation of spoon feeding to the end of time.

It's the history that mirrors what is happening. Same pattern of spat and failure but at a different time setting.