Is the PM not wise enough?

If PM Najib does indeed dissolve Parliament in May, he does so at his own peril as it just goes to plainly show that he does not respect the citizens.

COMMENT

In the science of Chinese astrology, there is a star called ‘Do Stupid Thing star’. If a person has this star in his astrological chart at a certain point in time, he will do something stupid although he may think it is the best and wisest decision in the whole wide world.

On April 28, 2012, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak may have been afflicted by the ‘Do Stupid Thing star’ because if he had allowed the Bersih 3.0 sit-in to go on peacefully on Dataran Merdeka, he would have scored many brownie points among the fence-sitter voters.

All he has to do is to set the simple rule that the participants must start dispersing at 4pm instead of passing the buck to the KL mayor to declare the place off-limits.

This columnist’s friend who works at a budget hotel in KL had European tourists asking her questions such as these in a very surprised tone of voice:

1. ‘Why did the government disallow the participants from gathering at the field?’ and

2. ‘What is wrong with gathering at the field?’

To any sane and logical person, a gathering at the field presents an opportunity for a picnic in an atmosphere of camaraderie among fellow-Malaysians from all walks of life and is just an afternoon for a walk in the park, so to speak. But it has turned horribly into a day of dicing with danger.

Clearly, PM Najib was not thinking correctly on April 28. He must realise that this is the era of Facebook and YouTube and pictures can be snapped and uploaded instantly unlike in the 1960s wherein news events can be easily covered up.

News in this day and age spread like wildfire and recently this columnist received a text message saying that Parliament will be dissolved on Monday May 14, and polling will be on Saturday June 9.

A check with friends also revealed that they have received this same text message. Is this a prank to tax Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) time and resources?

Nevertheless, if PM Najib does indeed dissolve Parliament in May, he does so at his own peril as it just goes to plainly show that he does not respect the citizens at all because he has chosen to ignore our demands for a free and fair election.

He is in effect showing his utmost contempt for us by treating us as rubbish; as if the voice of those gathered for the Bersih rally do not matter.

Hello, Mr. Prime Minister, what about your slogan of ‘People First’? Is that rubbish too? From here we can sum up that the PM despite all his mind-numbing rhetoric does not give two hoots to the wishes of the rakyat.

If BN wins the polls via the votes of more than three million dubious voters, then what we have is a massive electoral fraud. If it does happen, does it mean that ‘fake votes has installed a fake government’?

Gentlemanly thing to do

PM Najib should not call for the polls until the voter rolls are cleaned up. That is the gentleman thing to do in order to ensure a fair contest.

As it is, it is now a very uneven playing field favouring the BN federal government because the mainstream media especially the newspapers are controlled by BN and they are getting worse and worse by the day due to the increasingly heavy volume of venomous propaganda spewing forth daily.

Thus the credibility of the PM together with the mainstream media is doubtful to put it mildly; although Malaysians who do not access the internet are still living in a dark tunnel oblivious to real events going on around them.

As the well-known saying goes: ‘ignorance is bliss’.

Back to the 13th general election, if PM Najib does indeed decide to hold the polls next month, then it is obvious that he just wants to bulldoze the polls through in the same manner that he had bulldozed through all those eight bills in Parliament on April 19 until the session lasted into 3.20am the following day.

Be that as it may, even if he wins at the ballot box via dubious means, will he be able to sit down comfortably as the PM once the submarine case gets going on in the French court?

Moreover he will have to contend with a tarnished image as the winner of rigged polls. Leaders of other nations will also not look at him with a favourable light due to his wild and crazy accusation that Malaysian citizens who only demand for free and fair elections are out to topple him.

These world leaders will know then that there is a basis for the citizens’ demands.

The day of reckoning will come. The drama does not end at the ballot box nor at the counting centres.

Brace yourself for the Malaysian movie blockbuster of the year called ‘September Monsoon: The Dragon Also Rises’. We are indeed living in interesting times, as the Chinese saying goes.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.