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http://archive.freemalaysiatoday.com/fmt-english/opinion/comment/4912-hope-and-fear-inhulu-selangor

By Gobind Rudra COMMENT As voters cast their ballots in Hulu Selangor today there will be renewed hope among those who seek political change in the country, almost as much as among those who wish merely for business as usual. Curiously, the business-as-usual crowd, that of the Barisan Nasional, have jumped on the bandwagon and also adopted the vocabulary of change. They have no choice: the BN lives in fear of real change. Political power has been profitable for Umno-BN and its followers and the easy-money class of rent-seekers around them do not want the gravy train to be derailed. The "change" that the BN has sought is for voters to reject true political change and stick with the tried and trusted. But there has been no change in their methods: money has poured in to persuade voters that there is no profit in political change. It shows how much desperation, frustration and fear now exists among BN leaders. March 2008 has shown that the people can have a will of their own, that "people power" is not empty rhetoric, and that the tried and trusted have been tried and found wanting. A simple question of trust Trust is the quality that is on trial: which of these parties can earn common trust, which of the candidates will safely bear the keys to the future of the common man and that of his children? Trust is what led to the choice of the two candidates. Zaid Ibrahim and his stand against the unbridled use of the despised Internal Security Act, loved only by policemen, has been presented as the candidate that voters can trust to stand up when it counts. The BN' s choice of P Kamalanathan speaks of a different approach, a crude, cynical and manipulative approach: that voters can be swayed by the illusion of a fresh face, of youth untainted by scandal, of energy, and the promise he can be trusted to deliver. But deliver what? His own promise was merely to deliver Hulu Selangor as a gift to his political master.

Power and privilege versus a question of justice That master, Najib Tun Razak, has a lot riding on this election. Where pundits try to make every election into a referendum (a well-loved tactic to invest more significance than a local election might have) Najib has literally done so. His move, though unusual, is not surprising. There are many fissures within his own party, with his grip on the helm still shaky after only a year in office, and with discontent building up from the loss of patronage that many have suffered, and further potential losses in any programme of political or economic reforms. Power and patronage By calling this by-election a referendum on his administration, Najib has unfairly asked the voters of Hulu Selangor to secure his leadership of Umno and the Barisan Nasional. Given their own problems of everyday life, a lot of which is a result of BN's long tenure in power, Hulu Selangor voters might well ask: why should they? For profit, it seems. By staking so much on this by-election, Najib and the BN have fallen back on ways of old: by trying to buy the election (with taxpayer funds at that) and seem willing to strong-arm the needed vote. Najib brought "ang pows" at a campaign stop and promised: "Even before winning, we are already giving out ang pows. If we win, the ang pows will be bigger." For Felda settlers, it was more of the same: a payout to settle a longoustanding debt, with more promised if the BN were to win. And for Indian voters, another gimmicky promise to end the never-ending Maika saga which has resulted in poor Indians waiting decades for the return of their money, let alone any profits. That all this reeks of corruption, injustice, and a subversion of due process seems to have been ignored by the BN: perhaps they believe that voters care only for their own self-interest and not for larger issues of justice and just governance. By doing so, Najib and the BN reveal a surprising depth of true contempt for the voter and his ability to see reason. If so, there will be a comeuppance if Malaysia's voters decide to turn contempt back on them. And that is truly the sum of all the BN's fears.