Next Time Don’t Vote For Pakatan Harapan “Tunggul Kayu”

Once the election is over, right up to the time parliament and the state assemblies are dissolved, the 859 wakil rakyat are your representatives to do as they please. And collapsing Pakatan Harapan and handing the government to Perikatan Nasional is done based on the mandate you gave them. So, stop moaning and bitching. And next time vote wisely because your fate and future are in the hands of these “tunggul kayu” that you vote for.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Pakatan Harapan is telling you that Perikatan Nasional “stole” the government, whatever that is supposed to mean. Then we have many political “observers” and “analysts” saying that the mandate of the rakyat is not being respected.

Many Malaysians still do not seem to understand how the system works. If you had studied political philosophy you would.

Most countries, Malaysia included, practice what is called “representative democracy”. This means Malaysia has an indirect democracy or a representative government. This is a type of democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing a group of people, as opposed to a direct democracy.

Once you hand the mandate over to these 222 members of parliament they can very much do as they please

Let us say out of the 32 million population, 18 million Malaysians are eligible to vote. In a direct democracy, all 18 million Malaysians would attend a meeting to decide on government policies. However, since it would be impossible to gather 18 million people for a meeting, these 18 million Malaysians choose representatives to attend those meetings or assemblies on their behalf.

Malaysia has 859 wakil rakyat or citizens’ representatives, 222 of them in parliament and the rest in the senate and the 13 state assemblies. These 859 wakil rakyat are elected in a general election every five years (senators are appointed every three years for a maximum of two terms). This is mandatory by law.

The implication to this is we have given the mandate to these 859 wakil rakyat to act on our behalf as they see fit. In other words, they are now our proxies and they decide what is best for us, the citizens of Malaysia.

Okay, what happens if, say, we are anti-death sentence and the wakil rakyat we voted for voted in parliament in favour of retaining the death sentence? Well, that is a risk we take. For example, we may be anti-war but if our wakil rakyat votes in favour of declaring war on China that is within his/her powers since we have elected that wakil rakyat to represent us in parliament.

So, you see, we may have certain ideas or preferences, but then we have already handed our power and authority over to the wakil rakyat we voted for and it is now the prerogative of that wakil rakyat as to what he/she wants to do.

The alternative to a representative government is mob rule

When we voted for that wakil rakyat, our idea may have been so that he/she can be in Pakatan Harapan. But if he/she decides to leave Pakatan Harapan and join another party or coalition that is totally beyond our control.

You may ask, what about our mandate?

That is the mandate, to act on our behalf the way he/she sees fit.

We may not like the decisions of our wakil rakyat. Well, then next time find out more about those standing for election offering themselves as our wakil rakyat.

Is he/she pro-death sentence? Is he/she pro-war? Is he/she pro-Sharia or Hudud law? Is he/she pro-LGBT? Is he/she pro-Chinese schools/Chinese education? Is he/she pro-Malay privileges? Is he/she a republican and anti-monarchy?

There are many questions you need to ask before choosing your wakil rakyat. But most Malaysians chose their wakil rakyat in GE14 for the wrong reasons.

Many voted Pakatan Harapan because of the election promises — which they could not deliver (even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad admitted that it is impossible to deliver the GE14 election promises because Pakatan Harapan made those promises thinking they would never win GE14).

Others voted Pakatan Harapan because they just wanted Umno and Barisan Nasional to be kicked out by hook or by crook and at whatever cost to the country.

Pakatan Harapan supporters say they will even vote for tunggul kayu, asal bukan Umno

Did anyone vote for Pakatan Harapan based on the strength, moral values, beliefs, principles, track record, qualifications, experience, etc., of the wakil rakyat?

I remember Pakatan Harapan people saying even if you letak tunggul kayu pun boleh menang asalkan calun Pakatan Harapan. ABU or asal bukan Umno was the war-cry then.

So, there you have it. You do not mind even a block of wood as long as it is Pakatan Harapan. You were prepared to trust your mandate to a block of wood. And you gave full power and authority to that wakil rakyat to even declare war on China if he/she wants to.

Once the election is over, right up to the time parliament and the state assemblies are dissolved, the 859 wakil rakyat are your representatives to do as they please. And collapsing Pakatan Harapan and handing the government to Perikatan Nasional is done based on the mandate you gave them. So, stop moaning and bitching. And next time vote wisely because your fate and future are in the hands of these “tunggul kayu” that you vote for.

Pakatan Harapan supporters do not understand what a representative government means