Month: April 2013

by Koon Yew Yin

As the election date draws nearer, it is important that all politicians wishing to take part should make known to the public what they stand for.

Among our political leaders, there are few that have earned the respect of Malaysians in the same way that Tengku Razaleigh has. Through his actions he has struck many as a man of honour, decency, good sense and ability. These qualities – not superhuman virtues – are the ones needed at the helm of the nation to guide us through this difficult time of racial and religious extremism, and unquenched opportunism and power craze.

On what Tengku Razaleigh stands for, there is little or no doubt. However, given his marginalization in the mainstream media, many Malaysians may not be aware of his political philosophy. This philosophy which I heard him elaborate on in Ipoh in 2012 could serve as the template for the nation’s political development. It has served as the template for my book, Malaysia: Road Map for Achieving Vision 2020. Continue reading “Open Letter to Tengku Razaleigh: Time to Take a Bold Stand”

By Kee Thuan Chye
MalaysianDigest.com

Parliament has been dissolved, paving the way for the much-awaited 13th general election.

Finally, Prime Minister Najib Razak made the call on April 3, which marked the fourth anniversary of his premiership, after much hesitation that had provoked much speculation that he was afraid of the election outcome.

Indeed, a week prior to the dissolution, he embarked on his famous “I help you, you help me” routine of giving cash bonuses or salary increments to a spectrum of people, including the civil service (which is 1.4 million-strong), the army, the police, and the staff of Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB), Telekom Malaysia, Petronas and seven statutory bodies.

This incensed level-headed Malaysians who saw it as a blatant form of vote-buying, but it appears that Najib must be desperate to resort to such a desperate measure. Continue reading “GE13 Set to Be a Titanic Clash”

After months of speculation and waiting, Prime Minister Najib finally dissolved Parliament this morning in a live broadcast to the nation in the presence of his entire Cabinet.

Since Najib has already set a string of new records in Malaysian history including by presiding over the longest-serving administration in the country without an electoral mandate and allowing the Negeri Sembilan state assembly to automatically dissolve, I put forward to the Malaysian voters to help Najib set another record of being the first BN Prime Minister that will lose an election in the upcoming 13th general election.

To help Najib along, I give reasons for Malaysian voters to vote out every single Cabinet Minister who was with Najib this morning, if they are selected to run as a candidate.

1. Chor Chee Heung, Minister of Housing and Local Government, MP of Alor Setar

• Vote him out for making the ludicrous statement that that I was hopping from one constituency to another in order to obtain more than one pension when in reality, an MP is only entitled to ONE pension regardless of the number of constituencies has represented in his life.
• Vote him out for not declaring the huge conflict of interest when he was both Port Klang Authority (PKA) chairman as well as a non-independent director of Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd’s sister company, Wijaya, for a period of 4 months.

2. Idris Jala, CEO of Pemandu and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator

• For performance deception and the massaging of statistics in order to show that the ETP and GTP have ‘achieved’ their stated KPIs to mask their total failure to transform the government or the economy

3. Jamil Khir bin Baharom (B), Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Senator Continue reading “8-Day Countdown to GE13: Reasons to vote out every single one of the 30 Cabinet Ministers who were with Prime Minister Najib this morning when the announcement for the dissolution of Parliament was made”

The pledge by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of a peaceful transition of power in the 13th General Elections, whether at the federal or state level, is most commendable.

I had many times in the past four years , both inside and ouside Parliament, asked Najib to make the public commitment that if Umno/Barisan Nasional loses the mandate to form the federal government in Putrajaya, he and UMNO/BN would accept the verdict of the electorate and would assume responsibility to ensure peaceful transition of power from the BN to Pakatan Rakyat government in Putrajaya.

Until today, however, Najib had evaded the subject.

Although Najib’s public commitment is very late in the making, it is better late than never and this is why I commend him for his pledge “to respect democracy” and “to respect the voice of the rakyat”.

Pakatan Rakyat on our part makes a similar commitment to respect the voice of the people in the 13th General Elections and peaceful transition of power, whether at federal or state level.

However, such commitments must be sincere and serious and must be backed up with deeds and not just be empty slogans, and this is why all political parties and leaders must act in conformity with their public commitments and pledges. Continue reading “Najib’s pledge to respect people’s decision on transition of power, whether federal or state, commendable but it must be backed with deeds and not just empty slogans”

Malaysiakini | 11:54PM Apr 2, 2013

The flurry of heavyweights from the Pakatan Rakyat camp contesting parliamentary seats in Johor continued as former army chief Gen (Rtd) Md Hashim Hussein was announced as PKR’s candidate for the Johor Baru parliamentary seat tonight.
Continue reading “Pakatan continues fielding heavyweights in Johor”

By Martin Jalleh

By Greg Lopez
New Mandala
3 April 2013

Sonia Randhawa

1. What do you think will be the most important issue that the new government must address?

Whoever wins the next election there will be an urgent need to rebuild democratic institutions, whose credibility is being questioned by an increasing number of Malaysians, increasingly vocal. Should Barisan Nasional win, this will be a doubly urgent task – there seems to be a growing belief among Pakatan supporters that the only thing that will keep BN in power is fixing the election. I don’t agree with this conclusion, but it undermines BN’s legitimacy as a government from the outset. The two most urgent institutions in need of reform to ensure ongoing peace in the country are the police and the Election Commission. The police force needs urgent reform, given the perception of rising crime, the perception of police corruption and the inability of the force to engage in internal reform. The Election Commission will also need to be overhauled to ensure public support of the democratic process in Malaysia. Continue reading “GE13 Malaysia – Sonia Randhawa”

– Honest Man
The Malaysian Insider
April 02, 2013

APRIL 2 – If there was a prize for the most unintentionally funny as well as pathetic political party around, MCA would score top marks and take the blue ribbon.

It was reported in The Malaysian Insider today that the MCA had issued itself a “report card” and gave itself top marks.

The MCA is also said to be using this as a major plank in its Election 2013 campaign.

If having a president with a sex scandal past is not bad enough, the issuing of this report card will finally prove to the public that the MCA is a party with zero ideas and even less shame.

To Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek and his party strategists here’s a little nugget of knowledge which you may have missed when you were in school.

Self praise is no praise at all.

Actually for your benefit, the correct idiom is self praise is no recommendation. Continue reading “Dear MCA: Self praise is no recommendation”

2 April 2013
R. Nadeswaran
The Sun Daily

THE images on television were horrific. Smoke billowing from the embers in a village in Myanmar and a mob burning down a branch of the iconic Fashion Bug chain in Sri Lanka. These are the results of religious bigotry. Groups calling themselves “religious” have succeeded in manipulating and contradicting the tenets in every religion – moderation and non-violence.

Common sense should remind us that fanatical organisations and individuals have no place in society and religion, when used as a tool for political expedience, the results could be persuasive. In Sri Lanka, Buddhist monks are leading right-wing groups against the Muslims while in Myanmar, a group called 969 is leading the onslaught against the Rohingyas.

Islamophobia and any other forms of religious chauvinism and extremism have no place in modern society. Fortunately for right-thinking Malaysians, we can confidently affirm that acceptance and understanding of each other’s religion has been a major factor in bringing about a strife-free country.

But occasionally, a handful break that confidence by making utterances that are totally deplorable, unacceptable and above all nauseating. Continue reading “No action again and again …”

by Allan CF Goh

Election is for folks
To make meaningful choice;
To choose moral people
To represent our voice.
It’s time to elect folks
Of good integrity,
To helm the government,
With perfect propriety.

This is to prevent chaos,
As well as corruption;
To safeguard civil rights
And their slow erosion.
Elected officials
Serve with people’s consent;
They are public servants,
To make good our dissent. Continue reading “Come Election Day”

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin have one thing in common – they do not think very highly of the quality and calibre of the Ministers in post-Mahathir Cabinets.

Mahathir have dismissed the Cabinet as comprising “half-past six Ministers” while Daim only recently called for the removal of the “deadwood” from the Barisan Nasional’s Cabinet line-up, to which Mahathir gave “full-hearted” support, saying:

“I agree entirely. Lots of deadwood should be chopped down and thrown away and new trees grow.”

The MCA Vice President and Minister for Housing and Local Government, Datuk Chor Chee Heung came to Gelang Patah yesterday and provided ample proof that he fully deserves the contempt Mahathir and Daim reserved for the present Cabinet Ministers, dismissing them as “half-past six” and “deadwood” Ministers.

In Gelang Patah, Chor questioned my motive for contesting in Gelang Patah. He alleged that I was “hopping from one seat to another” because I was “greedy” for pensions, claiming that I would get separate pension entitlements if I moved from constituency to constituency.

I have been an MP for four states, namely Malacca, Selangor, Penang, Perak and am going to contest in Johore in Gelang Patah in the 13GE. Does this mean that I would be entitled to five pensions if I win in Gelang Patah? Continue reading “Chor Chee Heung has proven Mahathir and Daim right when they respectively condemned the present Cabinet Ministers as “half-past six” or “deadwood””

Yesterday, I gave three reasons why Johoreans will vote in record numbers for Pakatan Rakyat in the upcoming 13th general elections. Today, I give three reasons why Johoreans need to vote in a Pakatan government not just at the federal level but also at the state level as well.

Firstly, Johoreans must vote in a Pakatan federal and state government to ensure that Accountable and Transparent Development takes place in the state of Johor.

Southern Johor is the site of three mega projects that are in various stages of development namely, the Khazanah owned Iskandar Development Region (IDR) outside Johor Bahru, the Petronas owned Refinery and Petrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in Pengerang and the Benalec owned Tanjung Piai Maritime Industrial Park project in Tanjung Piai.

Billions of ringgit have already been poured into Iskandar and billions more of are expected to be poured into the other two mega projects.

These projects require the approval of not just the federal government but also the state government especially when it comes to land acquisition, reclamation and development.

Without the presence of a Pakatan government at the State as well as Federal government, the people of Johor will suffer the same fate as the people in Penang and Selangor before the 2008 general election.

In other words, land will be sold at below market prices to politically connected parties without any benefit to the average Johorean. Continue reading “9-day Countdown to 13GE – Pakatan Rakyat promises Accountable and Transparent, Sustainable and People-Friendly and Equitable Development for the people of Johor if voted in as the Federal as well as State government”

By CH Lee
The Drawing Is On The Wall

— Gerhard Hoffstaedter and Greg Lopez
The Malaysian Insider
April 01, 2013

APRIL 1 — The Malaysian government and its multiple state governments have become caretaker governments and elections will have to be called before June 28 if the country wants to maintain the semblance of an electoral democracy.

Everything is at stake at these elections. Malaysia has been ruled as a country by one coalition since independence in 1957 and its hold on political power has been tenacious. The economy and society remain formidable.

Opposition coalitions have tried at every election to make inroads in a system clearly stacked against them. In 2008, there was a real breakthrough, with the opposition capturing five out of the 13 states of the federation and breaking the ruling coalition’s psychologically important two-thirds majority it had become accustomed to.

It is not easy to categorise the two opposing coalitions and its members, as they are disparate, complex, and, with multiple agendas, often fractured. The ruling coalition is run by Umno, with other constituent parties largely serving the Chinese and Indian populations as well as some indigenous communities of Sabah and Sarawak. Continue reading “Malaysia at (yet another) crossroads”

— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
April 01, 2013

APRIL 1 — I am thankful to The Malaysian Insider for giving publicity to whatever Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is saying these days.

Because it allows more Malaysians to appreciate what a fraud he is and understand that a vote for BN is a vote for Dr Mahathir.

These are my reasons for calling Dr Mahathir a fake, a Petaling Street knock-off, a politician who will say anything or do anything to perpetuate the system of excesses which he put in place. Continue reading “All hail Dr M?”

RK Anand| April 1, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

Bishop Paul Tan is incensed over the video which shows MP Zulkifli Noordin belittling the Hindu faith and demands action from the ‘1Malaysia’ government.

KUALA LUMPUR: The video recording of a member of Parliament belittling the Hindu faith has prompted a Catholic priest to question the government’s double standard in dealing with such matters.

Bishop Paul Tan pointed out that the present ruling government had not hauled up any Muslim who uttered seditious words and made seditious gestures against those of other religions while it acted against those who stated unpleasant things about Islam.

The head of the Malacca-Johor diocese was responding to the video of Kulim Bandar Bahru MP Zulkifili Noordin who mocked how statues of Hindu deities could not prevent a flood in Masjid India here.

The video, which was uploaded on YouTube, had since gone viral.

Zulkifli is also the vice-president of Perkasa, whose president Ibrahim Ali had also earned the wrath of Tan when he called for the torching of Malay bibles that used the term Allah.

The bishop recounted how he had in the past called on the government to take action against both Ibrahim and Perkasa patron and former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad over this issue.

“What sort of justice is this? It is no justice but bigotry which the Almighty God himself would be ashamed of,” he said.

“God sees, hears and knows everything. In spite of the fact that final justice is rendered by the Almighty God, we humans are not exempt from taking the right means to right what is wrong. Continue reading “Bishop: What sort of justice is this?”

by Martin Jalleh

There have been many misleading, incorrect and even baseless reports about Pakatan Rakyat negotiations on seats allocations which I think should be put straight for the record, viz:

Firstly, the Pakatan Rakyat leadership decision that I leave the comparatively safe seat of Ipoh Timor which I had won with a majority of over 21,000 votes in 2008 for Gelang Patah, which was won by the MCA/BN with a majority of some 9,000 votes in 2008 and a humongous majority of 31,666 votes in 2004 in a mission to help propel a “political tsunami” in Johore for Pakatan Rakyat to arrive in Putrajaya in the 13GE was not in exchange for any seat.

Secondly, the proposal that DAP allow PKR’s Chua Jui Meng to contest in Segamat is under discussion and negotiation. Continue reading “27-year-old Liow Cai Tung, product manager, is DAP candidate for Johor Jaya state assembly seat – a “7227” partnership of the old, middle-aged and young”

Tun Mahathir has come to Johor to help UMNO/Barisan Nasional fight Pakatan Rakyat’s Battle of Gelang Patah, which seeks to create a political tsunami from the south spreading to the rest of Malaysia, crossing the South China Sea to Sabah and Sarawak, to effect the first peaceful and democratic transition of federal power in the nation’s 56-year history.

In his speech in Johor Baru last night, Mahathir urged Johor folk to end my political career in Gelang Patah in the 13GE, saying:

“If he wants to contest in Penang, Malacca, we can understand but want to attack Umno’s fortress in Johor is stupid, doesn’t make sense.”

He further said:

“Lim Kit Siang wants to come here (to contest). I urge the people of Johor, all communities should pool their energy to ensure that the state of Johor will be the ‘burial ground’ for Lim Kit Siang’s politics.

“We must ensure that he (Kit Siang) loses in Johor. The state of Johor will continue to become the ‘fixed deposit’ for BN (Barisan Nasional).” Continue reading “Invitation to Mahathir to contest in Gelang Patah and let the voters of Johore decide whether Gelang Patah should be mine or his “political kubur””

Johor, my birth state, is arguably the most important state in Peninsular Malaysia in the upcoming 13th general elections. Not only does it have the largest number of parliament seats in Peninsular Malaysia (26), it is also a state where, unlike in the past, the BN can no longer guarantee a clean sweep of all or almost all of the parliament and state seats.

I have outlined the four objectives of the Battle of Gelang Patah last week. Objective One is to target the 6 Parliamentary and 13 State Assembly seats in South Johor. Objective Two is to target a total of 19 Parliamentary and 30 State Assembly seats in the whole of Johor, which includes the South Johor seats mentioned in Objective One. Objective Three is to target 33 out of the 83 Parliamentary seats in the BN ‘fixed deposit’ states of Johor, Sabah and Sarawak in order to reach the magic number of 112 parliament seats. Objective Four is to win an additional 12 seats to win 125 parliament seats and obtain a comfortable governing majority of 28 seats.

Why do I feel confident that the winds of change are blowing sufficiently strongly in Johor so much so that it will no longer be a BN ‘fixed deposit’ state in GE13? There are at least three reasons.

Firstly, we have seen how big swings in the past have allowed the opposition to make significant gains. If these swings are big enough, it may even allow the opposition to win a majority of seats and gain control of a state government.

We saw this in Selangor in 2008. From 1995 to 2004, the opposition failed to win a single parliament seats in this state, including the 1999 general elections where the BN suffered a backlash from the victimization of Anwar Ibrahim, especially among the Malay voters. From 1995 to 2004, the most number of state seats won by the opposition was 6 out of a total of 48 state seats (1/8th or 12.5% of total state seats). And yet, in 2008, the opposition’s share of the popular vote jumped from 34% in 2004 to 55% in 2008, a massive swing of 21%! As a result, the opposition parties – PKR, PAS and DAP – won a majority of parliament seats (17 out of 22) and well as state seats (36 out of 56), thereby ushering in a Pakatan state government in Selangor for the first time in Malaysia’s history.
Continue reading “10-day Countdown to 13GE – Three reasons why Johoreans will vote in record numbers for Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general elections”