Friday, September 12

Is BN becoming irrelevant?

Malaysians are clearly divided on the question whether the Barisan Nasional (National Front) is becoming irrelevant or not. For BN supporters, they believe that the BN is here to stay, and if it can sustain past political upheavals for the last 51 years, there is no reason why it cannot survive the present day threats. It may have a setback now due to, what is termed as, “political tsunami”, but that is only temporary. Following its poor showing in the March election, they say the BN has begun to rejuvenate itself.

But BN’s political enemies hold the view that the 14-member BN is crumbling down sooner or later. It may not lose its political power by 16 September 2008. But certainly the BN is going to suffer come next election and they base their prediction on the following factors:-

  • UMNO is becoming too racist in order to perpetuate the “Ketuanan Melayu” driving away Chinese and Indians to Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance);

  • weak leadership in UMNO resulting in internal bickering and power struggle;

  • constant harassment by former prime minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on the current leadership;

  • the younger voters in the country prefer multi-racial parties like Keadilan, as the March 2008 election and the Permatang Pauh by-election indicate and the number of young voters increases by 400,000 each year;

  • MCA, MIC and Gerakan have been trounced in the election as they are unable to fight for their respective communities, and many of their members are turning to Keadilan;

  • the Anwar Ibrahim factor and his exposure of rampant corruption in UMNO and BN.

Although in Sarawak, the State BN seems to be intact. But will the fall of the federal BN have tsunamic effects on the State when the next election comes? Definitely the State BN will be affected. But my main concern is how are we Dayaks going to fare? Are we going to continue playing a peripheral role? Or are we going to stick with Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and BN for better or for worse?

The way I see it, we cannot put all our eggs in SPDP nor PRS baskets. As these two are too much “barisanised”, they expect to sink and swim together with other BN component parties. They are at the behest of PBB. Certainly we do not want this.

Before we are going to be swallowed by the tsunami waves, we must think of a way NOW in order to save our community. One way is perhaps to revamp SNAP. The other is to join Keadilan en masse and once inside we must find our own leader so that we will be cohesive, strong and be able to articulate our interests.

Please comment and give your views.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

what is the real sindrom with the so-called dayaks parties?

1. afraid with cm?

2. afraid losing power, money? (when against cm)

3. in denial the dayaks suffered badly in the current economy crisis?


i do believe the best option for dayaks parties is to be the 3rd coalition where be the check and balance between gov and opposition in the federal level and be the gov in state level. this can mantain the bargaining power and as well any coalition that in power at federal level will take our plights seriously, not granted

Anonymous said...

agree with 'free Swak'. Perhaps, we should play it according to our tune too..m'sian politics is too much peninsular-centric. Too much racial based issues and sadly and I hope the 'disease' won't spread to our so much beloved harmonious Sarawak. Or, why not the Borneo side strike the balance by creating another coalition so that our brethren from West Side do not 'ngindik-ngindik' us, the East Side...like what SAPP just did yesterday; declared 8 points on the path to Sabah autonomous state after quitting BN..and remind the West Side that we are not merely for exhibitions just like those monkeys in the zoo.I'm pessimistic on the idea of single party governance as we have learned from the follies of UMNO and BN all these while. I prefer an 'alloy' type of govt. Thus, the 'metal' would be made into a 'stronger steel', though it has to through a rigorous process.

NEIL said...

I think its about time we have a multi- racial party consistin of all the races in sarawak ONLY.