Selangor already fallen to BN!

Will recent events concerning the re-drawn boundaries in Selangor indicate that the coming polls is going to be a sham of an election?

COMMENT

Recent reports received from this columnist’s friends in PAS have revealed the inevitable – Selangor has already fallen into the hands of BN.

Why is this so? Well, besides the dirty voter rolls, recently even the parliamentary and state constituencies in Selangor have had their boundaries re-drawn, said this columnist’s friends in the Selangor PAS committee tasked with overseeing the preparations for the 13th general election.

Now what is to be done? Of course police reports have been made besides forwarding evidence to the Election Commission (EC) who must remain professional, ethical and honest at all times in carrying out their duties in order to serve the interests of the public by working for the good of the citizens.

But will recent events concerning the re-drawn boundaries indicate that the coming polls is going to be a sham of an election?

Those who say that Malaysia has a vibrant democracy are merely being economic on the truth. The only thing vibrant is the compliant media’s unjust bashing of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) and the rampant crime and corruption going on.

And it bears repeating that the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat state government must only dissolve the State Legislative Assembly in May. Anything before that is disastrous for Pakatan.

Looking at the way that BN wants to cling on to power, then is a foretaste of events to come should they lose the 13th general election.

BN leaders have said that Pakatan will cause chaos if it loses. But what if it is BN who loses? What is their answer to that question? Have we heard them giving assurances to the rakyat by saying, “We will abide by the rakyat’s decision?”

Be that as it may, the election must and will go on. The losers must accept the verdict. The opposition have lost 12 consecutive times so for them losing is nothing new but what about those who have never tasted defeat?

For the good of the nation and the well-being of the rakyat, the losers of the forthcoming polls should work with the winners to build up the nation.

The losers must be magmanimous enough to accept defeat. If they resort to hooliganism and sabotage, then their true colours and greed for power will be revealed and show that their past slogans are empty rhetoric to hoodwink the people.

The time has come for Malaysians to move forward towards building a great nation for one and all. Otherwise we will be left far behind – stuck in the age of antiquities. It is high time we march forward to the dawn of a new civilisation of hope, peace and progress.

Winning at all cost

The case of Selangor highlights the dirty tactics of certain parties who want to win at all cost.

“There is just nothing we can do about their dirty tricks as all avenues are closed. We have raised the issue of dubious voters and instant MyKad in Parliament and in our party paper, Harakah. We have brought up the matter with the Election Commission and made the necessary police reports – all to no avail,” said PAS Kuala Selangor MP, Dzulkefly Ahmad to this columnist.

His PAS colleague and Kuala Krai MP, Hatta Ramli who will be overseeing the PAS election groundwork has informed this columnist that he has requested that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) set up to look into the problem of illegals in Sabah being given MyKad be given an extension of its workscope to include Selangor as well but the Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Liew Vui Keong (Sandakan MP) said that the problem does not exist in Selangor! And this reply was given in the recently concluded Parliament session.

Hatta also mentioned that these days the EC has discontinued the practice of furnishing figures pertaining to the number of voters registered by each political party and this is a very unhealthy move because it is a lack of transparency.

Certainly no help will be forthcoming as the current government itself is denying the very existence of this problem in Selangor.

“Definitely the few hundred thousand dubious names in the Selangor voter rolls is a worrying factor but as I have said earlier, we have exhausted all avenues. The problem has been brought up in the Parliamentary Select Committee for Electoral Reform and each time we from the Pakatan side raise this issue, the EC will say ‘Show us the evidence’ and each time after we have shown them the evidence, they will say ‘We will look into it’ and then the matter will just end there,” added Dzulkefly.

All this simply means that Selangor is already in BN’s grasp. It is only a matter of an official announcement by the EC.

The way the incumbent government runs the whole show via its iron grip on all the national institutions certainly cannot be justified.

“The country is run in such a manner as if it is BN’s own family concern,” remarked Dzulkefly.

This time we have a viable opposition coalition capable of good governance and therefore this is the best time for Malaysian voters to decide wisely. The BN leaders always harp on the fact that the opposition has no experience in governing a country and thus should not be given a chance to do so but this is indeed an extremely stupid line of reasoning.

Of course the opposition has no experience in governing the country simply because the opposition has never occupied the federal seat of power.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.