Let us not forget that despite the protests, the state governments of Kelantan, Selangor and Penang have been sworn in. So, am I to understand elections were run “legitimately” in these states and not in the rest of the country?
Adam Netto
As a Malaysian living abroad, I joined my fellow countrymen who made the trek down to respective consulates / embassies on the 28th of April 2013 to cast our vote. We had arrived at the same conclusion a while back that being thousands of miles away from the homeland would not prevent us from having our say in who should be given the reins of the country.
Sadly, though, since the 5th of May 2013, I have become more and more disillusioned with the state of politics in Malaysia. I am deeply disappointed with both sides across the political divide and I will explain why.
The protests led by Pakatan Rakyat that followed the results of the elections have been laughable. So, let me try to understand this. Pakatan Rakyat complained that the election were “rigged” to favor the ruling coalition way before the 5th of May 2013, took part nevertheless and started protesting when the results did not go their way? Personally, if I was going to place a bet and was certain beforehand that the game was “rigged”, saving myself those few dollars would be a very simple choice. Some may dispute this analogy but I believe there were two choices here. Play the game, knowing it is “rigged”, and accept the results gracefully or decide to boycott the “game” and bring world attention onto the matter. Let us not forget that despite the protests, the state governments of Kelantan, Selangor and Penang have been sworn in. So, am I to understand elections were run “legitimately” in these states and not in the rest of the country?
Another issue that has been eating at me is the Lahad Datu incursion that occurred shortly before the elections which resulted in the unfortunate loss of life of our servicemen. We were given daily updates by all local news outlets and then all that stopped. What has happened since? Were we not technically at a “state of war”? Have they captured all remaining intruders? Are we looking to extradite their leader in Philippines? What are we doing to prevent something similar reoccurring? Instead of spending his time running around the country organizing protest rallies, should not the leader of the Opposition be asking these very important questions?
The protests led by Pakatan Rakyat that followed the results of the elections have been laughable. So, let me try to understand this. Pakatan Rakyat complained that the election were “rigged” to favor the ruling coalition way before the 5th of May 2013, took part nevertheless and started protesting when the results did not go their way? Personally, if I was going to place a bet and was certain beforehand that the game was “rigged”, saving myself those few dollars would be a very simple choice. Some may dispute this analogy but I believe there were two choices here. Play the game, knowing it is “rigged”, and accept the results gracefully or decide to boycott the “game” and bring world attention onto the matter. Let us not forget that despite the protests, the state governments of Kelantan, Selangor and Penang have been sworn in. So, am I to understand elections were run “legitimately” in these states and not in the rest of the country?
Another issue that has been eating at me is the Lahad Datu incursion that occurred shortly before the elections which resulted in the unfortunate loss of life of our servicemen. We were given daily updates by all local news outlets and then all that stopped. What has happened since? Were we not technically at a “state of war”? Have they captured all remaining intruders? Are we looking to extradite their leader in Philippines? What are we doing to prevent something similar reoccurring? Instead of spending his time running around the country organizing protest rallies, should not the leader of the Opposition be asking these very important questions?
On the other side of the political divide, the ruling coalition has been given a fresh mandate. Instead of putting the elections behind them and using this mandate to chart a path forward for Malaysia in very challenging economical times, all component parties of the ruling coalition are more interested in upcoming party elections.
Pray tell, who is running the country?
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.