Pakatan Harapan to Barisan Nasional in 1 Election Cycle

By admin-s Last updated May 11, 2017

We are buying into the idea of voting for Pakatan Harapan to “Save Malaysia” only because it absolves us of any responsibility to change.

Adam Netto

I will start off this opinion piece with a disclaimer. I am a 31 year old Malaysian living in Germany and it has been 4 years since the last General Election wherein I voted for Pakatan Rakyat. A lot of what you are about to read will seem regurgitated but I believe it is necessary to let Pakatan Harapan know that the average folk are starting to ask questions. Hence, I am going to summarize my main grievances into the following questions:

We were told by Pakatan Rakyat after the last elections, that there was voter fraud i.e. loads of foreigners being allowed to vote, “blackouts” at counting stations etc. Where is the corresponding evidence to prove these claims? (1)
The Pakatan Rakyat state governments of Selangor, Penang and Kelantan were promptly sworn in. Was there no voter fraud in those states?
In reference to the “Kajang Move”, what was a legitimate reason for removing the freshly re-elected Selangor Chief Minister Khalid Ibrahim? (2)
Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad with Parti Pribumi have entered the opposition bloc with the intention of “Saving Malaysia”. He represents everything opposition supporters despise about UMNO i.e “Anything but UMNO”. Please explain how this works.
We are being asked to vote out Prime Minister Najib Razak by voting for Pakatan Harapan. It was a given in 2008 and 2013 that Anwar Ibrahim would take over as Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan won. As that is no longer an option, who are we voting for now to replace Prime Minister Najib Razak? (3)

We are buying into the idea of voting for Pakatan Harapan to “Save Malaysia” only because it absolves us of any responsibility to change. Let us assume Pakatan Harapan wins the election. Do we, the very next day, stop placing job ads in the newspaper stating, “Mandarin speakers preferred”? Or do we stop offering the policeman a bribe to escape a ticket? No, because we complain about a corrupt, racist system that we happily contribute to when it benefits us.

In hoping that Pakatan Harapan would be a magic bullet to fix all that is wrong in Malaysia, we are even willing to believe that Tun Mahathir bin Mohamad, who is responsible for most of what is wrong in the country today, only has our best interests at heart. He single-handedly removed the checks and balances in a healthy democracy like a free and independent judiciary and press which would have curtailed the “supposedly” rampant corruption that is going on today. This irony was aptly pointed out by Kua Kia Soong, Suaram Adviser on August 12, 2015 when he wrote, “We used to have to be saved from Mahathir. Now we are told we need to ally with Mahathir to “save Malaysia”.” (4)

In conclusion, I loaned Pakatan Harapan my vote for the last 4 years. Now the 4 years are up, and I ask myself, have you earned my vote for another 5 years?” As it stands, the answer is a resounding NO!

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