What is with the BN and their obsession with centralising almost everything to the federal government? It is as though the democratic process is merely an inconvenience to them and if it can be done away with, they would be even better.

A few days ago, the Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said, “I would like to expand the Federal Territories if I can. If I can, I would take Langkawi, Penang and certain parts of Malacca” and “With the involvement of the federal government, they would get more funding and more attention”

Well of course the federal government have more money for funding, when they hoard almost 98 percent of the country’s budget while leaving the 13 Malaysian states to only work on 2.4 percent. The Federal Territories minister should be wondering how Penang can do so well even when the state only receives a meagre three percent of the original 2.4 percent allocated to the 13 states.

I have a better idea, why not allocate more money to the 13 Malaysian states and let the people judge for themselves whether their individual state governments deserve their votes instead of asking for more places to become federal territories. But of course, the BN will never do that.

The whole story of asking for Penang and other places to be made federal territories for funding is just a front for future BN intentions. Those intentions are to force Penang into submission since they do not feel confident of winning the state back.

A ‘normal’ political party would spend their time in opposition trying to win the hearts and minds of their electorate but BN is neither a ‘normal’ party nor a coalition. The BN’s priorities are not the people but rather their cronies and their cronies are hungry, so if Penang were to become a federal territory, they will no longer be able to resist the BN as the state government will cease to exist then.

What Malaysia is becoming through the continuous uninterrupted rule of the BN is not healthy to the country. Instead of reinforcing and empowering the democratic process through decentralisation, the ruling coalition is now obsessed with more centralisation so that they can bypass the electorate further and rule the country directly to their whims and fancy.

It is time the BN respects the rights of Malaysians in determining who should govern them and they should not force their rule on a people who do not want it.

The BN’s intentions for Malaysia’s future are now clear and they need to be stopped before it is too late.

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) representing the DAP.