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The dominoes in Johor

– Liew Chin Tong
The Malaysian Insider/Rocket
Jan 31, 2013

JAN 31 – Johor is the last bastion of Barisan Nasional but the coming general election may prove that the fortress may turn out to be merely a sand castle. If Pakatan Rakyat gets the support of 35 per cent Malay, 80 per cent Chinese and 50 per cent Indian voters in Johor, 20 parliamentary seats will fall like dominoes. Hence, Pakatan may gain the much-needed 112-seat threshold to form the next federal government with just seats from Peninsula Malaysia.

In the two rounds of seat re-delineation exercises in 1994 and 2003, many multi-ethnic mixed seats were created for Barisan Nasional to maximise its multi-ethnic appeal and to make the most out of the opposition’s inability to win across ethnic boundaries.

PAS was made to be seen by the Barisan-controlled media to non-Malays as an anathema to their interests while DAP as a threat to the Malays. Before 2008, PAS supporters rarely vote for DAP and vice versa.

The 2008 general election saw PAS benefiting from outpouring Chinese and Indian support for the “anything but UMNO” call while some urban Malays voted for DAP for the first time in their lives. Many multi-ethnic seats in the states north of Negeri Sembilan on the west coast of the Peninsula fell to the opposition. Continue reading “The dominoes in Johor”

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70-Day Countdown to 13GE – Will Najib be the last Umno Prime Minister?

“Najib is not going to be the last Umno prime minister”, so says veteran Umno leader Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad at the 15th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference organized by Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (Asli) today.

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak clearly does not share Abdullah’s confidence and optimism or he would have called for the 13th general elections already instead of dilly-dallying with hesitation and indecision in the past two years, gaining for himself a reputation of being an even greater Flip-Flop Prime Minister than his predecessor Tun Abdullah.

Nor the Johore Mentri Besar, Datuk Ghani Othman who told Kulai Chinese organizations less than three weeks ago that Pakatan Rakyat could win Putrajaya in the 13GE although he warned that the most the PR could win would be a slim majority of 5% to 10% of the parliamentary seats – i.e. a majority from 12 to 22 parliamentary seats.

Nor the UMNO/BN éminence grise, Tun Mahathir, who seems to be increasingly pessimistic about UMNO’s chances of winning Putrajaya in the 13GE, causing him to call on Malaysian voters to support “the devil you know than the angel you don’t”, and recently, making more and more reckless and desperate statements, like:

• his baseless accusation that the historic peaceful and successful Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat at Stadium Merdeka (KL112) by over 100,000 Malaysians from all races, religions and region was an attempt to topple the elected UMNO/BN government by violent means;

• his baseless accusation that the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman had given citizenship to one million unqualified non-Malays before Merdeka in 1957 in an attempt to justify his “citizenship-for-votes” scam in Project M in Sabah, even suggesting a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Tunku Abdul Rahman’s issue of the one million citizenship to non-Malays before Merdeka. Continue reading “70-Day Countdown to 13GE – Will Najib be the last Umno Prime Minister?”

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Stop delaying action against Ibrahim Ali, says former A-G

By Amin Iskandar
The Malaysian Insider
Jan 31, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 — The authorities must speed up action against Datuk Ibrahim Ali over his Bible-burning threat, says retired Attorney-General Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman, adding any further delay in acting against the veteran politician could be held against the establishment ahead of Election 2013.

The vocal Ibrahim, who heads right-wing Malay group Perkasa, had sparked a firestorm last week when he reportedly called on Muslims to torch Malay-language copies of the Christian holy book that describes the Christian god as “Allah”, an Arabic word many Muslims here believe to be exclusive to their community.

“The issue is not the burning of the Bible. What is in the issue is, did he utter those words?” Abu Talib told The Malaysian Insider in an interview.

“If so, whether those words were seditious within the Sedition Act, reading it as a whole and in the context it was made. So, whether the Bible was burned is not material though helpful in the prosecution of the case if he is charged,” he said.

The government’s former top lawyer noted the police reports filed complaining about Ibrahim’s provocative remarks were related to the “Allah” dispute that has been simmering for the past four years.

He said there was no reason for the law enforcers to procrastinate deciding whether or not to prosecute the independent federal lawmaker who has been accused of inciting tension among Malaysia’s Muslim majority camp and followers of other faiths. Continue reading “Stop delaying action against Ibrahim Ali, says former A-G”