PR careless but BN beyond repair

Har Wai Mun | Feb 10, 09 6:51pm
[Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/98004]

First of all, the Sultan of Perak’s decision against a snap state election is very disappointing. Equally disappointing is Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) over-enthusiasm to overthrow the Barisan Nasional (BN) government that has now backfired.

Meanwhile, BN seems continuously trying to prove that it is beyond repair.

PR’s surprise victories in the March 2008 election implied ad hoc readiness to form state governments. Therefore, their over-enthusiasm to wrest further power from BN added both extra pressure and further exposure to fatal carelessness as like in the Perak saga.

In the midst of attracting BN assembly persons to defect, they overlooked the fact that there were internal dissatisfaction and weaknesses, therefore giving a chance for BN to pounce.

As a result, PR, particularly PKR and DAP, lost not only their majority in Perak but the parties’ integrity among voters.

Anwar Ibrahim and other leaders of PR should have realised that some of their members of Parliament or state assembly persons are not up to the mark in terms of loyalty, political maturity and integrity.

Interesting to say, PR could also have won some constituencies by putting monkeys as candidates. On the one hand, ‘monkey’ representatives are a source of future trouble.

On the other hand, this implies that citizens are actually voting for the party, not the candidate. Hence, party-hoppers should resign and stand for fresh elections.

Just ask ourselves two simple questions: ‘What is the full name of our Yang Berhormat?’ and ‘Which party won our constituency?’

If the later is easier to answer, then party-hoppers are clearly traitors to voters while BN ‘government’ in Perak is morally unjustifiable. Also, an anti-hopping law seems more urgent and appropriate than before.

Political development in Malaysia could be better if Malaysians (from politicians to the ordinary people) become more political conscious and mature. Political maturity enables voters to be able to differentiate between political rhetoric and fact.

Thus, Malaysians voters would not be easily brainwashed by the rhetoric of fear and the ‘bribing’ by election ‘goodies’. Malaysians should not buy any ‘information’ blindly as the mainstream media could be a tool of political propaganda.

Nevertheless, the long term success of PR could depend on them upholding their struggle towards high integrity, fairness and competency as well as politically educating Malaysians.

This is preferred rather than following BN’s unethical approach to gain power by defections.

In addition, putting efforts into strengthening their services to society could be their better choice for a progressive path towards Putrajaya.