Bob has agreed with Charles F Moreira who pointed out that oppositions had so far not matched their manifesto to the voters’ expectation. So do I. In a society as primitive as ours, voters can’t see how rights or civil liberty will improve their life. For these people who vote by stomach, to put food on table is paramount.

Charles was right in observing that,

“It is high time we face some unpalatable facts in that the Western concepts of democracy, free speech, free press and human rights are not an Asian tradition. Asians have mostly known feudalism, patronage and cronyism, and which places priority on economic well-being.”

Concuring, Bob disclosed that without pursuing further on rights, freedom and liberty, coupled up with the absense of a comprehensive policy on national issues, oppositions has already been reduced to merely reacting to Umno’s mistakes point-by-point on “bread-and-butter” issues. What if Umno makes less mistakes ? Many claimed that the autocratic PAP in Temasek is good, to the extent of claiming that oppositions are unnecessary, just because economic is not too bad. They have forgotten that without civil liberty and press freedom, there is no way to prevent PAP from going astray.

Not that rights and freedom are not important. However, Malaysians failed to see that many of the problems today have arisen due to the lack of these rights. We must help them to contextualise how these rights are going to affect them in issues close to their heart, for example, cost of living, fuel, housing, public transport, national car etc. We should emphasis that democracy, rights and freedoms are all means to ensure that our ends, including social stability and economic well-beings, are attainable.

Yes, mediocre Umno is still far from awarding us starvations. Yet, the opportunity cost to keep Hudud at bay should not be surrendering our constitutional rights and let BN milk us as much as they wish. It’s high time for us recapture our rights, else, we and our descendents will be living by the grace of Umno forever. Rights and freedom are instrumental in ensuring our economic well-being, Keadilan should emphasis on this !