Small things please small minds

Let me say this again. You are no longer the opposition, so please stop thinking and acting like an opposition. You are now the government, so please get down to acting like a government. The voters put you in office to run the state so can we please see you running the state.

Raja Petra Kamarudin

One of the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) leaders -- I won't mention his name though -- said something very funny about ten years ago. “PRM has never won any election so we always prepare ourselves for defeat. God help us if we even win the elections. We will not know how to manage victory. But we have a lot of experience managing defeat. So we are very happy to be given the 'danger's seats in the 1999 general elections. If we are given 'safe' seats and we actually win we might panic because we will not know what to do if we win.”

Actually, as funny as this may have sounded ten years ago, today, this is no longer funny. In the recent general election, the opposition did prepare itself for defeat but the opposite to that happened. And now they don't know what to do. To be fair to PAS, though, they did prepare for victory. They prepared themselves for taking over Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis. They did not, however, prepare themselves for Penang, Perak and Selangor. They thought, at best, they will only be able to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in these three states.

DAP and PKR, on the other hand, never thought that the three 'mixed' states could ever fall to the opposition. Maybe the four 'Malay heartland' states face better prospects of falling but this would merely see PAS emerge as the Taiko of these states which will not involve DAP and PKR too much other than a 'token' representation in the state governments.

But the unexpected happened. And this is because the opposition did not listen to us, the rakyat. You can't say we did not tell them often enough. Even in my ceramahs all over the country I openly declared that Barisan Nasional will lose its two-thirds majority in Parliament, five states will fall to the opposition, and two states will see Barisan Nasional lose it two-thirds majority in the State Assemblies. Then I named the five states that will fall -- Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah, Perlis and Penang -- and the two states that will see Barisan Nasional lose its two-thirds majority in the State Assembly -- Perak and Selangor.

The opposition leaders just laughed and asked me, “Betul ke Petra? You ni tipu pengundi.”

This pissed me off and in my ceramah at Kampong Raja Uda in Port Kelang I told the voters, “Kampong Raja Uda has never fallen to the opposition since Merdeka. This time around I want you to give this kampong that carries my grandfather's name to the opposition. If you don't then I will never step foot in this place again. And if you give Kampong Raja Uda to Barisan Nasional you will be mencemar (defiling) my grandfather's name and I want you to remove my grandfather's name and change the name of this kampong to something else.”

“Aiyah, why do you say something like that?” Ronnie Liu asked me.

“Why, what's wrong with saying something like that?”

“If we don't win then you can never come back here again.”

“If we don't win then I won't want to come back here anyway. So what's the difference? But we will win. That is why I dare make that declaration.”

“Aiyoh, you are so confident lah. I am not so sure.”

That's right, the calun himself went cold when I made that open declaration because he himself was not too sure whether we had any chance of winning a seat that has always been a ruling party stronghold since 50 years of Merdeka. And we not only won Port Kelang but we won the whole state as well.

Okay, so I was slightly off in my prediction. We did win five states though, but it did not include Perlis and Terengganu. Perlis and Terengganu were switched with Perak and Selangor, the two states I said we will be able to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the State Assembly. Nevertheless, it was still five and the five are not all in the Malay heartland as what the opposition thought would happen. Three of the five are in 'mixed' states, which means Malay votes alone can't do the trick. You need the votes of the Indians and Chinese as well. Even PAS candidates such as Dr Siti Mariah won in seats where the Malays are a minority and unless you can get overwhelming support from the non-Muslims it would be impossible to win.

And that was when the problem started, when the opposition unexpectedly won the three 'mixed' states. Thereafter, the opposition did not know what to do. It took awhile for it to sink in it that the next step would be to quickly form the government. Instead, they got sidetracked and the whole process got delayed. Fine, there were some 'real' issues -- at least to those opposition leaders although I do not see them as real enough issues -- but some were so stupid that I felt like kicking these lamebrain dodo birds in the backside.

For example, when you have an audience with the Sultan during the swearing-in ceremony, you need to be properly attired. Proper protocol needs to be observed. Certainly you cannot use jeans, T-shirts and slippers. Malays need to wear a Baju Melayu and non-Malays a suit (not a sports jacket which does not match the pants). Malay women must be in Baju Kurung and non-Malay women must be in a dress -- not wearing pants like what one DAP State Assemblywoman did recently. Malay women should wear a scarf or selendang (no need to fully cover the head) and the men must wear a songkok, preferably even non-Malays though they may be wearing a suit instead of a Baju Melayu.

Even when you have an audience with the Thai King, Japanese Emperor, or the Queen of England there are dress codes to observe. But the DAP State Assemblymen refuse to wear a songkok. They argue that they refuse to 'look like a Malay'. Hey, these same people are wearing a suit. Why do they not protest for being asked to look like a 'yellow' Mat Salleh? A suit is not Chinese. It is western. You don't mind wearing a suit and start looking like a banana -- yellow outside but white inside -- but you refuse to wear a songkok because it is a Malay thing. “We are not Muslims,” they reply. Indonesians also wear songkoks and millions who do are not Muslims, they are Christians.

Teng Chang Khim of DAP wants to become the Deputy Menteri Besar of Selangor. He has organised demonstrations the last couple of days to pressure his own party into proposing his name for Deputy Menteri Besar. But he refuses to wear a songkok. Instead, he wants to become a Chinese 'hero' by boycotting the audience with the Sultan of Selangor to protest being asked to wear a songkok. He wants to become the Deputy Menteri Besar but he boycotts the Sultan. What the fuck! How the hell is he going to be sworn in as the Deputy Menteri Besar if he refuses to go meet the Sultan? Does he want the Sultan to just send him a SMS?

The formation of the Selangor state government has to face delay just because, amongst others, one DAP man wants to become a Chinese 'hero' by refusing to wear a songkok. Anyway, the Sultan has helped solve Teng's dilemma by declaring that there will be no post of Deputy Menteri Besar. Now Teng need not worry whether he should continue being a Chinese 'hero' or transform into a 'traitor to the Chinese race' by wearing a songkok. And I suggest Teng also not be appointed an EXCO Member or else he would be placed in a serious dilemma as to whether to wear a songkok or not when he has to appear before the Sultan to take his oath of office.

Maybe back home you wear your shoes in your house. But when you come to my house you take off your shoes. And if you refuse to do so because you do not want to 'look like a Malay' then no need to come to my house. In my house I dictate the house rules and dress code. This is my home and I am king of my castle. You are just my guest and you must act like how a guest should act. And if I invite you for my daughter's wedding, and if I say that all guests must wear a songkok, you can decide whether to boycott my daughter's wedding or come wearing a songkok.

These DAP chaps are trying to become heroes of the Chinese race. They do not want to have anything to do with what is perceived as Islamic or Malay traditions. Malays are very happy to respect and observe Chinese traditions. If you invite us to your house for a wedding, and if you dictate the dress code, we would be very happy to comply. We will not boycott the wedding just because we do not want to do what is considered Chinese. But this does not appear to be the Chinese mentality at all.

Come on DAP. What is so jijik about a songkok? There are more important things to do than fight with the Sultan over what we should place on our heads when we appear before His Highness to take our oath of office. We have Selangor, the most important state in Malaysia, to run. Do you mean to say that just because of a songkok you are prepared to let the whole state government fall?

And another thing, what is it with these protest demonstrations? You are no longer the opposition. You should stop thinking like the opposition and start acting like the ruling government because that is what you are. Small things please small minds. And that is what we have voted into office, leaders with small minds. And these small minds get easily distracted by small things instead of quickly forming the government and start running the state. Until today, one week after winning the elections, the Selangor State Government has not been formed yet. Thus far only the Menteri Besar has been sworn in. The State EXCO, which is the machinery that actually runs the states, has not been set up yet or taken its oath of office.

We hope the new Menteri Besar, Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, will not repeat Khir Toyo's mistake. We just kicked Khir Toyo out and the last thing we want is to see a clone of the man we just sent packing. Khir Toyo held too many portfolios and he kept all the important portfolios to himself while the 'useless' portfolios were given to the other EXCO Members. This is exactly what Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is doing. Abdullah kept all the key Ministries for himself. And because he is holding too many Ministries, and all the important ones on top of that, his Ministries are not functioning and therefore the country is not functioning as well.

Khalid must overhaul the old, failed system. He should focus on being a good Menteri Besar and not try to monopolise all the portfolios, which will just swamp him and bog him down. There are many capable people, so he should get all the others to help him the run the state. He should not treat the Selangor state government as a family sundry shop where the main man is salesman, checkout counter clerk, cashier, bookkeeper and storekeeper all in one. Sure, the Menteri Besar should also hold one or two portfolios, but he should not hog six or seven of the most important portfolios and then throw the minor ones to the others. This will just ensure failure and come the next election the voters will kick him out and will give the state back to Barisan Nasional. And it will be 30 years before the opposition can ever dream of retaking the state.

Let me say this again. You are no longer the opposition, so please stop thinking and acting like an opposition. You are now the government, so please get down to acting like a government. The voters put you in office to run the state so can we please see you running the state. All this haggling over how many EXCO seats each party should get and who should be the EXCO Members and whether to wear a songkok or not has delayed the setting up of the government and this has allowed the previous administration to shred and destroy many crucial documents. By the time you finally take over many files will no longer exist.

There is one thing you have forgotten. The Menteri Besar and EXCO Member posts do not belong to the political parties. They belong to us, the rakyat who voted for you. So can PKR, DAP and PAS please stop quarrelling. Stop demanding you want this and you want that because all these posts do not belong to you. They belong to us. By right you should have come back to ask us, the voters who put you in office, as to what you should do. It is we, the voters, who should have the final say. Now, not only do you ignore us, the voters, when you set up the government, but you squabble amongst yourselves as if all this belongs to you in the first place.

The state governments do not belong to DAP or PKR or PAS. They belong to the voters. We are only entrusting you to manage our assets. But you act as if the state and the positions in the state belong to you and you fight with each other for control over them. If you are not careful I am going to mobilise thousands of rakyat and we will march to the Menteri Besar's office to give you a hard kick on your backside. And don't test us. We will do it. We, the rakyat, give you till Monday to prove to us you have a functioning state government. If not, on Tuesday, expect a huge crowd outside your office.

The rakyat have spoken. When we said we, the voters, will deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in Parliament and will at the same time give you five states, we did just that. And if we say we will be in front of your office on Tuesday if by Monday we don't see a functioning government, you can bet your sweet ninny we will do just that as well.

In the meantime, to all voters, standby in case we need you to be part of the largest assembly of voters Selangor State has ever seen in 50 years since Merdeka. Either we see a functioning government or we are going storm the Selangor State Secretariat building just like the French stormed the Bastille.