Lee Kah Choon’s significance: The Beginning of the End for BN
I thought about the appropriateness of writing more at this time, but then reread this paragraph:
Even to his final day, Rustam wrote from morning to dusk, said his son Azrani.
“From the time he wakes up, he would start writing. He was very dedicated to the importance of ideas and the need to raise social conciousness.”
And a Yoda quote from one of my favourite Star Wars books: We honour the dead by living.
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Lee Kah Choon faced a choice: he can continue to work with Gerakan, who has thus far stood steadfast with Umno, or he can take up an offer to do some good for Penang at a time when all of Malaysia could use a few good men and women.
What is significant is that this same choice faces every conscientious non-Umno member of BN (the unconscientious have only one choice - maintain the status quo or lose their connection to corrupt patronage and power).
S/he can a) continue to uphold Umno - which is what it all really boils down to, or b) choose the alliance with the right ideology.
Inertia alone makes b) a very tough choice. But once you overcome that mental block, like Lee Kah Choon bravely did, the rest is easy.
This is why BN head honchos have their panties in a twist. Their outbreaks are merely desperate attempts to hold the BN ship together.
Paraguay today became the latest in a series of global political upheavals. Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Taiwan, and of course: Malaysia. To different degrees (I am not an expert in these things) all these countries saw seemingly unbreakable political dominance convincingly unseated. It’s inspiring for reformists, and scary as all hell for corrupt incumbents.
BN is fearful because the simple question that people like Lee Kah Choon search their hearts to answer is: after the rakyat so convincingly showed that they are willing to vote for change, what can Umno offer the rest of BN?
Since time memorial, all they could offer was incumbency (everything else came with a keris attached). Anyone with any political imagination at all can see that said incumbency is now hanging by a thread, if not already effectively lost.
Right until today, I’ve waited to hear *single* good argument showing that the key ideological interests of non-Umno BN component parties (Gerakan above all) are better served by siding with Umno instead of Pakatan.
I’m still waiting; and I’ll be more than happy to engage with anyone who thinks they have found said argument.
The good guys in BN can choose to sit around and wait until its too late, or they can choose to take a leap of faith now, while it still means something.
Lee Kah Choon faced such a choice, and he chose.
*
In Langkawi (thanks sweetie for the great post!), Li Tsin and I got a chance to watch a movie I really, really liked: Lady in the Water. It ended with a song by one of my favourite writers, Bob Dylan. I thought the lyrics worth reproducing here:
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.
I FEEL THAT THE BN IS ON THE VERGE OF COLLAPSE.
EVEN THE MIC & MCA ARE SO QUIET.
UNLESS THE BN BECOMES A MULTI RACIAL PARTY WHICH FAVOUR TO ANY PARTICULAR RELIGION OR COLOUR THEN ONLY THEY WILL SURVIVE.
BUT TO THAT THE BN LEADERS NEEED ALOT OF GUTS AND BE PREPARED TO FOCUS ON THE THINKING ESTALISHMENT.
I DON’T THINK THEY ARE PREPARED TO DO THIS
SO NO MORE BN’S EXISTENCE
Great Lee Kah Choon!!! we support you for quits from the corroupt and sinking BN ship!!
Give me a break lah nat.
Why are you so sure that Lee Kah Ch’ng is not doing this for himself and to “do some good for Penang”.
How can you justify Lee to be some “few good men and women” just because he agreed to be on Pakatan payroll?
Your argument is the polar opposite of BN syncopants - Same shit different smell!
In a different anology, PR = Green Apples while BN = Red Apples. Apples nevertheless.
That’s why you are waiting for that argument about “key ideological differences”. Just get PR to look in the mirror and they’ll see BN. Everything is still on racial and religious grounds. Argue against that!
Anwar’s first point during his Black 14 rally was on KETUANAN MELAYU. He makes it very clear - underlying his KETUANAN RAKYAT rhetoric, AGENDA MELAYU comes first.
Go back to the first Pakatan PC and you’ll notice the same thing about DAP and PAS. Both Hadi and Kit Siang were non-committal when asked about whether they would jettison “Malaysian Malaysia” or “Islamic State” race/religion based ideologies.
Its so glaringly clear - THERE IS NO IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES. Lee is still doing the same thing he did in the past.
Even if there are ideological differences, there is no point arguing. No one would win.
Instead, you can perhaps focus your energy on more pertinent questions like:
1. Why Penang gov’t never consult the public on who to put in local councils in lieu of local council elections which they promised?
2. Why Selangor gov’t never make full public asset declarations?
3. Why all Pakatan gov’ts never respond to proposal of punishment for khalwat by non-Muslims?
4. How will Selangor gov’t intend to pay for newborns, university students, free education, free medical etc that it promised in the PKR manisfesto?
(Pig Farm not in election manisfesto but appears to be top priority. Thank you MB PKR)
- Bak Kut Teh hardcore fan
Those in the BN never fail to amaze me with their continuance of arrogance, although the defeat suffered in the last GE.
So, when Lee Kah Choon wanted to retain his Gerakan membership, it seems unacceptable to Gerakan and the rest of BN component parties. They blamed it on “against the BN spirit”.
Subsequently, it led to his withdrawal from Gerakan. Instead of him risk being criticized as disloyal to the party, his latest move is now being perceived as an act by Gerakan to force him out.
Bad, bad PR for Gerakan, if you ask me. Koh Tsu Koon should have handled this better, but again, KTK being him own-self, just like Pak Lah, being the indecisive type of leaders, once again, failed to handle the situation well.
Plain arrogance or ignorance?
This is some answers to AH BENG questions
You must read some ALTERNATIVE MEDIA like theSun or Malaysiakini instead of reading BN MEDIA like UTUSAN MELOYA or theSTAR without stars, than you will find most of your answers there, provided if you use your brains in understanding the answers!!!!!!
I see it as a nail on the Gerakan coffin. That’s it! Until now, Gerakan, under the pathetic “leadership” of Koh Tsu Koon, continues to play to the BN side *blindly*. It has now even swept away whatever crumbles it has got from Mar 8. Gerakan is now a clear-cut political party interested only on its selfish interests for its leaders.
SK pointed out the key to this development: the reason of BN leadership’s uproar on this is “against the BN spirit”. It clearly shows that BN “the federal government” only thinks about BN interests, not the national and rakyat’s interests.
Would the same thing (a capable opposition member being offered a state-level job) in a BN controlled state? NO, not because Pakatan will have similar uproar, but because it will only take away another opportunity from BN for patronage and corruption. Therefore, kudos to Pakatan govt of Penang.
To Ah Beng, my advice to you is: focus on the outcome and ideology, not the process or means. Alternatively, see it as a political process for a political idealism under our current political reality.
Shit can sink, some others can float.
Shit can be black and smelly (unhealthy person), some others can be more yellow and smells less (healthy person).
Which shit do you have, Watchdog Ah Beng? And which shit do you want with your country? Between the two types of shit, I’d prefer the shit from the healthier person — just as it is between PR (healthy) and BN (unhealthy).
The current MB of Selangor did not aim to set up pig farm in his manisfesto — it was delivered to him and as a responsible governer, he has to resolve it. And yes, if it means it is top priority, so be it. You would have to be blind if you cannot see why it is top priority.
As for your many questions to PR as to why this or why that, go ask them lah. Why ask Nat? Nothing to do with Lee Kah Choon’s topic.
Even if LKC is still a Gerakan man, I still do not see it as wrong in any way to work for a corporation tied to the Penang Govt. Since when was it that a person’s choice of vocation is tied to his political beliefs? I may be anti-BN, but does that mean I cannot volunteer in the Lifelong Learning programmes organised by the MCA? Surely not, right?
When God closes the door, He opens a window. The consciences of BN leaders are in overdrive.(yet some have no such). If greed is still in the equation, then the devil must be paid. But I see at least some good will come out for the rakyat.