yeah...its Malaysia's 12Th election...5o years after nationhood! For the 1st time , the Barisan National have been denied their 2/3 majority in the Parliament. 5 seats went under the opposition coalition ( PKR , DAP and PAS) which is Penang , Selangor , Kedah , Perak and kelantan . This is history in the making!!!
1st of all , i would like to take my stand that i am neither pro opposition or pro government. I am writing for the sake that i want to remember this historic moment.
I would like to quote ambiga sreenivasant (Bar council president) which she highlighted the fact that the election result reflects the political maturity of Malaysia after 50 years. She meant that it is purely norm to the government to lead by simple majority and we set a very high bar for Barisan National to win 2/3 of Parliament. She definitely got a point there. So, to all barisan national hardcore supporters and Mr.Prime Minister , embrace this dis mall performance as an indicator of how Malaysia has matured and its no longer viable to Barisan to lead by abnormal winning after each election. This 12th election produce the best formula on how the parliment should consist in the future , 82 seats for the opposition and 140 seats for the Barisan Government. The barisan could form government without much hassle and the oppostion is well represented . Here , posses a question of a shadow government
In terms of state government , Penang is now being led by a DAP chief minister with a prominent DAP-PKR government in penang . Kedah and Kelantan on the other hand remains PAS's fort. And Selangor is led by PKR menteri besar, dato khalid , former CEO of Guthrie.
Perak on the hand would be lead by a PAS menteri besar , although PAS own the least seat in the coalition. This is because Perak and Selangor constitution demand the menteri besar must be a malay and in the case of Perak, Raja Nazrin choice to have a PAS menteri Besar. Intially , DAP did not respond well to this( a PAS MB) and PKR were also was not satisfied because PKR got the least amount of state seats.
This is definately history in the making...................................
But , what significant does it make with opposition winning 80 seats and deniying Barisan 2/3 ???
Under the constitution , in order to pass the law , we only need a simple majority , so this means that Barisan will still get what it wants. The fact that was pointed out by Prof. Shad Al- Faruqi ( Head of Law UiTM) that passing law in the parliment is not as efficient as it suppose to be. We do not discuss the bills that meant to be passed , debates lack in substance . He also pointed out the Dewan Negara rarely debate the bills after it is passed by Dewan Rakyat. More that 2/3 of the senators are appointed by the government. So, the fact remains that OUR PARLIMENT LEGITIMATE AND NOT LEGISTATE LAWS. The parliment does not even have its own drafts man. I mention this to Ms. Ambiga, and she point out that though government will have its own way to pass bills , the opposition being opposition will certainly bring up issues and argue will the respective ministry. Eventually the RAKYAT will get to know , the Barisan credibility will be put to test in the next election. Prof Shad Faruqi pointed out that the parliament needed to be reform in order to be more effective , he also suggest that parlimentarians go through some form of training.
What are factors leading to Barisan's Dissmal performance in the 12th general election. I would like to quote tuanku Aziz on this matter ; Barisan's dismall performance due to Premier Abdullah being a rethoric person , he does not exactly turn words into action . A very good example , Abdullah pledge to fight corruption , but he did make any effort in making the Anti Corruption Agency an independent body with its own authority to bring corrupt inviduals to the face of justice. Abdullh should have declared ACA as commission , an independent body with high degree of authority. "It seems the government have got its own personel agenda in ACA and are happy with his performance",Tunku Aziz(former ethics advisor) .
after few weeks not updating this draft , i would like to say that i preety much forgoten what i wanted to write in the first place, lost my sense of direction........
ok , perak got new PAS MB and DAP got the 6 out of 10 exco seat , and 2 for keadilan and 2 for PAS. selangor appointed teresa kok as senior exco member ( equivalent as timb menteri besar) . Perlis regine appointed new MB without the endorsement of Pak LAH( he later agreed to it) . Terenganu Regent appointed his own choice as Menteri Besar ( pak lah having force to meet with the Agong regarding this matter). I personally do not agree with the Terenganu Regent choice because the New MB is not as charismatic as the one endorse by Pak LAh.
And anwar ibrahim is being published as the cover for Newsweek March 2008 edition . he is now the de facto leader of the parti keadilan rakyat ( his wife is the Malaysia opposition leader ). The grapevine is that his wife will make way for him in April by resigning as the Permatang Pauh MP thus paving way for by election. If she play the cards right , Anwar is set to become the Ketua Pembangkang Malaysia by end of June. And with the Barisan Rakyat ( PKR-DAP-PAS ) winning huge percentage of parliment seats , the opposition under Anwar might pave way for Malaysia's very own Shadow government( like the ones in UK and Aussie). Shadow government is not a new concept and has being used in Countries like UK and Aussie. it is an unofficiall line up of ministers among the opposition which will effectively evaluate policies by the government of Malaysia. Perhaps Anwar could give us a better understanding on the viability of Barisan's policy , which will increase preasure on BN to come with practical policies.
Speaking of cabinet , Pak LAh recently announce his new line up. A much Smaller cabinet with lot of radical changes. it do bring a better sense of integrity.... Pak lah Have droped Rafidah Aziz , the cabinet now have a new indian minister, dato subramaniam( after 20 years of Samy Vellu) , mantain the charismatic Azalina , appointed Sharizat as his advisor with ministerial status(though she lost the pantai parliment to anwar's daughter ) and appointed the 1st chinese lady as minister(family and women affair) . he also merge internal securities and home affairs ministry as home minister ( syed alba). PAk LAh also stress that the next four years would be implementation year , that he will stress on implementation of the super-mega projects that he launched last term.
I do want to stress that barisan's so called dismal performance is not entirely his fault , just that his approach was not right and the people simply wanted a better opposition in the parliment . Pak LAh , in a way did encourage higher level of freedom of speech , better press. Some say that , Pak LAh was influence by the wrong advisors ; the Barisan Election campaign for once did make use a lot of television airtime and press space( this acctually irritated the RaKyaT ) . Anyway let by gones be gones , it is about time that we all mature , not only in terms of political but also on how to accept defeat.
Lets give Pak Lah our outmost support because I do believe that He IS a NOBLE man with THE NOBLE INTENTION TO SERVE THE COUNTRY AS BEST AS POSSIBLE( through politics ). He deserve this 2nd chance ........i really think that he really want to make a difference.
Anyway , i would like to say that the public forum on palimentary reforms organizes by taylorz law school and chaired by Ms. Ambiga Sreenivasan and attended by panelist such as Tuanku Aziz ( former UN advisor on integrity ) , Prof Shad Saleem Faruqi( uitm law prof) , Prof Leopold( uni. Reading head of law school) has been a great source of reference and insipered me to write this piece.
THis piece of my thought is not anti establishment in nature and neither i am like those blogger whom mock the government under the name of blogging!!!
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