Last Updated: 1:27pm, Dec 06, 2013

CALL it a red herring or whatever.

The "40k Bangladeshis flown into Malaysia to vote" allegation continues to haunt Pakatan Rakyat, in particular its leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

It's crystal clear that Datuk Seri Najib Razak is enjoying every minute of it and has no plans to ease off from using the allegation as a weapon to fire at  Anwar.

Najib brought it up again during his Umno presidential speech at the party general assembly. Not only verbally but visually. Beaming video clippings onto the screens at PWTC of Anwar's remarks on the Bangladeshi issue for all to hear and see . To "drive the message that the opposition is fond of telling lies".

Obviously Najib is milking the issue dry. He's out to dismiss doubts if any of Umno/BN's election victory. Most importantly, he's bent on scoring political points.

Can't blame him. The name of the game is to win. To be one up against your opponent. Get the political mileage. That's what politicians do.

The seasoned politician that he is, Najib also "exploited" another issue – Jelutong MP Jeff Ooi's "kucing kurap" remarks about the officers of the Penang Island Municipal Council.

Never mind that Ooi has apologised (albeit reluctantly). Never mind that Ooi was also referring to the council staff and not all civil servants.

To Najib, the DAP man had "menghina" civil servants. But by saying the DAP (predominantly Chinese ) had insulted (all?) civil servants (predominelty Malay), Najib is seen playing the race card.

But then that's what Umno politicians do. At the Umno assembly especially. In front of their own Malay crowd, they play to the gallery.

Najib's words, as the president, sets the tone of the assembly.

Almost immediately we hear of call to replace the 1Malaysia slogan with
1Melayu. Why? Because to Datuk Musa Sheikh Fadzir, a delegate from Penang, "the Chinese had back-stabbed us although we helped them."

He was referring to the voting during the May 5 general election.

We also hear "don't worry if people call us racists because we are protecting our rights. Do not prevent us from defending our race", said, or rather shouted, Umno youth's Fathul Bari, an ustaz at that. To cheers and applause from fellow delegates and party members.

Then, there's "no apology if people say Umno members are wealthy'. Oh. That  was at the Youth assembly, a day earlier.

Back to the Umno assembly proper .There are other remarks, calls and what not on "Malayness". Of course.

And to "wash it all down" was the free screening of "Tanda Putera " at PWTC later in the evening. No elaboration needed as to what the movie is all about.

The "Malay agenda " as always, is the tone of Umno assemblies. No surprise. So  why should this one be an exception?

Hence, Najib spelt out at length ongoing efforts and programmes to help the  Malays and Bumiputeras - pledging to carry on empowering them  "as long as there is the moon and the stars and life in the body ".

That prompted former Umno leader Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to tweet instantly - asking, "Why every year for the past 40 years we hear chants of to take care and defend  the Malays but without success? Why this is not debated in the assembly?".

Anyway, despite the bravado, Najib appeared to be trying extra hard to justify  removing the sugar subsidy, the GST, the power tariff  increase, as  well as to sort of "rejuvenate" or lift the morale of Umno members by outlining again his party transformation plan including having KPIs for Umno office bearers.

And he saved "the best" for the last. Ending his speech by asking Malays "where  would you be without Umno"?

Expectedly Umno leaders and members alike hailed the president's  speech as the way forward, calling it "thought-provoking", "a wake-up call", among other things. After all, the president's speech was entitled "Charting The Future".

But one Umno man had a different take. Requesting he not be named, the Umno insider who was one of the strategists for the party during GE 13 had this to say:

"To me the speech wasn't impressive. Biasa biasa saja. Najib seemed to be struggling to get the Umno buy in on GST and fiscal policies. But we must understand GST impacts the whole rakyat. Buy in from 3.3 million Umno  members do not represent the rakyat.

"I wonder how many of those who clapped durng the speech understood the burden they will shoulder.

"As for KPI for politicians, it's not new. Najib had mentioned this years back. Did it work? Zero. Implementation? Out," he added.

"Still, overall Najib's speech was better than Muhyiddin's which lacked focus, was full of  rhetoric and even sounded cheap,"  the Umno insider said, referring to Umno deputy president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin's speech when opening the Youth, Wanita and Puteri assemblies on Tuesday.

Little wonder the Umno man asked not to be identified.

Mohsin Abdullah is a specialist writer at fz.com. He likes rojak. And nasi campur. And durians. Perhaps that’s why he writes about this, that and everything else. Pretty much rojak and nasi campur. As for his writings, well, they can be like durians. Aromatic and delicious to some people, smelly and off-putting to others.

For more stories, go to www.fz.com, the website for freedom of expression and fairness in articulation.