Why I decided not to support Pakatan

By Paul Raj

I have decided not to support Pakatan Rakyat on three very important grounds.

First of all, as a civil servant, my rice bowl is at stake since DAP leader Mr Tony Pua has annouced that Pakatan will cut nearly 40% jobs in the civil service. Despite Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim saying that it is not true, DAP and its top leaders have not denied Mr Tony Pua’s statement. Compared with the Barisan Nasional under Datuk Seri Najib which has extended the civil servants’ tenure to age 60 and gave much monetary benifits to civil servants, DAP wants to sack 40% of us! How can we civil servants support such a party? If what Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said is true, that what Mr Tong Pua said is not true, then to show their sincerity, DAP must apologise to civil servants publicly, and promise not to field Mr Tony Pua as a candidate for the 13th general election. Otherwise, we will campaign against DAP candidates.

Secondly, PAS is insisting on achieving its Islamic state with the implementation of hudud. Can Christians honestly support Pakatan in view of this? Even Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has publicly supported hudud. It is too risky for Christians to support PAS, unless the party publicly promises that it will not implement Islamic law when Pakatan comes to power. DAP leaders like Mr Lim Guan Eng has been defending PAS, and keeping quiet on various PAS actions like banning a cinema in Bangi, and calling for the banning of Elton’s concert. We cannot support Pakatan as it is too dangarous.

Thirdlly, the credibility of many Pakatan candidates are questionable. There are still DAP people who object to wearing songkoks at official functions, although they are prepared to wear hats and Japanese baseball caps. When Ms Hannah Yeoh wore the tudung during Hari Raya, she was attacked by DAP leaders and members. Also, DAP leaders are not that clean after all, they practise cronyism and nepotism, and some are corrupt too. DAP says they champion human rights and press freedom, yet Mr Lim Guan Eng bans Utusan in Penang. How can Christians support these hypocrits?

For us, it is better to stay with Barisan which has shown that it can change and will give us a good life. Pakatan just talks and never delivers. Like Mr George Khoo has said before, DAP does not even care for the veteran leaders who build up the party, and now the new upstarts like Mr Tony Pua come in and take over. I was told that Mr Tony Pua wants to remove serveral veteran leaders like Dr Tan Seng Giaw, Mr Fong Kui Lum, Mr Ronnie Liu, and put his own people as candidates for next general election.

For these three important reasons, I urge all Christians to stop supporting Pakatan. All civil servants should also protest against DAP, especially to kick out Mr Tony Pua, who is out to break our ricebowls.