By Ooi Kee Beng | January 10, 2012
The Malaysian Insider
JAN 10 — The High Court verdict on Anwar Ibrahim’s sodomy trial must be seen as a big triumph for the three-member opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat (PR).
One of the biggest challenges that it has in trying to win federal power is to convince voters that it has the leaders needed for such a change in paradigm.
And whatever the ideology of its component parties, they have to deal with the reality that a PR prime minister must come from the Malay community. Whether or not Democratic Action Party stalwart Lim Kit Siang can be accepted as deputy prime minister is one thing, but a non-Malay as top leader is still not thinkable in this time and age.
That is why so much energy had over the last few years been put by opinion makers supportive of the ruling Barisan Nasional into questioning the suitability of Anwar to become prime minister. The latest to join this choir was surprisingly blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin, a one-time Anwar supporter.
Premier Najib Razak must now try more than ever to overcome the right wing within his party. He needs to project the only image of himself that can win him a substantial number of votes — that of a reformist prime minister. The speed of his reforms must go up a couple of gears if he is to turn the political arena into one that is about policy competition, and prevail at that.
Anwar’s acquittal also brings hope to all those who have been worrying for the health of the judiciary. The prosecution had managed a rather weak case against him, and the judge’s decision should have been expected. The fact that most people were nevertheless certain that Anwar would be convicted was a measure of the low esteem in which the courts are held.
Simply put, justice was respected yesterday in Malaysia. But whoever should take credit for it is not the vital thing. What is important is that a grave injustice was avoided. — Today
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* Ooi Kee Beng is the deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RePlKsFUoas/TQSCQjkyAjI/AAAAAAAAD0M/A6wW4mEi4bA/s1600/umi.jpg
unmo’s “virgin” shows what she would do to Anwar once she gets him
D 2011 S’pore-Cambridge GCE O-level Exam was released on Monday afternoon
There r three top students, who each scored 10 A1s
One of them, Chai YC, fr CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School hailed fr KL
“她在吉隆坡的力行华小毕业后，就到新加坡读书
马来西亚学生连续4年成为O水准状元” KWah
Dis is d 4th successive year a student fr M’sia tops S’pore-Cambridge GCE O-level Exam
Yes. Every year we see certain bright malaysian students getting top result in singapore. Needless to say these students are not valued by umno. On this subject, I do not know if anyone here can verify what I was told. My daughter’s school teacher told her class that in SPM one need only get 20% in order to pass and a score of 40% would be good enough for an “A”. I was stupefied. If that was indeed so then really getting “A” in SPM means nothing at all.
OK back to the anwar issue. Umno people, I am sure, must hv given the judge tremendous pressure (and perhaps have made all sorts of threats too) to jail anwar. Nonetheless the judge decided to go strictly on facts and law which clearly were in favour of throwing the case out of the window. Either the judge is super brave and has unbending principles or he actually has the support of some other umno people who wanted anwar released (for damage control as well as for some – badly needed – positive publicity).
In Sg, Chai YC is 1 of 3 students with 10 A1s
In M’sia, she would most likely be 1 of a few hundred students with 10 or > A1s
Go figure out d our standard here – otherwise it means we hv lots of geniuses