YOURSAY ‘The people are beginning to open their eyes. Has Umno opened its eyes?’

Where have we gone wrong, asks Najib

Iiiizzzziiii: It is always a good sign when a political leader, Premier Najib Abdul Razak, has the courage to ask questions about the shortcomings being faced by his political party.

The next step should be to address these shortcomings by formulating policies and strategies to resolve the ills all around.

Perhaps it may be a case of doing too little, too late at the wrong time. It would take a miracle to turn things around because after more than 50 years, the rot has already crystallised and hardened to the core.

The warlords in the party will never ever give up their position to younger generation because that is the way it is. So, what kind of reform do you expect?

The social re-engineering policy that was initiated so many years ago is beginning to bear fruit, but not in the manner its leaders expected. Well, they will have to take it with a pinch of salt and perhaps with some durian.

Appum : After Umno ruling exclusively for 57 years, you can still ask this question? Obviously you and Umno Baru know everything is wrong with our country.

But do you all care seriously and sincerely? Or easily blaming others for the wrongs in this country?

If you are a caring and capable PM, such a question should not arise. If you need answers, you can very well read the selected comments here and you will get the picture where we have gone wrong.

The more critical question is: Is Umno-BN concerned enough to correct the wrongs?

Do you as the leader of a nation, dare to be a righteous leader and act to remedy these wrongs for the good of the nation and for all Malaysians? I mean all Malaysians of all colours, creed and religion.

If only you are brave and determined enough to correct the situation and not pander to extremists and the Umno club only.

Do not pretend you are ignorant of what is wrong with this country and what went wrong.

Fairnsquare: The PM has hit the nail on the head. While he inherited most of the problems, this greed exists not only in Umno but in BN itself, including MCA and MIC. The question is, can we and are we going to correct it. If so, how?

The warlords want to protect their loot and will resort to racism, religious bigotry and whatever it takes. The people are beginning to open their eyes. Has Umno opened its eyes?

Open minded : Najib, there is a very simple answer for it. Look at our immediate neighbour Indonesia - today, there is a Christian governor of Jakarta.

Therefore, they have progressed from a rural thinking nation to one that spells growth and development for all. We were ahead of them for many years but that was a long time ago.

However, today, we have grossly regressed to one group that plays on make-believe threats and more threats to a particular race and religion, when the others just want to carry on with their lives in peaceful coexistence and earn a decent living and have no time to look into trivialities.

Progress is not solely dependent on great infrastructure. National unity of all races is paramount to a country's growth and must be practised.

Senior: The answer? Just think and go down to the grassroots. Perhaps this saying will help. “Give a man a fish and he will not be hungry for today. Teach him to fish and he will not be hungry again."

You give out too much fish to Umno Baru, whilst the real Malays remain poor.

Fair Play: Good question - where have we gone wrong. Now a better one - Where has Umno been leading the nation?

Once known as one of the tigers of the Asian economy, we now trail behind South Korea and Singapore by at least 19 years in productivity measurements, according to recent reports on the state of the economy in the nation.

Bamboo: All decisions made are on how to entrench Umno's power, not what's beneficial to the country or the people. When having power, Umno can hitch onto the gravy train. More and more Malaysians are seeing this, thus Umno is losing support every minute.

Man on the Street: All the other communities work very hard to make a living but the Umno community lives on handouts. They need fish to be given at all the time even after fifty years of ruling. So, Umno's glamorous achievement is that it is only good in sustaining and giving out handouts to the Umno community rather than teaching them how to fish.

Hplooi: Umno politicians monopolising hand-outs (from taxpayers funds) is itself self-destructing. But what is even more destructive to the whole nation is the wholesale plunder of the nation's resources by Umno insiders.

Such plunder include appropriation of land, institution of national monopolies without clear benefit to the nation, appropriation of natural resources and mismanagement of financial resources. I can go on in the same vein.

Farhan: What is wrong if Najib wants to talk about Umno and issues affecting Umno? It is not going to cause trouble to others. Najib will speak out on issues to push forward the Malay agenda and correct lackadaisical Umno leaders. Even then, Umno members are mature enough to handle such matters.

Doc: Well, here are some obvious reasons for the general disgust towards Umno.

1. More and more emphasis on Umno's racist agenda. More anti-Chinese rhetoric these days. To be more efficient, Umno has outsourced racism to Perkasa, Jati etc. This is not popular with progressive Malays and the non-Malay community.

2. Too much emphasis on "stupidity" - Umno leaders that are stupid or exhibit public displays of pure stupidity, but are exhorted by party members.

3. Clueless leadership - PM has certainly no idea how to run the economy and is driving it into the ground.

4. Escalating cost of living for the rakyat and Umno is not bothered to address it.

5. Umno's anti-opposition phobia. This has led to Umno’s persecution of the opposition thus enraging the rakyat.

6. General hatred of the public for Rosmah.

7. Missing in action- the jet-setting PM.

8. Umno's insatiable love for corruption.

9. Cronyism.

10. Umno's Islamisation measures not sitting well with forward thinking Malays and non-Malays.

11. Umno's disregard for east Malaysians.

Wira: Where have we gone wrong? Try asking the Romans. What was Emperor Nero doing when Rome was burning?

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