2008 GENERAL ELECTION BROUGHT THE WORST IN PAKATAN RAKYAT.
…THEY WILL HAVE TO PAY DEARLY FOR THE CONFUSION THEY CREATED AMONGST THEMSELVES IN THE THIRTEENTH GENERAL ELECTION WHICH ALL LEADS ANYONE TO BELIEVE THEY DO NOT DESERVE TO LEAD ANYONE.
By Mansor Puteh
It is quite obvious that Pakatan Rakyat has failed miserably.
They won many seats in parliament and the state assemblies, but none of them has managed to show to their own constituency that they are good for them.
The problem is that they seem to think they serve themselves more than their own party, and much less their constituency.
None of them had bothered to seek the views from those who had voted them. Isn’t it not a Malaysian opposition tradition to do this anyway?
I can say this with certainty for my constituencies where the elected representatives have never bothered to come and meet with the people after they had won the election in 2008.
Worse, many of those in the opposition have become so crass that they are impossible to reach; they are on their own, with the Chinese representatives behaving as though there were no Melayu and Indians who had also voted for them.
So no wonder, no major issue has been debated intelligently in parliament by the opposition.
In fact, many of them do not even know the ‘standing orders’ and had to be chastised by the speaker many times who had to explain to them these.
They end up spending a lot of time shouting at each other, with some having been asked to leave the houses.
There is a lot of confusion on the role they can play; and in the process they also caused some of their more vocal officials to desert the cause.
The main reason being most of the elected representatives from the opposition never thought they would win a seat in parliament or the state assembly; so they are not familiar with the rules and what to discuss or debate about.
Most of them end up not saying anything at all, not because they can’t speak Melayu well, but because they are not intelligent enough to do so.
The mandate that the voters had given them in 2008 was not for them to march to Putrajaya; it is for them to see if Pakatan could be trusted.
They had lost a lot of goodwill and support strangers had given them because they did not show or exhibit proper leadership even when they were given to them officially.
Their elected officials have tended to be too self-centered and have not shown any inclination to lead by example. So they are no better than those whom they claim to want to replace.
They tried to show Barisan Nasional how vulnerable they were by voting for the opposition.
They have no plans to replace the existing systems. So why must they be counted on?
Seizing the mantle of political leadership is one; but being able to make sense of it all is another.
What are their plans for the development of the arts in the country so that they can be further expanded and developed so all those who are keen to go into it?
Now Barisan knows where they stand – on weak soil. They do not represent any real threat to them.
But has Barisan leaders learnt anything from the results of the last election?
They have not.
This can be seen in the way how some of those whom the voters had rejected had been given new life.
They rejected Sharizad Jalil, Samy Vellu and some others; yet, they are still there.
If these and the others from Barisan are put out as candidates in the next general election, chances are they can cause the coalition to lose those seats.
They can still win in their own party elections by their own party members and voters, but can they win in the general election?
Which is more important for them: To win in party elections or the general elections?
They don’t care.
They can convince their party members to support them. But they cannot depend too much on the voters who are not interested in their loyalty shown by their party members on their leaders whom they see has being old goats who should have been shooed away from the party leadership hierarchy long ago.
The same applies with those old goats in Pakatan who are now being seen as burdens for the party.
It’s time for the voters too to get rid of all of them. They have been hogging politics in the country with their same attitudes on the same issues. So it’s time for the same faces be got rid off.
It’s time we find new shoes that fit better – and they are local-made and brand-new.
The voters should also consider this attitude; that they should not vote anyone whose parent is also running in the same election, and those who have cousins and other relatives running too.
Just choose one of them in their nuclear or extended family. And do not vote anyone who has been in the political business for more than two terms.
So for that matter, do not vote for anyone in the MCA, MIC and Gerakan, as well as Umno and those in Pakatan – PKR, DAP and the others if they have been in parliament for more than two terms.
And those who have been making more noises and a nuisance of themselves in and out of parliament must be trounced.
Get rid also those who do not show any respect for Bahasa Melayu. And those who can’t speak and write in the language and has to read prepared speeches in and out of parliament must not be voted in.
Ask them to learn Melayu first before they can be voted.
Many Malaysian voters simply do not know how to vote. They use sentiments and not brains. They vote blindly.
But the last general election shows that there are many who have tried to vote using their brains. But alas, their brains did not function well, so they ended up voting in many to parliament and the state assemblies who can’t perform.
So the thirteenth general election is another chance for the voters to use their brains better, by doing what is suggested here.
And especially those voters in Pulau Pinang, Selangor and Kedah who have tried to show their displeasure at Barisan, who now know what it’s like to be in the control of Pakatan.
Have they learnt a lesson from the last general election?
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