Selangor BN clutching at straws

By Stanley Koh - Free Malaysia Today

COMMENT The Chinese celebrate Zhongyuan, the ghost festival, on the 15th day of the seventh moon in their calendar. That coincides with Aug 15, but some politicians, not necessarily of Chinese descent, have started invoking ghosts earlier than scheduled.
The unexpected bereavement of Selangor’s BN government in 2008 bewildered many ambitious members of the coalition. The shock threw them off balance. It dazed and confused them as they tried to figure out what the future held in store for BN and, especially, for their individual selves.

Not anymore. Or so it seems. They appear to have finished licking their wounds and are now vigorously going after the ruling Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Selangor BN’s recent actions and rhetoric can be likened to those of a private demolition company desperately trying to find fault with a spanking new building so that it can tear it down just to keep itself relevant and to spite the contractor chosen to build the new structure.

BN’s self-appointed champions have been whipping up trivial issues in the hope that the noise they make will drown out the voices of those recalling the sins of the previous administration.

But it is not so easy to chase away hungry ghosts. Words can mislead, but they cannot obliterate the record of years of extravagant and wasteful public spending, graft, power abuse and poor governance.

Onlookers of average intelligence can tell that BN has conceived its ghost stories poorly and they are not rushing for tickets to watch the theatre versions.

The much-promoted road show about shifting sands and muddy waters is a flop. It has not generated any meaningful interest. Instead of injecting fear into Pakatan, as promised in the pre-publicity, it has shown up the organisers and actors as poor amateurs and losers.

It is hard to tell whether the BN script is supposed to be serious or comical. Perhaps it is a fantasy. In contrast, Pakatan has gone for realism.

To understand the water issue, for instance, one only has to read the explicit and detailed account given by Kuala Selangor MP Dzulkefly Ahmad in his article, “Battle over Selangor’s water continues unabated”. Dzulkefly, a PAS leader, sits on the Selangor Water Panel.

The would-be BN heroes are even pretending to show deep concern for the health of the natural environment, something they used to rape with abandon. In fact, the previous Selangor state government, like many other BN governments, have a dismal record when it comes to protecting the environment.

The sad truths

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BN has left a record of poor management of land and water resources, which we can blame for major floods, water shortage, pollution and loss of biodiversity in Selangor and elsewhere.

A biologist with a local university reported in 2005 that eight lakes and 11 rivers in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur had alarmingly high levels of pollutants caused by effluents from livestock farms and pharmaceutical industries.

Mangrove forests in Pulau Ketam, Pulau Tengah and Pulau Klang were over-logged and fast depleting.

The multimillion Paya Indah Wetlands sanctuary was a failure. It had to close down, even though the public had paid RM33.4 million for it.

There are more sad truths. The BN government promised that privatising water services would enhance the quality and availability of household water.

The fact is that millions of homes have been forced to install water distillers and cleansing equipment because of the poor quality of water flowing through the pipes. Water rationing has become an off-and-on affair, partly because of illegal logging under the BN administration.

Indeed, because logging is such a good source of income for BN cronies, many eco-systems in the country have been seriously compromised.

Under BN rule, our rivers die. In 1990, there were 48 clean rivers. By 2000, there were only 34 clean rivers left. It is anybody’s guess how many rivers are still clean now.

In short, BN has left a record of poor management of land and water resources, which we can blame for major floods, water shortage, pollution and loss of biodiversity in Selangor and elsewhere.

But incompetence, greed and corruption defile more than just water and air. They pollute morals as well. The Selangor exco village, the Cairo trip of the state public accounts committee and many other unsettled issues from the ghostly past still haunt Selangor residents and taxpayers.

Comic sketches
In 2006, a Selangor resident calling himself Subra wrote in a newspaper’s letters column:

“I have very little faith that things will ever change for the better as long as this country (under BN) rewards incompetency and throws merit down the drain.

“Corruption and incompetency are rife. My dealings with MPPJ on my father’s behalf were a joke. For instance, it took me three years and countless visits to the engineering department to get the 30-year-old crumbling roadside drain outside my house fixed.”

With all these in mind, one wonders where the current onslaught by Umno and MCA is heading. Political point scoring is one thing, but to exorcise the sins of the past is something else.

Hopefully, Selangor voters are cultured enough to distinguish between comic sketches put up by incompetent schoolboys and realistic plays presented by professional thespians.