‘Free’ money from Proton ‘scam’ sale?

Umno and Barisan Nasional "can talk big" for all they want but the era of paying your way through to win elections is over.

Umno is like Jack Sparrow (as in the movie “Pirates of the Carribean”) – a pirate to the core.

Yesterday – Malay supremacy, today champion of Islam. Yesterday, Umno was a royal basher, today they are royal bootlickers.

Umno president Najib Tun Razak should stop the charade.

It’s not like Umno and Barisan Nasional people are gifted with extraordinary talent that reserves them the right to govern the country.

Who can argue against facts?

The top three states which drew the highest level of foreign direct investment are Pakatan Rakyat-led states.

That the Pakatan governments can achieve these good things in just under one term, which no other Barisan Nasional-led states have ever achieved, is an incontestable testimony that the Pakatan people are more talented.

This is what Umno and BN and the Umno president fear most: That people are slowly but surely realising that there is life without Umno and what’s better – there is a better life without Umno.

Personally speaking, I felt vindicated somewhat when Daim Zainuddin (former economic adviser) came out with his “only three states are safe for BN” prophecy.

I have been writing about what the Oracle of Syed Putra (whom I meet monthly and whom readers must assume is Daim himself speaking) has been saying to me.

Era of ‘buy’ election over

It was the Oracle who told me that every other state in Peninsular Malaysia – Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu – are tough battle ground for BN.

So Umno-BN can talk big for all they want; when they go to the battlefield, they will get a reception never known to them before.

The era of paying your way through to win elections is over.

On the election, I won’t join others who’ve challenged Najib to call for elections if he is so confident.

I have another similar question but from a different perspective. If Najib is so upbeat, why are his business friends cashing out?

Thirty years ago, when Proton was culled up from the fertile imagination of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, it was hailed as a national project.

Proton was justified on the basis of pride of the nation, and of course the fruits of Mahathir’s loins.

Since its inception, generations of Malaysians have been drilled and instructed with the idea that Proton is a national project.

Now, in 2012, Proton, our national project, was sold to a BN-friendly party by the name of Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.

Word on the ground has it that what really happened is that Proton is actually sold to the man who thought about the idea – Mahathir.

Money back into Umno-BN

Friends in the know about the sale of Proton tell me, the price tag by which Proton was sold, was dictated by Mahathir himself.

This is the price, you take it. Now, who is to dismiss the suspicion that after the sale, the buyer gives Umno some reimbursements?

And what about the cannibalisation of MAS? The idea of dismembering MAS so that a group of people can make a lot of money was thought of two years before the press conference about the share swap took place.

This means that the idea of cutting up MAS was planned during the time Idris Jala cleaned up the book scam in MAS.

When I asked the Oracle of Syed Putra about the AirAsia-MAS share swap, he said it was all an elaborate scam of insider trading.

Of course, as in the sale of Proton, the buck returns to Umno and BN coffers.

The writer is a former Umno state assemblyman but joined DAP earlier this year. He is a FMT columnist.