Pakatan Rakyat 100 Days in Power

It is a fair question to ask any government that came into power what it had done for the people during the first 100 days of its rule. In our case it is most relevant to look at the Pakatan Rakyat governments that now rule five States. Not only the people in these five states but also people throughout the country would be interested to know.

Without detailing the various actions taken by each one of them in their respective States, a general perception of sort is beginning to be formed by the public during their first 100 days in office that has a lot in common. First, the PR leaders lead by examples as reflected in their social behavior and actions especially for the underprivileged. They also showed, total abhorrence towards public wastage in all its forms, like big mega projects, right down to official travels, entertainment and ceremonies.

Fighting corruption is their topmost agenda. To this end, they are very action oriented towards establishing transparency and good governance in their respective states. Of course, as many people alleged, they are new in power and as usual new brooms sweep well, at least for the time being. But whatever your take on the issue, it cannot be denied, at least up till now, PR leaders especially those in the government had an impeccable record in terms of their honesty and integrity. None had got entangled with any form of scandal or implicated in corruption, at least not the public is aware of. Of course this could be due to the fact that they have never been in power before, except for PAS in Kelantan. Hence they have not tasted blood yet as they say.

We will keep a close watch on them and only time will tell. But we believe that if they can keep up and sustain their integrity and clean image and most importantly, their commitment and sincerity to serve the rakyat, and not themselves they can last very long, barring any unforeseen blunders such as scandals or corruption.

Whether we like it or not and whether we want to accept it or not, our leaders on the other side of the spectrum are quite the reverse. Scandals and corruption have tainted many of them. This is the hard core problem especially in UMNO as the backbone of the BN coalition. It also plagues the other component parties too. The people, especially the young generation just cannot get rid of their minds the fact that most people in UMNO especially amongst their leaders are corrupt or have been corrupt and their priority is self service and not people. Until this stigma is removed, UMNO can never go back to it’s hey days of pre and post independence of the 60’s and 70’s. Until and unless these corrupt individuals are flushed out of the system, UMNO is going to be business as usual.

You can have countless seminars, brainstorming sessions, but as long as these corruptly tainted or pro corrupt individuals continue to be around and lead the party there can never be any rejuvenation, re-branding or whatever astounding or glamorous name you choose for UMNO.
By the same token the Pakatan Rakyat government will meet the same fate the moment their leaders become greedy and power crazy which history had shown will only lead to scandals, corruption and more corruption and eventually downfall.