COMMENT BY YB PROFESSOR DR P.RAMASAMY, DEPUTY CHIEF MINISTER II, PENANG
Indians have the pride and dignity to reject irresponsible and self-serving politicians
Both the present deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and his side-kick newly appointed special officer for Indian affairs, Ramesh Rao have squarely placed the blame on the former prime minister Mahathir Mohammed for hating the present prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Zahid said that it was Mahathir who was responsible for the sowing the seeds of hatred towards the DAP and by extension those parties that had fraternal ties with the party.
Ramesh the infamous pro-BN supporter who spewed venom against Anwar to the extent of calling him an agent of the Japanese secret society, the Yakutzah.
Some years back he remarked that Anwar influenced the Yakutzah by preventing Japanese foreign investments from coming to Malaysia.
Not only this, Ramesh lodged police reports and called press conferences against those who went against the Umno leadership principally the former prime minister Najib Razak who is currently incarcerated in prison for corruption.
However, things have miraculously took a different turn after the formation of the unity government with BN as one of the coalitions in the government.
All of sudden, Anwar has been become the most cherished darling of those in BN particularly for Umno leaders like Zahid and his stooge Ramesh.
It is not I am discounting the close ties between Zahid and Anwar long before the establishment of the unity government. I don’t think that the BN particularly Umno would have supported Anwar without the earlier friendship with Zahid.
Notwithstanding the ties between Anwar and Zahid, what is not acceptable is the attempt to cast the entire blame on Mahathir.
Mahathir might have been the chief architect of the rot but surely Zahid and others including his sidekick Ramesh cannot unilaterally hold Mahathir as the person who was responsible for spewing the hatred against Anwar and the DAP.
Mahathir was able to do the nasty things because leaders like Zahid and others went along with him to save their skins.
In fact, they should have said no to Mahathir to mitigate the worst effects of the political rot.
With Mahathir out of the realm of power, Zahid or his side-kick cannot turn around to criticise Mahathir or say that followed the latter blindly. They must shoulder the blame; in other words, they were also responsible for the slow rot of the system.
It is good that Umno has embraced the concept of the unity government, the only option for the party to remain relevant without being swallowed by the green wave unleashed by Bersatu and PAS.
Zahid’s infamous side-kick or stooge Ramesh had a sudden charge of heart even to the extent of calling Anwar “God Sent”.
I don’t think he independently made this about turn decision, but the order must have come from the above.
Anwar must a lucky man from being suddenly elevated from his close ties with the Japanese secret society to position near to God.
This itself shows how infamously Ramesh is unfit to shoulder the responsibility of taking charge of Indian affairs.
He eve failed the litmus test when he was posed the question as how he was going to represent the Indian community. He remarked that he wanted to ensure that Indians are transformed as professionals like in other countries.
But Ramesh, the special officer, does not realise that he cannot transform Indians as professionals without addressing the question of institutional racism, discrimination of them in the public service, lack of educational and economic opportunities and most importantly their present predicament as third or fourth class citizens of the country.
The Indian community might be economically poor and politically disadvantaged, but they have the dignity and pride to reject self-serving and irresponsible politicians.
