Playing the Barisan Nasional Blame Game
The political parties are loath to change because they want to; most of them are forced to change, just like the LDP in Japan, the KMT in Taiwan and the Congress Party in India.
Stephen Doss, Advisor to the Malaysian Social Media Chambers
There is a tendency after every election for winners to amplify their wins and take sole credit for their performance, and for losers to find convenient scapegoats.
It would be easy for anyone to look at the results of the 13th General Elections and classify the winners as Barisan Nasional and the losers as Pakatan Rakyat. Not so.
In actual fact there is much more for Pakatan Rakyat to be happy about than the Barisan Nasional, for one they are riding an uptrend in terms of total number of votes received, not to mention an increase in the number of seats both at the parliamentary and the state.
Barisan Nasional is expected to react the same way that they did after the 2008 General Elections, which is to look for a convenient scapegoat. For UMNO it was Pak Lah, for MCA it was Ong Tee Keat.
Fast forward to 2013, already Najib Razak and Chua Soi Lek are now feeling the heat.
Unfortunately the Barisan Nasional will again refuse to acknowledge that the rot had set in years back, not 10 years back, not 20.
Just like all political parties which have governed for years without interruption, arrogance, corrupt practices, cronyism, and nepotism have become second nature and barely noticed among members.
The political parties are loath to change because they want to; most of them are forced to change, just like the LDP in Japan, the KMT in Taiwan and the Congress Party in India.
Dr Mahathir did a grave disservice to UMNO and BN when he pinned the blame for the 2008 results on Pak Lah, and the BN lost a golden opportunity to reform itself and hence, they are now suffering from having to form a government with the humiliation of having lost the popular vote. And those that think that by putting the blame solely on certain individuals are gonna change anything, are making the same mistake.
Even if there is a change in leadership within the BN, but without recognition that brand BN has been damaged because of widespread corruption, concentration of wealth among the economic elite, arrogance of thought and action among the rank and file, a dearth of talent among its ranks, then the BN can expect to continue in its free fall, they should not be surprised if their share of the popular votes keep dwindling.
There are some within the BN who see the 13th GE results as opportunities to climb the ladder, nothing more. They deliberately try to avoid looking at the real reasons why they are now in a downward spiral.
If that is the case, Good Luck Barisan Nasional, you’re gonna need it come GE14.
