Unseen Frustrations in the BN Fold

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Well, today is our Merdeka Day celebration and our prime minister had indeed spread his message around the nation calling for the preservation of stability and harmony. At one occasion Pak Lah called for more interfaith activities to boost unity among our Malaysian communities.

Then the deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak joined in by making the similar statement across the nation, followed by unity, culture and heritage minister Datuk Shafie Apdal stating that Malaysia has citizens of different races and faiths, co-existing harmoniously in tolerance and unity.

MCA president Datuk Ong Ka Ting later joined the scene by calling on various parties to respect each other’s existence, stop bad mouthing each other and rally together for the nation.With all the strings of calls and urges to uphold the spirit of national unity, tolerance and harmony among ethnicities of this nation, what really Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, etc also known as Barisan Nasional when we bundle them up, had ever done so far to preserve the entire episode?

When Umno delegates came up with a lot of slanderous, racist and seditious statements and remarks in the live telecast of the Umno general assembly few years ago calling to “wage war” against other ethnics with “bloodshed” to create and promote fear among those innocent people out there who were trying to gain their rights, have their voice heard, have their grievance heard, promoting unity and interfaith activities.

And there goes another few racist and seditious statements again made by leaders of a major BN component party itself, called none other than Umno, Umno and Umno !!!Then come a most recent attack by another Umno leader who came from their Bukit Bendera division, when its division chairman Datuk Ahmad Ismail said that the Chinese community here were mere temporary citizens of this nation.

What had MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, etc had done so far to teach and remind their so-called “taiko” how to behave? So far, we could only see junior level leaders in Gerakan and MCA making their stand heard and wanted Umno’s Datuk Ahmad Ismail to apologize to their fellow BN coalition partners.

Then the Gerakan Tanjung division came forward to make a police report against the Bukit Bendera Umno division chairman. Will the police take action against him, will Datuk Ahmad be charged in the court, or will the authorities detain him under the ISA? Well, the whole stack of situation is still uncertain as no action has been initiated against Datuk Ahmad so far, simply because he is a key Umno divisional leader who has unlimited access to the Umno president and the prime minister’s department.

And there goes a proposal made by Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon saying that he will bring up to the BN supreme council meeting soon a proposed code of ethics for all BN component party leaders to adhere with and how to behave.Will Tan Sri Dr Koh’s proposal be accepted by the Umno supremos or just simply being swung out of the window or more decently end up in Pak Lah’s waste paper basket instead?Of course so, because Umno as a “taiko” would not want to be treated like a child in the eyes of their coalition partners in the BN.

Sooner or later the Gerakan acting president would end up with a bash from the top Umno leaders and big guns instead, before the BN supreme council meeting adjourns.A recent call in the Kedah and Perak Gerakan’s state delegates conferences urging the party’s national leadership to withdraw from the BN and stay in the middle path.

Another statement by MCA presidential candidate Datuk Ong Tee Keat saying MCA may withdraw from BN if Umno continues with its racial supremacy agenda against other communities. Lastly, SAPP rebelled the BN, citing unfair treatment in Sabah, its community and the party as well.The rest of the BN component parties are still keeping mum and raising their discontent only in their hearts and among their grassroots level with too little impact to influence their national leaders respectively.

Some of these component parties may turn their blind eyes and close their ears on these discontents in order to secure their positions and financial allocations for the purpose of “development”.So what is Barisan Nasional actually? A mere dictatorship within a democratic entity. Sounds like being part of a Nazi or Fascist institution.