NOT ALL 'frogs' are bad: Unlike Ibrahim Ali, SOME HAVE BACKBONE!

IT IS crystal clear that come the next general election (GE), Barisan Nasional (BN)’s political survival lies in whether the MCA, Gerakan and MIC can deliver crucial seats.

No one doubts Umno’s ability to rope in the Malays but that too is visibly shaky.

Yes! With Umno resorting solely to race and religion to consolidate its Malay support, perhaps not as effective in the educated urban compared with the rural, it is still only a perception.

If Umno is able to win back some of the support of the Malays who deserted it in 2008, BN-Umno also loses more of its staunch non-Malay voters.

So, will it be status quo in the next GE? That BN-Umno has regained Malay support with its racist and religious hype is, to me, just a perception? Was the March 2008 political tsunami also a perception?

Frog-breeding the main industry

Four years is a long time in politics and I have yet to be convinced that BN, particularly Umno, has changed with the times to remain politically relevant to the young Malaysians, especially post Merdeka and May 13, 1969, citizens.

Even the citizenship issue of those who migrated from China and India has become irrelevant because many have already died as non-citizens.

What I wish to focus in this posting is on Malaysians who have seen the light at the end of the tunnel.

In my previous blog posting titled “M’sian frogs, transparency, accountability and credibility” (http://victorlim1982.blogspot.com/2012/08/msian-frogs-transparency-accountability.html), I specified the three types of infamous political “frogs” in Malaysia. These are the frogs with no backbones.

They hop from one party to another and can even leap frog back. They say different things on one platform and another.

Why am I focusing on “frogs”? Political “frog” breeding will be the main industry in the next GE.

Those with backbone

However, I wish to point out another breed of “frogs”. These are the ones with the backbones which the BN will try to label and taint.

These are the ones who have seen the light at the end of the tunnel and have left the BN without hesitation and with no rewards. I do not think they fall into the category of “frogs” but the BN will choose to also label them as “frogs” to justify its backboneless “frogs” in the next GE.

I am unfamiliar with MIC politics but from the MCA and Gerakan, I can name three players whom I expect will be fielded by Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

They are former MCA vice-president Chua Jui Meng, former MCA Wanita deputy chief Dr Tan Yee Kew and former Gerakan vice-president Dr Tan Kee Kwong whose father is the late Mr Opposition Dr Tan Chee Khoon.

All three had some time ago joined and helped strengthened the multi-racial set up of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) helmed by its de factor leader Anwar Ibrahim, the former deputy premier who has paid dearly for defying the racist and tyrannical Dr Mahathir Mohamed who now leads Perkasa as its adviser.

Quit with good INTENTIONS

Mahathir is synonymous with Umno and Perkasa is synonymous with the Taliban culture. So, what have the BN coalition partners to say about the Umno-Perkasa tie-up?

Nothing! Because other than Umno in BN, all others are eunuchs! Perhaps with a slight exception of Taib Mahmud’s Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Besatu (PBB), they are no better than the backboneless “frogs” that they accepted into their fold.

Changing one’s political platform does not mean that he or she is a political “frog”. It depends on when and the circumstances.

Chua, Yee Kew and Kee Kwong all joined PKR without any conditions or promises of reward (read as money).

They did not leave with the intention of bringing down a BN government, unlike the former DAP woman “frog” who was once just a clerk in a DAP office, and now goes around driving a Mercedes Benz after bring down the duly elected PR Perak government.

And today, the MCA even has the audacity to object efforts to come up with an anti-party hopping law.

Those without backbone

If BN is so confident of the support of the people, why is it that it does not have the guts to call by-elections in “frog” territories? That is what the anti-party hopping law is about.

The people or voters elected such “frogs” based on their political beliefs and platform then. If they want to change, it is just natural and common sense to go back to the very people who elected them into office for a new mandate.

I am quite certain all the “frogs” now in BN or have declared themselves as BN-friendly (whatever that means; but I call them backboneless creatures) are viewed by BN as not winnable candidates.

If they are fielded by the BN, they will be mauled by the electorate. If they stand as Independents, they will surely lose their deposits.

But some of these frogs, like the racist and Taliban-like Ibrahim ‘Perkasa’ Ali, will be fielded by Umno because it has no choice but to reward him. Likewise, to a lesser extent, Dr Hassan ‘Jati’ Ali, the PAS turncoat or Trojon Horse might also be rewarded as well.

So, Malaysians will vote for their future in the next GE which must be held latest next June but they must also be able to identify what type of “frogs” they want – the backboneless or those with backbones in Malaysia’s world famous political “frog” breeding industry.

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