Day: February 28, 2014

It is now one full month since the announcement by the Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be the Pakatan Rakyat candidate in the Kajang by-election which will be held in three weeks’ time on March 23, 2014.

In the past 31 days, political temperatures and election fervor had steadily mounted, with a whole slate of issues, national, state and local, being canvassed.

The Kajang by-election promises to be the “by-election of the century” in Malaysia, deciding not only on who will be the elected representative of the Selangor state assembly seat of Kajang, the political leadership in Selangor but most important of all, the political configuration of the federal centre of power in Putrajaya in the immediate future.

The by-election on March 23 will not only determine the future of Kajang and Selangor, but the future of Malaysia and her 30 million people – not only for 2014 but for the coming years and decades.

All the three Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP must be fully united and inspired by the common goal of creating a new Malaysia where all her citizenry, regardless of race, religion or region, are united with one common vision for an united, harmonious, free, democratic, just, competitive, progressive and prosperous Malaysia. Continue reading “House divided cannot stand – Anwar’s real enemies in Kajang by-election are not independents, MCA or even UMNO but PR/PKR internal feuds and infighting”

Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said during his by-election campaign in Kajang today that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is unfit to be Selangor Mentri Besar as he seems to be “clueless” about Selangor’s water deal with Putrajaya despite being the state economic advisor.

Anwar is the best person to respond to Muhyiddin’s allegation that Anwar is “clueless” on the Selangor water issue, but the Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Education Minister raises the important question whether he himself should resign as Education Minister as it is clear that Muhyiddin is quite clueless about education in Malaysia.

That Muhyiddin is quite clueless about education issues which come under his direct Ministerial responsibility is presently in full display, when he pleaded on Monday that he knew nothing about the mean, petty and punitive transfer to a rural school of the head of Suara Guru Masyarakat Malaysia (SGMM), Mohd Nor Izzat Mohd Johari, who had spearheaded the protest against the weaknesses in the implementation of the student-based assessment (SBA) system and Muhyiddin has remained in this limbo of cluelessness for the past five days. Continue reading “As Muhyiddin seems to be clueless about education in Malaysia, is he going to resign as Education Minister?”

The biggest mystery now in the Najib premiership is the National Reconciliation Plan (NRP) which he first announced after the Cabinet meeting on January 29 and which he blogged about a week ago on Feb. 25 as until then nobody has ever heard anything about such a NRP.

What is noteworthy is that no other Cabinet Minister, not even the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Joseph Kurup, who is entrusted with the specific portfolio of national integration and national unity, had ever breathed a word about the NRP, both before and after the Jan. 29 Cabinet meeting.

It would appear that nobody else in Cabinet and Government apart from Najib knows anything about the NRP.

There are two big questions about both the events of the Jan 29 Cabinet meeting and Najib’s blog post three days ago.

Firstly, about Najib’s first mention of the NRP on Jan. 29 in his post-Cabinet statement where he said that “at today’s cabinet meeting, the members had examined a plan to develop and promote an environment which was conducive to and would help promote national reconciliation through unity and consensus in the country” and his second mention of the NRP in his blog three days ago that the NRP will be unveiled and implemented over the next few months.

Why is Najib treating the NRP like a strip-tease show, unpeeling one piece of clothing after another, completely unwilling to make full public disclosure of the proposed NRP? Continue reading “Call on Najib to immediately clarify his blog-post that it is not a directive to bar the police, AG’s Chambers and all law-enforcement agencies from carrying out their duties to give no quarter to instigators and extremists incessantly inciting racial and religious animosities and hatred”

by Boo Su-Lyn
The Malay Mail Online
February 28, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — A study on the integrity of elections across the globe has rated Malaysia near the bottom of the pile, with the country’s general election last year coming in 66th out of 73 elections surveyed, just above Zimbabwe.

The findings of the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP), based at the University of Sydney and Harvard University, released this month shows that Malaysia’s 13th general election was perceived as having low levels of integrity, due to problematic electoral boundaries and election laws.

Cambodia ranked below Malaysia at 69th, while the only other Southeast Asian country on the list, the Philippines, ranked 47th, signalling moderate levels of electoral integrity. Continue reading “Election 2013 lacked integrity, study finds”

– Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
February 27, 2014

Why has Anwar’s decision to contest in Kajang caused so much upheaval inside the BN camp? More so in Umno? This is just a DUN seat. As Muhyidin says, when Anwar wins, at the most he can only be MB. Najib is still the PM.

Yes, why?

Umno says it’s protecting the people of Selangor. From what? Mahathir says no one is safe if Anwar is MB.

Hmmm – maybe. Perhaps there’s some truth in what Mahathir said. I did feel shivers down my spine when I participate in a talk with Anwar especially with my back facing him. Haha. I must remember to wear an iron chastity belt the next time. Umno people – please remember that too.

No one who has stolen from the state, no one who is corrupt, and no one who has emptied the treasury will be safe. My own uneasiness dissipates when I think that no treasury, no money is safe when Umno people are around. No public works are safe with Umno people around. These are dangerous people to be around, these Umno people. Continue reading “Kajang is on the way to Putrajaya”

by Dr. Janet Lee
The Malaysian Insider
February 27, 2014

I am Chinese. My husband is Indian. Both of us are qualified in the medical field and teach at local universities.

Recently, my husband’s contract was not renewed. His speciality is quite rare in the region. He was replaced by a younger person.

Of course, he was disappointed but felt new blood was needed to bring in the latest methods and medicines into the picture.

But here’s where things get very scary: the new person cannot string a sentence in English, in a profession where results have to be transmitted clearly to its end-users.

His former colleagues call at night and he does the work for them on the quiet, minus the fee, so that the patients will have a fighting chance!

You see, dear people in authority, the moral majority in this country are keeping us going. Selfless people who take the humiliation and abuse and to ensure that there is a sense of balance and sanity still operating at critical areas. Continue reading “The death of common sense”