Pakatan Rakyat Leaders please stop steering the Adrenaline level of your supporters

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On May 10, 2013

M. Gunasekar

Dear Pakatan Rakyat leaders please stop playing with the emotion of your supporters. Everyone knows that the adrenaline level is extremely high among the frustrated Pakatan Rakyat supporters and not many are aware that certain PR leaders are capitalizing on that to put the blame on Barisan Nasional for winning the election by way of corruption, manipulation, phantom voter and even to the certain extent of using foreigners to vote.

Stop being a sore loser and do a complete analysis and post mortem on the outcome of GE13. Look at areas that need improvement and find ways to have a better united coalition rather than a shoddy loose coalition that until the day of election could not decide whom the general public needs to vote. Examples: Labuan Parliament seat and 8 state seats namely; Sungai Acheh state seat in Penang, Jelapang state seat in Perak, the Kota Damansara and Semenyih seat in Selangor, Panti in Johor and Kota Putera, Bukit Besi and Seberang Takir in Terengganu. It involved self-inflicted 3-corner fights among the coalition partners which resulted in losing all the seats. YB DSAI, YB LKS and YB AHA what are your comments about it?

My view about it is – “If they cannot even agree on this before the general election, how are they going to administer the country?”

Allegation after allegation have been thrown by Pakatan Rakyat leaders especially by DSAI at Barisan Nasional for not winning GE13 fair and square. What is fair and what is not fair?

The reality of the outcome of GE13 shows that the PR coalition was not able to penetrate and reach the rural voters who seemed not interested in what was championed by PR.

Rural seats other than in Kelantan and Terengganu and some here and there in Perak are still out of PR’s reach. Why? It is for PR leaders to provide the answer.

As much as I admire the desire and willpower of DSAI to capture Putrajaya, I hate to say that you are still not my favorite leader. You don’t deserve a place in my heart due to your cunning in manipulating the citizens of Malaysia to achieve your goal to become Malaysia’s next PM. In 2008 GE, you used the Indians as pawns and in 2013 you used the Chinese. And what is your next plan for GE14? Who is in your mind, Malays or East Malaysians? I am sure you are going to abandon the Chinese like how you abandoned the Indians after GE 12.

As long as DSAI is at the helm of PKR and PR, Azmin Ali is a liability to the PR.

Street protests in the current Malaysian environment is a no go as it creates a lot of animosity, tension, traffic gridlock and to a certain level affects the economics of the country. Look what happened that night on the LDP, NPE, Federal Highway and other parts of the city; traffic snarls that lasted until after midnight. What good did PR make out of that? Maybe a short and temporary boost of energy on the people who attended the rally night, but what next? More street protest, more rallies, more tear gas, more road blocks, more beatings, more racial tensions, more cyber attacks, many mores of this and that. Where are we being led by our PR politician? A political wilderness that will only bring more racial divide. Don’t be another Mahathir Mohammad who go out of his way to portray himself as the champion of the Malays, whilst turning a blind eye to the plight of those marginalised from his Indian side of the family.

PR should work hard to become a highly credible political coalition, and not a “one-hit-wonder” by moving forward to prepare for the next GE by engaging every citizen of Malaysia for the need for better governance based on rock solid policies and an administration that is transparent and accepted by people from the urban, sub-urban and rural folks.

It is time for us to not champion race based politics that will only bring down the country. No anyone can say he is not racist to a certain extent. Barisan Nasional is using the outcome of GE 13 to beat the drum calling it a Chinese Tsunami similar to the Indian Tsunami of 2008. Is it really a Tsunami? I don’t think so, else why wasn’t the Johor Bahru Parliament seat not captured by PR? Please don’t put the blame on BN manipulating the outcome. The truth in it is the Chinese, the moderate Malays and to a certain extent the Indians have ignored the PR candidates who happens to be former army chief Gen (R) Tan Sri Md Hashim Hussein who represented PAS. Why it happens, when you say there is a Chinese Tsunami, Urban Tsunami, the reality is people do not agree on the uncertainty PR stands on Hudud. The Johor Chinese and Indians are still worried about voting for PAS candidates that they think will backfire if PAS comes to power.

What about the outcome of the Shah Alam Parliament seat? PR candidate Khalid Samad won the battle with Zulkifli Nordin (Perkasa Vice President) who contested under BN banner. Total vote poll on that day: 88,126 votes and in terms of race it consisted Malays 68.76% or estimated 60,595 voters, Chinese 15.54% or estimated 13,945 voters, Indian 15.08% or 13,289 voters and Others 0.63% or estimated 555 voters. Zulkifli Nordin received a total of 38,070 votes; the question is who voted for him, Chinese, Indian or Malays?

Can we call whoever voted for Zulkifli Nordin, racist? If you agree then most probably 90% of the votes he received came from the Malays, so whichever Malay that voted for him is a racist just like the candidate.

Than again we should also not deny that Malay candidates won their seats contested against Non-Malays. The following people were elected to Parliament as a result of the Chinese Tsunami; Mohd Rafizi Ismail (Pandan), Dr Siti Mariah (Kota Raja), Tan Sri Khalid (Bdr Tun RazaK), Imran Hamid (Lumut), Dato Arif (Raub), Kamarul Bahrin (Teluk Kemang), Khairil K. Johari(Bukit Bendera).

The following became State Assemblymen due to the so-called Chinese Tsunami; Azman Nasarudin (Lunas, Kedah, Dato Anuar Abdullah (Kota Lama, Kelantan), Azan Ismail (Bandar, Terengganu), Tengku Zulpuri (Mentakab, Pahang), Mohd Rashid (Pantai Jerejak, Penang), Dr Idris (Ijok, Selangor), Amunul Huda (Parit Yani, Johor), Abdullah Husin (Puteri Wangsa, Johor). The above mentioned elected Malay representatives won the seat contested against Non-Malays. How the hell it is possible for the Malays to win the seats if the Chinese Tsunami really took place? So who is really racist? The Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Iban, Murut or others? Please don’t fall for the baseless allegation thrown by UMNO and the main stream media controlled by it.

This is what we call race based politics, no matter what; each race will have a certain amount of reserved votes for candidates that are not of the same race as them and the tendency to vote for someone who happens to be bloody racist as long as the candidate is of the same race with them. Do you think this kind of sentiment is good for progress in Malaysia? How long has it to go on before we can move to a two party system based on ideologies and not race?

By now many reading this might wonder which side I belong to – BN, PR or a son of gun firing salvos at PR without valid reason. You can think whatever you want about me; it is your choice. The truth is, I am a middle aged Malaysian who happens to have attended Bersih 2.0, Bersih 3.0, Himpunan 1 Juta Rakyat and many other ceramahs, fund raising dinners, political speeches, travelled all the way to Port Dickson just to listen to Tok Guru Nik Aziz’s speech and many more. I have voted for PR in the last two elections, my wife and I refused to change address to my present residence in Kuala Lumpur just to make sure I am able to vote in Johor so that I will be able to vote for Parliament and State seats. I convinced others to vote for PR including some BN staunch supporters and whom I know this time around voted for PR.

Then why all this cry and anger on PR leaders? The reality is, protests or rallies will not be able to change the result of the 13th general election or cause the polls to be held again. Blaming the Election Commission alone is not going to solve all these problems. EC had , to some extent, been treated unfairly by many parties who questioned the credibility of the election results, particularly over the integrity of the electoral roll used. How many are aware that EC was duty-bound to register anyone who has a blue MyKad, and it has no power to deal with issues revolving around the validity of an individual’s citizenship? When the EC sees a blue IC, it means you’re eligible to register (as a voter) …. They have no alternative under the law but to register the person.

Bangladeshi people became victims of social phobia of PR supporters who been misled by their leader into believing that BN is using them to vote in the election. Can anyone tell me how many actually voted in the election? Then there was the claim that BN ferried foreigners from Sabah and Sarawak to vote in the election. So who are these foreigners? Again many will claim they were Bangladeshis. But who can confirm it? In fact Tony Fernandez already mentioned that he personally checked the manifesto of the flights and he didn’t find any foreigners in it.

How many of you are aware that in Sabah and Sarawak there are less than 5,000 Bangladeshis in total. If you don’t believe that, please check with the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala Lumpur. So who are these people that were ferried to Peninsular Malaysia by the friends of BN who footed the bill as claimed by Putrajaya BN MP Tengku Adnan? Could they be Indonesian? Then why weren’t many Indonesians caught by the vigilante PR supporters? After all, it was mentioned all over the place that over 30,000 foreigners had been ferried from Sabah and Sarawak to vote in GE13.

Could it be due to the vigilantes believing that Bangladeshis, Myanmarese and Nepalese were the ones coming to vote and therefore giving the opportunity for Indonesians to walk in coolly into the polling center without being noticed as all the PR vigilantes were busy looking for Bangladeshis?

Or could it be these Indonesians ferried in the Risda vans were sent to vote in rural seats monopolized by the Malays and therefore it was difficult to differentiate them from the locals? BN was interested in rural seats and they were sure to win the election by capturing most of the rural seats and that is what happened. So it looks like the vigilantes of PR failed to detect this complot and ending up arresting the poor so-called Bangladeshis and in the process got themselves into trouble with the Police.

I believe many Malaysians still lack a proper understanding of democracy. The people have to understand their rights and their duties. Some have yet to learn about discipline. I think it is important to educate the people about true democratic rule. It is a challenge to enable all 29 over million Malaysians to gain an in-depth understanding of democracy and all its rights, duties and rules.

The fact that the rural voters continued to support BN was, in the eyes of many Malaysians, clear evidence of voter irrationality and of the ongoing failure of the electoral process.

But the truth as mentioned by a political writer in one of his articles: Rural voters were allegedly selling their votes to their local political patrons for money, jobs, protection or informal welfare benefits. Their interests, long ignored by urban policy-makers, their local resources depleted by both state and private sectors, these voters perforce became willing accomplices of the electocrats in the systematic corruption of electoral ‘‘democracy.’’

There is little the rural electorate can do to shake off this persistent image. It is often alleged that electoral reforms and increased regulation of local electoral processes have had little impact on the pattern of financially lubricated electoral patronage. The only solution, we are consistently told, is ongoing political education, to provide rural voters ‘‘with a proper understanding of the object of elections and their mechanisms, as well as to arouse political awareness’’

There is a saying that goes along this line “If you take sufficient interest in our welfare to lend your fair aid, you will appear fairer than ever in our sight; we will never treat you unfairly, and when you withdraw the light of your fair countenance from our Fair, we will bid you a kind Farewell”.

Therefore to all Pakatan Rakyat leaders, please stop playing with the adrenaline of your supporters and work smartly to capture Putrajaya in the next GE. It will be your third attempt come next GE and if you are still not good enough, then not even the creator can save PR. Don’t let a third force come and spoil your effort.

Also to the co-chairperson of Bersih, Ambiga Sreenevasan please doesn’t allow Pakatan Rakyat to highjack the movement for their political mileage. We need NGOs like Bersih to keep all political parties on their toes.

M. Gunasekar, 45, is currently Managing Director of A Company. An Entrepreneur with over 20 years’ hands-on experience managing multiple lines of business and employees. M. Gunasekar is a person who is positive about every aspect of life. There are many things he likes to do, to see, and to experience.