Today is March 8, two years since the electorate handed down its verdict in favour of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, in five states.
In these two years, the Pakatan Rakyat-led state governments have done nothing right if reports in the mainstream media are any yardstick.
While the coalition parties embraced their five states, their journey since has been nothing short of a miracle as incident after incident tested their temerity, integrity and sustainability.
Mind you, the difficulties were rarely reflective of Pakatan’s inabilty to fulfil the trust placed by the voters in their stewardship.
Mostly they were wounds afflicted by Umno-BN shrapnels and later former Umno members, who had jumped ship to cash in on the reformasi fever and have now returned “home” to spew venom against Pakatan.
Two years on, BN still doesn't accept the reality that on March 8, 2008, the people had rejected its politics and administration.
Today, the corridors of power that once spewed anger are filled with fear.
After more than 50 years in power, looming larger than life is the threat of BN becoming non-existent.
Compared to the controversy-riddled Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, his strive-ridden BN partners, and corrupt BN states, Pakatan is looking good.
Kelantan has remained firm on its oil royalty claims under the 1974 agreement with Petronas, embattled Penang and Selangor are on course with their CAT (Competency, Accountability, Transparency) administration policy and the Auditor-General’s report has given the thumbs-up for the opposition states for the second year running!
While lauding the sound policies resulting in fair and transparent administration and higher tax yields in the Pakatan states, it has slammed the BN-led state governments which have failed to increase their revenue, and contain mismanagement and abuse of power at the grassroots level. The report also criticised the BN-led states for accumulating more debts.
Simply put, the Pakatan-led governments came through as better and firmer administrators than the BN-managed ones.
The report has reinforced fear that the longer Pakatan rules the more the rakyat will swing away from BN.
Umno is fully aware that this progress, if not curtailed, will kill BN in the next general election.
Thus, the only way to safeguard its future is to tear apart the Pakatan coalition and meddle with the minds in PKR, its weakest link, with its mostly former Umno dissidents.
It helps tremendously that Umno and BN partners own the mainstream media.
The truth is, Pakatan Rakyat’s arrival on the political front is a much welcome respite for millions of disillusioned Malaysians, inspired by the change that saw Barrack Obama take his seat as the first black American president.
So, while the mighty BN and its lieutenants continue to attempt to slay the fledging Pakatan coalition, the people are quietly watching and reading into BN’s fear.
Deputy PAS president Datuk Dr Mahfuz Omar, perhaps, best summed it up yesterday, after 50 police and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) personnel stormed a Pakatan ceramah, when he said:
“We must thank the police and the FRU for raiding Pakatan ceramahs. The more often they do this the better for us… the people see, and they will hate them more!”
courtesy of FreeMalaysiaToday
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