If Only....

The Barisan Nasional Government is strong enough to deprive any one of us of our freedom if it so wishes under the ISA. It is capable of neutralizing any perceived threats to ‘national security’ from any number of individual by unleashing PDRM against the said individual. It has adequate control over the Judiciary to use the Judiciary to formalize and legalize the use of these tactics for its own means.

Through the ISA, PDRM and the Judiciary this Barisan Nasional government can and does deprive many of its people of their liberty and civil rights. And yet even as they judiciously use these powers to maintain their strangle hold over us and our country, they know that they grow weaker by the day! Yes they are strong enough to impose their will upon us individually and yet they are too weak to be able to maintain their very own existence as our government. Force and might is all conquering but its victories are always short-lived!

What we need to work on now is to let our people know the truth and our country will be safe! UMNO and Barisan Nasional have become intoxicated with unbroken success over these last twelve general elections. In their drunken stupor they have vainly credited themselves as having superior wisdom and virtue that anoints them as our rulers for time immemorial. Our past silence have only strengthened this beliefs and now UMNO and Barisan Nasional imagined themselves good enough to remain our government for a good many more years to come.

But we have had enough of them and they cannot govern us without our consent. UMNO and Barisan Nasional have already forfeit our confidence, our respect and our esteem. If they will not leave us then we must ask them to leave! 

That Najib can talk about spending RM 1.4 trillion in the same time frame as he was talking about “fiscal responsibility” and the taking away of fuel and sugar subsidies to curb their swollen budget deficit is breathtakingly stupid. Saying that the prices of sugar and petrol is still among the lowest in the region is akin to saying that we Malays must ensure that UMNO wins in the next election because the people have always voted for UMNO!

And to think that Najib is advocating 1 Malaysia as a considered policy when Muhyiddin and Mahathir are advocating Ketuanan Malaysia is scary. Scary because of its duplicity. It is a deliberate ploy to win the Malays and Non-Malay votes through the advancement of policies that are overtly opposed to each other – as all of us are painfully aware!

Politicians are a necessary evil and I am not eager to advance their causes. But there comes a time in our lives when we need to get our hands dirty. Someone has to open the durian! But in our effort to do the right thing for ourselves and our country we still want to maintain some sense of decency and righteousness and politicians need to wise up to this expectations soon enough if there are to have our respect and more important - our votes!

I am perplexed by the goings on within PKR and I have written my two cents worth on it recently in my blog. Now another poser! It is simply this. If Nurrul Izzah cannot get the required two nominations to stand as Timbalan Presiden why all the fuss? She simply does not stand as Timbalan Presiden! Isn’t that the purpose of being nominated! To show that they are people who believe enough in your ability to lead - enough to have them nominate you for that post? So if Nurrul did not have the requisite TWO (one, two – dua!) nominations to stand as Timbalan Presiden then she is just a pretty face – nothing more and nothing less in as far as the Timbalan Presiden post is concern. In as far as being the Lembah Pantai Member of Parliament is concern she is still there! And so PKR move on to the next level.

I am not going into the Zaid for Timbalan Presiden issue again. He has, by himself (without any help from me or Azmin!) made more enemies these last few weeks then he has ever had in all his political life – and will ever do – however short his political career is going to be….but I digress.

Today the talk is about the coming 13th general election. It will be held before the end of 2010. Most probably in the first quarter of 2011. Najib will decide. UMNO’s supreme council will want more time to gather its resources – at least until the third quarter of 2011….and so the debate rages on.

The truth of the matter is this. At whatever time the election will be held, it is we the people that will decide. One individual one vote – if you are registered to vote!

And this also I do know. There will never be enough time for UMNO and Barisan Nasional to regret their sordid past nor time for them to fear  what the future will bring upon them. Nor will there be time for them to convince us to why they did not do the things that they say they will do for the Malays and for our country in their time in office. Not enough time......... and so the die is cast.

“If only” will be the phrase that will haunt UMNO  after the 13^th  general election. UMNO had to perish for our people and our country to live. Our only regret is that it did not happened sooner.