COMMENT A common problem faced by the nation is with the present batch of Umno elites who, together with Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, are sometimes driving us up the wall.

There is nothing but one financial scandal after another, and with each scandal, the quantum increases many-fold.

There is no longer a question of how the government can create value for the people, but how the government can collect more money from the people, either through taxes, raising tolls or all forms of subsidy cuts.

Recently, Najib even had the cheek to say that the country would go bust if not for the goods and services tax (GST). As an ordinary rakyat, I felt insulted - did you not?

The 1MDB black hole

For now, we all know that, despite billions of ringgit from the public coffers having gone into a black hole, no investigation has been ordered to find out how the money had disappeared.

According to The Wall Street Journal and Sarawak Report, some of the money had allegedly ended up in Najib’s personal accounts, although Najib had claimed that the money came from a generous donor from the Middle East.

Not many countries, especially the poorer ones such as Bangladesh, which recently witnessed a terrorist attack, can boast of such a big donation, but Najib has been favoured as the sole recipient of the donations.

The irony is that while the money was given in recognition of his efforts to champion the fight against Islamic State (IS), none of the money was channelled to beef up the intelligence and anti-terrorism units of the Royal Malaysian Police (PRDM).

It took the inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar to identify the attack on the Movida nightclub as “the first ever successful IS attack on Malaysian soil”. In the next one week or so, the foreign embassies will issue a travel advisory to their citizens travelling to this country.

Khalid should now request Najib to take out the money to further strengthen his counter-terrorism unit so that they can respond well to any possible attacks.

Political circus in the midst of IS threats

While the country is under threat from the IS and getting brickbats from the people, our cabinet ministers are busy politicising Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s purchase of his bungalow allegedly at below market price.

As for the recent statement by the mufti of Pahang Abdul Rahman Osman that DAP is ‘kafir harbi’, we hear the defence given by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) - which caused my jaw to drop. In the first place, how did Abdul Rahman arrive at the conclusion that only DAP, and not MCA, Gerakan or MIC, are kafir habir because they, too, resisted hudud?

I agree with a number of other analysts that Abdul Rahman, and the PMO, have already swung open the door for the IS attack in this country. We have yet to hear from the IGP about the Andalas fire incident in Klang.

Our cabinet ministers are too prone these days to come out with policies that are both bizarre and egocentric, to say the least, showing that they are powerful and that federal agencies are at their command.

Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, for example, received brickbats from the public when he tried to clean up the streets of Kuala Lumpur of its street people.

Now, he is coming out with his two-hour parking policy which is not only applied to the central business district (CBD) but at selected places like Bangsar and Kepong. In my opinion, the same should be applied to Putrajaya where he is the MP.

Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng should not even have made any comment about such stupidity, but let the people judge the FT minister for his latest attempt in implementing his policy. I am sure that there will be a lot of swearing and cursing of Tengku Adnan when cars are being towed away. So, Lim, let it be! Let the people deal with him directly.

Stand united

For now, my suggestion is for all of us to stand united in the coming general election.

For once, let us show Umno that it can no longer be arrogant. Instead, Umno should be accountable to the people.

It is about time that the federal opposition (comprising PKR, DAP and Amanah), the East Malaysian opposition parties, Umno rebels, members of civil society as well as certain factions within PAS which hold dearly to the teaching of the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat close ranks and vote for anyone representing the opposition in the 14th general election.

At this juncture, Pakatan Harapan should start leading talks to discuss how best to tackle the seat allocations, and how even people like Muhyiddin Yassin, Mukhriz Mahathir and Shafie Apdal, not forgetting two other warriors like Khairuddin Abu Bakar and Anina Saadudin, can share power once Putrajaya is won.

In my opinion, the Umno rebels would do better if they do not start their own political parties. They will become another Semangat 46 without the support of Pakatan Harapan. Egos aside, they would be better off just lending their support to the existing parties which will be contesting.

Three-cornered fights will not benefit anyone. If Hadi Awang and the PAS ulama faction want to be a vote spoiler, they had better think twice. Amanah, too, can spoil their chances to retain Kelantan state as it is no longer under the capable leadership of the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

Like it or not, GE14 will be a do-or-die situation.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.