Thursday, March 20, 2008

From UMNO to PKR Hegemony?



From UMNO to PKR hegemony?

I’m made it clear from the start that I have more distrust for Keadilan than I do for PAS.

Recent events vindicate me to a certain extent.When Lim Kit Siang first made a statement announcing a boycott for the swearing-in of the Perak Menteri Besar, bloggers and commentators sounded the battle cry and bashed him with no mercy. The comments on Raja Petra Kamaruddin’s Malaysia-today are proof of it all. Lim Kit Siang apologized publicly soon after, in the most humble and sincere manner from a Malaysian politician to date.

Not too subtly, similar announcements were coming from the PKR’s camp. Syed Husin Ali threatened abandonment of the coalition government if PKR’s demands for representation in the Perak exco were not met. Over in Selangor, the finalization of the state government’s exco list has apparently hit an impasse as a result of PKR’s refusal to grant DAP their fair share of excos, citing racial imbalance and insufficient Malay representation. Surprisingly, there have been little murmurs, if at all over PKR’s growing arrogance and refusal to compromise the way DAP did in the Perak state government.

At parliamentary level, PKR is set to assume the position of opposition leader via Dr. Wan Azizah. Fair enough, in view that they hold the most number of seats among the opposition parties. The lingering question is, do they believe in democracy more than meritocracy? Wan Azizah has been in Parliament since 1999, a total of 9 years – which is a long time. She has had enough time to prove her salt but does anyone actually remember any moments where she created waves in parliamentary debates?

As far as I can remember, it was always the 12 DAP parliamentarians that received the worst from the rude and arrogant UMNO Mps when the DAP bench raised issues that were pertinent to the people of Malaysia. I have not read much of Wan Azizah raising any eyebrow or waking any sleepy eyes in all her years in parliament. If verbal abuses and insulting taunts were a measure of how active an MP was in parliament, Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Kulasegaran and Fong Po Kuan are way ahead at the forefront. They have been outnumber 10:1 in Parliament and insulted beyond belief – all because they tried to stand up for stupid Malaysian voters. On the contrary, Wan Azizah has not ruffled any UMNO/BN feathers, at least none that ever made it to the press. If PKR truly believed in meritocracy, then there are many DAP parliamentarians that are more suited and qualified to lead the opposition bench compared to Wan Azizah. At the same time, if they truly believed in the principles of democracy, then they would have lobbied for DAP to lead the Perak state government in view that DAP held the most number of seats. Either way, there is the element of cakap tak serupa bikin coming from the PKR camp.

Would you as an employer hire someone who tells you he/she is not interested in the job? Surely not, I say. However, that is exactly what we’ve done. Wan Azizah was never interested the job of being an MP. She was thrust into it after the downfall of her husband. She held it for eight years and has recently announced that she just might step aside after being elected to allow Anwar Ibrahim to contest in a Penampang Pauh by-election. Do you really think a person who is not interested to be an MP is the best person for the task of being opposition leader? Or maybe you think that Wan Azizah will eventually pass the baton of being opposition leader to Anwar Ibrahim later?

Well, Anwar Ibrahim will indeed make a great opposition leader. Just one problem though, like his wife, he too is not interested to be opposition leader. He wants to be Prime Minister, which is why he is currently obsessed luring disgruntled BN MPs to cross over to Keadilan, at no cost apparently. This brings me to my next provoking thought. Isn’t vote-buying and party-hopping more of an UMNO/BN culture? When one is unable to form a government by legitimate means, one has to resort to back door techniques. That, my friend, is exactly what Anwar Ibrahim is trying to accomplish now. Vehemently, he declares that Keadilan would have formed the next government if not for election frauds and rampant vote-buying, but here he is, trying something similar by luring discontented BN warlords and position-obsessed MPs to join his camp. Take a look at Richard Riot, the Serian MP who reportedly resigned from BN out of frustration of not being accorded a cabinet post. Is this the kind of character PKR wants to be associated with?

It’s really ironic that Anwar Ibrahim is canvassing for defectors over in East Malaysia. His party was very much the spoiler to begin with, or at least very much to be blamed for the opposition’s trashing in Sabah/Sarawak. PKR refused to make way for DAP in so many seats that were DAP’s traditional battlezone, resulting in vote-splitting three-way fights that proved so profitable to the BN candidates. In a number of seats, the total votes received by the two opposition candidates actually exceeded the BN candidate’s. If Keadilan were sensible and reasonable enough, it would have conceded that the party does not have much to show in Sarawak especially, as proven by its dismal performance in the 2005 Sarawak state elections. As a late-comer in Malaysian politics, it should have given way to DAP to fight in its traditional seats but it didn’t and now has to resort to backdoor entry into Borneo.

More and more every day, PKR is resembling UMNO in more aspects than one.

I still believe in the possibility of a stable and progressive DAP/PKR/PAS coalition government. If Keadilan continues its unjustified arrogance and unreasonable reasoning however, Malaysia will finally witness real change – a shift from UMNO political hegemony to PKR hegemony.

Some might ask, what can be worse than UMNO? My answer: two UMNOs.

6 comments:

joey said...

btwn the devil and the deep blue sea....:(

Anonymous said...

Hmm DAP screwed up. They still behave like oppositions boycotting government only to realize they screwed the Sultan after declaring "its up to the Sultan" and realized that THEY are now the government.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha ha.
My tots exactly dude.
Well said ;)
Keep it up.
About NECF, they found their BALLS!!!

Anonymous said...

Concerning Selangor, The Sultan made it clear that he wishes to see the demographic representation taken into consideration. Therefore, PKR has no mistake in it. Shouldn't you be blaming DAP which only fielded Chinese? PKR has to offer Indians and Chinese in Selangor two seats apart from Malays while DAP has Chinese only, therefore, the number of Malays became 4. The Sultan advised the list to be revised. Why are barking?

Go to Perak. There are 40 Malay ADUNS and DAP with it is 18 odd ADUNS said we want to have 8 excos out of ten if we don't get the MB post. Isn't that a joke? PKR advised against that since UMNO will ignite fire and I don't need to quote Utusan or Bernama to show that. DAP also knowing the state constitution pretended that it cam have its 18 Chinese fellows dominate the 40 Malay fellows. They are not realistic. The Sultan knows the repercussions of that and he declined their joke. Again, PKR is having Chinese, Malay and Indian excos in Perak and this calls for greater caution and balance while DAP worries less because it represents the Chinese only.

Concerning Sabah, since when did DAP dominate Sabah? And who convinced you that it was PKR which purposely refused to sit and agree to a deal? No! It was DAP that claimed to have a foothold because of the Chinese population in certain areas. Don't you see DAP being an UMNO in the sense that it purports to have signed a heavenly decree to be the champions of the Chinese? And do you know DAP refused PKR any seat that has 40% Chinese in the run up to the elections? You are kidding but you are entitled if it makes you release your stress.

Go to Dr Azizah. It seems you don't know Parliamentary system in the Westminster system. As long as an opposition party has the largest representation in Parliament, the leader of that party becomes the opposition leader even if he/she is new. So your scandalous claim that DAP should be the ones leading because they made noise (using your words) is a sign of intellectual penury or an unobjectively position to say the least. Advise DAP to change colour and have many different people in its ranks and tone down its rhetoric. That's easier than wearing prejudice glasses and pelting stones from a grandstanding, personal point of view in light with self righteousness that unfortunately doesn't convince anyone who is aware of the truth or half of it.

Anonymous said...

DAP should know - get in more Malays to become members and into the lection.

Funny part is that the are more Chinese willing to join a Malay base party than a Chinese-Indian base party like PPP, Gerakan and DAP. Tell me, how many Malays do the 3 parties have? DAP have only a few Malays run in the Election. Are chinese really chavauntistic when they are willing to join and speak for Malay base party?

Kong said...

While I do agree with what POTS wrote in his blog, this is one post I have to disagree totally. But then, it’s ok to disagree because that’s what democracy is all about.

While it’s good that Litm Kit Siang apologized publicly, the question still remains, “why did he object in the very first place, being a seasoned politician with vast experience?” The only answer I could come up with is: Old habit dies hard. He has been so used to opposing that it’s comes naturally without any afterthought. Not a sign of a truly great statesman and hence calls into suspect his suitability as potential PM. A PM has to govern a country and it is possible PR may be doing just that in the near future. In that sense, his son is a better person.

On the issue of Dr. Wan Azizah. She has always stated her role as seat warmer for Anwar, be it as MP or opposition leader. She is simply doing what she said she will do and doing it very well. She deserves my respect for her loyalty and integrity and no need to belittle her non-vocal performance in parliament. That wasn’t her aim in the 1st place.

As for Anwar wanting to be the PM instead of opposition leader, I thought that’s basically the same thing, i.e., to be a leader opposing BN. I don’t see anything wrong with that. As for luring BN MP over, well, that’s call “the end justifies the means”. Different people view it differently. For me, if the end result is the betterment of Malaysian, why not? And like it or not, that’s how politic operates and as rakyat, we just hope it’s the better person sitting at the top. Unfortunately, true idealism does not exist in the real world.

As for why wasn’t DAP being the opposition head? Well, we need to do a reality check because this is still a Malay majority country. Idealism may be good but reality check is a must. If you take too drastic an action, the patient may die of shock aka riot etc.

Before this election, I have my doubt about Anwar ability and capability. To be able to hold together PAS and DAP into the same coalition is a great feat no matter how you looked at it. Simply being able to do that is an indication that Anwar is the most suitable and acceptable person in PR to be the opposition head or the next PM. Without him, the PAS and DAP will be in the political wilderness for some more time to come.

Of the 3 opposition party, I will vote for PKR simply of her greater representation of all races. It’s time we think of ourselves as Malaysian and relegate racial based politics to history.