We need to teach politicians a lesson. Pakatan Rakyat politicians, that is

On 4th February, 2008, in “The People’s Voice & The People’s Declaration” post, this is what I wrote :

“Malaysia belongs to her people.

You and I and every person for whom this country is home.

Every indicator is that we will be going to the polls very soon.

Soon we will be hearing all kinds of promises from politicians out to get our vote.

Tell them that this time round things are going to be different.

Tell them that we the People, have found our Voice.

Tell them that they must heed our Voice.

Tell them that we, the People, have charted the direction we wish to take our country.

Tell them that if they wish to have our mandate, they must abide by the People’s Declaration”.

On 23rd February, 2008, the three Pakatan Rakyat parties, together with three other non-BN parties formally indorsed our People’s Declaration. You can read about that HERE.

Then 8th March, 2008 happened and BN politicians were at the receiving end of a lesson many, politicians and rakyat alike, thought was not possible.

Loss of a long-held 2/3 majority in Parliament.

And the loss of another four state governments.

It didn’t stop there.

Permatang Pauh, Kuala Terengganu, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Penanti.

Again and again, BN felt the wrath of the voters.

Has BN learnt anything?

Doesn’t look like it.

Has Pakatan Rakyat learnt anything from this?

Doesn’t look like it too.

In his ‘Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia’ post, this is what RPK said :

“There appears to be another thing that PAS has forgotten. In fact, all the seven parties appear to have forgotten this as well. And this is The People’s Declaration (Deklarasi Rakyat) which the seven parties endorsed in the run-up to the 8 March 2008 general election. Just before the general election they all enthusiastically endorsed The People’s Declaration. Immediately after the general election they conveniently forgot the Declaration that they signed”.

Now, aren’t Pakatan behaving like Pak Lah before and after the 2004 GE?

A lot of promises before the election, and all forgotten after?

That’s a fraud on the voters!

It’s beginning to seem as if BN is not the only one who ‘cakap tak serupa bikin’!

Did Hassan Ali tell the voters when he was campaigning for votes in the run up to the 12th GE that if he was voted into office, he would turn all Muslim-majority ( whatever this is and howsoever this is worked out ) into booze-free areas?

And if he did not, is not his latest move to destabilise the PR state government nothing less than a fraud on every non-Muslim voter in his constituency?

Is not his latest ‘Islam-as I say-tion’ stance at odds with the terms of the People’s Declaration, and therefore leaving PAS in breach of its undertaking with the rakyat by its indorsement of the People’s Declaration?

Should not the national leadership of PAS discipline Hassan for placing the party in a most untenable position with the rakyat?

Speaking of discipline, what’s become of the show cause notice issued last year by PKR to its taliban, Zul Nordin for his most disgraceful complicity in the disruption of the dialogue at the Bar Council auditorium last year?

Wasn’t Zul’s behaviour then in blatant disregard of the right of expression that his party, by indorsing the People’s Declaration, vouched to protect and to nurture?

Does PKR think we have forgotten?

On 6th August, Malaysianinsider reported YB Lim Kit Siang as warning that unless public confidence in Pakatan is strengthened, this fledgling coalition could end up a ‘one-term wonder’.

Too right, YB!

The next day, Leslie Lau of Malaysianinsider summed it up succintly when he said that “Pakatan Rakyat cannot expect a free pass from the public”.

RPK, in his ‘Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia’ post did not mince his words :

“We need to teach politicians a lesson...It is time we took back the country from the politicians. Politicians, both sides of the political divide, are just not delivering. They are screwing us good and proper. Politicians just can’t be trusted. If Barisan Nasional kicks Pakatan Rakyat out come next general election it is not because Barisan is strong, it is because Pakatan is weak. We took 30 years since 1978 to get where we got in March 2008. The last ten years since 1998 was on a Reformasi platform. In just over a year the politicians are undoing 30 years of hard work. Victory did not come easy on 8 March 2008. I wasted more than half my life to see what we saw in March 2008. And now they expect us to just sit back and watch them undo everything through their arrogance, ego, short sightedness, lust for power, selfishness, and self-centred and narrow-minded political agenda…I don’t expect overnight results. I am prepared to see the opposition build back, brick by brick, what Barisan Nasional destroyed over 50 years. But Pakatan Rakyat is not rebuilding. It is destroying even more. It is creating as much damage as what Barisan Nasional did in 50 years…Pakatan Rakyat must remember that it was not they who won the 8 March 2008 general election. It was the rakyat who did. And now the rakyat is no longer part of the equation in whatever they do. Pakatan Rakyat must be given a tight slap on the face”.

We need to teach the politicians a lesson, Pete says.

The Pakatan Rakyat politicians, is what I think Pete meant.

I think it’s time.

Posted by Haris Ibrahim
harismibrahim.wordpress.com