We must not be stupid

Will the voters have the courage and intelligence to make the change to a new management team or will the stupidity syndrome still continue to hold sway?

COMMENT

No one for sure can predict who will win the 13th general election although the Barisan Nasional seems to have the edge due to the dirty voter rolls.

Anyway if BN wins again, then Malaysia will herald the rise of stupidity! No, you don’t think so? These two instances come to mind, examples furnished by two prominent BN politicians, one of whom is now a former minister as she has relinquished her ministerial post.

She was the one who had said that she was in the dark pertaining to her spouse’s business activities while a current BN minister said he does not sleep with his son.

These are stupid statements that display the obvious stupidity of the owner of such statements who must think that the rakyat will be just as stupid to swallow them hook, line and sinker.

Well, if we believe their stupid statements and continue to vote them in, then we are just as stupid. And we can continue to expect more of the same stupidity being doled out to us for who knows until when.

There is a saying by an anonymous person which goes like this: “An intelligent person can see another intelligent person’s intelligence but a stupid person will fail to see another stupid person’s stupidity.”

This simply means that if we continue to vote in politicians who give us stupid responses and excuses, then we are equally stupid because we fail to see their stupidity.

Another stupid matter that has happened recently this month was the ruling made by Dewan Rakyat Speaker Pandikar Amin Mulia that the public cannot use the Parliament’s press conference facilities. Among members of the public who have made use of the these facilities are:

1. The late Customs officer Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed’s family members who had wanted to know the exact circumstances of his death outside the MACC office in Jalan Cochrane, KL;

2. Rafizi Ramli (PKR strategist) who revealed details of the Cowgate saga;

3. A factory owner who complained about his RM1 million plus electricity bill;

4. Dong Zong which spoke about some matters pertaining to Chinese education; and

5. The Jalan Sultan property owners who had wanted the MRT line to be re-aligned to Jalan Tun Tan Cheng Lock.

Many more examples abound but the above are enough to illustrate the point that there are all sorts of grouses being brought to Parliament. Why bar the people’s voices from the people’s Parliament?

Pakatan reps are not stupid

Compared to the BN politicians, the politicians from Pakatan Rakyat are not so stupid.

Below is a list of Pakatan MPs who have never made any stupid statement although they give regular press conferences in Parliament and go for a good number of ceramahs and public forums. Therefore they have a 100% clean record:

PAS:

1. Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor MP)

2. Khalid Samad (Shah Alam MP)

3. Mahfuz Omar (Pokok Sena MP)

4. Mujahid Yusuf Rawa (Parit Buntar MP)

5. Hatta Ramli (Kuala Krai MP)

PKR:

1. Rafizi Ramli (will be contesting for a Parliament seat in the coming polls)

2. William Leong (Selayang MP)

3. R. Sivarasa (Subang MP)

DAP:

1. Gobind Singh Deo (Puchong MP)

2. M. Manogaran (Teluk Intan MP)

3. Lim Lip Eng (Segambut MP)

4. Tan Seng Giaw (Kepong MP)

5. Tan Kok Wai (Cheras MP)

Those Pakatan MPs who have not made it to the above list is not because they have said anything stupid but it is either because they rarely give press conferences, or are not as active in public forums or have had their statements twisted by their political foes or some ever-compliant media.

Generally those citizens who stay in urban areas with Internet access and still want to vote for the incumbent government are stupid and lazy to get themselves informed in order to be able to exercise their grey cells a bit more. This is because if we think a bit, we can easily see through BN’s game.

The giving of book vouchers to school and university students, RM500 cash aid to households earning below RM3,000, smartphone rebate for youths, RM250 to singletons is all because BN wants to inject the feel-good factor before the polls.

Actually the prevalent view in the Facebook page “Road To Putrajaya” is that the rakyat should grab these handouts but vote for Pakatan. After all, this money is the rakyat’s own money and not the money of the BN politicians. So, why not?

No reason to be grateful

The BN cybertroopers, on the other hand, have said that the recipients must be grateful for these cash handouts and vote for BN. But there is no reason for us to be grateful when all we are getting is our very own money anyway.

We must not be stupid. The government is merely the stewards tasked with taking good care of our money and to utilise it for the public good.

However, this columnist knows of urban folks who are very afraid that if Pakatan comes to power, the RM500 cash aid will be stopped. This is a stupid idea.

If Pakatan comes to power, the cash aid can still continue as the government is the management of a nation similar to the management of a company. The company may see a change in management but the company still goes on operating and the workers still continue to receive their wages.

As such, why not change to a better management?

It must be said, however, that cash handouts enjoyed by the rakyat under the BR1M programme is given out at a great cost and soon we, the rakyat, will have to repay it via the GST (goods and services tax) which will be levied on all and sundry. Even the poor will not be spared.

We will see in the coming 13th general election whether the rakyat has the courage and intelligence to make the change to a new management team or whether the stupidity syndrome will still continue to hold sway over the majority of the citizens.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.