Of 66 - 63: Too close for comfort

The "absentees" - plucked from Zorro unmasked

Whilst most are rejoicing Malaysian soccer team's chance to end 20 year-medal drought, another cliffhanger was being played in the real corridor's of power.

1M PM6, Ong TK and Koh Tsu Koon had to rush to the parliament's house to secure a slim 66-63 2010 budget approval. Imagine these :-

• We have 222 elected MPs' and only 129 were present during the crucial voting. That's only 58.1 % attendance;
• Where are the balance 93 MPs'? Are all of them on oversea missions? Are all of them in Viantine, Laos? Are all of them in front of TVs' rooting for Malaysia at the expense of the budget approval?;
• BN has 137 MP's and yet they can only secure 66 votes which is 48.17 % of their actual strength. Where are the balance 71 BN MPs?;
• Better still there are 3 independent MPs' in the house. Were they there last night? If they were, which side did they vote? If all 3 were present and all 3 voted for BN, then BN owes them a lot;
• PR has 82 MPs' and 63 were in the house. That's 76 % attendance which is quite good. But where are the balance 19 MPs? Although some were allowed to attend to their function elsewhere but what about the others?
• Is it that crucial to have the voting done at night? If the courts decided that MACC could not interrogate suspects after office hours, what about parliament voting? Is it necessary to carry out the voting that particular night? Couldn't they postpone the voting to the next morning?
  

It shows that BN is still too complacent and that complacency almost cost 1MPM6 his 2010 budget. It is time for DPM as BN's whip to start cracking. Remember when AAB called on BN's MPs' to attend the parliamentary sessions? Where are their attendance book? Who have been playing truants at the peoples' expenses?

I see that the opposition has been quite responsible in carrying out their duties. BN? It seems that they never learn or rather unwilling to learn from the harsh lesson of 2008. If 1MPM6 cares about his seat after GE13, he should start his house cleaning early and bring in dedicated party workers.

As for the opposition, they are getting there. What tehy need is sime refinement. It is too taxing to have some of their MPs' doubling uup as state reps as well as Menteri Besars. The opposition must learn how to share the cake. One person juggling between various commitments may be too taxing for him too.

It is also time for the 3 independent MPs' to flex their skinny muscles. Now is the right time for them to vote based on their conscious and it will not be too much to say that both BN and PR will be more than willing to meet their needs.

That said, Malaysia needs a strong government and BN MPs' should not be lulled into complacency anymore. If BN MPs' wanted to serve the people, they better serve now or else they should be packing their bags and their seats in the coming elections...

Till then...G'nite M'sia...wherever u are...