I refer to the letter Don't misjudge us silent majority .

I agree that the BN federal government has a majority, but wish to state that:

1. Fully 49% of the votes cast in the last elections were for the opposition. In Peninsular Malaysia the majority of the votes cast were for the opposition. So if the writer lived in Peninsular Malaysia, he/she would also belong to the local minority.

2. The means by which the BN majority was achieved were far from fair, the opposition being mentioned only negatively in the mainstream media. Other abuses include the use of government facilities and vehicles for BN purposes, etc, etc.

Agreed that tsunamis are rare, but they have the capacity to change the landscape permanently (see Aceh). The last elections was labeled a tsunami precisely because of this landscape changing capacity.

After all the revelations of BN misdeeds (quite a few inadvertently revealed by BN ministers and MPs in Parliament) past and continuing since the last general election, I would disagree with the writer about the likelihood of BN returning to power with a vast majority come the next GE.

I, for one, find that the Pakatan Rakyat guys are a refreshing change from the self-important BN guys. Most of the people of all races I know do not consider their vote for the opposition to be an error. I know one who considered her vote for BN to be an error after the recent oil price hike.

I agree that the new state governments need to prove they can rule. Too many street demos distract people from their day-to-day work and may frighten foreign investors (see what a bad state we are in since we still need to depend on foreign investors to keep our economy going after so many years of independence).

However, if the government of the day just ignores you when you express your concerns in the normal way, what choice have you got left? Remember the Bandar Mahkota Cheras residents?

And do you remember what Umno Penang did right after the new Pakatan state government was sworn in there? They held a street demo to protest, causing fear among the peaceful population of Georgetown.

The racist slogans on banners they carried may have merited a sedition charge or two. One possible reason for the BN not holding rallies would be that too few people would attend.

That infamous street demonstration in Penang attracted about 1,000 people; similar racist demonstrations in Perak and Selangor attracted only about 100-200 people.

I also agree with the writer that BN’s religious decisions have created a lot of problems. I also agree that many non-Muslims are impressed by the sincerity of PAS compared to the Umno. Well, PAS is part of Pakatan Rakyat!

As far as I could read, Malaysiakini only reports about possible crossovers from BN to Pakatan but leave it to their columnists, opinion and letters writers to comment. And we all know that these writers are responsible for their opinions and not the news site that publishes them.

The BN government used crossovers to unseat the PBS government in Sabah. Should they therefore be booted out of Parliament now? It is a fact that the PKR has so far only been talking about crossovers, but have not effected any, whereas BN has already done so before.

‘A tsunami and still a ‘lame duck ‘ government has a majority of more than 15%. Imagine that it took a tsunami just to deny them a two-thirds majority.’

Precisely! You have discovered the magic of gerrymandering. That means cheating by monkeying around with electoral boundaries. A bigger majority for Pakatan Rakyat is needed in the next GE to break this black magic.

Change is needed so that Malaysia can finally achieve its potential. Even before the last GE, our country has been losing its attractiveness as an investment destination due to our bad policies.

Lots of BN people were mad with Thierry Rommel , but he stated the truth. Our peer countries used to be Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. How come we’re now in D-8 with basket cases like Pakistan?

So, do you want slow death, or temporary pain followed by rejuvenation?

My intent is not to crucify anyone, but just to answer some of the things written in the above letter from the viewpoint of the ‘other half of Malaysia’. Good luck to my fellow Malaysians. God bless us all, we will need it to keep things going.