As clear as crystal!

by Dr Hsu

Many government leaders often asked why the urban crowds have not given them the support since 308.

The reason is very simple. Just look at the MRT land acquisition ordeal the last few days, and they should know what is wrong.

Many a time, and I have lost count, when there is a project, it is not meant for the people, it is meant for the interests of some parties.

In fact, a former parliamentary secretary who is now helping a opposition-ruled state , has told me before he quit BN that it has become a culture that the planning and conceiving of project is not for the interest of the people, but rather how to let certain parties benefit from this.

“If there is no project, there is no way to ‘masuk’ ” and this has become the mentality.

Coming abck to the MRT project, it is now becoming crystal clear that it has intended to use land acquisition of some of the golden plots in the city to fund the building of MRT, and with this funding, there will definitely be leakages and wastages, and everybody would be happy..

The ‘land grab’, as coined by the opposition, also showed up glaringly how weak and how minor the component parties’ role has become.

If it is during the 60s, and Tun Tan Siew Sin goes to a government body and asks them to reconsider some project, it would be like an order and the order would have been considered and complied with.

Just the other day, BFM did an interview with Tun Sambathan’s daughter, in their run up of the series “the daughters of Merdeka”, the daughter mentioned that on one occasion, his father as a minister has to write a one-and-half page letter to Tun Tan requesting and explaining why he needed a fund of RM 175.00 as compensation to Tan Sri Khaw Kai Boh (another minister) , whose car was knocked by a vehicle belonging to Tun Sambathan’s department.

This showed the integrity of the politicians at that time, even though we may not have agreed with many of these people’s (Tunku. TUN Tan, TUN SAMbathan etc) policies, their integrity was beyond doubt. Even Tun Razak had declined an allocation of RM70,000 to build a swimming pool at his residence, and asked that the money be spent in a more fruitful way.

So coming back to this topic. The head of a component party, a person involved in a sex scandal before, led a group of people affected and saw the head of SPAD, a former minister who is now in charge of the MRT project.. After the meeting, he happily announced that he has succeeded in helping the people of chinatown secure their land holdings. He thought he could become a hero now, only to find out that he was more a ‘bear’ than hero.

The next moment, he was rebuked, and the former minister now in charge of SPAD announced that nothing has been decided yet.

This incident showed glaringly the impotence of the component party. Even a Has Been of the Big Brother yields more power than a present head of a component party, one of whose member is the Minister of Transport, a position that supposedly oversees the SPAD.

So that is what is wrong with the whole BN. That is why the urban crowds do not give support to BN parties. How to fight a war when you are not even given bullets. How to move when you are not given the space.. This is exactly the point that I often told my leaders when I was a member of my former party. This is exactly why I asked them to pull out from the coalition and go back to their role as opposition.

When the big brother does not even give tiny space for the little brothers to breathe, how do you expect the little brothers to survive. .

We all know how difficult it is to buy a lot in Bukit Bintang. Looking at newspaper advertisement, very rarely you see someone advertising to sell a shop in Bukit Bintang.

Most who own properties there can just sleep and shake legs, and live off the rentals collected, since rentals are very high there. No one in their right mind would sell their properties in BBintang, unless they emigrate, or lose heavily in Sentosa or the Sands.

So you see what I mean here.

So in one move, golden land right in the centre of the city (the equivalent of Time Square in Manhattan) which is so difficult to buy can now be used in the name of development for certain interests.. that of the funding of MRT and the likely accompaniment of leakages and wastages.

Who cares if’ ‘Make Chinese Angry’ is shown to be so impotent even Viagra won’t help; who cares if Little brothers all ‘die’ in the next election; who cares if hundred years history and heritage is destroyed; who cares even if BN loses power because of that… Laughing to the bank is the most important thing, dude!