Friday, July 02, 2010

I beg to differ, Dato' Ariff Sabri

Dato' Ariff Sabri in his latest blog posting has this to say towards the end :

"The MCA is nothing now. It can't deliver anything with just 15 MPs and it can't deliver if it cannot marshal Chinese allegiance. So what must Najib do?

He should be thinking of cultivating the DAP. Invite them to share power. Guan Eng in Penang will want to retain Penang as long as possible. Talk to him. Guang Eng isn't enamored with Anwar Ibrahim beyond the latter's usefulness. The usefulness of Anwar lies in his ability to unite the disparate groups for a common purpose of unseating the government in power. These people have gone beyond Anwar- they have tasted power. Think about this.

Find common ground. What does the DAP want? They want good government, reject corruption, independent judiciary. They are more of the idealistic operators. Najib should give them the opportunity to apply these through the levers of power. Share power with the DAP. You stay in power at the same time. Najib must examine ideas that work. Ignore sentimentalism- MCA is no longer top dog as far as Chinese allegiance is concern. That role has been taken over by the DAP. It's the top dog brother."

More where that came from :

I am giving my opinion as someone who has seen how Gerakan as an opposition party won Penang, but later joined Barisan Nasional (much to the disappointment and possibly disgust of Dr. Tan Chee Khoon then). Any similar move by DAP (perceived as unthinkable now at a guess) will be met with strong opposition from its supporters and likely to suffer the same fate as Gerakan after a few terms running Penang. Basically, Gerakan was in name while Umno was in de facto control of Penang.

Just as PAS had brushed off overtures from Umno, DAP is likely to stick with Pakatan to push out BN from federal government. With some exceptions as seen from defections, surely the DAP leaders should be seen as very different from MCA leaders who are obviously hanging on for positions and wealth.

Now, BN seems to be on the defensive, with strong and valid criticisms over its hold on all institutions, including the Judiciary, and more recently, even the independence of Securities Commission seems suspect. Just read about Suara Keadilan's suspension of publishing permit, and earlier, even Zunar's comics are not spared from being banned! If this is not the work of people who are insecure, I don't know what is.

It just occurred to me that Tun Dr. Mahathir said people who takes legal action are cowards or something to that effect. Well, Felda has taken legal action against Suara Keadilan for describing it as bankrupt, instead of countering the accusations to prove otherwise.
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