Lacklustre ministers to blame for PH’s Camerons loss, too

Given the weak management and administration of the current Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, Barisan Nasional’s (BN) victory in the Cameron Highlands by-election came as no surprise.

The results, predicted even by the most hardcore PH supporters and leaders, are embarrassing to say the least.

For PH, the battle was not about capturing a seat that belongs to BN, but ensuring that people didn’t lose faith in the major coalition currently governing the country.

However, if the governing party cannot defeat a weakened BN-Umno, what sort of harapan do we have here?

After all, BN-Umno was outrightly rejected and almost thrashed by the majority of voters in GE14 and the subsequent by-elections.

Not only did they lose the credibility to govern, they also lost the moral ground and political platform on which they once pretended to stand.

Let’s examine PH’s severe defeat at the hands of a “hopeless” party with no leadership to speak of – a party almost deflated by its own members departing in droves, including its own elected MPs.

The Najib factor?

Najib Razak quit as Umno president after the loss in GE14, and the current president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has more or less relinquished his duties.

His deputy, Mohamad Hasan, is still struggling to find his footing and may be disqualified in his own right from his state seat in Rantau, Negeri Sembilan.

With so many elected representatives, at both the state and parliament levels, abandoning their party, one might have wondered if there was any point left contesting, let alone campaigning to win.

When it comes to stature, BN has almost lost it all. Even its supposed strong allies and key coalition partners in Sarawak and Sabah have deserted it.

Umno, the backbone of BN and champion of the Malays, was at its lowest ebb by the time the Cameron Highlands by-election came around.

Along with MCA and MIC, the two other race-based parties in BN, it has become more and more irrelevant to urban voters and East Malaysians alike.

MCA and MIC, after all, have only one MP each. So banning race-based and religion-based parties at this juncture, after what happened in Cameron Highlands, is definitely a step in the right direction if we want to see Malaysia progress.

Knowing Umno and PAS’ politics, it is pretty obvious that they derived their strength from a campaign centred on race and religion. Between Najib and Hadi Awang of PAS, Annuar Musa and Wan Rosdy, they played that to the hilt.

If there is no truth in this analysis, the fault must be with the other side in the contest.

PH’s strengths are in urban and semi-urban areas of plural (or mixed) seats. Cameron Highlands, though far from any major urban centre, possesses a voter profile which reflects this multiracial composition.

Janji or Promise 38 in the manifesto is crystal clear about what the PH government recognised and wished to undertake for the Orang Asli.

It is rather unfortunate that after eight months in power, nothing, save for the appointment of the Jakoa director-general, has been done to implement the manifesto pledges.

The Suhakam inquiry into the plight of the Orang Asli and its recommendations have not been taken up in Parliament, hence no implementation, either.

None of the one-sided agreements that involved Orang Asli land have been revoked or redrawn. No funds have been allocated for the official demarcation and eventual gazette of Orang Asli land reserves.

What about the allocation of funds to upgrade Orang Asli villages, with roads, power supply, clean water and other utilities and amenities? Schools for Orang Asli are another issue which has received scant attention from the two responsible ministries.

Last but not the least, the PH government made a promise to give due recognition to Orang Asli culture and their heritage.

It was clearly mentioned that funds would be allocated for programmes to promote their art and culture to the rest of Malaysians. Did we ever hear anything from the tourism ministry to this effect?

To be fair to the PH government, I don’t think the rural and regional development minister, or Education Minister Maszlee Malik, saw this coming. But they should have carried out their tasks regardless.

If there had been no by-election for Cameron Highlands, the plight of the Orang Asli would probably have gone unnoticed and quite likely swept under the carpet again.

The government would have moved on despite the imperfections, a degree of incompetency and glaring below-par performance of its important ministers.

As much as one would like to believe that Najib was a factor in BN’s victory, the underperforming PH leaders contributed to their party’s big loss.

Perhaps our prime minister could and should seize this opportunity to let go of the underperforming ministers that form part of PH’s ministerial team. Obviously, their performance, or lack of it, has begun to take its toll on the popularity of the PH government.

It’s about time we replaced the underperforming players. Considering what happened in Cameron Highlands, it would be disastrous if PH loses in Semenyih next. -FMT

✍ Sumber Pautan : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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