Can we stop beating the Bagan Pinang voters? I think they’ve been very sensible. They stood to gain nothing from a Pakatan Rakyat win except snarls from the MSM and strangulation by the state government. Pakatan Rakyat has nothing to offer places like Bagan Pinang in a by election.

I would like someone to tell me what a Bagan Pinang voter would have gained. Pakatan’s huge problem in states that are BN strongholds is that they offer nothing. You don’t have any money, and you’re not currently offering any attractive visions of the future. For voters who already have nothing, of what benefit is losing UMNO?

OK, so some rich guy in a Benz comes and says “You see? They give you rice cookers ah. We will give you self respec!” and you expect them to vote for that? I don’t think ‘education’ is the answer, even if it’s popular with the Communist Party and Islamists. It’s time to stop pretending and dig deep into your pockets (OK, your future pockets) and give them more money than BN can. They are not stupid. You are, if you believe they will vote for fewer rice cookers and a change of people robbing them blind.

we promise bicycles
PR can’t promise anything in a by-election, that’s the problem. No power really changes hands, does it? What change could whatisname – the guy from PAS – really have brought to Bagan Pinang between now and GE13? That’s my point – he had nothing of value to offer that they would get earlier than GE13. What self-harming mentality would cause them to vote PR, in that case?

Even if Pakatan Rakyat were to make a meaningful promise to the majority of Malaysians – who are not wealthy – they still shouldn’t expect much in the way of votes in BN strongholds before the next general election. There is simply no benefit to the voters.

We can wave our hands all we like and blame all sorts of people and issues, but the simple fact is that some voters have a choice between a little bit and nothing at all. They would have to be barking mad to vote for ‘nothing at all’ – or extremely idealistic. We could pour effort into encouraging idealism. ‘Education’ you called it, right? But that’s hard work, and if people get the slightest impression the educators are not quite as idealistic as they’re asking their pupils to be, it could be a disaster.

I don’t think decrying entrenched money politics is going to deliver the change we want in the next General Election. If we were really so convinced that money politics dominates, we would come up with a strategy that uses it to our advantage.

Giving cash to people you’re not related to is culturally problematic for some people, I understand that. The thing is, if you give RM10bn to Mukhriz or Tiong or Vellu, you won’t see a single sen. If you give RM1000 to every household in Malaysia, your local kopitiam will be very happy with the increased business, and so will the kindergartens, and so will the taxi drivers, and so will the grocery stores. Even the guy who is currently stealing your slippers might consider buying his own.

But FFS, you cannot offer bicycles. Sponsoring a ‘debt alleviation project’ is just another disappointing crony-enrichment scheme. It doesn’t solve the underlying problem that people don’t have money, don’t know what to do with it, and have no choices, only dependency and despair. GE13 is easy – you just tell everyone they’re going to get free cash, forever, and they won’t even have to kiss your ring for it.

By elections – haven’t a clue. I still think in the face of almost certain defeat, Pakatan Rakyat could try something ‘novel’ instead of just walking into a slap in the face. I think Bagan Pinang was neither victory nor immorality, just another day in Malaysia – pragmatism in the face of local rules.

disseminate information
I don’t expect you to read my comments with the care you read Uncle Lim’s articles, but I have been pleading for the opportunity to do exactly that. With the effort we put into farking hentamming each other on this blog, we could probably make a decent and real contribution to PR’s progress – all without leaving our keyboards!

boycott them?
I’ve written what I think PR should do at least twice – I’m sorry, my comments are bit boring and often irrelevant, maybe I’m hiding the important bits under all the rubbish.

I think Pakatan Rakyat could have put a PSM candidate into Bagan Pinang, for instance. I realise they’re not a natural match with Pakatan Rakyat, but haven’t they already had some successes on a PKR ticket? They could have put a young and/or female and/or minority candidate forward. Some Malaysians are aware they live in an extremely bigoted country, and naturally suggest quotas. PR could have salvaged some ‘supporting diversity’ accolades from Bagan Pinang. They could even have just made it a Public Relations event and signed a few local bands to play (possibly not Beyonsay), and taken the opportunity to have a party. We could have laughed in the face of defeat.

I think there were alternatives that would have made it look less like a miserable loss. When in all truth, there’s no meaningful loss realised.

If my wife was rich and chinese, I would be living in China, spending her money instead of complaining about injustice. I’m not sure where you get your information from, but I think she would be grateful to be perceived as ‘rich’!

It is interesting to consider the ramifications of an apparent landslide defeat. My point of view is that while it’s a joyous event for BN, and they’ll make much of it (Isa is already promising to take his armies through Telok Kemang and Lukut, I see), my impression is that it we should expect to see similar results in similar constituencies. LGE’s forecast was pretty good.

As for the future direction of Opposition politics and the prospect of a GE13 win, well, perhaps we need to get a better understanding of the dynamics at play. Some people may actually be well adapted to a life in Opposition politics, and fear (as Onlooker Politics suggests) the prospect of actually being voted into the hot seat. If change is to really come, I
don’t see how it can without a change of federal government.

The states are not as independent as they might like to sometimes portray themselves. They can only go so far with change and in the present climate there’s the ever-present danger of being physically rejected by the Federal government, despite a popular mandate.

As katdog points out, there are vast swathes of BN support that will be a tough nut to crack. Is ‘education’ – when the opportunity to deliver it is actively denied – enough to convince the BN strongholds at a GE? We’ll see in the next few years.