(Harakah) - Prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin (pic) has chided Malaysians for being more quick in pointing fingers when things go wrong in the country, and urged them to see how they contributed to the current mess by voting in Barisan Nasional without fail.
“You want to blame (former prime minister) Dr Mahathir (Mohamad) for your stupidity. You do not want to admit that it is you who are stupid. So you blame BTN. You blame UMNO. You blame the mainstream media. You blame PAS. You blame the Islamic State. You blame Hudud. You blame the fact that Dr Mahathir has Indian blood in him. You blame the fact there was no Internet. You blame your parents who did not know any better.
"If you could, you would also like to blame Prophet Muhammad -- except that you are not quite sure how to do this,” said the plain-talking Petra in his most recent posting on his news portal Malaysia Today.
Petra said Malaysians had been supporting BN despite its clear abuses over the past 12 general elections, adding that the BN were their choice even at a time when opposition parties were rising such as in the 1990, 1995 and 1999 elections.
According to Petra, the opposition parties had fared only slightly better - over 1 per cent of popular votes in 2008 compared to 1990 - the year UMNO was at its weakest following the failed challenge by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to oust Mahathir in the party's presidential election.
“So, can the excuse that BN did well because there was no Internet yet at that time hold water? In 1990 there was no Internet. In 2008 the Internet had already fully matured. But in 2008 the vote improvement was only 1 percent over 1990,” he wrote.
Petra's comments came in the wake of widespread public anger especially among netizens against Mahathir for his role in granting citizenship to foreigners in Sabah in a bid to retain power.
The Sabah Royal Commission of Inquiry has revealed shocking details how foreigners were given temporary Malaysian identity cards for voting purposes.
But Petra said blaming Mahathir was easy, as is making the former UMNO strongman a scapegoat for all the problems faced by the country.
“Ultimately, you are to blame. And pinning the blame on Dr Mahathir is your way of shifting the blame so that you need not kick yourself,” added Petra, predicting yet another victory for BN at the coming polls due to a repeat of the same attitude among voters.
