‘turun padang’, main bola?

There will be a close door assembly for 5000 BN leaders tomorrow at Putra World Trace Centre according to MalaysiaKini [1] Muhammad Muhd Taib, UMNO Information Chief was quoted,

… Perdana Menteri dalam menangani isu-isu semasa dan akan turun padang untuk memberi penjelasan kepada setiap pelusuk bahagian parti …

Prime Minister Ahmad Abdullah Badawi has under take some rather unprecedented actions lately. On 19 February 2006, it was reported in The Star “Pak Lah is still the man in charge”[2]. Why is this unprecedented? Well, please name me a número uno of a country in the world who ever had to do such a thing? I thought there was a coup de tat in our homeland, Malaysia.

PM Ahmad Abdullah Badawi also had taken the place of DYMM Yang Di Pertuan Agong as the head of the religion of Islam in the country (Article 3(2) of Federal Constitution) [3]. The PM has taken upon himself to accept the apology of NST for hurting and insulting Muslims and religion of Islam. You may say the PM’s action was un-constitutional (from my biased point of view).

Five days after setting many hearts, pace maker and wallets on fire [4,5,6], the PM is going to ‘turun padang’ (go down the pitch??) to ‘main bola’ (play ball – football presumably) [1]. Really, I think this is a fire fighting, damage control exercise rather then a show of support (‘main bola’) by the 5000 BN leaders over the PMs (if there is any policy) policy decisions. Did the fuel price hike set BN members ablaze as well?

The signs and wonders has been very clear. Pak Lah (the PMs supposed endearing name) is the captain of a ship, who have many mutineers on board. He is also a captain with no idea of how to read navigation charts, or use the sexton, or have no idea where the ship bridge is at all.

The worst bit of all these rudderless, directionless sailing (if ever we are) is, we the rakyat is on board the same ship as the clueless captain; waiting for the freak waves to bring us all down.

Abandon ship anybody?

References

1. 5,000 pemimpin BN hadiri taklimat khas PM esok, MalaysiaKini, 4 March 2006 (PDF)
2. Pak Lah is still the man in charge, The Star, 19 February 2006 (PDF)
3. Federal Constitution of Malaysia
4. Petrol hike: Another 30 sen!, MalaysiaKini
5. Petrol hike sets opposition ablaze, MalaysiaKini
6. Shock-horror over ’sly’ petrol price hike, MalaysiaKini