YOUR 1 VOTE (ONE VOTE) COUNTS

Malaysia has gone through 12 general elections and yet we had survived with absolute national resilience after more than 55 years since our independence. There a few challenging years as in 1963, 1969, 1998 and 2008 that had threatened our national unity, political and economic pitfalls created by the internal and external situations that had to be faced by the Barisan Nasional leadership and administration.

In the interest of the nation's progressive survival, your one vote counts in the 13th general election which is to held very soon when the current parliament dissolves on 28th April, 2013. This general election will be the "mother of all elections" led by the Najib's leadership that will shape the new Malaysia towards the year 2020. Today, we have seen the political antics from both sides of the political divide and it's our choice and decision which path the nation is heading forward in the next few decades. The result will be a positive signal to the nation to progress or degrade.

"A lot of voters always cast their ballot for the candidate who seems to them to be one of the people. That means he must have the same superstitions, the same unbalanced prejudices, and the same lack of understanding of public finances that are characteristic of the majority. A better choice will be a candidate who has a closer understanding and a better education than the majority. Too much voting is based on affability rather than on ability." (WILLIAM FEATHER)

We should admit that the nation had been subject to a certain degree of political uncertainty since end of 1998 when Anwar Ibrahim was ousted as the Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister as well as UMNO Deputy President. As a result of this inevitable and unpopular decision by the former prime minister Mahathir to sack Anwar from all his political and government positions, the opposition had gathered strength at the expense of Anwar's political downfall as the imminent successor to Tun Mahathir as the PM designate. In the 2004 general election, Tun Abdullah led BN to an astonishing victory with a huge majority. However, it was a real test for Pak Lah's leadership and governance and subsequently in the 2008 general election, we won by a slim majority but lost control of the five states; Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Penang as well as failed to recapture Kelantan from PAS. The rest is history that will trickle the political scale of the next government in the coming 13th general election.

In my simple mind as a grass root politician for the last few decades, I envisaged that the opposition will always raise their fingers to condemn the good or bad governance of the BN administration under Najib's leadership since he took over the government from April 2009. The present government under Najib had performed very well in terms of economic and social developments in so many sectors of the government and private entities, that one should not deny based on our narrow political perception. We should look beyond the political scenario and appreciate what the BN government had put in placed the various commitments under the various Government Transformation Programs (GTP) that will formed the basis of our choice in giving a new mandate to the next government in power.

It is not about convincing election manifestos but the commitments and deliverable are very important to this nation towards our developed status in the year 2020. Both sides of the political divide should reduce the politics of empty promises and perception in order to move this country forward. The opposition states had proven that they are not capable of administrating their states with dynamism and with innovations, etc. If they could not deliver their promises and commitments, how could we trust them in managing the federal government and the nation?

To all my fellow Malaysians, your one vote will make the change and difference for Malaysia. The choice is absolutely yours in the wake of continuity to move this nation forward to better times ahead.