Friday, May 15, 2009

A People-Friendly Second Best Solution

An open letter by blogger Nehemiah to the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional:

The present political stalemate in Perak can only be resolved with creative, new solutions which are rakyat friendly. Otherwise, the reluctance by one of you (Najib) to agree to fresh elections will see the issue go back and forth between the courts and counter appeals, etc.

Barring a fresh election, both your parties should work together (or cooperate if you like) to prove to Perakians that the people's welfare is a HIGHER priority than partisanship.

The rakyat should and is the final employer assessing which candidate to employ.

But if two rival candidates refuse to work together, the employer(rakyat) should give them a choice: either you cooperate for my benefit or you both don't get the job. In such a stalemate, Perakians can afford to bear the loss of being ungoverned and wait for the next GE to decide. Perhaps by then, both parties will come to their senses or there will be a third party that can offer better governance.

Of course, the ideal solution is for snap elections to be held but that option is currently a roadblock for BN as it would be quite certain to lose.

And please, in the talks between both of your alliances, do not reject outright any proposals for power-sharing if it is the second best solution to serve the people's interests.

The whole of Malaysia and the world is watching how you both navigate the state out of this mess with a new creative solution that is approved by Perakians. Conduct Internet polls or surveys among the people to get feedback on the second best solution. Get the media/bloggers involved as an objective third party.

As Deng Hsiao Peng once said, it does not matter that the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. Looking at recent developments (notwithstanding the national shame of the violent removal of the Speaker Sivakumar on 7 May), both of your parties seem to be more concerned about who gets to be called the official MB and occuplying the state secretariat than in catching real mice.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Now let's talk about solutions. I am sure you have read about certain racial groups who wants the word "keling" removed from our dictionary.

How to solve this problem?

I hope you have heard of the card game played mainly by Malays called "Terup Keling" extremely popular in the 60s and 70's. Let us organize a City/State/National level competition and I can bet you my last ringit that the word "Keling" will never again be an issue.

Wanna try?

sallam,
D.Zin

PS: Reach your blog via Zaid Ibrahim's blog and I mostly agree with what you have written there.

Jonas Lee said...

D Zin,

Thanks for visiting my blog. I too was once guilty of unconscious racial steoreotyping although I am not familiar with the root word and usage of "keling". (It was supposed to be derogatory in my school)

I remember 20 years ago my Chindian friend once told me that the Chinese are known to be greedy, the Malays lazy and the Indians untrustworthy.

Reading the blogs these days by various citizens from all three races, I think these racial myths can be put to rest.

Regards

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