Different flies around the same rubbish
We’ll still be a sick nation unless Umno undergoes a paradigm shift and a naturally talented leader takes over.
Ishmael Lim, Free Malaysia Today
The nexus between Tun Mahathir and Perkasa has now become a lot clearer. The symbiosis may have existed even before the NGO’s official launch after GE12, in 2008. Perkasa asserted that Pak Lah was no longer taking care of Malay interests. That assertion sounds a lot like a cover, considering that it followed BN’s poor election performance.
Perkasa must have been meant as a steering group to keep subsequent PMs in line according to Mahathir’s vision. This shouldn’t be surprising as Mahathir did birth Umno Baru premised on his own ideals and beliefs. That Malaysia is so divided today is the raw manifestation of his vision taking shape. It is a form built around an unquestioning fealty to the top, a carrot-and-stick programme looking a lot like Mahathir’s art detailing.
Pak Lah’s moderate and clean image was not enough in his second electoral outing as leader of Barisan. This was the rationale put forward at the time by the Tun. But he was criticising Pak Lah even before the GE12 campaigning began. Remember his tirade about being ignored by the media and Pak Lah’s government? He claimed he had no space to voice his views and he quit Umno vowing he would never re-join while Pak Lah was still the president.
How much of Barisan’s slide in 2008 can really be hung around Pak Lah’s neck and how much was due to Dr M’s role as spoiler in the run up to GE12? The united opposition was an important factor but not the only one contributing to the slide. The open tiff between the two men must have added grease to the slide. Dr M’s other peeve at the time revolved around the “fourth floor boys” (his euphemism for KJ) pulling the strings and running the show.
People didn’t hate Pak Lah like they hated and feared Dr M. They just had enough of the cronyism, nepotism and money politics within Umno that the Tun was broadcasting about, which was picked up and used by the opposition.
Pak Lah didn’t lose the popular vote in GE12. Barisan polled 51.4%, while Pakatan managed 47.8%. But the ruling coalition did lose the two-third majority in Parliament. The reversals of fortunes look obvious now when GE13 results are compared with GE12’s. Pakatan polled 50.9%, while Barisan managed 47.4% of the popular vote under Najib. Barisan’s parliamentary seats exceeded its proportional vote to give BN control of Parliament and the Federal Government both times.
“Seat count” determines who rules. But the shifting of electoral boundaries and the creation of new seats make this a poor reflection of the voters’ true will. The popular vote remains the only reliable yardstick left of that “will”. The system as it stands looks unlikely to ever yield to a non-Umno led government even if favoured by popular vote.
To make “gerrymandering” easier to understand, take a single constituency seat called X that always delivers a win for party ABC and split it into X and Y. In the next election, X and Y will deliver two seats to party ABC rather than the single that X used to deliver. This is the gist in simplest terms.
