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Why the electoral arithmetic in Malaysia does not allow the Chinese voters to be “kingmakers” in 13GE

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad seems to have reverted to his early years in politics when, to use his own words, he was fighting for the Malay cause per se when he was young and his thoughts were that of an inexperienced politician.

Mahathir made this open admission in a dialogue with the Malaysian Student Executive Council of the United Kingdom in September 1995, when making the case for a Malaysian rather than a Malay approach, arguing that to realize the goal of Bangsa Malaysia, Malaysians should start accepting each other as they are regardless of race or religion.

This was the fourth year of his promulgation of Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia in February 1991.

Now Mahathir seemed to have gone full circle, repudiating not only Bangsa Malaysia and Vision 2020, but fighting only for Malay rather than Malaysian cause.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak called on Barisan Nasional members not to make statements that will hurt the feelings of other races or BN component parties.

But how many in UMNO will listen to Najib? Continue reading “Why the electoral arithmetic in Malaysia does not allow the Chinese voters to be “kingmakers” in 13GE”

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PM’s elegant silence on BN sniping

— Jaleel Hameed
The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 30 — Mr Prime Minister, sir, where is your sense of fair play and Malaysian-ness?

Why are you, sir, so limp-wristed in giving a rap on the knuckles of your Barisan Nasional colleagues who think they can say anything and get away with it?

Is this a sense of entitlement, sir? Because your government has been our only government since Merdeka?

Sir, I am referring to your wishy-washy, lukewarm comment asking BN people not to hurt other races. Continue reading “PM’s elegant silence on BN sniping”

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Najib out-flip flops Abdullah with window for July GE closed after scuttling of polls date by Bersih 3.0 rally despite the bravado confidence of “14-0” BN thrashing for PR

Confirmed!

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has out-flip flopped his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi.

The window for July for the 13th General Election has closed as Najib’s earlier plans for June or July to get his own mandate as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia has been completely scuttled by the disastrous government misjudgment and mishandling of the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28.

In fact, public alienation over the government’s misjudgment and mishandling of the Bersih 3.0 had intensified and aggravated over time with the series of irresponsible and insensitive developments post-Bersih 3.0, including:

• Najib’s wild and baseless allegation that the Bersih 3.0 rally was an opposition coup attempt to topple the government;

• the ridiculous and unacceptable establishment of a purported “independent advisory panel” headed by former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar who had publicly expressed his prejudicial views to find out what went wrong on April 28 when a peaceful gathering of hundreds of thousands of Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender for a common national cause for a clean election could be marred by incidents of violence and brutality after 3 p.m that day;

• the shocking statement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Parliament that “salt and plastic mineral water bottles” – which were all that some of the Bersih 3.0 protestors were “armed” with to defend themselves from reckless police firing of teargas and chemically-laced water cannon – could topple the Najib government; and

• the continued targeting, victimization and demonization of Bersih 3.0 organisers and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, in particular the Bersih co-chairperson Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan – even to the extent of the demand in Parliament that Ambiga be “hanged” as a traitor when what had motivated her, the Bersih 3.0 organisers, the Pakatan Rakyat leaders and the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who responded to the Bersih 3.0 rally were the highest and noblest sense of love and patriotism for Malaysia. Continue reading “Najib out-flip flops Abdullah with window for July GE closed after scuttling of polls date by Bersih 3.0 rally despite the bravado confidence of “14-0” BN thrashing for PR”