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Ijok – Bolehland’s Electoral Circus

Bolehland’s Electoral Circus
by Martin Jalleh

Santa Khir blatantly buys and bribes with
the rakyat’s money.

Samy Vellu crows, clowns and croons
the same old tune.

Shortchanged Indians are mickeyed
by the MIC, MGR and MGP.

Stunted UMNO Youth sends in thugs
– they do not have “towering Malays”.

Stultified MIC Youth unleash their
goats, geese and goondas.

Servile police lapdogs bow, bend
and do the bidding.

Slanted media spins, spews and sells
one-sided news.

Self-serving politicians proudly play the
parrot, puppet and prostitute. Continue reading “Ijok – Bolehland’s Electoral Circus”

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Will Najib, Khir Toyo or Samy Vellu resign if Ijok becomes “second Lunas”?

Among the three — Umno Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno Selangor chief and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohd Khir Toyo and the MIC President and Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu — will anyone of them resign if Ijok becomes a “second Lunas” on Saturday with Barisan Nasional (BN) losing the seat despite the worst electoral corruption and most undemocratic campaigning in the 50 year history of the nation?

Electoral corruption and money politics in Ijok and the recent Machap by-elections have been the most blatant and fragrant-ever in the nation’s electoral history — even worse than during the previous four Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein Onn and Tun Dr. Mahathir Moahamad.

This is most ironic and tragic as these two by-elections should be even cleaner if not the cleanest in the nation’s 50-year history as they are held under a Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who had pledged to wipe out corruption and money politics as the top priority of his administration.

The electoral corruption in Machap and Ijok are so blatant and flagrant, flooding the constituencies with tens of millions of ringgit development projects when they had been completely ignored in past decades, that many Malaysians regardless of race, religion or territory are now cynically saying that “A good BN MP/SA is a dead MP/SA”.

However, any BN MP/SA dying will not result in any by-election as the legal bar for by-elections during the two years before the next general election have come into force for all legislatures except for Kelantan (May 5), Kedah (May 20) and Parliament (May 17).

This is undoubtedly one of the reasons which have prompted former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir to make his extraordinary public call to the voters of Ijok to vote wisely on Saturday. Continue reading “Will Najib, Khir Toyo or Samy Vellu resign if Ijok becomes “second Lunas”?”

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How can a law-abiding cybercafe operator survive in corruption-rife Malaysia?

I have received a heart-rending appeal for help as to how a law-abiding cafe operator could survive in corruption-rife Malaysia.

The cybercafe operator J is “almost at the end of the road” after being in the business for the past five years and is regretting that he had “picked the wrong country to live and grow by doing business and earn a living”.

He had ventured into the cybercafe business for the last five years after he lost his job as a IT hardware/software salesman. With 2nd class honours degree in Business information System in a UK university, he never got any better job which paid enough commensurate with his qualification.

He had paid for his entire studies right from local college to university in UK, working since in high school till university as a part-time technician in computer shops, selling self-build computers from home, etc.

While in UK, he saw cybercafes as a booming industry and dreamt of owning such a business one day.

But now, he his staring at the stark possibility of having to close down his business with debts of bank loans near to RM1 million – all because a licence is required to run such a business.

Back in 2002, when he started with 30 computers in his hometown, he took him more than a year to get a licence to operate the business. Why the one-year wait? Continue reading “How can a law-abiding cybercafe operator survive in corruption-rife Malaysia?”

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Ijok by-election: Are we in Hutu-land?

Are we in Hutu-land?
by Azly Rahman

As we were finishing our lunch, Khalid Ibrahim was approached by a youth in Pemuda BN attire, and intimidating words were used on him soon after. malaysiakini has a good account of the incident, titled: BN group roughs up Khalid, photographers.

… We are not party to their ideological differences in partisan politics, so we steered clear of their ‘conversations’ and prepared to leave. Our casual attire for comfortable photographing also ensured that we are not wrongly mistaken as Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s cadre. We were there merely as men-at-work, photographers on assignment… . We were wrong. We were surrounded by over 20 rowdies, and the long and short of it, my colleague, who wound down his window to inch carefully his way out from the besieging scene, was smashed at close range with the sharp portion of the mineral water bottle… He tried to evade but still broke his glasses, bleeding. Without the glasses, he drove the both of us out of the danger zone until some PKR members escorted us in another vehicle to safe ground in Ijok town centre. (Thanks Cikgu Li.)… We kept our cool and tried hard to avert any eventualities as we didn’t want this incident to be spun as an ugly chapter of over 20 Malay youths attacking two Chinese photographers in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, the unasked question must get answered some days when the fanatical election fever is over – Jeff Ooi narrating on Ijok, Screenshots.

If what we are seeing and reading about the campaigning process in Ijok these last few days, what is the meaning of “voting” to the voters?

If votes can be bought and sold, for whatever reason of “economic necessity”, and if gangsterism and political violence is going to be the regular feature of elections, where are we heading towards?

If what’s at stake here is power that will create billionaires out of the few, and every means necessary is used to buy power, are we and our generation doomed? Democracy is for sale – wholesale.

T.I.A. – “This is Africa”!?

What have 50 years taught us? What then must we do? Continue reading “Ijok by-election: Are we in Hutu-land?”