Bukit Antarabangsa landslide is latest  example of the lack of good governance which Malaysians must put high on the national agenda in next general election

(Bagan, Thursday): The Bukit Antarabangsa landslide in Kuala Lumpur, putting at risk the lives, safety and comfort of some 10,000 residents in the area is the latest example of the lack of good governance in the country, which Malaysians must put high on the national agenda in the next general election.

After the 1993 Highland Towers collapse disaster which killed 48 people, there could be no excuse for government inaction to prevent a recurrence of  a similar disaster, especially as the Science, Technology and Environment Minister, Datuk Law Hieng Ding, has publicly admitted that the government had anticipated the possibility of lanslides in hilly areas such as Bukit Antarabangsa and yet the government did nothing beyond noting and anticipating such a possibility!

Other  examples of the lack of good governance under the Barisan Nasional government are:
 

• The worst viral epidemic in the nation’s history, caused by the misdiagnosis, mistreatment and mishandling of the disease, with the government insisting it was Japanese encephalities (JE) when it was Hendra-like Nipah virus, resulting in the death of over a hundred people and the collapse and financial ruin of the pig-farming industry.
• The continued exploitation of estate workers who are still denied minimum monthly wage and affordable housing after decades of toil and sacrifice in the estates.
• The refusal on the part of the government to commission a full inquiry into the  spate of police shoot-outs resulting in widespread public concerns about  trigger-happy police personnel who constitute a threat to public safety, such as the incident on Oct. 2 last year where the police shot dead five suspected kidnappers, including an eight-months pregnant woman N. Selvamalar, 31, at Taman Sungai Besi Indah in  Kuala Lumpur; the  shoot-out in Tumpat on Oct. 3 last year in which six men  were shot dead and he fatal police shooting of a Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) teller,  Mohd Zailani Mohd  Salleh, 33, on January 8, 1999 who was mistaken by the police as one of the four bank   robbers.

This is why good governance is one of the four issues on which the DAP is co-operating with other Opposition parties, like PAS, Parti Keadilan Nasional  and Parti Rakyat Malaysia in the coming general election, together with other issues like justice, freedom and democracy.

The co-operation of the Opposition parties creates the promise that for the first time in Malaysian political history, it is possible to smash the Barisan Nasional political hegemony by ending its uninterrupted two-thirds parliamentary majority - and pave the way for a more vibrant and healthier parliamentary democracy and civil society.

The Barisan Nasional is aware of the serious challenge mounted by the Opposition parties and this is why they would be going all out to break Opposition co-operation as well as to undermine the Opposition parties individually.

The DAP will at various times be accused of being anti-Malay, anti-Indian and even anti-Chinese.

In view of the high stakes involved if the mould of political hegemony is destroyed in the next general election, even though the Barisan Nasional continues to  form the next government,  the next general election is probably going to be the most dirty in Malaysian electoral history - even more dirty than the 1990 general election, when the then Semangat 46 President Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was falsely accused of having sold out the Malay race and betrayed the Islamic faith for purportedly wearing a Kadazan headgear with a Christian "cross"!

If the Barisan Nasional "dirty tricks" department could be so unprincipled and cruel with Tengku Razaleigh, who was at one time UMNO National Vice President and is now back in UMNO as one of the hopefuls to be the future Prime Minister,  what "dirty tricks" could not be played against the Opposition in the next election just to save the Barisan Nasional’s political hegemony and two-thirds parliamentary majority?

(20/5/99)