I refer to the letter Finally a chance to wrest Penang .

What is perhaps galling is his statement that 'the BN is still the best to govern Malaysia today'. If the writer is so confident that his theory of the opposition contesting state seats as opposed to contesting parliamentary seats is workable then there should not be any reason for BN winning 'hands down'.

What the people of Penang should do is not try to play God. Trying to be smart by voting in BN for state seats while voting for opposition in Parliament may not always turn out as planned.

BN could end up with a massive majority in parliament and in the other states. This by virtue of the strong rural support which has traditionally supported Umno irrespective of rain or shine. Therefore it should be the goal of every urban voter to vote for opposition in order to counter the strong rural vote for BN.

Only with this strategy of voting can there be a possibility of denying BN a 2/3rds majority in the states and federal seats.

I certainly don’t agree with the writer's statement that 'the Barisan National is still the best to govern Malaysia’. On what basis is he making this statement? I can only conclude that he is not aware of what transpired during Dr Mahathir Mohamad's 22-year-tenure and what happened during the current prime minister’s four years of administration.

Every aspect of BN's last 26 years of tenure has been nothing short of failure. Corruption is rife, the police force is in shambles, the judiciary is tainted, the civil service is a disgrace and foreign investors are avoiding us like a plague. If not for our oil and palm oil, we would have followed Zimbabwe’s path to economic destruction.

Even matters of race and religion were not handled it with care and sensitivity. This has resulted in the various races being further alienated from one another which if not properly addressed would have dire consequences in the future. So please do tell me, what record of BN's governance so impressed the writer that made him conclude that ' BN is the best party to govern Malaysia.'?

With better accountability and transparency, maybe a new party would do a better job. So please don’t listen to the BN leaders saying that the opposition has no experience in governing the country. We will never know if we don’t give them a chance, won’t we?