Fate is irrelevant when it comes to politics, Rosmah

The last time someone said it was his fate to lead a country, Adolf Hitler’s vision of a 1,000-year reich only lasted 6 years. Similarly in WW2 Japan, hardcore nationalists proclaimed that it was Japan’s fate to lead the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere by “liberating” countries under colonial rule. I’m sure everyone knows what happened in the end.

By saying that she is fated to become Malaysia’s first lady (quite an erroneous term, as pointed out in this article), she implies that Najib is equally fated to lead Malaysia. Now fate is something that lingers through each and every time you rise through the ranks or fall like a brick. It also follows you around from the moment you were born until you die. Even in the afterlife, fate might interfere with your burial plot! So if someone like Rosmah would make such a claim, I have to say that she is highly mistaken.

Instead of affixing leadership through an abstract concept such as fate, if we say that we practice leadership through example, most of our future leaders would be corrupted Machiavellians who are incapable and unwilling to listen to the views of the rakyat.

At least when Mahathir lied, he did it rather convincingly unlike our current crop of UMNO leaders. As far as I know, UMNO has been fumbling publically in everything from the setting of the 12th General Elections to the fuel price increase several months later right until the illegitimate takeover of the Perak state government. Simply put, the words “truth”, “transparency” and “honesty” are not in UMNO’s vocabulary. It’s no wonder that the perception that UMNO can do nothing right is starting to harden into concrete.

It is hard for me to gauge when was the last time BN was honest to the public, perhaps during the time when it was known as the Alliance Party? Anyways, it’s evident that Mahathir hates Abdullah and everything UMNO much more than the opposition, and I believe that his predictions of BN’s death kneel is starting to look like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Most likely UMNO delegates will be unable to wean themselves out of practicing “money politics” despite repeated warnings. Forget about the MACC, only the electorate has the power to make them kick the habit by voting corrupted politicians out of office. It’s a pity that we have to wait every four or five years in order to exercise our right.

Meanwhile, we have 3 by-elections to contend with. As usual, news reports from the mainstream media will shower love and affection for the BN candidates as election day approaches, since they’re mostly preoccupied with UMNO’s party elections at the moment. Pride and inflated egos get in the way of rational thinking, and they’ll usually end up saying something in the lines of “we are confident that the people will vote for us” despite facing an angry and disgruntled electorate. Illogical thinking at its finest moment, am I right?

So Rosmah, it’s best not to count the chickens before they hatch. Governments are given a mandate to lead the country by the electorate, and not fate or destiny as prescribed from your personal Feng Shui master or Guruji or whoever that analyses your daily horoscope. Sure your husband might end up being Malaysia’s next Prime Minister, but the question is how long can he remain as one? As long as Mahathir or Abdullah? Now that’s for fate to decide, not you.