Being out of sync with reality

The country’s peace and stability is at stake but BN remains engrossed with its pet project BR1M and ways and means to stay in power.

COMMENT

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin says ruling party Barisan Nasional has successfully preserved the country’s harmony and peace and provided comfort for the people.

And for this reason, BN can be relied upon to live up to its promises, hence the need for it to win the next general election.

For one, the deputy premier and education minister is out of sync with reality. And he has also taken to day dreaming.

To begin with, no credit can be given to BN for maintaining peace and harmony back home. As for comfort, the rakyat can vouch for the poorly planned infrastructures and the pigeon-holed PPR flats.

It is no secret that BN desperately wants to win the coming 13th GE. For that reason alone the federal government has resorted to money politics under the pretext of allocations for schools or mosques or markets.

To make claims of BN being instrumental in restoring harmony in the country is one big lie.

Had the nation’s peace and harmony been BN’s priority, both prime minister Najib Tun Razak and Muhyiddin would have taken insurgents like Ibrahim Ali, founder of the Malay rights group Perkasa to task for threatening peace and stability in the country.

Similarly, both the PM and DPM would not have wasted time in reprimanding the Suara Wanita 1Malaysia chief Sharifah Zohra Jabeen and Wanita Umno member Norhayati Saidin, for their racist remarks.

While Ibrahim, the MP for Pasir Mas has urged Muslims to burn the Malay Bibles which contain the word “Allah” under the guise that he is protecting the sanctity of Islam, Sharifah was at her worst behaviour when she attended a forum at Universiti Utara Malaysia last month, turning unruly and racist towards a student seeking answers to her question on ‘free education in Malaysia”.

But neither Ibrahim nor Sharifah bore the brunt of their actions. Likewise, Norhayati who insulted the Indian community for “not knowing what a toilet was until BN came into power” was also not dealt with severely by BN chief Najib Tun Razak.

Trouble brew long ago

The fact that the pro-Umno racist politicians are never rebuked by the “powers that be” is proof that the likes of Ibrahim, Sharifah and Norhayati have BN/Umno’s blessings in all that they too.

As for the rakyat, they should stop hoping for a miracle in the form of a redeemed BN. Muyhiddin meanwhile should cease making a fool of himself for being utterly ignorant about the country’s status quo where peace and harmony go.

To trust BN with the country’s administration is a blunder the rakyat cannot afford to make, not when BN has revealed its true colours by not speaking up for the non-Malay residents of this country.

If truth be told, Malaysia’s harmony and peace were in “trouble” a long time ago and BN never bothered learning the bitter lessons from the May 13, 1969 racial riots.

Four decades later, the inter-faith issues in this country still rile up the rakyat. Why?

BN’s desperate but the rakyat’s not

The 2008 general election that shamed BN remains as a fear factor for the ruling government. Not wanting to take chances, Muhyiddin has promised that the Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia (BR1M) will become a regular aid for the rakyat if and only if they help BN win the coming GE.

In other words, if the people need assistance on a long term basis, they can only depend on BN and not the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

Is this how a committed government behaves towards its people, holding them at ransom and threatening to deny them help?

Looks like Muhyiddin is unable to distinguish the forest from the trees; it then explains why he is unaffected by the recent show of racism coming from within Umno.

Or has the ultra-Melayu Muhyiddin made Ibrahim, Norhayati and Sharifah his proxies to promote the Malay agenda at the expense of oppressing the non-Malays and denying them their rights?

An unheard group branding itself as Pasukan Bertindak Anti-Bible Bahasa Melayu has marked Jan 27 to gather Muslims in a “festival” to burn Malay-language Bibles in Butterworth.

The country’s peace and stability is at stake but BN remains engrossed with its pet project BR1M and ways and means to stay in power.

And Muhyiddin dare claim BN is the saviour of peace and harmony in this country?

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.