If they can't see it clearly now, they deserve to fall [up-dated]

MUSICAL INTERLUDE WITH JIMMY CLIFF

This is Sunday and it is time to take it easy. Some serious matters need to be said and we are not going to allow our BP goes off the scale. It is not good to keep things bottled up inside.

Accompanied by an early reggae star, Jimmy Cliff, here is our Sunday musing.

Our earlier plan was to layoff the UMNO election and just observe from afar to hope for some resemblance of change in attitude in UMNO. However, the entry of certain people got us suck into the excitement.

It is not we never tried to stay away. After a whole day ferrying an underdog candidate around as self-appointed media officer, we couldn't take the physical requirement and quit a post we never had by midnight.  

Today and after my Christian friends have returned from church, we will say our final words to join the rakyat to watch the alif mim nun wa ... sarkas by the side.

Body language tells a different story

Dato' Hishamuddin is stretching himself as much as possible to get support from Wanita that he gatecrashed a Wanita do in Kluang Johor with incumbent Ketua Wanita UMNO, Dato Shahrizat Jalil.

The Utusan Malaysia here reported a glowing story on Hishamuddin's support from Johor. That is not the story and it is expected of Johor UMNO to give and Hishamuddin to get support from UMNO leadership of Johor.

They wouldn't exactly shame themselves and their "local" boy made good. But there was more than what was said.

Blocks, threats, sabotages... how to move forward?

This is not because candidate no 60. Tun Faisal Ismail bin Abdul Aziz did us a favour before, thus it is time to return it back. Hardly so, because it is not about defending Tun Faisal's right to run but also of many others.

For some strange reasons, many have been denied to exercise their rights to run in UMNO's election by the power establishment using questionable technicalities, threats and sabotages.Thought that PM wanted to have the minimal requirement as possible so that the requirement to run for office is not  stringent and hindrance for new leadership talent.

UMNO need fresh new talents to rejuvenate the party, but the old and tainted ones just refuse to go away.

Another typical leak at Treasury

Last week, UMNO President Dato Najib Tun Abdul Razak announced plans for economic empowerment of Bumiputera. [Read again here]

Every other person was complaining of nothing new. One of our concern was no serious effort to address past problems of leakage, inefficiency and sabotage on past empowerment programs. Leakage and inefficiency tend to be blame on government machinery.

Najib's intention to improve delivery is understood and appreciated. Only problem is the PEMANDU outfit. The other choice to PEMANDU is to leave it to the civil servant to independently run government machinery.

True, we have been a strong advocate to abolish PEMANDU and return the role to EPU, but it is not a blanket endorsement for all because had there not been for privatisation, JKR would still not complete the North-South Expressway yet.

The case we like to bring up is a case of leakage involving a recent tender for a Ubiquitous System for Jabatan Kastam dan Eksais Diraja (Customs). The underlying problem is clear and it is ubiquitously morally wrong.

MACC should be alerted because it has corruption, kickbacks, collusion and abuse of power written all over.

Unnecessarily desperate incumbent...

... or incumbents?

On TV3 evening news yesterday, UMNO President, Dato Najib was quoted expressing concern for money politics and abuse of power. But, with the electoral college system of voting, that call could fall on deaf ears.

The delegates at Cawangan have long heard rumours of Division delegates returning home with money in their suitcase after a party contest. The casual talk at coffeeshop and coffeehouse is that it  is time for them to taste the Government program to "merakyatkan ekonomi."

A trickle down effect they say. But, for 60-70 thousand? Too much isn't it to suggest buying votes.

From the many chats last night we had, they claimed that is not Najib's biggest worry. Sometimes we wonder how do they know but they said Najib is more worried that cousin brother, whose been there for him, might not make it.

Akram wants Pemuda to continue carry the "obor"

Few months back and in the midst of much speculation as in whose who will be running in the next UMNO election, we bumped into Firmansyah Muhammad or commonly known as Dax within the Khairy circle at Bangsar.

He was invited to join us temporarily for a drink before running off to get dinner for the family. It must have been the time we posted the article "This rubbish about no contest" in June 2013. At times, we the so-called pro Mahathir bloggers does not blindly follow the boss.

Anyway, over latte and capacino, we shared with Dax our reservation to this orchestrated attempt to not have the position of President and Deputy President be contested or challenged.

Changing times

By the time we reached home to Kuala Lumpur from Alor Setar, the whole world probably know by now that Dato Mukhriz Mahathir has announced his intention to run for UMNO Vice President.

In fact, while the event to introduce the candidates from Kedah for national level UMNO position was ongoing, our Blackberry was constantly receiving messages from SMS, BBM, email and Whasapp anticipating Mukhriz to announce his intention to run.

Similar to the discussion on Twitter, blogs and Facebook, everyone seem to be in unison to say that two VPs are shakeable and it will be a one two and three for so, so and so.

All we can say is Mukhriz has a chance like everybody else.