WHEN THE POT IS CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK, WE DON’T HAVE TO TAKE SIDES, DO WE?

Umar Mukhtar

Almost everybody I talk to or everything written by them seems to be taking sides. Maybe as Raja Petra Kamarudin said, those who claim they are neutral are probably frauds. To have no partisan opinion on matters of great social import does seem a cowardly way of staying above it all. So I agree with him. But I can still be opinionated but not be on any side.

What if the reason I am not taking sides is because I hate ALL the antagonists? They are all self-serving pigs and they all claim to be on the side of the people even though the masses have not really spoken out about whatever is going on!

And as they argue ad nauseam, it is the people who get neglected – the economy not being well-managed with one side sabotaging it, black and white become grey, racial and religious differences get re-discovered and suddenly become more prominent and more pressing.

And then to think that the antagonists are actually doing alright with their loot and all. The common thing about the antagonists — say, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, Daim Zainuddin, Najib Razak or Abdullah Ahmad Badawi — is that they have billionaire sons. Maybe it is this coincidence that motivates other wannabes. Sometimes I forget that they are doing all these for the sake of the people’s future! (wink, wink). And to think that they don’t really have to!

But they do. Maybe because they can afford to. While the people may dread missing work for a day in the police lock-up, the antagonists in power probably won’t miss a heartbeat when they heard police sirens because the cops aren’t going after them – might is always right. Ask the antagonists who are out of power – they had their time and they are missing it.

Whether the eventual victors will ever remember for whom they were fighting is not a sure thing but what is certain is that if the current state of affairs is prolonged, the people will certainly lose. Eventually the losing antagonists can always negotiate their way out, and the victors will always agree to the terms of surrender to save their own kind, but purportedly for the sake of the people.

Again the people. The people always become their point of justification. And the people believe it, just as when they took sides earlier. It’s a game of thrones that even those who have never been in power are more aroused by the prospects of a chance to taste power out of these confusions than the thankless job of so-called serving the people. You can smell their salivating appetite.

I have great revulsion for the former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir, for all the heinous things which I have concluded that he was responsible for. I detest the current PM Najib Razak for treating me like I am an idiot who would believe stuff even a juvenile would scoff at. I have no respect for the current spineless quarrelsome opposition who wants to join in the fray by highlighting problem after problem but never being specific about the solutions. So am I neutral?

Every one of them wants to short-change me. Some try to appeal to my racial or religious biases. Some appeal to my intellectual discerning abilities. But at 66 years old, I know they themselves mostly don’t subscribe to any of them. Having had all that money, all that is left is for them to show is whose dick is bigger. It’s a power thing. It’s the nature of the beast.

I dread the day when any one of these antagonist wins, as much as I look forward to the day when any one of them fails. If that is being neutral, so be it. But a fraud I am not, just because I refuse to be a part of this endless stupid squabble. I will wait for PRU14 when I know who can be on my side.