WE ARE NOT IN POLITICS TO EXPERIMENT

KOTA KINABALU: The opposition is going to contest the GE13 not for the purpose of experimenting with a new government to save the country, says State Reform Party ( STAR ).

Its Deputy Chairman, Daniel John Jambun, said in a statement here that it is ridiculous for the Chief Minister to tell the opposition and the people not to experiment with a new government as if the opposition leaders are in politics to play a silly kid’s game.

“We are here in a serious struggle to fight for change by fighting it out the polls to oust the BN from power,” Jambun said. “We know it’s high time the BN leaves Putrajaya after decades of power abuses.”

Jambun said the BN has been mismanaging the country to the point that Malaysia has been suffering from a lot of horrendous problems, so many and so big that the list of frightful problems can fill up many thick books.

“We are aware that the BN, in desperation, is trying very hard to hoodwink the people by telling the people that the prospect of the opposition taking over Putrajaya is something to be afraid of,” he said. “They keep saying that such a possibility will spell disaster for the country, that the opposition is not capable to govern.

“Now they are using a new psychological twist with the likes Tun Mahathir, Datuk Hajiji and other leaders telling us that there is no need to change the government. We know this is a huge lie and a con talk when we remind ourselves of the frightening maladies afflicting the nation.

“The fact of the matter is we are living in a very worrying time because the Malaysia situation has deteriorated from bad to worse. We are in fact sliding down fast as a nation, perhaps towards the status of a banana republic.

“Our biggest problem is high and unmitigated corruption at the highest places. The national coffer is depleted and national debts incurred because of megaprojects with megakickbacks to leaders. There is a huge brain drain happening involving hundreds of thousands of wealthy intellectuals and techno-experts having left and leaving the country. The Prime Minister’s effort to mitigate this trend with the formation of Talent Corp has failed miserably.”

Jambun also lamented the nation’s losses through massive capital outflow which to him was of a truly frightening amount. He pointed out that according to Tax Justice Network (TJN), a London-based organisation of professionals including economists and tax consultants, Malaysia suffered a “colossal RM893 billion was siphoned out of Malaysia ’s economy into tax havens abroad between 1970 and 2010…”

“That RM893, which is reaching RM1 trillion soon, has placed Malaysia among the top 20 nation in the developing world labelled as ‘losers’ of capital flight, and the sum is more than triple that of Malaysia’s national debt total which had accumulated to RM257.2 billion by 2011.

"And speaking of national debt, we need to know that everyone of 27 million Malaysians today is technical is in debt of RM18,000, while they are also suffering from high cost of living and high unemployment. Government servants are resorting to ah longs to make ends meet, while about 100,000 graduates remain unemployed.

“Malaysia is also in danger of serious social disorder due to interracial and interreligious relations being in tatters no thanks to firebrand Malay supremacists and Islamists who bully non-Malays and non-Muslims. Religion has become a political tool and even one Sultan had come into the fray, issuing statements on religion and declaring edicts.”

Jambun warns that all these developments are happening without much checks and control by the government who seem helpless in the face of threats to national peace and harmony. He said there is selective prosecution in Malaysia , with many serious criminal and corruption cases involving Umno leaders being covered up, condoned or ignored.

“These are only a sampling of our national problems. Hence, as we in the opposition see it, we have a thousand and one reasons to change the government. We see Malaysia as a sinking nation which needs to be saved, and fast. We see Malaysians as living in deep frustrations and agony under BN’s rule. If the BN gets to rule another five years we are looking at the real prospect of the nation going bankrupt and social disorder developing into chaos.

“It is pathetic that the Prime Minister keeps singing the mantra about the nation being in great shape with transformations and a bright future when right under his nose the ground is giving way, and around him many issues, including those involving his wife, are making him and ordinary Malaysians lose sleep,” Jambun quipped. “We are here not to experiment but to save the state and the nation from collapse.”