There are two Chinese proverbs that are particularly relevant when Malaysians go to vote. The first says, ‘Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me’.

Malaysians remember well the glib promises made by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Barisan Nasional cronies during the last elections. In 2004, many of us fell for his promises - ‘clean government; accountable and transparent administration; I will stamp out crime and corruption; trust me as I am answerable to God’. Many believed him. His soft demeanor and craftily-marketed liberal tendencies (the latter being completely at odds with his actual record as a longstanding high-ranking Umno insider deeply implicated in the party’s machinations to ensure hegemony over the country) set him out as a refreshing change from Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s hard line authoritarianism and hectoring leadership.

His promises of an open, less corrupt, cleaner administration and sweeping changes in the public service and economy to improve our quality of life triumphed over the average voter's better instincts and disgust over the Barisan Nasional’s culture of corruption, wastage, opportunism and incompetence.

After failing to deliver on these promises, the Barisan Nasional is now seeking to fool Malaysians again by giving themselves a rapturous report card and by promising ‘excellence, glory and distinction’. In the desperation to fool and hoodwink Malaysians, the Barisan Nasional's spin masters are reaching new heights of misinformation, slanted analyses and even outright dishonesty. A barrage of data and statistics on the economy, security, education and development is being targeted at us through the printed media, radio, television and Internet telling that we have never had it so good and how this is all due to the BN and the enlightened and moderate leadership of Pak Lah and his ‘eat, drink and be merry’ cronies.

So will we fall for it again this time? Will Malaysians be fooled into giving their votes to the BN so easily this election? I do not think so because the second proverb goes: ‘If you walk on snow, you can see the footprints’. What are the dirty footprints imprinted on our lives during these past years of Barisan rule? One is the cancer of corruption that going out of control in all spheres of life and with Umno-putras and other Barisan-putras well out of the reach of the scales of justice.

Heightened racial and religious disunity as Umno leaders regularly trot out displays of arrogance and extremism tied to Ketuanan Melayu and Islamic dominance. Repression and the use of the iron fist (and chemically-laced water and teargas) to smash marginalised groups and dissidents seeking to voice legitimate concerns and grievances. The incompetent, greedy and grubby little and big Napoleons lording over Barisan- allocated turfs and accumulating ill-gotten gains through commissions, kick-backs and other forms of illicit payments.

All Malaysians in one way or another have seen how much worse their lives have become and how diminished the future prospects are for themselves and their children. Not so long ago, Dr Mahathir - in a rare admission of his poor judgment for his choice of Pak Lah to succeed him as prime minister - told the world of how incompetent the current PM and his administration were. He also accused Pak Lah of corruption in favouring his own family and of the mismanagement of the economy. Finally, he advised Abdullah to step down.

On Saturday, Mahathir and other Malaysians will have an opportunity to show that we will not be fooled again as we were in 2004. But we are pitted against a government which is running scared because it knows it has failed miserably in the past four years. It is a desperate government which will - over the next few days - pull out all the stops as it sees the tide of voter approval for the Barisan Nasional ebb dramatically.

Dishing out more goodies to bribe their way into the hearts and wallets of voters; saturating the media with even more unbelievable stories of how well-off, happy and contented the average Malaysian is under Barisan rule; playing up the vices and foibles of the opposition parties; even invoking the spectre of May 13 - these and other dirty tricks by the Barisan Nasional election machinery can be expected to kick into overdrive.

‘Independent’ analysts and sycophants of various stripes and tans who have benefitted from Barisan Nasional largess (looted from the public coffers) will add to the crescendo and call on the voters to vote for ‘security, peace and development’.

But voters know that something is rotten in the state of Malaysia. And that something rotten has a great deal to do with who are presently running the country and asking for your vote. Make sure you do not give it to them.

The writer is chairperson, Centre for Policy Initiatives.