Thursday, February 19, 2009

Umno's derhaka label

Following the coup d'etat in Perak recently, with many political leaders are voicing their dissatisfaction over Umno's undemocratic act and the way Umno uses its muscles to pressure the sultan to recognise their rebel state government, Umno top leaders hit back all the critics by labelling them as "derhaka" and call nationwide demonstrations in support of the royalty.

What does Umno's "derhaka" means? It was Umno who were the actual "derhaka" as the sultanate in Perak has been pressured to receive appointment of the rebel state government. It was Umno who were actual "derhaka" for going against the people's will and the democratic principles. It was Umno who were the actual "derhaka" who went went against all the above, concurrently went against the state and federal constitutions which enshrines that the will of the people must be respected.

It was during the earlier constitutional crisis too, Umno top leaders initiated a "derhaka" move to have the federal constitution amended in order to strip off the sultan's powers and immunity from prosecution by the court of law in 1993.

Because of the amendment to the federal constitution in 1993, the entire royal institution has became part of the democratic establishment.

So, by all these means, it shows Umno is the first to "derhaka" the royalty, then the federal constitution "derhaka" the royalty in terms of its articles being amended by Umno, and further, the commoners (including critics) now "derhaka" the royal institution which has been placed in an equal democratic platform in 1993 by Umno.

As such, is the word "derhaka" still valid in our today's democratic platform? The answer is Umno did not want to erase the word "derhaka" in 1993 because it wanted to continue using label on its political opponents and they are showing it now, today on us, on the people and on the voters. Umno had labelled the voters as "derhaka".

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