You and Me against BN and PR?

The vast coffers of UMNO’s war chest is being used to demonize opponents that Najib and UMNO are  not afraid of : Mat Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Kapal Singh, Anwar Ibrahim, Hadi, Tok Guru….all of Pakatan’s Rakyats leaders and at times even we, the people, are call fools for questioning the corrupt ways of UMNO and Barisan Nasional.

In the main we the Rakyat do not contribute our  hard earned money to UMNO’s war chest to finance UMNO’s political campaigning  for the 13^th general election. The operative word here is “contribute.”  UMNO steals the money from us by siphoning massive amounts of ringgits: From the class F projects awarded to their own people right up to the mega projects and contracts where massive rorts are the preferred manner to replenish their personal and UMNO’s war chest.

We witness all the media apparatus within UMNO’s arsenal – newspaper, televisions stations and the electronic media - being used to hurl verbal abuse at any UMNO’s opponent. These print, online and television media sources no longer make any pretense of being objective.

As we are being overwhelmed by these volley of verbal abuses Najib and his cohorts further numb our senses by the sheer volume of “transformation” reforms being hurled at us left, right and center. Everyday seems to be another opportunity for Najib to stand on the podium and announced yet another “initiative”, yet another “transformation”, yet another “reform” to transport our nation into the “high income” land of plenty and great opportunity.

Yes indeed ….plenty of opportunity for easy pickings by UMNO and their cronies at our expense. Truly a “shock and awe” spectacle that happen on a daily basis in Malaysia.

Does Najib and his strategists ever sit down to think what they are doing to themselves by these campaign tactics? Apparently not!  

The requirements to run for public office has never really been very clear…but given what we have seen from Najib’s and Mahathir’s leadership and what UMNO has done it seems clear that no aspiring politicians intending to join UMNO’s and BN’s rank need have “thinking” and “decency” as a desired criteria to being considered for any post at cawangan, bahagian, state or federal level –especially at federal level!

The choice to nominate Isa Samad for Bagan Pinang because he could win begs the question: What will UMNO not do to win? Our nation cannot be led by leaders who decide what their values are based on political considerations. Political candidates must stand for something decent or else they will fall for anything. UMNO’s victory at Bagan Pinang is perceived by the people as a victory tainted. The victory of a candidate that lacks principles. A hollow victory.
 

But what does UMNO care? There is desperation within the ranks of UMNO. To UMNO politics is always about being in power. To UMNO politics is always about using that power to take care of their personal and party’s interest – not the people.

What is frightening to UMNO now is their inability to understand where the massive opposition to UMNO is coming from.

It is not just Pakatan Rakyat that is leading the charge against UMNO. The nature of the movement is loosely decentralized. Just as they did not know where the tsunami against UNMO and BN of the 12^th general election had its impetus and focus from – today the same seems to have evolved even as Pakatan Rakyat seems to stumble over their handling of DSAI’s sodomy 2  case.

The impetus to focus our force against UMNO now comes from the people. And the people are largely unorganized. There is no formal structure to identify ethnic, religious or age groupings. It is too wide spread and it is yet to find a leader who would be able to define its direction….and yet it is there…and UMNO does not know how to deal with it.

We have seen UMNO deploy their cyber goons against us bloggers on a daily basis. They no longer concern me – if anything I can expect their daily visit to my site to increase my stats.

A few days back Najib announces a raft of changes : abolish ISA and PPPA – all clearly pandering to the demand of this unorganized critical mass that has managed to make their presence felt – and yet if he was to not only hear but also listen to the chatter over the airwaves he will know that we are not buying what he is trying to sell to us re the ISA and PPPA. No way Jose!

Everyday this momentum builds. Everyday those already with us are bringing in more believers to our cause. And each and everyone of us – and we know who we are – are simply saying this:

We are not stupid.

We can think for ourselves.

We know what we want.

We will decide who will govern us.

And this is what Najib and UMNO cannot understand. How  the people have become empowered to evolved into this single entity able to think for themselves and make informed choices on matters that concerns them sans race, sans religion, sans state and sans politics? Make no mistakes – our people are also within UMNO!

UMNO cannot understand this movement – and neither it seems does Pakatan Rakayat. 


All we want is to be led by men of principle.

Many of those that comment on what I write tells me that we must vote for Pakatan Rakyat because it is the lesser of the two evils when compared with what UMNO has done. Just remember this:

When you choose the lesser of two evils, 

always remember that it is still an evil.  

Max Lerner, Actions and Passions, 1949

I think there are enough of us out there to make a difference as to whom should govern us after the 13^th general election. It cannot simply be either Najib or Anwar. Neither should it just be about BN or PR.

If you have integrity, nothing else matters. 

If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters.  

Alan Simpson    

I think that should define our leaders. Najib and Anwar do not have integrity. And yet by default it would seems that these two are the choices we now have! What does it say of the state of our nation today? You tell me friends…what does it say of the state of our nation?
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comments from: 


Ruban Raj Kumar Ganesan 

Its typical Malaysian attitude to expect things to be served on a silver platter and I guess we are expecting the same when it comes to real democracy and choice of leadership. That cannot happen. 

Advancement and change cannot come without taking some calculated risk. Right now, my way of thinking, there is nothing left in BN as far as leadership goes. Nothing. Matter of fact most of them are out right criminals. 

So I vote for PR. In 5 years, if PR fails to perform once they are in Putrajaya I can always vote BN back. But whatever the outcome is, BN has to loose for it to pursue true reform. 

We need not only take a chance with PR, we also need to give the true leaders in BN a chance to get rid of all the corrupt and useless ones and raise up the corridors of BN politics.

The same goes to PR. I wont vote PR if PR was about AI alone.

There are many credible leaders, young professional ones who are learning the ropes and coming up. Look to the future. Shape it with the cards that we have in hand at the moment. There will never be the right perfect beautiful moment for change. Its what we make off with what we have.

Mind you, another 5 years of BN and PR will not have this golden chance again. The country also will not be able to take these sort of uncontrolled, unmanaged, self grandiose economic "achievement" that BN is capable of.