Ong Kian Ming

1. What do you think will be the most important issue that the new government must address?

– Continuing with the process of electoral reform, especially in coming up with a comprehensive and well thought out plan to clean up the electoral roll

2. What do you think is Barisan Nasional’s greatest strength?

– Ability to use its resources – personal, party and government – to mobilize and ‘buy’ political support.

3. What do you think is Barisan Nasional’s greatest weakness?

– Its 56 year uninterrupted rule has led to complacency, corruption and the clinging on to old ideas of running the country.

4. What do you think is Pakatan Rakyat’s greatest strength?

– Its emphasis on wanting to move beyond a racial approach in governing the country to an issues and needs based approach of governing.

5. What do you think is Pakatan Rakyat’s greatest weakness?

– The challenge of prioritizing which legacy areas left by the BN to tackle if Pakatan comes into power

6. What is your hope for Malaysia?

– That we can move towards being a normal democracy where one party or coalition can be thrown out of power by the electorate if it does not perform adequately.

Ong Kian Ming is the Election Strategist for the Democratic Action Party (DAP).

New Mandala is asking Malaysians and Malaysianists worldwide their views on the two coalitions vying for power at the 13th general election in Malaysia. Their responses are published unedited.