PM’s dilemma

by Dr Hsu

Almost everyone I meet these days are angry. They are angry not because of the traffice jams, which have become a part of our life and has already been factored in any activities that we undertake.

They are angry because of the cowgate affairs. They are angry because of the greed displayed. And I do meet a lot of people from all levels in the course of my work.

Just yesterday, a sales representatives from a GLC linked pharmaceuticals was asking me why things have become so bad, and why have our leaders become so greedy. He professed to be a former BN supporter, and now he swears that he would not vote them again– another case of anything but Big Nanny . A small trader who was formerly a MakeCowAngry’s branch chairman has stopped become active and said that he would vote for change this time.

With the sentiments so against them because of this cow business, I doubt whether the cowgirl would last long. Even the Old Horse has asked her to leave. An FT strongman-minister has already been slated to contest in her former area, but his chance of winning is not bright either.

But just asking the cowgirl to leave is not enough. There must be accountability . This is Rakyat’s money and the government must come clean on this and be transparent about the whole thing, which even the Auditor General has called a mess. Otherwise, it has to bear the consequence of losing more political support.

This has thrown the whole election thing into uncertainty. The most touted date , March 2012, may not see any election after all.

The danger is that the longer the government waits to call the next GE, the more scandals may be exposed. On top of that, economic outlook may not be as good as predicted. So the top leader is really facing a tough choice, a dilemma indeed.

One of the major parties in Sarawak is facing internal fight which has proved to be more vicious than fighting outside enemies. This has all along been the features in component parties, since in the past, whoever wins would have all the goodies waiting for him and his team. Often it is winners-take-all, so whenever there is party fight, it would be afight to the end–”‘political death’ that is. In such fights, all tactics would be used, including manipulating branches, delegates , phanton members, back stabbing and character assasination. In the morning, they may be good friends and calling each other “Sdra”, later in the day, the knives would be out for each other’s throat, figuratively speaking.. Since these people are officially members of component parties, they have no qualm to use underhand tactics; as long as both sides are supporters of Big Brother, little action would be taken against them. It also suits the big Brother in normal times to have as vicious a fight as possible, since it would be easier to apply divide and rule tactic.

But when a GE is coming, such fight is taboo. That is why for most component parties, their party elections have been postponed just to avoid such divisive fight.

So the fight in Sarawak’s party comes in the wrong time, and even though this party is already half dead and command not much of support, other parties in the state would still be dependent on it to deliver some ethnic Chinese votes. With this party so split, the already diminshed Chinese votes would be even more elusive.

My guess is that with such scenario, Big Nanny may not call election in March, but rather in the second half of the year.