The recent BN-organised Chinese New Year celebration in Penang says a lot about BN politics in Malaysia.
After 12 elections have passed with BN winning each of them, they are clinging to what they perceive as the foolproof way of campaigning, giving out meaningless one-time knee-jerk sweet candy deals to the rakyat right before the elections.
The cash give out to students and retirees, handphone rebates for teenagers, the sweet deals in recognising certificates from Taiwan's higher learning institutes to please the Chinese, bringing in pop stars to perform in Chinese New Year celebrations - are all ploys to gather support for BN in the upcoming election.
They have used similar methods in all previous elections.
That would have worked 10 or 20 years ago.
However, with the online media catching on, Malaysians are having more access to the real news instead of the censored versions from the mainstream media.
They are also much more exposed to the outside world, learning from others to fight for what is the best for this country.
In other words, Malaysians are not stupid any more. They are no longer easily pleased with some one-time cash give-away deals.
Malaysians want long-term solutions to issues that matter. They want transparency, accountability and what's good for all Malaysians, not just the cronies.
BN can't sidestep the main issues any more, they will have to face them and find long-term solutions or risk being booted out in the next election.
Why is our crime rate still so high despite the police saying the rate has dropped?
Why is our education system not up to par, with many local graduates not finding jobs, and more parents are sending their children to private and Chinese independent schools?
Why is Selangor not getting enough water while we have one of the highest rainfall of any country in the world?
Why is Lynas here in Malaysia and not other safer foreign investments?
Why are people in custody dying and the trigger-happy police killing what seems like innocent people?
Why are our government departments paying well above normal rates for their purchases?
Why are our government contracts given out to incompetent contractors with no track record?
I can keep going.
There are just too many questions left unanswered, yet BN wants Malaysians to give them another chance by voting them into power.
Does anyone think that all the above questions will be answered once BN wins the next election?
I doubt it. After more than 50 years of mismanaging the country, it can't go on any more.
While bringing Psy to Penang for some fun is fine (except for the exorbitant appearance fee he charged), the resounding ‘No' by spectators to the question posed by our PM is an indication Malaysians want much more.