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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

New acronym for Najib’s alphabet soup - NTR

By Selena Tay | FMT

Before last year’s Bersih 2.0 rally on July 9, 2011, there was a tussle of words between the Bersih organisers and the government over the issue of the venue to be used. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak had then said that the Bersih participants could use the stadium and so the Bersih organisers requested for the use of Stadium Merdeka.

But lo and behold! Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein then announced that Stadium Merdeka was off-limits. After the Bersih rally wherein more than 1,600 participants were arrested, Najib came out to announce that what he meant was the stadium in Shah Alam.

What sort of excuse is that? Absolute flip-flop. Not content with that, he also had a show of force at the Umno headquarters in the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) claiming that he could easily marshal millions to take over Kuala Lumpur. Such a PM. Believe it or not! Does it show his strength of character or a sign of weakness?

Now the same thing is happening with Bersih 3.0. The home minister has said that the event is okay but the venue of Dataran Merdeka cannot be used. Again the double-talk to confuse and unsettle the Bersih organisers and participants.

Will the BN government stop this nonsense once and for all? If the event is to be disallowed, please say so clearly and plainly. Otherwise, there should be no hindrances from the relevant authorities. As Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, the spiritual adviser of PAS, has said, “1 say 1, 2 say 2, not 1 say 11 or 3, speak plainly and clearly”.

Another prime example of the government’s double-talk is the Jalan Sultan issue. In March this year, Najib had said that the government will not be acquiring those properties that were supposed to make way for the MRT line.

Instead, the buildings will be preserved as heritage buildings and the foundations and structures will be reinforced. Well and good. This settles the issue once and for all.

But once again the joke is on the rakyat or, in this case, the property owners for just before mid-April, they received a letter dated March 31, 2012 from the Land Office instructing them to vacate their premises by April 30 as their property will be acquired under the Land Acquisition Act.

And that is the reason why PAS Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad labelled Najib as a spineless flip-flopper.

The property owners then had a press conference on April 13 to tell everyone what Najib had said. On the wall behind where the property owners were seated were the words “Walk The Talk” written on a yellow manila card and in Bahasa Malaysia “Janji mesti dikotakan” written on a green manila card. The government must take note of the words and the colours of the manila cards.

Even the Parliamentary Select Committee for electoral reform is an eyewash.

And the same goes for the Government Transformation Programme (GTP). The Peaceful Assembly Act 2011 which was bulldozed through Parliament last year and the new Security Offences (Special Measures) Bill 2012 to replace the Internal Security Act (ISA) is not all as it seems.

Only the gullible will continue to be duped by the government whose leaders are all smooth and slippery characters speaking with forked tongues.

‘Not true really’

And what is the meaning of Umno leaders constantly telling the rural Malays that “if Pakatan Rakyat comes into power, the Malays will be under threat?”

This shows that Najib is full of double-talk and practises double-standard and his lackeys, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and the rest are merely cowardly yes-men. It is obvious 1Malaysia is just a gimmick to woo the non-Malay voters.

In this year’s Parliament session when PAS MP Mahfuz Omar questioned the prime minister on what happened to those in the Premier division who had signed the agreement with the government in the now-defunct Civil Servants New Remuneration Scheme, Najib mocked PAS for fighting only for high-level civil servants by saying that BN fights for everyone.

This is Najib’s impudent and arrogant style of evading the question. In recent days the government’s high-handedness and bullying ways have come to the fore.

A case in point happened in Pahang when a man asked Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob about the certificate of fitness in a meet-the-people session. This man was told off by the menteri besar who replied, “Pay first then talk and tell Anwar Ibrahim to give you a house as you are a PKR supporter.”

Why should we the rakyat continue to vote for a government which continues to bully and insult us?

We must stand up for our rights and dignity as citizens. Right now, the government is trampling on our rights and robbing us of our dignity.

Not only that, it is also eroding or selling out our rights to foreign workers and illegals by giving them instant citizenship so that they can vote and drown our voice and choice.

The government is only concerned with lining its heir own pockets and the pockets of their cronies.

One has to take note that although the Cheras-Kajang toll has been halved, the concession period has been extended for another 15 years. Najib has not told us the whole story and this means that our future generation will still continue to pay the toll.

This columnist has one new acronym to add to Najib’s alphabet soup. It is NTR and it stands for Not True Really. The prime minister would do well to take note of this new acronym.

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