Open Letter to those BN elected Members of Parliament with integrity and conscience

Dear Yang Berhomat Ahli ahli Parliament Barisan National,

It is with much regret to go against my principle to call for your reconsideration in remaining with your coalition party, Barisan National.

There must be a very good reason, at times, to go against one's principle for the sake of the people and nation.

Before going into the reasoning in suggesting that you reconsider your position to remain with Barisan National let me asked a few questions in reminding you what and who you are.

1) What is your purpose to be an elected Member of Parliament?

2) Is high position (being a minister) and power solely or one of your motive to be an elected Member of Parliament?

3) Have the deterioration of racial harmony and religious intolerance caught your attention?

4) What is your priority being an elected Member of Parliament, party first or people/nation first?

5) Can you see what is happening right now with BN especially umno?

By answering the above questions truthfully you will know what position you are in right now.

You can see clearly the different rhetoric perpetuated pre 505 and post 505. Pre 505 rhetoric are favoring the rakyat with tonnes of money flowing freely and unrealistic promises to garner votes. Post 505 after failing to attract the voters to its side the tone set is completely the opposite using the race card to the tilt.

Yes, BN won 133 seats to enable it to form the federal government and with Najib swearing in with haste as the Prime Minister. Pakatan Rakyat is challenging the result claiming that they are being cheated off the win. They have every right to do so with their evidences to prove it. If you are a Malaysian living long enough in this nation you will be able to conclude what will be the outcome, but, today we are not talking about Pakatan Rakyat. Let them do what is right according to the "law" hoping that judgement will be free, fair and conducted without fear or favor.

The clarion call for GE 13 is to change the federal government to kick start a two party system that will enable any new federal government to rule together with the rakyat and not act arrogantly, corrupt and being racist. The popular vote has shown this is what the rakyat wanted but due to many obstacles being put in place in the election system the results gave the incumbent the 133 seats to stay in power.

Pre 505, umno bn leaders including the caretaker PM, Najib, have claimed that voters need not have to change the federal government cause umno bn can change themselves if voted in. Many have seen through this lie and the popular votes proved it. Umno bn did win the GE 13 but what are we seeing now post GE 13? They have indeed changed, not for the better but even worst.

The PM for all Malaysians and with his trademark of 1Malaysia started the ball rolling with his racist slant, 'Chinese tsunami' and the rest followed suit with Utusan's 'Apa lagi Cina Mahu?', former Court of Appeal judge Mohd Noor Abdulla’s incendiary speech pitting the Malays against the Chinese, UiTM pro-chancellor Tan Sri Dr. Abdul Rahman Arshad called for the abolition of Chinese and Tamil vernacular schools; and the call by some Malay groups to boycott Chinese businesses as a form of vendetta for the 13GE results. And not to forget the newly appointed Home Minister calling you to leave the country if you are not happy.

Racism is the worst disease in any developing nation and total destruction is the answer to it if it is not arrested immediately. As an elected MP, are you happy with what the PM and his followers are doing with these racist remarks pouring out daily? Is this racism part of PM Najib's call for national reconciliation? Give it a thought, if you keep quiet about it then you are no different from these racists.

Next is the formation of the Cabinet Ministers. Are they truly a formidable team to carry out their respective duty to bring forth a real transformation and changes that the nation is hungry for? The four most important ministry posts, finance, education, home and defense were given base on their capabilities, experiences and knowledge or on personal/party reasons? Most of you are fighting to be included into the cabinet but did you all asked yourself, are you qualified to hold that ministerial post if given? What I can see is a 'kitchen cabinet' full of carcases.

I need not have to go into the extensive corruptions and the actions of PDRM against those who are rallying against the undemocratic, dirtiest GE13 and framing almost anything they do under the sedition act while the most seditious statements that came from the ruling government went unnoticed. The above two points, racism and the cabinet are good enough to prove it does not bode well for the nation with this type of people running the nation. The rakyat do not care anymore about skin color, you can have a 100% Malay ministers or 100% Malay MPs as long as you can perform your duty as an elected representatives without thinking or acting like a racist and being fair to all Malaysians.

This is not an action call like September 16 post 308 but a message to whomever of you, right thinking MP, in truly wanting a real change in the democratic functioning system which have been destroyed over the 56 long years under umno bn rule. Get your party to withdraw from BN coalition and stay independent if you are not comfortable to join Pakatan Rakyat. Or if withdrawing party is not possible, then go independent as an individual. If only 25 of you can turned independent this will force a no confident vote against Najib as PM and a vote for a new PM can be called. If your conscience is clear and have seen the bads of umno you should vote for a Pakatan Rakyat MP to be the new PM.

If you do not take any action now and allow these group of leaders, mostly from umno, to continue running the nation there can be no hope of a two party system, good governance and bright future for this nation. Please bare in mind that there will be no reward such as promise of position nor monetary reward should you decide to go independent. It is all on your conscience and integrity to see that our beloved nation does not go down the drain. Let the formation of a true two party system take effect now. Think and think hard, come the first parliament sitting declare yourself independent and let the process of changing the government begins.

Sour grapes and sore winners

The Malaysian Insider

There is really nothing worse than sour grapes, but in this case, they are sore winners — the Barisan Nasional (BN).

BN politicians still believe that the Malaysian public are uneducated —or, worse yet, plain stupid — when it comes to comments about how the various races deserted the winning coalition

The Malays are “greedy”, for supporting Pakatan Rakyat (PR). The Chinese, first blamed for pushing out BN in many seats, are now said to have been duped by DAP.

And that is how the popular vote went, according to these politicians.

But the only ones duped were the highly-paid strategists and the Umno leadership, plus their much vaunted war room (who incidentally leaked to the mainstream press that Nurul Izzah Anwar and Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had “lost” their seats).

And they actually perpetuated and believed their own news that the two-thirds parliamentary super majority was in the pocket.

Now, instead of blaming voters and insulting their intelligence, why don’t they do some self-criticism and analysis, and ask whether it was congruent for a party that peddles 1 Malaysia to field the likes of Datuk Zulkifli Noordin and support Datuk Ibrahim Ali.

Also ask whether urban Malays enjoy watching Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud and Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil show little remorse for wrongdoings by their families.

There are many more questions to ask before the next polls, but please ask these questions of yourselves before it is too late. Before the people, and the next generation of voters, decide that all these leaders and their parties must be consigned to the rubbish bin of history.

There are many reasons to throw out such leaders but none of them are racial. Most of the Malaysian voters in Election 2013 decided to dump non-performing politicians and put the rest on notice.

You could delude yourself and keep giving them goodies and handouts. But they are a bit more mature now, a little more discerning about what is right for this country.

They want equity. They want a better government for a better nation. Walk the talk, instead of being sore winners. Reconcile, we must, but not when the first thought is about racial lines.

Malaysians have changed as much as the country has, and definitely more than politicians who still believe the people must be “grateful” to them and who see any snub as treasonous.

Learn this. Politicians owe their livelihoods to the people, and not the other way around. Call them stupid and see how smart they are in dumping you. Election 2013 has shown how true that is.

Hollow Victory and Unfinished Business

By Kee Thuan Chye | Yahoo News

The Election Commission (EC) has declared Barisan Nasional (BN) the winner of the 13th general election and Najib Razak has been sworn in as prime minister, but many people, including the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat, consider it unfinished business.

Claiming electoral fraud in various forms, they are questioning the legitimacy of the election result.

One of their central concerns is whether Pakatan Rakyat could have won more than the 89 parliament seats that the EC officially says it has.

According to Sivarasa Rasiah, vice-president of Pakatan component party PKR, the coalition disputes the results of about 30 other seats that it lost by narrow margins.

One could think of seats for parliament in which noted personalities contested, like those in Labis where the MCA’s Chua Tee Yong won by only 399 votes, and Cameron Highlands where the MIC’s G. Palanivel scraped through with a margin of 462.

In Kuala Selangor, the defeat of popular Dzulkefly Ahmad of PAS came as a surprise, by only 460 votes, and in Sungai Besar, BN won by a slim margin of 399.

The defeat that has drawn much speculation is that of the DAP’s Wong Tack in Bentong, in which Liow Tiong Lai triumphed by 379 votes, although Wong was reportedly leading by about 4,000 votes 45 minutes before the counting ended.

To all intents and purposes, the BN winners may have won fairly, but the fact that Tee Yong is the son of MCA President Chua Soi Lek, Liow is the party’s deputy president and Palanivel the MIC’s president only serves to fuel the speculation.

Furthermore, Liow’s successful defence of Bentong saves caretaker menteri besar Adnan Yaakob from having his ears cut off, even if the slim margin of victory may be enough to at least embarrass him.

But deeper than all this, it is the public distrust of the EC in its conduct of the general election and the loss of belief in BN playing fair that is the main issue.

Throughout the campaign period and even before that, BN engaged in money politics that went beyond decent limits. The BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia) handouts, the promise of more BR1M if BN won again, the announcement of salary increases to the civil service, the army and the police, the granting of bonuses to employees of numerous government-linked corporations – these amounted to vote-buying.

And after the dissolution of Parliament, when Najib became merely caretaker prime minister, he was still announcing projects when he was not supposed to any more. His coalition made use of state resources like RTM for its own campaigning, totally shutting out the Opposition as it has always done. Mainstream newspapers, mostly BN-owned, went against their professional ethics and campaigned for their political masters with negative spins against the Opposition in news reports, analyses and columns. They also ran political advertisements that offended the sensibilities of industry professionals.

In Penang, there was a concerted campaign to vote out the Pakatan state government including its caretaker chief minister with the help of underworld tactics like offering substantial bribes to voters to solicit their cooperation.

BN’s victory is therefore not something it can be proud of. To put it bluntly and appropriately, it was a hollow victory.

Besides, despite its unsavoury tactics and vote-buying, BN had its majority reduced from what it got in the 2008 general election. It has seven seats fewer this time, with a total of 133.

Even more telling is the popular vote. Although Pakatan won only 89 seats, it garnered 5.623 million votes against BN’s 5.237 million. This works out to 50.1 per cent against 46.7 per cent. By extrapolation, it signifies that half the population reject BN.

Indeed, if not for the gerrymandering that makes it inordinately harder for the Opposition to win the federal government, Pakatan should have been the victor.

Given that it is the numerical loser (albeit seats dominator), BN starts its new term in government on a shaky footing. And with the ongoing doubts of its legitimacy, it’s safe to say that BN is now hated all the more for winning with dubious honour.

Najib blames BN’s poorer showing on what he calls the “Chinese tsunami”, a devastating rejection of the coalition by Chinese voters. Although the Chinese have often been cited as a convenient scapegoat whenever BN does badly, Najib has got it wrong.

If it had been a Chinese tsunami, the DAP would not have won the seats it did in Johor. Although they were Chinese-majority seats, the party still needed Malay support to carry the day. In Selangor, if it had not been for the Malays, Pakatan would not have retained it. But more than that, it went on to secure a two-thirds majority.

In Kelantan too, where the electorate is predominantly Malay, Pakatan has also been returned with a two-thirds majority, which is an improvement on its 2008 achievement. The same indication can be seen in also predominantly Malay Terengganu, where Pakatan came close to winning the state.

Najib blames Pakatan for playing racial politics to influence the massive Chinese swing, but here again, he is wrong. The people who played the racial card – and to the hilt – were his own BN compatriots, chief of whom was ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Since the last few years, Umno, especially, has been concocting all kinds of rubbish about the threat of the DAP and a so-called Chinese takeover of the government. Some of the spin came from Mahathir, who also irresponsibly warned that if the DAP’s Lim Kit Siang were to win the Gelang Patah seat, there would be racial conflict.

Kit Siang has indeed won it, but no untoward incidents have arisen.

The truth about the Chinese rejecting BN – if Najib doesn’t already know it – is that they can no longer tolerate a government that is corrupt, practises cronyism, abuses its power, chooses as and when not to follow the rule of law and treats different citizens differently. In short, the Chinese don’t want a government that has mismanaged the country for decades.

The same goes for Malaysians of other races, including Malays, who want a better government.

Another major factor that Najib has not dared to admit is the voting pattern of the young. This time, the young make up a huge percentage of the electorate, some of them as first-time voters. And it is this group that has also hurt BN in a big way.

Electoral returns have shown that in many polling stations, those who were in streams 4 and above, the streams that represent the young, by and large voted for Pakatan. This is not surprising, because even before election day, many of the calls for change came from young people.

Now that change has not happened, many of them feel cheated by how the result came about. Some have expressed their disappointment by suggesting they will leave instead of tolerate another five years of cheating, lies and misgovernance. This could enhance the brain drain that would ultimately hurt the country.

So, on the whole, BN’s victory is nothing to celebrate. Indeed, if the government that is formed from it does not bring about real reform, we will all experience further strife and harder times.

Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!

GE 13: It's now or never, 56 years enough is enough Ubah 505

Umno perkasa bn can make all sorts of promises at every general election. Now they claim Janjiditepati, if that is true after 56 years what do we have? More religious intolerance, racism at its height and what about CORRUPTIONS? Old habits die hard, they can never change and we, the rakyat, can make that change for a better and prosperous future with Pakatan Rakyat.

GE 13: Your Choice Vote DAP PAS PKR

They are practically buying with cash to win this GE 13.
YOU DECIDE

GE 13 : Voters, tell yourself "I NO STUPID"

This GE 13 voters must wake up and make the correct choice. Umno perkasa bn knew that they are dying and hence came all the promises and cash handouts which are all unsustainable nor implementable.

Voters must not be tricked yet again, after 56 years, that only umno perkasa bn can bring progress and prosperity. 308 has proven that Pakatan Rakyat are able to run their respective states with better governance over umno perkasa bn. Give Pakatan Rakyat the Federal government and they can do much more and better than umno perkasa bn.

Click image to enlarge

You Don’t Have to be Loyal to BN

By Kee Thuan Chye | Yahoo News

I have a niece who is a government doctor, and recently she asked me a question that was most alarming: “Can we government servants vote against Barisan Nasional (BN)?”

“Of course!” I replied.

Her fear was that if she did not vote for BN, she would be deemed disloyal to the Government. But this is not so.

BN is only the government of the day. It is the officer in charge that takes care of the affairs of the country because they were voted in to do so. They do not represent “the Government” in its eternal sense. Neither do they represent “the country”. BN and the country are not one and the same.

If BN is perceived to be doing a poor job of running the affairs of the country, it can be replaced by another coalition with the hope that the latter can do a better job.

Also, if BN is perceived to have been corrupt and making money for its own officers rather than taking care of the interests of the country, it should be replaced.

There is therefore no such thing as disloyalty to the Government.

In fact, by not voting against a government that is corrupt, the voter shows disloyalty to the country. And that is far, far worse.

To quote the American political activist and author Thomas Paine: “The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.”

We should do this on a daily basis, as part of civil society, if we want to be responsible for ensuring that the administration of our country is properly maintained, and many of us do. And apart from that, once every five years, we get to do it through voting.

In this regard, I would like to address what a Facebook friend has asked me to – the issue of his fellow Indians who are now saying they cannot vote against BN because they have received the BR1M money of RM500. He said they feel they have to remain loyal to the coalition because they have benefitted from its handout.

To this, I have to say that the Indians – and any Malaysians of any race, for that matter – need not feel that way. This is simply because the BR1M money does not come from BN. It comes from the taxes paid by the rakyat. It is the rakyat’s money. The Indian beneficiaries of BR1M, who must also be tax-payers in one form or another, are getting back their own money.

I hope they will not be fooled by BN’s ploy to make it look like the coalition is being generous and helpful and considerate of the less fortunate.

The people who got BR1M must also understand that the money is given out to buy their hearts – and persuade them to vote for BN. It is given with an ulterior purpose, not out of kind consideration for the less fortunate. This is politics, it’s not charity-giving.

I would like to quote what the former Cabinet minister Zaid Ibrahim said to his fellow Malay voters – that the BR1M handouts are bribes. And that it is wrong for the country’s leaders to bribe the voters.

However, he added, it is not wrong for the voters to keep the money and still vote for the leaders or parties of their choice, even if they are from the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat.

Zaid acknowledged that BN has said it would give out more BR1M if it is retained as the government. But, he said, that shouldn’t stop people from still voting for Pakatan in order to bring about at least a stronger Opposition. It is because the Opposition has been strong since 2008 that the BN Government has been giving out BR1M; so the stronger the Opposition is, the more BR1M there will be.

So, going by that logic, it is pretty clear that voting for the Opposition is a win-win proposition for the people. Besides, if they don’t get a new government, they would still get a stronger Opposition that would make the BN government work harder and take better care of the people’s needs.

On the other hand, if they were to vote for BN, and to the extent that BN gets back its two-thirds majority, then the Opposition will be too weak to keep it in check. And BN would then be able to do whatever it wants, without regard for the people’s needs. It would be able to amend the Federal Constitution according to its liking even if the rakyat don’t like the amendments.

It would seem then that if the rakyat voted for BN, they would face a lose-lose situation. And that would not be a smart move at all. If they are still worried about the BR1M issue, Pakatan has already said that if it takes over the government, it will continue giving out cash aids. So there is really no cause for concern there.

The voters hold the power. They must decide to use it in their best interests, not in the best interests of the political leaders. The voters owe no loyalty to anyone except themselves.

Let me end with these two quotes from the 38th Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura: “I love my country, not my government.” And “Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience …”

I can’t argue with both. I hope we all agree that voting is not to show loyalty for money we received that was actually ours to begin with. I hope we all agree that we should not vote for a government that is corrupt and dishonest.

*This article is the personal opinion of the columnist.

Kee Thuan Chye is the author of the bestselling book No More Bullshit, Please, We’re All Malaysians, and the latest volume, Ask for No Bullshit, Get Some More!