Zakaria Md Deros......death of an Umno warlord

Malaysiatoday
With the death of Zakaria Md Deros @ Zainal Bin Haji Md. Deros, the impoverished rural teenager from Umbai, Malacca, who rose from a railway line crossing-guard at the Port Klang jetty to UMNO strongman, the beginning of the end of an era for feudal UMNO warlords may be at hand.

His death eerily is a frightening coincidence to the just concluded General Elections that saw the Barisan Nasional wiped out in 5 states and few more looking rather shaky.

The funeral was decidedly somber but not as somber as the face of a crestfallen Ahmad Abdullah Badawi who came to pay his respects. Muhammad Taib was of course there to placate him that all would be well. Toyo had apparently paid his respects during the early dark hours at 3 in the morning. The crowd was exceptionally quiet, perhaps indeed shocked although a supporter ventured a muffled “Hidup Pak Lah”

But the scenery was a reflection of UMNO’s divisive policies among its own brethren, the Malays, who deserted them in massive numbers at these elections. The mansion was large, but surrounded by tiny single storey low cost houses, some of which were miniscule. They belonged to the Malay labour working class society that toiled at the ports and railways here in Port Klang. Many had retired, perhaps reflecting on a past lost and a future blurred. The roads to the mansion were hopelessly pot-holed and the drains filled to the brim with a mixture of sewage and pollution from nearby factories and workshops. No, these people under the umbrella of one of UMNO’s strongmen did not live the lives of first world citizens or Singapore. Fifty years of independence has seen to it that even among the Bumiputras there was no equity.

Where has all the money gone? Just 10 km down the road stood the ghostly PKFZ with its deserted hotel resort standing desolately surrounded by the kampongs that once was Pulau Lumut. Just one example where all the money has vanished to. UMNO had fallen for that trap where absolute power corrupts and consumes everyone. Only money and personal gain mattered. That patriotic dream to serve the dispossessed had withered and died sometime after Tunku stepped down. It made itself irrelevant the day it tinkered with its constitution and monkeyed around with money politics and refused to hold fair, open elections in its own party.

As Zak’s body was brought to the foyer, his brother profusely asked for forgiveness for his brother’s wrong doings if any. He was genuinely forlorn and heart-broken that such a tragedy should strike this family who didn’t appear to have the necessary skills to lead Malaysia into a globalised economy in this information age. They appeared stuck hopelessly in time. But one reaps what one sows. And this family that was jettisoned into determining the futures of millions of Malaysians not by the qualifications they had but rather by a twisted corrupt design that has now proved catastrophic to the nation and fatal to UMNO itself. Never again must this nation take this slippery road in determining its future leaders. Race based politics must decidedly come to an unconditional end. Only the capable and competent must lead.

The Zakaria Palace perhaps should not be demolished but made into a permanent museum depicting all the corrupt laden deals that ruling parties made that leeched every Malaysian. It must be a place where every school kid must visit and say, "This House is a testament for everything that was corrupt during the dark days of the BN regime.” Much like Nero’s Pompeii.

As for UMNO itself, Zakaria’s death is comparatively a small loss. But who will carry that money bag now? Interestingly at the funeral M2 was by Badawi’s side all the time. Perhaps a replacement has already been found.