Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
| Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:23 PM PDT By LH Chew Sometimes it makes me wonder if we really have the guts to take the first step to make the change. We like to lament how bad things are, how the government took us for a ride, how innocent people who simply wants to see reforms were 'terrorised', the corruption, the money leakage, and all sorts of ills, yet we still want to stick with BN election after election. Yes, BN had ruled for more than 50 years, and we have been eating the same set of dishes for that long, should we not have a different taste now? Previously, I wrote in my article 'A New Dawn In Malaysia, Hopefully' which was published in Malaysia Today last December and I mentioned if we voted an alternative government into place and they do not perform as what the rakyat expected, we can always kick them out in the next election. But if we do not even try, will you see any changes? If there is no change, there is no change. Sure, changes come with risks, as it has been proven in many other countries when they changed the government, but if we do not take risks, do you expect your life is going to improve? There is no such thing as a free lunch and we know that. Take Taiwan for example. It was ruled by KMT for more than 50 years and the people voted for a change in government in 2000. Unfortunately what they got was a miserable 8 years under the rule of the new government. The new government became even more corrupt and they abused their power more than the previous government. But the civil service did improve and the civil servants for once really became a 'servant' to the people, they became more polite and humble. After experimenting with an alternative government, Taiwan decided to vote back KMT because during those 8 years in the wilderness, the KMT transformed and reformed and listen more to the people. In other words, they suddenly became more people-friendly. We need to keep ourselves in mind that there is no such thing as a perfect government and we cannot expect when we are given a drumstick, we want the whole chicken. With a reformed KMT back in power, there was less turmoil in the society and the economy did get going and the peoples' lives did see improvement. So, if our Pakatan Rakyat brothers and sisters claim they can do a better job than the BN government, let them try. If they do not live up to what they said they can do, we will simply kick them out in the next election. But we first must bite the bullet and let them form the government. What is the point of complaining about the state of affairs if we continue voting in the BN government. If we do so, then we should just shut up and take all these unpleasantness in our stride. We have already read in the alternative media, the exposures related to abuses of power that were swept under the carpet and selective prosecution. We want all these 'crooks' to see the light of the day. We want a fairer society. But if we keep sticking with the BN government, we are not sure if we can see some remedies to these ills. Indeed Pakatan Rakyat do have some good people in their line-up and hopefully when they form the government, they will live up to their expectations. Yes, there were many 'kataks' too as back in 2008, Pakatan Rakyat just grab any live bodies to stand for them but these unworthy members should have been weeded out when they jumped ship. We want to see those who remained in Pakatan Rakyat prove their worth. So, hopefully come GE13, we can all wake up to a new government. Let us not just talk about it, just do it! |
| Maybe UMNO should court HINDRAF Posted: 04 Oct 2011 01:10 PM PDT PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is. By Jakun Malaysia With the election on the horizon, everyone seems to be wary of the direction of the nation with the usual politicing taking centre field. The public who seems to know everything that happens around us which ends up in kedai kopi gossip seems to read too much into the gimmickry both by UMNO and PR. The showdown comes and goes and nothing changes for the general public in terms of policies or the betterment of the society. UMNO, having castigated HINDRAF with anything and everything that they could find under the advice of their mandores was eventually brought down in GE12 with unexpected loses in the election. They even went to the extent of legalising and inaugurating the superficial political movement that calls itself MMS within a month of its application although MIC would have naturally been against it. Imagine how desperate UMNO was? As far as PPP is concerned, it is a shade of its originators, the Seenivasagam brothers, so it does not even deserve a mention like other Indian-based parties like IPF and god knows how many more Indian party splinters. Let's look at Sabah & Sarawak; you have four different parties in each respective state being a part of the coalition with guaranteed either parliamentary or state seats. Looking into the decision-makers in West Malaysia which is definitely multicultural, official coalition partners with some chicken feed by the UMNO supremos are only MCA, MIC, GERAKAN & PPP. Now you have twenty-one other officially registered parties and one unregistered party ie (HRP). Naturally, you can guess whose affliance the leaders of these parties are fed except for PSM. You don't see them much in public until election time. PR thinks with its three (3) parties they have the cat in a bag although if not for the uprise of HINDRAF they would be standing high and dry like what happened in 1990 & 1999. PR had a free ride under the HINDRAF banner for GE12 and yet today they won't even engage with them. People are not blind and they do understand what racism is. UMNO may have committed atrocities, courtesy of Dr Mahathir in the past, but they had their brothers in arms ie the rest of the elite and cari makan middleclass non-Malays who equally neglect the poorer brethren of their society. I don't know whether UMNO has learnt its lesson, but I can see that they are trying to make amends like accepting a superficial party like MMS into their fold and approving PSM and KITA. Maybe UMNO wants to make a change, maybe it was misdirected by their mandores like how PR is, who knows, when it is a bread and butter issue for the society?
In semblance to Suqiu, if many would remember, their demand was similar to HINDRAF back in 1999 but naturally eclipsed by the one and only Dr Mahathir after inflicting fear and favor in exchange. Fortunately HINDRAF is immune to fear and favor, and that carried the spirit of consciousness for the community and the torch is still there after 4 years by its spirited followers. If PR thinks that this is not relevant, then I think it is high time UMNO makes an attempt to engage HINDRAF and lay down a blueprint if they feel that even after 54 years of faults and errors through their mandores, they have the humility to ensure they are the best movement to ensure the progress of its people irrespective of origin. |
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