The People's Opposition

Whether on blogs or MSM, Penang Gerakan Youth consistent critisms of Penang DAP government are viewed negatively by a segment of its population.

The inability to recognize that in a vibrant democratic state there exist the people's government and the people's opposition.

Without an effective opposition, the people will suffer.

Recently, the Penang DAP government proposed to provide special benefit for senior citizens. Yet, many people do not realize that immediately after GE12, it abolished the issuance of senior citizen identification cards. These cards enable senior citizens to enjoy 50% fee discount on Rapid Penang buses.

Sdra Oh Tong Keong and myself fought against this abolishment and won. Currently, there are about 10,000 senior citizens that enjoyed this benefit.

If we had remained silent and used this as an election “bullet”, we will probably scored positive marks. But, we will actually failed the people especially the senior citizens. There are other similar examples.

DAP Penang as an opposition before GE12 was a near total failure. Yet this failure, had contributed to their success. Without strong checks and balances, the previous BN government was too complacent. Many are still in dreamland.

The irony is that with Penang Gerakan Youth proving to be a strong opposition, the Penang DAP government may eventually finds its bearing and performed to expectation.

From another perspective, the strong Penang Gerakan Youth opposition is a form of government-in-waiting or shadow cabinet. In contrast, DAP Penang when in opposition was weak, therefore, it was a weak government-in-waiting; now after one year in government they are still fumbling. Luckily, they have an imported publicist from Malacca to cover up their weaknesses.

Whatever it is, Penang Gerakan Youth must draw strength fron the satisfaction as an effective opposition as the struggle for the people mandate is a never-ending journey.