Posted on

Call on Malaysians to be united by a Malaysian Dream regardless of race, religion or region, in a common national vision and destiny to build a more united, democratic, free, just, competitive and prosperous nation for all Malaysian citizens

All right-thinking Malaysians find it very distressing that there was not only the most irresponsible and reckless appeals to race and religion during the general elections campaign, racism took on even worse forms after the 13th general elections results.

Even my contesting in Gelang Patah was turned into a racist issue with the former Prime Minsister Tun Dr. Mahathir who led the charge in spewing racist lines and falsehoods, alleging that I was contesting in Gelang Patah because I want:

• the Chinese in Gelang Patah and Johor to “reject working together and sharing with the Malays”;

• the Chinese in Johor “to dislike and hate the Malays” to create “conflict and antagonism between the races”;

• create “an unhealthy racial confrontation” between the Malays and Chinese in Johor, which will be “disruptive and will not be conducive to the development of Malaysia”.

Recently, in his blog on “Racial Polarisation”, Mahathir continued with his inflammatory, incendiary, seditious statements to pit one race against another, based on lies and falsehoods. Continue reading “Call on Malaysians to be united by a Malaysian Dream regardless of race, religion or region, in a common national vision and destiny to build a more united, democratic, free, just, competitive and prosperous nation for all Malaysian citizens”

Posted on

National Reconciliation Requires Realisation, Non-Retaliation and Reforms

Shortly after the results of the 13th general election were announced, Prime Minister Najib promised to undertake a national reconciliation program. While the intention of that announcement may have been good, the actions and words of Prime Minister Najib and some of his cabinet ministers and Barisan Nasional leaders have been anything by reconciliatory. In fact, what we saw and what we continue to see are troubling signs that the desire is not to have national reconciliation but to have national retaliation.

This comes from a misguided and mistaken view that it was the ‘Chinese Tsunami’ that caused the BN to lose an additional 7 parliament seats and to fail to win back Selangor and Penang while in fact it was a ‘Malaysian tsunami’ that saw the opposition representation strengthened at the federal and state levels. Without this realisation, without a firm commitment towards non-retaliation and to undertake extensive reforms, Prime Minister Najib’s national reconciliation plan has died before it has even taken off.

It was not a ‘Chinese Tsunami’ that allowed Kelantan to be retained by Pakatan Rakyat. It was not a ‘Chinese Tsunami’ that almost saw Pakatan take over the state government of Terengganu where 96% of all voters are Malay. It was not a ‘Chinese Tsunami’ that allowed Pakatan to capture the 88% Malay seat of Kuala Terengganu, the 98% Malay seat of Kuala Nerus, the 96% Malay seat of Dungun, the 64% Malay seat of Temerloh, the 61% Malay seat of Alor Setar, the 57% Malay seat of Sepang and the 66% Sabah Bumiputera seat of Penampang. It was not a ‘Chinese Tsunami’ that saw PAS increase its state seats in Selangor from 8 to 17, all of them in Malay majority areas.

It was a ‘Malaysian Tsunami’ which saw all three Pakatan parties increase their share of vote in Peninsular Malaysia. It was a ‘Malaysian Tsunami’ which allowed Pakatan to win 713,000 more votes than Barisan Nasional in Peninsular Malaysia. It was a ‘Malaysian Tsunami’ which allowed Pakatan Rakyat to win 51% of popular vote in Malaysia thereby making the BN a minority supported government. It was a ‘Malaysian Tsunami’ which saw BN’s vote share in Perlis – a 85% Malay state – fall by almost 5%. It was a ‘Malaysian Tsunami’ which saw BN’s vote share in Pahang – a 70% Malay state – fall by 4.3%. It was a ‘Malaysian tsunami’ which saw BN’s vote share in Sabah – a 80% Sabah Bumiputera state – fall by almost 7%. It was a ‘Malaysian tsunami’ which saw BN’s vote share in Johor – a 53% Malay, 39% Chinese and 7% Indian state – fall by more than 10%. Continue reading “National Reconciliation Requires Realisation, Non-Retaliation and Reforms”

Posted on

The issue has never been whether a Chinese can be PM but whether the country has a PM for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or socio-economic status

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Shahidan Kassim thought he was doing the Chinese in Malaysia a great favour and service when he gratuitously advised them to break away from the “extreme racism” indoctrinated by the DAP, so that “Malaysia would one day have a Prime Minister of Chinese ethnicity”.

Shahidan could not be more wrong, as he committed two fatal errors, firstly in falsely alleging that DAP had “inculcated” the Chinese in Malaysia with “extreme racism” and secondly, the issue whether a Chinese could become a Prime Minister in Malaysia was never on the political radar of any Malaysian Chinese.

For the edification of Shahidan Kassim, the issue has never been whether a Chinese can be Prime Minister but whether the country has a Prime Minister for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or socio-economic status.

Furthermore, DAP had never indoctrinated or inculcated the Chinese in Malaysia with any “extreme racism” as right from our formation 46 years ago in 1966, our message to all Malaysians is to forge a Malaysian identity and consciousness, transcending racial, ethnic, cultural and regional differences – and this is why in the 46-year history of DAP, we have never called for any Chinese unity, Malay unity, Indian unity, Kadazan unity or Dayak unity, but the unity of all Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region in pursuit of a common Malaysian Dream, never a Chinese Dream, Malay Dream, Indian Dream, Kadazan Dream or Dayak Dream. Continue reading “The issue has never been whether a Chinese can be PM but whether the country has a PM for all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion, region or socio-economic status”

Posted on

The Opposition’s new mandate

By Nurul Izzah Anwar | June 18, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

JUNE 18 — Thousands of Malaysians voted abroad during the 13th general election. Many more returned from Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, London and Taiwan, traditionally places with large numbers of Malaysians, to exercise their right to suffrage on May 5th.

This is a peculiar phenomenon.

Why do Malaysians who have found greener pastures abroad feel compelled to return to the country to cast their ballot? This certainly goes against the thesis of Albert O. Hirshman — who argued in a famous treatise in 1970 that when people have the chance to leave, they will, especially if they have found the entity to be increasingly dysfunctional and inefficient.

Malaysia, or rather its government, over the last few decades, has certainly manifested such features.

Concurrently, those who decided to ‘stay back’ would attempt to improve the country by voicing out. Be that as it may, those who have left the country are not expected to express their voices anymore let alone to vote. Yet, vote they did.
Continue reading “The Opposition’s new mandate”

Posted on

What’s wrong for a Malay to join DAP?

Malaysiakini | 9:58AM Jun 16, 2013

YOURSAY ‘Why is Umno afraid of Malays holding important posts in DAP? Or is it that only Umno can speak on behalf of the Malays?’

UiTM VC denies calling Lim’s aide ‘pengkhianat’

Ynwa: Only indolent people cannot accept the rise of Pakatan Rakyat and DAP. Without the opposition, we would all be paying more taxes as there would have been even more corruption and mismanagement.

We need to compete with the rest of the world and not among the various races in Malaysia, and this is what DAP and Lim Kit Siang’s new political secretary Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud are propagating. Keep it up Dyana, you are my heroine.

Jaguh: People like Dyana are those who have a brain, compared to those who condemn her. She has seen the ‘light’ and without coaxing/hesitation, has joined the fight for justice, equality and meritocracy. And by the way, she is not alone.

Anonymous_5fb: What’s wrong for a Malay to join DAP? Is there a law that forbids a Malay from joining DAP?
Continue reading “What’s wrong for a Malay to join DAP?”

Posted on

UiTM VC denies calling Lim’s aide ‘pengkhianat’

By Aidila Razak | 3:32PM Jun 14, 2013
Malaysiakini

UiTM vice-chancellor Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar has denied calling Lim Kit Siang’s new political secretary Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud a “traitor to her race and to UiTM” on Twitter.

Contacted by Malaysiakini this afternoon, Sahol (left) said it was beneath him to respond to such things.

“I don’t engage in that way. I am a senior professor. I don’t go down to that level. Even if Malaysiakini asks me questions I don’t respond,” he said.

Sahol said he could not have posted the contentious tweet as he was in a lecture with the chief secretary to the government Ali Hamsa when it was posted using the @datosahol Twitter handle about 1.40pm today.
Continue reading “UiTM VC denies calling Lim’s aide ‘pengkhianat’”

Posted on

DAP leaders and members to start preparing for the 14th General Elections with two-fold objective – to effect change both at the Federal and Sabah state government levels

Sabah did not achieve our Pakatan Rakyat objectives of winning at least one third of the 26 parliamentary seats in Sabah so that in the three “fixed deposit” states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore, PR can win 33 parliamentary seats to help Pakatan Rakyat to provide the final cluster of parliamentary seats to win Putrajaya for Pakatan Rakyat.

In the event, the three “fixed deposit” states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore won for Pakatan Rakyat a total of 14 Parliamentary seats (Sabah 3, Sarawak 6 and Johore 5), out of a total of 83 seats, i.e. 16.9% instead of the 33.3% targetted.

Although this target for the three “fixed deposit” states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore to achieve a total of 33 parliamentary seats for Pakatan Rakyat had not been realised, one ineluctable fact to emerge from the 13GE is that none of the three states of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore can now be regarded as a “fixed deposit” state for Barisan Nasional and the contest and competition for the hearts and minds of the people of Sabah, Sarawak and Johore are now fully out in the open arena.

For Sabah, a lively and strong Opposition presence has now been restored to the Sabah State Assembly after an absence of two decades, with 11 State Assemblymen (DAP 4 and PKR 7) from Pakatan Rakyat and one from Star. Continue reading “DAP leaders and members to start preparing for the 14th General Elections with two-fold objective – to effect change both at the Federal and Sabah state government levels”

Posted on

Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but worldwide, as champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the well-funded DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy DAP

I must congratulate the editorial chiefs of Utusan Malaysia – the official mouthpiece of UMNO – for achieving something no other media in Malaysia could ever achieve. In fact, it will not be easy to find international competitors for Utusan Malaysia in the whole wide world of global journalism.

Undoubtedly, Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but world-wide, as the champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the Demolish/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade in the 13GE.

During the past eight months it was the centrepiece of the DDD Brigade, Utusan Malaysia outdid itself in the volume, venom and venality of the lies and falsehoods it had been spewing in the past – like the front-page Utusan Malaysia lie in May 2011 that DAP wanted to create a Christian Malaysia!

But as the centrepiece of the DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy the DAP, Utusan Malaysia had broken all records in the number and viciousness of the lies and falsehoods it had packed into the Utusan pages (as well as New Straits Times, Berita Harian and Star) in the past eight months.

For this malevolent objective, Utusan has recruited and trained an army of serial liars, who are prepared to tell lies without batting an eyelid – even from the aristocratic rank! Continue reading “Utusan Malaysia stands head and shoulders above all media, not only in Malaysia but worldwide, as champion serial liar as the centrepiece of the well-funded DDD Brigade to demolish and destroy DAP”

Posted on

DAP has every reason to be very afraid

Malaysiakini
9:52AM Jun 5, 2013

YOURSAY ‘Asking why is DAP so scared of deregistration is akin to asking an Indian why he is scared of being killed in a police lock-up.’

Zahid: Why is DAP so scared of deregistration?

Hello: Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi claims the government is not threatening DAP with de-registration, but his methodology implies he is about to do so.

DAP has every right to be afraid, not because of the threatened de-registration, but the abuse of the investigation procedures in the manner the Registrar of Societies (ROS) is going about it. Continue reading “DAP has every reason to be very afraid”

Posted on

Well-funded Umno/BN Demonise/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade formed eight months before Parliament dissolution an abject failure

Further inquiries have shown that the well-funded UMNO/BN conspiracy to demonise and destroy the DAP (the DDD Brigade) has a central high command and was hatched as far back as September last year or some eight months before the dissolution of Parliament in April and not just three months in January as earlier thought.

The spawning of the outrageous allegation of a fictitious DAP-funded “Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years is just one of tasks of this secretive but well-funded “DDD” Brigade.

Other tasks of the “DDD” Brigade through spewing sheer lies and falsehoods include:

• Foment internal distrust, conflict and strife in DAP;

• Demonise and destroy public confidence, credibility and integrity of DAP leaders;

• Paint the image of DAP as a Chinese chauvinist party which is anti-Malay and anti-Indian;

• After the 16th DAP Congress on Dec. 15, 2013, SPEARHEAD a three-prong campaign involving party members, former party activists and outsiders to demand deregistration of DAP on the spurious ground of party election irregularities.

Continue reading “Well-funded Umno/BN Demonise/Destroy DAP (DDD) Brigade formed eight months before Parliament dissolution an abject failure”

Posted on

UMNO/BN’s 13GE “War Room” had failed in one of its major and very sinister objective – to racialise the Gelang Patah contest and in the process the 13th general elections

There is now a lot of recriminations about the failures of the UMNO/Barisan Nasional 13th General Election “War Room” strategists and propagandists, with former UMNO Ministers like the former Finance Minister, Tun Daim Zainuddin and the former Information Minister and former Utusan Malaysia editor-in-chief, Zainuddin Maidin openly making very disparaging and derogatory criticisms about the Umno/BN “War Room”.

Both Daim and Zainuddin have called for the sacking of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s advisers – Daim criticising the wrong approach and strategy in the 13GE in banking on Najib’s personal popularity in the bid to help BN regain its two-thirds parliamentary majority while Zainuddin blogging about his disgust and contempt for the “I Love PM” campaign.

The critics have even flayed Najib’s “War Room” strategists as having done worse than former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah’s “Fourth Floor Boys”.

But what is most welcome is the failure of the UMNO/BN’s 13GE “War Room” in one of its major and very sinister objective – to racialise the Gelang Patah contest and in the process the 13th general elections.

Even the utterly irresponsible and reckless attempt by former Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir, to racialise the Gelang Patah contest between former Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman and myself by alleging that I wanted to create a “racial confrontation” and that I was seeking to incite the Chinese to hate the Malays, failed. Continue reading “UMNO/BN’s 13GE “War Room” had failed in one of its major and very sinister objective – to racialise the Gelang Patah contest and in the process the 13th general elections”

Posted on

Zahid may want to be an UMNO “hero” for the upcoming UMNO party elections by being a macho and belligerent Home Minister who dare to declare DAP unlawful even if it is gross abuse of power

The statement by the director-general of Registry of Societies (RoS) Datuk Abdul Rahman Othman that many DAP members who were eligible to attend its national congress on December 15 last year did not receive notice to do so is both baseless and most unprofessional.

It is a “political twist” to the RoS investigations into the DAP and I see a political “black hand” behind it – all the way to the new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Zahid Hamidi.

Since becoming the new Home Minister a forthnight ago, Zahid had tried to politicise all the departments under him.

Firstly, being the most “political” Home Minister in partnership with the most “political” Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar, he has created mayhem to police priorities, allowing crime and the fear of crime among Malaysians to run riot because he is obsessed with using police powers to crack down on Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists – not having said a single word on the primary duty of the police to keep crime rate low as well as to eradicate the people’s pervasive fear of crime.

As a result, Zahid’s two-week term as Home Minister takes on the hues of a return of Mahathirism, with arrests and prosecution of Pakatan Rakyat leaders and social activists while Umno/BN leaders and their kind enjoy immunity and impunity for the most sedious and racist utterances. Continue reading “Zahid may want to be an UMNO “hero” for the upcoming UMNO party elections by being a macho and belligerent Home Minister who dare to declare DAP unlawful even if it is gross abuse of power”

Posted on

UMNO/BN “war room” strategists and propagandists thought rakyat are suckers but it is UMNO/BN leaders like Zahid who prove to be real “suckers”

The 13GE UMNO/BN “war room” strategists and propagandists thought the rakyat are suckers who could easily fall victim to their lies and falsehoods concocted about the DAP and Pakatan Rakyat, but it is UMNO/BN leaders like the UMNO Vice President and new Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Zahid Hamidi who prove to be the real “suckers”.

Before I am accused of using foul or indecent language, let me give one definition of “sucker” which is “Informal. a person easily cheated, deceived, or imposed upon.” http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/suckers?s=t

A case in point is the lies the UMNO/BN “war room” strategists and propagandists concoct and weave about the DAP’s so-called “Red Bean Army” of cybertroopers to demonise the Umno/Barisan Nasional leaders.

The trouble about the allegations about the so-called DAP’s “Red Bean Army” of cybertroopers is that they are so wild and reckless that there is no effort on the part of the UMNO/BN “war room” strategists and propagandists to present a consistent and credible version. Continue reading “UMNO/BN “war room” strategists and propagandists thought rakyat are suckers but it is UMNO/BN leaders like Zahid who prove to be real “suckers””

Posted on

Chinese upset that MCA ‘loaned out’ Gelang Patah

by Kong See Hoh
The Sun
28 May 2013

PETALING JAYA (May 28, 2013): Former deputy higher education minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah borrowed the expression “Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou” (… never to return) from the classic Chinese novel Romance Of The Three Kingdoms to illustrate the reason for the Chinese response when MCA “loaned out” Gelang Patah in the 13th general election.

He said the Chinese anger over the move was one of the reasons for MCA and Gerakan’s electoral rout that forced both to stay out of the cabinet.

“I know the Chinese saying (Liu Bei borrows Jingzhou) means borrowing something without ever returning it.

“Regardless of whether Chinese voters agreed with DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang, they felt the MCA chief himself should have taken on Lim in Gelang Patah,” Saifuddin, who is an Umno supreme council member, told China Press in an interview published today. Continue reading “Chinese upset that MCA ‘loaned out’ Gelang Patah”

Posted on

Johor people invited to submit questions they want to put up in Parliament either to email to five PR MPs by June 3

I invite the people of Johor who wish to have questions put up to Ministers in Parliament to email them to the five Pakatan Rakyat MPs in Johor, including email to me at [email protected] .

The proposed questions should reach us by June 3 as the deadline for MPs to submit questions for the first meeting of the 13th Parliament is 5th June 2013.

The 13th Parliament will meet for 16 days from June 24 to July 18, with the swearing-in of the 222 new MPs elected on 5th May on 24th June, the official opening of Parliament by the Yang di Pertuan Agong on 25th June and the working session of Parliament starting with the debate on the Royal Address on 26th June 2013. Continue reading “Johor people invited to submit questions they want to put up in Parliament either to email to five PR MPs by June 3”

Posted on

Claims that DAP spends RM108 million in past six years to employ a 200-strong Red Bean Army of cybertroopers a total figment of imagination of Utusan Malaysia and failed UMNO/BN propagandists

Yesterday, the UMNO “lies-paper” Utusan Malaysia front-paged “Perangi Red Bean Army – Pelbagai pihak gesa kerajaan pinda Akta Komunikasi dan Multimedia” while today another UMNO mouthpiece New Straits Times headlined “’Anwar using Red Bean Army to incite hatred’”.

Suddenly, the “Red Bean Army” has become the vogue of attack of the gutter press of UMNO/BN.

Even the truculent and belligerent new Home Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was roped into the propaganda “circus” with him declaring that the Home Ministry, via the police, will work together with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as well as Malaysian CyberSecurityj to check immediately the channelling of contents by certain cybertrooper groups which violate social media laws.

How much I had wished that the police, the MCMC and Malaysian CyberSecurity had identified the culprits and cleaned up the racism and poison spewed by UMNO/Barisan Nasional cybertroopers on the Internet during the 13th general elections, in particular those which had targetted me and the DAP as either having caused the May 13 riots in 1969, or all the lies and falsehoods to paint a picture that I am anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers.

But absolutely nothing had been done. Continue reading “Claims that DAP spends RM108 million in past six years to employ a 200-strong Red Bean Army of cybertroopers a total figment of imagination of Utusan Malaysia and failed UMNO/BN propagandists”

Posted on

You are racist if you are not racist

— conspiracytheor1st
The Malaysian Insider
May 19, 2013

MAY 19 — You will never read from anywhere that brand Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King as racists.

Abraham Lincoln pawned his life to fight against the enslavement of the African Americans, Nelson Mandela traded decades of his freedom to free South Africa from the shackles of the Apartheid policy and Martin Luther King paid for his life for the equal rights of Americans. Their detractors could call them any vile names they wished but never as a racist.

Only in Malaysia, the very people who do not condone racism and voted against it are labeled as racists. Over the decades, Umnno, led by Dr. Mahathir and his armada of mass media had been accusing DAP with its vision of “Malaysian Malaysia” as a bigoted political party, hell-bent to destroy the Malay.

The rakyat particularly the IT savvy urban-dwellers who ironically voted for the multiracial parties from Pakatan Rakyat in GE13 were branded as racists because they rejected the race-based political system where every race fights endlessly to defend their respective rights.

To put things into perspective, could anyone imagine any American being branded as racist if they do not endorse Ku Klux Klan, a white supremacist organization? Continue reading “You are racist if you are not racist”

Posted on

BN’s reduced wins put spotlight on ‘war room’ strategists

By Jahabar Sadiq
The Malaysian Insider
May 14, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Questions are being asked about Barisan Nasional’s (BN) “war room” strategists whose plans with a substantial budget did not appear to stop the ruling coalition from losing more federal and state seats in the May 5 general election.

The BN war room was tasked with selecting the candidates and advising various strategies to win the polls. It counts Rompin MP Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, PWTC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Alies Anor Abdul, Petronas director Omar Mustapha Ong, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, party information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan and former minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh as among its members.

“It was just a crapshoot. Their ideas didn’t work and their white list predictions were wrong,” a senior Umno divisional leader told The Malaysian Insider on condition of anonymity.

The war room had stuck to its prediction of BN winning between 145 and 150 federal seats and also getting back Selangor in Election 2013 although some senior BN leaders were privately doubtful of the figures.

And by noon on Polling Day, the war room had issued its “white list” of 118 federal seats it was sure to win, but some like Pasir Mas, Shah Alam and Lembah Pantai were lost, which some Umno divisional leaders said reflected the disconnect between the leadership and the ground. Continue reading “BN’s reduced wins put spotlight on ‘war room’ strategists”

Posted on

Malaysia’s general election – Tawdry victory

The Economist
May 11th 2013 | KUALA LUMPUR |From the print edition

The government scrapes home—allegedly aided by vote rigging

ON MAY 5th Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional coalition, led by the prime minister, Najib Razak, was re-elected for the 13th time in a row. Barisan won a majority of seats in parliament, 133 out of 222, against 89 for the opposition, a three-party coalition called Pakatan Rakyat and led by Anwar Ibrahim. The turnout was a record 85%. And so the same government which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 is set for another five years in office.

Within Barisan, the overriding sense is of relief. It did slightly better in terms of seats than some had predicted. Scratch the surface, however, and in almost every respect this was a lamentable result for the ruling coalition, its worst ever. Not only did it lose a further seven seats to Pakatan, but it won with only 47% of the popular vote. It is further evidence of how the electoral system is skewed in Barisan’s favour, allowing it to stack up seats in the rural Malay heartlands with far fewer voters than Pakatan needs to win seats in more urban areas. In many places the opposition increased large majorities. For instance, in Penang in the north of the country the Barisan defeat was so humiliating that its candidate for governor, Teng Chang Yeow, resigned from all his party posts. Several government ministers lost their seats.

Most striking was that ethnic Chinese (about a quarter of the population) shifted their votes away from Barisan towards the opposition. The Chinese party of the Barisan coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association, won just seven seats, down from 15, whereas the opposition’s mainly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) picked up ten seats, for a final tally of 38. Continue reading “Malaysia’s general election – Tawdry victory”

Posted on

‘Misconception created by Chinese press’

Alyaa Azhar| May 10, 2013
Free Malaysia Today

DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang says his statement with regard to a possible DAP-BN coalition was misconstrued by the Chinese press.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang today said that newspaper headlines in Chinese press were to blame for a misconception that he wanted to form a coalition government with the Barisan Nasional.

“I was told that I have been the target of attacks in the social media for betraying the people. I have done nothing to justify that. The fault actually lies with the Chinese newspapers headlines, mixing two separate issues – first if DAP will join BN to replace MCA, and secondly the separate proposal of a BN-PR coalition government,” Lim told a press conference today.

Lim said that Sin Chew’s frontpaged headline gives readers, who only read the first headline, the impression that he supports the idea of DAP joining BN to replace MCA.

The main headline reads: ‘Lim Kit Siang: Can have coalition government with BN’ while the sub-heading reads: ‘Condition: Accept PR’s election manifesto’.

He said that Sin Chew and it sub-editors should be careful in ensuring that their primary headlines do not create misconceptions.

“They cannot assume that readers will read the full contents or even the sub-headings. You know how it is nowadays, most people only read the primary headline and not the full report,” he said.

He added that to avoid misunderstanding, both the main headline and sub-headings should not vary drastically. Continue reading “‘Misconception created by Chinese press’”