Stop thinking aloud, Najib. Perak is not a game to be played
By Wong Choon Mei, Suara Keadilan
Judging from the debate raging in the Umno-BN media, the coalition is trying to float to the people the idea of ‘partial election’ BUT not full state-wide election as a way out of the Perak political crisis.
The ‘partial election’ will involve the three Pakatan Rakyat defectors – Jelapang’s Hee Yit Foong, Changkat Jering’s Mohd Osman Jailu and Behrang’s Jamaluddin Radzi – lured by Prime Minister Najib Razak to stand on the side of his BN coalition.
The reason is simple. It is becoming just a tad too dangerous to keep ‘persuading’ the courts to disregard both spirit and letter of the law just to keep pumping out rulings that reek of bad faith and clear bias for Najib’s Umno.
Even US State Secretary Hillary Clinton last week revealed that Washington had “raised rule of law issues and the larger questions concerning the institutional reforms that Malaysia has been pursuing.”
Who is more important – 28 Umno-BN assemblymen or the Perak people?
Yet, at the same time, the scandal-hit Najib is at a loss as to how he can answer the 27 Umno and one MCA assemblymen in Perak over what is essentially a mess he personally created.
If he were to allow the courts to administer justice according to the law, state-wide snap election will surely be the order of the day. Pakatan Rakyat leader Nizar Jamaluddin has already been declared the lawful Menteri Besar of Perak and should rightfully be ruling the state now, if not for a controversial appeal put up by by Najib and his team.
Still, should the courts be allowed to administer justice according to the law, then the 28 Umno-BN assemblymen would have to re-contest their seats, as Nizar would surely honour Pakatan’s promise to the people and dissolve the state assembly.
Not all – but quite a number including the MCA seat- is likely to be lost to the Pakatan as Perakians show their displeasure for the political turmoil, created irresponsibly and without consideration in their state by a power-crazed Najib and team.
The Chinese-based MCA, in particular, would find it hard to justify why they did not speak up for the Perak people, a large portion of whom are ethnic Chinese and who want fresh election to end the stalemate.
“It is silly for Najib to announce unpolished ideas in public. This is another one of his thinking-aloud exercises, like boycotting Penanti,” Tian Chua, PKR strategic affairs director, told Suara Keadilan.
“By hinting at vacating the three seats, Najib is admitting that the three frogs (defectors) are BN stooges. They and Najib should be immediately investigated by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission.”
Rights of the Perak people are paramount, not for passing between BN and Pakatan
In fact two of the ‘frogs’ Mohd Osman and Jamaluddin – were already under MACC investigation for corruption. This itself was widely regarded as one Najib’s ‘selling points’. Yes, join us and we’ll forget about the charges … so the allegations buzzed around town.
A RM45 million extra-special bonus was also allegedly offered – with one receiving RM25 million and the other two RM10 million each. No wonder, Malaysia’s sixth prime minister has been grumbling about the high-cost of new election!
Pakatan leaders too point out that at the end of the day, what happens in Perak must be what the people want and not something cobbled between Pakatan and BN behind closed doors.
“We are not like Umno, where they have this bad habit of top leaders passing their positions over to each other and bypassing the rest of the party members. Even Najib got Abdullah Badawi to hand over the premiership to him. It was not through one-man one-vote,” said Tian.
Nevertheless, as architect of the debacle, Najib will have to face up to reality when he meets up with leaders of other BN component parties later today.
Die-hard supporters – if there any still left in the MCA, Gerakan and the MIC – would surely want to believe that their leaders would do the proper thing and urge Najib to heed the call of the people and return to Perakians their democratic right of choice. The choice of who they want as their leaders!
Sadly, as has been proven once too many times in the past, their leaders are likely to disappoint them. For more important to these VIPs are their influential government positions, cushy cabinet posts and lucrative jobs at GLCs. “I mean, what has democracy go to do with Malaysia at this stage?,” many of these ‘enlightened’ leaders have been known to say!
A decision on Penanti at last!
Still, apart from Perak, another big issue that has to be decided is whether the Umno should field a candidate in Penanti, a seat that fell vacant after PKR leader Fairus Khairuddin succumbed to intense harassment from Umno and the MACC and quit.
Nomination is on May 23 and polling on May 31. The PKR has already named former Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Mansor Othman as their candidate.
But Umno still is hee-hawing over the matter. Najib, who has lost in four of the past five by-election, is keen to avoid another contest where his failure to win over his community as well as other Malaysians will show up warts-and-all.
“He should resign then. Why should Malaysians give up on democracy just because he cannot muster enough support whether in Penanti, Perak or anywhere else,” said a political watcher.
“In fact, Umno should ask him to resign. It is clear he is not the man to lead the country out of the morass. In fact, because of his political baggage, all he can do is further misdirect the nation as he keeps trying to cover up his misdeeds and cling to power.”
