FOCUS: Sarawak BN Plus government is Chief Minister Adenan Satem’s serious minus point.
It is the cause of the current uncertainties in close to 40 state seats even as two members of the ruling coalition partners, SUPP and SPDP, wonder if they even get to contest their traditional seats.
Adenan could have told SUPP and SPDP to defend their respective seats, but he has not done so because he is bogged down in his decisions by his inherited BN Plus government.
He is calculating the risk, no doubt, but for each day a decision is not made as to what party gets to contest which seat on the BN ticket, the enmity grows within his government.
BN could have been much stronger than it is now, but much has been compromised by the conflict of interest that the BN Plus concept has brought upon the ruling coalition.
Yes, the oppositions today are in a disarray. DAP and PKR have yet to agree on what they had agreed upon in their Pakatan Harapan consensus.
But BN will be badly mistaken if it thinks it can win seats merely because the Opposition do not go to the polls as one.
A disunited BN is weaker than a disunited opposition front because a disunited BN will help the Opposition to defeat BN candidates.
And BN is not as united as the leaders would like to believe, certainly not when those making up the BN Plus government don’t see eye-to-eye on so many things.
The BN Plus government has given way to power abuse. Many community leaders are appointed at the whims and fancies of those in the position of power with no care for the feelings of the people they are supposed to serve.
As a result, these community leaders are ineffective on the ground but effective above where they serve their masters like the lapdogs they are.
Not a few councillors of local government are being plucked out of thin air, and they too serve their masters and answer only to their masters.
These councillors often act like they are their masters, officiating at functions and announcing project approvals and declaring to the press about their so-called achievements.
Funnily, these community leaders and councillors are not even BN members!
They, together with their masters, are making a mockery of BN even as the crack within the BN widens.
BN Plus is not only unsustainable but elements of BN Plus, which have been allowed to create their own space within the BN system, are an administrative mess from ground level right up to the legislature.
Clearly the solution to this problem is that BN must have the courage to return to its old self where there exists its true worth.
Adenan must have the moral courage to do away with BN Plus if he wants his next five-year plan to be indeed his plan.
Listen to the component parties, uphold the BN spirit of consensus, which is the hallmark of the ruling coalition throughout the nation.
If Kimma (Malaysian Indian Muslim Congress), a BN ally for more than 20 years, remains unadmitted because MIC is adamant that it should not be allowed in, United People’s Party (UPP) and Parti Tenaga Rakyat Sarawak (Teras) cannot be given any exception.
MIC in objecting to the admission of Indian-based IPF, was put on record as saying: “Umno does not allow any other Malay party to join the BN, the MCA also does not allow other Chinese-based parties to join the BN as direct members. Gerakan is a multi-racial party. If Umno allows other Malay-based parties to join BN as direct members, we do not mind.”
The admission of UPP and Teras are being objected to by SUPP, Teras and Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) based on the same argument, and if the national BN chairman can accept that argument, there is no reason why Sarawak BN chairman can’t.
MIC’s case is a precedence, if Umno must observe its commitment to members of the big BN family, PBB as the state BN backbone party should show that it is capable of similar justice.-The Ant Daily
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