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.