HAVE WE BEEN HAD?

Prior to the 12^th GE, the various political parties in the country have made numerous pledges and promises to the Rakyat. Election manifestos of the ruling elite and the pretenders to the throne were filled with all the niceties on good governance and the like.

There shall be no increase at the pump (petrol) they said, oh, such sweet music to the electorate. It was most unfortunate that oil prices just kept rising and it did not take much for the rakyat to anticipate that there was no way the government could go on subsidizing. Rumours went round about a hike in petrol prices and the government responded swiftly by announcing that if there were to be any price increase in petrol, it would only come sometime in August 2008. At midnight that very night, the petrol price in the country was raised by a whopping 41%! The Barisan Nasional government lied! Man, you lie in court, it’s called perjury, when the government of the day lies, it’s called good governance! So this government is not so “bersih” after all, I do not know how “cekap” and “amanah” they are.

In the name of national reconciliation, they made ex-gratia payments to some sacked judges and the former Lord President, but they claim that it should not be construed as an apology! What this whole episode was about is still a mystery to many. However, most would view it as an attempt to make the mamak look bad. Anyway, the whole exercise was a complete farce. When this decision to reimburse the judges was made, it was decided that the official announcement would be made over dinner and at the same function, a major overhaul on judicial appointments would also be announced. Here comes the funny bit of the story. This dinner was paid for by the government, hosted by the Bar Council, Malaysia, official announcement of major reforms on judicial appointments, but save for those entitled for the ex-gratia payment, the entire Bench was benched! Now, was the Bar Council coerced into ostracizing the Bench or were they so ignorant of protocol and decorum!

Well, we all know what happened on that fateful day in March, 2008. There was and still is a lot of confusion in the BN camp. There were like little lost lambs looking for direction, unsure of their positions and also quite confident that they are unable to rule the entire 5 year term. Try they did by resorting to rhetoric and veiled threats to the non Malay community. Suddenly we have unheard of before Malay organizations claiming erosion of Malay supremacy, which the PDRM felt was perfectly all right and no sedition at all. So much for the impartiality of the Malaysia police!

The biggest joke of all was their findings at the post mortem as to how they fared so badly. They blamed it on the internet, when it was all about corruption, arrogance, racism and much more.

On the other side of the fence we have the Pakatan Rakyat, a loose coalition of strange bedfellows. Though they have their own ideologies and differences, somehow, in their quest to make the coalition work, all three were signatories to “The People’s Declaration”. Signing the document was a major show of solidarity and of course this sent the general public into a frenzy. Putting ink to paper effectively changed the political scenario in the country into a two party system, which is a welcomed change. Unfortunately, after the euphoria of the elections, this alliance started showing cracks! I may be extremely wrong, but in my opinion, we Malaysians are most unfortunate to have politicians of such character and caliber!

There were some things they did which deserve praises but basically deep down, these parties are still trying to promote their own agenda. The latest is the call to protest the appearance of some artistes at a football game by PAS youth. Certain characters in the DAP who refuses to wear the “songkok”. These politicians are nothing more than hypocrites of the highest order. I just cannot fathom why it is all right for Malaysians to wear the baseball cap and not the “songkok”. These are headgears, period! I am cocksure these DAP fellas had sometime in their life worn the baseball cap, which has nothing Chinese in it! More shocking is the announcement by the party that no disciplinary action will be taken against this Gwee (devil, satan in Hokkien) fella! Come on, we gave you our vote so that we may get some representation in Parliament/State Assembly, so where is my representation when you chose to be a spectator at the proceedings!

Looking at the antics of these Opposition Parties, I do not believe this Bangsa Malaysia thing has any future. The opposition politicians have shown that they are no better than the slime balls and scumbags of the Barisan Nasional!

Perhaps what we need is some kind of foreign invasion before the Bangsa Malaysia in us can surface. For now, I think we’ve all been had!