Poll: The Kajang Move – good idea or bad?

Let’s see what you think of the ‘Kajang Move’.

[yop_poll id=”7″]

Also, check out this critical piece from the Aliran website:

The dark treacherous road to Putrajaya

by Azmil Tayeb

Since when have Malaysians ever voted for the Prime Minister? The nature of the parliamentary system is such that the electorate chooses which political parties that best govern the country, which in turn choose who amongst their leaders should head up the executive branch i.e. to become the Prime Minister. There is no direct election for Prime Ministership, unlike in a Presidential system.

Thus, I am utterly puzzled at the examples proffered by the supporters of Anwar Ibrahim’s latest move to contest in the soon-to-be-held Kajang state seat by-election. The comparison to Jacques Chirac, Lee Myung-Bak, Reccep Erdogan, Joko Widodo, among others, is totally inapt and simply strains credulity.

It is established then that the political party is the lead actor in a parliamentary system, not the individual politician. So what is the point of having Anwar Ibrahim to take over the Chief Ministership of Selangor from Khalid Ibrahim (as much as Anwar is playing it down for now)? The electorate votes for the party, not the personality that embodies it. Anwar Ibrahim is not the be-all, end-all of the Opposition.

If it is about showcasing achievements of an Opposition-led state government to garner the people’s vote of confidence for the ultimate prize, Putrajaya, then replacing the Chief Minister of a well-performing state such as Selangor for no good reason is just folly. It is not clear what Anwar Ibrahim can do to promote the success of an Opposition-led state especially in the Umno/BN strongholds in the rural areas.

The questions remain: 1) how does showcasing the achievements of Selangor, Penang and Kelantan governments translate into possible victory of Pakatan in the next general election? 2) Since the successes of the Selangor and Penang governments have been evident since 2008 but somehow did not help Pakatan to win other states in the last general election, what else is new now? But these two questions are heavily premised on Pakatan’s eventual victory in a highly flawed and biased electoral system.

Instead of replacing the Chief Minister and creating unnecessary attention to its own ineptness maybe Pakatan should find better and more effective ways to publicise and market the achievements of Selangor and Penang to the wider audience against the stifling restrictions on the freedom of press and speech. It does not matter who is at the helm of the Selangor state government if the stories of its success only reverberate among its supporters and fail to make a dent among non-Pakatan voters. Full article on the Aliran website.