HINDARKAN DIRI DARIPADA TERMAKAN FITNAH HINDARKAN DIRI DARIPADA MEMBACA AKHBAR HARIAN UM, BH, STAR, SUN & NEW STRAITS TIMES, HINDARKAN DIRI DARIPADA MENONTON BERITA RTM & TV3.

Are the Chinese solidly behind BN?

Many commentators, and Dr M himself, have loudly proclaimed that the Chinese are solidly behind UMNO and the BN. The fact is: that is not so. It has never been so, as an examination of previous election results show clearly. In the BN's best ever showing in 1995, they managed to win about 65% of the vote. Where did this 65% come from? Well, I'm not the Elections Commission and wouldn't be able to give you exact figures. But I did some figuring of my own and came up with the following. It seems quite fair to assume that 70% of the bumiputera and the Indians voted for the BN in 1995. If so, then 52% of the Chinese voted for the BN that year. This would hardly be what one might call "solid support", definitely no "solid grip". And remember, this was in 1995, the BN's best ever showing. In normal years, the extent of Chinese support for the BN would be around 35-40%. So why all this talk, so much so that many in the Opposition have even come to believe it? Is all this talk so that should the BN and UMNO win, the Opposition, which is strongly Malay-based, will blame it on the Chinese? Or is it just an attempt to create a psychological band-wagon effect? Knowing that the Malay percentage is likely to drop, the Chinese vote has become crucial.

For instance, should the Malay percentage supporting the BN and UMNO drop to 50%, the Indian vote drop slightly to 60%, and the Chinese voters return to their more usual pattern of voting and give the BN 35% of their vote, the BN will only get 47 % of the total vote casts. Even if the Chinese were to give the BN 45% of their vote, the BN would still get only 49% of the total votes cast. So, in fact, while publicly wooing the Chinese voters, UMNO is quietly going around on its door-to-door, group-to-group campaigns to try and secure at least 55% of the Malay vote. Such quiet campaigns are of the 'bisik-bisik' type. Let's not fall for the old divide-and-rule game, the whipping up of mutual suspicion and blame. No need to say, the Chinese this, or the Malay that. That said, we must also be realistic and be aware that even if the BN gets a minority of the votes, the way the game is stacked, they can still get a majority of the seats. Why do you think they are talk so confidently of winning the elections? So, let's just go out there and campaign for all we are worth, door to door, person to person, group to group. Let's anticipate every dirty trick they will play, and all the scare-mongering they are going to spread.

Versailles and White House rolled into one

Why so shy? At last, we have a Versailles and White House rolled into one, enough to put to shame both the Sun King as well as the imperial pretenders in Washington. But it appears we have created a Forbidden City. July 7th, Bernama, the voice of Malaysian truth, reported that the public -- such an insulting term; we are citizens and we are paying for this pride and joy of Malaysia -- are not allowed to visit the grounds of the PM's office and department, what more the office and residence. Why so shy to show it? Why
only talk about how we, too, can have something to rival the biggest and brightest of the West's gaudy monuments? We want to see it and to share in that pride and glory, all RM15 million or RM200 million or whatever, of it. In fact, we demand our rights under the new Consumer Protection Act. We have paid our money, and now we demand to look at the goods, to see whether we got what we paid for.

PAS and TV3

PAS has every reason to be upset with TV3, seeing how TV3 has gone out of its way, even more than RTM, to blacken PAS. So it should come as no surprise if, as reported on TV3 Wednesday night, PAS supporters ask TV3 crew to leave the site of a ceramah and to erase or turn over all tapes. Say that's what happened. What's the big deal? The BN government has itself black-listed journalists and news organisations. They have even banned some of them at one time or another. Indeed, at the press conference in February when they announced the partial reversal of some of the capital controls, they banned foreign journalists from the event, even though the announcement concerned foreign investors. More, UMNO Youth has been known to bare its fangs at the media, too. But no, this is PAS. So, all political capital was to be made out of this event, true or not. Thus, today's headlines. And last night's TV3 headlines calling them "PAS zealots" That this is orchestrated should be evident from the way Bernama covered the story with identical headlines "PAS Zealots Seize TV3 Videotape from Cameraman", and then describing them as "the 20-strong mob".

Privatised roads cost more to build Privatisation is supposed to save the country money, provide better and more efficient service, and at lower cost. Page 293 of the Mid-Term Review of the Seventh Malaysia Plan carries a table showing the cost of already completed roads. Surprise, surprise! According to that table, government-funded road projects cost an average of RM11 million per kilometre, whereas privatised projects cost an average of RM25 million per kilometre.

Worrying about taxi drivers The Minister for Entrepreneur Development has warned taxi drivers that they could lose their licence if they played tapes of opposition speeches or criticised the government in conversation with passengers. Is the licence given on pain of being a crony? Are licences a bribe? RTM is closed to the opposition. Malay students are scolded as stupid and lazy. University lecturers are threatened. And now even poor cabbies. Taxi drivers should put up a notice saying: "We are forbidden from any discussion of politics unless it is to praise the Barisan Nasional".

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