No News Is Bad News
Madani Unity Government starts rotting away with disappointments
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29, 2023: The 15th General Election (GE15) in November clearly showed that the Malays have rejected the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN).
They backed the Taliban-like PAS and its ally Perikatan Nasional (PN), led by the racist Muhyiddin “I Am Malay First” Yassin not because they are anti-non-Malays but because of Alliance/BN’s nepotism, cronyism and patronage governance since Merdeka (Independence) 1957.
So, Malaysians generally rejected BN and opted for alternatives like PAS and Pakatan Harapan (PH).
But are PAS and PH delivering their electoral promises for good governance.
To the Malays, their only alternative is religious extremist PAS.
To the non-Malays, especially the Chinese and Indians, they have no other choice but to support PH (comprising DAP, PKR and Amanah).
The Taliban-like and religious extremist PAS frightens the non-Malays and is no option for them in politics and governance.
Unfortunately, the GE15 returned a hung Parliament - meaning no one party of coalition had the mjority (in numbers or seats) to form the federal government for the next five years.
Why then did the Malays not go for Anwar and PH? After all, he had fought for justice for 20 years in prison.
Perhaps the Malays saw something in Anwar that they did not trust, thus they opted for PAS.
The Anwar-led PH, with the most number (82) in the 222-seat Parliament was given the opportunity by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King) to form a coalition government.
Anwar’s PH had no choice but to invite the much-hated and corrupt Umno to form the the federal government (Madani Unity Government) with the support of the Sarawak and Sabah political bloc.
However, after close to a year of the Madani UG, the non-Malays are feeling disappointed and see Anwar as a lame duck prime minister, even to the minority Umno.
Malaysians in Peninsula are also looking at the political maturity and governance of Sarawak and Sabah where race and and religion are of no concern to them.
They loathe the racial and religious bigoted politics and governance of the federal governments and today are united politically and are courageously making their own decisions on what is right or wrong to them in governance.
They do not fear the federal government, and without fear or favour, reject policies that cause racial and religious dispute.
So, did the Malays make the right choice to opt for PAS and are the non-Malays now regretting backing Anwar and PH?
Time will tell and that is likely to be in the next GE which must be held in 2027.
No News Is Bad News reproduces below two articles related to the political dilemma of Malaysians:
THE FUTURE IS IN PAS’ OWN HANDS – NOW THE MOST POWERFUL PARTY IN MALAYSIA, BIGGER EVEN THAN DAP, WHETHER PAS CAN OVERCOME ‘HADI-PHOBIA’ – AND WIN BACK THE NON-MALAY VOTE DEPENDS ON HOW SINCERE ITS ACTIONS ARE, AND NOT MERE WORDS
Business, Politics | October 27, 2023 9:33 am by | 0 Comments
Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) – It is true – most non-Malays do dislike and distrust Pas. And these feelings have grown steadily over the past few years, reaching a point from which there may be no return as hatred for each other on both side becomes so entrenched it may become generational, passed on from one generation to the next.
But the root causes of why non-Malays fear Pas is not as Pas chief Hadi Awang so conveniently imputes it to be – Islamophobia!
Non-Malays do not dislike Islam, they may not agree with Shariah law or accept hudud – but then neither do many Muslims.
As analyst Wong Chin Huat puts it, rejection of Pas should not be equated with Islamophobia because “Islam cannot be equated with any political party”.
After all, Umno members until 2020 had rejected Pas, as did Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu). Should those parties also be considered Islamophobic?
And instead of blaming rival party, the DAP, Pas should look at itself because it is now the biggest and most powerful party in the country.
“There is one party more powerful than DAP in shaping the perceptions of non-Malay voters regarding Pas. That party is none other than Pas itself,” said Chin Huat in a report for Sinar Daily.
WHEN NIK AZIZ WAS ALIVE, WHY DIDN’T NON-MALAYS HATE PAS THEN?
Indeed Pas members should reflect and question Hadi: if what you say is true, why then did the non-Malays throw their support fully behind us when Nik Aziz was alive and we were part of the Pakatan Rakyat alliance?
So when did the divergence in paths occur? Was it not after Nik Aziz died and Pas left Pakatan Rakyat?
Yes, the ‘split’ came after Pas abandoned its ‘Pas for All’ strategy – opting to shift to the extreme right and become a hardline, conservative party only for Malays and Muslims.
ISLAMOPHOBIA OR HADI-PHOBIA?
How reasonable then is Hadi to blame non-Malay fear of Pas on a phobia for Islam? It would be way more accurate to say non-Malays dislike Pas because of a phobia for him. And the radical and racist posturing of other Pas leaders close to him, such as Kedah MB Sanusi Md Nor.
For sure, Hadi supporters will rush to his defence but a look at the list of controversial and hurtful statements issued by Hadi against the non-Malays, compiled by Chin Huat, will show it’s Hadi-phobia and not Islamophobia that is keep non-Malays far way from the Pas ballot boxes.
THE FUTURE IS IN PAS’ OWN HANDS
Many non-Malays are actually hoping Hadi himself and his blue-eyed boys including Terengganu MB Samsuri Mokhtar will be reasonable and honest enough with themselves to see their own roles in chasing away the non-Malay votes.
As the Finance Twitter portal wrote – for now it may be too little and too late to expect the non-Malays to trust Hadi and Pas again. But the future is in the hands of Pas’ own leaders.
If they continue to believe they are supreme and above the non-Malays, which actually contradicts Islamic principles, and to behave as if Malaysia is not a multiracial country and only Muslims have rights than need to be respected, then Hadi and his party might as well stop begging for non-Malay support because it will never come.
“The so-called “green wave” saw Opposition Perikatan Nasional (made up of PAS, Bersatu and Gerakan) winning a whopping 74 seats in the 222-seat parliament. Yet, despite PAS winning 43 seats and 4 states – becoming the single-largest party – the Islamist extremists have been fantastically frustrated and furious for not being able to form the government. The 80% Malay votes it had won were insufficient,” wrote Finance Twitter.
“Crucially, the August six state elections and Johor by-elections (September) show the conservative Malays and green wave failed to penetrate the southern part of the country. Led by former backdoor prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, the opposition only managed to capture four of the poorest states (Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis), even though Muhyiddin’s Bersatu has zero state to rule.”
“To add salt into the wound, PAS Islamist party was not only rejected by the non-Malays but also the Bumiputera in Sabah and Sarawak, the majority of whom are Christian. While PAS preached that anyone who does not vote for them will go to hell, Muhyiddin showed his true colour when he spread fake news that Christians are working with Jews to Christianise Malaysia.”
“Therefore, by hook or by crook, Hadi had to make a spectacular U-turn and pretend to be “non-Muslims-friendly”. Without support from the non-Muslims, PAS cannot win the election, let alone allow the PAS president to become the next prime minister. Hadi needs to do more than just claiming that PAS had always demonstrated religious freedom.”
“The problem is the Chinese and Indian still remember clearly how Hadi said non-Muslims should be grateful that they have been given “a place” in this country – suggesting that the non-Muslims must forever “kowtow”, work like a dog and pay taxes no matter how much they are being bullied, discriminated and oppressed,”
List of controversial and hurtful remarks from Hadi, Pas leaders (compiled by Chin Huat)
On January 18, 2016, Harakah published a statement by Hadi stating that Christian evangelists were attempting to spread Christianity among the poor.
Two Christians in Sabah took this matter to court but failed to obtain a declaration. He had incited and is someone unsuitable to hold public office.
On December 25, 2017, Hadi was reported to have stated that ministerial positions should only be held by Muslims.
This statement was later cushioned to mean that non-Muslims could be ministers but only as implementers, not policy-makers.
On August 20, 2022, Hadi was reported to have stated that most bribe givers were non-Muslims and non-Bumiputeras.
The police investigated this case last April, but no further action has occurred.
On May 29, the Kedah Menteri Besar from Pas, Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, claimed that Penang belonged to Kedah historically in the 18th century.
Using the same argument, Perlis, northern Perak, and Satun (a province in Thailand) are also part of Kedah, but only Penang, with its non-Malay majority, was claimed.
Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
Politics Now!
No clear winner as Malaysia election ends in hung parliament
Coalition led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim wins most seats, but group led by ex-PM Muhyiddin Yassin make gains.
If Anwar Ibrahim wins, it would cap a remarkable journey for a politician who, in 25 years, has gone from heir apparent to the premiership to a prisoner convicted of sodomy, to the country's leading opposition figure [Hasnoor Hussain/Reuters]
Published On 19 Nov 202219 Nov 2022
Malaysia’s tightly contested general election has ended in a hung parliament, with the coalition led by opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim winning the most seats followed by a grouping including the country’s Islamist party a few seats behind.
Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition secured 82 seats in the 222-member parliament while former Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Malay-based Perikatan Nasional (PN) trailed behind with 73 seats, the Election Commission of Malaysia said early on Sunday morning. Voting was suspended in one seat in the Borneo state of Sarawak after flooding made it impossible for elections workers and voters to get to some polling stations.
Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition – dominated by his United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party – suffered major upsets, emerging with just 30 seats. It was a major turnaround for an alliance that dominated Malaysia’s political landscape since its independence nearly 60 years ago.
Anwar and Muhyiddin each claimed their coalitions had enough support to form the government, although they did not reveal which parties they had allied with. Key to the formation of any government will be the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, which have long sought greater influence at the federal level.
Coalition talks were continuing on Sunday.
Malaysia’s political landscape has become increasingly fractured in recent years. PH’s historic win in 2018 triggered political infighting among ethnic Malay parties that played on concerns about race and religion in a country that is mostly Malay Muslim but has significant communities of Indigenous people and those of Chinese and Indian origin.
PH fell to a power grab in February 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, and the country has had three prime ministers in as many years.
Many of the former PH politicians who helped engineer that collapse were soundly punished at the ballot box, with one even losing her deposit.
Also losing his deposit was veteran former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who at 97 had set up another Malay-based party in the wake of PH’s collapse. Mahathir came in fourth in a five-way fight on the resort island of Langkawi, the election commission said. It was a shock defeat for someone who had led Malaysia for some 22 years until 2003, and was once revered for his role in turning Malaysia into an export giant.
Muhyiddin’s PN made gains thanks to a surge in support for PAS, an Islamist party that expanded further across northern and central Malaysia from its traditional strongholds.
In another shocking defeat, the PAS candidate beat Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar in the family’s longtime stronghold in Penang state.
Muhyiddin’s new National Alliance, which includes a Malay-centric conservative party and an Islamist party, made substantial gains [Malaysian Department of Information/Nazri Rapaai/Handout via Reuters]
PN was a junior partner in Ismail’s coalition government, and there was speculation that the two could come together again to block Anwar.
Anwar said he would submit a letter to Malaysia’s King Al-Sultan Abdullah detailing his support. If he clinches the top job, it would mark a remarkable comeback for a politician who was Mahathir’s deputy and heir apparent before he was suddenly sacked and accused of sodomy at the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998. He has been jailed twice on sodomy charges, but his political fall and rise helped fuel Malaysia’s reform movement and break BN’s political dominance.
PN supporters watch a video stream for live results of Malaysia’s 15th general election in Shah Alam, Malaysia, on November 19, 2022 [Lai Seng Sin/Reuters]
Expected outcome
Reporting from outside Kuala Lumpur, Al Jazeera’s Florence Looi said the results were similar to what opinion polls had predicted, with no single party or coalition having a clear majority.
“There is not one party that has enough seats to form a government on their own. Now this means the smaller parties will be in a position to play kingmaker and I expect negotiations and horse trading would have already started behind closed doors.”
Ismail Sabri’s BN alliance said it accepted the people’s decision but stopped short of conceding defeat, saying in a statement it remains committed to forming a stable government.
There were calls from some in UMNO for the resignation of Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, the party’s president who is widely thought to have pressured Ismail Sabri, one of the party’s three vice presidents, into holding the election.
Turnout was 73.89 percent, the Elections Commission said on Sunday.
Voter turnout in 2018 was one of the highest at 82 percent, but the pool of voters in this year’s election was larger as a result of automatic voter registration and the reduction in the voting age to 18.
The total number of eligible voters was 21.1 million, six million more than last time.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
No comments:
Post a Comment