Halftime or timeout? (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)
Barisan Nasional is not Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, PBS, and whatnot. Barisan Nasional is just Umno. The others are subservient to Umno. So a vote for MIC is a vote for Umno. To get rid of Umno you have to get rid of MIC and all those other ‘running dogs’. There are no two ways about it.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Give BN a chance at redemption, says Hisham
Give Barisan Nasional a chance to redeem itself, Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein told the people of Hulu Selangor.
“I know Barisan has made mistakes before. You have already punished us by not giving us support in the last general election.”
“But now Barisan, under Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, is listening to the people’s woes.”
“Give us time to prove that we have learnt from our past mistakes and ensure that the 1Malaysia vision is a success,” he told cheering villagers during his visit to Kampung Baru Air Panas in Kerling near here Thursday.
Hishammuddin said he was touched by the local community’s warm response, adding that his officers were on hand to help resolve the problems.
He also told those present that allocations had been approved and work had started to resurface the roads in the village and plans were underway to upgrade its hall as requested by villagers.
“This shows that the Government under Najib does not make false promises but delivers on what we promise,” said Hishammuddin, while acknowledging that there were still problems that needed to be addressed at the grassroots level. — The Star
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Hishammuddin has appealed to the voters in Hulu Selangor to give Barisan Nasional a chance to redeem itself. He asked for more time to prove that Barisan Nasional has learned from its past mistakes.
The trouble with this is, firstly, Barisan Nasional (called the Alliance Party before this) has already been given 53 years to learn from its mistakes. But it did not learn in spite of its disastrous performance in the 2008 general elections. Secondly, it is still continuing with these mistakes up to this very moment even as you read this. So Barisan Nasional has not proven it has repented in spite of all this rhetoric.
Previous Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the same thing after almost five years as Prime Minister. He too asked for more time to prove himself and even used the analogy of a football game. It is only halftime and he is still warming up, argued Abdullah Badawi.
Abdullah Badawi is probably not a football fan or else he would have known you do not warm up during the first half of the game. You warm up before you enter the field and before the game starts. Once the game has started it is too late to warm up. If you play the entire first half just to warm up and then try to score only in the second half you are sure to lose the match. By then you may be ten goals down.
And the Malaysian voters did not allow him the second half that he asked for. In fact, even Umno itself would not allow him the second half. Abdullah Badawi was forced to resign and was replaced by current Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Umno kicked Abdullah Badawi out as soon as the second half started and would not allow him to complete his term. Umno called for timeout and sent Abdullah Badawi into retirement.
Why must the voters give Barisan Nasional more time? We have already given them 53 years. And it looks like even after 53 years they have still not learned their lesson and have not discarded their bad habits. In short, Barisan Nasional has not changed its ways one bit. It is still the same old Barisan Nasional that we knew before the 8 March 2008 Tsunami.
Look at how they are conducting the Hulu Selangor by-election. 13,000 voters have been move around. Some have even been moved out and can no longer vote in Hulu Selangor. Why the need to fiddle with the electoral roll and get rid of 13,000 voters? And we know that these 13,000 voters are from polling stations where the opposition is strong.
Come Sunday, many voters will be coming out to vote and will discover that they can no longer vote where they had been voting for the last many elections. Some will find that they are no longer Hulu Selangor voters. Those who are smart enough to find out where their new voting areas are will be lucky enough to vote. But those who are no longer registered to vote in Hulu Selangor will have to go home disappointed.
Kamalanathan, the MIC-BN candidate, says it his not his idea to ‘play dirty’. It is Umno’s idea, says Kamalanathan. At least he is honest enough to admit that they are ‘playing dirty’. But he denies that it is his idea and says it is Umno’s idea.
They are distributing fake photographs of Zaid Ibrahim ‘drinking’ all over Hulu Selangor. Kamalanathan or MIC is not doing this. Barisan Nasional and Umno are doing it. So says Kamalanathan.
See the two photographs above. Kamalanathan knows that the photograph is a fake, just like his fake testimonial from that Australian university. And he knows that they are being distributed to the Malay voters in Hulu Selangor. But it is Umno and not him that is doing this, says Kamalanathan.
Why does MIC or Kamalanathan not stop them from doing this? He knows this is a dirty trick, he admitted so. But the only thing he does is distant himself from it and blame Umno instead.
Why are the police not taking action? The police have arrested about ten students who distributed VCDs called ‘Kuburkan BN’ (see the video here) and want to charge them for sedition. What is seditious about the videos? They are merely clips of statements and events. They are factual, not lies. The videos are not doctored like the doctored photograph of Zaid ‘drinking’.
The JHEOA, the department in charge of the Orang Asli, is organising Dangdut parties for the Orang Asli every night and are supplying them with liquor (tuak). Is this not the taxpayers’ money that they are misusing? And why are the so-called Muslim officers and staff of the JHEOA supplying liquor to the Orang Asli? Is this not wrong, considering that all these officers and staff are supposed to be Muslims, although deviant ones at that?
The goings-on in Hulu Selangor have proven that Barisan Nasional has not learned from its 53 years of mistakes and has not repented or redeemed itself. In fact, what is going on in Hulu Selangor just proves that Barisan Nasional is getting worse by the day. How could Hishammuddin have the gall to declare that they have learned from their past mistakes and plead for more time to redeem themselves?
Sure, over the last few days many roads in Hulu Selangor have been resurfaced. Streetlights that have not been working for many years have been fixed. Even Orang Asli settlements that never had any electricity for decades are now being supplied with electricity. Loads of cash is also being distributed.
It is almost like Santa Claus has come to town.
But they are doing all this not because after 53 years of Barisan Nasional rule they have finally woken up and have repented (and they ‘woke up’ only over the last week or so). If there were no by-election in Hulu Selangor all this would not have happened. Barisan Nasional just wants to buy the votes of the Hulu Selangor voters. And the 13,000 voters that they can’t buy they have shifted to other areas.
No, it is not halftime. It is timeout. But many of the voters in Hulu Selangor do not have the ability to figure out this simple logic.
Sure, some voters can be bought. Those they can’t buy they move out so that they can’t vote this Sunday. And others they threaten.
Why tell the voters to vote Barisan Nasional to avoid a race riot? Are they trying to say that if they don’t vote Barisan Nasional there might be a race riot? What’s with this fixation on race riots? Is this a reformed Barisan Nasional or the same Barisan Nasional of 53 years?
Abdullah Badawi sang the same tune when he was Prime Minister. But then, in spite of how sincere he might have been, he had no power to introduce changes. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the same thing and he even cried during the Umno assembly. When he gave his first interview upon retiring he admitted that his greatest regret is that in 22 years as Prime Minister has was not able to change the Malay mindset. And Malays here of course mean Umno Malays.
Do you really buy what Hishammuddin said in that Najib is trying to introduce changes? Dr Mahathir was not able to. Neither was Abdullah Badawi.
An Umno Prime Minister cannot change things or introduce reforms. If he tries then Umno will change the Prime Minister instead, as has been proven many times in the past. It is the system that is rotten. And no Umno Prime Minister can change the system. The only way to change the system is to change the government. And to do this we have to vote Barisan Nasional out of office. There are no two ways about it.
And remember one more thing. Barisan Nasional is not Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, PBS, and whatnot. Barisan Nasional is just Umno. The others are subservient to Umno. So a vote for MIC is a vote for Umno. To get rid of Umno you have to get rid of MIC and all those other ‘running dogs’. There are no two ways about it.
Kamalanathan is not a MIC candidate. He is an Umno candidate. And he has asked the voters to vote him into office so that he can give Hulu Selangor to the Prime Minister as a first anniversary present.
That sums up what the Hulu Selangor by-election is all about, plain and simple, a present for Najib.
Translated into Chinese at: http://ccliew.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_11.html
