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Today, we have sent copies of THE PEOPLES' VOICE and THE PEOPLES' DECLARATION in both English and Bahasa Malaysia to all the 20 or so political parties that will be contesting the coming general election. It is up to them whether to reject or accept what we have demanded. But if they choose to reject it then they would have to explain why because our demands are legitimate and very credible. 
NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin
It is now official. The Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) will be contesting only 60 Parliament seats. Malaysia Today has been saying this for some time now but it appears this figure of 60 is not of much significance to most readers who have chosen to remain emotional about the Islamic State issue even before they start reading what we have to say. Let us see if the anti-Islam crowd continues to whack PAS. PAS is contesting only 60 out of 222 seats. But PAS will need to win at least 149 seats to command a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Only with this two-thirds majority or 149 seats can PAS amend the Federal Constitution of Malaysia and turn Malaysia into an Islamic State. In the first place, can PAS even win all the 60 seats it is contesting? At best, it can win only 45 seats. Chances are, though, it will be more like 30 seats, half of what it contests. And that too if the opposition is united and has got its act together. If not, then expect PAS to win less than 20 seats. The bottom line is, PAS cannot turn Malaysia into an Islamic State. Only Umno can because Barisan Naisonal controls more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament and Umno decides what Barisan Nasional does. Umno is Barisan Nasional and Barisan Nasional is Umno. There are no two ways about it. And the Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Dayak, etc., running dogs will wag their tails and lick the hands of their Umno masters like how all good running dogs should behave. The trouble is, Malaysians consider it their right to speak out. Granted, it is the right of every citizen to express themselves. And it is also the right of every citizen to say something stupid and make fools of themselves. Even Ministers like Nazri and Zam enjoy this right and they certainly exercise this right to the hilt. The only problem is, only we think Nazri and Zam are incoherent and fools to boot. They, on the other hand, imagine themselves as extremely clever in being able to coin 'witty' statements that no others in this world can come up with. Opposition leaders are not exempted from this syndrome either. This, I normally call the 'if you are so clever then how come I am sitting here instead of you' syndrome. For example, long before the 2004 general election, we already told the opposition leaders -- once during a two-day convention in Melaka -- that the hate-Mahathir 'unity' would be very dangerous to hang on to. It is not too bad for PAS. PAS is united by love; love for Islam. So those who love Islam would unite under the banner of PAS. DAP and PKR, however, are united by hate. DAP gets its support from the Chinese who hate the Malays-Islam while PKR gets it support predominantly from Malays who hate Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. I suppose DAP can always claim that there would be at least some Chinese who will always hate the Malays or Islam, so they will always be assured of winning a spattering of seats. But what if Tun Dr Mahathir suddenly resigns and hands the reins of power to his deputy? Would PKR still be able to harness the hate-Mahathir support seeing that Mahathir is no longer in office? Come hell or high-water, PAS will always get some level of support as long as there is a religion called Islam still around. But there will not always be a man called Mahathir sitting in the chair of Prime Minister. PKR, therefore, has to build its support not on hate, but just like PAS, on love. But what love factor can PKR start promoting to transform their united-by-hate support into united-by-love? This was the problem for PKR just like what DAP would face if the Chinese suddenly stop hating the Malays and started hugging and kissing their fellow-Malaysians and call them brother. PKR was advised to look for a new hate factor and to start shifting the focus away from Mahathir over to this new hate factor. Maybe the target should not be personalities but issues. Stop asking people to hate the person named Mahathir but instead hate the system that is not right. Personalities can come and go but at least if the system has not changed then you would not lose your supporters. But the 'if you are so clever then how come I am sitting here instead of you' group would not listen. Speech after speech and statement after statement were targeted towards Mahathir. It was not a 'what we can do for the country' campaign but a 'Mahathir is an ass-hole' campaign. The voters were tired of hearing what is wrong with this country and with the leaders who are running it. They know what is wrong. They do not need the opposition to tell them what is wrong. What they wanted to know is what the opposition was going to do about setting things rights. But, first of all, do we even have an opposition? The opposition is not united. They call themselves Barisan Alternatif (Alternative Front) but there is no 'front'. It is a collection of rag-tag political parties, some mosquito parties, that are always squabbling, refuse to sit at the same table, and have no common name, symbol or agenda. Where is the one party? Where is the one name? Where is the one flag? Where is the one symbol? Where is the one voice? All these were non-existent. In fact, most times the different opposition parties made conflicting statements and rebutted each other rather than rebut the ruling coalition. The opposition was beginning to look like a joke but it was nowhere near funny. These are not new issues though. As far back as 1999 the voters had already indicated that they wanted change. But they were not prepared to go for change just for the sake of change. It has to be based on credible change. They wanted to see a united opposition. And they wanted proof that the opposition is united by seeing a common name, a common symbol, a common election manifesto, and so on. But PKR, then PKN, was formed in April and the general election was called barely a few months after that. There was not enough time for the voters to familiarise themselves with a common symbol or common name. Even Barisan Nasional needed three years for the voters to get used to the new name and the new dacing symbol from the old Alliance Party and kapal layar symbol. And Barisan Nasional was the party in power, mind you. What more for the opposition which does not have any air time on TV? So each party would have to contest under its own name and symbol. Nevertheless, they would at least present a common or joint election manifesto. This would give some resemblance of opposition unity. In time, a common name and symbol could be created and the voters would then be able to choose between two legitimate coalition parties, one in government and the other in the opposition aisle. But that would have to be something for the next election. For the 1999 election the voters would have to be contented with a loose coalition called Barisan Alternatif while each party would contest under its own name and symbol. But after the 1999 general election the loose opposition coalition did not get formalised. In fact, it broke up when PAS launched the Islamic State Document (ISD) and DAP left the opposition coalition in a huff. Instead of advancing, the opposition was retreating. And the joint election manifesto that the opposition presented to the voters was placed on the shelf to gather dust. It was now insignificant. Yes, it was a beautiful piece of work. But it was of no use to an opposition that not only did not get into office but has taken its own life in an act of hara kiri. The opposition thought it was better off divorced than married. It won two states in 1999. It denied Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the Kedah State Assembly. And it had 42 seats in Parliament. In 2004, this entire scenario was reversed. The voters punished the opposition for its arrogance. The opposition underestimated the voters and paid for it dearly. Finally, the rakyat proved that they are the boss and the voters demonstrated this by giving the opposition a trouncing. Yes, the 'if you are so clever then how come I am sitting here instead of you' group are not so clever after all. When the voters spoke they would not listen. They thought they were smarter than the voters. They thought as long as the voters hated those who walk in the corridors of power this would be enough. Let us unite because of hate, hate for the government. And if you hate the government then kick them out and vote us into office instead. But it is not that easy. The voters' support does not come cheap. It comes with a price. And the price you pay is: we play by our rules, not by yours. This time around the voters are going to be even more demanding. The voters no longer care about political parties. All political parties are fakes. The voters no longer trust politicians. All politicians are slimeballs and scumbags. The voters want to know only one thing. If we vote for you what do we get? What's in it for us? If we benefit, then we will vote for you. If not, then go to hell. Call us selfish, so what? It is our vote and we can afford to be selfish. The voters have listened to promises before in 1999 and 2004 and voted based on these promises. In 1999, they voted opposition on the promise of the birth of a new opposition front and probably the emergence of a two-party system in Malaysia. After the election these promises turned to dust. In 2004 they voted ruling party on the promise of a new deal and the emergence of a new post-Mahathir era of prosperity, tolerance, democracy, and all the crap. The opposition did not deliver after the 1999 general election and neither did the ruling party after the 2004 election. The voters no longer trust politicians. The voters no longer want the political parties to make promises on what they are going to do if we vote them into office. The voters now want to to decide how this country is going to be run and they will extract commitments from those running for office that the voters' wishes would be adhered to. Malaysia Today, together with various personalities from civil society movements, has come out with two documents called THE PEOPLES' VOICE and THE PEOPLES' DECLARATION. The PDF versions of these documents can be downloaded at the following links. 1a) PEOPLES' VOICE (PDF IN ENGLISH) 1b) PEOPLES' DECLARATION (PDF IN ENGLISH) 2) DEKLARASI RAKYAT (PDF IN BAHASA MALAYSIA) 3) PEOPLES' DECLARATION (PDF IN CHINESE) Download these documents and print them out and send them to the aspirants who will be contesting in your constituency. Tell them we will vote for them subject to their endorsement of these documents. Tell them we want them to become what they are supposed to be, Wakil Rakyat. Wakil Rakyat means the peoples' representative. They are called Wakil Rakyat because they represent us. And if they represent us then this means that we, the people, are the boss. The political parties on both sides of the political divide can choose to ignore us. They can reject our demands if they so wish. But they do so at their own peril and at the risk of getting rejected by us. It no longer matters from which political party our Wakil Rakyat comes from. Be they ruling party or opposition party we don't really care. The only thing we care about is that these people we elect into office understand that they sit in office at our pleasure and to do our bidding. And what pleases us is that they run the country and bring about changes and transformation according to what we have laid out in THE PEOPLES' VOICE and THE PEOPLES' DECLARATION. In closing, I would like to inform all our readers that, today, we have sent copies of THE PEOPLES' VOICE and THE PEOPLES' DECLARATION in both English and Bahasa Malaysia to all the 20 or so political parties that will be contesting the coming general election. It is up to them whether to reject or accept what we have demanded. But if they choose to reject it then they would have to explain why because our demands are legitimate and very credible. There is nothing we have demanded that should not be demanded. And we have not demanded what we do not deserve. We have only demanded what is our right and what has been guaranteed in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia that was the basis of how we gained Merdeka on 31 August 1957. HIDUP RAKYAT! LONG LIVE THE RAKYAT! THE PEOPLE ARE THE BOSS!
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the fork-tongued maha-hypocrite will not live forever in this world. but WE still need to face and wrangle with his legacies.
WE are united by a love and yearning for JUSTICE.
DAP is NOT anti-islam or anti-malay, they are about anti-injustice, pro-meritocracy. we'll see wot anwar can deliver ... justice- and impartiality-wise.