I am tired of seeing all the political agendas from both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat for the past 100 days. General Election is over, and it’s time to let the government do their job.
Pakatan are talking as if all the Malaysians would like a new govenment, but fact is they are still the oppositions because half of the Malaysians were not voting in their favour. There are lots of calls for Badawi to step down, including from within Umno itself… but that doesn’t mean that these people would want a new government or to have Anwar as the new Prime Minister.
Anwar has been campaigning like crazy for the past three months in hope of becoming the new PM. I don’t want to question whether he is genuine in building Malaysia or more of a personal agenda… but what he did for the past 100 days are hampering the country’s stability. What is the use of a GE if the opposition would continue plotting to take over the government after an election?
Imagine if PR takes over the government with Anwar’s crossover talk being materialised; the PR government would only have a minor majority by then, and what would happen if the BN (as opposition) starting to plot their own crossover plans to take back the government instead? The country will be in a never-ending political turmoil… and that’s why, the results of the GE should be respected and never be exploited in any other ways, regardless of who is doing it.
The people have spoken, you all have spoken, and the BN continue to rules. So be it, and let them rule for another 4-5 years and show what they can do (or not)… we’ll settle the score again in the next election.
Besides, while having BN under the radar, do mind that the Pakatan Rakyat state governments are being watched too. They are given the chances to rule as well; instead of all the political agendas, how about focusing on showing what they can really do at governmental levels and win the next GE fair and square?
Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) has finally obtained approval from the Home Ministry to register as a political party after a 10-year battle that included a protracted law suit against the government. [Malaysiakini]
PSM has received a letter this morning from the ministry requesting the party to submit a fresh application, in which according to PSM’s secretary general S Arutchelvan, is just a matter of formality.
The court hearing which was scheduled this morning has been postponed following this latest development.
Jeyakumar Devaraj is the only Member of Parliament from PSM with his famous victory against MIC president Samy Vellu; PSM chairman Nasir Hashim is their only state assemblyman (Selangor). Both of them competed under PKR’s flagship during the March election.
It’s still uncertain if PSM would join the Pakatan Rakyat pact; S Arutchelvan has mentioned in an April interview that PSM will not join PR until they have seen their full program… which probably means that PSM will not be joining the pact yet in near future.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his deputy Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak have reached an agreement on the right time for a leadership change, the prime minister said Friday. [Bernama]
That is, if both Pak Lah and Najib are unchallenged in the next Umno election… or that they managed to fence off their challengers somehow.
Regardless, I don’t like the idea of unchallenged leadership transition at all… it violates the spirit of democracy and also encourages political corruption.
A Chinese folk-story…
A farmer who usually fed the monkeys four bananas in the morning, and three at night, had decided to change the sequence to four in the morning and three at night instead… but the monkeys started complaining. So the farmer decided to switch back to the original routine, and the monkeys are happy again.
There is a proverb following the story, which are used to describe the stupidity of the monkeys (and some people) who are flip-flopping on something but are not making any difference after all.
Ok, I just realised how bad a story teller I am.
Straight to the point… the government will pay the salary of its officers and staff in two installments a month from August (instead of once), but frankly… does it matter if the salary is still the same at the end of the day?
Update July 2 - it’s back to the original banana routines.
An express bus which had 32 traffic summonses, skidded, crashed into a road divider and fell on its side, killing a passenger and injuring 22 others and the driver. The accident occurred at the 383.9km North-South Expressway yesterday. [Bernama]
It’s the third fatal bus crash in two weeks.
The governmnet had vowed to tackle the frequent bus accidents since the Bukit Gantang crash in August 2007, but I don’t see much happening to be frank… buses with abundance of summonses are still allowed on the road; and people who often drive for long distance would have notice how fast the buses were rampaging on the highways.
Do something Ong Tee Kiat, while there is still chance.
Selangor consumers will get their 20 cubic metres of free water from this month as the stalemate in the deal has been resolved… with the state government agreeing to compensate up to RM11 million monthly to Syabas through the state investment arm Kumpulan Darul Ehsan Bhd (KDEB). [Bernama]
When the plan was first announced in March, MB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim has said that the free water policy is implemented by reducing the cost per unit of usage and the state government (and the taxpayers) need not pay subsidies to Syabas… looks like Pak Lah is not the only one that is good at flip-flopping.
Well, Selangor folks would not need to pay the water bill from their own pocket, but is the water really free? Those money are coming from the state government after all… money that can be spent on improving infrastructures, productivity and quality of living in other ways which in the end will benefit the people in long term.
Is this the right thing for the Selangor government to do? I am not sure. I don’t like the concept of subsidies (of any kind) at the first place… Malaysians have been pampered for way too long with the subsidies, so long that some of us have been taken it for granted and lost the sense of competitiveness.
Update June 19 - the water is not really free, seriously. Consumers will still have to pay a RM6 minimal (service) charge to Syabas.
The Borneo Post published an explosive article on government’s intervention in our judiciary system during the administration under former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir Mohamad… read the full story here (via Lim KS).
Basically, Justice Datuk H C Ian Chin, a high court judge in Sarawak, revealed yesterday that the former PM had threatened to remove judges that didn’t rule in government’s favour in a number of cases.
Also revealed are other attempts from the previous government to indoctrinate judges to hold the view that the (BN) government interest as being more important than all else when considering their judgement.
Another bomb to our judicial independence… another blow for TDM.
