Mean-spirited Malaysians

There’s a lamentable mean-spiritedness in Malaysian politics, proving in more than one way that:

(a) we aren’t quite ready for a two-party political system,

(b) some politicians don’t consider all citizens of this country (including their own supporters and political opponents) as fellow Malaysians, and

(c) political attacks are often ad hominem rather than directed at the policies, governance and conduct of the other side.

The BN side

Of course we are familiar with the BN's denial of oil royalties to then PAS-ruled Terengganu and now PAS-ruled Kelantan. The States’ right to oil royalties has been enshrined as a legal Federal-State contract but the BN government has arrogantly ignored that, and is spitefully frustrating the PAS State government (then and now) in a disgraceful mean-spirited manner.

We have also read with disgust how the current federal government is channelling financial allocations for maintaining Penang’s heritage listings through Khazanah Nasional rather than the Pakatan government in Penang.

Just WTF has the investment holding arm of the government, roled as its strategic investor in new industries and markets, got to do with maintenance of the heritage buildings etc? Logic tells us that the State government should be responsible for the job, and thus the correct recipient of the funds.

Again, nothing more than BN's spite and mean-spiritedness, and a total disregard for logical and proper process.

We know that while BN MPs and ADUNs have received financial allocations for work in their respective constituencies, the non-BN MPs and ADUNs (in BN controlled States) are denied theirs.

The irony is there are actually BN supporters in those electorates represented by non-BN MPs and ADUNs. Such is the BN's spite that they would punish their own supporters as well. Perhaps those BN supporters should wake up and rethink who they ought to support the next time around.

The Pakatan side

Well, there’s that infamous DAP function where some of those DAP people stepped on the photos/posters of the Perak frogs as they entered the venue. Totally unpleasant, and I’m glad Lim GE took avoiding steps.

PAS of course has been known to issue a couple of death (or tummy upset) curses wakakaka at their opponents in the BN - c'mon lah, Pak Haji!

Today I have been disappointed to read in Malaysiakini the headlines Rosmah to lose Unisel chancellor post which states:

Calls for first lady Rosmah Mansor to be removed as Universiti Industri Selangor (Unisel) chancellor are again making rounds, this time, by PKR politicians on micro-blogging site Twitter.

In a Twitter posting by PKR vice-president Azmin Ali, Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim has agreed to Rosmah's removal in a month's time.

"Students urged the MB to remove Datin Rosmah (right) as Unisel chancellor.

"MB agreed and will announce in one month. Thunderous applause," read Azmin's posting.

Azmin's posting was referring to a gathering of 300 students from various universities with Azmin, Khalid and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

This is really pathetic, shamelessly partisan and totally mean-spirited.

She was invited by the previous Selangor government so why not let her term as Chancellor finish off without re-inviting her?

Why make such a spiteful announcement? It’s pathetic, pitiful, petty and utterly childish. Don’t Azmin Ali and other PKR leaders have more important things to do, like running Selangor State, than to dabble around with such masturbatory indulgences?

The argument that she should go because she is surrounded by controversies is not only too partisan but unsubstantiated.

We only have RPK’s word that she was allegedly at the scene of Altantuyaa Shariibuu’s last moments to personally ‘supervise’ the demolition of the late model’s corpse – which without any shred of evidence other than RPK's 'I have been reliably informed ...' has been, in my opinion, an incredulous preposterous allegation.

There was also an argument that her Masters degree wasn’t good enough – really, this is such a pathetic shabby argument.

OK, I know PKR is deliberately being vocal about Rosmah as part of their tactic to mitigate the Sodomy II fallout, by ratcheting up the anti-Najib campaign, but PKR should have remained on high moral grounds rather than ….. sorry, I keep forgetting they and UMNO are from the same stock … where spiteful pettiness and mean-spiritedness are their stock-in-trade.

I hope DAP will never descend to such petty bickering.