by Richard Loh
Respectable and honorable leaders during the 20th century but what have become of them in the 21st century?
Are MCA Chua Soi Lek and Gerakan Koh Tsu Koon caught in a time warp? Both of them have to be reminded that we are living in the 21st century and the present political scenes and what the rakyat wanted are different from what they used to be. From their talks and political speeches one can see that they are truly out of touch with reality.
Since I am from Penang I will write and use examples from this state.
First, we must acknowledged that no government is 100 per cent perfect, it is just which government performs better than the other in terms of acceptability by the rakyat. Of course the choice of government elected must be from a free and fair election.
Penang is now under Pakatan Rakyat with YB Lim Guan Eng as the Chief Minister. After three years, CM Lim Guan Eng’s performances are being challenged, not by the rakyat but from individual opposition party like MCA, Gerakan and Umno.
From local Penangnites and throughout most of the country and far beyond people are saying that Penang is performing better under PR and that is a fact. Can Chua Soi Lek and Koh Tsu Koon admit this fact is true?
Going down stream and into more details of policies and progress developments there are bound to be some dissatisfaction from the rakyat, some for personal reason that may have affected their lively hood, some not getting what they asked for and those opposing just for the sake of opposing.
There are surely some flaws in the state government if MCA and Gerakan were to really look into it. Instead of telling the rakyat the flaws of the government (if any) they rather wedged senseless and baseless accusations (or because they could not find any flaws?) against CM Lim Guan Eng.
Lets have a look at a few senseless and baseless accusations from MCA and Gerakan:
1) Insinuate that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng wants to be prime minister.
I see nothing wrong if it is true that YB Lim Guan Eng wanted to be the PM. There is no law or any clause in the constitution that barred anyone that aspired to be a PM as long as they can get the mandate from the rakyat. But common sense tells us that it is not possible for a Non Malay to be a PM at least not for the next few decades. What purpose does it serves Chua Soi Lek, MCA or the rakyat for this stupid insinuation? (You can read CM Lim Guan Eng’s reply to this here).
2) Tsu Koon claims sowed seeds of Guan Eng’s gains
What does this kind of statement proves “(But) I would say that if BN were to [have won] in March 08, based on the momentum we have created 21 years under Tun Lim Chong Eu, [and] 18 years under me, Penang would have achieved the same achievements (as the present DAP government.)” (Read the full press report here.)
Claiming credit is not wrong but you must question yourself why after 18 years the seeds that you sowed cannot grow and bear fruits. Does it really takes Koh Tsu Koon 18 years plus 21 years of Tun Lim Chong Eu’s hard work to enable CM Lim Guan Eng to complete and achieve both previous CMs hard work within three years?
When the first three runners failed to reached their targeted time and lagging behind others in a 4 X 400 meters relay before the last runner pull in all effort to catch up lost time and still manage to win the race, whom do you think the spectators will praised?
3) Penang MCA has repeatedly accused the DAP-led state government of being anti-Chinese
Is this the best that MCA can do to stir the Chinese sentiment against DAP? MCA did not response to Umno’s accusation of the Penang administration under Lim being racist for allegedly discriminating against the Malay community.
Now I put the question back to MCA, if CM Lim Guan Eng discriminate against the Malay community and is also anti-Chinese at the same time, whom then is CM Lim serving or favoring?
By now MCA and Gerakan should have known very well that the Malaysian Chinese can stand on their own two feet, work with their two hands using the brains inside their heads to survive without any handouts.
My personal views why the Malay contractors are getting the bulk of the state government projects are,
i) the tenders are open and transparent, no more cronies getting the jobs without tender hence better opportunities
ii) proves that the Malays are capable in a competitive environment and are willing to stand on their own two feet
iii) fewer Chinese tendering state projects most probably they prefer private projects
There is no point for MCA and Gerakan to use race, claiming historic credit or accusations as basis to win votes, its not going to work anymore but again they may still be caught in the time warp of the 20th century.
MCA & Gerakan should instead challenge CM Lim that they can perform better, by proving the following examples that;
1) BN can give RM500 to each senior citizen yearly instead of RM100 being given now.
2) All schools, government or private, religious or non religious as long as they are legal will be allocated RM2 million each, every five years
3) BN will subsidised 50K for first time house owner earning less than 3k and given priority to own an apartment costing less than 200k build by private developers
4) All straight A’s student will received state scholarship for tertiary education should they failed to get from Federal.
The list can go on, just think of how you can assist the rakyat like what CM Lim has being doing and show that BN can do even better instead of all the silly and meaningless politiking.