Bad Boys

April 14, 2010⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

This article previously appeared in The Malaysian Insider.

The schoolchildren were excited and laughing out loud in Parliament yesterday. I don’t blame them because the Dewan Rakyat proceedings took a nasty turn yesterday.

The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) MPs disrupted the proceedings in the Parliament by manipulating procedures of the sitting to attempt to refer the Pasir Salak MP to the Privileges Committee for a fair remark.

They delayed debates by frequently demanding unnecessary votes by poll which was won by Barisan Nasional (BN) with a large margin. Their actions just wasted time and prevented key legislation from being approved.

Fact is, they were more preoccupied on scoring points by manipulating House procedures than to debate and approve important legislation.

Their juvenile behaviour in Parliament this week has convinced me that the public will end up disappointed if they have decided to vote for PR at the next General Election.

You see, the PR MPs like to use phrases like “two party system” and “First World Parliament” and “good governance” liberally in their speeches in Parliament. Their strategy is to convince the public that they are better at governing the country than BN.

In reality, they have failed to develop Kelantan and Kedah where they rule. They have not been able to build on the economic foundation laid by the previous BN governments in Selangor and Penang.

They even lost power in Terengganu where they were swept into power by a landslide after one term.

So the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Just look at the facts. After PR’s March 2008 “political tsunami”, which is another term they love to use to describe an unexpected outcome, their MPs swept into Parliament acting like they had just taken power. They then confidently proclaimed September 16, 2008 as the actual date they would take power.

Later the public found out that they had actually resorted to bribery to entice BN MP’s to defect, an act inconsistent with their declared principles.

This is not a good example of “good governance”.

After the botched takeover attempt , they lost the their cool and started misbehaving and became unruly in Parliament. Their “third world” parliamentary behaviour was later revealed to the public after BN took power in Perak as a result of their failure to hold their coalition together.

Their juvenile behaviour and lack of progress in the states they rule must have annoyed the public as recent opinion polls indicate reduced support for them.

Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s trial for sodomy has tested the nerves and shaken the confidence of his coalition members.

PR fears the loss of Anwar as the leader of their coalition as they have lesser alternatives if he were found guilty. The other options within the coalition do not have his stature to hold the coalition together, hence the need to go on the offensive.

PR also fears that its lead partner PKR, which Anwar leads, may in reality have been relegated to its most junior partner today as it can no longer command the support from a third of its MPs.

They are worried about losing momentum and that the attractive mask that PR has worn since March 2008 may have finally been ripped off to reveal its true image to the public.

They are worried that the public will see that PR is actually a mask for the racially extreme DAP and the religious fundamentalist PAS with PKR as its puppet in a sock.

PR will see their hopes of gaining power disappear when the public is finally forced to discard their emotions and actually vote with their heads.

They are worried that they will have to pull themselves up again and start all over again in their quest to win power. Their current deplorable behaviour in the Dewan Rakyat just confirms it.

And the schoolchildren in the public gallery yesterday will remember.

And take the lesson home. And tell their parents about the bad boys in Parliament who can only chant “Umno APCO, Umno APCO”.

If that is what PR is all about, the people who voted for them better think again.