Day: May 13, 2013

Utusan Malaysia today carried its campaign to demonise me as an ogre and monster to a new height when in its main article on its editorial page by its senior editor Zulkiflee Bakar, posed the question: “Apa lagi Kit Siang mahu?”, launched a series of baseless attacks and insinuations against me.

Let me first answer the Utusan question: “Apa lagi Kit Siang mahu?”

My answer is: At least five thing – a clean, free and fair elections; Malaysia as a normal democratic country; restoration of rule of law; world-class education and a safe, green, healthy and united Malaysia.

If there is a clean, free and fair elections system, the Prime Minister in Malaysia today after the 13th general elections is Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and not Datuk Seri Najib Razak, as Pakatan Rakyat would have no difficulty in winning 125 parliamentary seats distributed among PKR 45, PAS and DAP 40 each with a comfortable majority of 28 out of 222 parliamentary seats.

Even despite the dirtiest election in the nation’s history, with UMNO/BN resorting to three main dishonest and unscrupulous strategies of “Money Money Money”, “Lies Lies Lies” and “Fear Fear Fear”, Najib is a minority Prime Minister winning only 47% of the popular vote while Anwar and Pakatan Raykat won the majority of the 51% popular vote, first time in the nation’s 56-year history of 13 general elections.
Continue reading “What more does Kit Siang want? At least five things – clean, free and fair elections; Malaysia as a normal democratic country; restoration of rule of law; world-class education and a safe, green, healthy and united Malaysia”

BY CLARA CHOOI, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
MAY 13, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — Lim Kit Siang today denied that he or the DAP had called for the death of Malays with the term “Malai-seh” during the bloody May 1969 riots, saying Datuk Zulkifli Noordin had committed sedition and criminal defamation with the allegation.

Lim, who is frequently targeted by right-wing Malay leaders as the protagonist behind the country’s worse racial clash in history, said Zulkifli’s remarks were merely lies uttered by a man who voters had rejected in the just-concluded Election 2013.

“After having been rejected in Shah Alam, even by the Malay voters, he continues to tell irresponsible lies.

“Now he speaks about May 13, accusing me of being responsible for the riots and for the slogan ‘Malai-seh’. It is not at all true, I was not even in Kuala Lumpur at the time,” Lim (picture) told The Malaysian Insider when contacted.

The Gelang Patah MP said the accusation was just a “figment” of Zulkifli’s imagination, and explained that the words “Malai-seh” had never been linked to him or any DAP leader in the White Paper on the May 13, 1969 incident.
Continue reading “Kit Siang denies ‘Malai-seh’ slogan, calls Zul Noordin ‘irresponsible liar’”

— SV Song
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013

MAY 12 — I’m not angry because you retained a simple majority to form the government. Given that you’ve been in power for the past 56 years, I didn’t expect your opponents to easily overcome all the advantages you’ve built into the system like the gerrymandering, an election commission which answers to the PM’s office, and your control of mainstream media. I’m not even all that angry that you managed to form the government while losing the popular vote. This situation is not unique to our country, and no election process is foolproof.

I’m angry at how far you went in your bid to ‘win at all costs’. Unidentified voters arriving by the busloads, ballot boxes falling out of helicopters, chartered flights ferrying phantoms to different parts of the country, mysterious blackouts and disrupted telephone lines, ballot boxes appearing at opportune moments, cash handouts near voting centres – all at the expense of Malaysian taxpayers.

I’m angry that civilians had to resort to forming human barricades to counteract your dirty tactics, risking their own safety in the process – while the police either stood by and did nothing, or worse, aided you in your schemes. You, who claim to put the people first, instead, risked the lives of ordinary Malaysians just so you could continue to stay in power.

I’m angry at the way your practices breed fear and discrimination on so many levels. Human nature has its dark side – this is true. But there is also choice, and circumstance. You could have built bridges to help heal long-standing rifts. You could have created circumstances which allowed grievances to be aired and intellectual debate to thrive. Instead, you chose censorship and divisiveness. Your rule is characterised by escalating resentment and spreading distrust. Your rule propagates circumstances which bring out the ugly side of human nature. Continue reading “Reflections on GE13”

— Fikry Osman
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013

MAY 12 — One week after GE13, you get the feeling that some Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, especially in Umno, are in denial about what went wrong with their campaign.

Instead, they first blamed it on the Chinese for rejecting them, and then told the Chinese they were stupid enough to be duped by the DAP into rejecting them. In not so many words, the Chinese are ungrateful and stupid.

“Umno was not defeated, in fact it added more seats. If not for some quarters playing race issues, we would have won more seats,” Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Razak said in his speech at the party’s 67th anniversary celebration at the Putra World Trade Centre here last night

“We are not a racist party, we are a party that is moderate. We have been serving other races for a long time,” he added.

One of the harsh realities of the new world is this: you cannot tailor your message to different race groups and get away with it.

Umno and BN tried that in Election 2013 and failed, Umno’s Utusan Malaysia tried to scare people with DAP being the master and PAS the puppet, while MCA’s The Star did the opposite.

The NST, well, it couldn’t do really much because its sales and readership, is shrinking and it could only rely on bloggers for its news content. Continue reading “Can’t divide and rule, dear PM”

by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
May 12, 2013

COMMENT

The May 2013 general election was a potential transition election in which the BN governing coalition held onto power.

The majority of the Malaysians supported an alternative government, but the incumbent Umno elite, supported by vested interests and years of constructing an electoral system in its favour, won out.

Even with yet another multi-ethnic national swing in electoral support towards Pakatan and more Malaysians voting than ever before, the incumbent elite in power held on, thwarting democracy.

Earlier, I pointed to some of the specific questions surrounding the electoral roll, the placement of voters, the conduct of the election itself and the character of the results, highlighting many of the unanswered questions of GE13.

The process of evidence gathering has begun and in the months ahead many of the irregularities in the polls will be illustrated and investigated. Continue reading “Umno’s reactionary GE13 ‘victory’”

— Harris Nasril
The Malaysian Insider
May 11, 2013

MAY 11 — The rally on May 8 was amazing. I left the office in Cheras around 6.30pm. It took me almost two hours before I reached the LDP toll plaza at Sunway around 8.30pm. Traffic was crawling on the LDP highway. I reached the Sungai Way industrial zone at 9.15pm. People were parking their cars on the highway here as traffic had come to a standstill. I parked my car near the Western Digital factory. A simple check on Google map showed that I had to walk 3.8km to the Kelana Jaya stadium. Oh my! That is the longest walk since my school days! People were already walking from here in their thousands, almost 90 per cent dressed in black. Few of them were chanting “Ubah”, “Reformasi”. The four-lane LDP had turned into a single-lane road. Cars were double-parked by the roadside.

Despite the police warning that it was an illegal rally, I did not see even a single policeman when I reached the stadium around 9.45pm. It was packed like sardines in a can! The entrance was totally blocked. I saw a few people climbing the fence to get inside. Without wasting time, I too climbed the fence to get in. People from inside the stadium helped me up. I also saw a young Chinese girl climb up too and helped by a Malay guy.

The view from inside the stadium was incredible! It was a sea of people in black. Continue reading “The day Malaysians spoke out loud”

— Sharm
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013

MAY 12 — Yes, I was there. Why was I there? Without doubt, in the name of SUPPORT.

I had no idea what time fellow supporters were already thronging to the stadium.

In my mind, I thought we (my sister, brother-in-law and me) could get an easy access of car park and we can make it to the stadium.

But to our surprise, we were at a standstill for almost half an hour in our car just about 500 metres away from the Kelana Jaya toll exit. This was at approximately before 9pm. Continue reading “Glad I made it”

Stephen Tan
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013

MAY 12 — I was there. I am usually not too active or vocal with regards to politics. However, the series of blatant cheating practices with regards to the elections has made me upset, frustrated and extremely angry.

Furthermore, the blatant accusation made by the PM post elections is totally unstatesman-like. He practically proved to the whole country and world of the insincerity of his policies and so called transformation programs. He does not deserve to be PM, let alone a leader of a political party.

Malaysia is turning into a mini apartheid, or a Nazi state with leaders like this. Superior race in this time and age?! It pisses me off. Continue reading “There to be heard”

Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
May 12, 2013

COMMENT

The dust is beginning to settle one week after the dirtiest election in the country’s history. Some of the dirt will stick, while others will hopefully wash away as the memory of the election fades.

My earlier pieces have focussed on the questions about the electoral process and impact of an Umno ‘victory’. Here I turn to the effects of the election on the expansion of democracy in Malaysia.

The message is one of strength, not weakness, or hope, rather than despair. Continue reading “Silver linings in a GE13 without gold”

— Pravin Pillai
The Malaysian Insider
May 12, 2013

Empathy is feeling sorry for those who voted for a racist government. Sympathy is being sorry that they aren’t.

MAY 12 — I wasn’t going to go. But as the Facebook messages kept coming in about where help was needed I changed my mind.

I joined the black parade.

Like millions of others I felt like someone close to me had died. I was in mourning. The other side wants me to believe that all was fair and square. That I had a poor grasp of politics, the electorate and logic. Tis’ true, I am less a fan of logic than I am of heart. I believe logic can deceive you. You come home unexpectedly one afternoon and find your wife in bed. She says she’s having a headache. Logic moves you to check her temperature. The heart tells you to check under the bed. Half the country doesn’t have to wait for Rafizi to confirm the fact that they have been fucked. They feel it in their bones. Continue reading “I joined the black parade”