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BN'S POLITICAL HEGEMONY ! DENY TWO THIRDS MAJORITY !! |
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DAP + PAS = ISLAMIC STATE ???
Many DAP supporters have warned that the DAP is taking too great a political risk in co-operating with PAS in the coming general elections. There are even traditional DAP voters, who had consistently given their votes to the DAP in every general election in the past, who had said that they would not vote the Rocket this time because of DAP's co-operation with PAS, although they will not vote for the Barisan Nasional either.
The issue of DAP's co-operation with PAS is one of the "trump cards" which the Barisan Nasional component parties, in particular MCA and Gerakan, are using to influence and mislead the voters into rejecting DAP and vote Barisan Nasional. The ground being that the DAP had compromised the principle and stand for a secular state and that Lim Kit Siang has become an agent of Nik Aziz and a spokesman of PAS for the establishment of an Islamic State.
The Islamic State issue is probably the most potent of the four MCA / Gerakan "trump cards" -- the other three being the threat of May 13 and racial unrest; the end of economic recovery, development and prosperity; and the need to save Mahathir in the next general elections.
If DAP were a selfish political party, concerned only with what is best for the DAP, there would be a very strong case for the DAP to go it alone and not enter into an understanding with the other Opposition parties in the coming elections.
Although the DAP suffered its worst electoral defeat in the 1995 general elections, securing only nine Parliamentary and eleven State Assembly seats as compared to the previous 20 Parliamentary and 44 State Assembly seats, the DAP successes in the Bagan and Teluk Intan by-elections show that the DAP's prospects in the next general elections are good, with the chance of DAP achieveing its best electoral result in party history.
Bagan Victory and Teluk Intan Miracle
In the Bagan by-election on Sept. 9, 1995, DAP not only retained the seat, but won with a thumping 11,802-vote majority which was 100 times the 118-vote majority DAP secured in the general elections less than five months earlier.
Twenty months later, on May 17, 1997, DAP created another political earthquake in the Teluk Intan by-election. Teluk Intan was an invincible Barisan Nasional seat -- a seat which Barisan Nasional leaders were convinced that the Barisan could not lose and the DAP could not win. In the 1995 general elections, the Gerakan candidate romped home with a majority of 13,968 votes.
However, in the by-election, the people of Teluk Intan rose to the DAP's call to "Write History, Create Miracle" to send a clear message to the Barisan Nasional Government, and they not only wiped out the 13,968-vote majority of the Barisan, but DAP won with a 2,916-vote majority -- a stunning turn around of 16,884 votes!
If the Teluk Intan by-election "wind" blows throughout the nation in the next general elections, at least 27 Barisan Nasional MPs, including five ministers and four deputy ministers will fall.
The Barisan Nasional leaders, particularly from MCA and Gerakan, had cause to be very worried about their party's election prospects, especially as the ensuing months unvailed even greater public outage and alienation, whether at the gross injustice of the Lim Guan Eng case; the government incompetence and negligence in the mishandling of the Nipah Virus Calamity causing 105 unnecessary and avoidable human deaths, ruining the RM3 billion pig-rearing industry and the refusal of the Government to give fair compensation to the one million pigs destroyed; the abuses of power, lack of accountability and transparency whether in the police trigger-happy killing of the innocents, misuse of public funds for the bail-out of selected banks and companies, and most notable of all, the Anwar Ibrahim case.
There is no doubt that until 13 months ago in August last year, MCA and Gerakan leaders were very worried -- for they expected to be taught a very harsh lesson by their electorates in the next elections. Today, however, MCA and Gerakan leaders are brimming with confidence, and Liong Sik could even publicly declare in Bukit Mertajam in Sept 1999 that 99 per cent of the Chinese would vote for the Barisan Nasional in the next elections!
What happened in the past 13 months to create such a dramatic reversal of the expectations of the MCA and Gerakan leaders about their prospect in the next election?
Paradoxically, it is because of the Anwar phenomenon which has fuelled a groundswell of political awakening in the country, and most significantly in the Malay society, of the need for political change to restore justice, freedom, democracy, and good governance in Malaysia.
MCA / Gerakan 4 Trump Cards
The subsequent political developments, including the opposition co-operation of DAP, PAS, KeADILan and PRM, gave the Barisan Nasional, and in particular the MCA and Gerakan, the opportunity to use their "trump cards" to influence, mislead and even panic the Chinese voters to support the Barisan Nasional.
If a general election is free, fair and clean, the DAP's cooperation with PAS should not become a major issue, for the following reasons:
But general elections in Malaysia are not free, fair and clean. And what's worse, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has already served notice that the next elections will be the "dirtiest" in history.
Bear in mind the 1990 general elections' dirty election scam where Malay voters were convinced (at least on polling day) that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, who was then President of Semangat 46, had sold out the Malay race and betrayed Islam on the spurrious ground that he had worn a Kadazan tengkolok bearing a Christian cross. Similarly, this time round MCA and Gerakan would be doing their utmost to exploit their top "trump card" to mislead the people into believing that the DAP had teamed up with PAS to bring about an Islamic State.
If the people fall for the MCA and Gerakan's "trump cards", as believing that the DAP is now supporting the Islamic State objective of PAS, the DAP will not only fail to achieve the best electoral result in the party's 33-year history, the DAP may suffer an even worse defeat than in 1995 general elections and end up with only nine Parliamentary seats !
Why then is the DAP taking on such great political risk with so little extra political gain? Why hope to win another five Parliamentary seats if this involves the risk of doing worse than the 1995 general election result, or even being wiped out altogether?
DAP Takes Great Risk If DAP were only interested in its own selfish party interests, the DAP would probably go it alone. But the DAP is prepared to take great political risks, in co-operating with PAS and other Opposition parties, to achieve a paradigm shift in Malaysian politics in the next elections, to break the Barisan Nasional political hegemony by denying and ending the Barisan's unbroken two-thirds Parliamentary majority in the past 42 years.
In the present political scenario, no single opposition party can hope to break the Barisan's political hegemony and deny its two-thirds Parliamentary majority. Not DAP, not PAS, nor KeADILan. Alone!
It is only when all the Oppostion parties work together in a united front that the possibility of breaking the Barisan Nasional political hegemony by ending its two-thirds Parliamentary majority becomes distinct and achievable!
The breaking of the Barisan Nasional political hegemony and the ending of its uninterrupted two-thirds Parliamentary majority will create a new political culture, to allow for the restoration of justice, freedom, democracy and good governance, providing the basis for all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, to come together to create a new Malaysia.
Most important of all, the ending of the Barisan Nasional's unbroken two-thirds Parliamentary majority would serve as a notice by the voters of Malaysia that if there is no change for the better in the Barisan Nasional's system of governance, then in the subsequent general elections, be it in 2004 or 2005, they reserve the right to vote the Barisan Nasional out of power!
DEBUNK THE MCA / GERAKAN "ISLAMIC STATE" TRUMP CARD
to Achieve a Paradigm Shift in Malaysian Politics
Published by : DAP Malaysia
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BN'S POLITICAL HEGEMONY ! DENY TWO THIRDS MAJORITY !! |
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| Ngeh Koo Ham | DAP Perak Chairman |
| M. Kula Segaran | MP for Teluk Intan, DAP National Vice Chairman |
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