(Are these politicians qualify as suitable candidates for winning the elections? Image source: http://malaysiaflipflop.blogspot.hk)
I have been away from the country on work assignment but hardly a day passes by without me checking into the latest happenings in the country.
Criminal gangs have now turned to grenades for turf war in Bukit Bintang and at least 1 innocent person have been killed. A politician who earns more than RM21,000 comes around and says that as a Member of Parliament, he had to make do with insufficient money (he had to “ikat perut“) and even complained that MPs in Uganda are paid twice and this comment came after Najib decided to reduce the petrol subsidies causes the petrol price to go up 20 cents.
Somehow that made it easy to predict where the savings from subsidies is going to end up. And speaking about taxpayers’ money, it seems like more money is splashed on Rosmah’s pet projects (Najib had announced RM711 million in the recent budget but how much of it is for Permata remains unclear for the moment).
And to add the problems & the rising cost that the common man is facing on daily basis, we still had to content with this kind of news:-
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that the Chinese could not make demands on Barisan Nasional (BN) if they continued to support Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Speaking at the MCA’s 61st annual general assembly, Najib said BN would only be fair to the Chinese if they supported the ruling coalition instead of PR.
However, Najib conceded that he did still “try” to be fair to the Chinese community now, despite the fact that there were only two MCA ministers in the Cabinet.
(Source)
The PM may be misquoted or he may have say this in light of another situation but then again, it was clear that he was not happy with the Chinese community after the elections and asked what else the Chinese wants.
Doesn’t the Chinese who had voted for Pakatan Rakyat also pay taxes, participated in the development of the country and some had even paid the highest sacrifice for this country? If a Prime Minister of a country can do things for a community only based the votes given to his political party, then what’s the point of having elections in this country?
What’s the point of having oppositions in this country? Why not he just disband democracy in this country and just rule the nation as a ruthless dictator?
Anyway, what was more interesting on what the PM had said previously:-
Suitable candidates, strong machinery and a united Barisan Nasional are key factors to ensure victory for the coalition in the 14th general election, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.
Najib, who is Barisan chairman, said the combination of the three factors was proven with the big win for Barisan in the Pengkalan Kubor state by-election on Sept 25.
(Source)
It is laughable indeed.
This shows that the PM had not learned anything from the last 2 general elections where it saw the number of votes in favour of BN dwindled. More than 50% of the country voted against BN in the last general elections. He still sticks to a formula that does nothing to regain voters’ confidence in the government.
The PM speaks about of having the suitable candidates as a key factor to win the general elections. That is true indeed but the fact is BN does not really have suitable candidates to offer – at lower levels, perhaps there is still some hope but forget the same at Federal level. What BN could possibly offer that is so new compared to the dumb, sick line-up of politicians that it has given us in the last 2 general elections?
The same politicians who are quick to ask Malaysians to leave the country to leave if they are not happy with the Government or makes seditious statements but quick to act on others who makes non seditious statements (one even asked suggested arrests to those who oppose to draconian laws) or embroiled in corruption scandals continues to be in the limelight and running the show.
Dumb statements have been far too many when one had expected to be more intelligent and courteous.
What about Najib himself? After all, he is the leader of the pack and have all the powers to engage and sack and to determine and overrule. He alone can make a huge difference on how the people sees the Government.
Najib, I am sorry to say, is definitely is not one of the better Prime Minister that this country have seen. Only history will tell whether he is better or worst that the sleepy Pak Lah. His performance todate as the Prime Minister that not been that impressive either.
How many times he and his wife have taken lavish overseas trips at taxpayer’s expense since becoming the Prime Minister? How many times he had failed to step in and eliminates any seeds of disunity among fellow Malaysians? How many times he has kept his silence and let the radicals & extremists of race & religion in the country to have their say? Far too many times.
And as the Finance Minister, how many times he has come across strongly against the mismanagement of funds in this country and taken strong action to curtail them? For example, despite all the red flags going off, he has only kept his silence on some of the potential economic time bombs such as this:-
Lurking beneath Malaysia’s solid investment-grade sovereign rating is a risk posed by a $14 billion investment fund that is not even generating enough cash from operations to cover interest costs.
Regarded as a cross between a sovereign wealth fund and a private investment vehicle, with Prime Minister Najib Razak chairing its advisory board, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) is struggling under the burden of $11 billion in borrowed money.
The government says it only guarantees around 14 percent of the debt. The investment community assumes it would provide more if needed, and it is the potential strain on Malaysia’s debt position from these contingent liabilities that raises concern.
“We don’t know how well 1MDB is doing,” said Christian de Guzman, senior analyst of sovereign risk group at ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service. “It does pose a risk in terms of the amount of borrowing they have made over the past few years.”
Controversy has dogged 1MDB almost since it was first set up months after Najib came to power in 2009, and used for funding projects that form part of his Economic Transformation Program.
Critics have questioned its investment choices, the size of its debt, $2.25 billion parked in a Cayman Island fund, hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue earned by Goldman Sachs for handling its bond issues, delays in its accounts, changes of auditors, and a perceived lack of transparency.
(Source)
One thing that is going very strongly for BN is a strong election machinery – there is no secret about this. It has the money, support and more importantly the control of the media. But for how long he expects to rely on this to get the crucial votes to keep his Government in place? Information is at the finger tips these days and when the Government tries to spin the truth, the more truth comes up in the open.
And let’s not even go to the aspect of an united Barisan Nasional – it is a mirage. We all know that UMNO runs the show and the rest are just there to manage their own influence on their own community. We are just sick of a race based country.
Everything that one touches has to be determined based on race. And notion of race divides the country even more – one race pitched against another and sometimes allocation of national resources & time spent on one race is often questioned and deemed unfair.
This is not the way the country should be heading. Najib brought the concept of 1Malaysia but it too proved to be nothing but another illusion and tactic to rein in the votes.
So, to say that having suitable candidates, strong machinery and a united Barisan Nasional are the key factors to ensure victory for the coalition in the 14th general election is incorrect. What is more important to have greater transparency, responsibility and commitment to the people.
We all know what it takes to regain the voters confidence in the Government. Najib and his people knows this well too. If he chooses to ignore it and insist to keep his own personal politics, ignore to mismanagement of funds in this country and leaves racial & religions fanatics unchecked, then there is no point even talking about suitable candidates, strong machinery and a united Barisan Nasional.