Letters by Richard Teo
I would like to refer to the Malaysiakini article ‘Finally a chance to wrest Penang.’
In this article, Ronald Quay seems to contradict himself.His caption seems to suggest there is a good chance of the opposition wresting Penang from B.N and yet in the same breathe predicted that’B.N will still win the General Elections ,hands down’What is perhaps galling is his statement that’the Barisan national is still the best party to govern Malaysia today’.
If Ronald is so confident that his theory of opposition contesting the State seats as oppose to contesting the parliamentary seat is workable then there should not be any reason for B.N winning ‘hands down’.
What the people of Penang should do is not try to play God. Trying to be smart by voting B.N for state seats while voting for opposition in Parliament may not always turn up as planned.
For the country as a whole B.N will end up with a massive majority in parliament and in the other state seats.This is by virtue of the strong rural support which have traditionally supported UMNO irrespective of rain or shine.
Therefore it should be the goal of every urban voter to vote for opposition in order to counter the strong rural vote for B.N.Only with this strategy of voting can there be a possibilty of denying B.N a 2/3 majority in state and Federal seats.
I certainly dont agree with the writer’s statement that’the Barisan National is still the best party to govern Malaysia.’On what basis is he making the statement.?I can only conclude that he is not aware of what transpired during Mahathir’s 22 years tenure and what happened during the current P.M’s 4 years of administration.
Every aspect of B.N’s last 26 years tenure has been nothing short of failure.Corruption is rife, the Police dept is in shamble, the Judiciary is tainted, the civil service is a disgrace,foreign investors are avoiding us like a plague.If not for our oil and the good export price of oil palm we would have followed ZimBabwee’s path to economic destruction.
Even in matters of race and religion the govt has not handled it with care and sensitivity.This has resulted in further alienating the various races which if not properly addressed would have dire consequences in the future.So please do tell me what is the record of B.N’s governance that has so impressed the writer that made him conclude that’ B.N is the best party to govern Malaysia.’?
We inherited a good system of governance from the British during the colonial era and most of these institutions were already in place after Merdeka. So there is no reason why another party albeit an opposition party cannot continue to govern without any difficulty.With better accountabilty and transparency maybe the new party would do a better job.So please dont listen to the B.N leaders saying that the opposition has no experience in governing the country.We will never know if we dont give them a chance. Do we?