PN has nothing to lose by offering to make Ramasamy the CM of Penang. The next state election in Penang is not due until 2028. Ramasamy might be more than 80 years old in another 5 years. He might not even be in politics by then.
Penang is also not within PN's reach in the first place. Even if, by chance, Ramasamy is still active in politics when the next state election in Penang commences, and PN has to make good on its promises, it loses nothing. Penang was never in the hands of PN to begin with. You lose nothing when you promise to give away something that you never had in the first place.
But imagine the power the sheer offer will have.
As it is, PH's claim that it is the party of reform while accusing PN of being a party of corruption is being undermined by Zahid's DNAA.
PH is widely seen as the party that wants to acquit Zahid while PN is seen as the party that wants to charge him. How is anyone supposed to see PH as the party of reform and PN as the party of corruption when this is the case?
Now if PN also offers to make Ramasamy the next CM of Penang, how will anyone be able to see PN as the racist party and PH as the multiracial party when PN will be the party that dignifies one of the most prominent Indian leaders in the country after PH insulted him?
It is also not impossible for Ramasamy to be the CM of Penang. For every 100 Penangites, only 45 are Chinese. The other 45 are Malay, and while 10 are Indians.
If the Malays and Indians combine their votes in Penang, it is not impossible for PN to capture Penang.
PN might not promise the Indians much, but at least it will be willing to make an Indian a CM.
Anwar and PH have promised the Indians heaven and the sky, but in the end, they cannot accept any Indian leader who has any self-respect.
Between a party that promises everything while delivering nothing and a party that underpromises and delivers more than it promises, it is wiser to choose the latter.
We don't know what Ramasamy and Hamzah talked about when they met recently, but we hope the possibility of cooperation was one of the subjects of discussion.
Ramasamy might have said a lot of things about PN in the past, but let's hope that it doesn't get in the way of him considering cooperating with PN.
At the end of the day, he is an Indian leader, and it is the duty of a leader to put the welfare and prospects of his people first.
Even if he feels uncomfortable or embarrassed to work together with PN after all that has been said and done in the past, we can only hope that he will remember his duty first.
As for PH, it can wear the image of reform, multiracialism, and change, but can its image stand the test of reality?
PH better remember that people voted for it because it claimed that it is a party of reform, change, and multiculturalism.
Its mandate to rule, in other words, is based on its image as a party of reform, change, and multiculturalism.
If its image continues to shatter when put to the test in reality, for all intents and purposes, it will lose its mandate to rule.
Post August 12, PN will have a lot to reflect upon in its post-mortem.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy was a columnist at FMT, a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, a mathematics teacher in the Klang Valley, and a seeker of the meaning of life. So far, there are three things that he holds to be unequivocally true. The first is that the purpose of life is to pursue happiness, the second is that you cannot be happy unless you carry your fair share of the world's weight and the third is that you can never underestimate your ability to take your own side.
TheRealNehruism is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact Newswav.
