The BMW 521 is hell of a good car but don't worry, this is not another auto review, although I must say my article on the Suprima S was as fun as driving the car: that posting shot straight to the top of my blog's most-read articles of the month!
The 5-2-1 of this posting refers to the numbers assigned to my preferred three UMNO vice president candidates, namely:
No 5: Mukhriz Mahathir
No 2: Hishammuddin Hussein
No 1: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi
Not necessarily in that order.
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| Umno's twin towers |
Zahid and Hisham have performed well as incumbent VPs and in their Cabinet portfolios, controversial (at times) but without scandal (the third incumbent is Shafie Apdal). The two are our twin towers of strength, backing our men in green and blue in defeating an armed foreign invasion, without civilian casualty!
For Zahid, especially, the Oct 19 Umno election should be a walk in the park. As Home Minister, he's helped many Malaysians sleep easier with his combative style of dealing with the crooks (and their crooked sympathizers). "Where are the human rights for the police, and victims of robbery, shootings and murder?" he says. His detractors see such statements as unwarranted and controversial; fans think of it as the aura about the man.
Hisham, on the other hand, has become a favorite punching bag of a lot of people, bloggers included. But that's what right hand men are supposed to be: they take the bullet for the Boss. He's perceived as weak by some but Hisham is tried and tested: he stood behind Dr M when Pemuda shook to the very core after Anwar Ibrahim's sacking; Abdullah Badawi left him to fend for himself over the "keris" controversy but Hisham's still standing.
In the run-up to the March 2008 elections, when very few in Umno wished to be seen with me (and vice versa), I openly pinned my hopes on Mukhriz Mahathir:
Najib's Future Running Mate? (Singapore mypaper, March 4, 2008). He won in Jerlun that year in a tough general election that saw Kedah fall to Pakatan Rakyat. In the last PRU, he helped Najib Razak wrest back the state. He's come a long way, this dude.
If Malaysians are voting on Oct 19, I am sure Zahid, Hisham and Mukhriz will be favourites. Ali Rustam, Isa Samad and Shafie Apdal are the other three candidates vying for the VP posts.
Read also Understanding Hisham by Bujai
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Hah campaigning for that indian are you? With his hated father in the background, UMNO wont be lacking in maki memaki..i foresee..hehe
ReplyDeleteIt will be so easy to resurrect the man from Kerala who enriched the chinese and his sons including Mukriz.
Mukriz is not anti Chinese. He love chinese as UMNO website during Pak Lah time exposed him as being directors of 90 chinese companies. The cry of corrupt will resonate UMNO management. Is that what we want?
Rocky you really dont know hisham. we hv seen him since he became active in umno. we were in pemuda when you said he supposedly stood firm with party presiden tun dr mahathir. its not quite true pak lah left him to dry. thru all these incidents, hisham has been playing poltics and playing safe. but you do not know what actually transpired and how and hisham didnt side with anwar. i tell he's not worthy of the higest positions in the land.
ReplyDeleteMight as well vote azeeez rempit VP as well? he also claims to be doing a lot of things on behalf of the boss. and even for the boss's wife. this is how these people intimidate others la rocky. they sell the boss' name left, right and centre. even the current round of umno elections, hisham has been trying to manipulate the candidates allegedly on grounds of the party president's wishes.
ReplyDeleteRocky Hisham maybe the punchingbag of some bloggers but remember the sentiments against him is very prevalent among umno grassroots members. in this regard you are misrepresenting the situation vis-a-vis hisham. you are spinning to portray hisham as having done a good job during the lahad datu incident? did you know that the boys in blue lost confidence in him especially bcoz of that exact episode? after the two vat69 officers were shot to death the officers in bkt aman were so angry at hisham that it would not hv been impossibel if he were to be abused had he stepped foot at bkt aman then. didnt the incident also reveal his utter incompetence? you conveniently forgot his infamous statement that action wasnt taken bcoz the sulu intruders were not terrorists but had relatives in lahad datu? to list down hisham's shortcomings will require much more specae. let just conclude that you doing the country, umno and the malays a great disservice by promoting hisham.
ReplyDeleteRocky you were not in the thick of things when you said hisham stood by dr mahathir after anwar's sacking. so i will forgive you for misrepresenting hisham's role. i hv it on good authority that hisham played safe and stayed neutral. furthermore, he saw it as his opportunity to take over zahid's position as head of umno youth. why, we were told that until the afternoon prior to anwar's sacking, hisham was still at anwar's office hugging and crying with azmin, saying we will sink & swim together". for the most part, he just stood by and did nothing much when pemuda was in turmoil. the majority of the umno youth exco were actually involved in anwar's abortive plan to unseat the party president. only a handful openly defended dr mahathir: zein isma, fatah abdullah, azizan yaakob (allahyarham), zulkifli alwi, azim zabidi. these small group managed to persuade their colleagues to return to the fold. at one point, hisham was challenged by this group to openly declare wether he was supporting the party president or otherwise. only when he saw more of the umno youth excos were abandoning anwar only then did he declare support for dr mahathir. otherwise he was just playing safe, true to his character until today.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comments.
ReplyDeletePlaying safe seems to be the culture of these breeds.
My vote will not go to Hisham and would not buy-in to Rocky's.
I'm an Indian so I'd naturally support my brother from another mother, Mukhriz :-)
ReplyDeleteBy the way Bru , I think everyone in the country was flabbergasted by the lahad datu handling by Hisham. Remember his remark about the intruders being orang tua with guns.?
Yes, no civilian casualty but how about the men in uniform who died in sad ways.? With a firm decisiveness from the early stage we would have won the battle with ZERO casualties.
Dato',
ReplyDeleteI guess everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion and I can't say I agree with you on your opinion of D Hisham. Too much of playing it safe, not wanting to rock the boat, wanting to be popular with all sides remind me painfully of Pak Lah's style of administration where racism reared its wicked head.
Even when he was the Min of Education, he couldn't even make the decision on PPSMI . Delaying the decision until Education was placed under TPM.
Yes , the right hand man becomes the punching bag. BUT be the punching bag because he does something and not become the punching bag because he does nothing!
We can't afford a Menteri Amaran , as he is so lovingly referred as, to head UMNO one day. I shudder at the thought. My children's and their children's future are at stake.
based on these comments, its quite clear ministers are ministers because of their ability (or lack thereof) to carry and polish the testicles of the boss
ReplyDeleteRocky if you say hisham performed as home minister, jusk answer this pls: why did pm acknowledged security & crime was a public issue in ge13? why is it that zahid almost immediately can increase the confidence of the public after he took over the ministry frm hisham? why hisham's tenure made us more worried with his management of security & crime?
ReplyDeleteRock,
ReplyDeleteThese anti-Hisham guys are, actually, pro-KJ.
Let me explain.
The son of Hussein Onn became a target practice for everyone ever since the kris issue. The Chinese extremists saw it as an opportunity to attack not only a Malay symbol but UMNO's. The kris, after all, is right there on UMNO's flag.
Pak Lah should have defended the kris-wielding Hisham. But he didn't. In fact, he told Hisham to apologize, or else ... Why? It was a once-in-a-lifetiem opportunity to promote Khairy Jamaluddin. Remember, the plan was to make the son-in-law Prime Minister by the time he was 40.
Hisham has always been KJ's biggest obstacle. We in Pemuda back then knew very well KJ's plans to undermine Hisham whenever the opportunity arose.
If Hisham and Mukhriz both win next week, that will be two big boulders for the son-in-law. Imagine if both lose and the VP line up is Ahmad Zahid, Isa samad and Ali Rustam. Imagine how good that will make si KJ look!
The forests for the trees.
All the VPs are not acceptable to the majority of the for various reasons. Luckily we have the blogs.
ReplyDeleteHisham have been too long in the spoon feeding loop of UMNO to be of much use.
But he is better than Mukriz becos bloggers can punch his face and bent his soft spine into shape rahter than Mukhriz with hsi dubisou background from the start.
Some one must lead. All are not perfect. Its our job to make sure they follow the narrow path.