GE13 as a late pregnancy?

Mariam Mokhtar

This is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak’s first experience in calling a general election, but waiting for the announcement is as bad as an expectant mother’s wait for an overdue birth. After a gestation of 42 weeks, it is recommended that labour be induced. 

Unfortunately, Najib is acting like an overanxious, elderly primigravida, who prolongs the gestation period because he fears both the birth and the progeny. He also displays all the symptoms of a mother carrying a post-mature foetus; sleepless nights, backache, sweating and anxiety. 

It is highly probably that elections have been rigged in Malaysia, for many decades. Recently, the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into immigrants in Sabah provided ample proof that citizenship was awarded in exchange for voting rights. In addition, the opposition has unearthed much evidence of cheating at the polls. 

Yesterday, Najib announced that GE13 would be held only after the rakyat had derived full benefit from the success of his government’s national transformation policies (NTP).

He said, “That is why we wait until we are exhausted to hold the general election, we wait because I want to prove that the national transformation policy can truly succeed.”

Najib should have no reason to delay the announcement of the date for GE13, if he knows that Umno has cheated in the elections since the 1980s and he also knows that this cheating will secure a win at GE-13 – unless he has been warned by his intelligence services that he will still lose. despite the cheating.

Cheating can influence the outcome of an election to a certain extent and it does not help Najib that the electorate has been alerted to the possibility of cheating. The opposition and internal election monitors are also aware of the tactics that have been used to cheat, and foreign countries are observing the fairness of GE13.

In fear of Mahathir’s warning

Najib is afraid of the reports from his own intelligence services, which state that BN will lose in GE13. He is mindful of the warning from former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he will be replaced if BN does not win back two-thirds majority in GE13.

The damage from Mahathir’s ‘Project M’ is inestimable. Mahathir deliberately allowed foreign elements to move freely in Malaysia. Background checks were rarely done and it is possible that terrorist elements have slipped into the country.

The police have no reason to challenge these “newly minted Malaysians” if they have not broken the law. The MyKad allows them to work, buy property and live in Malaysia.

What would happen, if at some point in the future, the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos-cum-Malaysians in Sabah, demanded cessation from Malaysia to either join the Phillippines or be an independent nation?

The same could be said of states bordering Thailand or the peninsular states with close ties with Indonesia. What if the terrorist sleeper cells are activated and ordered to begin an armed offensive? If 100 men can slip into the country, supposedly undetected, there may be arms caches stored in and around Sabah.

Najib refuses to take a break from campaigning and focus on the Sulu mess. Najib, his Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and the Defence Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi are passing the buck from one person to another.

No one responsible, no one accountable

And, as in most scandals involving the Malaysian government, no one is responsible, no one is made accountable and as usual, no one will be given the sack.

Contrast this with the Falklands war in 1985 when the British PM Margaret Thatcher sent an armada to defend the Falklands from an Angentine invasion. The islands were 8,000 miles from England, it was approaching winter and the seas off the Falklands were treacherous.

The logistics of planning the Falklands intervention and its eventual execution were difficult, but Thatcher pulled it off. Lahad Datu is just 1,200 miles from Putrajaya, but Najib’s response to this invasion has been lacklustre.

Prolonging the date for GE13 is just buying time for Najib to find more methods to cheat at the polls.

He said, “We should be proud because the nation has achieved much success. If Ulu Temiang is to have its name changed to Seremban Utara, but the government should not be changed.” (sic)

What is there to be proud of when our alternative papers are full of accounts of corruption, abuse of power and crimes committed by the government, its cronies or its agents? Najib is afraid of losing the election and he does not realise the damage he is inflicting on the nation.

Najib also said, “Yesterday, I was in Terengganu, I rode the trishaw and asked the pedaller how the present government was, and he said he would support the BN because PAS was ridiculous, only knows how to talk but does not know how to implement.”

The pedaller would say that, wouldn’t he? Does Najib really understand what being prime minister is all about? So far, he has displayed a breathtaking amount of stupidity and ignorance.

With the system of governance breaking down in Malaysia, we are entitled to ask whether Najib has benefited from his privileged education. The man who was born with the silver spoon in his mouth has no clue how to run a country.

At the time of independence, Malaysians fought hard for democracy but Najib and Mahathir have allowed Malaysia to regress. Both men have a chronic inability to comprehend the damage they have wrought on our institutions.

BN is indeed panicking. Tanda Putera was screened to Felda settlers despite the cabinet ruling on the film last year. Violence against students and members of the opposition has increased.

Taxpayer’s money is being given away recklessly. Companies are being sold to cronies, in what amounts to the biggest sale of the century. How is it possible that one man, Syed Mokhtar al-Bukhary can have a monopoly in every industry in Malaysia, from padi to planes?

Najib selectively screens foreigners entering Malaysia. It is alleged by Sarawak Report, that fomer British PM Tony Blair’s public relations company, Centreground Political Communications, is advising Najib on election planning and yet, an indepenedent Australian senator, Nick Xenophon, was deported because he was a threat to Najib’s form of democracy.

When S Vell Paari admonished the MIC president G Palanivel and threatened to lead the Indians to vote for the opposition if Palanivel did not act against Ibrahim Ali and Ridhuan Tee Abdullah for their scathing remarks about the Indians, it was another sign of desperation.

Is Vell Paari’s outburst just a response to the bid by Hindraf’s P Waythamoorthy to usurp the MIC as the champion of Indian rights? Vell Paari has many skeletons in his cupboard and if BN were to lose, he would have to face the music. Some people have suggested that Vell Paari joins the opposition, but why do we need more frogs?

Like any pregnant mother, Najib should realise that prolonged pregnancies may not harm the mother but will place the foetus in grave danger. After the 42nd week of gestation, the placenta, which supplies nutrients and oxygen, will deteriorate. If GE13 is further delayed, who knows how the rakyat will react?

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MARIAM MOKHTAR is a non-conformist traditionalist from Perak, a bucket chemist and an armchair eco-warrior. In ‘real-speak’, this translates into that she comes from Ipoh, values change but respects culture, is a petroleum chemist and also an environmental pollution-control scientist.