Guan Eng under siege
The attempt to break and destroy Guan Eng and derail his political career via the attack on his family is surely most immoral, and a terrible transgression against normal human propriety, and an assault on and an abuse of the fundamental concept of acceptance and respect for all persons under the universal principles of human, civil and constitutional rights.
By Thomas Lee
Some uncouth and unethical Barisan Nasional politicians, mostly from Umno, the MCA and Gerakan, have been going on an unrelenting unilateral campaign against the Rakatan Rakyat-led Penang state government by making all sorts of malicious allegations and malevolent accusations to frustrate the smooth running of the state administration under Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.
The most protuberant case is of course the recent disgusting and despicable evil smear campaign against Guan Eng’s son led by Bukit Gelugor Umno division chief Novandri Hasan, with the apparent endorsement by the party’s youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, and, horror of horrors, the shameful public questioning by the Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the country’s deputy prime minister and education minister, on the cast-iron denial by the school principal, the solid rebuttal by the alleged sexual harassment victim, and the firm verification by the Penang state education director that the alleged incident never happened.
The attempt to break and destroy Guan Eng and derail his political career via the attack on his family is surely most immoral, and a terrible transgression against normal human propriety, and an assault on and an abuse of the fundamental concept of acceptance and respect for all persons under the universal principles of human, civil and constitutional rights.
It is so shocking to read of the remark by the deputy prime minister cum education minister that Guan Eng’s denial, accompanied by the refutation of the school principal, the rebuttal by the alleged victim, and the affirmation by the Penang state education director, is not enough, insinuating that the incident might have taken place. As the education minister, Muhyiddi should have personally initiated criminal action against those who started and perpetuate the lies, which not only affected the well-being of the boy, but also smeared the reputation of the school under his charge. It is his role and duty as the education minister to protect the 16-year-old student facing and suffering the wicked mental and emotion abuses, instead of casting doubts and dismissing the credible testimonies of the school principal, the alleged victim, and the state education director. This case has showed the whole world that Muhyiddin certainly does not have the credibility and integrity to be the deputy prime minister cum education minister, and should be removed from the positions.
Meanwhile in Penang, the codified systematic sinister drive against Guan Eng and the Pakatan Rakyat state administer is gathering momentum in anticipation of a snap election within the next few months.
These depraved and demonic plots against Guan Eng and the Pakatan Rakyat, especially the DAP, are carried out by the Barisan Nasional grassroots political guerrillas, who will cash in on any matter that will put Guan Eng and his state administration in bad light. A good example of such a frivolous case is the recent demonstration held at Komtar to blame Guan Eng for allegedly not caring for the Malays, after the electricity supply to one Malay home was cut off due to non-payment of electricity charges.
These Barisan Nasional politicians, usually small-time lightweight grassroots warlords out to get attention and limelight, harp on the very insignificant and trivial matters, and try to create issues out of the benevolent policies, programmes and projects initiated and implemented by Guan Eng for the benefit of the people, especially the elderly, poor and needy.
Even the practice of the open-tender scheme for contract jobs which many Malay contractors won on merit via a competent, accountable and transparent (CAT) process was the subject of contemptuous criticism by a very foolish and frivolous Penang Wanita MCA leader playing the racial card and accusing Guan Eng and the DAP of neglecting the Chinese community in the state. This defeated 2008 election candidate of the Barisan Nasional is apparently trying to attract the attention of her MCA boss by being heroic with the improbity statement, which no decent newspaper would publish, but her comment was published as the MCA has control over certain media which will print any rubbish from the party leaders. She is hopeful of being fielded at the next general election, and it will be a miracle if she could retain her deposit, given her reputation of being a die-hard supporter and close confidant of a discredited immoral party leader, whom all righteous or truly religious persons will not endorse or support.
The Barisan Nasional has also published and distributed leaflets discrediting several projects initiated and being implemented by the Guan Eng administration, in particular the sPICE project to propel Penang into a world-class intelligent city, a location and destination of choice for investors and tourists, and a habitat of choice for sustainable living for Penangites. The Barisan Nasional criticism is given wide coverage by the mainstream media (MSM), but Guan Eng’s explanation and clarification are not published.
The frontal assault on Guan Eng and the Pakatan Rakyat Penang state government is accompanied by an ominous media campaign which involves two multifarious thrusts – one the omission treatment, and the other the offensive lunge.
The omission treatment involves the leaving out of anything good done by the alternation coalition Pakatan Rakyat. It has been the tradition and practice in the Barisan Nasional-controlled media to refrain from giving the public the truth about the good things initiated and implemented by the opposition parties all the years since Merdeka in 1957. Now, since the formation of the Pakatan Rakyat in 2008, it has been given what in Latin is called the “abstinere”, that is, being omitted from appearance, by the MSM, almost all under the control of editors appointed and installed by their political owners.
This is especially so concerning Penang and Selangor, in which the Barisan Nasional is going all out to recapture at the next general election. In the old days, when the Internal was not available and the people depended solely on the MSM controlled by the ruling Barisan Nasional regime, the people did not have access to the true facts and figures of the work and achievement of the opposition parties. The emergence of the Internet transformed the local political scenario when the people start getting access to real-time information from and on the alternative coalition Pakatan Rakyat. Hence, the Barisan Nasional was dealt a knock-out blow in the March 2008 general election.
The offensive lunge against the alternative coalition Pakatan Rakyat undertaken by the Barisan Nasional grassroots political guerrillas involves an extensive, and expensive, public relations exercise which involves three direct offensive campaigns.
The first is to promote and sell Umno president and Barisan Nasional head Najib Razak as a prime minister par excellence, with all the heads and editors of all the media mobilized to create a compassionate and caring leader image of Najib. The abolishing of the ISA and several oppressive laws, and the doing always with the annual renewal of licences for newspapers are part of this public relations exercise. They have succeeded to a certain extent, but Najib is surrounded by several leaders of questionable character, integrity and credibility from his own party and the other Barisan Nasional component parties, especially the MCA who head has been tainted by a self-confessed immoral affair. Whatever his public relations consultants have done to elevate him to a people’s idol stature is being eroded by the incompetent and inane senior Barisan Nasional leaders in his team. Najib will have some impact on the voters at the next general election, but definitely not enough to regain the two-thirds majority in Parliament and the states of Penang and Selangor. The Barisan Nasional may not even make headway in Kedah and Kelantan, which are now under PAS, but may also lose Perak, and perhaps Negri Sembilan. The MCA, for sure, will be wiped out this time.
The second major public relation exercise is to use money, plenty of it, in the awarding of financial grants to the traditional institutions and pet projects of the various communities, especially the Chinese associations, schools, temples, churches, and charitable organizations. And the MCA is given the chance to play the heroic role of being responsible for all these concessions given to the community. MCA president Chua Soi Lek has already started this public relations exercise with claiming credits for whatever grants and allocations being given to the community projects. The most obvious indication of this public relation blitz is the very generous Budget 2012 tabled by Najib as the finance minister early in October 2011. The reckless allocations of all sorts of goodies with nary a care for the consequences of the overall national economy is simply motivated by the desperation on the part of the Barisan Nasional in general and Najib in particular to win the next general election at all cost.
The third public relations exercise is to discredit the leaders of the alternative coalition Pakatan Rakyat, and to paralyse them politically with law suits, such as the recent RM30 million suit filed against Guan Eng. Even a small misstep or misdeed by a small-time branch leader of the DAP is now given lead headline treatment, giving the public the impression that some big crisis is taking place in the party. The editors either have no news value sense, or are simply mercenaries taking order from their political masters.
As the impetuous preparation for the impending imminent 13th general election is heating up, the sinister plots and the public relations thrust against the alternative coalition leaders are set to be intensified, with cyber troopers being mobilized, some be paid handsomely, to spin out negative and unfavourable stories on the Pakatan Rakyat, especially on Guan Eng, who is the main stumbling block to the dream resurgence of the MCA which is doomed to disappear in the quicksand of the 13th general election.
The curtain for the Greatest Show in Malaysis is being raised, and two groups of instrumentalists and performers of the show with different scripts are all out to outdo each other to capture the final accolade and applause of the audience. History will be made. And the answer lies in our hands, on how we vote at the 13th general election.
