Abdullah Ahmad Badawi -'dead man walking'
Malaysiakini.com
Apr 9, 2008
NAN

Refer to the Malaysiakini report Roadshows to push for PM's resignation.

The bandwagon asking for the embattled prime minister to step down seems to be running along unabated. While the premier is in east Malaysia to shore up his support among the component parties of BN, his party members seems to be doing the opposite with the former premier urging Umno grassroots leaders to ask the PM to resign as soon as possible to take full responsibility for the party’s terrible performance in the last polls.

Politically speaking, the embattled premier can be likened to a ‘dead man walking’ as he seems to pressured by not only from his political enemies from outside the party but also by some disgruntled party members who can be likened to the Malay proverb duri dalam daging.

Our stock market is reacting negatively due to the political instability in this country while other markets in the region are rallying. Foreign investors, too, will wait on the sidelines to see the dust settle first before they invest more money in this country. And this is not good for nation’s economic interest.

It is wishful thinking to think that all our problems will go away if the premier takes full responsibility for the fiasco in the last polls and resigns. The problems besetting our country are too well entrenched and even if we have a new face helming our country, it will still be old way ‘business as usual’.

What our country needs is a total overhaul of our political system where all the old and corrupt politicians, either serving or retired, are hauled before the courts to serve as a lesson to others.

Major government agencies like the police, the ACA, the AG’s Chambers and the judiciary should be headed by honest people who are not on the take and do their work without fear and favor.

For this transformation to happen, we need to look at political leaders from outside te BN. The only capable person who can clean out the government is Anwar Ibrahim and his fellow colleagues. One of the reasons why his party and the Pakatan coalition won stunningly in the last polls was because of their solemn pledges to fight corruption and abuse of power by the ruling elite.

Pak Lah is walking on thin ice right now as the common people can see that his power is weakened due to internal conflicts in his party and it is just a matter of time before he retires prematurely due to pressure from within and outside the party. The premier had pledged to reform the party and the government but it is a little too late now.

Malaysia is at a crossroads and time will tell if the BN parties who have ruled the nation since independence will make way for Pakatan Rakyat. This will happen if the rumours are true that some BN MPs, especially from East Malaysia, are prepared to cross-over.

Well, after suffering so much under BN rule, the common people are looking for a savior to get us out of the rut that we are in now. People are not afraid to look for an alternative and BN with their arrogant attitude are reaping what they have sown. As the English proverbs says succinctly, pride goes before a fall. 

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