Love conquers all. When fuel price rises, still the wheel has to spin to watch the apples of any men eye smile, giggles and shine.
There is in fact some ritual involved before a boy meets a girl during the regular basis dating. To turn this regular into something special, most boys had gone to certain extent to make the best memories out of it. I had friends that do hair treatment at studios morning before the evening meet up. I wash my car before having a special occasion, got the shirt ironed out when ironing would be next-to-never after getting out of the washer, trimming moustache when I intend to keep it like A.Samad Said length, researching for conversation subjects (because I rarely talks third party), checking out Google Maps to pick her up, checking food blogs (because franchise is boring) and the list can go on further.Yes, we also emphasize on filling up a considerable amount of fuel so that we can have a meaningful conversation while the air conditioner is providing constant supply of cold breeze, giving us extra confidence if we do stumbled upon unwanted traffic jams. We never want a worst case scenario of calling up friends to load a few bucks of petrol to get our stalled vehicle moving in a middle of dusty and noisy KL traffic jams. Not forgetting the watching eyes of massive traffic jams. Extra worst, if we had to pay the taxi fare so that the girlfriend can make home safely.
Money isn’t a thing for lovers who live on a shoestring. Although times are not that good, with prices of everyday things driving us mad, there is no stopping for couples to get along together as many times as possible. I recently read some articles regarding low-cost dating that includes visiting public parks, dropping by pet stalls/SPCA and playing husband-wife looking for house in housing estates. Things that kept the sparkle lit.
Shift for a moment
With UMNO’s General Assembly coming close, we will once again witness massive amount of politician taking the stage and deliver their fiery and punchy speech regarding perjuangan. Some delivers witty and humorous talk about their thoughts leaving the perwakilan in stitches. We’ll see charismatic overseas student of foreign UMNO clubs coming down and sharing their views. I hope Tun Dr.Mahathir would deliver a piece of his mind especially in hard times like this. The fledging spirit of UMNO veterans who never lose faith brazing the thin or thick and finally (and thankfully) the young Puteri’s with their pink cheek and joyful smile in their neat baju kurungs.
The General Assembly is the moment which could become UMNO testing ground. Screaming setia! (faithful) bersatu! (united) and sedia berkorban! (ready to sacrifice) make no sense if its not tested. Like a Bangladeshis seller along Petaling Street who would go to the extent of momentarily burning their leather-based merchandise to authenticate its quality and durability, UMNO members too had to do this. Of course, when I suggest we should test UMNO members, it does not have to be burning them alive to see if they would die for UMNO, that would be counter-productive and silly.
The Assembly, like previously done, will be held at Putra World Trade center on 13th October till 16. All the invited perwakilan shall in some way or another bare all the costs of travelling down to the hall. There should not be any huluran (allowance) from any branch towards their member who wish to attend the assembly. When love conquers all, money isn’t a thing. When money isn’t a thing, Perwakilans from Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang would hurdle along the East Coast Highway to Karak highway to Genting and finally Gombak down to KL with their own money. Perwakilan from Kedah, Perlis and Perak would straddle for hours along PLUS highway bearing the cost with their hard earned money. Johorean, Malaccan and Negeris perwakilans would ride up north with every drop of fuel bore from their pocket money. Not forgetting, Sabah and Sarawakians UMNOs would fly in full heartedly with not a single cent comes from any sort of huluran.
If perwakilans felt this is too expensive for them to bare, they could pool their resources and rent a bus. Let them travel in one bus or vans where they can cement their relationship and reduce travelling costs. In Malay words ‘mengeratkan silaturahim’. The bus would not have to have UMNO emblem outside, it can be a rented bas kilang or bas persiaran.
Accomodation wise, party members of any ranks cannot be allocated/reserved with plenty-of-stars hotels scattered around KL. They can instead opt to stay at relatives houses to again mengeratkan silaturahim. Eventhough that particular member of relative is not actively involved in politics, it’s the best time to approach the rakyat. Brushing up the mesra rakyat skills which every UMNO members should have. Have breakfast with them, prayers with them instead breakfast in hotels which is all about glamour and class.
Even if PWTC can accommodate all perwakilan in its grand dining hall, save that catering money for better streamers for PRU-13 and let them eat at stalls around KL. Did UMNO know that if Kuala Lumpur weren’t a federal territory, Kuala Lumpur would have a DAP chief minister. Let the thousand perwakilans scattered around KL, thriving business for foodstalls, meeting new people and personally explain that UMNO is a party with a strong stance that never ever involved in any elaborate ploy to commit systematic genocide on other races living in Malaysia. That is just pure paranoia.
If UMNO starts to implement this, where no allowance money/huluran is given (directly or indirectly) we’ll see how many of the perwakilan becomes reluctant and lazy to come by. We will witness how attendees could significantly reduced and come to an inconvenient truth that UMNO is a party greased up by money and not love for the bangsa. They would prefer to come by in their big SUVs discussing with their cronies on what project to scoop if they had chance to meet Najib or Muhyiddin or the three vices.They would like to stay in big hotels near shopping complexes where their sons and daughters can go scoop some expensive item from contract money. This all could be the harmful thing that runs through UMNO perwakilan when comes to General Assembly and perhaps, this is wrong!
The high ranking UMNOs would be filthy rich by now and would be minimally affected if they were such actions. They still can afford Ritz Carlton with all the fancy optional of valet parking and fresh roses delivered at the doorstep every morning. But what these politicians would think when they were barely anyone in the hall as they speak? By now they should realize and differentiate the meaning of true and fake patrons of UMNO.
Do we need to be constantly reminded about the posters and newspapers that were printed before merdeka was bore out from our forefathers money? In times where the best job a Malay could attain at the time was government officers or teachers? How about them who travelled by walking and cycling to attend protests in tens of thousand in Alor Star and Kota Bharu? These are the spirits of true lovers where money isn’t a thing.
Sadly, this kind of activism is mostly shown by the opposing party members – surprisingly supporters too. We saw them bravely protesting on the streets, admitted to Kamunting and making statutory testimonials against big figures, making their small presence noticeable although for them this means a lot of trouble. So, why UMNO with huge amount of followers are seen quiet and inexperience in handling this kind of situation? Seriously, does missing huluran spells trouble?
For those who never expect/gets huluran and did make it into the dewan from start till finish, god bless you.
