A take on ABU

My writing today will be in reference to or rather an inspiration by RPK’s article called Imagine located here: http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/no-holds-barred/47219-imagine. Before I move on, I would like to place a disclaimer that this article is based on my views and I do not in any way have the experience that RPK has and this is not a reply or a challenge to it. My views are typically from a layman’s point of view. I have rarely commented on Malaysia Today because some would just refuse to agree to disagree and would take the topic totally off tangent. Today, I am willing to take the risk and be criticized or challenged on my blog but please let it be in a civilized manner.

In RPK’s article, he mentioned that Anything But UMNO (ABU) campaign is questionable because it speaks about voting in PR or I believe even independent candidates blindly without having to consider if the candidate does a good job or what they preach is pure hogwash. RPK also mentioned that he supports Anything But Corruption (ABC) which is a good point however, if there is corruption in a ruling government how do we support ABC? It will be a never ending battle because there is no guarantee that there will be no corruption. The candidate may be clean but what about the policies and ideologies of the ruling government which will be endured by the general population. How would we be able to make sure that we have good policies which are aligned to the rakyat’s benefit? Can the candidates go against the central working committee (CWC) If they are not happy with the policies? I am not saying corruption is fine; it is not but, it is punishable so find the culprits and put them away. Policies and new acts that burden the rakyat is what we need to be worried about because once passed, we the people have to deal with it.

The ABU campaign is looking beyond corruption in my honest opinion. It looks at the governance of the opposition or whichever non-BN candidate that will be contesting in the next GE. There were also comments from other bloggers who said if PR takes over then they will do whatever it takes to win the next GE as well. I honestly think that if PR does a bad job, it will be easier to kick them out because of their area of focus. Their focus when they take over will be to try and stick to their promises (they need to impress the people) and 5 years isn’t a long time to have those policies implemented let alone purge some of the archaic laws. It is only after those 5 years and beyond if they are still in power is when we have to be extremely critical of their moves and make sure they do not get complacent.

This is just something that came to mind when I read RPK’s article and as I have mentioned before, I am not challenging anyone but I do welcome your point of view. 

I also can be found on Twitter: @vixstarrNS