In the UMNO general assembly yesterday,Prime Minister Datuk Najib gave very
strong indication that the general election is very near.He said UMNO will field
many new faces this time, and called on senior members who are not selected to
remain loyal and support the new candidates. The name list will not be released
too early to avoid possible problems.He is confident that the National Coalition
(BN)will win back the few states lost to the opposition during the last election
March 2008(308 election).
I am afraid the Prime Minister might be over confident, it might very well be
the repeat of the 308 election this time also. In that election BN did not
bother to clear up some issues which had been dragging on quite some time like
the "Istana" house of Selangor Menteri Besar, the "close one eye" case of Jasin
member of parliament. BN leaders ignored them without realizing that these are
the "triggers" that hurt most during an election.
This time around there are issues always, the hottest is of course the NFC
issue, the RM56,250/ pair night vision binoculars, the diamond order etc. Nobody
is held responsible for all these. BN leaders are treating the voters like
dumb-dumbos, by giving some lame explanations.
For example in the NFC case, Datuk Shahrizat, the Wanita UMNO Head, whose
husband is involved in it, declared that it had got nothing to do with her. Her
husband minds the cattle business while she minds the UMNO affairs, the two are
not connected. But just answer one simple question," why her husband got the
project in the first place, and not people like me and you got it?"
As for the purchase of the binoculars,the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission
declared that there was no irregularities in the purchase of the binoculars by
the Marine Department, just that the officials were not following the Treasury
order to do a market survey before hand. That means if the officials involved
had followed the Treasury order, they might be charged in court now. Therefore
it is always wise not to adhere to the Treasury order because facing a
disciplinary action is better than facing a jail term any time!
If these type of explanations are acceptable, you can be sure that all the
politicians will rush to have their relatives grabbing whatever government
tenders available and make tons of money!
If that happens, Malaysia will definitely top the list of corrupted nations in
the region.
Until now, many top level leaders still think these are petty issues and advise
grassroots leaders to forget them!The rakyat may be silent now, but the votes in
their hands speak louder than any thing!
So be forewarned.
