The NST Editorial: Blending experience and enthusiasm

Complacency is not an option as BN fights to wrest back its two-thirds parliamentary majority

PARLIAMENTARIANS and state assembly members are there for a very specific purpose -- to serve the voters who number tens of thousands, if not more, who voted to send them there in the first place. But, serving a constituency is not about looking after the interests of only the supporters.

Rather, everyone residing in the constituency must be looked after, hence the reason for the secret ballot, so that the minority will not be discriminated against. Consequently, the people's representative is busy, needing much energy and commitment. Between parliamentary and assembly sittings and serving the constituency, the member of parliament (MP) and the assemblyman or woman (Adun), respectively, should barely have the time for other activities.

For the needs of the constituents are unending, spanning the mundane through to the very complex.
While age is no indication of vigour, let alone commitment, there are some sitting members who appear to have become bored with the whole exercise, having spent far too many years in the corridors of power.

And, now that parliamentary sittings are on camera, the often empty chambers speak for themselves. The jaded appearance of some representatives, too, is singularly telling. Now that the life of the current Parliament and most state assemblies is about to expire, the time is right for some introspection on the part of the Barisan Nasional MPs and Aduns. Given what happened on March 8, 2008, they must ask themselves whether it is not better to make way for new blood. Indeed, they were victorious that fateful day, but might not projecting an image of party first, all else later, be attractive to a restive electorate?

The flow of public policies as negotiated by Putrajaya has been impeccable. That has led to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) predicting a BN victory at GE13. Nevertheless, complacency is not an option as the coalition fights to wrest back its two-thirds parliamentary majority.

The raison d'être for selection of BN candidates, therefore, must be nothing other than that the person is "winnable". Lacklustre performance, on the other hand, is the criteria for dropping sitting MPs and Aduns.

Today's people's representative must look like their constituents and work tirelessly for them. The aim is to have a BN line-up that is voter-friendly: to portray a coalition that does put people first and demands performance now. What BN must do then is to bring about a healthy mix of ageless experience and fresh enthusiasm. In one fell swoop, too, a succession strategy -- the cornerstone of good management -- is laid.


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