We came, we
saw, we bribe.
BN has won the
Pangkalan Kubor state seat in Kelantan. We know the slogan- we came, we bribed,
and we cheated. It retained its seat. The BN got a larger majority because it paid
voters. BN spent millions. It also prevented almost 2000 Malaysians from
crossing over into Rantau Panjang. Also, Kelantanese outside did not return.
Just as they
did in Teluk Intan, the BN bribed its way to victory. That is also the Najib
method of winning elections. It’s no big
deal then. The victory was achieved partly because there is currently some bad
blood within the Pakatan camp.I hope PAS understands the loss.
Let us take on
some of the issues raised.
UMNO’s
information chief, MP Ahmad Maslan says Putrajaya may actually be supporting 3
months of any rakyat’s livelihood. This is achieved through all the subsidies
given out, all forms of welfare assistance and BR1M. These, says Ahmad Maslan
are the hallmarks of a good, benign and responsible government.
To that, we say only the
smallish mind would want to gloat about it. Sadly, the smirking comes from ignorance. What
the government programs do is affirm the existence of severe income inequalities
in the country and the economic hardships experienced by the poor. More and
more people require assistance because they do. Incomes have fallen behind- the
cost of living has gone up and the standard of living for these people has gone
down because life is costly.
I hope no
rational thinking Malay buys the idea that economic hardships experienced by
them are the result of natural turn of events. The truth is, they are the
result of mismanagement of the economy, incompetence, corruption, bad governance,
wrong policies and even stupidity. Don’t ever trivialise the hardships as being
caused by the natural turn of events. All were man made and caused by the
incompetence of the government of the day.
The Malays
must break the mental bondage. I have experienced this first hand and shall use an example to illustrate the readily-excusing mentality of the Malays which UMNO
takes advantage of.
Raub is a
small town with probably around 100, 000 inhabitants. Water shortage is the
norm rather than exception. Every other day, there will be water interruptions
and stoppage. Some people in certain
areas go without water for a week.
The response
by Malays and Chinese is revealing.
Malays endure
being without water for a few days attributing the shortage to that’s how it
is. Chinese will go up in arms, calling the ADUns and MP to do something. We do
of course short of actually carrying buckets of water.
I see two different
thinking operating here. The Malays are ready to endure and accept water shortage as part of the natural order
of things. So they are ready to excuse the shortage and endure. The Chinese don’t.
The Malays are not likely to consider that the water shortages may be caused by
wrong investments taken in the past, the supply of defective and substandard
pipes, bad water distribution management, lack of investments in facilities
etc.
While water is
indeed a product of nature, its delivery to homes is not. It’s a function of
human management and involvement in many forms.
The Malays
need to question everything and never take things as they are. Things are never
as they are.
its not government's money.
Secondly, the government
is spending what it takes from the people. Government itself has no money other
than what it takes in the form of taxes. Next year, the government wants to be
leech-efficient. It wants to suck whatever can be extracted from people. That is why GST will be carried out- it’s a more
efficient method of collecting taxes.
Now, let us
get back to the issue of the Malay problem. This issue is played over and over
again. The contest in Pengakan Kubor is between 2 Malay parties. Something must
be wrong when 2 Malays contest, the party that gets whacked is the non-Malay. Is
the Malay problem caused by non-Malay or by the government that is in power? Who
is responsible for the policies, who controls governance, who controls the treasury?
The UMNO
Malays must have outsourced everything to their Chinese partners, so now it’s
justifiable to lay blame on the Chinese.
The cat is out
of the bag- UMNO has been subcontracting the management of this country to the
Chinese. But UMNO is the Malay party fighting for the 4 institutions that are sacrosanct
to the Malays no?
"Ahmad Maslan says Putrajaya may actually be supporting 3 months of any rakyat’s livelihood."
ReplyDeleteHow about not collecting taxes? Just push paper as you would do but stop extracting money from the rakyat. See whose livelihood is being supported by whom and for how many months.
"I hope PAS understands the loss"
ReplyDeleteNo, PAS won't understand the loss. They think that PAS is the strongest party in PR and they think that PAS can stand-alone. This mentality will only disappear if the progressives lead PAS and the conservatives toe the line.
Datuk
ReplyDeleteYou caused my blood to boil. I already hate them even without you saying anything about them.
Dato,
ReplyDeletePAS has no discipline. The recent MB Selangor saga saw a lot of inconsistent and contradictory statements from its president and supporters. PKR was wishy washy but finally saw the light of day and left the talking to its leaders. DAP displayed remarkable discipline despite the provocations.
You cannot win without discipline, and the PAS progressives are now learning fast.
The answer to your question : Ringgit Malaysia.
ReplyDeleteDato,
ReplyDeleteYou are right. DAP is to be blamed for PAS losing the Pengkalan Kubor "buy" election. If blaming DAP is not sufficient, how about blaming DAP and Anwar? That should do the trick then.