Month: May 2014

– Teo Nie Ching and R. Rajiv
The Malaysian Insider
May 20, 2014

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin has described DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud as an inexperienced newbie in politics.

As a matter of fact, all of us are inexperienced newbies until we are given a chance to learn and to perform. Before he took his post as the Minister of Youth and Sports in 2013, Khairy too did not have any experience to serve as a minister. Does that mean our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had made a wrong decision to make him a cabinet minister?

It has been a year since Khairy assumed office on May 16, 2013. So our question to him is this: how would you rate your performance? Continue reading “Weren’t you a newbie once, Khairy?”

I have no doubt that if the Teluk Intan by-election on May 31 is decided by Malaysian netizens, the DAP candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud would win hands down in the social media or Internet poll.

I would even put Dyana’s chances of winning in a poll on the social media or Internet as some 85% to 15%.

However, the Teluk Intan by-election on May 31 will not be decided by netizens in Malaysia but by the 60,000 Teluk Intan voters, a substantial percentage of whom are not netizens.

I said yesterday that the DAP is the underdog in the Teluk Intan by-election among all the three different racial groups, and I had rated the DAP’s chances yesterday as 40% to 60%. Continue reading “SOS to netizens to help out in the Teluk Intan by-election as DAP candidate Dyana Sofya will win hands down in a social media or Internet poll, may be 85% to 15%, but faces defeat as the by-election will be decided by 60,000 Teluk Intan voters substantial numbers of whom are not connected to Internet”

by Looi Sue-Chern
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 20, 2014

A Barisan Nasional (BN) MP today caused a stir in the Penang legislative assembly after she hit out at the DAP candidate for the Teluk Intan polls, saying that she was ungrateful to the services of the coalition.

Opposition leader Datuk Jahara Hamid (BN-Teluk Air Tawar), in echoing her Umno colleagues’ views on Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, said she was ungrateful to the Barisan Nasional as she is a product of its education system.

“We don’t have problems with young and beautiful women in politics. It is good as to have more women’s voices in Parliament.”

“The issue is the DAP candidate came from BN’s efforts as well. For example, she was a graduate of UiTM,” she said.

Jahara then described Dyana using the Malay idiom “kacang lupakan kulit” (forgeting where one comes from), while debating Penang governor Tun Dr Abdul Rahman Abbas’s address to the assembly yesterday. Continue reading “Barisan rep calls Dyana Sofya ‘ungrateful’, causes uproar in Penang assembly”

— A Kadir Jasin
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 20, 2014

MAY 20 — Although I am 9989.2 km away from home on my annual extraterritorial grandfather duty and will be missing the Bukit Gelugor and Telok Intan parliamentary by-elections, it is hard for me to escape Dyana Sofya craze.

When I woke up this morning, I saw five messages from a former Umno divisional secretary on my cellular telephone.

One reads: “Dyana is said to be the latest state of the art Samsung 5s (sic) while Mah is Nokia. Sigh!” Continue reading “Dyana a new political phenomena”

The Malay Mail Onine
19th May 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 — DAP’s chance of retaining Teluk Intan has dwindled to as low as 40 per cent, Lim Kit Siang said today as he blamed race-baiting by Barisan Nasional (BN) for the likely dip in his party’s popularity.

He said BN believes the DAP has committed a “fatal error” by fielding a Malay candidate for the Chinese-majority seat and will use this to wrest the party’s non-Malay support.

“For these reasons, the DAP has a very uphill battle, and I will rate the DAP’s chances of winning Teluk Intan by-election as 40 per cent to 60 per cent,” Lim said in a statement here.

In a bid to boost its multiracial credentials, the DAP picked Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud as its candidate for Teluk Intan, a seat last held by the late parliamentarian Seah Leong Peng.

The strategy has not impressed many of Teluk Intan’s Chinese voters, who make up 42 per cent of the electorate. The Malays form 38 per cent, and the Indians 19 per cent of the 60,349-strong electorate. Continue reading “With race-baiting, DAP’s chances in Teluk Intan just 40pc, Kit Siang says MAY 19, 2014”

The Malaysian Insider
MAY 19, 2014

Ketua Parlimen DAP, Lim Kit Siang berkata Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) Teluk Intan merupakan masa yang tepat bagi pengundi mula mengundi sebagai rakyat Malaysia dan bukannya berdasarkan kaum semata-mata.

Lim yang juga ahli Parlimen Gelang Patah menggesa pengundi di Teluk Intan menyelamatkan Malaysia dengan melakar sejarah dan mencipta keajaiban daripada cuba menyelamatkan parti komponen Barisan Nasional (BN), Gerakan.

“Saya menggesa pengundi Teluk Intan untuk melakar sejarah dan mencipta keajaiban buat kali kedua dalam dekad ini yang boleh membuka mata rakyat Malaysia untuk menyelamatkan negara ini daripada terus gagal dan berpecah belah.

“Ini merupakan cabaran yang perlu dihadapi Teluk Intan untuk bangkit dalam usaha meningkatkan undi demi masa depan negara,” katanya dalam satu kenyataan media hari ini.

Beliau berkata, berbeza dengan pencalonan PRK Bukit Gelugor minggu lalu apabila semua pemimpin BN cuba menutupi ketakutan berdepan kekalahan dengan tidak bertanding tetapi pada hari penamaan calon PRK Teluk Intan, dapat dilihat Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin sendiri yang mengetuai jentera pilihan raya. Continue reading “Pengundi Teluk Intan perlu mengundi sebagai rakyat Malaysia, kata Kit Siang”

Malaysiakini
May 18, 2014

DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud, whose Teluk Intan candidacy has been belittled by Umno Wanita chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, has asked the veteran politician to learn from her underling – Dyana’s mother.

“I ask that she learns from my mother who herself is an Umno member but has realised that my candidacy by the DAP heralds a breakthrough for young women in politics, especially for young Malay women, who have long been held back by an inflexible, patriarchal structure in Umno.

“I owe who I am today to my family and to my mother, to hard work and…the personal decisions which I have made along my life,” Dyana said in a statement today.

Standing by her daughter during the candidate announcement yesterday, Dyana’s mother Yammy Samat, an Umno member, said it was time for the younger generation to step up.

Yammy was the country’s first woman Umno division secretary and today remains as an Umno member in Ipoh. Continue reading “Learn from my Umno mum, Dyana tells Shahrizat”

BY BOO SU-LYN
The Malay Mail Online
May 18, 2014

TELUK INTAN, May 18 — At Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) where fees for a first degree cost just RM5,000, some Malay students drove luxury cars like Jaguars and Mercedes Benzes, according to Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

That made Dyana angry because non-Malay students from lower income families are kept out of the university simply because of their race.

Dyana is DAP’s choice for the Teluk Intan by-election on May 31, picked over more experienced candidates in a bid to boost the predominantly Chinese party’s multicultural credentials.

It is a role the 26 year old UiTM law graduate appears to have slipped into with ease as she looks to represent a constituency that is mainly Chinese.

“We should move on from race-based policies to needs-based policies, and at the same time, the Malays would still gain because the Malays are the majority who need it anyway,” she said in an interview with The Malay Mail Online.

Eliminating affirmative action policies favouring Bumiputeras would only be a problem for well-off Malays who unfairly benefit from race-based policies, she added. Continue reading “In Teluk Intan, DAP’s young Malay candidate hopes to build bridges”

The Malay Mail Online
May 18, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud said today that she would not have been given the same opportunity had she joined Umno, while claiming that the ruling party’s women’s wing had failed to promote its own members into real positions of influence.

In response to Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil’s criticism against her candidacy, the DAP’s candidate for Teluk Intan by-election said that her party instead recognises women’s role in politics, unlike Umno.

“I am glad that I chose to join the DAP in 2011. For if I had chosen the way of Shahrizat Jalil and Umno, I would not be where I am today, aiming to enter Parliament as the representative for the people of Teluk Intan and if elected, to be the youngest MP in Parliament,” Dyana said in a statement here.

“The party has nominated me precisely because I strongly believe in the ideals of justice, equal opportunity and good governance.”

According to Dyana, DAP recognises the need for a balance in male-female representation in the government, and subsequently nominates more and more women candidates in every election. Continue reading “I would not be where I am today if I chose your way, Dyana Sofya tells Shahrizat”

by Eileen Ng
The Malaysian Insider
May 18, 2014

Can Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud woo the Malay electorate in the Teluk Intan parliamentary seat? That’s what her party, DAP, is trying to find out when they nominated her as its candidate for the May 31 by-election.

Analysts said the party is trying to shed its Chinese-centric image and make inroads to capture the hearts and minds of the Malays by fielding a young Malay woman.

The DAP, which makes up one-third of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact, had been trying hard to prove its detractors wrong by fielding more Malay candidates in the last general election to broaden its appeal among the country’s electoral majority.

To date, it has two Malay MPs – Bukit Bendera’s Zairil Khir Johari and Raub’s Datuk Ariff Sabri – both of whom lead Chinese-majority seats. Continue reading “In Dyana Sofya, DAP tries to woo Malays to itself, say analysts”

Astro Awani
Bernama | Kemas kini: Mei 18, 2014

TELUK INTAN: Penasihat DAP Lim Kit Siang berkata parti itu berhadapan dengan cabaran besar untuk mempertahankan kerusi Parlimen Teluk Intan pada Pilihan Raya Kecil (PRK) kerusi itu hujung bulan ini.

Beliau berkata DAP telah mengambil keputusan berani dengan mencalonkan setiausaha politiknya, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

Pemimpin veteran itu berkata beliau yakin calon wanita muda berusia 27 tahun itu mampu memenangi hati pengundi di kawasan Parlimen itu. Continue reading “Kit Siang mengaku bukan mudah kekalkan kerusi parlimen Teluk Intan”

by Boo Su-Lyn,
The Malay Mail Online
May 17, 2014

TELUK INTAN, May 17 ― DAP’s choice of a fresh-faced ethnic Malay candidate for the Teluk Intan by-election is leaving some in the predominantly Chinese town unimpressed.

In a move hailed as progressive and aimed at breaking down race-based voting patterns, DAP today named 26-year-old Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud as its candidate for the parliamentary seat, snubbing more experienced ethnic Chinese candidates.

Several Chinese voters at the small town told The Malay Mail Online they were not convinced by DAP’s lofty attempt to eradicate race politics. Continue reading “Chinese in Teluk Intan appear unmoved by DAP’s progressive bid with Dyana”

Ram Anand
Malaysiakini
May 17, 2014

TELUK INTAN Twenty-seven-year-old lawyer and UiTM graduate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud was today unveiled as DAP’s candidate for the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election.

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced the decision at the DAP by-election operations centre in Bandar Baru Teluk Intan today, saying the decision was made as proof of DAP’s ethnic diversity as a party.

In her speech, Dyana, who has served as DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary for the past year, spoke about breaking racial and religious barriers, and finding the perfect formula for a Malaysian “teh tarik, which is loved by all.”

She explained all Malaysians love teh tarik regardless of race or religion and similarly, Malaysians need to find a common identity that would appeal as much across the board as the tea drink does.

At a press conference later, Dyana said she is unfazed by the rounds of attempts to tarnish her reputation that has already begun among some bloggers.

“They thought since I am a woman, I will quit politics (after the attacks).

“But sorry, I am here to stay,” said Dyana, who had fake pictures of her in a bikini published in some blogs even before today’s announcement. Continue reading “Dyana for Teluk Intan ‘to break racial barriers’”