Monday 16 April 2007

The Present State of Opposition Parties: Pitiful, Useless and in "Unwinnable" Condition

From "Biggum Dogmannsteinberg's Blog: Read Here

EXCERPTS: Read " Opposition's Flawed Opus"here for more

There are NO credible alternatives to BN.

Many talk about some of the BN personalities being corrupted and abuse of power, but the Oppositions are not any better, even though they have never had any power yet; at national level (with the exception of PAS, in Kelantan, 1990 till present, and PBS, in Sabah, 1990-1999)!

Let’s take a closer look at the Opposition Parties

DAP

When Singapore was expelled from the Federation in August 1965, the reminiscence of PAP were purposely left remained, personalities like Devan Nair (later became Singapore’s President) was to be a thorn against Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra’s administration.

PAP connivingly activated its “political mines”, under the guise of Democratic Action Party (DAP). They had the same slogan, “Malaysian, Malaysia” as their PAP masters, earlier.

Although DAP professes multiracial socialist politics as their theme, in reality, nothing multiracial about their approach.

The mainstay of DAP leadership had always been Chinese and so far, they have had no policy as a “Malaysian multiracial party”.

For example, DAP do not have a policy how to deal with the under development state of the Malays, being the 60% of the population. No mention about how many Malays still require affirmative action on education, to alleviate their socio-economic woes.

Instead, DAP have been seen as championing Chinese chauvinistic agenda like the vernacular school system, which many felt is the root of the digression in any national integration agenda.

So how could DAP calls itself “multiracial and champion of socialism” if they have no specific agenda or plan to address the needs of the Malays, being 60% of the population?

Many good DAP leaders fizzled out and faded away, even before they could complete their service to the rakyat.

Why DAP stalwarts like Lee Lam Thye, Dr Kua Kia Soong, Kerk Kim Hock, Hu Sepang, Wee Choo Keong, Lee Ban Chien, Ronnie Liu, S K Soong, Teoh Teik Huat, Thing Chiek Ming, Lim Fui Ming, Fan Teng Yew and Fung Ket Wing no longer in the mainstream menu of the party?

Why is it back to the Father, the Son and the dolly darling Daughter in law, over and over again? It only shows that DAP have been an avenue for this family to remain in power, indefinitely.

Some might even say, it’s a revenue model for the family.

Lim Kit Siang, who have been in direct control and power of the DAP since 1969 as the Secretary General, has been the Opposition Leader for almost 30 years (with the exception of 1999-2004, where Hj. Hadi Awang, PAS president assumed the position).

Notably, Lim Kit Siang does not attack or take swipes againt the Prime Minister and his family. It is so apparent. These are the abusive, opulence and excesses that so many talked about. So why is it that these people (Lim and family) never attack nor criticize the PM, the Son and the Son-In-Law?

(Is it because they want to be like the PAP Dynasty, Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Loong and Lee Hsien Yang and something Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Kamaluddin Abdullah and Khairy Jamaluddin is trying to emulate?)

DAP go around lambasting BN being a corrupt Government lead by corrupt leaders. Lets see how the DAP leaders themselves fair. Ask where did the monies collected for the “Free Lim Guan Eng” campaign went to?

Why was it Lim Kit Siang instructed the monies collected be banked into Lim Guan Eng’s personal account and NOT party’s, even though monies were on raised on DAP platform?

No separation between Lim Kit Siang & Son Dynasty Esq. and party? Isn’t that corruption? In reality, DAP is actually nothing more than an ultra long 40 years straight running Chinese opera called “Father, Son and the dolly Daughter in law ONLY!” and its getting very stale.

Constantly, Lim Kit Siang ‘begged’ the support of the Chinese, every time DAP face General Elections. Since 1986, too many ‘Tanjong’ projects launched (to wrestle Pulau Pinang from BN) and yet no results.

Just to illustrate the tyranny of Lim Kit Siang, throughout the campaign for the ‘Tanjong III’ project during the 10th General Elections of April 1995, he potrayed himself as the “Robocop”! Its seems there are no measurement of deliverables to the empty promises and failed attempts of the DAP under Lim Kit Siang & Son Dynasty Esq.

PAS

Parti Islam Sa-Malaysia (PAS) started as Pan Malayan Islamic Party (PMIP) when the clerics committee in UMNO broke off and spawned into a political party in 1951.

Some people say Hj Ahmad Fuad, the promoter of PMIP acted on the move, under specific instructions to weaken UMNO, being the united front of the Malays against British colonialisation ever since Malayan Union.

When PMIP was succesfully formed and running, Hj Ahmad Fuad was rewarded with a comfortable pension as a Province Wellesley councillor.

PAS have not spared from their own internal issues.

It is common knowledge that there exist a strong rivalry within PAS between the clerics and professionals, to gain control and spread their influence amongst the one million members.

The recent elevation of new breed of “young Turks” leaders such as Nasharuddin Md Isa, Dr. Hassan Mohd Ali, Mustaffa Ali and Husam Musa, et al, they have not been spared with much skepticisms and suspicions from their “old guard” hardliners and conservative leaders and members.

PAS internal issues had also focused on Kelantan and in general and the succession of plan for Kelantan is never a solution agreed wholesomely by the members in the state.

The issues about PAS members and supporters from the other states were left unattended.

The party mainstay are very much the simpleton folks of the Malay heartlands of Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis and North Perak.

There is the other issue about Islamization preached through firebrandism brought upon by PAS leaders who were educated in West Asia and Cairo, especially in the wake of Islamic political radicalism of the late 60s and 70s.

Such notion were brought by leaders like Hj Hadi Awang.

In 1981, he declared UMNO people as ‘infidels’, developed a new sense of radicalism in their political approach based on the teachings of Islam.

This idea went a little too far that eventually, multi layer intepretations and lead into bloody incidents such as the Memali stand off in November 1985.

The Al Maunah seizure of weapons from Lake Banding army post in August 2000 was a more recent one. Not all Muslims agree with Hj Hadi and his radical approaches. Infact, many said this would divide the Malays further. Despite all that, Hj Hadi was elected President of PAS after Fadhil Noor died.

PAS were never sparred from the inability to deliver empty promises too. Prior to Hj Hadi Awang’s success able to wrestle Terengganu from the clutches of BN at the 11th General Elections of November 1999, he promised would implement Hudud and Islamic law even before the sun rose the next day. Until 21 March 2004 when he lost the control of the state to BN under Idris Jusoh, he never did deliver his promise.

PAS’s unholy alliance with DAP does not actually attract a lot of thumbs up amongst the hardliners and conservative members and sympathizers. One of the main factor is that DAP has often being seen as ‘anti Islam’. The Chinese community also see this so-called ‘working relationship’ as DAP selling out to PAS’s Islamization Agenda, which some of them are really sensitive against.

Also ask the PAS leaders what happened to the monies collected for “Tabung Bantuan Anak Yatim Memali”? Did any of the orphans from the 14 men killed in Memali Nov 1985 ever got any of the monies raised? http://fantrealika.tripod.com/memali3.htm

The Oppositions today do not have a rallying point and a point where the different parties willing to compromise and work together. They don’t have a personality who could be the rallying point.

Once, for a brief moment , they had Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah. Even that could never work, properly. Now that Semangat 46 has been dissolved and Tengku Razaleigh and most of his followers returned back to UMNO, who else?

Anwarista /PKR

Anwar Ibrahim 's last minute campaigning did very little help in the by election.

Chandra Muzaffar, Ruslan Kassim, Marina Yusuf, Lukman Noor Adam. Jomo K Sundram etc. (have all gone). Soon to go is Ezam Md Nor. Even the Mighty Zainur Zakaria, the lawyer who fought tooth and nail for him has left! Rahim King also gone.

Only has beens and frustrated personalities like Dato’ Kamarul Bahrin, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Dato’ Nalla Karupan still rally behind Anwar. The first to go was actually Kamaruddin Jaafar.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) today is a merger of Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN), formed for “Free Anwar Movement” idealism and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM). PRM itself was a merger between Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM) and earlier merger of Parti Rakyat and Parti Buruh.

As a multiracial party (like the DAP, they too claimed so), they have complex racial issues also, still unable to be resolved, even after several years.

For example, the upcoming by election in Ijok, the Indian members insisted that an Indian candidate represent PKR in that by election.

They also have others issues with the pro Islamist members, who were Jemaah Islam Malaysia (JIM) and Muslim Youth Movement (ABIM) people, once a backbone of Anwar’s support and pillar of his influence.

So what is left on the polling menu?

The Oppositions can’t even get their FIRST ACT right and working, how could they manage the next step? Absolutely, impossible!

Unifying Factor

The truth is, the Oppositions will never get it right because even when they were working together, they managed to agree to sleep on the same pillow but everyone have adverse dreams. It is like climbing different walls, at once.

DAP, under Lim Kit Siang & Son Dynasty Esq, not ready to shed its Chinese chauvinistic and anti Islamic approach and objectives and PAS will never drop its goal to set up an Islamic country, based on the laws formed under the direct principles and explicit references of Al Quran and Hadith.

Those were just fundamentals. The more they lay things down on the table, the wider the realistic co-operation gap will be.

Any real and workable co-operation would able to be sustained, especially DAP and PAS unable to find a middle point and the political will to compromise, as the two hardliners do not trust each other. Maybe they could agree not contest against each other in any poll but the working machinery at grass root level is doubtful.

The closest co-operation the Oppositions ever got was Gagasan Rakyat, an alternative front against UMNO consisting Semangat 46, PAS, DAP, PBS and KIMMA in 1990.

All of that had a unifying factor and a great personality as point of reference. Tengku Tan Sri Razaleigh Hamzah stood as a leader who gained a lot of respect, from the political parties and even the rakyat, especially the Malays.

That was the only point where BN almost lost and Malaysia almost had another government.

Now the YBM has been back in UMNO for the last eleven years and his party dismantled.

The Opposition has no real unifying point for the rakyat to rally.

Oppositions’ Performance

One of the best indications about Oppositions’ chance in any General Elections is to analyse their past performances.

DAP in the current term has 12 seats in the 219 seats Dewan Rakyat. PAS has six.

Not even worth to mention PKR. The rest are simply too neglible.

The best DAP ever did was 24 seats in the 8th General Election in August 1986. Even that, because almost all the MCA sponsored and managed deposit taking co-operatives went belly up and too many Malaysian Chinese lost a good chunk of their life savings.

MCA also had a very chronic internal politics during that period. Of course, there was a long running economic recession during that period.

The best PAS ever did was the 11th General Elections, November 1999. They managed to win 27 seats and even took a second state under their control, Terengganu.

The single main factor was the fury brought upon the Malays against then Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s handling and accusations against his Deputy, Anwar Ibrahim’s dismissal from office and the sodomy charge.

At the present term, BN controls 199 of the 219 seat Dewan Rakyat. That is almost absolute power.

Let’s do the math. Even if at best, when all the factors are against BN and Oppositions managed to deliver over 100% performance, the best DAP can wrestle is between 25-30 seats. PAS, also 25-30 seats and PKR, if lucky (that’s really, really lucky!), manage five. That is only 55 seats.

Alright, performing at 120%, maybe 60 seats. That means BN will scoop the ‘remaining’ 159 seats. To deny BN 2/3 majority at 145 seats, the Oppositions must win at least 74 seats. It means, they have to gain fourteen to nineteen more, on top of the 55-60 seats. That is already running at 120%.

Imagine, they have to do 35% more, on top of the long distance overdrive run of 120%!

Only 20% of the 219 seats are in the urban and sub-urban areas. Even that, the reach and readership of alternative political media is still relatively low.

The bigger part of the Malaysian public still being fed and consumed on controlled mainstream media. A lot of the issues raised in alternative media are oblivion and not comprehensible by these non urban folks. Batu Talam and Machap by elections shown that.

BARISAN NASIONAL

BN may not be 100% full proof.

Over 50 years in government (since the days of Tunku’s Perikatan, which won the first General Elections in 1955), of course there are some flaws, here and there (Measured as half full or half empty?).

In the complexity, it is only natural. It has done a lot of good in a nation of 25 million people classified under 106 different ethnic background.

In the diversity and wide spectrum of variables, there is unity and progress. It has a national agenda and it’s called, Barisan Nasional. It is the only proven workable multi party coalition and its a power share formula.

In short, it is not all about BN being invicible and too strong.

Its about alternatives.

The Oppositions and the rakyat who are fed up of BN will have to intelligently come up with a very much more formidable alternative.

No comments: