The Man With His Foot In His Mouth

Multatuli says, “If a man keeps silent people will think he is a fool, but when he opens his mouth, they know he is.” This aptly describes Ahmad Faizal Azumu.

Ahmad Faizal said, “Perak has no customary land (tanah adat) for any ethnic group . . . “ and he goes on to say “. . . what if suddenly Mandaling Malays ask for the government to provide for customary land . . . “

There are several issues here.

1. Customary Land as described in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which Malaysia is signatory to, says ‘Customary Land’ is a right of indigenous peoples everywhere.

2. A judgement in 2015 at the Ipoh High Court ruled that the Orang Asli Semai of Kg. Senta in Bidor had rights to their ‘tanah adat’. This judgement follows precedents set earlier in KL.

3. His reference to “Mandaling Malays” is a most curious one.  Firstly, Mandalings are Mandalings, just as Bugis or Minangs or Achenese are all different peoples ethnically. They are not Malays.  Malays are from Rhiau or Deli (and they are really a very small minority is Indonesia). So much for accuracy. But that is a moot point; what matters is that they are not indigenous to this country – in other words they are not ‘asli’ to this land. So there is actually no basis for making ‘tanah adat’ claims as per the UNDRIP.

But even so, the State has provision for “Malay Reserve” land which cannot be alienated to non-Malays. So if there can be “Malay Reserves” why not “Asli Reserves”?

An ungrateful fool and a buffoon

This man is not only a fool, he is an ungrateful fool. The very Aslis who made him an Adun get kicked in the gonads for their trouble. Does Ahmad Faizal not realise that he has a majority of only 39 votes in GE14?

Anyone with an iota of common sense would try to build on this slender margin by working for the people who put him there. And anyone with a speck of gratitude would try to return the favour.

Ahmad Faizal has no common sense nor has he any decency.

I always try to play the ball and not the man, but in this case I am at the end of my tether with this buffoon. And I suspect so has Perak.

He gives land to footballers (undeservedly) for doing what they are paid handsomely to do and yet he will not give land to small farmers and now to the poor “original peoples” of this land.

Lack of vision

Now to move on to something else our MB is doing:

He wants to get some experts from Japan to study how we can make senior citizens more economically productive – ie to continue working. According to statistics 14.9% of Perakians are old fogeys.

That’s very commendable . . . but hold on, how did Perak become the ‘ Land of the Long Tooth’?

Firstly, our young have migrated to Singapore, the Klang Valley, and Penang in search of jobs.

Why? Because there are no jobs to be had in Perak. Why? Because the way the State Government is handling the economy does not create jobs. It does not attract investments (except for quarry operators and loggers who get our resources cheaply while destroying the environment).

It has no idea what it is doing, of how to position our state to maximise its natural advantages of which we have many.

Tell us how much FDI has the state government attracted compared to Penang or the Klang Valley or Johor? It’s embarassing to even ask the question because we know the answer.

And when the opportunity came to appoint a Datuk Bandar (mayor) who has vision and imagination and business experience to inject new mojo into the capital; what do the State Government do? They appoint another pen-pusher.

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room: It would seem like decisions like that are made on racial grounds – I hate to say this, but that is what most people are thinking.

Frankly I don’t care if the Mayor is black or brown or yellow, as long as he can do a good job and that must include making Ipoh attractive for investors and new ‘migrants’ to settle in the state. We must create jobs for our young as a priority but instead Azumu wants to create jobs for those with one foot in the grave (no disrespect to our senior citizens).

The “Pelawak Agung” in a Dewan Negeri of fools

Ahmad Faizal is the “Pelawak Agung” in a Dewan Negeri of fools but the others are just as responsible for the sad state of affairs in Perak.

On the other hand maybe his Ex-Co colleagues are giving him enough rope to hang himself.

Just a thought lah, don’t panic yet Ahmad.

But if that delicious thought has crossed their mind they’d better not wait too long, Perakians are coming to the stage where they can’t wait for GE-15.

Enough of this ‘Foot-in-the Mouth’ MB.