 |
| Remember the coup in Perak. Don't let it happen to Malaysia! |
Barisan Nasional leaders and their supporters have rushed to defend Prime Minister Najib Razak, rubbishing the claims by PAS vice-president Mahfuz Omar that BN would initiate a coup if Pakatan Rakyat were to win the next general election. Yet Najib himself has kept an eerie silence.
Mahfuz was reacting to comments made by Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak at a Deepavali lunch gathering hosted by the Pekan MIC division.
Najib claimed that Barisan Nasional’s proven track record of keeping its promises was in stark contrast to the opposition, which could only made empty pledges.
He claimed the opposition would find it impossible to take over BN's role in leading the country because the opposition parties lacked a common ideology: “Their political beliefs clash with one another showing their partnership to be a loose one.”
He said only BN could steer the nation to development and warned the people against taking any risk in making the wrong choice as it could cause “calamity.”
He then made the highly disturbing remarks which caused a ripple of fear through the Opposition benches.
“We cannot afford to forsake our future. If Barisan cannot win, no others can win,” said Najib.
Rather than allaying any fears of both the opposition and the general public, BN leaders only reinforced their anxieties.
The Deputy Prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin said Mahfuz’s statements were an example of how PAS searched for opportunities to create lies to discredit BN. He said, “This is malicious and prejudicial aimed at scaring the people.”
People's Progressive Party president M. Kayveas said that Mahfuz’s statement was uncalled for: “As a senior politician, Mahfuz should be more mature and not issue statements which would cause fear and discomfort among the people.”
He said that Mahfuz had misunderstood Najib, “If you listen carefully to what the prime minister said, he was calling for the people to be aware that there is no other alternative to the BN. He is also urging BN leaders to be confident of winning the next general election.”
Meanwhile, Gerakan deputy president Chang Ko Youn said that Mahfuz’s views were far-fetched and unfair to BN and Najib.
Chang said that after the 2008 general election, BN lost five states to the opposition and thus, it was unfair to say that the coalition would resort to unconstitutional tactics.
“Pakatan Rakyat is in a quandary. They are seeking to make the people angry with BN and that is why they came out with such a statement.”
Umno vice-president and Defence minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi called Mahfuz's statement “rubbish” and said, “There is no truth in what he is saying.”
Universiti Sains Malaysia social sciences deputy dean Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said that BN was mature enough to respect and accept the voters’ decisions. He said, “Pakatan Rakyat should not feel threatened or fear the growing support among the voters for BN ... or maybe there is a crisis within the Pakatan Rakyat parties and they are resorting to such allegations to shift the attention.”
“If BN wanted to initiate a coup, they could have done so after the March 2008 general election itself when they lost five states to Pakatan Rakyat,” said the deputy dean.
It appears that BN leaders and the deputy dean have short memories.
BN did stage a coup.
It was in Perak.
The date was 6 February 2009 - a shameful period in the history of Perak.
BN had a disastrous March 8, 2008 elections which left it without a two-thirds majority in Parliament for the first time in 50 years and cost it five states – one of these was Perak.
The eventual collapse of the Perak state government under opposition rule was engineered by BN, in particular by Najib.
There were pitched battles in Perak between riot police and opposition supporters. Each time, PAS and DAP acted with one common purpose. DAP supporters wore PAS T-shirts, and vice-versa. They were indistinguishable in the crowd.
Perak's chief minister, Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin, initially refused to leave his office despite the Sultan’s orders and delivered a fiery speech with promises to defend democracy and his office.
Undeterred, and with lighting speed, the Sultan appointed Zambry Abdul Kadir as the new chief minister after the Barisan announced that it had not only the support of 28 state lawmakers but three independents who quit the opposition coalition.
The reaction on the sudden appointment was immediate. After Friday prayers, thousands of rank and file members of Pakatan Rakyat marched onto the palace in Kuala Kangsar. Field Reserve Unit troops fired tear gas at them. Women and children who took shelter in the mosque, were among those harmed.
One lone protestor stepped in front of a black Mercedes with heavily tinted windows. His stance of trying to halt the car from reaching the palace was reminiscent of the student holding up the tank in Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
The very people who should have acted in the interest of democracy and in the interest of the rakyat did not. They failed the rakyat.
Documents and personal belongings were removed from the Chief minister’s office. Nobody knows who removed them and under whose instruction. Was it the long arm of Putrajaya?
That dark period of Perak’s history was followed by a protracted crisis of a state with 2 chief ministers, 2 speakers and a tree which came to represent democracy. The forced removal of the state speaker and other sinister behind-the-scenes moves may be consigned to history.
But 6 February 2009 is Perak’s political coup.
So when Muhyiddin and other BN leaders say that the claims by PAS about BN staging a coup are pure malice and lies, maybe they should consult the history books and look under ‘Perak’.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.