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Umno mulls straight fights with DAP, banks on Malay vote

BY JAHABAR SADIQ, EDITOR | APRIL 10, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 ― Umno plans on fielding their candidates either in all of the DAP seats or most of them as the Malay vote is more dependable than Chinese support, say strategists.

The Malaysian Insider understands the Barisan Nasional (BN) war room believes Umno candidates can beat back the DAP attack in Johor and other Malay-majority states rather than MCA hopefuls.

“Umno candidates have a better chance of keeping BN seats than the MCA, so we’re looking into pushing more Malay candidates,” a ruling coalition source told The Malaysian Insider.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang is spearheading the move into traditional MCA seat Gelang Patah while party strategist Liew Chin Tong is eyeing the Kluang seat. Johor PKR chief Datuk Seri Chua Jui Meng has also been named for the Segamat seat held by MIC.
Continue reading “Umno mulls straight fights with DAP, banks on Malay vote”

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The favor has to be returned one day and the time is now, GE 13

By Richard Loh

Millions meant nothing to them when they can easily recoup billions just as fast.

Presenting Psy at a Chinese New Year function in Penang recently was a great success that brought joys to Penangnites but a total disaster for umno perkasa bn.

Millions were spent on Psy and it failed miserably to gain any traction for Najib. Are they disheartened, of course YES, what a great shame they faced but not a bit saddened on the humongous sum of money spent because they have a mountain support from behind, Hokkien call it ‘Aw Soew’.

The failure of Psy does not stop them from trying to bring more cheers to Penangnites and shame to umno perkasa bn.

Businessmen sleeping with the devil and making billions of evil dollars are very afraid that the devil may have to be kicked out of power at the federal level where their billions came from.

They can deny however they want, claiming that they are doing charity works by bringing in more celebrities to Penang.
Continue reading “The favor has to be returned one day and the time is now, GE 13”

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3-Day Countdown to 13GE: BN’s Manifesto shows that it is fundamentally incapable of transforming, much less reforming, Malaysia

Despite having more than a month to thoroughly scrutinize the Pakatan Rakyat Manifesto – Pakatan Harap Rakyat – the Barisan Nasional (BN)’s Manifesto, which was launched to great fanfare on the 6th of April, shows that it is a coalition that is fundamentally opposed to and incapable of introducing significant and much needed reforms in the country.

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

While we have no problems with the BN trying to incorporate our ideas into their own manifesto, it is laughable to see that even this copying is half-hearted, like many of the so-called transformation initiatives of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The BN promises to reduce car prices by 20%-30% but stays absolutely silent on the unfair and opaque system of Approved Permits (AP) allocations that have been given to many BN cronies.

The BN promises to expand the Rapid Bus System to every state but does not allow the state governments or the local authorities to provide their own bus services.
Continue reading “3-Day Countdown to 13GE: BN’s Manifesto shows that it is fundamentally incapable of transforming, much less reforming, Malaysia”

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Soi Lek declined facing Kit Siang, Ghani a possibility, say BN sources

BY JAHABAR SADIQ
EDITOR
APRIL 08, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek was asked to face Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah but the MCA president declined the offer, leaving Barisan Nasional (BN) to consider its choices for the hottest battle in Umno’s home state, say ruling coalition sources.

The Malaysian Insider understands the MCA is pushing for caretaker Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman to fight the DAP adviser but an unsettled Malay ground and pro-opposition Chinese voters could scuttle those plans.

“Some in the BN war room thought it would be a titanic fight and that Dr Chua is strong enough to face Kit but the MCA president said no,” a BN source told The Malaysian Insider, referring to the veteran opposition leader by his moniker Kit.

“Now other choices are being considered as the final list must be ready by Tuesday,” the source added.
Continue reading “Soi Lek declined facing Kit Siang, Ghani a possibility, say BN sources”

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Umno and its lackey Perkasa

By Ali Kadir | APRIL 06, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

APRIL 6 — How nice? Ibrahim Ali says that he will drop bombshells on Pakatan Rakyat’s leaders and shock the nation.

And what is he waiting for: the go-ahead from none other than Prime Minister Najib Razak.

So now the Umno gang can drop all the wayang and confirm what the rest of Malaysia have known all along: that Ibrahim Ali and Perkasa are just an extension of Umno, a nauseating and disgusting extension of a politics which has outsourced its dirty work.

But then again, nothing should shock us anymore.

This is a political party and NGO nexus which has brought us political violence on a scale never before seen in Malaysia; a partnership that has promoted racism and chauvinism like never before and political strategies rooted in the bowel thinking.
Continue reading “Umno and its lackey Perkasa”

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In uncharted waters

By Clive Kessler | APRIL 07, 2013
The Malaysian Insider

APRIL 7 ― We are in uncharted political waters.

Parliament has been dissolved, already days ago, but the election has yet to be called.

The dates for nomination of candidates and for “going to the polls” to vote have yet to be declared.

The nation now finds itself stalled. It can do nothing but wait. We are caught in a strange interlude, a moment of suspended political animation.

And we are already in new political territory.

Where exactly we are, and what the political “lie of the land” is, remain unclear.
Continue reading “In uncharted waters”

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Talking to the Malays

— Zaid Ibrahim
The Malaysian Insider
April 06, 2013

APRIL 6 — So at last we are going to have a general election after all. The months of waiting have taken its toll on most people, but it’s important that they continue to have energy and spirit and to work hard to make this GE a meaningful one.

This week I want to talk to the Malays. They form the biggest block of voters and to them I say, this is your chance to have a new government. A new government will enable you to make a comparison with the one we have now. You have been told time and again that no one besides Umno/BN can govern and protect you, but wouldn’t it be better for you to try to find out for yourself? How can we know if Pakatan would be worse than Umno if we do not give them a chance?

You have to be brave and not let others bully you with fear and intimidation. The opposition parties have more Malays than BN so they will not harm you. They have worked hard and deserve a chance. For all you know, you may get better schools, better teachers for your children (as they may devote more time to teaching than politicking) and better security from the police and the army. Even your household income may improve as there will be more for the government to share with less corrupt leaders at the helm.

You will not lose if you vote for the opposition. If the opposition gets stronger because of your support but BN still wins, then you will get more cash handouts than they had promised. Money and projects have only been given to you because the opposition was strong — if the opposition had been weak, you wouldn’t have gotten the BR1M 1.0 and BR1M 2.0. It makes sense to vote for the opposition if you want more from the BN. Learn to value your votes to improve your livelihood. Continue reading “Talking to the Malays”

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Malaysia needs more Ibrahim Alis, says Dr M

by Koh Jun Lin
Malaysiakini
Apr 6, 2013

The country would be saved if there were more people like Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali, said former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

The patron of the Malay supremacist group said this today when endorsing Ibrahim to contest the Pasir Mas parliamentary seat under BN’s ticket.

“This is repayment, because in BN we repay good deeds… God willing if he is made a candidate, I would go to Pasir Mas to campaign.

“Perkasa is no small ‘party’, it has 400,000 members. It is probably bigger than PAS, but is not greedy.

“If there are many people like Ibrahim, this country is saved,” he said amid the cheers of a 3,000-strong audience.

Mahathir was speaking at Perkasa’s ‘Save Selangor Rally’ today held on a waterlogged field in Shah Alam. Continue reading “Malaysia needs more Ibrahim Alis, says Dr M”

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5-Day Countdown to 13GE – Dr. Mahathir, Najib and the BN have abandoned and forgotten Vision 2020

As we approach the historic 13th general elections, Malaysians must make a crucial decision between choosing for a better, brighter future under Pakatan or to continue to suffer the broken promises offered by the Barisan Nasional (BN).

There is no better reminder to Malaysians of BN’s broken promises than the total and abject failure of its leaders to remember, much less to seek to live out, the lofty ideals put forth by Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir in his Vision 2020.

Indeed, the person must guilty of totally abandoning the nine challenges in Vision 2020 is none other than Dr. Mahathir himself.

Over the past few months, Dr Mahathir has outdone himself by going around the country to create unnecessary, unproven and unsubstantiated fears about the future of this country under Pakatan Rakyat.

In fact, he has been campaigning more aggressively for the BN than even Prime Minister Najib!

By doing so, Dr. Mahathir has shown that the BN is incapable of leading Malaysia to the objectives set out by himself in Vision 2020.

In fact, the BN administration led by Najib, has failed to live up to each of the 9 challenges of Vision 2020 during his 4-year term as Prime Minister.
Continue reading “5-Day Countdown to 13GE – Dr. Mahathir, Najib and the BN have abandoned and forgotten Vision 2020”

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Call on everyone of Najib’s outgoing Cabinet Ministers to declare whether they or their family members own off-shore companies

Following the exclusive report by Malaysiakini yesterday that top Malaysian politicians, their family members and well-heeled associates are among those owning secretive offshore companies in Singapore and the British Virgin Islands, I call on every member of Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s outgoing Cabinet Ministers to declare whether they or their family members own off-shore companies.

From files obtained by the Washington-based International Confederation of Investigative Journalist (ICIJ) and examined by Malaysiakini, more than 1,500 Malaysians own offshore companies in Singapore as well as the British Virgin Islands (BVI).

Politicians and political operatives who own offshore companies include former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s son Mirzan, Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin and Michael Chia, the alleged ‘bagman’ for Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

In an “exclusive” yesterday, Malaysiakini reported:

“The ICIJ list comprises a curious mix of Forbes-listed tycoons, parliamentarians, retired politicians, civil servants and their spouses, members of royal families, famous and infamous businesspeople, underworld kingpins and even former beauty queens.
Continue reading “Call on everyone of Najib’s outgoing Cabinet Ministers to declare whether they or their family members own off-shore companies”

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A Smiling Bully

By Thomas Fann
www.newmalaysia.org

Walking towards a Pakatan rally at Kampung Melayu Dato Sulaiman Menteri in Johor Bahru, I could hear loud music coming from the open area where the ceramah was suppose to be. Initially I thought it was the pre-rally entertainment to amuse those who came earlier but as I got closer I could see UMNO and BN flags waving from where the mega sound system was, just 40 metres from the Pakatan truck which acted as the mobile stage.

Around 30 of these flag waving UMNO supporters were hurling verbal abuses and taunting the crowd of several thousands that night who came to hear what Anwar, Kit Siang, Guan Eng and other Pakatan leaders have to say.

Scores of police personnel had to act as human barricades to separate this small group of hostile supporters from the larger crowd who to their credit was peaceful and not provoked. Rock music and UMNO songs blasted non-stop for more than 4 hours for the whole duration of the ceramah.
Continue reading “A Smiling Bully”

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In Dr M, BN has a de facto campaigner-in-chief

By Debra Chong
The Malaysian Insider
April 05, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Ten years after leaving office, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and some of his old Cabinet colleagues have emerged in recent weeks as the face of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) campaign to return to power in Election 2013.

The 87-year-old Dr Mahathir has become a de facto campaigner-in-chief, going on the stump with the vigour of a much younger man as BN faces what is seen as its stiffest challenge ever from the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact.

As Election 2013 moves into overdrive, Dr Mahathir has been the most visible face of the ruling coalition – apart from Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin – criss-crossing the country expounding on BN’s power-sharing formula to drum up support for Team Najib.

The former prime minister who served for 22 years has been hitting the campaign trail hard in the past few weeks to bat for Najib, the son of his former political patron Tun Razak Hussein, in a way he never had for Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who succeeded him in October 2003, as he urged Malaysians to vote in the BN if they wanted continued stability and prosperity. Continue reading “In Dr M, BN has a de facto campaigner-in-chief”

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GE13: MCA doesn’t rule out possibility that Ghani may contest Gelang Patah

The Star
Published: Friday April 5, 2013 MYT 11:26:00 AM
Updated: Friday April 5, 2013 MYT 12:18:05 PM

JOHOR BARU: The MCA does not eliminate the possibility of Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman (pic) coming down to Gelang Patah to contest in the 13th general election.

However, MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek said Friday that there has yet to be a decision on the matter.

“There will be a discussion among the Barisan Nasional component leaders soon but what is important is that Barisan wins,” he said in a press conference after meeting with voters at the Taman Ungku Tun Aminah market in Skudai here Friday.

Dr Chua said that they want a candidate with a good track record and “Abdul Ghani has a proven track record as a Mentri Besar who is accepted by all races.”

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‘President’ Najib has failed

By Gobind Rudra
April 4, 2013

COMMENT

As grotesque as it was, Najib sought desperately to adopt the Obama image of a change agent.

Najib Tun Razak has kept to his chosen self-image of a presidential prime minister by calling for a general election only after completing a full four years in office.

In fairnesss, he might even be allowed a measure of self-congratulation, for having stayed the course and completing his “term”, even if it is only in his imagination that his four years as PM can be compared to the fixed four-year term of the US president, and only in his own imagination could he be compared to Barack Obama.

With his image handlers, he has worked hard at projecting himself in the Obama mould — even down to the solecisms of his swearing-in and the King’s proclamation of dissolution and his frenetic adoption of new media savviness and online cool.

His projection of himself in the image as Obama, as absurd as it may seem, could be seen as early as June 2009 when the US president made the semi-obligatory phone call, engineered by the State Department, to the newly-appointed prime minister. Najib recorded it thus in his blog:

“It was our first conversation with each other as Heads of State and we exchanged congratulatory wishes on our respective appointments.” Continue reading “‘President’ Najib has failed”

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7-Day Countdown to 13GE: MCA President most red-faced with dissolution of Parliament yesterday after he had told the world some 12 hours earlier that he felt “syok” Najib had confided in him that there was “plenty more time before GE13”

The MCA President, Datuk Seri Dr. Chua Soi Lek must be the most red-faced man in Malaysia yesterday with the dissolution of Parliament as some 12 hours earlier, he had told the world that the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak had confided in him that there was “plenty more time before GE13”

Trying to impress MCA leaders and members as well as outsiders of his “intimate relationship” with the Prime Minister, he told party members at the launch of the 1,000-day MCA report card that he met Najib for the third round of meetings to finalise the list of election candidates on Monday and asked him how long more he had to provide new names for the candidates list.

Chua said Najib told him “there was still a lot more time”.

Chua said: “I don’t understand what he meant but I feel syok (good) that there is a lot more time.” (Malaysiakini)

I do not know whether Chua still feel syok or “soiled” with the dissolution of Parliament yesterday, as the whole episode shows the MCA President is suffering from a serious dual ailment of gullibility and denial complex.

Without privilege of access to the Prime Minister, I had told reporters in Gelang Patah on Tuesday that dissolution of Parliament on the next day of Wednesday was eminently likely for four reasons: the cancellation of Najib’s Umrah trip, the fourth anniversary of Najib’s premiership, Wednesday being Cabinet meeting when the Prime Minister would have a weekly audience with the Yang di Pertuan Agong and the announcement that the Barisan Nasional election manifesto would be made public on Saturday on April 6, an event which is normally held after dissolution of Parliament.
Continue reading “7-Day Countdown to 13GE: MCA President most red-faced with dissolution of Parliament yesterday after he had told the world some 12 hours earlier that he felt “syok” Najib had confided in him that there was “plenty more time before GE13””

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Open Letter to Tengku Razaleigh: Time to Take a Bold Stand

by Koon Yew Yin

As the election date draws nearer, it is important that all politicians wishing to take part should make known to the public what they stand for.

Among our political leaders, there are few that have earned the respect of Malaysians in the same way that Tengku Razaleigh has. Through his actions he has struck many as a man of honour, decency, good sense and ability. These qualities – not superhuman virtues – are the ones needed at the helm of the nation to guide us through this difficult time of racial and religious extremism, and unquenched opportunism and power craze.

On what Tengku Razaleigh stands for, there is little or no doubt. However, given his marginalization in the mainstream media, many Malaysians may not be aware of his political philosophy. This philosophy which I heard him elaborate on in Ipoh in 2012 could serve as the template for the nation’s political development. It has served as the template for my book, Malaysia: Road Map for Achieving Vision 2020. Continue reading “Open Letter to Tengku Razaleigh: Time to Take a Bold Stand”

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Tsu Koon can redeem himself if he is prepared to take a honest and honourable stand on Wednesday’s Cabinet to demand the total suspension of the May 13 film Tanda Putra or to submit his resignation as Cabinet Minister

I feel very sorry for the Gerakan President and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr.Koh Tsu Koon but he has only himself to blame for the avalanche of public odium heaped on him in the last 48 hours when he did the indefensible – defending the private screenings of the May 13 riots film, Tanda Putera.

Tsu Koon claimed that the private screening of the controversial Tanda Putera are allowed because the Cabinet decision to postpone its screening is restricted to public screenings only.

What sycophancy, hypocrisy and sophistry!

No wonder Cabinet Ministers are not the most highly regarded and respected people in Malaysia – and the Najib Cabinet makes history as the Cabinet which beats all previous Cabinets in having the most useless “deadwood”.

Even the former Prime Minister Tun Mahathir and former Finance Minister Tun Daim Zainuddin in their recent interviews took turns to scalp the Ministerial “deadwood” in the Najib Cabinet.

Mahathir fully endorsed Daim’s condemnation of the Najib Cabinet as “carrying too much deadwood” with “most are already past their use-by date”, saying caustically: “I agree entirely. Lots of deadwood should be chopped down and thrown away and new trees grown.”
Continue reading “Tsu Koon can redeem himself if he is prepared to take a honest and honourable stand on Wednesday’s Cabinet to demand the total suspension of the May 13 film Tanda Putra or to submit his resignation as Cabinet Minister”