The Ox, Dragon and GE

Despite what the mainstream English papers are extolling about the BN government, its glossing over of contentious issues is not going down well with the rakyat.

COMMENT

There have been many reports in the mainstream English newspapers highlighting the confidence of the BN federal government in relation to the 13th general election.

Several of the pumped up headlines read as follows: “BN confident of capturing Kelantan”, “BN confident Perak will remain with BN”, “BN confident of wresting back Selangor” and “BN confident that the voters are returning to BN”. If this is the prevalent mood in BN, then why is Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak still yet to dissolve Parliament?

Have the newspapers become the mouthpiece of the government spouting only BN’s “syiok sendiri” statements? All those statements are not so true and should be taken with a pinch of salt. The only thing worth buying the papers for are cinema listings, at least that is accurate.

Word has gone round that despite the fantastic sounding reports in the mainstream papers, Najib is still not confident of doing well in the polls and therefore will probably not hold the election in March this year after all.

There are several reasons for this:-

1. The power of the Ox – in Chinese metaphysics, the Ox is a stubborn and resilient character prone to having a foul temper when provoked. This has become true in the Feedlot fiasco which has stubbornly refuse to die down despite attempts by those involved to avoid answering questions on this matter.

Moreover, more and more informative details kept coming to the surface and this has provoked the lady at the centre of the saga to act like a raging bull by attacking those in the opposition in an unprofessional and uncouth manner. She has stubbornly reiterated her innocence and insisted on staying put, thereby also stubbornly ignoring all calls to step down. She is certainly one very resilient lady.

Throughout it all, Najib has maintained an “elegant silence” knowing that Malay support could erode due to this issue. Thus far, Umno leaders campaign to the rural folk by saying that these informative details brought up by the opposition is a grand design to topple Umno.

2. The civil service new remuneration scheme – the civil service consists of 1.4 million workers which the federal government regards as its vote bank. Currently many of the civil service workers in the lower grades are unhappy with the new remuneration scheme and this seriously needs to be sorted out before the polls are held.

3. Felda – The listing of Felda Global Ventures Berhad on the Bursa Saham Kuala Lumpur – the federal government is trying to convince the Felda settlers that this listing is for their own good saying that the settlers will be getting much more profits. Once the settlers are sufficiently convinced, the polls will be held. So much for the “hot potato” Malay issues.

4. White angpow – it is just a coincidence that this item is at No. 4 which in the Cantonese dialect is “sei” which means “death”. At first BN was making some headway among some of the rural Chinese voters with the RM500 cash aid but this has been nullified by the white angpow fiasco which has been blamed on MCA. No wonder many Chinese refer to MCA as Make Chinese Angry. Some Chinese interpret the white angpow fiasco as a warning, telling the Chinese not to vote the opposition.

After this incident, Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers’ open houses received more support than last year. Among those open houses which received tremendous support were those hosted by PKR Batu MP Tian Chua in Jinjang Selatan; DAP Canning state assemblyman Wong Kah Woh in Ipoh; and PAS Kuala Selangor MP Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad in his constituency.

Najib’s faults and foibles there for all to see

5. The Black March – in addition to the angpow fiasco, the Chinese community especially the property and business owners in Jalan Sultan in Chinatown, KL are unhappy with the government. They want the MRT route to be re-aligned instead of tunnelling works being done under their properties, some of which are more than 100 years old.

This will inevitably cause instability to the foundation of their properties. A similar situation also affects the property and business owners in Jalan Bukit Bintang resulting in The Black March taking place from Jalan Sultan to Jalan Bukit Bintang on Feb 1, 2012 during the Chinese New Year season.

Property and business owners wore black and marched from Jalan Sultan to Jalan Bukit Bintang to voice their protest on this matter. During Chinese New Year, it is taboo for the Chinese to wear black unless attending funerals and the marchers willingness to wear black is a clear indication that they are unhappy with the government.

6. The Teoh Beng Hock issue – the Chinese are also unhappy that no action has been taken against the three officers who interrogated Teoh right into the wee hours of the morning. T-shirts of the late Teoh’s face in white against a black background has become iconic.

7. Perak power-grab masterminded by BN – the Chinese in Perak have certainly not forgotten this and recently some of them also wore black to commemorate three years of the power-grab incident in a gathering with Pakatan lawmakers held under the Democracy Tree. So much for Chinese black-and-white politics.

8. Garland issue – going by the comments on the internet, many Indians are unhappy that the garland for the PM and his wife overshadowed the garland for Lord Muruga during the recent Thaipusam festival.

Najib’s lifeline is the RM500 cash aid but his blunders with regard to how he handled the Feedlot issue, the white angpow issue and the garland issue have dented his support pretty badly. Many voters can see his faults and foibles.

All in all, it shows that despite what the mainstream English papers are saying, the support for the BN government is not guaranteed from the three major races from all walks of life. For the Chinese especially, too much water has gone under the bridge and BN can forget about Chinese support.

The die is cast with the white angpow incident. Ground reports also indicate that Chinese support for the opposition is about 80%. Further to that, this is the year of the Water Dragon symbolising courage and change. The Water Dragon rising up from the ocean bringing with it a tsunami wave of change appeals to the Chinese who are all fired up to go for change in this year of the Dragon.

Najib should have called for the polls last year during the year of the Rabbit – a much milder and gentler creature. The time has passed for Najib and that is why he is having difficulty in calling for the general election.

Still, he will now go all out to woo the Malay vote in an aggressive manner. As they say, we live in interesting times.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.