Thursday, March 20, 2008

Sabah And Sarawak Got The Crumbs

Hantu Laut

The guessing game is over. Abdullah has chosen his retinue of ministers.Although most of them will travel with him comfortably some will be thorns in the flesh.

It seems that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is oblivious and not in the habit of paying compliments and compensations to faithful and loyal supporters. Reward is definitely not in his lexicon but parochialism is.

Sabah and Sarawak delivered 24 and 30MP seats respectively. All the seats from Sarawak have no UMNO content. Johor delivered 25 MP seats and got the most ministerial positions. The saviours, Sabah and Sarawak got the crumbs. This unappreciated and unfair allocation of representations at federal level may cost the BN dearly in the next elections.

Former Deputy Minister Anifah Aman from Sabah has declined the offer of appointment as deputy minister .

Sabah lost only 1 MP and 1 state seats while Sarawak lost only 1 MP seat.There was no state election in Sarawak this time.

A friend of mine jokingly said the day after the full result was announced that the federal capital should be moved either to Kuching or Kota Kinabalu. He said we have given them a comfortable majority and without Sabah and Sarawak they can't form the central government.

Sabahans and Sarawkians have stayed faithful to BN inspite of Anwar's PKR election promises of a 2nd deputy prime minister, to increase oil royalty, to return Labuan to Sabah and many other luring promises.

With the excellent election results, they think they would get better treatment from the federal government as rewards for loyalty. Too bad, that was not the case at the moment.

It's too early to tell what PM Abdullah intended for Sabah and Sarawak.He may reward them in other forms.

12 comments:

Monsterball said...

Maybe Badawi knows something we don't.
Not implying anything...just keep your eyes and ears wide open.
Many interesting things will be happening in the next few months.

Anonymous said...

HL,

Yes, maybe they will be given rewards in other forms, but I doubt it. I don't want to say it but....."serves them right"!
AAB is still sleeping! Someone please wake him up! As for AAB "knowing something we don't" well...I very much doubt it. He is still "reeling" from the 12th GE results.
I think Datuk Zaid Ibrahim did accept the post offered to him. Hopefully he is given "free-rein" to do what needs to be done to improve our Judiciary (I very much doubt it). Let's see what the outcome of the "Lingam-gate" fiasco is! Don't even want to think about the "Razak Baginda" trial!
I think Rafidah said she will call a Press Conference today. Although she got a lot of crap from TDM about the AP's, I still feel that she was a good Minister & should have been retained. In fact, he should have made her DPM!
I think he will live to regret this, but then again...?

gram.kong said...

kittykat46,
Unless he changed his style of governing I can't foresee he tenure as PM going to be smooth sailing.

He can stay as PM the next 5 years but can he repair the damage done to UMNO to recapture the losses in the next polls ?

gram.kong said...

SM,
I still think Zaid should be given an independent ministry.We used to have Minister of Law but was made redundant.It could be revived to take care of the judiciary and the AG chambers and the review of legislations and other legal matters.

I agree with you Rafidah has been a good Minister of Trade and she should have been moved to other ministry where they can use her talent to strengten low-performing ministry.

By August this year we will know whether Abdullah will still be PM or not.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps it is a sign that relationship between Musa Aman and Badawi is not really as harmonious as believed. The same might apply to UMNO Sabah and UMNO Peninsula.
A secret tussle here?

Anonymous said...

Tengku Razaleigh has said he will challange Pak Lah this August if he gets enough support!
TJust like DSAI, Tengku Razaleigh has been waiting for something like this for a looooong time! Looks like he never gave up on trying to be PM!
I really pity Pak Lah. He is fighting for his Political Life now & doing it while still asleep!

Anonymous said...

As people say, the chinese and indian are second class citizens in BN rule. I say sabahans and sarawakians are the 3 class citizens.Surprisingly they still support BN, still hopeful with the corridors perhaps.

Pak Zawi said...

Sabah and Sarawak were left out from the cabinet because that is what happens when you are perceived to be DPM's supporter. If you look through the list, not many of Najib's supporters are left. That is another strategy that Abdullah is excercising to remain in power. He only wished to be a two term PM. Who cares about the third term?

gram.kong said...

Supa,

I think it's not that.I think Badawi is not in the habit of thanking people or compliments them for a job well-done.He wants to take the credit himself but than people know..

gram.kong said...

SM,
I think Razaleigh should and should only be transitional as age is not in his favour.

I still think Pak Lah basically a good man but a bad administrator.The nation will suffer if he stays on.

gram.kong said...

Hi Raja Petra,
I like your satirical blog.It's amusingly funny.

I hope the government and the Malay community would have a sense of humour to take it as that....satire ?

gram.kong said...

Zawi,

Nice to hear from you.I heard all the voters ferried by UMNO to Kelantan from outstations voted PAS instead of UMNO.

If I am not mistaken, Pak Lah has said a PM needs at least 18 years to show results.I don't think the people have that kind of patience.

If Pak Lah is still there as PM next polls, I bet Sabah and Sarawak will shift to the other side.