I think it is the duty of each and every sane and thinking Malaysian to vote for whoever is running under a PKR, PAS, DAP or other non-BN banner. Let’s be straight about the facts:

1. Not everyone will think like you so go ahead and be brave and vote non-BN – we are not about to thrash this BN government at this election – the maths and population demographics simply won’t allow that. But we can deny them a two-thirds majority and teach it some humility. And that we should do.

2. A stronger alternative voice does not mean a less stable government or that it will spook foreign investors. Megawati lost to Yudhoyono in Indonesia and investments increased. Foreign investors are not idiots, they would weigh the facts. As far as I am concerned, the economic blueprint set out by DAP is more than credible compared against the directionless budget put up by the BN in Nov last year.

On the contrary, a stronger alternative voice may mean that the leaders of BN will have no choice but to force the coalition to renew itself and discipline the likes of the members for Jerai and Kinabatangan for their unthinking and outrageous statements. When the external threat is greater, there is less room for internal slackness.

3. PAS has alienated land for Chinese and Tamil communities to build temples in Kelantan. It is the BN which has been tearing town temples indiscriminately in Selangor and issued a fatwa in Sabah to stop the building of a Goddess of Mercy statue. It is the BN who has tried to stopped non- Muslim bumiputera whose first language is Bahasa Malaysia from using the word Allah in their religious practice but that is exactly what Palestinian (ie Arabic-speaking) Christians use.

4. PAS has allowed the Chinese to rear pigs in Kelantan. It is the BN-ruled Melaka that has tried to forcibly close down all pig farms in Melaka.

5. DAP and Lim Guan Eng stood up for a powerless Malay family when a BN chief minister was accused of committing a sexual offence against a minor. Where were the so-called pembela bangsa, agama dan negara aka Umno in that episode?

6. One Dr Mahathir Mohamad himself has warned ‘Malaysians voting for BN are expressing support for a coalition centred on nepotism and corruption’. The good doctor may have his own motives for saying this but that does not mean what he says is less truthful.

So if you worry about PAS, consider their track record against the more ‘liberal’ Umno. If you worry about the DAP, see the sacrifices of its leaders for the non-Chinese community against the more ‘moderate’ MCA.

The MCA candidate for the Cheras (currently a DAP-held seat) urged Cheras voters recently to try eating prawns (he is the owner of a chain of seafood restaurants) in that they have been eating DAP’s ‘fish’ all these years. He said if they didn’t like ‘prawns’, they could always go back to ‘fish’ in five years time

Well, we’ve been ‘eating’ corruption, arrogance, negligence and discrimination for 50 years so let’s try something new for the next five years and if we don’t like it, then we can always go back to BN.

Over to you.