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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Malaysian Politics

I am disappointed.

I am the type of person who favours stability over free speech in a government. Needless to say, in the March elections, I was a supporter of the Barisan Nasional, even though I was less than agreeable with their government, mainly because I was afraid of that unknown component: the Opposition's unpredictability. At that moment, my view of the Opposition's only contribution to the country was: a) Creating an unfair perception of our country as a backward pro-medieval Islam country through PAS' policies. b) Delaying Parliamentary proceedings as long as possible by indulging in slanging matches.

I do not think I have been proved wrong. 3 months on, the slanging matches are still there, the administration of all States have become much more unstable due to the Oppositions' antics, and the Opposition parties seem more interested in grabbing headlines rather than bloody getting down to WORKING.

Abdullah Badawi is a weak leader. There is no doubt about that. But trying to undermine him in every single decision only makes the country much more instable.

Protest against the reduction of the petrol subsidy, why don't you? Stupid short-sighted people. Petrol prices are going up all over the world. What did you expect the government to do? Give out free petrol? The real problem was that the subsidy has been around so long that everyone has gotten used to the (artificially) low price of black gold. "Kudos to you, if only you had done it sooner." Obviously that would not have been a very good opposition slogan, right? But it would have been the right thing to say. Trying to force Petronas to reveal their accounts are one thing, I agree that there is a sore need for transparency, but trying to get them to give you cheap oil is a bit too much to ask. At the end of the day, Petronas is a company, with its main reponsibility to its shareholders, and not the public.

What else has the opposition done? One of the fools tried to log the forest, saying it was God-given. Well, wake up sir, the world does not just belong to you and your precious State Government. God did not create this world only for humans, otherwise we would not be just one species among millions, we would have been the ONLY species.

The optimal government would be one where there is not only the Opposition and the Barisan, it would be one where ALL points of view are represented, Barisan, Opposition, and Independent alike. We need more people who are truly there to work for the people, and not for mere personal gain. It saddens me that this will probably never become reality, whether in Malaysia or anywhere in the world.

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