Pakatan not all that bad

In light of the good governance practiced by Pakatan, is there any reason for the rakyat to forsake their trust in the opposition.

COMMENT

It is funny how the nation’s controversial former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad is going about canvassing support for Barisan Nasional, by urging the rakyat to avoid being swayed by racial sentiments and not be fooled by the opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat.

For Mahathir’s benefit, if a trip “down memory lane” is made, the rakyat will cringe at how Umno, the dominant party of BN played the racial card, intimidating and threatening the non-Malays.

Does Mahathir not remember the antics of Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein who waved the Malay digger or keris at the Umno general assembly, his way of warning the non-Malays to never question the issue of Malay rights and privileges jealously guarded by Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

Now, Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim has revealed that current prime minister Najib Tun Razak during his Umno Youth chief in 1987 had landed in trouble with premier Mahathir for stoking racial tension.

Why, Mahathir himself showed little respect towards the non-Malays when he sarcastically asked them to be grateful to the Malays for being given citizenship and reside in this country.

The people of this country will never forget the attack on the Christian and Sikh places of worship. Nor have they forgotten the pig head incidents that signalled that racial harmony in Malaysia has dipped to dangerous level.

“The people of Malaysia must realise this and choose their governments wisely. They must not allow racial sentiments to cloud good pragmatic common sense,” Mahathir blogged.

But until and unless Umno stops using the racial “weapon” to stake its claim as the rightful heir to this country, the rakyat must use common sense and think very, very hard in deciding which government can best administer this nation of 28 million people.

BN riddled with fiascos
In 1994, the then Malacca chief minister Abdul Rahim Thamby was charged with statutory rape of a minor. In 2008, former cabinet minister, Jamaluddin Jarjis who also served as Malaysia’s ambassador to America, was alleged to have molested a bar worker of a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

Then, there was allegation that a current minister had in 2007 raped his Indonesian domestic worker.

The rakyat also remember how the present MCA chief, Dr Chua Soi Lek in 2008 made “news” after DVD recordings of him having sex with a much younger woman started making their rounds, forcing Chua to relinquish his post as Health Minister.

Now, the heat is on another minister who the opposition claim paid a popular local actress up to RM1.5 million in four months.

The minister’s driver who quit working for the minister due to the pressure involved said the minister would meet the actress each week in hotels around Kuala Lumpur, paying her between RM100,000 and RM200,000 at each meeting.

Can the minister explain to the rakyat where did he obtain the money which he had been lavishing on the actress for the past three years?

In the face of the long-standing debauchery displayed by these BN leaders, does it make any sense for the rakyat to go on lending support to such corrupt and philandering politicians?

Pakatan not all that bad
Mahathir credits the BN partnership with the growth and stability enjoyed by Malaysia and blamed the poor leadership quality of the fifth premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as the reason why BN lost miserably in the 12th general election in 2008. And Mahathir is certain the Pakatan ally can never do what BN has done for the people.

In case Mahathir feigns ignorance, transparency and accountability have never been the hallmark of the BN administration.

During Mahathir’s autocractic rule, the Official Secrets Act was misused to hide matters and deny the rakyat the right to be informed and this enabled corruption to flourish as it was kept hidden from public scrutiny.

On the contrary, the Pakatan-controlled states in Selangor and Penang have put in place the Freedom of Information Act in order to be transparent and accountable.

And it is also no secret that during Mahathir’s 22-long years as PM, many crony politicians amassed unimaginable wealth and elected representatives and cabinet ministers declared their assets only to Mahathir for obvious reasons.

But this is not the case with the Pakatan-led states of Selangor and Penang, both which require their exco members to make public their asset declaration.

In light of the good governance practiced by Pakatan, is there any reason for the rakyat to forsake their trust in the opposition.

Twenty-two years were long enough for Mahathir to do all the damage he could. In the four years that the Pakatan pact has performed, it has shown potential and this has given the rakyat hope, something which BN never bothered doing.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.