ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN……

Umar Mukhtar

“Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King’s horses and all the King’s men, couldn’t put Humpty together again”

The Prime Minister’s men are being kept busy, running around in circles. Busy with damage control and busy conjuring up means to make the man look regal. But not to address issues they know nothing about.

His elegant silence is now turning into eloquent silence, that speaks words of its own to fill in the gaps. When he does speak, his words sound hollow amidst the many questions asked of him which remain unanswered.

Maybe he has not fallen as a PM just yet but as a leader of men he had definitely faltered. Men with ambitions are now cautious about what they say that can be read as blind loyalty to him. They don’t want to fall with the man. Only those with misguided ambitions rattled continuously over rhetoric of unimaginable stupidity.

Some of The President’s men respect the PM office he still holds and perfunctorily act as team players. Not that they don’t want to defend him – they don’t know enough to do it with full conviction. The questions were fundamental in nature. Even we ordinary folks are beginning to sense that maybe the PM himself doesn’t know enough.

His only terse direct answer in Parliament on 1MDB has now been challenged as an untruth. His silent response is deafening. Men hate to think that their leader may be duped by a young punk that is his family’s partying buddy. They await the confident brush-off from their leader to counter these allegations with solid evidence. There is none.

Good men need more than this to cross turbulent seas, trudge through forbidding jungles, and bristle in the boiling desert sun, to uphold their leader’s standing. But not like this. This only attracts the dumb and the desperate.

The handful of the PM’s men who doggedly defend him rely on denials and pleas for time, in spite of the factual nature of the questions which ordinarily take only a few days to answer. The Auditor General’s report will tell the full story, maybe a year from now. But the Rakyat only need basic answers now.

One president’s man will write in his blog about anything under the sun that is positive about his boss but gloss over what the rakyat want to know, now. He runs down those who are against his boss as if that act has some bearing on the eventual truth. Who cares. Just address the current issues.

Some actually believe everything in the narratives of his defence mouthed by others, but had to eat their words the very next day because they were not told of everything. That can be very embarrassing in Cheras. Some are just flattered that the President needs their help but do not know how to help except scream in support of him.

Some who have to say something in support because of the office they hold, stutter out of character and emphasised truisms as means of sounding positive. They want to genuinely support him perhaps but they don’t know what actually happened. So they mumbled and they mumbled. As if that will put Humpty Dumpty together again.

Sirul’s mother believed in Sirul because he is her son, though she doesn’t know who actually instructed Sirul to do the killing. The President’s men too were not witnesses to the proceedings in 1MDB. They were never a part of 1MDB. Will they be as steadfast like Sirul’s mother?

An easy solution is just to show the money. The truth is they themselves do not know where the money is! Nobody told them anything all along. So how can they really help? At best, their leader was duped like everybody else. At worst, he or his family may have facilitated the breaches themselves. God knows!

But either scenario is not one to die for and accusations will remain just that until the AG’s report is ready a long time from now. We are not accusing anybody of anything but of obstinate silence. But the punk is smelling like his middle name more and more everyday. He talks with the bravado of a man holding a hostage.

Meanwhile, the Rakyat live through this uncertainty with tredipition. With due respect, sir, please spare the Rakyat who are struggling with the GST and high cost of living, the agonising wait of wondering if part of their taxes in future will go to paying for Low Taik Jho’s indulgences.

Show them the money now, sir, or they will show you the door.