{"id":4899,"date":"2011-03-06T04:50:11","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T20:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/index.php\/2011\/03\/after-kerdau-and-merlimau-reform-or-face-a-national-revolt\/"},"modified":"2011-03-06T04:50:11","modified_gmt":"2011-03-05T20:50:11","slug":"after-kerdau-and-merlimau-reform-or-face-a-national-revolt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/after-kerdau-and-merlimau-reform-or-face-a-national-revolt\/","title":{"rendered":"After Kerdau and Merlimau \u2013 Reform or Face a National Revolt!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/http:\/\/buletinonline.net\/v7\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/pas.jpg\"I\u2019m fully conscious of how the BN\u2019s mainstream media (MSM) would demonise and ostracise me for what I\u2019m about to say. I\u2019m nonetheless going to say it in simple and unequivocal term. Simply put, if I were to call the shot in N28 Kerdau by-election, I would want my party to boycott the election. Period.<\/p>\n

The BN\u2019s MSM would then have a field day in making PAS their punching bag and would go to town for weeks on end on this huge political meal. They would be apparently vindicated for all their claims that the opposition is bankrupt of ideas and issues to fight them on any further political contestation.<\/p>\n

On the back of the looming 13th<\/sup> General Election (GE) coming ever closer, the decision to boycott would arguably be a political suicide for PAS and the Pakatan. Political analysts might argue that the opposition has finally succumbed to the psychological war of the BN\u2019s \u2018propagandist firepower\u2019. It doesn\u2019t take a pundit to tell you that.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the usual \u2018in-the-box-kind-of-thinking\u2019 that invariably ends up in political parties quite unwilling to brace drastic unconventional ideas and maneuvers. That\u2019s the thinking that underpins the predictable decision of most political parties of whatever ideological persuasions in the face of challenging situation.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s my rationale for proposing this drastic action? Am I already conceding defeat on the 11th<\/sup> hours? Am I now perceived as mitigating the adverse impact of another PAS\u2019 defeat? Say what you like.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been part of the strategic teams of many a by-election especially after the 12th<\/sup> GE. Some we have won and others we lost. The sweetest victory was of course Kuala Terengganu and the more bitter defeat was Galas. On both occasions power changed hands.<\/p>\n

Quite contrary to the idea of running from defeat, I have a strange feeling that Kerdau is fast making me upbeat especially towards its finishing line. I\u2019m not commenting on Merlimau as I\u2019m not aware of the realities on \u2018ground-zero\u2019 in that BN\u2019s state of Melaka.<\/p>\n

Let me say it again. I\u2019m not looking for an upset in Kerdau but is seriously hoping for a reduction of the majority the BN\u2019s candidate secured in the last GE.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not being wishful but given our campaign \u2018blitz\u2019 which put the Pahang\u2019s MB defenceless to the finishing line, this writer is hardly surprised if the voters so decide to protest against Umno\/BN\u2019s decades of malaise and negligence as to give PAS a victory.<\/p>\n

No one in his right frame of mind would miss noticing that Kerdau is a \u2018cowboy\u2019 town. After 53 years Kerdau has never got on to be in the radar of development. It\u2019s the PM\u2019s home state mind you. So simply said again, I\u2019m not running from defeat.<\/p>\n

However, this piece is at best purely academic as far as a boycott is concerned, as polling is well underway for both Merlimau and Kerdau, before this writer could publish or upload this piece.<\/p>\n

But I felt the compelling need to say and share it with the entire nation, before the results are announced this evening. I\u2019m dead serious. If anything this piece and the likes of this writing, if widely enough read and disseminated, could very well be the genesis of a pending \u2018national revolt\u2019, not quite like the middle-eastern turmoil now on world stage that Najib dreaded.<\/p>\n

But strangely quite alike though, as it will also represent the utter disdain and hatred of the rakyat or the citizens, for what is here now dubbed in \u201cPolitical Science\u201d as an \u2018Electoral Authoritarianism\u2019 (EA). Malaysia is now listed as one by the author of \u2018The Logics of Electoral Authoritarianism\u201d, Professor Andres Schedler (2006).<\/p>\n

Simply defined, EA is how government abuse power as to distort and contain a true electoral competition and denies equal access to the media of competing parties and subverts a free and fair election.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of an enlarging enlightened sections of the Malaysian electorates and citizenry, Malaysia is indeed guilty of perpetuating \u2018electoral authoritarianism\u2019 with impunity. For that, Najib and his cohorts please take note!<\/p>\n

If Najib et al\u00a0truly wants to put the \u201cBen-Ali-Mubaarak-Gaddafi-type Revolt\u201d at bay in our beloved land of Malaysia, act urgently to redress and reform the many excesses and sins on \u2018electoral authoritarianism\u2019 that has continued unabated for far too long in this country!<\/p>\n

My arguments, with respect to a boycott call on Kerdau by-election and now urging immediate reform, are essentially premised on, but not limited to the following basis and evidences.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Najib now infamous saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t buy votes, but if you support us we can increase your allocation tomorrow or later. But show support for Barisan Nasional first\u201d. Now that could only equal to his atrocious words of \u201cYou help me, I help you\u201d in Sibu ie his promise of delivering RM5 million on Monday if Robert Lau wins on Sunday now is iconised as the ultimate of \u2018vote-buying\u2019 in the lexicology of our local EA. If that is not votebuting, what is?<\/li>\n
  2. Najib began as early as on the second day of the campaign period to blitz Kerdau with \u2018goodies\u2019 and handouts as follows: RM400,000 for a hall in Kampong Seri Kerdau, RM150,000 for a Balai Bomba, RM100,000 for Hindu Temple and RM9.25millions on a water treatment plant in Batu Sawar. That\u2019s a hefty RM10.4million, well exceeding the constituency budget allocation. Where are funds coming from? Umno\u2019s coffers or cronies\u2019 or rakyats\u2019?<\/li>\n
  3. Abuse of usage of public premises for party political campaign listed below:\n
      \n
    1. Public Field in Teluk Sentang,<\/li>\n
    2. Mosques and Schools in Batu Sawar,<\/li>\n
    3. Community Hall in Jengka 23 Felda,<\/li>\n
    4. Broadband Centre for Jengka 25<\/li>\n
    5. Community Hall in Kuala Tekal <\/li>\n
    6. Kerdau\u2019s Felda\u2019s office.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    7. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister\u2019s Department Datuk Ahmad Maslan\u2019s announcement that the federal government will settle the CESS payment of RM13,000 for each settler in Jengka 22 next Monday is a surely a covert inducement for settlers to vote for BN come polling day for the Kerdau by-election on Sunday. (Cess payments are monies deducted from the sale of rubber for the purpose of replanting rubber plantations with oil palm. However, when settlers made the decision to switch from rubber to oil palm in 2004, cess payments worth RM12,000 that each settler had accumulated over the course of more than 20 years were not paid by Felda. Felda had paid the settlers RM5,000 each but the Land Development Authority still owes the settlers RM13,000 each, including interest). The bone of contention is why only pay those in the Jengka 22 in the N28 Kerdau constituency, while all Felda settlers Pahang have long been waiting for what are rightly theirs!<\/li>\n
    8. The vicious and baseless attack on Dato\u2019 Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man, the Director for PAS\u2019 Strategic Centre for the N28 Kerdau by-election by the MSM. The footage was widely covered and repeated by the BN\u2019s TV channels including the \u2018independent\u2019\u00a0 TV3. \u00a0This should be the last straw of it all. Seen and peceived by many as failing to respond to all the allegations of a failing Pahang state, as concertedly attacked by PAS\u2019 election machinery, as depicted by Auditor General\u2019s report, Umno took the final hours of campaign to level a smear campaign on him, accusing him of abusing and capitalizing on a Felda settler\u2019s financial hardship to his advantage. All these heinous hate campaign were fortunately clarified by those involved but wasn\u2019t at all featured in the BN\u2019s MSM. Abuse of MSM and denial of opposition\u2019s right to MSM has become more rampant of late.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Based on a snap-shot of the abuses and excesses of a regime that practices \u201cElectoral Authoritarianism\u201d, I for one would not have hesitated to give the Election Commission and now Najib an ultimatum \u2013Respond or face a National Revolt!<\/p>\n

      For the information of all well-wishers of democracy and in all fairness to us in PAS\/Pakatan, we had submitted on 2 memorandum to the EC, MACC and the PDRM\u00a0to protest of all these abuses and subversion of democracy.<\/p>\n

      It does not take a lawyer to be telling you that Najib and his cohorts are abusing the provision of the Election Offences Act of 1954 aimed at curbing abuses and corrupt practices of contending parties in an electoral process.<\/p>\n

      It is the conviction of this writer that Malaysia may not well see the equivalent of the Middle Eastern upheaval soonest. But if this regime persists and perpetuates \u201cElectoral Authoritarianism\u201d with little or no regards for the demands of reform by both civil society and opposition political parties, Najib is indeed courting the like of another and bigger peaceful assembly of 500,000 protestors @well-wishers of democracy prior the 13th<\/sup> GE.<\/p>\n

      Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, <\/strong>Member, PAS Central Working Committee and <\/strong>Malaysia<\/strong> MP for Kuala Selangor.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I\u2019m fully conscious of how the BN\u2019s mainstream media (MSM) would demonise and ostracise me for what I\u2019m about to say. I\u2019m nonetheless going to say it in simple and unequivocal term. Simply put, if I were to call the shot in N28 Kerdau by-election, I would want my party to boycott the election. Period. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"better_featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buletinonlines.net\/v7\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}