Talk Regarding May 13

The question now appears to be: Najib or Mahathir?

If you're an average, somewhat-intelligent life form, of Malaysian nationality, you might regard this as being between the devil and the deep blue sea. I don't blame you.

But this is what is being debated between Haris Ibrahim of The People's Parliament and Raja Petra Kamarudin.

There are a couple of things that I whole-heartedly agree with RPK:

1. UMNO political strategy is indeed being guided by Mahathir. From who was to succeed him as Prime Minister to the formation of a right wing organisation called Perkasa and a paramilitary organisation called RELA (whom everyone seems to forget about).

2. There are very likely plans to cause trouble post-GE13. It has been mentioned a number of times and the arms and weapons training that RELA have recently undergone points in that direction.

And for the sake of it:

3. Pakatan Rakyat do deserve some of the whacking that they receive.

But I digress. Back to the debate over keeping to Plan A or adopting Plan B.

Every somewhat-intelligent Malaysian life-form (and far more so the intelligent ones) would agree with Plan A: Vote for Pakatan Rakyat.

That is what I'm planning to do myself -- no secret there of what my vote will be.

The issue at hand is Plan B: Accept defeat should PR lose due to BN's unscrupulous cheating.

I find that hard to stomach, for many reasons:

1. The Malaysian public have issued an ultimatum to the BN government to implement the election reforms or face our wrath. Personally, I don't like going back on my word.

2. I don't believe in cowering to threats of violence and unrest. The bloodshed of May 13, 1969 happened a decent number of years before I was born and the matter is still being brought up every now and then. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, GIVE IT A REST!!! At the end of the day, it will only be brought up if people still fear it.

3. It is entirely possible that Mahathir and his minions are expecting the Malaysian public to be frightened by these threats and back down. Why should we prove them right each time?

4. When May 13 happened, no one conceived that such a thing could happen. Today, we are aware and thus forewarned. People are prepared.

5. Perkasa and RELA would have to be extremely motivated to risk their lives for political ambition. Yes, they are aware that they have a lot to lose. But they have been complacent and comfortable for years, and it is hard to see them willing to be killed.

6. Malaysians have a lot to lose if the BN government stays in power. The people have been bled of natural resources, financial coffers, good governance and just plain justice. I expect to see a fair amount of indignance from being cheated of their democratic right to vote and elect the government of their choice. I know of people willing to die for their beliefs.

I am glad to see that the social and political activists have gone down to Ground Zero to reach those who need to be reached.

Too much effort has been put in for anyone to back down now.