Pakatan is a carbon-copy of Barisan

After just one year in power, Pakatan Harapan is beginning to show its true colours. Malaysians can see that Pakatan Harapan is merely a carbon-copy of Barisan Nasional in more ways than one. Give Pakatan Harapan ten years and see. It will be like the choice between Labour and the Tories in the UK or the Republicans and Democrats in the US. Satu penyamun dan satu lagi lanun, tapi dua-dua perompak.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Let us say you do a lie detector test of all political leaders, wakil rakyat, cabinet ministers, and so on. You just lump the results into racial categories — Malay, Chinese, Indian, ‘natives’ of East Malaysia, etc. You do not, however, differentiate the results according to political parties or alliances. In other words, the Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional results are all mixed up into one bundle and differentiated only by race.

The reason this is done on the basis of a lie detector test is because you are going to ask them very sensitive questions and you want to know whether they are lying or telling the truth. For example, you are going to ask the Malays from both sides of the political fence whether they regard themselves as “Malay first” or “Malaysian first” and you want to know if those Malays who reply “Malaysian first” are lying or not.

The objective of this exercise is to find out how different the Malays, Chinese, Indians and ‘others’ think. Since you only know they are Malays, Chinese, Indians and ‘others’, but you do not know which side of the political fence they are on, can you tell from the results whether they are from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan?

For example, looking at the response from the Malays, can you tell whether that respondent is an Umno Malay, PAS Malay, PKR Malay, PPBM Malay, or Amanah Malay? And the same with the Chinese respondents. Can you tell the difference between a DAP Chinese, PKR Chinese, MCA Chinese and Gerakan Chinese (say if you ask them questions on Chinese schools and Chinese education)?

Malays are Malays never mind what uniform they wear

Yes, if you just know they are Malays, Chinese, Indians, etc., but you do not know which political party or political grouping they are from, you will never be able to tell the difference between the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan people. You will never be able to pick out an Umno Malay, PAS Malay, PKR Malay, PPBM Malay, or Amanah Malay from the bundle — or a DAP Chinese, PKR Chinese, MCA Chinese and Gerakan Chinese. All the Malays will look the same, as would the Chinese (and Indians for that matter).

Now you mix them all up and do not even pile them into any racial grouping. In other words, you do not divide them into racial bundles but they are all in one big bundle. Then you try to see if you can separate them into racial bundles just from the answers they gave (or tried not to give). Most likely you will have a 90% success rate in sorting the one bundle into different racial bundles.

In short, the Malays, Chinese, Indians, ‘others’, etc., all think the same never mind on which side of the political fence they may be from. Malays will think like Malays, Chinese like Chinese, etc. Their political affiliations will not change the way they think. And that is why Umno and PAS can sleep in the same bed because even though PAS is a breakaway party of Umno (Umno was formed in 1946 and PAS in 1951) Malays will still be Malays never mind whether they are from Umno or PAS.

All this during whose time?

So, if you think, the new Pakatan Harapan government is going to mean a ‘New’ Malaysia, perish that thought. A fox will still be a fox and can never become a chicken. And whether they are from Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Harapan they are all still foxes and not chickens.

You may say, “Ah, but there is one difference between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, one huge difference. And that difference is Barisan Nasional is corrupt to high heavens while Pakatan Harapan is clean.”

If you believe that then you also believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. First of all, when DAP says Malaysia has been under a kleptocracy for 61 years, that includes Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tun Daim Zainuddin, Anwar Ibrahim, Muhyiddin Yassin, Azmin Ali, Rafidah Aziz, Syed Hamid Albar, and many more — today, all who are leaders in Pakatan Harapan. Najib Tun Razak was Prime Minister for only nine years, not 61 years. So how can Najib be blamed for the so-called “61 years of misrule”?

One year of Pakatan and they are beginning to outdo Barisan’s misrule and corruption

Secondly, and most important of all, how can you compare one year of a Pakatan Harapan government with 61 years of an Umno-led Alliance/Barisan government? Give Pakatan another ten years and see what will happen. In ten years, Pakatan Harapan will be no different, or maybe even worse, than Barisan Nasional.

The first 27 years of the Umno-led government from 1955 to 1982 were okay. It was the 36 years from 1982 to 2018 when the rot set in. So, for DAP to say 61 years of kleptocracy is misleading. Maybe it was 36 years of kleptocracy. But certainly not 61 years.

And who were those in charge during the 27 years of those 36 years of kleptocracy if not the current Pakatan people, the leaders of PKR and PPBM? So, what the hell is DAP talking about? They are what the Malays say ludah ke langit.

After just one year in power, Pakatan Harapan is beginning to show its true colours. Malaysians can see that Pakatan Harapan is merely a carbon-copy of Barisan Nasional in more ways than one. Give Pakatan Harapan ten years and see. It will be like the choice between Labour and the Tories in the UK or the Republicans and Democrats in the US. Satu penyamun dan satu lagi lanun, tapi dua-dua perompak.