The People’s Parliament unveils its new initiative for the coming General Election. LoyarBurok in July announced its Voter Education Campaign. Scandal upon scandal, tyranny heaped upon injustice, sometimes stupidity so stupendous you don’t know whether you want to laugh or cry – we say just vote! The Rakyat must join forces and vote in the reform!


The People’s Parliament

22 August 2010

DN BN People's Parliament

Of the more than 8 million who voted at the last General Election, more than half voted for change.

A rejection of communal-based politics in favour of a more transparent, accountable, honest and representative governance of the country.

Barisan Nasional (BN), courtesy of our “first past the post” electoral system, was returned to form the federal government, albeit without their usual two-thirds majority.

And DAP, PAS and PKR, now collectively referred to as Pakatan Rakyat (PR), took the stewardship of 5 state governments.

Many in civil society had hoped that political parties on both sides of the divide would take the cue from the sentiments registered by voters at the last poll, to bring about the desired changes.

BN, it was hoped, would begin a process to reform the institutions of governance of the nation, with more transparency and accountability, and a restoration of public confidence in the various institutions of state.

We had also hoped that PR, in their management of the 5 state governments, would begin to show itself as a viable alternative to BN, if mandated to form the federal government at the next general elections.

Two years on, those hopes of the rakyat seem a long way off from being realised.

The wresting of power in Perak by BN was the first clear indicator that BN was not minded to respect the wishes and the choice of the rakyat.

The decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court in relation to the Perak controversy reflect the extent to which the superior courts have become the tools of the Executive rather than the last bastion of the citizen to seek justice.

That no further action has followed upon the recommendations of the V.K Lingam Royal Commission of Inquiry serves as damning evidence that BN has no intention of undoing the damage inflicted on the judiciary by the Mahathir administration, and returning the same to the rakyat.

The ongoing Teoh Beng Hock inquest and the Sodomy II trial reveal the extent to which the various institutions of state are being manipulated to subvert the very transparency that the rakyat now demand.

Financial scandals, both in Semenanjung and in Sabah and Sarawak, make headlines in the alternative media, yet little of the same is reported in the mainstream media.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, meanwhile, looks the other way, even as a federal minister warns that bankruptcy looms ahead for the nation.

We are a nation in distress.

Many of us are convinced that if we are ever to begin the process of rehabilitating our nation, it must begin by removing BN from federal governance come the 13th General Election.

PR, at this time, however, does not inspire much confidence that they are well and truly ready to wrest power from BN, let alone take on the task of managing our nation thereafter.

The incidences of party-hopping that facilitated the fall of the PR state government in Perak, the seemingly unsettled state of the government in Selangor, and the internal skirmishes in the three component parties give rise to serious concerns amongst many of us as to the ability of PR to take on BN come the next election, win enough seats to form the next federal government, and then retain those seats and get on with the business of effective federal governance.

For these reasons, many of us in civil society feel that it is imperative that we no longer leave the process of choosing representatives in parliament and the various state assemblies entirely to the political parties, and that the intervention of the rakyat in this regard is a matter of urgency.

Some of us have come together for deliberations on these concerns.

We feel, however, that these matters are of such importance that they warrant deliberations by the largest possible number from civil society.

If you or the organization that you represent, too, share these concerns, we want to hear from you.

E-mail me if you or your organisation wish to be a part of those deliberations.

LB: Haris is an overweight sperm passing through and waiting to return to Mothership. Follow him at the People’s Parliament and @harismibrahim on Twitter.

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My name is Haris Ibrahim. Trained in the law. Late father was Malay and my mum is Ceylonese. I am Malaysian.

12 replies on “DNBN Kuburkan BN: Pakatan Rakyat & Barisan Rakyat must join forces”

  1. Agree that the first thing is to get rid of BN. I don't think PR will solve all our problems nor is it realistic to expect it to be able to undo the accumulated damage under BN in a short period of time. The critical thing is to stem the bleeding.

    As long as PR can show that they can concentrate on their commonalities and function as a team to work towards restoring the nation, PR will be a viable alternative to the status quo.

    Even if PR forms the next government, all of the component parties must remain on their toes at all times as UMNO will be snapping at their heels. So PKR, PAS and DAP's choices can be summed up with Benjamin Franklin's quote –

    "We must hang together, gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."

    With regard to the issue of calibre of candidates, I would be interested to see what ideas have been floated to deal with this. However, given the time constraints, it will be difficult to get good candidates in time for the next GE.

    @jackass

    "That’s The problem when u let Malays be the bos…

    Chinese Should Be The Boss..

    We can Manage this country better that those Malays.."

    I just burst out laughing when I saw your response and thought how appropriate your nick was. Sorry but I couldn't help it.

  2. Why when UMNO implement HUDUD (canning of women and man for drinking liquoir)as mention in utusan malaysia MCA and Gerakan silent but when PAS mention it the BN paper frightens the non muslims about the consequence of supporting PAKATAN.

  3. That's The problem when u let Malays be the bos…

    Chinese Should Be The Boss..

    We can Manage this country better that those Malays..

  4. I agree with Anthony. Not sure just how well PR can do the job either though I believe also it may be a good thing to give them a try. Sticking with the status quo will not help anyway. The trouble is, there aren't enough sincere, hard-working, reps to go around. You need critical mass of like-minded people, too, to successfully govern a huge, complicated nation like ours with good ideas and strategies. "Complicated" because there are those who are brainwashed and want to retain their crutches, there are those who are all for justice but still subscribe to archaic laws, and then there are those who are for complete liberalisation, etc.

  5. Lets go for it. But I do have my doubts with PR. Component parties within PR coalition are having difficulty sorting out their internal problems. It is difficult to digest that they can nurture their coalition further. The irony is that they were able to do it better prior to and during GE12. It appears eah indivdual party is on their own vigourously seeking their self advancement. Looks very much akin to scenario within BN. Seriously it is time to go for the third front. Barisan Rakyat and Pakatan Rakyat it current form is doomed for failure.

    What a shame……

  6. Day in, day out, it’s just hypocrisy all over the mainstream papers. I don’t know how you guys stand it. The worse is reading that some Malaysians BUY into the frigging lies.

  7. kayman talk as if UMNO and MCA is doing fine… oops I forgot, in BN, UMNO is boss, MCA just a running dog, MIC is not even in the picture, and that to kayman is the perfect "coalition".

  8. what a complete joke! you can't even handle relationship between pas and dap, want to talk about forming government? go fly kite lah!!

  9. jackass, tell that to the Kelantan and Kedah folks and see if they agreed with you. But for BN run states… all states must listen to UMNO except Sarawak where the white hair raja is king.

  10. Danny LoHH,

    Agree with you, While in PR DAP is the boss, PAS and KEADILAN is just a running dog.

    Show them, who’s the BOSS…

  11. agreed! 50years but we are going south in terms of developments and human resources. it’s time for change! (obama’s slogan)

Comments are closed.