Do they know what we want?

Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat say that the time for change is nigh – just as long as the change is for their own good – not ours!

COMMENT

We know Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat better than they know themselves.

BN ridicules the impossibility of Pakatan coalition partners working with each other within the confines of their own political ideologies. Three diametrically opposing political entities that BN hopes will be torn asunder by hudud and the realities of power sharing where race and religion, not needs, will decide who will be in government.

Pakatan is spoilt for choice. They are tripping over themselves as to what they should do next to expose the abuses and mismanagement in government by BN.

Does Pakatan start with exposing the need for greed amongst BN politicians and the corruption that goes with it or will Pakatan ‘educate’ the public on the massive abuse and misuse by BN of their political power to achieve their political agenda – that of remaining in government at all costs?

I have news for BN and Pakatan – We already know all this and more!

We know our politicians from both sides of the divide are so enamored with their own political agenda that they cannot see the forest for the trees!

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak comes up with scores of transformation initiatives that he said would make our country, our people and our economy better. Not to be outdone, Pakatan too have their proposals that they say would take away much of the economic burden of the people.

BN and Pakatan say that the time for change is nigh – just as long as the change is for their own good – not ours!

BN and Pakatan are so desperately focused on trying to win government that they fail to understand what we want.

We want honest, decent and responsible politicians in government.

We do not want politicians who lie to us, politicians who abuse the trust we place in them, politicians who takes money that does not belong to them, politicians who are arrogant, politicians who do not understand the meaning of the phrase “servants of the people” and politicians who talk of family values, devotion to religion and god even as they fornicate outside their matrimonial bonds and deliberate on how they could use god to boost their political credentials.

We know all this and we also know the reality too.

We know that when all is said and done, it is BN and Pakatan that will decide our fate and the sorry future of our nation.

Our history has always shown this to be true, whether at state or federal level. Those who have political power do as they please because they can.

So how is it that our people are able to put history aside and work towards trying to bring about change?

Why do so many of us still participate in elections that we know are flawed? Why do we tolerate the Election Commission (EC) that openly favours the incumbent BN?

How have our people been able to engage themselves in the election process with such exuberance, enthusiastically embracing their political inclinations despite knowing that in the end it is really race, religion and money that will decide the outcome of this 13th general election? Certainly money!

We do all this because we passionately believe that all that is necessary for bad government to triumph is for us to do nothing….so we must still try.

After all there are still men of principle in politics…are there not?

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.