Tuesday 14 July 2009

the other side of the story

Armchair warriors that wrote comments on Manik Urai by-election sitting comfortably from their study rooms based on information that they skimmed through the internet at best hit the outer ring of the target if not missed hitting the board at all! It is interesting to note that many did simply just that. Write from afar basing opinions on those that make a living on writing news.

I was there smack in the middle of the war, espionages and counter-strikes. BN has never been dirtier.

The amount of money that changed hands with voters was simply unbelievably high that almost every household can have a one month holiday to savour their fortune. Only the Almighty knows the extent of their guilt and no mortal soul can claim that what they did was immoral as nobody knows who votes for whom, at least for most of us that is.

It is amazing what money can buy. Maybe RM50 per voter did not work anymore but RM500 hooked even the very hearts that loathe corruption. They reason in their heads that it was a gift and hence free from any sin whatsoever associated with it. It was a meagre sum to the haves but a windfall to the haves not. For a household with three voters, they took home a month’s equivalent of a wage.

But in a climate of distrust alternative plans were laid in abundance. Coming from multiple sources, voters were spoilt for bounties. Some walked away with three sets of gifts each giving a person’s take-home present of RM1500. All one had to do was to wait for the go-between to approach him or her. It was a case of supply outstripping demand.

Keeping people (read voters) at poverty level and on the brink of starvation almost always pays in the end. They can easily be bought. After all it is not often such a by-election comes their way. Opportunity comes-a-knocking, it is a gift from above.

RM500 per voter was at most RM5Million. Considering three sources each armed with RM10Million, a total of RM30Million were spent with RM15Million went directly to voters and the rest as usual fall off the gravy trains into the hands of local warlords.

The majority of the people were veiled by beauty of dough and sweet smell of the ringgit and simply cast aside wafer thin belief in favour of worldly reward. Greed and selfishness are traits of human beings that will inevitably surface when income is scarce and food is hard to come by. BN knows this very well since their very existence and struggle is about nothing but money.

Analysts are coming out with a host of reasons for PAS’s dismal performance or BN’s success in gaining more territories. Some attributed BN’s “success” to Najib’s 11 points reward to people for allowing him to remain up to 100 days in power and also his “contributions” to economic excitement. I want to simply say “Bollocks”. This is what the BN think tank would like us the public to believe but if they themselves believe the spin as well, it spells disaster for them comes the 13th general election. We wait patiently for the day to arrive!

PAS and PR as a whole must not buy the argument that BN is gaining ground as a whole but opposition cannot simply brush it aside. BN has the “Money” part or access to it with little effort. But in the long run, tycoons’ and “taipans’” patience are running thin and coffers are running dry. If the economy that is very much in need of tending to is left to roam in the wilderness; comes 13th GE, BN rats will scuttle to hide in their holes.

The best part of this whole episode is that BN still lost despite all these brilliant manoeuvrings. Chinese people say luck is not on BN side. The British may call it lady luck chooses an opposing side. But Muslims say that it is an intervention from above, divine and oft-punishing.

BN simply cannot afford to continue this method in a general election or even a state election. Perak will prove to be a situation best kept as it is. By not seeking a fresh mandate BN can sit pretty at least for a little while until the 13th general election. It will bring little harm but it will not remove the bigger problem of impending defeat. A defeat it will be albeit a delayed one.

BN desperately needs a reverse of fortune. It is however proven to be very elusive. When BN refuses to accept that their way is the wrong way, their struggle is not a genuine struggle and that the people can no longer be hoodwinked; what choice do they have but to go back to the old drawing board. Again they have to lay another plan. They plan and Allah also plans; and He is the Best of Planner!

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

phewww...what an article...as expected they use every dirty tactics to win... but still they lose! insyaallah come GE13 the truth will prevail.. takbir!!!

labisman said...

Well said

mangchikla said...

So finally... the strategy applied in E.Mesia so many decades (still is i presume?)ago has arrived here in the West Mesia...what will they think of next? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Yes, they have plenty of ill-gotten money hidden all over the world under their cronies and "towkays". The poor and innocent in the village will be easily swayed away by the "help" fund and repay with votes to whoever they are told.
It is God's will that PAS won by only 65 votes which really hurt the UtterlyManoeuvringNationalObligation ByAbusingHumbleRakyatUrbanity after so much illicit tactics.

Niel said...

PR should however start to pull themselves together and for those who are looking for their own personal agendas, PR should at least try and filter them out!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the observation and timely posting. BN is revealed to the basic core of gambling with money in exchange of the people's vote.

I agree with you that we shall wait patiently for the next general election.

May God Bless us all Malaysians.

Anonymous said...

The rakyat is not blind. Come the GE, BN will become Be End.

Ahmad Zaki said...

Kesalahan lebih besar sebenarnya terletak di bahu hampir separuh pengundi Manik Urai, bukan BN yang berperanan sebagai penyangak dan perasuah tegar.
Kecenderungan sebahagian besar umat Islam di Malaysia hari ini untuk beranggapan bahawa setiap helaian ringgit di depan mata adalah rezeki dari Tuhan, benar-benar menyedihkan.
Hal ini berkait rapat soal mutu mentaliti dan moral sebagai manusia bertamadun. Tidak perlulah sehingga menyentuh soal tuntutan akidah.
Barangkali Manik Urai ingin menceritakan bahawa umat Islam merupakan umat yang masih terlalu lemah, sekurang-kurangnya dalam aspek moral dan prinsip hidup.
Bagi mereka ini, tiada istilah 'wang halal' atau 'wang haram'. Yang kelihatan di mata mereka cuma helaian ringgit yang tiada beza statusnya!

Amirru said...

Being "biz as usual" for BN is only a normal daily dose for a pure "hard core" kelantanese.. Tok Guru only mentioned to "main angin" with all of the BN games in MU n as the result we still win!! We'll just wait n c the real outcome when comes to the next GE13 soon!!

TAKBIR!!! ALLAHUAKBAR!!!

TheWhisperer said...

I was there too.

Smacked in the middle for 11 days.

I agree with your take but money is not all to it. Other machinery like SPR was the actual reason to this result.

It's a great achievement given all these factors that BN employed for this by-election. They know the true impact themselves. I am not going to speculate on that either.

This result may have psychological effect on supporters. Hopefully, they can wake up to their senses fast enough as the next by-election can be close by.

Good write up, nonetheless..

julee said...

This country has racist laws that discriminate against minority citizens. Over the last 3 decades the discrimination has gotten from bad to worse.

The policies of this government reminds us of South Africa apartheid days which was condemned by all humanity.

I wonder how these racists can reconcile their actions with the tenets of their religion.

fargowin said...

If you turn on BBC, there are fair and equal coverage on the UK opposition parties.

So is NHK (Japan), so is KBS (Korea), so is CNN (America), so is CBC (Canada), so is ABC (Australia).

Even in our neighboring Thailand, their TV coverage is fair for both ruling and opposition parties!

Only in this Umno hijacked country that you find most lop-sided idiotic coverage on Umno and its running dog partners!

San said...

“Racial polarisation in the country is not caused by the country vernacular school system but more by the government political, education and economic discriminative policies.” – an educationist said today.

The prime minister and all the Umno ministers will never admit that polarisation arises more out of the race-based policies and privileges one race gets over another.

Similarly, there are other areas of our daily lives where terminologies used have made us view certain practices as privileges rather than sacrifices. For instance, the bumi discount for houses.

The total sale value to the developer is still the same. It is just that the non-malay buyer is likely to be required to pay for some of the discount given to the malays.

But the longer the NEP policies continue and the greater the vehemence with which Umno politicians issue threats, terminologies will change and more people will talk about these practices or policies in words that may not sound as pleasing to the ears of the beneficiaries.

Obviously, at that point we shall probably see a new round of discriminations and disagreements. Unfortunately, as long as only weak people take on leadership roles within Umno, threats will continue, NEP policies will be sustained and corruption will prevail.

That unfortunately is the legacy we have as Malaysians.

The basic building blocks of unity, whether you are uniting different ethnic groups in a country or trying to re-engineer a corporation of differing cultural values, are the same.

The principal parties have to be treated as equals – nor special privileges no favours that would favour one group over another. Any privilege that is given should be given to all on the same basis – for example, special privilege given to the financially poor regardless of race or ethnic origin.

It is only on this equitable footing that you can foster true nationalism and build lasting unity, since each component group will have the same stake in the nation and has equal likelihood in reaping the rewards or suffering the consequences.

My recommendation to the government, not simply as a businessman but also based on pragmatism, is not to waste any more taxpayer ringgit on nationalism programmes until it has established the pre-conditions for its success.

What is sad is that, after almost five decades of independence, we have been unable in Malaysia, to bring globally vision leaders to the forefront – leaders who can see beyond racial boundaries to recognise the immense sociological and economic potential that can benefit all Malaysians.

coolooc said...

Islam in Malaysia is suppressing humanity, dignity and desire of a normal human being.

Islam in Malaysia is causing trouble to non-Muslims who goes about their everyday life to do what any other normal human being on earth are doing.

Islam in Malaysia does not respect traffic law when Muslims can park their cars all over the road and cause inconvenience to everybody.

Islam in Malaysia does not contribute to the progress of the malay race and any other race in Malaysia.

Islam felts threaten in Malaysia, when nobody actually gives a damn about them.

reek said...

Remember Raja Petra said: More than 90% of malays were actually non-Muslims, because they don’t follow the teaching of Islam.

I firmly believe, when I die and go to hell, I will meet many “Malaysian Muslims” there, all the munafik who used Islam not for them to be closer to God, but for their idiotic, selfish and vicious self interest.

More classic examples of half-past-six mentalities displayed by the present so called leaders, ministers, and worst of all politicians (monkey brain), bad for the nation but good for those who knows how to take advantage of their stupidity.

Religion alone can never help us to become more clever and smart, especially with the present attitude and style of the malays, who are going backwards more and more, and heading for the caves and jungles in time to come.

In Malaysia the constitution is not the supreme document in law. It has been so trampled by the Umno gangsters; it has come to a point where these gangsters are a law unto themselves. To them the constitution is respected when it suits their intents and toilet paper when it does not.

Mob rule is tolerated by the police when it is an Umno orchestrated mob. Non-Umno gatherings are an inconvenience and clobbered to pulp.

Malaysia is dead as a nation. They are dying to call this land Tanah Melayu so we might as well let them destroyed it. It is no loss to the non-malays since they are treated as pendatang anyway.

Let these gangsters plunder and rob their own kind. They are notorious for inbreeding in any case. They would probably enjoy devouring their own kind too. Crooks and hypocrites at the helm will never grow a nation. Only chaos and disaster beckon.

I wish it were different, but I have long since decided they deserve what they get. No point in banging my head against the wall.

yuking said...

Dear Mahathir, 22 years you left us nothing but:

- A generation of poor non-malays who is gangsters or selling DVDs
- AP issues
- A useless currency in the ringgit
- IC Project in Sabah
- Keris waving political party members
- MAS in deficit
- Proton in financial trouble
- Racial divide
- Tongkat generation
- World most expensive tolls anywhere in the city

And now, after being out of politics, you suddenly talk a lot of malays this and that when you had 22 years in power and you did absolutely, jack shit.

Please old man, you want to make a change, it is too late now. All you can do is look at that man in the mirror and cry before you meet your almighty maker.

ruyom said...

My school in the 50s and 60s when terms like bumis and non-bumis did not exist.

Back then, there was a kind of kindred among school children then that does not exist today. We were racially different but we were all equal in every other way. Nobody was – special.

Today when a non-malay student goes to school, he has already been told over and over again by his parents that, “You will have to do superlatively in order to get into a local university.”

The child comes back having done creditably well, and doesn’t get the university course of his choice. But his malay classmate, with worse marks than him, gets more than he asked for.

All these double standards and retrogressive policies were put in place by our selfish politicians whose aim, rather than uplifting the malays, was to perpetually stay in power for their own good.

The end result is a new generation of Malaysians who are not united in the least.

The first thing to be done towards a real Bangsa Malaysia is to pull down all divisions that categorise us along racial and religious lines.

All, irrespective of race and religion, must be subjected to a truly merit based system in every sphere of Malaysian life.

All political parties that exploit any form of religion should be banned.

aston said...

If only the malays are a bit smarter, then BN won’t win. The problem is malays are too damn stupid that they keep voting for BN. I don’t know what poison BN gave to make them in this state.

C. Wilkerson said...

whether you were there, i wouldn't know. whether what you say happened is true, i wouldn't know. but i can't deny that it is all together too compelling to be false

Anonymous said...

To many Muslims in this country, God is just a word. They pay lip service to it by reciting from the Quran with no understanding of its true meaning or real commitment to it as a guide to right living, and they do the required genuflections correctly to show the world that they are 'alim'. They claim to be Muslims only because they find the label 'Muslim' useful in distinguishing 'us', the privileged ones, from 'them'.

Since God is not a real presence in their lives, they can be bought and sold and make themselves easy targets for BN in every election.