UMNO's killing 2 bird with 1 stone' game plan...

The Christian saga seems to continue on and on, and no one knows how it may end. Throughout the whole of this saga, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has tried to portray himself as a hero of Islam, a defender of the Islamic faith.

The chronology of events thus far appears carefully planned:-

1. 7th May 2011 - a local Malay daily highlights on its front page lies about Christian pastors being in cahoots with DAP to form a Christian state;

2. 11th May 2011 - Najib meets with Muslim leaders and assures them that everything will be done to safeguard the position of Islam as the country's official religion;

3. 12th May 2011 - Najib meets with Christian leaders (priests and pastors) and after that gave a press conference on his own without including his meeting partners. He announced that the Christian leaders had pledged to uphold the Federal Constitution and respect Islam as the official religion. His statement implied that the community had not been doing this all along. Najib's solo presser stirred suspicion and further angered Christians in the country.

4. 14th May 2011 - Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein says there is "some basis" for Utusan's controversial new 'report'.

Portraying Christians as liars

To seasoned political watchers, the whole episode reeks of an "insidious plot" cooked up by the UMNO elite to discredit PAS as PAS has pledged to stay in Pakatan Rakyat.

"By also gunning at DAP, UMNO tries to kill 2 birds with 1 stone. The whole contemptible plot is hatched by UMNO to show the Malays that PAS should quit Pakatan as its Pakatan coalition partner 'DAP has intentions to create a Christian state," Nizar Jamaluddin, the Bukit Gantang MP, told Malaysia Chronicle.

According to Nizar, the deposed mentri besar of Perak, Najib was the one who set in motion the move to portray the Christian leaders as liars.

"First, he said the pastors informed him that there is absolutely no intention to create a Christian state. Then Hishammuddin said there is so-called new evidence which forms the basis for Utusan's front-page article. So what this makes out to be is that the Christian leaders were lying to Najib when they told him that they had no intention to create a Christian state. This is an extremely unhealthy development indeed," said Nizar. Right or wrong diagnosis, Hishammuddin's latest announcement does put the Christians and DAP in a bad light.

Perhaps the UMNO elite is also counting on the Christians to be meek and humble and to forgive them 77 times as exhorted by the Gospel teachings. Nizar added that the Christian leaders were merely the pawns in UMNO's political chess game to bring down PAS.

The Christians should have seen the plot and realized that Najib's meeting with them was just a slick public relations exercise to polish his image and make him a hero amongst the Malays and Muslims so as to secure their vote.

Destroying Pakatan

According to pundits, Najib realises that the Chinese vote is a lost cause and the Christian vote is inconsequential and therefore has decided to go for the jugular. He only wants to secure the Malay vote - and at all costs.

Two of the most effective ways are:

1) destroy the image of PAS as the champion of Islam and take from PAS the votes of the Malays who are more conservative and religiously-inclined, in other words the bulk of the PAS supporters

2) destroy the image of Pakatan Rakyat leader Anwar Ibrahim and take from his PKR party the votes of the liberal Malays.

In this manner, UMNO will have all their bases covered by securing the votes of both the religiously-inclined and the more liberal Malays. In the process, UMNO also destroys both PKR and PAS. A sneaky move but it can still be countered by Anwar and PAS through information disseminated at ceramahs or political lectures although it will take up much of their time and resources.

"UMNO is too much. They have gone beyond rational thinking. Do they want to destroy the country just so that they can continue to stay in power?" Ustaz Idris Ahmad, the PAS Information Chief, told Malaysia Chronicle.

Corruption and the Umno elite, not the Malays

Ustaz Idris is of the view that the country is now on the slippery slope to self-destruction as it appears UMNO is ready to sacrifice the entire country just to retain the federal government. Malaysians would remember Najib's chilling statement last year that UMNO must defend Putrajaya till the very end, even to the extent of lost lives, crushed bodies and ethnic cleansing.

It may seem bizarre and unbelievable at first but when the enormous amounts of corruption running into hundreds of billions of ringgit are considered, it is no longer far-fetched at all. Like gangsters and Ah Longs, the UMNO elite are now in the process of carrying out their threat to protect their turf.

source:Malaysia Chronicle

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