I was at Ooi Kee Beng's book launch last night. His book, Lost in Transition, is available in Malaysiakini.com.
In his speech, Ooi said “It is not given that if Umno reforms itself, it would reform like how KMT did - meaning liberalise and play the democratic game. Fascism is always close at hand. We don’t want that to be encouraged. We should work to not crush Umno but help it along in its reforming process.”
Ooi has made a very important point. People who wanted to welcome a two-party system must ensure that the BN survives as a coalition, perhaps, in its new liberalised form. The coalition survival hinges on the fate of UMNO.
Although the election results was disastrous for the party, it still holds more than 50 percent (78 seats) of total seats won by the coalition. UMNO is without a doubt the backbone of the BN.
In my previous posts, I urged all politicians to respect the verdict of the people. Voters have chosen to deny BN its two-thirds majority but still trusted the coalition to lead the federal government.
Hence, any efforts to destabilize the Abdullah administration mustn't go against the grain of democracy. Undemocratic attempt to topple PM Abdullah will not augur well. Dr Mahathir has an axe to grind but his action must not be encouraged nor supported.
However, UMNO leadership should not take the people's wishes for granted. It is timely for them to start a real reform process in BN. Without a reformed and deracialize UMNO, it is highly unlikely for MCA, MIC and Gerakan to be rehabilitated.
In the next few months, Malaysian politics is going through an interesting period. Abdullah's fate will be and should be decided in the next UMNO party poll and not through a coup.
8 comments:
Can you really say with any confidence that the people chose the BN to form the federal goverment, given the widespread gerrymandering and blatant cheating?
Perhaps the people unwittingly voted in for a new government. Nevertheless BN wont make the same mistake twice. The next election will be the dirtiest ever, one would be naive to think otherwise. What is wrong with the opposition seizing power at this juncture? It is probably the one chance to forge some semblance of a democracy in this country.
You sure as hell cant trust UMNO to do so.
I do not think I can agree with you completely. Blatant cheating? Then we need to snow proof instead of making accusations. Besides, the Pakat Rakyat won 5 states and the federal territory. Many seats were won by huge margins.
It will be stupid for BN to make the same mistake twice - sheer display of arrogance and abuse of power.
Seizing power at this juncture? Would you support BN seizing power the same way should PR won?
We need people at the centre and not at both extremes.
This talk about cheating in the polls and gerrymandering need to stop. In Sabah and Sarawak, BN was able to win almost all the seats with just over 50% of the popular vote. Well, such is the 1st past the post system. It can really skew the representation.
However, in peninsula, BN and PR split the popular votes almost 50-50. The number of seat won by each is 86 to 80, less than 10% difference. For a first past the post sytem, this is a very good representation. So one can say that in the peninsula, any gerrymandering did not benefit BN. Now, if any of the candidates believes that there is cheating in his/her constituency, then they can always file an election petition after the results are gazetted. My guess is that they would not be able to substantiate their claim.
The problem is that when something is said often enough, people begins to believe in it, whether it is true or not. Take Pakistan, before the election, there is talk of boycott because the election will be rigged. After the election, where the opposition won, suddenly it's no longer rigged election but that the people have spoken.
The latest is Zimbabwe. Same accusations before the election. Now, Mugabe's ZANU-PF party is asking for a recount.
And all these talk about seizing power by enticing politicians to be froggies must be condemned. Be aware that it only takes 8 froggies to hop to BN for them to get the 2/3 majority, whereas it needs 30 froggies to hop the other way for PR to get a majority. If we are to applaud the 30 froggies who hop to PR, what would we do if there are 8 froggies who would hop to BN? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander. We cannot condone and condemn the same act just because of our preference.
Cheers.
This election's signifiy something much more different outlook than the previous elections...The Indians,Chinese,Malays all want change..The electrol gains made By PAS,DAP and PKR reflect's this..yes,they all have different aspirations...but it's change they seek..The Malays being the Bumi-putra's,,,always look upon with envy in terms of quota allocation and govt subsidy's...so question is why do they seek change?..This is where we have to learn distinguish the Elite malays or normal malays...The elite have always in very secure postion than the normal malay...In Pak lah's era,it became worse..when crony-based business and corrupt polticians had monopolise themself,shutting out the normal malays...In North malaysia,there are malays who live in abstract poverty..those effected by tsunami are still living in tents...with very uncertain future...what this people seek's is not equal rights..rather their own bumi exclusive rights....Let's come to chinese..Chinese people does seek equal rights from a certain perspective...But most of them, seek is govt to give more aid to them particularly in small and medium size companies...they will like to see reservation's on certain projects to the bumi's to cease....they are also unhappy on present fedral Govt policies on non-muslim to muslim conversion...infact there are lot of case's involving dead non-muslim..who was disputed to be a muslim...and have to go to courts to decide..this made many chinese unhappy....This voting is to show their unhappiness with BN..not to discard it....coming to Indians,they are seeking too many things..within too little time period...without any united front..Some seek more allocation of university seats,Govt jobs..much more than their racial ratio..some seek a deputy Prime minster to be indian..most importantly,they want to done away with NEP policy.. comparing to the chinese...they are pushing it more...They are even talk's that Anwar might become PM.....and oppostion will take over...Even,it happends...he will have to dsimantle the NEP Policy....that is what he's chinese and indian allies seek..But does the bumi seek this?...The bumi's of the Sabah and sarawak are more isolated than the bumis in west malaysia..what they seek is more carrot...not no carrot at all...Anwar can't deliver them anything different to them at all...I see there is only one way Anwar,can truly become a Prime minster...The present level of corruption and mismanagment detoriated to a level that's beyound repair...malays will then desert UMNO..and choose anwar...but I don't see it anywhere in the near future..this election's....had made the high and mighty BN polticans to sit down and think...This cabinet line-up of minsters shows they would like to be relevant....Last,but not least Pushing Bumi's issue..too much and too hard is like playing with the Molotov cocktail....it have a tendancy to explode...and we might see some worst race-riots than that occur in 60's...Fortunately,most of us seek more accontable and transparent society....more importantly more stable society...
Due to some sorts of intentional manipulative method used to draw up the constituency map, BN manage to hold on simple majority rather than slim majority, with the popular vote of 51%, BN has about 65% total parliamentary seats, if not because of that, umnoputra is probably a dying racist party by now.
changing of the electorol boundray's exist in sg too...it is not surprising that it's practised in msia..."Dying",I hope u care to explain..with facts and fiqures..How so "Umno" is dying? How so "Malays" wanted to discard UMNO totally? Let me tell u a story..In sg in the mid-80's..there were lot of indian enclaves and malay strongholds...after,ruling party lost in shocking setback,they lost significant amount of seats..particulary due to majority of malays and indian voting the opposition...U know what the govt did? it moved them out to different estates...and placed a ruling malays can't be more than 25% in a estate...they brought in lot of overseas chinese from china,HK,taiwan to populate the esates which have malay majority? The end game is sucessfull...Given,that Umno had suffered unexpected setback...it is very superflicial to assume...they will not counter-attack...There is strong possiblity they would place indonesians in the indian/chinese areas and easily give them citizen status... china they did it in Tibet...Indian did it in West bengal region.....even USA did in Putra rico state...why will not they do it in msia...by the next election....the percentage of each ethnic group will become lesser...
This little Islamic country has many jokers.
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