Bersih and Change
The voice of 10,000 Rakyat does not matter to Azmin’s administration
Agos Muhd
BERSIH 5.0’s turnout of roughly 40,000 people (according to Malaysiakini) last Saturday sounds impressive at first glance. However, at a deeper inspection, it very much pales in comparison and spirit when compared to BERSIH 4.0 last year with 300,000 strong Rakyat.
Does this mean that the Rakyat no longer want change and good governance? NO. The Rakyat is in even more dire need of change and good governance.
What this low turnout painfully points out is that the majority of Rakyat who wanted change are now jaded with the BERSIH movement itself. BERSIH is nothing more than a poorly disguised campaign front for Pakatan.
That in itself wouldn’t be a problem if Pakatan stood for transparency and good governance. But Pakatan has shown its true colours to the Rakyat shortly after GE13; and the colours are no different to Barisan.
Pakatan stalwarts Selangor MB Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin were quick to denounce the Official Secrets Act when Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli was prosecuted for exposing government documents concerning 1MDB and LTAT.
OSA is the tool of tyranny and oppression when used by Barisan because Rafizi was allegedly exposing corrupt practices.
But when we Anak Selangor demand for information on the three highways of DASH, EKVE and SUKE approved by the Selangor Administration in 2015, Azmin and Zuraida had no problems denying our request using the OSA.
Double standards much? From our point of view, this act from Pakatan reeks of tyranny & oppression too!
Pakatan want the Rakyat to vote them into Federal because they will bring about change. What change are they actually talking about? Eight years into administrating Selangor and what have they actually got to show in terms of change in transparency and good governance?
Does anyone still remember that Pakatan wants to de-gazette state forest reserves to build DASH, EKVE and SUKE? Did you know there were 10,000 written objections submitted in two weeks to oppose the de-gazette exercise for the SUKE highway?
By law, there is supposed to be a public hearing to address the concerns of the public, but do you know how Azmin handled this?
When the status of the written objections was queried, Azmin claimed the state government had analyzed the objections and found that there were only 8 objections in total which had been repeated by multiple individuals. As such, the state government had already provided initial approval for the de-gazettement.
So what is Azmin, the champion of transparency and good governance saying? Unless the Rakyat have 10,000 different reasons for objecting the degazzettement of our forest reserves, the objection will not be heard?
The voice of 10,000 Rakyat does not matter? Why hold a public hearing if you have already provided initial approval anyway? Is this nothing more than a tick box exercise? How is Azmin’s administration in any fathomable way better than Barisan’s?
The Rakyat is indeed in desperate need of change, unfortunately there is no change in sight. Both paths lead to the same evils, just different benefactors. We will continue on this path until we realize it is not a simple case of black or white, opposition or government.
The path to transparency and good governance requires public criticism and accountability for both the ruling government AND the opposition. The Rakyat must hold the politicians accountable for what they have promised. If they do not deliver, then it is time to show them the way out.
