Monday, May 17, 2010

THE OPPOSITION PARTY’S PREDICAMENT

In the situation where PKR is at now, I think it requires a miracle to get the party out of its predicament. There seems to be a trail of issues and problems besetting the party mainly caused by defections, dissensions, and speculations of further defection of more party members that may costs PR state controlled government to weaken. Anuar Ibrahim seems a spent force, and his on-going sodomy trial is seriously tapping into his resources, which I think is affecting his physical well being. The ‘gang-ho’ that he was, is eroding.

Though one may blame that there are the hidden hands of UMNO/BN behind all the problems besetting the PKR today, I would rather attribute the failure of the PKR leadership itself to scrutinize its own members, who by and large were formally UMNO/BN members. Some carry along with them the egoistic and arrogance posture that is a trademark among some UMNO elitist. I would also think that the bottom line is personal and materialistic gains, and the void of any sincere and steadfast loyalty to party. This has been the bane in UMNO/BN in the past, which has now manifested itself in PKR…….an eerie manifestation.

I somehow do not see a similar trend infecting PAS or DAP. Generally, their members have been staunchly loyal to the party, and it is because of this that the party has remained intact, and is quite free of self serving individuals. It is evident that there is greater sense of loyalty among its members towards its leaders, and the squabble among members for party positions is not too obvious. Internal squabbling is kept low keyed. And of course, one has not heard nor come across accusation that its members are involved in money politics, a creation of UMNO and a redefining in the meaning of corruption. Securing a party position means nothing really to them, because it does not come with the largesse, contracts or whatsoever.

The formal coalition of PKR, PAS and DAP into a unified Pakatan Rakyat (PR) for the up-coming General Election scheduled in the next two years will be a daunting one for whoever is to assume the leadership of the coalition. A loosely knitted PR is certainly not the way to challenge a well machined BN that has the ‘sky as its limit’. And by remaining in separate political entities does not portray unity; rather it show a serious division that is shrouded in mistrust and uncertainty.

The formal coalition (if ever it is to be realized), need to be strong and a leadership that is buttress in absolute loyalty, corruption free and its policies focused towards people oriented policies. Promises of grandeur projects that is suppose to benefit the people, like that of the many ‘corridors’ introduced during the time of Tun Abdullah Badawi’s administration, I think will no longer draw the peoples support. Who are the beneficiaries of such grandeur projects, if it is not the elitist and the powers that be? The rural folks remained sidelined, or are merely spectators to the dislodgement of their once tranquil and serene environment.

PR has to be realistic in their promises to the people, which must be easily understood and implementable. The promises of millions here, millions there is all hallow talk, and it does not appeal to the people any longer. Anyway, where is the money to throw when PR is not the ruling government? PR therefore cannot take on UMNO/BN based of the promises for grandeur projects. PR can certainly take on UMNO/BN over the ‘bread and butter’ issues, and these are the core issues that are at the heart of the people, and the lists are aplenty. Relook and capitalised on the winning strategies that was adopted in the 12th GE. If it was successful once, it may be successful the second time.

Two years more from the 13th General Elections is not too far away. And if PR thinks that the party can create another ‘tsunami’ that can take them along the road to Putrajaya, then the groundwork has to begin now. This means that there should no longer be any petty squabble from within and among the parties. PR has to solidify its members and they must be willing to entrenched themselves in all nook and corners of the country. The idea is to be visible and to create a ‘third column’ like strategy that was successfully adopted by the Japanese in Malaya in the run up to World War 2. Knowing the needs of the people is the key to winning the election. And similarly in war, and as the saying goes, knowing the enemy wins the war.

Now the million dollar question is who among the leaders of PR today that can lead the charge during GE13. Will it be a leader from PKR? Will it be someone from PAS, or will it be from DAP? The obvious answer is that the person has to be Malay, and my bet is that he is somebody from PAS. Will my prediction be right this time? We will have to wait and see.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

12 comments:

FMZam said...

Pakatan is never short of able young leaders to head the coalition, unlike BN whose conventional style of leadership is by the chain of command of whoever is the party's president, the youngs of Pakatan can take leadership as long as he is proven capable, regardless of race and religion. The question is he who unites Pakatan, leads. That is the case with Anwar, he may not be good enough but he leads not because he's Malay but because he's the unifying factor. Now, who's after Anwar that has his charismatic leadership to unite PKR, PAS and DAP into an alliance of united Malaysians?

After living under UMNO's government since my birth, I am with those who say we don't care who our PM is as long as he is a capable person. After all our duty as citizen comes every 5 years to decide on who's the best guy who can manage our country every day of that every 5 years.

I don't believe voting the non-Malays will ruin this country for we've lived long enough to see the Malays whom we've entrusted, have been ruining this country.

Capt's Longhouse said...

dear dato,

,,,why should the color of the cat counts ?..as long as it catch rats !. In fact, we have bloody rats running around as cats ?. Maybe we just need dogs that catches both cats and rats.
,,,what we really need is an honest and dedicated guy to lead the nation-lah. I bet that you yourself could do a bloody good job at it too. Our present leadership on both side of the coin is rubbish unfortunately. Sad to say this but this nation is in big trouble with our kind of politicians. I find hard to trust any of them except for some very few yet hard to name them right away here.. eerrmmm...Indeed am very disappointed. Lets put out thinking hat on ?.

Unknown said...

Dato, Real tough for Opposition. They do not have the Money. Plain sailing for UMNO ... they have lots and lots of Money.

Who in Malaysia with All the Laws governing Elections going to investigate the PM for the Monetary Promises in HS & Sibu!! Period

Unknown said...

Dato,

Whatever it is, be it UMNO, PKR, the fact is... Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

We all know well politics has replaced philosophy??

Like you said - politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

Remeber Mao Zedong said "Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed".

maurice said...

Not only PKR, I think BN is also having its own predicament.

People are wondering whether MCA in the next election would be able to win the required urban votes to make a difference from its performance in the last election.

I think the DAP will get even stronger in urban areas in years to come.If it can attract more young Malays to join the Party it can totally replace PKR in due course.

EAGLE said...

Dato'
The current leaders of our beloved nation are all of no brainer and with what is happening we might as well put a blind man to run this nation. So this is my take if even the blind man can do the job done by the current leadership be it the politicians and the civil servants!!! So if we allow it to continue, then maybe we are inviting disaster!!!
It is not over yet for the opposition and they acknowledged the journey is definitely very rough and tough all the way. This is very important as "know yourself and know your enemy" according to Sun Szu Art of War and everything is so fluid that as in politics "there is no permanent enemy and friend but interest" so, it is an art of making everything possible. So we the people must play our part and the choice is ours and at the end of the day GOD will decide. So, no matter how much resources the UMNO/BN has but they are not invincible and always remember that "setiap yang bathil akan musnah dan yang hak pasti akan muncul".
It is not Anwar or anybody else but it is the people that is paramount, so it is not an issue whether Anwar is around or not but the people must wake up as not to allow morons and idiots having a free hand to run this nation.
It is time for change and the only way to teach the arrogance is to kick them out from the corridor of power and Anwar cannot do it but we the people yes!, we can do it and if you ask me how? the answer is simple the people must vote the opposition come the next GE!!!
Unless we believe in people like Panglima Islam Zul nordin, that Bayan Baru frog, Brahim the Perkasa frog and the recent Wong CC(interpret the letter CC as you like it) and few others not worth mentioning- then, we blame ourselves as those name mentioned are baggage and political rubbish and a plenty more you can find in UMNO so why depend on ANWAR or NAJIB? In GOD we trust and we may not go wrong, in short PAKATAN with PAS and DAP will definitely will provide the strength for the coming GE!!! just another platform and unless Dato' you believe that UMNO/BN will reform soon-any likelihood that will happen? Not seen any indicators but it gets confuse every times when they made open statement. So may be the politicians especially the elitist are having the syndrome of "the tip of the iceberg" which is of the same league as the general of the tip of the icebergs. Cakap tak serupa bikin!!!
So..impossible PKR has done it but miracle takes a little bit longer, so kalau PKR tak berjaya maka duduk lah kita di bawah regime yang sama may be indefinitely and as for us, I believe we are all at the last hurrah of our journey, tepok dada tanya selera and hopefully we are all in the correct side of history.
Lets pray hard that future generation will not condemn us when they read the history of this nation, may be the history will all be distorted as the new colonization that is shaping up - do we really care sir?
So time to dream!!! This is peoples' war-Peperangan ini adalah peperangan rakyat!!!

FMZam said...

UMNO has made politics as if we're fighting a war for independence, a war against a colonial power, a war against an invasion force and a civil war. The war cry of UMNO - anti-UMNO Malays are traitors, unpatriotic and unnationalist, anti-UMNO Chinese are ungrateful, racists and extremists, and anti-UMNO Indians are pariahs. But yet no other party is like UMNO for UMNO is one political party comprises of traitors, unpatriotic, unnationalist, ungrateful, racists, extremists and pariahs.

Malaysian said...

Dato

Only through obstacles, Pakatan can be a strong coalition. Though a lot of PKR politicians are leaving their party but I think it's good that these crooked PKR politician leave the party now. They must get rid of these crooked politician. I rather have a smaller PKR party than a big political party. With a smaller political party, we can hope they can build a stronger based in certain states such as Perak, Penang, and Selangor. With a strong roots, I'm sure they'll lead the country within 10 years.

Anwar must forget about eyeing for PM now. He needs to focus on rebuilding his pary for the sake of the nation.

Lastly, a strong PKR not only benefit Pakatan Supporter but BN too.

Salam

Malaysian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Malaysian said...

I've always heard that DAP represent the non-Malay especially the Chinese ethniticity. It's true that most DAP leaders represented by Chinese leader; thus, I strongly recommend more Malay and Indian to join DAP. With more members from other races, it'll help them understand more about the other races needs too.Also, with the influx of other races into DAP there will be more non-Chinese leaders too.

Salam

FMZam said...

Sdr Malaysian,

One blogger from elsewhere blog reminded readers of a P.Ramlee comedy movie "Pendekar Bujang Lapok" made in the 60s where in one scene a character named Sudin pretending he is literated in front of his two illiterated friends (all of them are equally illiterated), by reading out the spelling of a signboard of a school for adults (sekolah dewasa) as "Alif Mim Nun TENDANG Wau = SARKES". Alif Mim Nun Wau is UMNO in Jawi and he added the word TENDANG to make it sound authentically genuine to his unsuspecting friends. Even P.Ramlee know how to make joke on UMNO so good that it was so concealing I believe not many people really realised it.

Now with Najib "Wa Tolong Lu, Lu Tolong Wa", Alif Mim Nun Wau (UMNO) is really a SARKES (Circus). No wonder the movie is no longer aired in Astro.

komando said...

The PKR...DAP...OR PAS...WHATEVER we have to fight UMNO and its Bandits!

We the Rakyat is the REAL POWER!
NOT THE PARTIES!
WE VOTE AS INDIVIDUALS!
WE GIVE OUR SUPPORT TO THE BEST MAN!

WE SHALL TELL THE PR TO FIELD WHO WE WANT OR ELSE ITS IS DOOMS DAY ALL OVER AGAIN !

TELL DSAI TO LISTEN TO THE POWER OF THE VOICES FROM THE GROUND!

LET ALL THE ROTTEN FROGS JUMP NOW, SOONER THE BETTER, BY THE TIME WE GO TO THE POLLS, WE WOULD HAVE WEEDED OUT ALL THE "KAKI BUSUK"!

THEY HAVE ALL THE AGENCIES FROM 53 YEARS AGO..

THEY ABUSED,
THEY USED,
THEY CONTROL,
THEY CHEAT.,
THEY LIED,
THEY THREATEN,
THEY EVEN KILLED!

But God will know how to deal with all of them, go do it now we shall see....later we shall also see the final outcome of it all!

They want POWER, MONEY & TOOLS let them be HAPPY for the moment!