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SUPREME STUPIDITY!

By Martin Jalleh

Umno supreme council member Nazri Abdul Aziz declares that Anwar Ibrahim’s efforts to entice Sabah BN leaders will not affect BN (Mkini, 12 Aug 2012).

He then adds: “If Anwar want to take those who will not be fielded by (BN), go ahead. Anwar is also a frog because he left Abim (a Muslim youth movement) for Umno and then to PKR.

“It is no surprise that he takes in his own kind. The frog will accept another frog.

“Anwar’s political journey has made him ‘Bapa segala katak (King of frogs)’

Fact No. 1: Abim is not a political party. Therefore there was no hopping involved. Furthermore Anwar was invited by Dr Mahathir to join Umno!

Fact No. 2: Anwar did not leave Umno, he was sacked by Dr M and the Umno Supreme Council.

Fact No. 3: He did not jump into PKR, he formed it!

Fact No. 4: Nazri’s political journey has made him an idiot!

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We shall overcome

— Jacob Sinnathamby
The Malaysian Insider
May 26, 2012

MAY 26 — Can you hear it? Listen closely. Now can you hear it?

I am talking about the deafening silence from the prime minister downwards on the burgeoning violence and thuggish behaviour by Umno and its subsidiaries.

What happened at the PKR ceramah in Lembah Pantai, where blood was drawn after rocks, eggs and bottles were rained on PKR leaders by Umno Youth affiliates, was not the first show of state-encouraged violence.

It is not even the second or third time, but the umpteenth time in recent months that groups affiliated to the ruling party have shown disdain for the rule of law.

Nurul Izzah Anwar and Mat Sabu have faced stones and thugs before while speaking at Felda events, Lim Guan Eng faced thugs during the anti-Lynas demo in Penang recently, and Bersih organisers in Merlimau had their vehicles damaged. And the list goes on. Continue reading “We shall overcome”

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Keadilan’s (and Malaysia’s) Shining Stars

By M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com

Great organizations have great leaders. Everyone recognizes that. Less appreciated is that to maintain its greatness an organization must actively nurture its next generation of leaders. Failure to do so would doom the organization.

The late Tun Razak was acutely aware of this crucial aspect of leadership. In his frequent visits to the districts he was always on the look out for talent. On spotting one, he would bring that promising individual back to headquarters for what we would call today “fast tracking.” Likewise Jack Welch, the legendary chief executive of GE. Whenever he toured the various units, he would ask those divisional heads to name two or three of their promising underlings. He would then ask those managers what they were doing to nurture the talents they had under their wings.

As a corollary to my observation, you can tell much about the potential for future greatness of an organization by looking at its next tier of leaders. It is for this reason that I am bullish on the future of Keadilan. The party is blessed with an abundance of young talent.
Continue reading “Keadilan’s (and Malaysia’s) Shining Stars”

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Hasan Ali: Dari Umno dia datang, kepada Umno jugalah dia akan kembali

— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Feb 11, 2012

11 FEB — Dr Hasan Ali, bekas Exco kerajaan (PAS) negeri Selangor, yang dipecat dari PAS baru-baru ini nampaknya mendapat tempat di media perdana terutamanya di TV3. Setiap malam kita melihat Hasan Ali diliputi oleh TV3 dan beliau ditonjolkan sebagai seorang pelakon Bollywood seperti Shah Rukh Khan.

Kita melihat lakunannya setiap hari dengan berdoa sambil menangis serta kembali bercakap dengan nada yang tinggi beserta dengan gerak tangannya yang menunjukkan beliau memang hebat berlakon dan berdrama. Hasan akhir-akhir ini selalu menggunakan air mata beliau dalam membahaskan isu politik untuk menagih sokongan ramai. Beliau boleh menangis serta merta jika perlu dan air matanya jelas meleleh keluar.

Beliau mendapat liputan TV3 setiap hari dan kenapa beliau diberi tempat didalam media letronik ini tanpa henti itu memang sudah menjadi perkara yang maklum kepada orang ramai. Berbagai-bagai cara beliau menonjolkan diri seperti bintang filem Bollywood. Yang belum beliau lakukan hanyalah menari dari gunung hingga ketepi laut sambil menyanyi dan naik kembali kegunung dengan pakaian yang bertukar-tukar silih berganti.

Sesungguhnya Hasan tidak selayaknya menjadi ahli politik. Oleh itu selepas beliau dipecat dari PAS ini, saya mencadangkan supaya Hasan pergi ke India dan menguji bakat lakonan bersama ramai yang minat berlakon dalam Industri filem di Bollywood. Beliau sememangnya mempunyai bakat berlakon dan saya merasakan beliau tidak akan melalui jalan sukar untuk berjaya dalam uji bakat berlakon di situ. Beliau memang seorang yang sangat berbakat dalam lakonan. Continue reading “Hasan Ali: Dari Umno dia datang, kepada Umno jugalah dia akan kembali”

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The fracturing of the Malay community (2)

S Thayaparan | Jan 30, 2012
Malaysiakini

COMMENT

Umno’s interaction with “multiracial parties” has so far been with Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR – ostensibly a multiracial party but for the most part, an organisation filled with ship-jumping Umno rejects – and the Islamic PAS, often used as a bogeyman by Umno to keep the non-Muslims in line.

That Umno considers PKR a threat to its power has more to do with the fact that it was always perceived to be the third moderate way of the Malay polity and not for any multiracial reasons.

Umno is fighting a battle on two fronts, against vocal liberal Malay voices of PKR and the more religious tones from PAS.

In both these cases, the fight for the Malay soul is confined within the Malay community and the non-Malays have been collateral damage in the ongoing shadow war that will determine the fate of this country.

So it should come as no surprise that Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (left) is concerned over the possible influx of moderate Malay voices into the routinely demonised DAP.

If more Malays enter this political party, the Malay vote will be further fractured into a diverse range of political aspirations that don’t neatly fit in the bigoted ethnocentric agenda of the ruling Umno regime.

If the point of the Umno game is to limit the choices of the Malay population then any attempt to provide avenues for different forms of political expressions is a threat to the natural order of their reality.

There can be no plurality of voices when it comes to expressing Islam. Anything which is a threat to Malay unity, which should be read as Umno hegemony, should be shot down in a hail of racial, religious or cultural bullets. Continue reading “The fracturing of the Malay community (2)”

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UMNO General Assembly: Beating the drums for another May 13

Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
CPI
6th Dec 2011

Commentary

The UMNO General Assembly has come and gone. Most political observers had expected it to be the usual rah-rah event aimed at rallying UMNO members ahead of the coming elections and in support of the leadership of Najib Razak, the party president. They were right. The public were subject to yet another spectacle of sound and fury on how important the party is to the future of Malays, albeit with the occasional reminder of how indispensable the party is to the well being of all the citizens of the country.

Optimistic observers who had hoped that the party would live up to its rhetoric of being a mature and transformed party of moderation – at least for the duration of this publicly viewed occasion – were disappointed. The collective breast beating led by the party president and deputy president – on the greatness and goodness of the party compared with the weaknesses and evilness of the opposition – was quite unprecedented in the history of the party’s general assemblies.

The attacks against PAS, PKR and especially the DAP during the meeting have only just begun. Can we expect it to continue with greater viciousness and spitefulness as UMNO leaders fan out into the grassroots to campaign in the next few months leading to the elections? What should be of concern is not just the running down and bad mouthing of the opposition. This has been the norm in past assemblies, especially those leading up to the elections. What is new and unexpected is the vitriol and venom directed openly and without inhibition at opposition parties and their leaders. Continue reading “UMNO General Assembly: Beating the drums for another May 13”

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Bring it on, Pakatan tells Umno

by Nigel Aw
Malaysiakini
Dec 5, 2011

A day after the Umno general assembly concluded with the beating of war drums and vows to wrest back Pakatan Rakyat-held states, the federal opposition went on the offensive as well.

PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim, the star at a rally of 5,000 in Shah Alam last night, said Pakatan will not only defend Selangor, but improve its electoral performance in the state.

“(Prime Minister) Najib Abdul Razak said he wants to recapture Selangor (but) we tell him that he can keep dreaming about Selangor – and that we will capture Putrajaya,” declared Anwar.

He picked apart Umno’s Malay credentials which the party has attempted to project in the run-up to a looming general election.

“Do you believe that Umno defends the Malays? If they defend the Malays they would not sell Malay land.

“The last bastion of Malay land in Kuala Lumpur (is Kampung Baru). They (the government) wants to hand it over to (Federal Territories Minister) Raja Nong Chik under the Kampung Baru Development Act.”

Also present was DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang who moved to deflect Umno’s relentless attacks on his party during the general assembly. Continue reading “Bring it on, Pakatan tells Umno”

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Umno inciting power struggle with dominant DAP role, says Pakatan

By Melissa Chi
The Malaysian Insider
Dec 04, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 4 — Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leaders scorned Umno’s latest strategy to portray DAP as the dominant party in the opposition pact as an attempt to incite a power struggle among the three political allies.

“They say that PAS is being used by DAP, this is the strategy they use among the Malays, Muslim. With the Chinese, they say that PAS is using the Chinese. “They have used that for some time now but people know that even in terms of figures and numbers, DAP is stronger but we work collectively,” PAS secretary-general Datuk Mustafa Ali told The Malaysian Insider over the phone yesterday.

DAP Parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang pointed out that Malays will continue to be the majority population in the country but Umno is creating the fear that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam, and anti-ruler.

He reiterated his support of the constitutional monarchy.

“Nobody has undermined the Malay rulers. It is Umno and Umno leaders themselves,” he said, adding that BN leaders are contradicting themselves in their attacks against PR.

“In Barisan Nasional, it is very obvious that Umno is the hegemon and now they say that DAP is the dominant party. What has Chua Soi Lek been saying? MCA has been saying? That DAP is the puppet to PKR, to PAS, that the rights of the Chinese would be completely lost (in our hands).

“Now you have Umno saying the rights of the Malays will be completely lost. Who is lying?” he said. Continue reading “Umno inciting power struggle with dominant DAP role, says Pakatan”

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The 13th GE: It’s an open field

— Sakmongkol AK47
The Malaysian Insider
Nov 24, 2011

NOV 24 — Rahim Tamby Chik (RTC) says there are attempts by the opposition parties to invite Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah to become PM. This will happen, Rahim says, if there is a hung Parliament. Such a situation is untenable, says Rahim, because it will create political instability. So Umno must work hard to get a two-thirds majority.

Those were the observations and musings by RTC on the political possibilities after the GE13. What is intriguing was his warning that a hung Parliament will create instability. I hope we will not be in such a situation. Malaysians would prefer a clear-cut victory one way or the other.

I am not going to respond to his nervous prognosis, being more interested on how such a scenario can possibly happen and what are the implications if it does. I don’t think we are going to have a hung Parliament. It will be clear-cut either way. I am also bemused at his attempt to involve Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah in such a scenario. To qualify as a participant in any future negotiations should a hung Parliament comes into being, TRH must be head of a political party. Right now, TRH is in Umno and doesn’t head a party nor is he a leader of any faction in Umno. Could Rahim’s advice be another attempt to isolate TRH from Umno? Continue reading “The 13th GE: It’s an open field”

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Seat negotiations will test Pakatan unity

Joseph Sipalan and Lee Way Loon | Jul 29, 11
Malaysiakini

INTERVIEW It appears that Malaysia’s opposition is looking at covering all its bases in anticipation of a snap general election that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak may call at any time.

With speculation that snap polls could be called as early as November, Pakatan Rakyat has already gone into discussions to determine its candidates for each of the 222 parliamentary seats up for grabs.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang (left) said the plan is for Pakatan leaders at state level to finalise their seat negotiations by Sunday (July 31), though he did not discount the possibility that the negotiations may require more time.

What is more significant, however, is how the three Pakatan member parties – PKR, DAP and PAS – iron out their differences and accommodate one another’s needs for growth, both within the confines of the coalition and in the broader scope of Malaysian politics.
Continue reading “Seat negotiations will test Pakatan unity”

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Umno Youth members protest Khairy death threat at PKR headquarters

By Shannon Teoh and Clara Chooi
The Malaysian Insider
June 28, 2011

PETALING JAYA, June 28 — Hundreds of Umno Youth members on motorcycles circled the PKR headquarters here late last night in a threatening manner ahead of the July 9 Bersih rally, ostensibly to protest a death threat against their leader Khairy Jamaluddin.

They arrived at the office block in Tropicana, just a few doors away from the Tropicana police station, claiming that a death threat sent to Khairy recently came from the opposition party, which denied the allegation.

The group of Umno Youth members protesting outside the PKR headquarters last night.

Executive committee member Lokman Noor Adam claimed he led 600 Umno Youth members at 10.30 last night, blocking the street in front of the PKR headquarters as they chanted loudly in the night.
Continue reading “Umno Youth members protest Khairy death threat at PKR headquarters”

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In ‘Mat Sabu sex scandal’, PAS chiefs scent Umno fear

By Boo Su-Lyn
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 12, 2011

Mat Sabu has been described as the engine that will drive PAS forward. — file picKUALA LUMPUR, June 12 — PAS leaders are accusing Umno of being behind a sex video implicating Mohamad Sabu, saying it reflected the ruling Malay party’s desperation to find issue with their newly-elected deputy president.

PKR MP Zuraida Kamaruddin said she received a VCD in her mailbox recently that has a picture of Mohamad together with the words “Skandal Seks Mat Sabu” (Mat Sabu Sex Scandal), a letter with a forged PAS letterhead and a flyer containing pictures of Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Mat Sabu is the PAS leader’s moniker.

“This shows that Umno has degenerated into a distributor of ‘blue’ films,” PAS central committee member Khalid Samad told The Malaysian Insider today. Continue reading “In ‘Mat Sabu sex scandal’, PAS chiefs scent Umno fear”

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PKR faces de-registration threat

By Shannon Teoh | May 19, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

PETALING JAYA, May 19 — PKR is facing de-registration after receiving a show-cause letter from the Registrar of Societies (RoS) alleging the party had violated its constitution.

The RoS said in its letter that PKR had sacked a member without the matter being heard by the party’s disciplinary board.

But the party said today that the clause in question did not exist in its constitution, and accused the RoS of acting in bad faith ahead of a general election that PKR said could be called as early as July.
Continue reading “PKR faces de-registration threat”

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Nurul Izzah gets threat to kidnap daughter

By Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani | May 13, 2011
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar said today that she had received a text message containing a threat to kidnap her three-year-old, daughter.

The mother of two told reporters that the person warned her against continuing to support Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim or else her daughter would end up sharing the same fate as Sharlinie Mohd Nashar.

Sharlinie, 5, was abducted in 2008 at a playground near her house in Petaling Jaya and remains missing.

The Lembah Pantai MP, who is also Anwar’s eldest child, believes that the threat was politically motivated to end her father’s career.
Continue reading “Nurul Izzah gets threat to kidnap daughter”

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‘Think of it as a duty roster than a shadow cabinet’

Susan Loone | May 8, 11
Malaysiakini

Sarawak DAP state representatives played down the current spat between the party and PKR over the shadow cabinet issue, saying the temporary crisis would not mess up the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

DAP Sarawak secretary Chong Chieng Jen (right) described the issue which recently pitted the two Pakatan allies as a ‘minor hiccup’ which will not affect the existing relationship between the duo.

Chong, who is Kota Sentosa MP, explained that the problem has cropped up because the two parties viewed the issue differently.

Chong said the DAP viewed the exercise as a “portfolio distribution’, where every assemblyperson would get to flex his or her muscle in areas where they excelled or have expertise in.

“PKR, however, viewed it as a reflection of a future ministerial cabinet (where the candidates would eventually assume the ministerial post should Pakatan seize Petrajaya in the coming election),” he said.

“So to avoid controversy, perhaps we can call this line-up by another name…for example…a duty roster?” he added, at the conclusion of the party’s mega-ceramah in Penang last night. Continue reading “‘Think of it as a duty roster than a shadow cabinet’”