WHO CAN LEAD MALAYSIA BETTER - NAJIB OR MAHATHIR: UMNO RUNNING SCARED BY DR M'S NEW PARTY

Come next general election, one would be forgiven if one abstained from voting, if only to save one from the headache of making the right choice.

The main question would be: will we vote because we like the party or will we vote because we hate the other party?

If one wants the present government, they would easily vote BN. If they don’t they would choose the opposition - but do not ask them whether they like the opposition. It would be more of a matter of preferring one over the other.

And it could easily be 2008 all over again - whichever way the wave goes - for the vote would be either in support or in protest of the present government.

In 2008, although the opposition coalition of Pakatan Harapan was a loosely patched up piece of cloth, the government had been bungling and seen to be weak, with the then Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dozing off on his promises (and literally) and no change in the culture of nepotism, cronyism and patronage.

Despite the opposition then being a bed of strange fellows, they seemed united in their wants for a clean government, better power usage and more economic pie for the rakyat. Even PAS set aside its hudud agenda in favour of reforms. DAP and PAS held their hatchets behind their backs and posed for the people, teling everyone they will agree to disagree to agree (whichever way it was going to win them votes). And the tsunami happened in the General Election as the people, fed up with broken promises and a frail government, decided to teach Barisan Nasional a lesson.

And the opposition then knew very well that the huge endorsement they received from the rakyat then was not ‘true love’ but a vote in protest against BN. Thus, they worked hard for the next few years, trying to get their act together, despite rifts here and there.

One would have to credit the leaders of the opposition then, who were more level headed than emotional. PAS’ Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat and DAP’s Karpal Singh, big time foes, but with huge followings, played on this very well, and they managed to get the opposition coalition to work, with PKR’s Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim playing the moderate man gluing everything and keeping the calm. And no one in their respective opposition parties dared to cross them, for their leadership was intact.

It worked and it seemed to the rakyat they had made the the right choice of giving a strong opposition to the government. After all, what is a democracy if there is no strong opposition and many proclaimed that Malaysian politics is now first world class with a strong opposition to keep check on a sober government.

However, soon, that third world class mentality started seeping in, especially so, when the main leaders who kept Pakatan Rakyat together were taken away - in death or put in jail, and the small Napoleons started to bicker. The bigger Napoleons are now showing their true colours, and the opposition parties are all doing their own thing, instead of working as one. Each are on their own way.

Even PAS has cracked and there is Parti Amanah Nasional now. Pakatan Rakyat dissipated and it is pre-2008 all over again.

Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional too has floundered, but Umno stillhas its complete grip on BN - after all, the one which holds the purse strongs rules.

Despite the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak being embroiled in alleged scandals of financial mismanagements, nepotism and cronyism, he has amazingly managed to placate the rakyat with promises of BR1M and budgets which let loose the coffers of the country, never mind the country may very well be broke in the next few years.

What Najib did was ensuring that by all means the rakyat knew that it was BN holding the reins of the coffers of the country and that it was Umno which will ‘provide’. He literally has no choice, what with him being attacked viciously from within his party and on top of that by his mentor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. It is either fight with all purses open or admit defeat, which is a no-no for someone who has too much to lose.

With cost of living going up, rakyat's political interest is now only on social media and on this they can only admit that the opposition is in tatters. There is no way they could put them in Putrajaya.  If there is snap election, it is likely a definite case of better the devil that you know.

And even though those poking Najib are from Umno, and are in cohorts with the opposition, there is no guarantee that they could run the country, never mind that one of the main characters had ruled the country for a good 22 years and did do well for a good part of that tenure.

Today, the people’s main issues are bread and butter, and will be for a long time coming. One can argue that the main reason these are the issues is because of the follies of the present government, but when one’s stomach rumbles, one hears nothing else.

The opposition today is completely motley - key leader is behind bars, PKR is full of small leaders who think of nothing of exposing the party for their power gains, DAP still has its old father-son duo firmly runnign the party like they did for ages, PAS leaders are stuck with showing their wal’aa (loyalty) to Hudud-obsessed president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, who does not mind sitting on the lap of Umno if that is what it takes, and the new pending party of Mahathir, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Mahathir’s son Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir - who has no political aura - promises to be just another ex-Umno mucus that seeped out.

While the civil movements put their support behind the opposition, one can understand that this very action is because the civil movement's cause is to be with the people no matter what, and tell off the powers that be that the follies of the government will not be tolerated, even if it means to stand with a tattered opposition and patch up their holes for a united front. - THEHEATMALAYSIA