Kajang: Vote Pakatan Rakyat, Reject BN

The kajang election is not wasteful. We cannot equate this exercise in the democratic rights of the people in Kajang in the same breath as the wasteful excesses committed by the PM and his government. There are too many to account and we shall not repeat them here. A Ringgit spent on the people in their pursuit of democracy is not the same as a Ringgit spent on frivolous pursuit.

This is an opportunity for the people of Kajang to reinforce their disapproval on the policies carried out by the government. We can call it a referendum or right to recall or whatever- it’s an opportunity for the people to kick butt. The butts of BN that is.

This will be a catharsis, cleansing, release for the people to voice their strongest objection against a backdrop of lousy economic and social policies. A backdrop of rising prices and an increasing cost of living, corruption that never seems to get abated, abuse of power, emasculation of the institutions of democracy. The Kajang election is also a retributive release for the people to punish a government that is seen as unjust. Achieving all these, is worth the money spent.

 The election results will reverberate far beyond Kajang and shall create resonance elsewhere. We want the message by the people of Kajang come this 23^rd of March, to add to the build-up of wider disapproval for BN. So that in every by election to come, the voice of the Kajang people this 23^rd march shall be repeated over and over again. We expect by elections to be carried out in Bkt Gelugor and Permatang Pauh should the appeals by the appellants fail.

An opportunity for people to enhance their democratic choice is not wasteful. Spending money on ceaseless travels, using government jets with taxpayer’s money for private and self-created causes and masking those as value-adding PR exercise for the government- those are wasteful. The cost of the Kajang election is nowhere near the electricity bill in the PM’s official residence.

Voter turnout will increase and the Malay votes will go to Wan Azizah. That combined with the fixed deposit of non-Malay votes for Pakatan, will cause Wan Azizah to win by a bigger margin. Kajang people must go out and teach BN a lesson for causing the hardships on the people. Teach them also, while BN got the legal victory and got cocky by that, the people have the residual moral victory and want to humble the cockiness.  The battle against tyranny must be won over and over again. Such victories are not wasteful endeavours.

The Malays in Kajang must vote with reason. They must abandon the need to vote UMNO or BN simply because UMNO asserts that without UMNO the country will go to the dogs. The people of Kelantan have survived despite UMNO. The people of Selangor have done that despite UMNO. The Malays in Penang have not perished despite UMNO.

Saying that people must continue to vote UMNO and BN because despite all the wrongs they did and are doing, the country keeps on thriving is disingenuous. It implies that it is alright for us to accommodate all the shenanigans, the corruption, the abuse of power, the emasculation of the judiciary and other important democratic institutions because after all is said and done, the government does deliver. That’s like saying; there must be a trade-off between bad governance and development. You want development, you must put up with stupidity, with tyranny, with corruption and with abuse.

Why can’t there be convergence between good governance and better development?

If that is the case, Indonesians need never overthrow Suharto, Filipinos need not overthrow Marcos and the rest of the people in the world suffering under the rule of strong man politics and various hues of dictatorship need not rise in revolt.

That is a dangerous line of thinking- because in the name of whatever can be delivered, we are willing to turn a blind eye. It’s similar like the after all they are Malay argument. Never mind if they steal and plunder- after all they are Malays. Never mind if they come into our houses and sleep with our wives and daughters, they are after all Malays aren’t they?

The same line of thinking operates in the call to continue voting BN because, they BN, have delivered. We cannot do otherwise because PR cannot show an alternative Malay leadership. The Chinese must chose BN because to overthrow UMNO means to invite catastrophe in the form of Malay extremism. If the UMNO Malays turn violent and irrational, arrest them and jail them. So the Chinese have to vote BN because they are motivated by fears and not vote because that is what they want?

See how dangerous this line of thinking is? We cannot exercise independent thinking because at the moment we cannot yet see the better alternative outcomes?

The alternative to the present bunch of Malay bozos in UMNO is the creation of government founded on the principles of rule of law, democratic rights of the people to vote freely, the establishment of a fiercely independent judiciary, the institutions of check and balances and the implementations of sound economic policies.

Will that scenario not include good Malay leadership not of UMNO’s mould? Just because, we personally cannot or personally refuse to acknowledge alternatives to UMNO cannot be taken as an exhaustive conclusion that there is no Malay leadership outside UMNO.

Don’t worry about DAP because it’s a party founded on causes that are fought for by principles. The majority of the people in Malaysia are Malays and their presence in this country will be factored in DAP’s political decisions. Its political character is not static and it’s mature enough to adapt and accommodate.

Good Malay leadership exists in PKR and in PAS and from perhaps elsewhere we have not seen on our radar The alternative to Malay UMNO leadership must come from either of these two parties because that is the leadership this country needs- Malay leadership whose worldview is leavened and tempered as  a result of adapting and accommodating with differing political premises.