Here's A Kleenex, Tajol Rosli

Post-elections, there is an astonishing article in Utusan Malaysia concerning the outgoing Mentri Besar of Perak, Tajol Rosli Mohamed Ghazali.

Apparently, he is so devastated by Saturday’s general elections results he is holed up inside the official residence weeping like a boy.

Word is he is unable to compose himself long enough to even talk to the press and make an official statement conceding defeat to the opposition alliance.

Yes, it is shocking that the alliance between DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat and PAS, has won 31 out of the 59 state executive seats. But really, is it surprising – especially in Perak where years of neglect and incompetence has turned the state into one of the poorest economic performers in the country?

For the last 30 years, Perak has had to live with the disgrace of starting off brilliantly – thanks to mining and rubber – and ending up dismally. Its state capital Ipoh does not even have a university. In fact, many parts of the city have fallen into decay and disrepair as more and more businesses close shop and move out of Perak. From one of the richest and most well resourced states in the country, Perak has fallen to the par of the rice-growing states. We have the per capita of a true ‘pomelo country’ here.

With the lack of a thriving economy in the heart of the capital, Perak has lost a whole generation of youth and manpower to dynamic neighbouring states. The joke is there is an invisible community of interstate commuters. Young men and women who work in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya from Monday to Friday and coming home to their families in Perak on Saturday before leaving again on Sunday. But it ain’t a haha-funny kind of joke. Not when people from richer states snigger and call you ‘Ipoh mali’ to your face.

And then there are the issues of flyovers being built over people’s heads and light industrial areas being allowed to be developed 100 metres from residential doorsteps. Hills that are cut down indiscriminately, marring one of the most beloved natural limestone landscapes in the country. Elderly people being mugged and killed on evening walks. Illegal plastic factories. The $4.5 million Perak State Park two-storey building that collapsed in Tasik Banding.

When a man can’t even ‘cari makan’ in his own hometown, when his kids don’t even have access to a proper university (without being subjected to the humiliating process of passing a KULIT-FICATION test), when on a daily basis his health, safety, economic and moral welfare is being threatened, what do you think he’ll do?

Because of all these things, Umno has lost. Barisan has lost. Yes, Tajol Rosli, cry. It’s your party and you should cry because you need to.