Malaysian Malaysia Is Not Enough
OutSyed The Box
By Syed Akbar Ali
May 17, 2022
Well, I was sad to read that the DAP’s Ong Kian Ming has decided not to run in the 15th General Elections. Here is something I received today.
Ong Kian Ming – the archetype of political brain drain
Friday, May 13, 2022
Fifteen years ago, the DAP came up with an experiment to change the face of the party. They recruited a 34-year-old Oxford graduate named Tony Pua. His story was compelling.
Pua grew up on the outskirts of Batu Pahat, Johor where his father was a small-scale poultry farmer to support a family of six.
He started an e-business consulting firm “youngest person to have listed a company in Singapore” at 29.
(OSTB : Err..does anyone know what happened to that company?)
Two Cambridge scholars, Yeo Bee Yin and Ong Kian Ming (joined DAP)
served in Malaysia’s first-ever non-BN cabinet, performed well in 20 months.
DAP is the home for talents – best and brightest will be appreciated.
But things started to crack in 2018.
Pua did not make it to the top 15 party leadership positions.
He finished in 18th place, tying with Jamaliah Jamaluddin.
Ong finished 14th.
DAP election saw purge – Pua, Yeo, Ong failed to make 30-member committee
Ong’s decision to not run in the 15th general election.
Ong’s high-quality policy work in electoral boundaries, economics, and education.
Malaysia may change for the better – but what if it doesn’t?
Is the cause worth your life?
What if it isn’t?
My comments :
You see folks, if you are a political party in a democracy, you must win votes. That is rule no. 1. If you win votes you get to last for sometime.
But to get to power you must win the majority votes – in the States, in the Federal Parliament.
To win the majority votes you must convince the majority of the voters that you are good for them.
And in Malaysia the majority of voters are still the Malay and the bumiputra voters. (Although this vote is not one united bloc anymore – plus there appears to be a divide between the Peninsula Malay Muslim voter and the rest of the non Malay but bumiputra vote, whether Muslim or non Muslim – largely based in Sabah and Sarawak).
If you ignore or do not care enough for the majority voter group you will not win power.
Yes you can form coalitions, sign MoUs etc but those things do not last.
The word that you are looking for is TRUST. Can the people TRUST you? Can enough of the voters TRUST you to take care of their future?
I recall when Ms Yeo Bee Yin was the Minister of the Environment, Science etc she banned the use of plastic bags and plastic drinking straws?? Apparently a turtle got a plastic straw stuck in its nose?? She was constantly griping about global warming. The Chinese chicken rice sellers complained so much because they could not use plastic bags to sell chicken rice.
Folks I am over 60 years old now. Since I was about seven years old I have bathed in the sea around Batu Ferringgi and Teluk Bahang in Penang. The rocks that we used to swim to and climb on are still there. Old family pictures that go back to the 1940s and 1950s show cousins and uncles also standing on the same rocks in the beaches in Penang. They have not been submerged by any rising sea levels.
And the Maldive Islands are still there. They have not sunk below the sea yet. Here is the Maldives Airport, first built in 1960. The runways are still right by the sea.
To be inflicted with “politically fashionable” policies banning plastic bags and plastic straws was felt as more punishment by the people including Chinese chicken rice sellers who had just helped to get rid of 50 years of bullying, racial discrimination, corruption and pure foolishness. The people did not bargain for any new tyrants (no matter what their education or great intentions) to replace the old tyrants.
To me this is the opportunity the DAP missed.
Then there is that other major hurdle : what does the DAP have in store for the Malays? Say it plainly and say it now. Why? Because they are the majority voters – at least in the Peninsula.
Affirmative Action has to stay. Perhaps for another hundred years. How do you make it workable and useful for the entire country. It is possible. You can easily marry Affirmative Action with a market economy.
My other question to the DAP is – you were 22 months in power. Why didnt you make public the list of AP holders in the country?
Why didnt you unwind ANY of the many monopolies that have been created for the UMNO/BN cronies. Not one.
Gobind Singh first put the Sedition Act into cold storage and then took it out of the freezer, heated it in the oven and dished it out to the people again. Bhiyya what happened?
You did not reduce the ridiculous import duties, taxes, levies, APs etc on imported cars. If you had reduced car prices by even 10% or 15% the chicken rice sellers would still have voted for you.
If you had reduced the highway tolls by 20% or 30% everyone would have voted for you.
These are real bread and butter issues. But you did not address them.
The DAP had a golden opportunity to effect change. But change you did not.
State clearly what are the policy changes that you will enact. Be clear and precise. And be open and transparent about it. If people vote for the DAP what will we get in return.
While I am not defending DAP, perhaps the writer forgot the DAP was really not calling the shots during the PH givernment days. It really was the old buffoon.
ReplyDeleteBut I do condemn DAP for kowtowing to the senile old fool and licking the old man's you know what.