Umno’s commandments

 The Umno president and his colleagues talk a good game but if you take apart their statements and remove the veil of deceit it is easy to decipher the principles they live by I like to call them Umno’s commandments.

Commandment No. 1: Thou shall steal

This rule is followed religiously from the top to bottom of the party. The leaders steal by giving inflated contracts and concessions to nominees, family members and other trusted partners.

In return, money is kept for the politicians and their families. At times, the thievery is given what the Umno politicians/ministers believe is a veneer of respectability: they justify giving a contract/contracts/projects to a crony by saying that the crony is a big donor to Umno.

The inflated contracts are getting larger and larger and this reflects the greed of Umno.

Commandment No. 2: Thou shall honour thyself above all

They go to umrah ever so often, preach to the electorate about People First and Performance Now but for the Umno leader, the people are only valuable during election time.

For the most part, they are all “I” or “ME” specialists. If I bump civil service salaries without a care about the financial situation of the country, will “I” get a few votes?

If I allow Nallakaruppan and Ezam Noor to become senators, will “I” benefit from this move?

Commandment No. 3: Thou shall tell lies, and often

There is no downside to telling lies. Umno politicians can lie about corruption, their assets and expect to get away scot-free.

In fact, there is respect in the party for politicians who lie about the RM24 million ring; about shopping trips, about FELDA memos.

Only a few days ago, Umno MP Bung Mokhtar Radin told Parliament that MAS incurred losses of RM2 billion after the share swap with Air Asia. This is untrue.

A couple months ago Agriculture Minister Noh Omar told Parliament that a special committee had been set up to make sure that the RM250 million soft loan to the NFC was disbursed well. Well, we now know that there was no such committee!

Commandment No. 4: You must subvert the rule of law and behave like thugs when things don’t go your way

Ceramahs are being broken up by Perkasa/Umno/Pekida thugs, and opposition volunteers checking voter registration lists are being threatened by Umno members.

Najib’s future Cabinet could include Tengku Adnan Mansor, someone found guilty by a royal commission of inquiry of meddling in the appointment of judges.

Commandment No. 5: Thou shall create dissension and discord

In the last 24 months, Umno has done its best to drive a wedge between Malays and Chinese and Christians. Instead of being keepers of peace and unity, Umno and its friends at Perkasa have stoked talk of Chinese being greedy for political power. This is irrational and the height of irresponsibility.

The Malays control the police, army and civil service and form 60 per cent of the country, and there is no chance of Malays losing political power. Umno may lose control but Malays will not.

Still, this has not stopped Umno from beating the drums of discord and making the Chinese like the enemies. Then there was the story of Christians wanting to take over Malaysia.

Commandment No. 6: You must flaunt your wealth

The bigger the house the better, the more gaudy the jewellery the better and the more luxury cars the better.

How do you know an Umno man has arrived? He wears a linen shirt, chomps on a cigar, drives an SUV and does not seem to have a regular job.

* Osman Khalid reads The Malaysian Insider.