YB Lim Kit Siang, why??? I am very disappointed with you!!
Thursday, March 13th, 2008 4,064 viewsI am flabbergasted. For all the hard work and efforts rallying people around Barisan Rakyat, it only take 3 days for DAP, well I should say YB Lim Kit Siang to ruin it all. I am sure many of us aware of the debacle around the candidates for Perak Menteri Besar. The result is final; a candidate from PAS will be the MB. I quote :
“The Sultan of Perak, Sultan Azlan Shah has consented to the appointment of Mohammad Nizar, 51, who is Perak PAS secretary, as the state’s 10th Menteri Besar, after the three parties submitted three names – Perak DAP chairman Ngeh Koo Ham, 47; Perak PKR treasurer Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, 52; and Nizar, for the post.
Mohammad Nizar, who won the Pasir Panjang seat in the election, said Raja Dr Nazrin Shah conveyed the Sultan’s consent when the three leaders met him (Raja Dr Nazrin) at Istana Kinta.”
Now, what LKS did after the decision was announced? He wrote a post in his blog saying the DAP central executive committee (CEC) has not given any approval for the formation of a Perak coalition by PAS and called for a boycott of the Perak MB swearing in ceremony today. I quote LKS is his typical confrontational style :
“The DAP CEC has given approval for the formation of a Perak coalition government headed by DAP or PKR but not by PAS.”
Lim said DAP leaders, members and supporters are shocked at the decision to appoint a PAS assemblyman as Perak MB.
“DAP is prepared to accept DAP chairman and assemblyman for Sitiawan Ngeh Koo Ham or PKR Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi as Perak Mentri Besar. “As the appointment of Mohamad Nizar as Perak Mentri Besar representing the third and smallest political party in the proposed coalition has not received the mandate of the CEC, DAP Perak assemblymen will stay away from the swearing-in ceremony for Perak Mentri Besar scheduled Thursday.”
Now, do we need a statement like this at this time? When all Malaysians is hoping the Barisan Rakyat (BR) consists of PKR, DAP and PAS to stand united against Barisan Nasional? Malaysians just want to see unity among BR above the rest.
I personally think LKS is getting old and probably lose his touch on reading the sentiments on the ground. He probably did it to please his hardcore Chinese supporters for fearing the backlash DAP will receive if DAP agree to the appointment. He probably think Chinese voters will take it as DAP is working with PAS, the very party that is advocating Islamic rule and law. But, I think LKS got it all wrong this time.
1. DAP Perak already announced that any decision by the Sultan will be honoured. In his statement, state DAP chief, Ngeh Koo Ham said :
“All parties within the coalition have jointly agreed on the submission of the three names for his decision.
“We would like to impress upon the people that all three parties have unanimously agreed to fully endorse whichever candidate is chosen,” he said at the Perak DAP headquarters.
So why LKS came out with this statement after the decision is announced? Any objection from DAP CEC should be done before the Sultan’s decision, not after. LKS should know better how important it is to honour an agreement, and now he is doing the exactly opposite?! And what happened to the approval given by DAP CEC for the formation of Perak coalition government on the 9th March 2008? :
“The DAP Central Executive Committee, at its emergency meeting in Penang on Sunday, 9th March 2008, had given approval for the formation of a Perak coalition government comprising 18 DAP Assembly members, seven PKR Assemblymen and six PAS Assemblymen.”
Who is hypocrite now? MCA? MIC? UMNO? It makes no different if DAP is going to pursue this path.
2. DAP is still haunted by the ghost of 1999 when DAP lose most of the seats it contested, and feedback from the ground was that the voters punished DAP for working with PAS, especially even after PAS announced its Islamic State Document (ISD). So could it be DAP still suspicious of PAS? Nah, if it is true that back then in 1999 election, the non-Muslim especially Chinese voters walked away because they distrust PAS, the sentiment among the voters in 2008 election is totally opposite!!! The winning factor for BR is due to PAS toning down on their Islamist agenda making it easier for non-Muslims to vote for PAS.
To be honest, without PAS, Barisan Rakyat can never have Kedah, Perak and Selangor! If it’s not for Non-Muslim, Chinese and Indian voters who voted for PAS against UMNO, we wouldn’t have gotten so many states. And PAS has toned down their Islamic agenda so why DAP is still suspicious of PAS? DAP never able to do much dent to BN until now, until BR coalition is here. DAP on its own can dream on to wrestle those states from BN. It is PKR and PAS extra seats that give BR the majority in both Perak and Selangor. DAP only win in their traditional strong seats, plus few new seats in these 2 areas. I would say thanks to PKR acting as a middle man between PAS and DAP. And thanks to PAS for toning down their Islamic state rhetoric. Now, what DAP did to BR?
Like I said, LKS totally misjudge the voter’s mood this time around. What he wants? Losing relevance to a small group of narrow minded Chinese supporters or risk losing a majority support of a country?
3. By issuing this statement and boycotting the swearing in ceremony, it reinforces the perception of Malays that DAP is still Chinese chauvinist party, never change. Always crapping about all Malaysians Malaysia party, but the action proves otherwise. Cakap tak serupa bikin. Now, thanks to BN, UMNO has more bullets than they need to blast DAP and the coalition of BR. Read MSM today, The Star, NST all front page. Is that what you want? On top of that, the biggest mistake by LKS is, this will be interpreted as DAP showing disrespect to the Sultan. Not going to the swearing in ceremony of the MB would look like a mark of disrespect to the Sultan’s invitation. That is a very serious offence. This very approach will indirectly read by people on the ground especially the Malay voters as vehemently insult the Sultan. And the decision was made by Raja Nazrin Shah, a royalty that has his heart for the people. He is much a wise and very highly educated man, so we should trust him to know what he is doing.
My take is LKS opposes and boycotts certain issues too quickly sometimes, and his in your face attitude and propensity to shout too much actually does more harm than good. I hope I am wrong. I hope this is just another sandiwara, wayang just like the Fong Po Kuan nomination fiasco the other day, who by her abstaining from DAP nomination, tricked BN into endorsing her performance in the parliament. Anyway the damage is done. MSM is having a field day publishing this, BR especially DAP need to work harder to gain and maintain the confidence of the very people that voted them to office.
ps : I actually not intended to post this up, I have another post for today but I feel I need to say something as a supporter of Barisan Rakyat, I dread to see any of them making the wrong move.
Pss : I lost all my phone contact numbers due to some stupid problems with my mobile. I hard formatted it, so everything is gone. Those with my numbers, please send me a message with your name ? Thank you!
Updated 11.15am :
Okay, he apologized, read it at Malaysiakini and his blog. Anyway, damage is done, now let’s move on.
). Sorry about the photo quality. The photos do no justice to the lovely food. I took it using my mobile phone, under the dimmed lighting in the restaurant. Bengbeng should have better photos taken by his compact camera, but he yet to upload many photos when I checked his Flickr. So I just grabbed whatever photos I have from Cibol’s and Bengbeng’s blog heh!