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Analysts Feel BN Harping On Trivia Than Tackling Important Issues
By Noor Hayati Muda
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 (Bernama) — Political observers feel that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is harping on trivial issues instead of more important matters such as tackling money politics, picking the right leaders and working hard to win back the support the coalition lost in the March 8 general election.
The analysts regard as inconsequent, for the moment, the proposal to turn the coalition into a single multiracial party or even restructuring it.
Prof Dr Ahmad Atory Hussein of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) said restructuring the top posts in the BN supreme council would not bring any significant impact in the coalition or to the rakyat (people) in general.
“To me this is trivia. I understand they want to get the support from their own people but I don’t think this will benefit the masses in general.
“After all, the top posts in the BN are merely in name only as all decisions are made based on consensus regardless of their posts in the supreme council,” said lecturer of the university’s Public Administration and Law Faculty.
He said the BN was established based on understanding without a legally binding constitution.
“It doesn’t matter who sits where as those in the supreme council are actually on equal footing. Umno was given the chair and deputy chair seats based on the understanding that it is the largest party, and it remains so today,” he said.
Dr Ahmad Atory said BN leaders should instead be focusing on the more vital issue of winning back the people’s confidence.
“They really need to go back and study the whole situation and find the root cause of the problem, then come up with brilliant ideas to really help the coalition woo back voters in the next general election.
“You can get your own party members’ support but, at the end of day, what matters is the masses,” he said.
Dr Ahmad Atory’s remarks are made in reference to the BN’s failure to recapture Kelantan and loss of Penang, Kedah, Perak and Selangor to the opposition in the March 8 general election.
Assoc Prof Dr Ahmad Nizamuddin Sulaiman of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) referred to the MCA’s request for the creation of a second post of BN deputy chairman for the party to hold, and said entertaining the request would be opening the door for other component parties to make similar demands.
“Besides, I am of the opinion that there are other pressing matters that need to be addressed by the BN leaders, more vital reforms like dealing with money politics, for example,” he said.
He also said that BN leaders were digressing from the real problems.
“Each of the component parties, be it Umno, MCA, MIC or even Gerakan, have leadership problems. I think they must resolve this first before talking about reforming the coalition structure,” said the lecturer of the Social Science and Humanities Faculty.
Dr Ahmad Nizamuddin’s views were shared by Prof Datuk Dr Ibrahim Ahmad Bajunid of the Tun Abdul Razak University who said the priority for BN component parties was to elect the “right leaders”.
“I am of the opinion that what matters most now is for all component parties to choose the right leaders. Then, later, they can discuss ideas for reform,” said the former dean of the university’s Social Science and Humanities Faculty.
He said it was critical to elect leaders with vast knowledge in various fields as well as broad networking either in the country or overseas.
“We have outstanding leaders in the corporate world, in the public service and in the education sector, just to name a few. Therefore, in my view, political leaders also must be among the best,” he said.
Given the current situation, politically or economically, Dr Ibrahim had a point in asserting the importance of choosing the right leaders as these leaders must find ways not only to strengthen their own parties but also the BN as a whole as well as steer the country towards taking on the current global financial onslaught.
At the same time, they have to win back the voters’ confidence if the BN wants to remain in power after the next general election.
Therefore, said Dr Ibrahim, it was vital for BN leaders to identify the root cause of the problems which had landed the coalition in the “hot soup” in the first place.
He said every proposed change must be considered carefully based on the principles of each component party and, most importantly, they should focus on the people’s interests while ensuring continuous stability in the country.
“Reforms should be based on several factors, both external and internal. Some would like to have radical changes but for me they should be an ongoing matter,” he said.
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Aiyoyo.. these academics and political analysts are sometimes full of themselves and when they unload their intellect onto the masses, somehow there’s a disconnect.
Ok lah you blokes, lissen up, will yer.
UMNO, the numero uno head honcho leading the BN circus wagon has been around for about six decades and along the way, they picked up the other clowns coz UMNO are the main event players like.. err.. lion tamers, trapeze artists, high-wire walkers, etc.
But all these main events are serious stuff which can be considered life-threatening hence the need for side-shows with clowns to lighten up the audience prior to having the next ‘white knuckled’ UMNO show.
Therefore, the crowd gets into this roller-coaster ride vaccilating between shock & awe and abject ‘no-brainers’ and trust me, UMNO does this juggling act quite well.
Of course, in the meanwhile, with a paying audience (read: income tax), UMNO went and tweaked the system by installing ‘trojans’ and ‘botnets’ on the mainframe i.e. BN lah.
These two-legged viruses are aptly named ‘gatekeepers’ and ‘warlords’ whose sole purpose is to handle the gate receipts and other accruals. Heck, sometimes the accrued stuff far outweigh the account receivables coz there are three books, one for show and two under their butts, to balance, yer see.
[Where the heck am I going with this! Sips coffee and puffs on cheap ciggies….. Hmmm.. Now where was I? Oh yeah, MMAARRNNNEEYYYY!!!]
How do you pick the right leaders who basically have:
- the rakyats’ interest at heart from the outset,
- the brains, motivation and tenacity to churn out briilliant social reforms and economic strategies,
- and aren’t tempted with just getting rich or wealthy or both (could never figure out the difference) in dubious ways?
Simple – Get out of your airconditioned offices/homes and go park yourself at every UMNO branch and division with vidcam in hand, and root out the numbskulls with their bags of goodies during the next few months until the next UMNO GA.
Ask RY and TRH for directions so you’ll be heading towards the right circus tent.
Go, run along now, quickly, before the culprits ‘berambus’ with their hugh, gleaming Brabuses.
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Off topic stuff and its a crassy joke, folks.
“How do you talk down to umnoputras who drives porches, mercs or ferraris?
Speak through a loud megaphone from atop of yer latest model Lamborghini, that’s how”
*Thank you to Admiral Tojo for this bit of blarney*
DEWAN DISPATCHES: Malaysiakini grovels like a teenager in trouble
by: Azmi Anshar
DEWAN RAKYAT Oct 22, 2008
It will be difficult but Malaysiakini’s sloppy gaffe in publishing a report expounding a putrid manifesto by a “support group” purportedly attributed to the Deputy Prime Minister in preparation for his ascension to the Prime Ministership must be regarded as simply that: a gaffe that the highly political web portal editors were unable to detect or prevent, given the high confidence it confers to its copy editors to take the initiative.
It must have been galling then for the Malaysiakini senior editors that a seemingly trusted copy editor published the report while ignoring its highly explosive nature and without having to check its source and veracity, or, if she had an iota of scepticism, referred it to her more senior and experienced editors for careful deliberation.
She didn’t and when she pressed the OK button on the publishing software, it was not so much a case of publish and be damned as it was a routine that was all in a day’s work. That copy editor practically lit a literary bomb that blew embarrassingly in her face and her outfit. It could easily have been circumvented had she abided by certain basic journalistic tenets.
While it’s all nice and well now that the said copy editor took it upon herself to assume blame for her journalistic sins and immediately put in her walking papers, the affair affirms a measure of zealotry that Malaysiakini has assumed as its journalistic credo – to err towards gung-ho recklessness that only a young media outfit, like teenagers without a care in the world, can only flaunt.
However, Malaysiakini was, metaphorically, still a teenager lacking in the social graces and still short in maturity, while trying to live in an adult world where responsibility, sobriety and caution are bored principles. The entry to a night spot and drinking age is 21 and cigarettes cannot be sold to teenagers below 18. Balderdash! Malaysiakini would dismiss these rules as superfluous to their growing process, until their shit hit the fan.
Whether they deserve it or not, Malaysiakini has built a brutal reputation as a web news portal whose raison d’être is to gleefully criticise, lambast and condemn the Barisan Nasional Government, its machinery and its machinations, its systems, its policies, its weaknesses, its credibility to the point that it can’t report in any other way or it will lose the legion of supplicants it calls its base audience. Its all politics all the time and mostly from the view of the firing seat.
To be sure, Malaysiakini can do just that because it does not have to temper an annual Government licence like its print rivals and being on the web, weighed in on the Government’s pledge of non-cyber censorship, cheaper overheads and non-existent logistical woes.
Just as the mainstream newspapers been perceived as being pro-Government, Malaysiakini is trenchantly looked as pro-Opposition, whether it likes it or not, but its behaviour, mannerism and attitude strongly suggest that it lives and dies by that anti-Establishment moniker.
That is why the so-called Najib manifesto was published all too casually, on the account that the copy editor was living up to the Malaysiakini’s doctrine. It’s too soon to tell if they will have to pay the price in terms of punitive action or something worse but given that its presence is much needed in the pursuit of a free Press, Malaysiakini must learn to get away from its belligerent adolescence.
Nevertheless, Najib could have sued the socks off Malaysiakini for false reporting, which among others quoted the DPM as “eager to defend till the last drop of his blood the supremacy of the Malay race”, or at the very least demand a police probe into the portal’s ill-advised transgression. But he didn’t, perhaps out of magnanimity or perhaps out of the fact that he cannot afford the distraction, seeing that he will soon inherit the management of a country roiling in the perfect political storm and need to muster all his energy and effort.
In a media conference outside the House, Najib accepted Malaysiakini’s apology. “The reporter showed a high level of professionalism and took responsibility for the untrue story,” he told the media at the Parliament lobby today. However, Najib rightly pointed out that the culprits who released the fake manifesto was still in hiding.
Najib is leaving it to the relevant authorities to unmask the perpetrators of the fake manifesto, agreeing that he may have to face all this until March, when Umno holds its general assembly and its delayed but high-octane party elections.
Cub reporters were taught from small to respect facts and triple check them when they conclude their reports, just before they submit their masterpieces to their copy editor for editing or tasting. It’s a time-honoured concept practiced by most media outfits, whether they are of left or right leaning persuasions or whether they newspapers, magazines or the electronic media. Some old school journalism editors would also insist that their underlings their parents say they love you, check their claims too.
No conscientious editor or reporter would knowingly publish or write reports that are factually dodgy or just plain wrong but if the unimaginable happens, the blame is always an oversight or simple human error. Already, Wong’s action has been spun as a “rare day when a Malaysian journalist resigns to take responsibility for an erroneous report.”
That said, Malaysiakini is truly fortunate that Wong was conscientious enough to take the rap and save further grief for the portal. It could have been ugly.
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Yo Azmi, yer better look over both yer shoulders coz I think Rocky’s going back to NST and he definitely ain’t groveling but is a shoe-in for a top job. Don’t get yerself trampled or pushed aside when the next batch roll in, yer hear.
It could be ugly too but I hear real men do cry.
Anywayz.. didn’t yer ex deputy chair gaffed on the Japan meeting in 2006 or what about that other bloke who copy-catted (sic) an entire column or.. yeah right, some of us non-journos can nitpick splendidly too.
Web 2.0 and UGC is the way forward for news and information dissemination, bro. Save newsprint, save trees, save the environment, save.. ahhh.. never mind.
Oh yeah.. And btw, Mkini IS mainstream for the five liberated states under Pakatan Rakyat.
Nuff said.
P.S. Who am I? Ask Rocky lah.
O.B.E. 
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