‘Divide and rule making BN obsolete’

The BN has been practising this policy for decades but now it is working against them, says a Gerakan leader.

TAIPING: Over the years the Barisan Nasional’s (BN) only political model was divide and rule. But that model is now making the BN an obsolete party.

Said former Gerakan Youth vice-chief S Paranjothy: “BN is obsolete now and its outmoded political strategy of divide and rule along racial lines is no longer marketable to the Malaysian voters who have woken up to a new era of thinking after the 2008 political tsunami.”

“Most Malaysians are sickened by the perpetual harping on racial politics by all the BN component parties and they have had enough of this.

“The over-used old record of racial politics by the BN for the past 50 years has now been shattered  by the awakening of voters who want political change,” he said.

Paranjothy said in the past the leaders were more dedicated and committed to the principled political agenda of giving equal rights and benefits to all Malaysians.

“The economic imbalance is widening between the rich and the poor, as the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer as BN is more concerned with the personal interests of its cronies rather than the welfare of the people,” he said.

He also accused the BN politicians of taking the voters for a ride at every election with empty promises and not giving proper attention to the needs and demands of the voters after being duly elected.

“The majority of the (BN) politicians only fill their elected posts to safeguard their own personal political agendas and tend to be self-centred and neglect the interests of their voters,” he alleged.

Paranjothy, who is also the party’s Taman Ehsan branch chief praised, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak for his 1Malaysia concept of trying to unite the various races as Malaysians.

However, Paranjothy noted that the 1Malaysia concept is not taking off the ground because there is no mutual cooperation among the BN component party leaders who feel in order to survive politically they have to harp along racial lines.

“The little Napoleons, both in Umno and the civil service, are sabotaging Najib’s 1Malaysia project,” he said.

He said BN must stop the current trend of appointing political rejects as senators to fill ministerial and deputy posts, which is back-firing on BN leaders as such appointees are not answerable to the voters and hence tend to under-perform in their appointed jobs.