Lies, misuse of our money and cover-ups

There is simply too much dirt that has been swept under the carpet by BN, with the help of the local authorities, like in the case of custodial deaths.

COMMENT

It has been two months since the 13th general took place. And in the 60 days since, the rakyat are witnessing the ‘incompetency’ of the Barisan Nasional federal government in calling the shots.

The incompetency aside, it is the hidden agenda of the BN government that has made the people realise that they made the right choice by lending support to opposition, Pakatan Rakyat in a big way.

While Pakatan toils to set things right, its rival BN keeps replaying the worst nightmare of the people, i.e. gay abandonly going about misusing authority and public funds.

First, there was the much-debated subject concerning the indelible ink which was used for the first time in the country’s general election, that too after great pressure from electoral reforms activists.

Then it turned out that the RM6 million spent on mysteriously purchasing the ink was actually used to buy ink that is edible!

Looks like BN never took all calls for electoral reforms, with the use of the indelible ink being one of them, seriously, going by the fact that it used eating substance to dupe voters into believing that BN was genuinely concerned about tackling the malaise of multiple voters come elections.

From the ink being hazardous to health to otherwise and now with the revelation that the ink can be licked at no ‘cost’ to one’s health has put BN in a shamefully disgusting spot.

Lies after lies to cover up the truth about the indelible ink and to hide the source who supplied it – yet Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin continues to insult the intelligence of the people by defending the Election Commission, whom the rakyat have lost all faith in.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim had at first told PAS’s Kuala Krai MP Dr Hatta Ramli that the indelible ink used during the polls contained elements of silver nitrate at the level of one per cent.

But recently, Shahidan in his written reply to DAP’s Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng declared that the indelible ink was devoid of chemicals and contained only food colouring is the final straw that has broken the camel’s back,  as far as the rakyat and their trust in the election regulator goes.

Lies, misuse of taxpayers money and cover-ups – need there be any further reason for the rakyat to demand that heads must roll at EC?

BN’s machiavellian acts not pardonable
There is simply too much dirt that has been swept under the carpet by BN, with the help of the local authorities, like in the case of custodial deaths.

When a very senior judge reproached the present Inspector-General of Police and then Selangor police chief Khalid Abu Bakar for his damning act in causing the death of a detainee, A Kugan while in police custody four years ago, there was hardly a murmur of compliment from BN or more precisely Umno over the ‘justice’ delivered by judge VT Singham.

Not only did the High Court judge find Khalid guilty for causing Kugan’s death, he also awarded the deceased’s family, a judgment which has not gone down well at all with the ‘powers that be’.

Days after delivering a damning verdict, Justice Singam decided to call it quits, claiming he wanted to take a break from the legal fraternity and the judiciary.

The rakyat, however, knows better as to who and what forced Singham to big adieu.

Previously, Justice Singham had been the target of Malay right wing group Perkasa which had cast aspersion on the judge’s sexual orientation, political leanings as well as his past judgments in an article published in its website.

Perkasa had claimed that Justice Singham was biased towards opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim in his defamation suit against Utusan Malaysia.

On Jan 21,  the judge ruled that Utusan Malaysia had defamed Anwar in two articles pertaining to the PKR leader’s interview with BBC on homosexual laws.

With an honourable judge out of the way, it  now makes it all the more easier for BN/Umno to partake in many more malfeasances.

Punish the rakyat, truth-seekers
Truth be told the rakyat does have a big, big problem with BN because the federal government under its patronage refuses to do anything by the book.

From appointing a cop who breaks the law as the nation’s police chief to denying the families of detainees’ murdered at the hands of the police any right to compensation to refusing to set up an independent agency to investigate all wrongdoings by the police, the BN government is telling the people loud and clear that it is not here to listen to their woes and to serve them; rather, it has become a case of BN ‘working for itself’.

No surprise then why Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has adopted the ‘silence is golden’ stand on all these recent events, particularly that which revealed that Khalid had a hand in Kugan’s death.

On the contrary, the rakyat are being punished for standing up for the truth, as they did in the 13th general election when they denied BN the much needed two-third victory.

From denying them an IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) to the shut down of MCA service centres to closing down Malacca’s most famous Jonker street’s weekend nightmarket better known as Jonker Walk, it is telling that the BN government has slowly but surely turned vindictive towards the rakyat, all because the people favoured truth and democracy over money politics, corruption and cronyism.

Jeswan Kaur is a freelance writer and a FMT columnist