“What can PR do in 2 years that BN has not been able to do in 52 years”. A very convenient and misleading argument to hide lack of intent by PR

 

It has become a chant throughout the country lately after the HRP protest in early March at the PKR office for inaction on the issues of the Indian poor and marginalized “What can PR do in 2 years that BN has not been able to do in 52 years”. This is a very convenient and misleading argument for inaction by PR. This is exactly HRP’s point, there is only continuing theatrics a-la UMNO/BN as far as the issues of the marginalized and Indian poor are concerned.

By Naragan

Let us examine this chant a little closely to see the lie in it.

First, why has the BN done very little to almost nothing for the plight of the Indian poor in the past 52 years? Is it that the problem is so complicated that it takes so much time. Look at the sea change that has occurred in the name of the NEP for the Malay/Bumiputra community. UMNO/BN has not done anything for the Indian poor and marginalized in stark contrast because they have chosen not to, plain and simple. They just have chosen not to. One telling example is all it takes to clarify this – there are a million others.

MARA recently opened up a 120 million Ringgit MRSM in Trolak. Compared with what SMJK (T) Jugra in Pahang received last month – a 20 footer container type cabin worth RM9,000 for an additional classroom. Just look at this irony. It is really angering whenever I see it in this kind of comparison. This happens because the issues of the Indian poor and marginalized have never been and continue never to be a priority for the UMNO/BN government. That is the real issue.

Time is not the issue – that in 52 years they have not been able to resolve any of the problems of the Indian poor.

It is just an issue of allocation of the necessary funds to do the job. More time is not going to change the way money is allocated. It is just the considered significance or priority that will decide the allocations. And the issues of the Indian poor and marginalized have never been a priority enough for UMNO/BN for it to warrant due allocation.

What is truly needed therefore, is a different decision making policy platform that gives more weight to the needs and rights of the poor and the marginalized. Then and only then, will you see change occurring, another 52 years of the same policies will absolutely make no difference. Two weeks of a different policy platform and the whole scenario will change immediately, right in front of our eyes.

It is and has never been a question of time.

Now let us look at PR’s argument that it is only two years since they took over the reins in the four states and hence they cannot be expected to do what UMNO/BN has not done in 52 years. The illusion they in turn are creating with this argument is that they need to be given more time to address this complicated problem that UMNO/BN has not been able to solve in such a long time. They very deftly sidestep the issue of their priorities and their policy platforms in the process.

The day before yesterday the Selangor Mentri Besar came out in the news after their weekly Exco meeting that they will be giving out land titles for 100,000 squatter families and TOL license holders who have been living on that land for 15 years. He further added that the PR government was soon going to resolve reserve land issues relating to temples of worship, schools and roads. This decision was made at the Exco meeting in Hulu Selangor on the 7th of April 2009. This is really great, if it materializes. But just think what this tells us about the PR chant of “only two years”.

Time does not seem to be a factor in the decision here, strangely. The decision was made in a matter of couple of hours in the Exco meeting. But these same issues have been around for at least 15 years. So what happened in the last two years of PR’s rule? Not enough time to make the decisions? Why is it now possible to make these decisions on the eve of a by-election in just a couple of hours of deliberation? Why doesn’t PR now also turn around and say, we want to do all these things but two weeks is not enough we need another 5 years. The answer is there for all to see.

The issue of time is just a cloak to hide their true intent. And their true intent so far does not seem to include the resolution of the problems of the Indian poor and marginalized. These Hulu Selangor decisions just show the lie in the “two years only” chant. When their hands are forced and the priority to make the decision goes up, because they now need the votes again, they just do it. Time is not a factor and the “two years only” chant can be seen to be what it is – a lie, to hide the true intent. Priorities drive political will. The moment the need to make a decision becomes necessary, it is made. Time is no show stopper. But where there is no need or where the priority is low, then the “two years only” chant takes over.

Two years, twenty years or fifty two years will make no difference as long as the need to make the decision does not become necessary, as long as it is not a priority. UMNO/BN has shown with 52 years of just such policies and priorities. Now, increasingly PR is going down that very same path.

So PR’s chant that they have been in power for only two years is nothing short of an intent to deceive the Indian poor so that the socio-economic policies of the UMNO/BN relating to the poor and marginalized of this country can be continued. That is the ugly truth.

A stroke of a pen is all that it requires if one wants really to do it – ask Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim, in Hulu Selangor today, he will tell you.