Month: April 2013

by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
6:19PM Apr 27, 2013

GE13 SPECIAL Apart from civil servants, another decisive group in GE13 are women. They comprise 51.7 percent of the electorate and regularly turn out in high numbers, especially in semi and rural areas.

In close races, how women vote can make the difference. Numerically, women are largely in the urban areas, but disproportionately they are more influential politically in the more rural areas, as men are often outstation for employment.

Let’s take a look at how women can shape and have shaped the election so far, recognising that they will make an important impact this election and the trends are moving against the BN. Continue reading “BN’s femme fatale – the power of women”

by Tricia Yeoh
theSun
25 April 2013 – 07:54pm

NEGATIVE advertisements are flooding mainstream newspapers in this very electric season of the 13th general election campaign, but many fail to convince. One full-page advertisement caught my attention, paid for by the MCA, a component party of the Barisan Nasional.

Its title reads “Ubah (Change) for the worst? What can we learn from the Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain free fall?” and describes what it imagines to have taken place in these countries during and after the Arab Spring.

The advertisement outlines the following series of events: “People get fed up with the government; Ruling party is forced to step down; Civil war in the streets and chaos in the country; Political instability, economic turmoil; Economy goes down, unemployment goes up; People get fed up with new government; Want to go back to the previous government.” Continue reading “Malaysia is no Egypt”

by Tota
ALIRAN

We have seen the BN ads in the mass media portraying the opposition parties in a sinister light. Tota now shares with us his thoughts on what the BN stands for.

I have been sickened by the anti-Pakatan Rakyat advertisements in the BN controlled mainstream print media (see above). BN tactics are downright dirty. For a change, let me tell the rakyat what voting for BN portends.

A vote for BN is a vote to:

1. Maintain a throughly corrupt regime to plunder the country’s wealth.
2. Allow Umno to continue to exploit and manipulate mercilessly the poor Malays using religion and political propaganda.
3. Encourage government that lies, cheats and deceives.

Continue reading “What voting for BN means”

by Mark Baker
Editor-at-Large, The Age

Onn Mahmud was a wealthy tycoon with a bulging property portfolio when he jetted off without warning in 2007.

Number 10 Wylde Street, Potts Point, commands views to die for on a harbour not short of heart-stopping vistas. Perched high above Woolloomooloo Bay, it faces directly across the sweep of the botanical gardens to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

For a while, a few years ago, it was the site for one of the most luxurious apartment developments in Australia. In 2008, the duplex penthouse in the five-storey project was sold off the plan for a record price of $20 million.

A year earlier – on the cusp of such riches – the Malaysian tycoon who had brought the project close to fruition abruptly sold the site as he quietly folded most of his substantial Sydney property portfolio and exited the Australian business scene. Continue reading “Catch him if you can: the mysterious escape of Malaysia’s second richest man”

New Straits Times today carried the following report: “Tsu Koon throws challenge to Kit Siang and Guan Eng on hudud”.

Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who is Gerakan President, “threw a challenge” to me and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng “to make a formal stand on hudud, the Islamic law”.

Koh said both DAP leaders “had not made it clear whether they supported or opposed PAS’ stand on hudud or left the matter to the party’s national chairman, Karpal Singh”.

I am surprised by Koh’s statement, as he has got a Ph.D and having been Penang Chief Minister for nearly two decades, he should be more knowledgeable and literate than ordinary Gerakan and Barisan Nasional leaders and members. Continue reading “8-Day to 13GE Polling Day – Tsu Koon invited to Gelang Patah daily press conference at 11.30 am tomorrow and I will explain to him my stand on hudud”

Oleh kerana masih ada pemimpin politik UMNO dan BN serta cybertroopers upahan mereka yang masih menyebarkan fitnah tentang DAP, saya ingin menjelaskan bahawa DAP adalah sebuah parti politik yang sah yang terbuka kepada semua bangsa dan kaum. Jika DAP bertindak di luar undang-undang atau melanggar Perlembagaan Persekutuan, tentu DAP sudah lama diharamkan.

DAP adalah parti pelbagai kaum, sentiasa membuka pintu dan peluang adil kepada orang Melayu. Yang menjadi masalah kepada DAP ialah UMNO dan BN telah lama menggunakan media dan alat-alat kerajaan untuk menyebarkan fitnah kononnya DAP adalah parti cauvinis Cina dan bersifat perkauman.

Fitnah ini diulang-ulang sehingga ada orang keliru dan tidak sedar bahawa UMNO lah yang menutup pintu kepada orang bukan Melayu menyertainya, MCA pula tidak membenarkan orang bukan Cina menyertai dan MIC tidak membuka pintu kepada orang Melayu atau Cina. Jadi BN yang mengamalkan politik berasaskan kaum.

Namun, saya lega sekarang kerana semakin ramai orang Melayu sudah sedar tentang fitnah UMNO dan BN yang disiarkan melalui media. Semakin ramai orang Melayu tidak percayakan laporan oleh Utusan Malaysia, TV3, Berita Harian dan lain-lain media yang dikawal ketat oleh UMNO dan BN.
Continue reading “DAP parti pelbagai kaum, sentiasa membuka pintu dan peluang kepada orang Melayu”

by Mark Baker
Editor-at-Large, The Age

Anwar Ibrahim once seemed a certainty to rule Malaysia. Then came his arrest and imprisonment. Now, with his party shaking up the establishment, is he set to finally fulfil his ambition? By Mark Baker.

It’s nearing midnight in Penang. In a park surrounded by decaying concrete apartment blocks, a swelling crowd waits patiently amid the sticky heat and pungent aromas of food stalls, traffic fumes and open drains. This is a poor Malay neighbourhood, but there are Chinese and Indians here, too, a representative cross-section of multiracial Malaysia.

Suddenly a slim figure in dark trousers and white shirt emerges from the darkness through a side gate and the crowd erupts in jubilation, clapping, cheering and sounding horns. A squad of armed security men guides him through the crush and up towards the fluorescent glare of a makeshift stage. “There have been attacks by provocateurs at other meetings. We have to be careful,” says a senior aide. Continue reading “Winds of change”

by Martin Jalleh

by Stan CH Lee

Recently DPM Muhyiddin Yassin proudly announced that Malaysia’ branding is something that is real, rooted in reality. Not something that it aspires to be.

1Malaysia?

I guess he has to justify the staggering amounts paid to some Israeli PR firm for massaging the image. He obviously believes the guy who said “Get a good creative person and he can make a stinking dead elephant smell like perfume.” To be sure, good creative work can even wipe a dark past clean, but for this to work, the subject must have already started on the road to redemption. You could have been a scoundrel in your younger days, but are now a responsible member of society. If you continue in your merry old ways, it shows up jarringly against the branding.

Bikin tak serupa cakap, they say. Continue reading “Can you smell the elephant in the room?”

by Martin Jalleh

by P Ramakrishnan
ALIRAN

The joy of receiving RM500 has been fleeting. Now, the coffee shops, market traders, hawkers and food courts have all increased their prices, and the pain will not go away, observes P Ramakrishnan.

The Barisan Nasional is feeding opium to the people through BR1M. The people then become deluded into believing that a lot of money is being given out. Indeed they feel elated and happy clutching the RM500 that is dished out to them.

At that moment – after waiting in long queues and sweating in an uncomfortable environment – when they finally receive the RM500, they feel that they are suddenly rich. For the poor people this has a big impact. Continue reading “BR1M brings misery”

by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
2:08PM Apr 25, 2013

GE13 SPECIAL In caretaker Premier Najib Abdul Razak’s political targeting, one group has received special attention – civil servants. Why would those in the heart of government garner such special focus for an election? The reality is that in Malaysia’s close electoral races, civil servants can be decisive in shaping the final tallies. This is one of the groups that I will be highlighting as decisive in this campaign.

Over the past few years Najib’s administration has worked to stem the erosion of support from his traditional base of government employees with mixed results.

A decisive constituency

Civil servants make up 1.4 million voters, or 10.5 percent of the electorate. The civil service is made up of senior appointments, the police, army personnel, teachers, and a variety of industrial and manual (IMG) groups. There are also an estimated 657,000 government pensioners. Continue reading “People or party? Wooing civil servants”

by Richard Loh

Are they trying to share their FEAR of losing power by orchestrating the many violence we are seeing lately?

Umno perkasa bn have been telling people that CHANGE will lead to chaos and violence and only by staying with them will we see peace and stability.

But what are we observing today, daily reports of violence going on and they are still the caretaker government yet they are not doing anything to curb nor condemn the ongoing violence.

Have you heard the caretaker PM ordering the violence to stop or the police to take drastic action against whomever are perpetuating these violence? NO and WHY? Continue reading “GE 13: Vote with anger, wipe away corruptions, racism, religious intolerance and FEAR”

by Allan CF Goh

I have just returned from a 42-hour whistle-stop visit to Sarawak and Sabah, where I challenged voters in the three Barisan Nasional “fixed deposit states” of Sarawak, Sabah and Johor to rise up to the historic challenge to achieve the target of winning a total of 33 Parliamentary seats in the 13GE from the three states – which is an important precondition for Malaysians to effect change in Putrajaya with Pakatan Rakyat replacing Barisan Nasional as the new Federal Government of Malaysia.

It is a tall order for the three BN “fixed deposit” states of Sarawak, Sabah and Johore to win for Pakatan Rakyat 33 out of the total of 83 parliamentary seats in these three states on 13GE Polling Day on May 5, as PR only won three or one in each state in the 2008 general elections – namely Bandar Kuching in Sarawak, Kota Kinabalu in Sabah and Bakri in Johore – but it is not an impossible target as it would have been five years ago.

I am encouraged from my lightning visits to Sabah (Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu) on Wednesday and Sarawak (Kuching, Mas Gading where our parliamentary candidate is Mordi Bimol and Serian where our parliamentary candidate is Edward Andrew Luat) yesterday that the winds of change are blowing strong and hard in these two states.

It was in Sabah that the catchcry “Ini Kalilah” and in Sarawak where the other catchcry “UBAH” first rang out loud and clear and which have now been joined as “Ini Kalilah – UBAH” to become the common cry and inspiration of all Malaysians in the country who want change to embrace the Malaysian Dream and an end to the politics of race, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power, violation of democratic and human rights, injustices and lack of good governance!
Continue reading “9-Day Countdown to 13GE Polling Day: Sarawak BN has conceded that 11 parliamentary seats in the state are in danger – a step closer to Putrajaya”

by Martin Jalleh

by Kee Thuan Chye
MSN Malaysia

As it looks, a few days past nomination day, the odds are changing to favour Pakatan, although at the time of the dissolution of Parliament, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) seemed to have the upper hand: Kee Thuan Chye reports.

The Opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat must be very careful between now and polling day not to make any colossal mistakes that could deny it victory at the 13th general election. I’m thinking of something about the same magnitude as or greater than the faux pas made by Tengku Razaleigh in wearing the Kadazan headgear with a cross on it on the eve of the 1990 general election.

As it looks, a few days past nomination day, the odds are changing to favour Pakatan, although at the time of the dissolution of Parliament, the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) seemed to have the upper hand. Continue reading “Opinions: The Odds, they are a-Changin’”

BY HUI MEI LIEW KAISER | APRIL 18, 2013
Foreign Policy

I’m a Malaysian citizen who’s been living in Switzerland since I married my German husband two and a half years ago. Ever since I made the move to Europe, though, I’ve been keeping an eye on the political situation back in my native country. Earlier this year, when it became apparent that a general election was imminent, I flew back to Malaysia — 6,200 miles away — just so that I could vote.

Unfortunately, after my arrival, the government decided to hold off on calling the new election, so when I couldn’t wait any longer I flew back to Zurich — only to hear the news that Prime Minister Najib Razak had dissolved parliament. Soon after that the date of the new election was set: May 5.

So I turned around and flew back to Malaysia. Continue reading “Why I’m Flying Back to Malaysia to Vote”

by Martin Jalleh

I am really flabbergasted. I am accused by the Johor Mentri Besar and Barisan Nasional candidate for Gelang Patah Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman of saying things about him which I had never done.

For instance, in an interview today with the UMNO-owned and controlled New Straits Times, which claims to be a newspaper when it is in fact a “lies-paper”, the Johor Mentri Besar was asked a loaded and completely untruthful question and Ghani gave an equally baseless and untruth answer because it was founded on lies and falsehoods.

This is the Q and A I am referring to:

“Question: Your opponent had tried to paint a picture of you being a Malay chauvinist. Do you think it will influence the Chinese electorate, who make up the majority of voters in Gelang Patah?

“Answer: It is cruel. I’m quite sad about the attempts to label me a racist. But Johoreans know me.

“I have been here for the past 18 years and the Chinese community here knows that I have always engaged them. I work with them directly on community issues as well as on education, culture and welfare.

“Since (Lim) Kit Siang decided to come here to contest (Gelang Patah), he has been provoking the Chinese.”

Continue reading “Ghani should change his political advisers in the Gelang Patah contest as he is made to say things which undermines his reputation as a sober, rational and level-headed classic Malay gentleman”