My stance on BN and PR

Last week, I posted a documentary on Anwar's trial and at the same time dropped in some of my own comments about the documentary as well. Judging from the response from Sonia on what I'd written, it seems like I'd given the perception that I'm a hardcore supporter of the Pakaran Rakyat. Her response raised so many questions that I think would be appropriate to be clarified and addressed in a "long" way, that's through a blog post.

So that's about what I'd written. However, nobody commented about or gave an indication that they had watched the documentary, which was supposed to be the main feature of that post. I guess the idea of watching a one-hour documentary turns almost everyone off.


Some Clarifications

First, some clarifications on some of the statements/comments that I'd made.

"Watch the sinister campaign of Mahathir and UMNO to oust the person who dared to fight corruption" (on the documentary)
Made Anwar sound like a hero right? Actually this was the description given on YouTube about this video. I copied it to make the documentary sound more exciting in order to entice people to watch it. Also, the transcript was also copied from the ABC's website, so I'm not responsible for its contents.

"I think the BN government back then - even now - is rotten"
Why is BN rotten? One reason I gave was that the PM a.k.a President of BN-UMNO is given too much power until dictatorship had and will have a chance to rear its ugly head in this democratic country. No doubt that getting rid of Anwar was Mahathir's personal agenda, but the thing is, the other BN leaders are either too weak or too complacent to put a stop to this blatant abuse of power. UMNO members can't do anything to prevent their deputy president from being sacked, while BN component parties can't do anything to prevent this or else they will be accused of meddling in UMNO's internal affairs. Hence there's something wrong ("rotten" as I described it) in the BN coalition that allowed all this to happen.

"BN is too lethargic under the leadership of Abdullah"
PM Abdullah is not a man of his words. Neither is he what he portrays himself to be. When he first came into power he promised many things that are close to the people's heart, like corruption eradication, empowering the judiciary, improving government transparency etc. The resounding victory he got in the 2004 General Election means that he struck the right chord. Sadly, many of his pledges weren't fulfilled. Calls of placing the ACA under the supervision of the Parliament fell on deaf ears with lame excuses given. Government refuses to reveal their contracts with the toll concessionaires when a minister promised to do so.

The 2008 General Election disaster jolted our PM into a considerable amount of action, but everything is still moving too slowly. He proposed that the ACA become a “full-fledged” Malaysian Commission on Anti-Corruption (MCAC), but this is not due until year end. His promise to step down is even more elusive. At the same time the Pakatan Rakyat promised swift reforms touching on the same issues, but who's more believable? Given the BN government's poor record of keeping promises, I'm inclined to believe the Pakatan Rakyat. At least they are more serious in listening to the needs of the people.


Questions, Answers & Replies

Now, I would like to answer questions posed by Sonia.

Are you going guarantee that Anwar would be a better PM? He is quite a racist if you had seen his previous records.
I'm not going to guarantee that he's going to be a better PM. But many people including me give him the benefit of the doubt. So far he has been, like what political commentators say, "pushing the right buttons". And his party was given the mandate by all races to continue what he's doing. He's unlikely to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. As to his previous record as a racist, I have nothing to say about that. What I can say is since PKN was formed ten years ago he had been championing the rights of all races. Some call him a chameleon, but the reality is politicians have to be constantly attuned to the people's needs in order to be a wakil rakyat.

The ideology for DAP, PKR and PAS are different. Don't you realise?
Actually I don't see any difference in ideologies between DAP and PKR. Both are secular, champion issues like corruption, accountability and so on, essentially putting power in the people's hands. PAS also champions the same thing under the Pakatan Rakyat banner but I agree that their Islamic agenda poses a problem. It depends on how they implement their Islamic agenda and whether it's acceptable by the majority of Malaysians. Even the Sultan is unhappy with their religion fanaticism. If the majority of Malaysians especially Malays are unenthusiastic about their Islamic agenda, then they have to drop it sooner or later.

Don't condemn BN till so teruk larr... they deserve some credits. Many changes have been done.
BN has been ruling this country since independence, and I don't dispute the fact that they managed this country quite well - well in the sense that everything is peaceful, the economy is flourishing steadily and everybody is pretty satisfied. But this is when you look at a bottle as half-full instead of half-empty. Imagine that all Malaysians have equal opportunities on this land. Imagine that the separation of powers between the Executive, the Legislative, and the Judicial is still intact. Wouldn't Malaysia be on par with Singapore and Hong Kong now if BN is truly efficient? Remember, we were on par with them a few decades ago.


Change of Government

A change of government doesn't necessary mean everything is for the better. But for Malaysia where one party is dominant for so long, it's certainly a breath of fresh air. If all's well, a two-party system will emerge that will change the political landscape of Malaysia - no party or politician can afford to be arrogant lest they lose the voter's confidence.

Another thing I don't quite understand is some people's fear of riots when Pakatan Rakyat finally takes over the federal government. Why should this be any different from Pakatan Rakyat taking over 4 state governments? There will surely be no racial riots like in 1969 because those effecting these changes are from all races. In a multi-racial society, people rarely clash with their own race in the bloody sense. There will probably be minor riots orchestrated by BN-UMNO supporters, but anybody with a right-thinking mind will certainly stay away from this. Therefore I don't expect our lives to be endangered like in 1969.


Final Wrap-up

So why not support Pakatan Rakyat just this once to let them have a hand in our country's future? Like Sonia said, it might be better or for worst; we'll never know if we never try. Allowing the Pakatan Rakyat to win will also show that the people is serious about ending racial politics in Malaysia and make BN change their divide-and-rule style of politics. We should risk short term instability for long term stability and progress of our country.