'We'll take our chances with the angels'

YOURSAY 'It takes a leap of faith, but that's better than being imprisoned continually by our Stockholm's syndrome.'

Mahathir: Yes, we are the devils people know

Swipenter: In admitting that BN is the devil, Dr Mahathir Mohamad was (and still is) playing the devil's advocate.

During his 22-year tenure as PM, we see our country polarised along racial and religious lines - institutionalised racism flourished and religious bigotry creeping into the administrative organs of the government.

Corruption became all pervasive and cancerous. Nepotism and cronyism are the new politics. The judiciary, PDRM (Royal Malaysian Police), EC (Election Commission) and other democratic institutions became completely compromised.

Underneath the thin veneer of modern infrastructures of highways, seaports, airport, F1 racing circuit, super corridors, glittering towers, new administrative capital, etc, the country is rotting away under a faux democracy.

Absalom: Dr M, the country is so well endowed with all the good things, favourable climate for agriculture, no natural disasters, natural resources more than most countries and a small but hardworking population; given these, a bunch of chimpanzees could have done better in the last three decades than you and BN, trust me.

Also consider what you (and your successors) leave behind - a huge national debt from decades of running a deficit budget in spite of all the windfall oil revenue), a messed-up public education system, lop-sided privatisation contracts for highways, water and power generation agreements which the taxpayers have to abide by for many years to come, the illegal outflow of funds, corruption at its worst, the issue of illegal immigrants which has gone out of control; with all these legacies, anyone who takes over, has his work cut out.

And I think the opposition has proven itself the better choice to deal with these, judging from the states they are managing.

Bartimaeus 2020: This is the game the ‘Melayu Celup' has been playing time and again: to deflect probing questions about the immense wealth he and his sons have accumulated.

Here it is pertinent to mention that according to author Barry Wain, RM100 billion was stolen from the nation or squandered during the Celup's watch. Surely a man so complicit in such a staggering loss cannot be regarded as a patriot.

Therefore when Pakatan forms the government, a tribunal similar to the Nuremberg courts must be set up to inquire into the assets of the Celup and his sons, and if it is established that theirs was not legitimately acquired, then they must be caned in public and sentenced to long prison terms with hard labour.

Their wealth, of course, ought to seized and returned to the people of Malaysia.

AnonMsia: Mahathir said, "I can assure you if they ever win, they will make sure they will continue to win forever."

This is what he and his successors in BN have been doing and will continue to do. That's why they say ‘kotor' is better than ‘bersih'.

AnonMsia: In describing BN as a known devil and Pakatan Rakyat an unknown angel, Dr M is correct because BN's generally evil deeds are too numerous to cover up, whereas Pakatan's good deeds are not known to many of the uneducated, mostly rural folks, and new citizens created with Project IC/Mahathir.

Versey: The millions of illegal immigrants swamping Sabah is one of the 'achievements' of this devil's scheme to ensure his successors in BN will continue to win forever.

Anonymous #72737246: Yes, clean up the electoral roll, clear out those Maggi mee-style citizenship and BN will have no way of winning anymore because that's how it made sure they continued to win to this day.

James_3392: Being a politician is not a highly respectable profession, not all promises made is meant to be fulfilled. US President Barack Obama and Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim are no exception.

It will be naive to believe that Pakatan can organise a super clean and efficient government within the next five years.

Pakatan will however sever the rent-seeking and corrupt practices of Umno instantly. Is that not good enough reason for change?

Restless_Native: This is the last kick of a dying horse, if you ask me. He came out from his cave when he saw that his day of judgement might come sooner than he had planned. So, what does he do? Spit more vitriolic venom as usual on race and religion.

If, after 50-odd years, this is all he can come up with, he has indeed gone past his "relevance date". Yes Mahathir, the rakyat are dying to see you and your family dragged through the courts.

Nothing would please us more than to see you run for your sordid life and pine away in one of your many distant possessions that were wrought with the rakyat's money - perhaps on your 1,000 acre farm in Uruguay? That would be sweet justice indeed.

DontPlayGod: The opposition can do worse? How much worse can the Pakatan government do seeing that we are already scrapping the bottom of the barrel in politics, seeing that we are already another Zimbabwe and Greece in the making.

Quigonbond: Only Dr M can successfully argue that white is black. Angels may pass judgement and come down hard on those who flout its straight and narrow law, but it's judgement is just and fair.

Yes, some people will inevitably be prosecuted under Pakatan rule, and some businesses will go under because they can never compete in the real world in the first place. But millions other Malaysians have nothing to fear if they walk the relatively honest path.

So no, Dr M, it's better for us to avoid the devil we know and go with the angel we don't. It takes a leap of faith, but that's better than being imprisoned continually by our Stockholm's syndrome.

Jeremy Ng: This devil has gone out of control. It had been left unchecked for the last half a century. It had further destroyed every institution of the democratic system in this country.

It has hampered the true progress of the Malays via its use of divisive racial and religious policies. Any new angel or possibly potential devil will be better off than this self-professed devil.

Hbasill: It is not the devils versus the angels. It is the issue of greater evil versus the lesser evil. I would settle for lesser evil Pakatan and not greater evil BN.

Think_Act_Live_Now: I am not a betting man, but if I had to put down some money between two horses, I'd bet it on the one which has some chance of success than the one whom I know has no chance of success.

But Mahathir is telling me that it is better to bet on the bad horse because the good one might not be good. I can't see the logic in this. How did we ever get led by a leader who has such a mentality?