Monday, November 28, 2011

WINNING THE GENERAL ELECTION

I have been receiving calls, SMS and emails over the last few days from persons I know and from some others whom I do not know, seeking to find out whether I still ‘exit’ or otherwise. Actually, my long silence was because I have been out travelling south to visit friends that I had missed since leaving the military service. It has now been almost 13 years since I discarded my uniform, and I suddenly felt a dying urge to meet up with those that had served me; particularly those who were with me early in my military career. It sure gave me great pleasure and satisfaction to meet them once again in their period of retirement and what is most satisfying is to know that most of their children have families of their own and are leading a successful life.

I have wanted to write during my travels but at the age of 68 this November, I realize how exerting my body gets after having been on the road for an entire day.

I am now back to what I was, and the first thing I did was to try and capture all that was available in the new media. I wasn’t surprise to read that the PKR has thrown its biggest threat and challenge ever i.e. that they will take to the streets and force the government out if fraud is still prevalent in the upcoming general election. They also warned that any move to restrict the party of a peaceful gathering (to protest against an election fraud) will be met with street demonstrations that would be on a much larger scale than Bersih 2.0. They accused the Peaceful Assembly Bill tabled in Parliament recently as a move to thwart and deny any form of gathering and protest.

This is indeed a scary proposition, and if Bersih 2.0 could gather more than 50 thousand protestors, I think the next Bersih gathering (if ever it is to be organized) could easily marshal a much larger crowd. I am not saying this out of jest for there is already a brewing dissatisfaction and hatred against the government, particularly from among the younger generation for what they believe is the utter incompetence of the government to rein on the many issues inflicting society and the mismanagement of the country’s wealth. They see the recent government spending mirrors that of compulsive spender that treats the nation’s wealth as its very own Auto Teller Machine.

I say this without any inhibition, and what comes to mind is the poor handling by the government over the National Feedlot Center fiasco that puts the government at its worse in the eyes of civil society. They say that the NFC fiasco is outright abuse and thievery by those in power and the government’s inaction to support the Auditor General’s report has brought only shame to the nation. Sadly, ministers and politicians that had come out in support of the NFC are shameless idiots that clearly do not understand the difference between what is righteous and what is wrong, and the anger that they had caused from among civil society by supporting something that is so obviously wrong. I was told recently that the level of corruption and graft from among government officials (our sacred civil service) has reached a level that is beyond redemption and this is quite obvious when you see some shamelessly living beyond their means. Otherwise, how could there be so much of financial abuses and mismanagement as reflected in the Auditor General’s report? And why have the government; its ministers and some politicians in particular acted adversely against the Auditor General’s report is mind boggling. Are they saying that the Auditor General had lied, aimed at discrediting the government? Sure, the NFC fiasco has impacted upon the BN government’s image and popularity, and what is worse; I think the BN government has lost several thousand votes because of its poor handling of the NFC.

As I was writing this article, I received an SMS telling me that parents are not too pleased to see BN politicians (some Ketua Bahagian or Ketua Cawangan) handing out the RM100 cash awards to students at some schools recently. They questioned whether the cash award is from the government i.e. tax payers money, or is it from party fund. If it is from tax payer’s money, then politicians have no reason to be handing the cash award. It should be the teachers themselves or some education department officials (not politicians) that should be handing the cash award. It is public knowledge that the money is not from the BN party and rightfully, BN politicians should be out of this. But why has the Education Department allowed BN politicians to become Santa Claus, knowing that Christmas is still 3 weeks away? Or were there instructions from the Education Department itself to please the political masters?

I think this cash award to students by the government has gone a bit too far. I would agree if the cash award is given to students of rural schools like those in the estates and in the interior of Sabah, Sarawak and some in the peninsular. But extending it to students of private schools and to some well funded and premier schools, I think is stretching charity too far. I would have thought the money could be better used to upgrade schools that are in dire need of repairs; mainly rural schools.

With the GE nearing, there is already the excitement in the BN and the PR to go on an early campaign drive. While the BN has the mainstream media (MSM) to act as their ‘propaganda machine’, the PR has started their ground campaign into some of BN’s stronghold, example the state of Johor and FELDA schemes. I think the BN should no longer be over reliant on the MSM to lead their campaigning, as most urban viewers/readers of the MSM has little to believe in the MSM. Rather, the new media has now taken the lead in reporting and there is no denying that the new media will be the people’s focus in the days and weeks leading to the upcoming GE. I now believe that who so ever wins the new media campaign, wins the GE.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

7 comments:

bruno said...

Dato,it is always good to meet old friends.It sure brings back memories of the good old days.Back then the good old days are really good old days.Glad to see you back sound and healthy.Cheers.

bruno said...

Dato,sometimes it sure amazes to see that these politicians playing and acting like spoilt brats and crybabies.The words coming out of their mouths are incredible.Like breaking someone out of jail.Taking to the streets after they have known to have been cheated.They should have known that prevention is better than cure.Maybe some of these fellas are not ready yet for prime time.

The recent GOM's poor handling of the NFC's fiasco has shown Malaysians that there are more lembus in Umno/BN top leadership then in the entire cows population in NFC.The likes of Muhyiddin,Khairy,Sharizat and family and rest of the gang should exchange places with the cows of NFC.

How can a country prosper with corrupted lembus at its helm.As if cheating,bribing and buying votes are not enough for Umno GOM,it has now come up with a new plan.Bribing school children one hundred ringgit to encouraged them to convince their parents that to vote Umno GOM is the right choice for them.How much lower can such filty scums of society go.

It is surely impossible that without widespread rampant vote buying and double and triple voting,for Umno/BN to win this coming GE.Then if these are not enough,the electorate will still have to worry about the hundreds of thousands of RELA goons and mat rempit thugs Umno will be setting loose before and on election day.

mask topeng said...

Salam YBhG Dato', i am not interested in politics, but you said "It sure gave me great pleasure and satisfaction to meet them once again in their period of retirement and what is most satisfying is to know that most of their children have families of their own and are leading a successful life."
Dato', are they really leading a successful life? Have you met the Iban or Bidayuh soldiers who have left the service, or even some Indian soldiers. You should met them Dato' and ask them how are they leading their life? 1MALAYSIA.

mike joey said...

Dato'
I have 2 issues to present:-
1. You were fortunate to have met-up with some of your ex-mates who are doing well and so are their children.
I had met-up with some who are barely surviving with little money from their pension and abandoned by their fairly well-to-do children. Some are sickly and in poor health. Their previous dept's welfare associations are of no help when approached.Only when their plight are highlighted in the press media were they given a wheelchair in haste.Otherwise,the associations 'see no evil, hear no evil and talk no evil' maxim prevails. So the RM100/= given to children in urban schools should be channeled to these 'poor souls' as mentioned.
2. Politicians should not be involved at all in handing out the money to the students. Rightly said by you, its the taxpayers money and they got no business to show their unwanted faces in the school. Let the HMs or Senior teachers deal with it and should not be a political issue scoring points for UMNO/BN Govt.This is all very wrong and I don't blame the parents to take offence.

Frankie said...

BN politicians, led by Najib and Muhyiddin have no shame. They attacked and try to discredit the Penang government's RM100 aid to the senior citizens with all sorts of lame reasons but they stand without any shame giving out the RM100 "aid" to school students. This is very typical of the UMNO led BN government telling us to "do as we tell you but do not do what we do". These UMNO-BN government tells us to tighten our belts but it then gives away RM250 million soft loan to a back door cow minister's family to purchase condos instead of rearing cattle.

Malaysian said...

Dato

Education Department is also corrupted. I learned from a relative of mine that our school gives free laptop to students. There are no programs to teach the students to fully utilize the laptop. Why did they give out laptop? I heard it’s for 1Malaysia. How did they figure out that giving free laptop has anything to do with unity? Did the people in Education Department trying to get commission for buying laptop from certain company?

Salam

Justin Choo said...

Dato,

This is November, so may I wish you a very happy birthday. May you continue to have good health and happiness.

Below is a copy&paste from one of the blogs:

"Yesterday, some teacher from my daughter's school called and said to come to the school to collect the financial aid of RM100 that will be given to all students from Primary 1 to Form 5 as announced by the Government during the recent budget. I took my daughter to her secondary school but only to be told to go to another primary school nearby. First we had to line up to register to receive the aid. After that, we were told to move to the hall to attend an Aid Awarding ceremony. One VIP from certain parliamentary area was invited to give out the aid. There were speeches after speeches and I could not help but to think that this gathering has underlying tone and related to the upcoming 13th General Election. Never mind the ceremonies. We still have to wait for the VIP to present an envelop which I thought would contain the money. No, it's an empty envelop. With that empty envelop, we are then told to line up yet again at another counter to receive the actual money. Wow, what bureaucracy! I appreciate the financial aid no matter how big or small the amount maybe but the hassle we have to go through to get the money is something that is left to be desired. Fed-up, I left after half and hour. I will collect the money later.