An open letter to MP Fong Kui Lun (DAP - Bukit Bintang)

An open letter to MP Fong Kui Lun (DAP - Bukit Bintang)
Posted by Raja Petra
Friday, 14 March 2008, MT

Dear YB Fong,

Three months ago, I asked you a question on how the opposition parties are going to work together for the 12th General Election if you have not even experimented with the formation of a shadow cabinet. Your reply to me then was to pull a face of displeasure at so impertinent a question.

Earlier this week, the leader of your party issued a statement that has made many Malaysians angry. His apology since then has barely registered, and rightly so, it will take us a while to forgive, let alone forget.

Let us suppose for a moment that the opposition parties had spent a couple of days behind closed doors to strategise before the GE.

Scenario 1:
Perak State leaders from DAP, PKR and PAS sit down to strategise the 'what if' outcome. They calculate that if the state falls, DAP will hold the greatest number of seats. DAP decides to swap a "safe seat" with PKR, so that at least one ADUN from DAP will be qualified to become MB in case BN falls.

Scenario 2:
Or they make sure they have at least one Malay Muslim candidate on their ticket to keep the possibility of a DAP MB open.

Scenario 3:
Or come up with a brief blueprint on how to allocate positions once the dust settles.

Scenario 4:
Did not even read up on the state constitution prior to March 8th. Which is what seems most likely to have transpired.

Neither your party, or PKR or PAS has had the foresight to plan for the future. Let’s put that aside for the moment as a part of growing pains. What about the Indians and HINDRAF?

HINDRAF was the first to make demands regarding the top state positions. But have you realised that the headquarters for HINDRAF as listed on their official website has been a place devoid of activity for months. The heart and soul of HINDRAF lie in Kamunting, yet I have seen in the past few days all kinds of calls on behalf of this organisation that claims to speak for Indians.

On top of that, the Hindu Sangam and Indian Business Guilds and others of their ilk have realised that their Master, i.e. MIC, is dying if not dead and are suddenly finding their voice again after 30 years of silence.

What steps are you taking as a "coalition" to ensure that this organisation called HINDRAF, and the voice of the Indian voters is not hijacked by opportunists or even worse, by ex MIC honchos?

FROM AN OPEN LETTER TO THE OPPOSITION PARTIES AND HINDRAF, MALAYSIA TODAY DEC 12TH 2007.

.....Yesterday, DAP hosted a talk " A New Deal For Marginalised Indians " at NUBE in Brickfields.
The message delivered by all the speakers is for Malaysian Indians to spread the news and to vote for the opposition candidates in the next GE, as well as an open invitation for them to join the respective parties.

It will be a crying shame if the next GE sees a reduction in the popular vote to BN to below the 50% mark, and yet BN still forms the government because the Opposition parties can't unite and work together in a more concrete manner.

When this question was raised to the speakers, not a single one of them said they will speak to the other leaders to get the ball rolling, all we get is more rhetoric about the raw deal the Indians have had, how UMNO is bad, and the same old sob stories.

Time for rhetoric is over.

PAS, KeADILan, DAP, PSM and whoever else, put your heads together and show us that you can unite beyond individual ideologies to come with a blueprint for a better Malaysia. Decide on which is more important. Your individual ideologies or a better future for Malaysia and Malaysians?.............

Jeevindra Kumar