MAY 20 — It has been just over 10 days since GE14 and I woke up this morning with a strange thought.

What if BN had won?

For starters, I would imagine there would have been trumpeting and beating of drums together with loud cries of how great Barisan Nasional is. Hidup Umno! Hidup PM! Kita Sayang Najib!

Then there would have been snide comments and jokes in bad taste about a 93-year old man’s failure to wrest power.

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These jokes and comments would border on being vile and sarcastic and most everyone in BN would be taking the opportunity to laugh at and condemn the nonagenarian.

There would have been no shakeups in the Civil Service and Irwan Serigar would still be holding on to the purse strings at the Treasury in his capacity as Secretary General of the Treasury.

This is the Rakyat purse string in case you didn’t know.

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The Attorney General would not have been asked to go on leave. The Director General of The Registrar of Societies Malaysia would feel vindicated that the application for Pakatan Harapan was not allowed as was the decision to suspend Bersatu and she would probably be waiting for an award at the next opportunity.

This however, begets another question. Was the subsequent approval of Pakatan Harapan and Bersatu done to appease the new government or was it to correct a previous wrong. This should be made known immediately and the appropriate action taken accordingly.

Khairy Jamaluddin would have been lauding it up with the other BN leaders and gloating that his video with Najib had the desired effect. He would definitely not be questioning Najib or regretting his actions in not speaking up.

Speaking of videos, Tony Fernandes would be laughing, as would many other captains of industry that formed a band and sang a song that was somewhat akin to the BN Tagline, Hebatkan Negaraku. You can view it here if you haven’t seen it. In my opinion, captains of industry should be neutral in their political affiliation, at least in public.

Umno, MCA and MIC would be going on about how Malaysians still want race-based politics and that this is the only way forward.

It is the proven way after 61 years and it will be the way for the next 100 years. Instead, these parties are now suggesting opening up their membership to all Malaysians, a clear affirmation that race based politics don’t work.

Most importantly, there would be no investigations carried out into our former prime minister.

Datuk Amar Singh would not be the household name he now is and we would never have known of the 284 luxury handbags and 72 luggage bags of cash and jewellery that were reportedly found.

No. If BN had won, life would have just gone on.

The alleged thievery and excesses would have just gone on.

You know what the sad part about this really is? No one in positions of power dared to speak up.

No one wanted to do what was right.

All of those in positions of power, every hierarchy and every echelon in Barisan Nasional, Umno, MCA, MIC and all other component parties of BN chose to remain silent.

Yes. They chose to be silent to protect themselves. This is the most worrying part. By keeping silent, I dare to say that they are complicit.

Could we perhaps venture to think that perhaps no one knew? I seriously doubt it. I would also allude to the fact that KJ now says that he regrets protecting Najib signifies that he knew something was wrong.

And if he knew, it is highly probable and even more so likely that other politicians knew. They just accepted it either because they were probably reaping the benefits or they were just too afraid to say anything.

After all, when Muhyiddin and Shafie Apdal tried to say something, they were sacked. So was the former AG, Gani Patail.

I remember having a chat with a deputy minister before the elections. It was a brief chat but we touched on 1MDB and other issues. This said minister defended the establishment and basically said that that was the way things are.

I asked the question about why no one wanted to speak up and his answer was that the party always comes first. It was more important to toe the party line.

It is a matter of survival within the party and as such many things are overlooked.

That was disturbing to me. It was also very disturbing to me that he was ultra confident that he would win his seat and that the status quo would remain.

I suppose once you start to overlook things, the things you allow yourself to overlook just get bigger and bigger and it no longer matters about serving the Rakyat but rather serving yourself.

As it turned out though, the Rakyat decided otherwise and it is only because there was a change in Government that we are seeing what we are seeing today. A clean up of corruption and excesses that was left to go unchecked. It was left to go unchecked by our elected representatives that were supposed to look after the Rakyat first.

More and more worms seem to be crawling out of the woodwork which each passing day. As the rot becomes more apparent, and the stench starts to permeate the air there is one glaring observation.

There is stark silence from the BN related leadership and parties. They are still choosing to remain largely silent even in the face of such glaring evidence of all the seized goods. All 284 handbags, cash and jewellery. Where before there was chest thumping and other bravado, there is a subdued silence. No one seems to be saying anything about the Five Black Maria lorries that were needed to cart away all the seized goods.

So it’s a good thing that BN didn’t win the last elections. Life would just have gone on for us, the Rakyat. No one would have said anything and No one would have been any the wiser.

*This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.