Pakatan needs a decisive strategy now!
Pakatan must prove to the rakyat that it can tackle national misfortunes and produce a strategy to overcome grim election possibilities now, before the general election.
Awang Abdillah, FMT
Since the beginning of the Mahathir era until today, the Umno-led government has accumulated a trail of unresolved national misfortunes, by-products of long-term bad governance and gross abuses of power.
It has compelled Malaysians to collectively act (read 2008 polls tsunami) in order to save the nation from the these ills and their consequences.
Hence Pakatan Rakyat, as the opposition coalition, must take the initiative now to address these failed policies and practices instead of waiting until it is elected to office as the next federal government.
These long-standing, unresolved products of mismanagement have generated into toxic national waste harmful to the national, political and economic environments that have earned Malaysia the tag as a “sick nation” and the laughing stock of Asia.
Pakatan must tackle these national disasters now ahead of the impending 13th general election, bearing in mind the grim possibility of a double tragedy – declaration of an emergency and a crackdown on the opposition before the election is held, thereby clearing the path for an easy election victory for the Umno-led Barisan Nasional.
Pakatan must therefore foresee these possible circumstances and stop any and all impending election tragedies now to enable it to overtake the incumbent federal government.
It is critical that Pakatan proves to the rakyat that it can tackle these national misfortunes and produce a strategy to overcome these grim election possibilities prior to the general election.
The Pakatan leaders should set up steering committees to analyse and establish the facts and offer solutions for each one of these issues and situations.
Set up steering committees
Key issues that the steering committees should address are:
- To ascertain the real amount of Bank Negara colossal foreign reserves’ losses in currency speculations involving the British pound in 1992/93 in the London foreign exchange market during the tenure of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
- Revisiting EPF’s losses during the Mahathir era. From the Mahathir-era until today, funds from the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) have been abused for mega projects.
- Tax evasion by BN crony companies. The revenue for 2012 is expected to be around RM187 billion only. This constitutes about 20% of the GDP. In Western countries the rate would be much higher.
The low rate could be attributed to tax evasion by BN crony companies and individual politicians who stash their money overseas and corrupt government officials who are bribed from collecting the full amount of taxes from companies and businessmen.
- Granting of free MyKads and citizenship. Pakatan must end this despicable act by Umno to give away identity cards and citizenship to foreign workers on condition they vote for BN. Pakatan should gather the actual figures and present them to the 13 million Malaysian voters and demand the cancellation of these illegal documents.
- Clean electoral rolls. There are about 13 million registered voters in the electoral rolls. If the Election Commission fails to clean up the messy electoral list, then it should be directed to use the 2008 electoral list instead in the coming national polls.
- Tackling crime. Currently the police force is trained to solve crimes. But tackling crimes requires the virtues of honesty and integrity on the part of the police. An honest police force can arrest/stop criminals, thereby bringing down crime possibly by more than half, while a dishonest one will become a willing accomplice to the criminals.
Pakatan must draw up a comprehensive training programme for the police force, including inculcating good religious and moral values before it comes to power.
