Can we trust BN again?

How could Samy Velly sing praises of Najib when the latter has failed to deal with pertinent issues involving the Indian community?

COMMENT

With the country in election mode, the time is ripe to reject all the “dead wood” that disguised themselves as leaders and representatives of the rakyat.

Notwithstanding the assurances and promises made by these politicians, voters must be extremely savvy in deciding the best candidate to lead the nation.

Take, for example, the call made by former MIC president S Samy Vellu who is urging the rakyat in general and the Indian community in particular to support and re-elect Najib Tun Razak as the prime minister.

Samy Vellu’s warped view of how Barisan Nasional has been treating the rakyat is not baffling, going by the fact that Samy Vellu, who was the second longest-serving Cabinet minister until he lost his Sungai Siput parliamentary seat in the 2008 general election, still harbours hope of returning to mainstream politics, regardless of whether the rakyat welcomes him or not.

Going by how low politicians can stoop to get into the good books of their political masters, the rakyat should continue to digest all that is said and done by allies of BN with a pinch of salt.

So taken in was Samy Vellu by Najib when the premier recently announced that BN would rectify past weaknesses in government policies involving the Indian community that he wasted no time in describing Najib as a true and honest leader.

Looks like Samy Vellu’s 30 years of political experience has failed to raise both his consciousness and conscience, that too at the expense of the rakyat.

Stop apple-polishing, Samy

How could the 77-year-old Samy Vellu sing praises of Najib when the latter has failed to deal with pertinent issues involving the Indian community, especially the never-ending deaths of Indian detainees in police lock-ups?

Does Samy Vellu, the Sungai Siput BN chief, not view the casualties involving Indians at the hands of the police as an abuse of power?

What affirmative policies and initiatives is Samy Vellu referring to when Najib has failed the Indian community time and time again and in more ways than one?

Where was Samy Vellu when two years ago 41 families of the Bukit Jalil Estate were made homeless by Kuala Lumpur City Hall?

Why was Samy Vellu quiet when Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister Raja Nong ChikZainal Abidin derided the Bukit Jalil Estate residents who turned to him for help?

And where was Samy Vellu when racist remarks were hurled at the Indians by bigots like Perkasa founder Ibrahim Ali?

Can Samy Vellu give the Indian community one decent reason as to why they should, come polling day, “flood the ballot boxes with their votes for the BN as a vote for Najib will be a vote for the future of the Indians”?

Does it not perturb Samy Vellu that Najib did nothing to stop the many Hindu temples from being relocated next to sewerage ponds as was the case of the temples in Kampung Lindungan and Banting?

Najib’s pre-election hogwash

Why should the rakyat give Najib another mandate to lead the nation when he deliberately refused to address the wrongdoings both by himself and his cabinet ministers?

Be it the Indian community in particular or the rakyat as a whole, the consensus is that Najib was too busy covering his “misdemeanours” to pay any attention to the needs of the people.

Now that the 13th general election is on its way, Najib has very conveniently asked for the rakyat’s support to help BN correct its previous mistakes.

Can Najib explain to the rakyat why those “mistakes” happened in the first place and why did he allow them to occur?

Before asking for the Indian community’s “nambikei” (trust), Najib must come clean in admitting his administration’s failure in providing a roof over every Indian’s head: over one out of eight Indian does not have a house to return to, and still Samy Vellu dares gloat about Najib and BN?

The truth is there is too much at stake for Malaysians across the board to place their trust in Najib and BN and there is no guarantee that Najib and BN have repented.

To deny BN the victory it so desperately wants is not an act of betrayal; rather it is about saving the nation and its people from ending up as collateral damage due to Najib’s reluctance to clean up his act in getting rid of the discrimination, racism and segregation that continue to harass the rakyat.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist.