For many, if not a majority of people, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's recent call to his BN accomplices to block the opposition's road to Putrajaya has only served as a reminder that BN has long been, and hopes by hook or by crook, to forever be a roadblock in the path of Malaysia's progress.

Bernama , the regime "news" agency that is itself a part and a symbol of the mainstream media that serve as BN's minions in its endless efforts to inflict mental block on Malaysians, reported Najib as declaring that "they (the opposition) may flaunt the ‘Road to Putrajaya' slogan, but we want to stop their march to Putrajaya".

"We do not wish to set up a police roadblock," he lied in the face of the regime's notorious employment of the police to enable and aid BN in their dirty deeds, "but we will put up a political roadblock because they are not qualified to occupy the seat of Putrajaya".

NONE "We are the ones who developed Putrajaya," he went on, "they are not eligible because they have uttered lie after lie. They have not fulfilled promises, and many of their so-called plans are left hanging".

Najib's characteristically Freudian slip of the lip in his choice of the word "hanging" only serves to divert our attention from the false point he was striving to make to the fact that there are a great many unresolved hanging offences hanging over himself and his regime.

And that systematic failure to prosecute those who ordered the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu and the killers of Teoh Beng Hock, Ananthan Kugan and countless others who have suspiciously died at the hands of BN's forces of law and order signifies BN's role as a roadblock to justice.

Roadblock to genuine democracy

In fact, it is increasingly evident that BN is a roadblock in the path of anything like genuine democracy for Malaysia, as evidenced by the dozens of repressive, regressive and anti-constitutional laws it has enacted over the decades, and its utter defiance in the face of calls by an increasingly restive citizenry for reform of its criminally corrupt and self-serving electoral system.

Indeed, far from any intention to reform, let alone transform itself as it so falsely pretends, this block-headed regime has even taken to putting up barriers to public participation in national events such as the recent Merdeka-Day celebrations.

Barring the rakyat from publicly-funded festivities in favour of its own ratyat composed of regime members, relatives and cronies, plus alleged "supporters" and other stooges lured by promises of free transport, cash payments, lots of prizes to be won in haram ‘lucky' draws, and free "I love PM" anti-opposition comics into the bargain.

And all this after blocking any possible public enthusiasm for uniting in celebration of Merdeka Day by hijacking the spirit of the event with such a patently false and blatantly politically-partisan slogan as "Promises Fulfilled" accompanied by the regime's hypocritical "1Malaysia" logo.

All so that the prime minister can revel in those massive roadblocks to the popular acclaim and support he so desperately and pathetically craves, his boundless capacity for self-adoration and his equally repellent habit of telling his flock a load of cock.

As the PM did in a later segment of his "roadblock" speech, in which he evoked memories of last year's ludicrous claim that BN aimed to make the "world's best democracy".

"Many had predicted that the country will have to put up with a difficult journey to become a successful country," he proclaimed, "but it is evident after 55 years of independence that the predictions were totally misplaced. Today, our country is regarded as a model for success."

BN's invitation-only roadblock

And just as BN's Malaysia is allegedly a model for success, so, Najib claimed, was BN's invitation-only roadblock to public participation, the ‘Janji Ditepati' rally at Bukit Jalil Stadium.

Describing the crowd at the BN event as representing the "majority" who are "nation-loving citizens," unlike those who attended the ‘Janji Demokrasi" rally at Dataran Merdeka on the previous night in a protest but had been "broomed off by government leaders such as Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who said that the participants had tried and failed to create chaos".

Huh? "Broomed off"? "Tried and failed to create chaos"? This is a load of stupid, lying schlock, even by Najib's abysmally low standards.

But on and on he went with his customary self-aggrandising false claims of his regime's economic successes as well as law reforms "done in the spirit of democracy" before winding-up with a call to his paid audience to "remember that independence only knocks once for any nation".

"Let us close ranks and defend our independence with a solid front, at every corner and at any time. Even more so when enemies and the opposition are trying to bring chaos into the situation."

NONE Meanwhile, even as he spoke, the police he had claimed would not be used as his roadblock against the opposition on its march to Putrajaya, but who in fact had attempted to block the ‘Janji Demokrasi' rally by refusing it a permit at the last minute, were out ‘investigating' its organisers.

Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigations Department chief Ku Chin Wah had earlier conceded that the matter was being probed under the Peaceful, or, as some of us think of it, Policeful Assembly Act 2012.

And the officer in charge of the Dang Wangi district police, Zainuddin Ahmad, had announced that there would be an investigation "later" into whether Bersih co-chairperson and national laureate A Samad Said had broken the law by reciting a poem at the ‘Janji Demokrasi' gathering.

All of which just goes to show that the BN regime, for all its claims of reform, is proving as big and ugly and stupid a roadblock for Malaysia as ever.

Not just literally, for its police to collect duit kopi or its cronies to extort tolls, but figuratively on the road the nation sorely needs to take towards good governance, transparent and accountable institutions, truthful media, honest elections and equality for every citizen under the law.

But most Malaysians have had it with BN's blocking of the nation's progress at every turn. And if these blockheads don't get out of the people's way very soon, they'll end up as nothing but speed-bumps on the road to the future.

DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he coaches and mentors writers and authors and practises as a writing therapist. Published books of his columns for Malaysiakini include ‘Mad about Malaysia', ‘Even Madder about Malaysia', ‘Missing Malaysia' and ‘1Malaysia.con'.