Barisan National’s early elections plan in disarray
Written by Dr Lim Teck Ghee, CPI
During the last few months, Prime Minister Najib Razak has been pulling out one pre-election carrot after another from his inexhaustible supply of goodies aimed at persuading the electorate to vote BN’s way in the coming general election (GE).
These range from indefinite postponement of the long delayed goods and services tax to financial grants and other handouts to Chinese, Tamil and Islamic religious schools as well as politically strategic groups including Felda settlers, Indian small entrepreneurs, low income communities, and imams and Kafa (religious) teachers.
Najib’s backroom boys must have been supremely confident that this mass saturation of money and handouts – so effective in past elections – would pave the way for a resounding victory as they plotted the timing of the next GE.
Unexpected road blocks
Two recent developments appear to have now derailed the BN’s plans for an early election to take advantage of the ‘feel good’ sentiments generated by the deluge of monetary incentives disbursed under the glare of fawning media coverage.
One is the spreading cloud of corruption and political irresponsibility associated with the National Feedlot Corporation’s (NFC) scandal-ridden project.
This is not only likely to result in Minister Sharizat Jalil’s resignation very soon but is also causing consternation and reverberations among Umno’s grassroots members and supporters in the Malay heartland. The arrogance and contempt displayed by Shahrizat, who received loud applause from Wanita Umno delegates for her bellicose speech, will not be easily forgotten.
If the elections are called during the next several months when the cattle-gate case reaches its expected climax, Malaysians going to the polling booths will not only have indelible ink on their fingers; they will also go in with the overpowering and indelible stench of the NFC fiasco influencing their choice of parties.
The other development is one which the Prime Minister’s think tanks and cronies high up in the civil service must be kicking themselves over. The introduction of a new improved salary scheme for the country’s 1.4 million civil servants was to be the main ‘game changer’ in the 13th GE.
With a majority of the country’s voters coming from civil servant or ex-civil servant households – perhaps 60% or more of the electorate – it is easy to understand why the roll-out of the new scheme was timed to take place just before the election. Its successful implementation would reinforce the BN’s image as a government with the best interests of the civil service constituency at heart.
It is possible that if given the thumbs-up by the majority of civil servants, the new salary scheme could have affected the outcome in many marginal constituencies where the civil service vote is critical to tilt in favour of the BN candidates.
It is no exaggeration to say that civil service voters comprise the kingmakers in the country and that any aspiring government has to pay special attention to courting and winning this massive block of votes.
Devil in the SBPA details
The new public service remuneration scheme (SBPA) is to take effect in January 2012. The Public Services Commission rushed its introduction without providing full details of the SBPA key components and without adequate consultation with stakeholders.
It was not surprising that the civil service trade union Cuepecs initially refused to be bulldozed into accepting what is now clearly emerging as “a half baked cake” with the icing of 7-13 percent salary increases prominently displayed but resting on a soggy base.
Among the scheme’s shortcomings is the lopsided salary increase that favours the top echelon.
One civil servant compared the impact of the new scheme on lower and higher rank staff. According to him:
