Friday, May 11, 2018

Lessons & resolutions.

Fri 11 May 2018.



I'd stopped watching the local tv in the last 2 years because of the sickening biased presentation, imposed doubtlessly by the now deposed Najib. It appeared that nothing was too petty that could be hurled at Mahathir, and we can go forever describing Najib's foolish and futile attempts at this one singularly concerted effort. Right to the point of a much-delayed and belaboured concession of defeat, Najib still managed to dirty his departure by chucking the word "fitnah" about his convening the security meeting with the police, and threw the wrench into the due oath-taking arrangement for the new Prime Minister by saying the King has to decide who to appoint as PM because no single party has a clear majority. 

The Palace must have been influenced by him because what was earlier announced as a mid-morning 10 o'clock ceremony finally took place at almost 10 o'clock in the night,  12 hours later. 

To-day I saw the statement from the Palace denying that it had purposedly caused the delay. I saw Mahathir's hand shaking when flipping the oath notes. Yours would, too, if you have to wait that long in the cold room, for a ceremony lasting a whole 5 minutes!


Tok Sleman whatsapped me a lengthy note on the King's duty as provided by the law. I replied, and he didn't respond to that, that Najib owed it to Mahathir to speedily transfer the power he had lost in a decent, gentlemanly manner, and not leave the country in a legal vacuum for two whole days. 

He's always saying that he's a gentleman, a warrior. But his behaviour looked like a sore loser who had just been outsmarted by an old man almost twice his age, someone he called senile. He was the one looking senile and cowardly. And the delay in the announcing of the results stretched almost up to the next day. 

At 10 p.m. my daughter received news that Pakatan had already secured 120 Parliamentry seats, more than enough to form the new Federal government. And the final tally at 4.30 a.m. Friday morning was 121. So Najib must have known at 10 p.m. that he had lost, and must have called the IGP who came and asked what can be done to BN in the GE. The IGP must have said the margin of wins in the different states were too big to hide by any cheating techniques !

What Mahathir must do immediately is demand the reimposition of the Government Institution completely Constitutionally. The Police, the Courts and the AG, and the Parliament and the State Assemblies  must all enforce separately the Law. The EC should be taken to task immediately for the messy administration of the polls.

We should be proud that a fair and peaceful General Elections have been completed. But confusing instructions, lack of common sense, and the inability of thinking on their feet made the supervisors useless in overcoming the large crowds jamming the insufficient lines. Closing at 5 p.m. could, and in many polling stations, should have been extended where  large number of voters have turned up to carry out their political responsibility. and another hour could have been easily given. If the local station was unsure about what to do, the bosses somewhere in their office tower could surely have been contacted by phone.

Let's see the rest of the General Elections.

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