Day: March 27, 2013

by Lee Hwa Beng
The Malaysian Insider
MARCH 27, 2013

MARCH 27 ― In the last general election, MCA contested 40 Parliament seats yet it won only 15. Out of the 40 seats, MCA was able to win only 7 (out of 23 contested seats) from DAP, six (out of 15 contested seats) from PKR and two (out of two contested seats) from PAS.

This shows MCA won mainly in mixed seats where there are fewer Chinese voters while it lost heavily in the Chinese majority seats.

One can deduce, therefore, that MCA won with the support of Malay rather than Chinese votes.

Another major contributing factor in MCA’s drastic loss was the significant reduction of support from Indian voters who were traditionally Barisan Nasional/MCA supporters (more than 80 per cent) but have since deserted the ruling coalition with less than 40 per cent of them voting for the ruling coalition in GE12.

As in my earlier articles, “Who will win the 13th General Election?” and “How will MCA fare in the 25 seats they won in the last election?”, I will provide the reader with background information and factors to consider for my latest question: “Will MCA be able to wrest any of the 25 seats they lost in the last elections?” Continue reading “Will MCA regain the 25 seats it lost in Election 2008?”

by Kee Thuan Chye
from Yahoo! Malaysia

It looks like Pakatan Rakyat is driving the 13th general election. As this most crucial of Malaysian elections draws near, the Opposition coalition is the more gung-ho in leading the way into battle. It is initiating the charge, taking the offensive, scoring the psychological points.

While the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition is led by a leader who has been tardy in calling for the general election partly because he has been humming and hawing about wanting the rakyat to feel the effects of his transformation programmes first, Pakatan has already shown its preparedness by coming out with its manifesto a few weeks ago, way ahead of BN.

In football terms, this is like the away team, despite its disadvantageous position, taking the play to the home team and attacking its goalmouth. Sometimes, this can end in a victory for the outsiders.

DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang’s decision to stand in Gelang Patah – in BN’s impregnable state, Johor – is another courageous offensive. It is a risky move by the DAP veteran who has never fought shy of engaging in difficult battles.

In the most famous of his encounters, he took on Lim Chong Eu, the Chief Minister of Penang then, at Padang Kota in 1990 and won. Nonetheless, it was a huge gamble for Kit Siang, who has not always been victorious. He lost when he came out of his comfortable position as Kubu state assemblyman in 1982 to try and capture Bandar Hilir, and again when he took on the risky seat of Tanjung Bungah in 1995 against yet another chief minister, Koh Tsu Koon. In fact, throughout his political career, Kit Siang has lost five times. Continue reading “Pakatan and Kit Siang Take the Offensive”

The unprecedented automatic dissolution of Negri Sembilan State Assembly at midnight tonight further highlights the “illegitimacy” of the Najib premiership particularly after the fifth anniversary of the “political tsunami” on 8th March nineteen days ago, giving his Cabinet and Government an “expired” character.

Is Najib really heading for the automatic dissolution of Parliament, now claimed to be April 30 and not April 27, 2013, after the further “automatic dissolution” of the State Assemblies of Pahang, Johore, Malacca, Selangor, Perak, Perlis and Kelantan before Parliament’s “automatic dissolution”, to be followed by the other states of Sabah, Penang and Terengganu?

It is not only a supreme irony, but most pathetic, that after almost four years as the country’s longest unelected Prime Minister and on permanent campaign mode, Najib is still trying to scrape the bottom of the barrel to eke out as many days as possible before he faces the ultimate and unavoidable “tryst with destiny”, the dissolution of the 12th Parliament for the holding of the 13th general elections in the country.

I agree with the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz that it is within Najib’s power to allow Parliament to be automatically dissolved before the holding of the 13GE, but he surely knows that this is an act which raises the most eloquent question about Najib’s credibility and legitimacy as Prime Minister of Malaysia. Continue reading “15-Day Countdown to 13GE – Unprecedented automatic dissolution of Negri Sembilan State Assembly at midnight tonight further highlights the “illegitimacy” of the Najib premiership particularly after the fifth anniversary of the “political tsunami” on 8th March”

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 26, 2013

PETALING JAYA, March 26 — Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s recent remarks that he expects more disruption of opposition events soon is tantamount to endorsing political violence, Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders alleged today.

The federal opposition coalition said that since the home minister had failed to give his assurance that the authorities will do its bit to protect them, PR is bracing for more political violence prior to and during Election 2013.

“The politics of slander and violence is definitely on the rise and we the leadership of PR is bracing for this,” Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim told reporters after chairing the pact’s leaders council meeting at PKR’s headquarters here.

Anwar, the de facto leader of PR’s anchor party PKR, said the anticipation comes amid the pact’s preparation to launch its polls campaign nationwide.

Speaking at the same press conference, DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang blasted Hishammuddin’s statement as unbecoming of a minister tasked to protect internal security.

“This will make it the dirtiest elections. This trend must be checked and stopped. We are becoming the laughing stock of the world,” Lim said.

The Ipoh Timur lawmaker added that Hishammuddin had also indirectly supported violence against the opposition by inciting hatred among government supporters in his speech on Sunday.

Party workers had shouted “Kill Tian Chua” when the Umno vice-president urged them to rally behind Barisan Nasional (BN) and “eliminate traitors” like PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang, better known as Tian Chua, whose allies in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) have been accused of instigating the Sulu invasion of Sabah. Continue reading “Hisham is endorsing political violence, says Pakatan”