COMMENT Judging from his more recent pronouncements in public, Gerakan president Koh Tsu Khoon continues to indulge in wishful thinking while living on hope. Either he’s too comfortable in his current position at the Prime Minister’s Department, a misnomer for a hyper ministry, or wants to shamelessly curry favour in public with his political masters in Umno.
Koh is convinced that Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition alliance, will never get its hands on Putrajaya, as if Umno has somehow made a pact with the Devil himself to rule Malaysia forever, if not having a divine mandate. This reminds us of similar stories on Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud and the seven bomohs who reportedly help keep him in power.
Not that many days ago, Koh’s party raised the “bright” prospects of wresting back the Penang state government from Pakatan. It’s not known at this juncture how many in Penang, if not elsewhere in Malaysia, died of laughter after reading Gerakan’s latest take on the Pearl of the Orient.
Sure, there are many problems in Penang but never in a million years will the Chinese in Penang hand back the island state to Gerakan at this juncture after having finally given the party and MCA the boot. Many Penangites, especially supporters of Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, are disappointed with the DAP but not to the extent of inviting Koh and his effeminate team back to squat on them again.
This reminds us of the Law of Inertia in Physics: “A body at rest continues to stay at rest unless acted upon by external forces. A body in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by external forces.”
The political situation in Penang is one in which the body is at rest, that is, there’s no possibility of a change in the status quo. The various miniscule protests engineered by “sore loser” Penang Umno has only served to harden sentiments among Penangites against the party and the Barisan Nasional (BN). If anything, it’s a blessing in disguise as they have served to keep Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng on his toes. He has no time to rest on his laurels, be complacent or take anyone for granted.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II, P Ramasamy, will have to be sacrificed to placate Hindraf unless the bumbling professor makes peace with the ad hoc apolitical human rights movement.
Putrajaya is the Law of Inertia working on a bigger scale but with a difference vis-a-vis Penang.
As surely as the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning, the BN will not repeat its performance of 2008 in Sabah and Sarawak at the next outing expected by 2013. If the general election were to be held tomorrow, the BN will lose at least a third of the seats in the respective state assemblies and at least 10 parliamentary seats each.
There are no prizes for guessing where the parliamentary seats will fall in Sabah and Sarawak.
The Chinese voters
In Sabah, all Chinese seats will fall to the opposition. Pakatan can also expect some seats from among the Dusuns and local Muslims. Local Muslims continue to suffer the brunt of disenfranchisement with the continuing influx of illegal immigrants who enter the electoral rolls with MyKads issued via the backdoor.
DAP's Lim Kit Siang, increasingly seen as an elder statesman who has withstood the test of time, has emerged as the undisputed leader of the Chinese in Sabah, as in Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia. Lim’s continued reliance on the BIC ballpoint pen in his shirt pocket, simple white short-sleeved shirts and ordinary Japanese slippers has won him an endearing image among the grassroots in Malaysian Borneo as in Peninsular Malaysia. No one can point even a finger of impropriety at him or his family.
In Sarawak, the Chinese parliamentary seats will be a repeat of the scenario in Sabah. The Chinese-based Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) is on the verge of entering the dustbin of history.
There are also pockets of discontent among the Bidayuh, Orang Ulu and Malay. The Iban continue to be plagued by low literacy levels and held to ransom by the dependency syndrome foisted on them by their longhouse chiefs, politicians and the BN. There’s a small group of Iban intellectuals working on the young voters but these dream in the comfort of the urban areas.
In Peninsular Malaysia, the status quo will remain and Perak will go back to Pakatan.
Given Sodomy II, the external force in the Law of Inertia, there are also prospects of additional opposition gains in Terengganu, Negri Sembilan and Malacca while reinforcing the opposition’s strength. In the last two states, as in Penang, Pakatan needs to come to an accommodation with Hindraf.
The opposition philosophy that “it’s better to quarrel now than later” has served it well. The washing of dirty linen in public is coming to a end and has strengthened the opposition alliance in the process. This includes PKR, supposedly the weakest link in the opposition alliance.
The Ku Li factor
Anyone with a calculator should get it out now. If the opposition-held parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia are totalled with the expected gains in Sabah and Sarawak, Pakatan is on the threshold of power in Putrajaya with a simple majority.
The Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah faction in Umno can be expected to throw in its lot with Pakatan as well. The faction has been in the cold for quite a spell now and know that the tide has finally turned and for it as well.
Pakatan will be in Putrajaya, come the next general election, whether Koh likes it or not.
One of Pakatan's biggest weapons in its arsenal is a promise that it has made in Sarawak: “To return all land stolen by politicians and the state government from the people back to them.”
Another major promise is to get back all the ill-gotten gains salted away overseas by Umno and BN politicians and bring them to reckoning. Only Umno and BN politicians who are willing to declare their assets in public and prove how clean they are will be spared the wrath of the electorate at the next outing and the long arm of the law. This (declaring assets) is a challenge that Taib is unlikely to take up.
The systematic looting of the public treasury under the guise of development cannot go unpunished. This is Pakatan's trump card in the coming general election.
Government procurements and projects are being taken by those in power in Umno and BN through nominees at twice, three times and even up to 10 times what it would actually cost the Chinese Baba contractor in traditional Ali Baba deals. This includes profits and the usual 5% to 15% commission for the Malay Ali who brings in the government jobs for the Chinese Baba. The Chinese community, long tolerant of Ali Baba practices like the Malay, is up in arms against the looting of the public treasury by those in the corridors of power with their fat cats in tow.
No comments:
Post a Comment