YOURSAY | Can Penang voters be wooed by Najib?

 

YOURSAY | ‘The B40 cannot afford to wait for a better future, they are hungry today.’

Najib's charm offensive aimed at Chinese moves to Penang

Evin K: DAP better not get complacent in thinking Penang is their fixed deposit. Learn from the once-mighty MCA and Gerakan - there are valuable lessons in their embarrassing fall from grace.

Many who voted for DAP in the 14th general election (GE14) are upset and angry with them, not only the fence-sitters but genuine supporters.

DAP’s leadership is blind and deaf to these realities because they are surrounded by brown-nosing people. Many of their loyalists are social media commentators and there’s a huge disparity between what’s actually happening on the ground and what’s being presented today by the DAP leadership.

Many no longer care about 1MDB or former prime minister and convicted criminal Najib Abdul Razak anymore. They no longer care about Covid-19, especially since the world opened up months ago. Few also care about Umno having court clusters.

The DAP is now trapped in the same bubble Umno and MCA were prior to GE14. Not only the DAP but every other opposition party today.

Many, including the B40s (bottom 40 percent of income earners), small traders, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and even big businesses felt the brunt under the Pakatan Harapan government, particularly in the economic narrative of punishing the rakyat by having them pay for the transgressions of the previous government.

The B40 cannot afford to wait for a better future, they are hungry today and they are literally surviving on a day-to-day basis.

‘Kais pagi makan pagi, kais petang makan petang’ (living hand to mouth) is still a very big reality in Malaysia. This is why Umno has been winning election after election.

Think about it, how much more prosperous have Selangor and Penang become? Selangor is still bracing itself for the next water cut. Penang is a traffic nightmare, though the food makes up for it.

There is a method to all this - taking a country like Malaysia and bringing it to the next century - you need leaders who are fully aware of these realities, leaders who have sound experience to not only juggle these realities but do so with finesse.

FairMalaysian: Days before the 2008 GE, former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi "entertained" us to a large gathering.

Then Gerakan president Lim Keng Yaik, who was with him, was elated to see such a large gathering. Soon enough, Pakatan Rakyat organised its own gathering, a much larger one than BN.

Today, if Najib believes in his charm, that points directly to the failure of Harapan, not the success of Najib. Harapan is like a mischievous monkey that jumps from tree to tree and doesn't know where it is now.

Umno has always been Umno but Harapan certainly has lost its way. There are a few pundits who believe they know everything and are not the least concerned with the sentiments of the people on the ground.

The MOU (memorandum of understanding) was a serious flaw in Harapan’s thinking. The talk of reaping some advantages by cooperating with this government is wrong. Advantages at what price?

With such hopeless and useless leaders, you don't need enemies or even Najib's charm offensive. People are angry with Harapan now and rightly so.

Hmmmmmmmm: Najib said the Malaysian stock market is among the worst performers in the world? The last I checked, BN, Perikatan Nasional (PN), and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) are currently the government.

So, is Najib actually criticising the current administration?

After the collapse of the Harapan government, the successive PN and BN-GPS governments spent money like there’s no tomorrow by having a bloated cabinet and politically appointed heads of GLCs, while simultaneously giving themselves massive pay and perks.

Then there is the colossal 1MDB debts and the resumption of overinflated contracts. Good times indeed for BN-PN-GPS.

Nash: Najib said the Penang South Reclamation plan is harmful to the environment. Now let’s look at the reclamation plan by the company linked to the Johor sultan. And he is mum about it. Typical cherry-picking by the grotesque ex-PM.

Address both of them then. Are you brave enough, Najib?

Wong Fei Hoong: @Nash, and the Malacca reclamation plan as well.

GreenLeopard4021: What a shame. A convicted felon was invited as keynote speaker (at the Second Penang International Business and Investment Summit). And he used the opportunity to criticise DAP and the Harapan government.

Has he forgotten his ploy when he brought in Korean singer Psy to campaign for BN? His famous, "Are you ready for BN?" shouts were met with a tremendous "No" from Penangites.

BR: Event organiser Cheah Chyuan Yong may think he is smart. But surely there are those who can see through him. The forum was on business and investment in Penang, but the Penang chief minister was not the guest of honour. Najib was.

Even if he invited the CM, how could he expect the CM to sit in a forum and listen to this guest of honour and a ’national embarrassment’ as coined by the judges? What type of respect does Cheah exhibit to Penang-lang?

MaluBanyakBossku: We Penangite voters believe all these supporters of this world-famous convict are corrupt MCA members who do not know what shame is. We Penangite voters will not vote and support the corrupt BN when this world-famous convict is leading it.

If corrupt BN returns to power, our Bolehland will definitely be finished and more 1MDBs will surface. Then this world-famous convict will be laughing all the way to bank with his wife, buying more 22-carat diamonds. - Mkini