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June

BERSIH rally

Sunday | Filed in: General | Politics

Public rallies should never be made the first choice in voicing our opinions, unless, the situation is so dire when the powers-that-be chooses to ignore pleas for a fair and just election.

I find these days that every event is being turned into a racial or a religious issue at any opportunity. It is baffling that PERKASA is warning against this rally when in fact, there is little to do with them. I was puzzled, so I looked up the reasons for the latest call to demonstrate.

From bersih.org ,

The demands of the rally are:
-Clean the electoral roll
-Reform postal vote
-Use indelible ink
-Free & fair access to media
-Minimum 21 days campaign period
-Strengthen public institutions
-Stop corruption
-Stop dirty politics

Is there anything wrong with these demands? Instead of engaging this group actively, there is an attempt to silence them. This only instigates more rebellion when the Government is seen as antagonistic to these ideas, which should be the ideals of any elections. Of course, the Government denies that elections are unfair and often points to their massive loss in the last General Election as a testament to its fairness. That was during PM Badawi’s time, a more liberal leader than PM Najib.

Back to PERKASA, why are they even involved in this fight?? Who do they represent actually? UMNO??

Let me tell you how corrupt our government agencies can be? A recent event by a non-governmental organisation representing patients, which needed police approval was delayed until a “payment” was made. Despite an initial attempt to resist this, there was little choice if the event is to materialise on time. It is accepted as a norm to “pay” police officers. If such an activity is rampant at this level, I shudder to think of the degree of corruption at a much higher level.

I think to avoid a BERSIH rally, the government should actively engage this group of people and show transparency in attempts to rectify or prove that steps are taken to ensure a fair and just election. This is not very hard to do. But any attempt to force the issue is usually met with stiff resistance and threats of violence.

Malaysia is my country as well and I hope that cooler heads will prevail on both sides of the divide.

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May

What utter rubbish!

Thursday | Filed in: Politics

Recently bloggers claimed that Christians in Malaysia are attempting to install a Christian Prime Minister in Malaysia. No doubt this caused a furore among the Muslim majority in Malaysia. There has been no evidence apart from a picture, which says nothing much except for a group of people coming together, and the blogger’s defiant insistence.

The amazing thing is that a mainstream newspaper picked up the story and decided to splash it on the front page! Since then, it has become a factual news to the extend that the Prime Minister had to call for a meeting with Christian leaders to clarify the situation.

Apart from wrist slapping, there has been no concrete action taken against Utusan Malaysia and the blogger(s) concerned. Their actions are seditious and was meant to cause unrest among Malaysians. This should fall under the purview of the Internal Security Act. Unfortunately, this Act is commonly used to silence opposing politicians and not unscrupulous Government supporters!

I am sure many of us are astounded by the incredibility of the situation. Why has this occurred? Does the Government think that we, Malaysians are that stupid not to see the ridiculousness of the situation?

I hope that sensible Malaysians will see through the Government’s attempts to stir emotions by playing up racial and religious issues, to ensure political survival of a coalition government that is based on race. It is unfortunate that MCA and MIC are mute in response, and so are the coalition members, who are mainly Christian especially those in East Malaysia. It appears political survival supercedes national unity.

We will see in the next General Election. What tactics will the Government employ in their very desperate attempts at staying in power. As Najib himself has declared, he will do everything in his power to prevent the opposition parties from taking Putrajaya.

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