Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
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| All eyes will be on Najib’s cabinet choices Posted: 12 May 2013 01:35 PM PDT
Would Najib assemble a cabinet to win party votes or one to win the next general election, and the two seem to be mutually exclusive. However Najib's immediate task to assemble a Cabinet is more important. Compared to the cabinet before dissolution, he has 11 vacancies to fill. Seven members of the previous Cabinet did not contest the parliamentary elections and three were defeated. By ZB Othman, FMT A week is a long time in politics, but for Malaysians it has seemed a lot longer following the 13th general election (GE13). The final score was Barisan Nasional (BN) — 133 and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) — 89. Usually the winners would be busy cobbling a cabinet together and the losers would be licking their wounds and sitting in front of the drawing board to scheme a plan for the next one. However, the "most serious threat" to the BN since Merdeka has turned matters on its head. Losers PR is still planning protests, claiming that the election was stolen from them. On the other side, winners BN seems unsure how to handle a victory in which it retained power, by a comfortable margin, in parliament but lost the coveted two-third majority. For Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, his work has just begun. Najib's long-term work would be to reconcile a seemingly divided nation after the polls and to ensure BN's election promises get delivered in the next five years — a monumental task in itself with a bill that has been estimated at about RM225.6 billion by bean counters. However Najib's immediate task to assemble a Cabinet is more important. Compared to the cabinet before dissolution, he has 11 vacancies to fill. Seven members of the previous Cabinet did not contest the parliamentary elections and three were defeated. How he fills these vacancies is very important, not least because he will be scrutinised by members of his own Umno party who will vote whether he will stay as president in the next general assembly later this year. The question is already being asked, would he assemble a cabinet to win party votes or one to win the next general election, and the two seem to be mutually exclusive. In this, Najib is faced with precedents in Umno set in 1970 when Tunku Abdul Rahman stepped down after losing many seats in the 1969 general election and in 2009 when Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was the first prime minister to fail in securing a two-thirds majority, made way for Najib. Since then, Najib has done a lot to correct some of the shortcomings that have driven young voters away from BN. Some of these steps, like his 1Malaysia branding and the abolition of the hated Internal Security Act have been successful in putting a new face on BN and Umno as a more tolerant organisation. Other steps, however, such as the rolling back of Malay privileges and spending to raise the lot of the poor has been treated with suspicion. Retribution politics It is telling that while Najib has called for national reconciliation, there are some in BN who are still bent on punishing the voters who did not support them. On Saturday newly appointed Terengganu Mentri Besar Ahmad Said said areas where BN lost in the state would not have the benefit of having the services of local development officers nor state funded affordable housing projects. It is back to the day of retribution politics that is losing traction now. Someone who lost but has not blamed voters is BN's Saifuddin Abdullah, who is an Umno Supreme Council member. Saifuddin admitted that his loss was due to Chinese votes but added that his analysis showed that he also lost because some Malay votes did not come his way. "Records show that some 3,389 Umno voters stayed away on election day, and if you do the maths, it could have easily offset the 1,070 votes I lost to my opponent," he said. "More importantly I think the trend is that a large portion of voters have moved away from development-based aspirations towards democratic aspirations."
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| Posted: 12 May 2013 01:24 PM PDT
This BN government is not reticent in using everything it has in its arsenal and at its disposal to 'manage' any threat to our national security - perceived or otherwise. If Anwar wanted to bolster his flagging image after Pakatan Rakyat's results in the 13th GE – he succeeded. What he did not succeed in doing was to defuse the already inflamed and volatile passion within so many diehard supporters of Pakatan who are ready to go out and create havoc and mayhem in our community because they are told that BN has stolen the GE from Pakatan. CT Ali, FMT The huge crowd at the Pakatan rallies, especially in Kelana Jaya, would have given Najib Tun Razak food for thought. The oratory on display would certainly have fuelled the adoring assembly into raptures of reverence and expectations of another tsunami, hopefully this time around to sweep Pakatan Rakyat into government. 'Hari ni PR menang. Esok BN form Government', 'Tumbang, Tumbang! Tumbang BN', 'Tolak, Tolak! Tolak BN', 'BN curi keputusan pilihan raya!', 'SPR Tipu! SPR Bohong!', 'Mari ketawakan SPR. Ha Ha Ha!', 'Tolak Tangan Persahabatan BN', 'Kami anak Malaysia', 'Kami Pahlawan Rakyat!'. And of course the ringing, familiar heart rendering calls of "RE…FOR…MASI!" And then the diminutive much loved figure of Pejuang Sastera Pak Samad greeted us with a "Salam Ubah" and proceeded to recite his "Ibu Segala Tipu" – written just three hours before the meet in Kelana Jaya. The crowd was primed for Anwar – the people's prime minister chosen by 52% of Malaysians. Anwar tells us that he "naik kereta, naik motor, jalan kaki dan berlari" to get to be with the them, and they were ready for anything Anwar had to say, and will do what he would ask them to do. Anwar Ibrahim declared that he will begin a fight to the finish between a peaceful Pakatan Rakyat against a corrupt and arrogant Barisan Nasional. And he will not rest until justice is done, democracy is restored and the 13th general election win illegally taken from Pakatan Rakyat by BN is given back to Pakatan. 'Kita akan lawan sampai menang' In two weeks, Anwar promised, the Bersih Tribunal will provide proof that 30 parliamentary seats were illegally won by BN. And Anwar promised that it will not end there. Every corner of the country will be visited, Sabah and Sarawak included, to tell the people that Pakatan Rakyat have had the general election stolen from them by BN. And it will not end until this Suara Rakyat from Pakatan Rakyat, this Suara Keramat has been heeded by the BN government. After all it was BN that "curi keputusan pilihan raya, bukan Pakatan'. If Anwar wanted to bolster his flagging image after Pakatan Rakyat's results in the 13th GE – he succeeded. If Anwar wanted to prime his supporters for the second coming of refomasi as we know if after his ouster as DPM – he succeeded. What he did not succeed in doing was to pursue in a calm and collected manner, his misgivings for the voting irregularities in the 13th GE. What he did not succeed in doing was to defuse the already inflamed and volatile passion within so many diehard supporters of Pakatan who are ready to go out and create havoc and mayhem in our community because they are told that BN has stolen the GE from Pakatan. If we are to descend into the hellfire of May 13-type of chaos that will consume our nation as Pakatan fight a battle it cannot win against the police and the army, this is the best way to do it. If Pakatan is to give BN an opportunity to rule by decree because our country's national security is at risk – this is the best way to do it. There must surely be another way forward for Pakatan Rakyat. Many have voiced their misgivings about a Pakatan-led by Anwar, a leader who could, would and did inflame the masses during his reformasi days.
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