From a whore to the queen. UMNO throws money at the British.

Hmmm... I'm not quite sure if the March 8 election defeat shorted out some of the brains of your UMNO-led government. But it seems like UMNO is seeking solace in their former 'tuans' (colonial masters). Rather than sorting out the UMNO leadership crisis, they seem to take comfort in the distraction of throwing money at Britain.

First, they want to give money to a British whore because she's good at kumon and sudoku. Now they want to pay 2 million ringgit! so that 122 soldiers of the Malay regiment can go 'jaga pintu' for the British queen.

London sentry mission under fire
Monday, 07 April 2008 on Malaysiakini

(The Sun) PETALING JAYA (April 7, 2008): The government’s decision to spend about RM2 million to send 122 members of the Royal Malay Regiment (RMR) to serve "London public duties" for two months has come under fire.

“It is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Federation of Consumers Association vice president K. Koris said today. “We should be looking at protecting our country instead of thinking about sending our troops to guard Buckingham Palace,” he told theSun.

“We have more pressing issues here and they could use our army to look at guarding our borders from illegal immigrants instead of spending money to send them to guard Queen Elizabeth.”

“There is no logic at all for them to go over there and waste so much money. This is another example of the government wasting taxpayers’ money, when daily expenditures are rising for the people,” he said.

He was responding to an announcement by Malaysian Armed Forces public relations acting director Kol Fadzlette Othman Merican that the 122-member team will leave on April 16 for a two-month tour of duty at a cost of RM1.9 million to cover the insurance, attire and flight tickets.

The team will be guarding Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace, the Tower of London and also Windsor Castle.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who is also the defence minister, defended the decision to send the team as a recognition for Malaysian soldiers.

He said it was a recognition for the soldiers’ credibility, as the Chief of General Staff of the United Kingdom, Sir Richard Dannat, had been impressed with them during a visit here recently. “He saw our capability, the way our soldiers marched, so he proposed that we be given this honour. I take it as an honour for our Malay Regiment. It is not about guarding the palace but about the recognition. That is important,” he said.

Really? If the Brits were that impressed, they would have paid for the excursion. The fact the you're paying for your own airfare just doesn't send the message that you're all that important in the overall scheme of things. I can't help but draw a parallel to our astrocannot, where we also spent millions for nothing more than some imaginary honour and misplaced pride.