As posted by Dr. Mahathir Mohamad at Che Det on June 18, 2014
1. In a democracy there should be Opposition whose job is to oppose the Government. In the more mature democracies the Opposition may at times support the Government or take a bipartisan stand. But mostly, and certainly in new democracies, the Opposition simply opposes.
2. The objective of the Opposition is to bring down the Government and to take over. They are not really interested in issues or the wrong things the Government is doing. These issues are good only for blackening the governing party so as to bring it down..
3. It is a mistake for the Government to accede to or meet the demands of the Opposition. Acceding to their demand will not result in their supporting the Government. They will make sure their supporters too will not switch their support to the Government.
4. They will either belittle the Government’s decision or they will come up with new issues.
5. This was what happened to the Government’s decision to drop the ISA. The Opposition never said thank you or praise the liberalism of the Government. Certainly they would not support the Government because it had met their demand. The attack against the Government continued. And the result was the performance of the Goverment party becoming worse than when the ISA was in the statute books.
6. On the Government side compliance with the Opposition stand angers its supporters. They would regard the Government as weak and withdraw their support.
7. In the case of the ISA the law enforcers too felt they have been betrayed. The crime rate grows and the security people gets the blame.
8. The people will also feel betrayed and angry with the rise of crime rates
9. The Government has gained nothing and has lost a lot due from trying to please the Opposition. Has the Government learnt the lesson?
10. Apparently the Government is still bent on pleasing the Opposition rather than Government supporters. There is now a move to accede to the Opposition demands for meritocracy. Three laws are to replace the Sedition Act which will have the effect of ending the affirmation Action of the New Economic Policy.
