Month: March 2013

Pengerusi Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) Paul Low telah mengakui bahawa Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya (EIP) yang ditandatangani oleh Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Najib Razak minggu lepas tidak terikat dengan undang-undang.

Bagaimanapun, TI-M akan mempertanggungjawabkan mereka yang menanda tangan, termasuklah Najib, dengan mendedahkan kesalahan mereka pada lama sesawang dan media sosial seperti Facebook danTwitter untuk memberikan tekanan kepada mereka yang melanggar ikrar.

Saya berterima kasih kepada Paul Low kerana berterus-terang mengakui bahawa tiada cara menguatkuasakan melalui undang-undang tanda tangan EIP Najib akan tetapi apa yang sepatutnya membuatkan TI-M terganggu adalah kurangnya moral, etika dan kemampuan meyakinkan kerena strategi “memalukan mereka yang melanggar ikrar secara atas talian” tidak mungkin menggentarkan hati keras mereka yang melanggar ikrar.

Inilah sebabnya mengapa Najib boleh menjadi pelanggar EIP TI-M bersiri dalam tempoh 15 hari Tahun Baru Cina, termasuklah contoh berikut: Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 40 Hari ke PRU13 – Rakyat Malaysia dijemput untuk memberikan pandangan mereka sama ada saya perlu menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI-M selepas ditandatangani Najib”

By Jahabar Sadiq
Editor
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 04, 2013

COMMENTARY March 4 — There comes a time when Malaysians must unite and fight a common enemy, not bicker and blame each other over what is going wrong. That time is now for Sabah.

We need to support our policemen and troops facing Filipino militants who wish to lay claim over a land whose people decided to form Malaysia 50 years ago with Malaya and Sarawak.

We need to make sure the sacrifice of eight fallen policemen was not in vain, that their widows and children know their husband or father’s death has helped keep Malaysia intact and free.

We need to see what our priorities are now, to end the bloodshed and standoff in Sabah with Filipino militants who have broken our territorial integrity and laws.

We need to get our peace and security back. We stand united or we fall divided. Pure and simple.

The time for investigating what went wrong with our defence of Sabah will come. The time for apportioning blame and reveal the traitors will come.

Right now, we need our politicians to stop blaming each other and accusing each other of instigating this incursion. Such talk is not constructive and will not help our security forces do their job. Continue reading “Time to unite to fight a common enemy, not bicker”

— Willy Gomes
The Malaysian Insider
Mar 03, 2013

MARCH 3 — You are off the hook, Syed Hamid Albar. You are no longer the worst home minister Malaysia has had. And for that you can thank your fellow politician from Johor, Hishammuddin Hussein.

Syed Hamid, you will forever be remembered as the minister who ordered the arrest of a journalist under the ISA for her own protection! You also ignited the Allah debate by not allowing the Malay section of the Herald to use the word Allah.

Bravo!

But you have nothing on Hishammuddin. The man is clueless about everything. He looks like a tourist in Lahad Datu and actually thinks that it is reassuring for Malaysians to hear that he will not leave Sabah until the incursion situation has been resolved.

Can someone get him out of there and allow the police or army to handle this grave situation? His handling of the incursion has been a joke as have the portrayal of the Sulu fighters. Continue reading “The worst home minister”

— Erna Mahyuni
The Malaysian Insider
March 03, 2013

MARCH 3 — Living on a knife’s edge: that was the Sabahan reality for the last two weeks.

While Putrajaya played at diplomacy and our home minister mugged for the cameras, many Sabahans were left angry and confused.

There are intruders on our doorstep! Why are they not being chased out?

Do not believe the rumours, Putrajaya said.

We are hoping for a peaceful resolution, Putrajaya said.

And now, good men are dead. Continue reading “Now will you listen to Sabah?”

by Glenda M. Gloria
http://www.rappler.com
03/03/2013

Is it possible to understand Muslim Mindanao without looking at Malaysia? Perhaps not. This stern neighbor has played its hands rather wisely: feeding a Filipino rebellion on one hand, and helping end it on the other.

Sabah has been home to thousands of Muslims who once fought for independence under the Marcos dictatorship. It was their refuge when the military continued to pummel them with bombs and bullets in Mindanao. Sabah was always part of their real — and imagined — community. Before colonizers carved out superficial boundaries in that part of the world, the Muslims of Sabah, Tawi-Tawi and Sulu were one community that freely traded goods with each other, paid unhampered visits to one another, and spoke the same language. The imperious Sultanate of Sulu reigned over these islands.

Thus while Manila has consistently put the Sabah claim on the back burner, the reality is that to many Filipinos, Sabah has long been theirs. They grew up on the island, got married there, raised their kids, and put up businesses. An estimated 65,000 Filipinos carry passports as “political refugees” in Sabah. In the capital city of Kota Kinabalu, I once asked a former member of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) why he had chosen to live there. “It’s our land. These are my brothers,” he said. They call themselves “Suluks” not Filipinos.

At the height of the MNLF’s secessionist campaign in the 1970s and 1980s, Muslim rebels sought refuge in Sabah. In Sabah they mapped out plans to bring down the Marcos military to its knees. In its lush jungles they trained young recruits in guerrilla warfare. While Nur Misuari toured the Middle East to raise funds for his movement, his young commanders held clandestine meetings in Sabah to plot the war against Marcos.

Which begs the question, why would Malaysia tolerate this when it could not even put up with a ragtag group of old guards now holed up in Lahad Datu?

The answer partly lies not in Sabah or Sulu or Tawi-Tawi but in another place that keeps the dark secrets of a bungled special operation to invade Sabah: Corregidor Island. Continue reading “Sabah, Merdeka and Aquino”

While Malaysians are still mourning the death of two national heroes, elite police commandos Insp Zulkifli Mamat 29 and Sabaruddin Daud 46 who were killed in the shootout in Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu on Friday morning with Sulu armed intruders, with three other commandoes injured, the nation is shocked this morning at the news that there have been another two police casualties in Semporna last evening.

Malaysians woke up this morning to the sad news that “Cop killed in Semporna, another injured in gunfight with militants” (TMI) but by noon time, the police confirmed that there were two policemen who were killed in an ambush in Kampung Seri Jaya Siminul, a village on stilts above the water, in Semporna at about 6.30 pm last evening – and that a third is fighting for his life at the general hospital in Semporna.

But worse were to come, when Malaysians learnt of the news of the first joint press conference by the police and army in Felda Sahabat Residence, Lahad Datu after the three-week stand-off with armed Sulu intruders at Kampung Toudou, as reflected in the following Malaysiakini reports:

• Five cops killed in Semporna ambush, says IGP

• IGP: More armed intruders have landed

• Army General: Intruders ‘well-trained’

It is also reported of another landing by intruders in Kunak. Continue reading “39-Day Countdown to 13GE: Proposal for an all-party council to help deal with Sulu Sabah crisis and call on Najib to make immediate extended visit to Sabah”

– The Malaysian Insider
Mar 02, 2013

MARCH 2 – One wonders where Datuk Maglin Dennis D’Cruz was on April 3, 2009 when Datuk Seri Najib Razak took office as Prime Minister and said “the days of government knows best is over”.

One wonders where D’Cruz was during the Budget 2013 speech last year when Najib proposed a fund to give smartphone rebates for youths to enable them to access the Internet.

One wonders where this man who is Deputy Minister of Information, Communication and Culture was when Najib dubbed this year’s polls as a “social media election”.

Why? Because this unelected politician said today the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was looking into suitable methods to monitor and control the use of social media in the general election.

Monitor and control? Is this some hermit socialist or communist state we are living in where the authorities do not trust its citizens using social media tools? Continue reading “Silly idea to control social media”

by Dr. Chen Man Hin
DAP life advisor
2nd March 2013

Look at the FDIs inflow to Malaysia compared to other Asean countries for 2012.

According to UNCTAD Malaysia FDI for first half of 2012 was US4 billion, and for the full year would be around US 8 billion.

Whereas it was Singapore US 27.4 billion, Indonesia 8.2 billion, Thailand 5.6 billion.

World bank figures for PER CAPITA INCOME for 2011 are:

Malaysia US$ 9500 ( US$ 7440 in 2008)

Singapore 46241

Thailand 4972

HONG KONG 36012

South Korea 22424

But Malaysia’s PCI of US9500 is far way from the required high income level of US$ 16,000 Continue reading “Hopes for Malaysia to be a high-income economy are not bright because Najib’s NEM does not dump the NEP policy”

— The Malaysian Insider
Feb 28, 2013

FEB 28 — This must be the longest wait ever for a general election in Malaysia, and it’s impossible to hold it five years after the March 8, 2008 elections.

This will also be an election that will test and assess the Malaysian media.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak was realistic when he called it the “social media” elections, because most of what Malaysians know now come from online sources.

In effect, this year’s election is also a referendum on the kind of media that Malaysians want.

Do we want an untruthful media tied to political interests — online, print or television — or do we want a media that serves the interests of Malaysians?

Do we want a media that regurgitates without question or one that questions, inquires, checks facts and verifies before publishing or broadcasting news?

Do we want our news “vanilla”, in the parlance of the Internet, or do we want it coloured with bias and perception without it being labelled as such? Continue reading “GE13 a referendum on media”

Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M) chairperson Paul Low has conceded that the Election Integrity Pledge (EIP) signed by the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last week is not legally binding.

However, TI-M will hold the signatories, including Najib, responsible by publishing their wrongdoings on its website and social media such as Facebook and Twitter to put pressure on violators of the pledge.

I thank Paul Low for being frank about admitting that there is no legal way to enforce Najib’s signature of the EIP but what should be troubling for TI-M is that the EIP also lacks moral, ethical and persuasive force as its strategy of “name and shame pledge violators online” is unlikely to strike fear in the hearts of hardened violators.

This is why Najib could be a serial violator of the TI-M EIP in the 15-day Chinese New Year of the Snake, including the following instances: Continue reading “40-Day Countdown to 13GE – Malaysians invited to give their views whether I should sign TI-M’s Election Integrity Pact after signature by Najib”

By ZURAIRI AR | MARCH 01, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — The Malaysian economy will weather the next general election and stay robust even with a change in government, renowned world economist Nouriel Roubini said today.

Roubini, also known in the media as “Dr Doom” for his consistently pessimistic economic outlook, gave his prediction today amid previous warnings by names such as veteran statesman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and former top cop Tan Sri Musa Hassan that Malaysia will descend into political and economic chaos should Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wins the next polls.

“I would say whatever the result is going to be, this country has shown institutional and political stability,” Roubini said here in his keynote address at the Datum Economic Forum 2013.

“Investors recognised that, and therefore as long as there is a democratic process, as long as there’ll be policy clarity after those elections, it’s certainly going to be positive.”

Roubini admitted that the electoral process itself will introduce elements of uncertainty for investors, but refused to comment on the election date that has yet to be announced.
Continue reading “Malaysia will survive GE13, says ‘Dr Doom’”

Febuari 2013 telah tiba dan berlalu –bulan yang berkemungkinan tercatat di dalam sejarah sebagai bulan paling kritikal dan penting dalam empat tahun sebagai Perdana Menteri dan 37 tahun kerjaya politik Datuk Seri Najib Razak kerana ini merupakan bulan beliau membatalkan “keputusan muktamad” terbaru beliau untuk membubarkan Parlimen dan mengadakan Pilihan Raya Umum ke-13 pada bulan Mac.

Pada awal Januari, Perdana Menteri keenam Malaysia yang bakal berusia 60 tahun lagi enam bulan pada 23 Julai, telah dipujuk oleh strategis politiknya untuk tetapkan fikiran supaya mengakhiri dolak-dalik selama dua tahun dan membubarkan Parlimen pada minggu terakhir Febuari untuk akhirnya mendapatkan mandat daripada 13.3 juta pengundi dalam Pilihan Raya ke-13, diyakinkan bahawa beliau mempunyai “senjata rahsia” untuk memikat dan menakut-nakutkan pengundi, termasuklah:

• RM3.5 juta jemputan kepada bintang K-Pop Korea Selatan Psy bukan sahaja untuk mempersembahkan Gangnam Style tetapi juga untuk mempopularkan Gangnam 1Malaysia Style yang dipersembahkan Psy bersama Najib, Rosmah dan Ng Yen Yen di Pulau Pinang pada hari kedua Tahun Baru Cina;
• Filem 13 Mei yang boleh menimbulkan perbahalahan dan perpecahan, “Tanda Putera”, memberikan gambaran serong, memecah-belah dan kisah tidak benar punca rusuhan 13 Mei pada tahun 1969 untuk mengapi-apikan sentiment pengundi Melayu dan menakut-nakutkan pengundi bukan Melayu;
• Janji BR1M 3.0 sekiranya UMNO/BN dipilih semula;
• Perdana Menteri menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya Transparency International bagi menggambarkan Najib sebagai wira baru memerangi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa;
• Lanjutan Projek IC ke Semenanjung Malaysia bagi penipuan “warganegara untuk undi” di Sabah yang terbukti begitu berjaya dalam mengukuhkan kuasa politik UMNO di “Negeri Bawah Bayu”; dan
• 10,000 tentera cybertrooper UMNO/BN untuk mencetuskan huru-hara dan kacau-bilau di media sosial dengan penipuan, pembohongan dan hasutan kebencian terhadap isu kaum dan agama.

Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 41 Hari ke PRU13 – Cabaran buat Najib untuk memastikan PRU13 adalah pertandingan antara perikatan mana yang mampu berkhidmat untuk Melayu, Cina, India, Orang Asli, Kadazan dan Iban bukannya pertandingan siapa lebih hebat menipu atau menghasut kebencian atau beralih kepadan politik ketakutan”

From fb

Tweets:

1. Most shocking at death of 2 police cammandoes n 2 injured. http://goo.gl/YMnkq 2 M’sians among 12 killed in Lahad Datu (Mkini)

2. Death of two police commandoes unacceptable as Msian police enjoy superior security strength/logistics. Hisham also told press conference today “no deaths”

(From Malaysiakini) A spokesperson of the sultanate of Sulu claimed that 10 people were killed and four others wounded in a exchange of fire between Malaysian security forces and the Sulu sultanate intruders in Lahad Datu this morning.

Meanwhile, Bernama reported that two Malaysian police commandoes were killed in a mortar attack, and that another two injured soldiers have since been airlifted to a hospital.

ABS-CBNnews reported that Sulu sultanate spokesperson Abraham Idjirani said he had just talked to the self-proclaimed Sulu sultan Jamalul Kiram’s (left) brother Azzimudie Kiram, who heads the armed group in Lahad Datu. Continue reading “Two M’sians among 12 killed in Lahad Datu”

he Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI) meramalkan kejayaan Barisan Nasional dalam PRU13 dengan anggaran 123 hingga 135 kerusi ( iaitu majoriti 24-48 kerusi) dan membentangkan tiga kemungkinan untuk Pilihan Raya PRU13, yakni:

• Senario 1: Status quo sekarang kekal, iaitu 140 kerusi Barisan Nasional (BN) berbanding82 kerusi untuk Pakatan Rakyat (PR) berikutan “tsunami politik” 8 Mac, 2008 dalam Pilihan Raya Umum ke-12.
• Senario 2: Merosotnya majoriti untuk BN, iaitu kurang daripada majoriti 58 kerusi selepas “tsunami politik” 308; dan
• Senario 3: BN memperoleh semula majoriti dua pertiga, iaitu memenangi sekurang-kurangnya 148 kerusi parlimen atau minimum majoriti 74 kerusi

Akan tetapi ada dua lagi kemungkinan, meramalkan kemenangan Pakatan Rakyat, yakni:

• Senario 4: Kemenangan buat Pakatan Rakyat dengan majority tipis.
• Senario 5: Kemenangan buat PR dengan majoriti selesa.

Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 42 Hari ke PRU13 – Keputusan impian saya untuk PRU13: Pakatan Rakyat menang dengan sekurang-kurangnya 125 Ahli Parlimen PR terdiri daripada 45 Ahli Parlimen PKR dan 40 Ahli Parlimen dari DAP dan PAS tiap parti”

Menteri Besar Pahang Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob telah mengikut jejak Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak dan Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz untuk mengkritik pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat kerana enggan menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya Transparency International-Malaysia (TIM) yang telah ditandatangani Perdana Menteri Rabu lalu.

Adnan mengulangi topik lama bahawa pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat enggan menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TIM kerana mereka menyembunyikan sesuatu dan mereka masih ragu-ragu sama ada perikatan oposisi mampu metadbir negara dengan bertanggungjawab jika mendapat kuasa.

Bercakap ketika pembukaan mesyuarat Kongres Kesatuan Sekerja Malaysia (MTUC) di Kuantan pada Ahad, Adnan berkata: “jika berlaku salah guna kuasa nanti mereka tidak mahu bertanggungjawab dan memberi alasan bahawa mereka tidak sign ikrar tersebut.”

Saya terkejut dengan hujah tidak masuk akal yang dilontarkan seorang Menteri Besar, mengabaikan terus undang-undang, ajaran agama dan etika terhadap rasuah dan salahguna kuasa.

Adakah Adnan benar-benar bermaksud bahawa pemimpin Barisan Nasional, baik di perinkat negeri atau negara, baik Perdana Menteri, Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Menteri-Menteri, Menteri-Menteri Besar, Ketua Menteri dan Exco Negeri boleh didakwa mengamalkan rasuah dan salahguna kuasa semata-mata kerana mereka belum lagi menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI?

Alasan tempang dari pemimpin UMNO/BN seperti itulah yang telah membangkitkan persoalan dan kebimbangan sama ada

Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TIM bermakna atau sama ada digunakan untuk “membersihkan” semua rasuah dan salahguna kuasa yang telah dilakukan pemimpin UMNO/BN dulu baik di peringkat negara atau negeri. Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 43 Hari ke PRU13 – Apakah Transparency International Malaysia boleh memadam dan membatalkan penandatangan kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya yang terang-terangan melanggar empat prinsipnya menjelang PRU13?”

Saya tidak terkejut bahawa tiada sebarang jawapan atau apa-apa saja daripada Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Kabinet atau UMNO/Barisan Nasional terhadap cadangan saya di Kuching semalam supaya dilampirkan 10 Poin Tambahan kepada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya Transparency International (TI) bagi memastikan penandatangan menurunkan tandatangan ke atas dokumen yang bermakna supaya membawa era baru integrity dan tadbir urus baik dan bukan sekadar aksi publisiti yang tidak memberikan apa-apa kesan terhadap kualiti integriti dan tadbir urus baik kerajaan akan datang.

Beberapa Ahli Parlimen Pakatan Rakyat telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI sebelum Najib menurunkan tandatangan dengan heboh Rabu lalu.

Disebabkan Najib telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI yang maka timbul keraguan tentang tujuan dan makna menandatangi ikrar sedemikian, memandangkan sepanjang empat tahun sebagai Perdana Menteri, Najib tidak pernah menunjukkan sebarang iltizam atau keseriusan untuk memerangi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa.

Ini sebabnya mengapa Malaysia telah menjunam ke kedudukan terburuk dalam Indeks Persepsi Rasuah (CPI) TI sepanjang empat tahun beliau menjadi Perdana Menteri dari 2009 ke 2012 berbanding 18 tahun lalu.

Bagaimana Najib dapat meyakinkan rakyat Malaysia bahawa beliau kini telah “bertukar haluan” memerangi rasuah dan salahguna kuasa apabila Malaysia sepanjang empat tahun lalu paling korup dalam tempoh 56 tahun jika dibandingkan dengan lima Perdana Menteri sebelumnya, baik Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Mahathir atau Tun Abdullah?

Bolehkah dengan menurunkan tandatangan pada Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya TI Najib menyucikan dirinya daripada semua kegagalan untuk memeriksa rasuah dan salahguna kuasa sepanjang empat tahun lalu atau penglibatannya sendiri dalam urusan rasuah dan salahguna kuasa? Continue reading “Pengiraan Detik 44 Hari ke PRU13 – Sekiranya Suharto atau Marcos telah menandatangani Ikrar Integriti Pilihan Raya sewaktu di puncak kuasa, apakah akan memperhebat atau mencemar ikrar itu?”

February 2013 has come and gone – a month which will probably go down in history as the most critical and crucial month of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s four-year premiership and 37-year political career as this is the month he abandoned his latest “final decision” to dissolve Parliament and to hold the 13th General Elections in March.

In early January, the sixth Malaysian Prime Minister who turns 60 in five months’ time on 23rd July, had been persuaded by his political strategists to make up his mind to end his two-year flip-flops and to dissolve Parliament in the last week of February to finally seek a mandate from the 13.3 million voters in the 13th General Elections, buoyed up by the knowledge that he had an armoury of “secret weapons” to woo or intimidate the voters, including:

• The RM3.5 million invitation to South Korean K-Pop superstar Psy not only to perform Gangnam Style but to popularise Gangnam 1Malaysia Style starring Psy with Najib, Rosmah and Ng Yen Yen in Penang on the second day of the Chinese New Year;

• The tendentious and divisive May 13 film, “Tanda Putra”, giving a totally divisive, distorted and untrue account of the causes of the May 13 riots in 1969 to inflame the sentiments of Malay voters on the one hand and to frighten the non-Malay voters on the other;

• Promise of BRIM 3.0 if UMNO/BN is re-elected;

• The Prime Minister’s signing of Transparency International’s Election Integrity Pledge to present Najib as a new convert to the battle against corruption and abuses of power;

• The extension of Project IC to Peninsular Malaysia for the “citizenship-for-votes” scams in Sabah which have proved to be so successful in entrenching UMNO political power in the “Land below the Wind”’; and

• An army of 10,000 UMNO/BN cybertroopers to create havoc and mayhem on the social media with lies, falsehoods and incitement of hatred on race and religious issues.

Continue reading “41-Day Countdown to 13GE – Challenge to Najib to ensure 13GE is a contest which coalition can do more to serve the Malays, Chinese, Indians, Orang Asli, Kadazans and Ibans instead of a contest of who could tell more lies or incite hatred or resort to politics of fear”

Hafiz Noor Shams
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 28, 2013

FEB 28 — For better or worse, quantity is important in a democratic contest. It is about gaining the majority. It is about popularity.

With that as the context, we have to remember we live in a young society. The Department of Statistics estimates that the median Malaysia age in 2010 was slightly above 26 years. In simpler terms, the age of one half of the population today is younger than the median just three years ago. The profile of the Malaysian electorate pretty much reflects the demographics of our society.

Thanks to their sheer size, those in their 20s and 30s are clearly the biggest and thus the most important group. Collectively they can decisively determine the path which the country would take.

But what makes these young people stand out further politically is that most of them will be voting in a national election for the first time in their lives. Their minds more flexible than those belonging to the older generation who more often than not are hung up on legacy issues. Ibrahim Ali, for instance, still has the May 13 incident as his talking point.

So, young adults are the cool kids on the block and the two nationally-relevant political factions are competing to be the friend of these cool kids. The Barisan Nasional-led federal government has launched several policies for that purpose and chief among them are affordable housing and other cash transfers. The federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat promises the same young adults free tertiary education, among others. Both sides are pulling out all stops to be the one special friend.

While I find many of those policies too populist, at least those policies are serious in the sense that they affect a person’s welfare. The existence of a real policy competition between two credible sides is heartening since previously, it was really all about the old, stale, suffocating issues of race and religion. That is not to say that race and religion are no longer factors but at the very least, we have something substantive to base our election on.

But I do have a feeling that the courting is starting to go a bit too far and starting to appear regressive. It is starting to go into the realm of the trivial that debases the very serious nature of our elections. In an effort to become ever more popular, political parties are starting to make entertainment the focal point of their political events, instead of what the parties stand for. Continue reading “From race and religion to Psy”

P Gunasegaram
Malaysiakini
5:50PM Feb 28, 2013

QUESTION TIME On the surface, that seems an easy enough question to answer. Perhaps if Pakatan Rakyat wins, then almost everyone expects Anwar Ibrahim to become prime minister, even though there are minor dissenting voices from among coalition partners, notably PAS.

So why should not Najib Abdul Razak become prime minister if Barisan Nasional wins? Sure he will, for a start but how long he remains prime minister will depend crucially on how well – or badly – BN does at the polls.

As it is there is not a single person I could find who does not think there is some kind of tension between Najib and his deputy, both as Umno head and prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin. The popular wisdom is that Muhyiddin is poised to take on Najib if BN does not do well enough in the polls.

This column took a look at who is likely to win the polls about a month ago. In the unlikely event that Pakatan wins, Anwar is the clear choice for prime minister.

In the likely event that BN wins, the situation is not very clear-cut. Recall that Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was pressured to step down as Umno head and prime minister even though he was a mere eight seats short of a two-thirds majority in the 2008 elections.

At the federal level it was a victory that would have counted as respectable in most countries except Malaysia, and of course our neighbour down south, Singapore.

The bigger rub was the unprecedented loss of five states in peninsular Malaysia and the popular vote here being just over 50 percent – for the opposition. Unquestionably Sabah and Sarawak saved the day for BN.

Abdullah had to come down from a major victory previously in 2004 when BN won over 90 percent of parliamentary seats and all states but Kelantan. The strong turn against BN in the peninsula was the reason Abdullah had to relent to pressure within his party to go, which he did later in 2008.

That resulted in Najib becoming the longest serving prime minister and Umno head without a direct mandate from the people via elections. But the day of reckoning is near and by June 28 at the latest the die will be cast. Then it will become clear, if BN wins, whether Najib will face pressure to cede the reins of power to Muhyiddin.

At the federal level, the common view, which I share, is that BN will not regain its two-thirds majority but is likely to remain in control via a smaller majority. That is not likely to help Najib’s case any, unless there are mitigating factors, aka the results of the state elections. Continue reading “Who will be PM?”