Time for BN to walk the talk

The holiday is over and BN must start implementing the promises in its manifesto before it loses all credibility with the people.

COMMENT

Pakatan Rakyat won 52% of the popular vote compared to 48% by BN despite MEF (Massive Electoral Fraud). It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to tell you that Pakatan deserves to be the government of the day.

Not only has it come as a rude shock to Barisan Nasional, it is also a terrible shame for BN to comprehend it has lost the popularity vote count.

Fifty two percent of Malaysians actually believed in Pakatan Rakyat’s vision of a democratic nation, free from tyranny and corruption. It is a stunning vision that embraces racial unity, meritocracy, equal rights and individual freedoms.

But no, Barisan Nasional went on to win 133 seats despite being the minority. A two-party rule is firmly in place, which signals the end of BN’s unchallenged single party rule.

BN is still reeling in shock but it refuses to come to terms that the people have sent a strong message to BN to shape up or shift out.

But the message is loud and clear…the majority of Malaysians do not endorse BN.

A disastrous showing

Component parties MCA, MIC and Gerakan were decimated in the polls because they lost the trust of the people.

How Umno managed to pull through is anyone’s guess. Misbehaving political misfits have met their demise and have been packed off by the voters without any regrets.

Those who scraped through like Liow Tiong Lai, Chua Tee Yong, G Palanivel, etc. know how precarious their positions are.

Despite Umno’s claim of a Chinese tsunami, the Chinese did not vote against Umno. Standing alone, Umno would have probably gotten the Chinese votes. Fielding the MCA, MIC and Gerakan against the people’s wishes, Malaysians had no choice but to vote Pakatan.

The election is over and it is time for BN to walk the talk and administer the country and implement the promises in its manifesto before it loses all credibility with the people.

The holiday is over, so stop stalling and pulling long faces with flimsy excuses. Get back to work and steer the nation out of its economic predicament and reunite the nation before it becomes a racial tinderbox.

High on the agenda is the BR1M of RM1,200 a year which Malaysians are waiting anxiously for its disbursement.

Secondly, the finance minister must oversee the rot on our runaway national debt before it bankrupts the nation. Thirdly, the new minister for women’s affairs better start working before women’s rights erode to the point of no return.

The mainstream media should be given the freedom to report objectively before Malaysians give up on them totally. Leaders or ex-leaders who espouse extremism, fomenting extremism or seditious remarks should not be given any coverage.

Stop the blame game

BN must stop explaining itself any further or shifting the blame on to the people. Cut out the racial overtures and stop fomenting racial hatred.

How can Najib Tun Razak say that he is a prime minister for all races, but keep on stoking the flames of racism?

Malaysians aren’t racists. There is a deep respect for each other among all the races in this country and they know that politicians are artificially stirring racial conflicts for their own personal agenda to divide the people.

It will not work and it has backfired badly and caused BN to lose the people’s trust.

It was the likes of Perkasa and Utusan Malaysia’s inflammatory rhetoric that pushed the Chinese into a corner.

Everyone knows what that outcome would be except sleepy BN. BN chose to stand aside to enjoy the show from a distance as the Chinese were humiliated and their rights gradually eroded.

The Chinese abandoned BN for the DAP, while Malays continued to vote Umno and the Indians voted for BN. That’s the message being whispered in the rural villages.

No one in the hinterlands has a need to know that the majority voted for Pakatan. BN continues to be invincible against all odds.

And just minutes after BN announced that it has garnered a simple majority, Najib quickly attributed BN’s reduced mandate to a Chinese tsunami.

Utusan Malaysia then went on a relentless campaign to highlight the issue, totally disregarding Malaysian sensitivities to blame disloyal Chinese for abandoning BN.

With a dubious mandate to rule for another term and the opportunity to start on a clean slate, BN chose to let off a torrent of racist remarks to justify their poor showing in the polls.

Malaysians are still shaking their heads in disbelief at the raw childish vindictiveness of BN. One would have expected BN to thank the people profusely for the new mandate and vow never to disappoint the people again, but instead they are resorting to threats and fear mongering to divide the people again.

It looks like BN is not going to discard its divide and rule policies, and its haughtiness to show its disgust at Malaysians are amplified by MIC, MCA and Gerakan leaders who readily echo Najib’s stance of a Chinese tsunami.

Racial issues are still being played out with mosques warning Malay Muslims that we are on the threshold of becoming a people who are scorned in our own country if Umno loses power.

Political rejects like Hassan Ali, Ali Rustam, Puad Zarkashi, Ezam Md Noor who were nullified by the people are still appearing on prime time news to scorn the people for being misguided pawns of Pakatan.

National reconciliation?

No amount of reconciliation will solve the political deadlock if BN and Umno continue to be in a state of denial, refusing to admit their failures or discard their divide and rule policies.

To reconcile, BN needs to come to terms that its dinosaur policies are seriously outdated and has failed to impress the majority of Malaysians.

Its failure to recognise meritocracy, national unity and equal rights have caused the majority to sympathise with Pakatan.

However, Pakatan is the least of its problems, and BN needs to cut out the cancerous tumours clinging on like parasites to its body eating away at the core and soul of BN.

Maybe, it is time for Umno to have a new leader, as the last one has failed BN and the country miserably.

Failing to rein in Perkasa and Utusan, both having wrought havoc on the tender strings that bind our racial unity, these two establishments have done a terribly good job unintentionally aiding Pakatan in its quest to secure the peoples mandate.

Gerakan president Koh Tsu Koon has resigned. There are calls for the MCA and the MIC presidents to vacate their respective posts. When is Umno going to turn on Najib?

Maybe, it is best summed up by former Kelantan Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat’s who said that to preserve peace and harmony, Umno should seriously consider joining the Pakatan instead.

Tour consultant, sports pilot and naturalist Iskandar Dzulkarnain has been writing a few years now. He is a FMT columnist.