steadyaku47

Monday 30 January 2012

If we falter this time around - we only have ourself to blame! ABU!


Fifty Five years ago we became independent. MERDEKA. The British handed over power to the government of the day –  The Alliance headed by our beloved Tunku, and henceforth we had freedom! Freedom? Freedom to do what?

Free speech, free press, the freedom to earn a decent living, freedom of worship – all personal freedom that goes to make a decent and civilized society.

The freedom to extend a helping hand to the sick, the poor, the orphaned, the hungry, the homeless, the aged,  the underprivileged and to those in the minority.

And last and certainly the least of our worries then, was the freedom to chose who governs us and the freedom to replace them if they do not meet with our approval.

Fast forward fifty years later to 2012.

What do we have now? 

No free speech, no free press, no freedom to earn a decent living, no freedom to worship whom we choose. The sick cannot afford to pay for decent health care. The poor, the orphaned, the hungry, the homeless and the aged depend on the charity of the NGO's  and benevolence of those that care enough to put in their time, effort and money to  help them.  The under privileged are left to their own devices. The minorities within our community are ignored and without recourse to plead for their own cause because they do not have representation on the electoral role - and the worse off amongst the minorities are the real people of the soil - the orang asli who were here before any of us!


And what fifty years ago was the least of our worries : the ability to chose whom we want to govern us : is today the issue that burdens us constantly. It burdens us because we were not wise enough fifty five years ago to chose a government that would have given us all the freedom that we had aspired to when we became independent on 31st August 1957! For we now know that the freedom to chose who govern us was the most precious freedom of all the freedom that came with independence! Now we know that the path our country and our people will take after independence is decided by those whom we chose to lead us. 


Germany chose Hitler and he led them to a World War that killed almost 2.5% of the world population  - 50 to 70 million - and wrecked despair and havoc all over the world.


South Africa chose Mandela and he took that rainbow nation down the path of reconciliation when he would have been forgiven if he had sought retribution from the National Party for apartheid : a system of racial segregation enforced by the National Party government and for imprisoning him for 27 years!



We chose UMNO to lead the government that govern us today. Can we now chose to change this government? 


If we have learned from our past mistakes we must first ask our self this question: Who do we now want to govern us? Who will do better or worse then UMNO? Are we to jump from the frying pan only to land in the fire? What are our options? 


The consensus is that there must be change. Anything but UMNO because fifty five years is long enough for any government to come up with something we want - even if it was to be found through a process of trial and error. 

And there have been many trials and many errors by this UMNO led government - so much trial and error that our country and our people are now on its knees pleading for good, responsible and accountable governance! And good , responsible and accountable governance will not come from UMNO. 


And so we look elsewhere. Will Pakatan Rakayt be that change that we want or are we so focused on ABU that all we want is change - and what comes with that change must be better then what we now have under UMNO?


The debate on this is robust and ongoing. 

I want change but not at any costs! As in matters of this nature we will all have our thoughts on the issue and these thoughts are coloured by many variables that will have a bearing on the final outcome of what we will do as we hurtle towards the coming 13th general elections. 

Do what you must but forget not the lessons we should have learned in the 55 years of independence that we have had under UMNO. It has taken us 55 years to lose our freedom of speech, lose the freedom of a free press,  lose much of our civil liberties, lose the ability to have an accountable and responsible government, lose our freedom of worship and many many other values that we had aspired to have when we first gained independence from our colonial masters. So my friends let us not wait a minute longer to lose UMNO! ABU!        








 



 










14 comments:

  1. Change we must if we want a better Malaysia. Definitely we wouldn't want it to be at any cost. At least what we are seeing in front of us now is that all the Pakatan states are governed better than Barisan states. In case we are still unsure, this is not what any Tom, Dick and Harry's claim but as reported by non other than the Auditor General. It is an indication that Pakatan can be a better federal government.

    Of course, 5 to 10 years down the road, if Pakatan could not deliver their promises of a better Malaysia and begins to show signs of incompetency, corruption, cronyism etc etc, we should have no qualms about changing back the government to BN provided by then BN is ready to be a better government.

    That's democracy at work. Afterall we are the boss. Enough of elected representatives behaving like they are the Taikos. They are elected to serve us. Our political culture and mentality must change.

    For now its ABU!

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  2. The people of Kelantan have been changing their state government regularly. A cycle of 20 yrs is about the norm. I can't understand why the other states are not doing likewise.

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  3. Pak Hussein,
    So well written! I hope the people will print this out and bring it back to the kampong to thell and explain to their friends and relatives still there.

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  4. Pak Hussein,
    So well written! I hope the people will print this out and bring it back to the kampong to thell and explain to their friends and relatives still there.

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  5. Do not take too long to decide on these fundamental issues that should have been fixed over the last 50 years. We are now in what is commonly called the Internet Age. Can you imagine even book shops and liberaries are going to become obsolete with more and more people reading online. That is whay I cannot understand this Satu Malaysia Perpustakaan and Satu Malaysia Baucer to buy books. We should be using that money to facilitate the purchase of e readers so that we do not have to spend billions on liberaries and ineficient people who make perfect declaration of intent and like a bad golfer do not follow through with their thoughts and action.

    Our children are going to get their information from the TV Screen, the computer Screen and the hand phone screen. Our education system must change to educate our people to face the complete takeover of the world by the internet.I do not want to see a situation when in 50 years from now we are still debating the fundamentals of the internet age as we are doing now over basic issues.

    We have no time to determine the colour of the cat. If the cat can catch the rat we should adopt it that cat. Then try to work out how with our success we can ensure that the people who have been left behind can be given a helping NEP hand. If we do not change our enviroment will change us. Take a trip to Johor Baru and you will understand how Singapore is slowly changing the way the people of that state think and act.

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  6. To those seeking to do honest work and provide for their families - without ostentation and without bowing down to the false gods - life is tough. Fascists, cronies, and two-bit thugs (in and out of authority) are out to gouge them. After unions were emasculated and the torrent of invisible foreign workers began in the 1970s, private sector wages have essentially been stuck unlike expenses. Prices have also been pushed up by Big Brother regularly giving increments across the board to its "fixed deposit".

    Can you blame the small-time thugs? What they see nationally and internationally is that might is right and money controls all. Just review the biggest ripoffs - those in excess of RM 10 billion - and you will despair.

    Then there is the problem of old age and savings that RPK just mentioned, which la-la land washes its hands of. At most, if you are already destitute and the right political thug takes up your case for publicity, you may get about RM 80 or thereabouts a month - if you live to collect it.

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  7. 2012- leaders have unlimited freedom to spin , plunder n steal n destroyed the social fabric of our nation?? a sad episode indeed??

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  8. sein,satu rencana yang bagus.kita misti hubah kalau tidak kita mampus sein.

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  9. Beware of sweet talk, too much sweet talk of BeEnd especially UMNO. We do not want developments generated by BeEnd because too much corruption in their blood of BeEnd.

    Look at how rich is Taib (www.sarawakreport.org). For what is so great the development brought by him? Look at those rural people in Sarawak are still without electricity? At least they should be given solar panels!

    Corruption is the cause of poverty of a country as reported by Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/news_room/faq/corruption_faq

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  10. The only state praised by Transparency International since 1957 is Penang.

    Want to see Ëfficient, Clean and Truthworthy? You could see this report about Penang: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/sideviews/article/nak-tengok-bersih-cekap-dan-amanah-...-ada-di-pulau-pinang-aspan-alias/

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  11. Sir,

    Success will come, slowly but surely. That I am very confident. It will only speed up when internet penetration is widespread in the kampongs and interior of Sabah and Sarawak.

    At the moment, PR states should install more free wifi hotspots all over their states.

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  12. its up to the voters to decide n of course what issues are played up during the campaign period to swing the voters over??

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  13. Gimme 1 good reason why PR will be better than BN??

    ASR

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  14. oh all silent which confirms what I suspected - PR will be as bad as Umno.

    Bullshit to PR not voting for them


    ASR

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