Archive for April 28th, 2011

Pakatan’s Chances of Winning the 13th General Election

By Kenny Gan

The 13th general election will be the most watched and anxiously awaited event in the annals of Malaysian political history. Previous general elections have been tame affairs where the result was never in doubt; it was only a matter of how many seats the opposition could wrest away from BN. But the next election will be different as BN faces a real threat of losing power to a united opposition.

To be sure, this is not the first time that the opposition parties have grouped together to challenge BN. In the 1990 general election, Tengku Razaleigh’s Semangat 46 forged a coalition with other opposition parties and in 1999 DAP, PAS and Keadilan formed Barisan Alternatif to take advantage of public revulsion over Mahathir’s cruel treatment of Anwar.

But these opposition pacts did not even manage to deny BN its customary two-thirds majority. They failed because the social forces at that time were just not in their favour. The minorities were controlled by racial and religious fears and the mindset of the people then could not accept being governed by any coalition other than BN.
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What impression have we given to Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa – a government crazed with sex scandals than with enhancing Malaysia’s multi-racial national unity or international competitiveness?

What impression have we given to Chinese Premier Wen Jiaboa in his short visit to the country?

That we have a government crazed with sex scandals than with enhancing multi-racial national unity or Malaysia’s international competiveness?

The largest English-language circulation newspaper in the country, the MCA-owned Star, put the Carcosa sex scandal on its front page – headlined: “Part 2 out – Another video clip on YouTube, Anwar’s family says it’s not him” while Wen’s historic visit to University of Malaya is relegated to Page 2!

The official visit of the leader of the most important nation in the world also fought a losing battle with “Sex video Part 2 on YouTube” even for front-page mention, whether its News Straits Times, Berita Harian or even the “1Melayu” Utusan Malaysia.

What a national shame and disgrace!

Wen Jiaboa would have been completely horrified if during his short visit to Malaysia, he had sighted the 8pm TV3 Prime News last night, which caused me to post five tweets in 30 minutes after I had been informed by incensed parents who were shocked and surprised by the “transformation” of TV3 into a porn channel: viz:
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1 BUMIPUTRA VS 1 MALAYSIA

by Mohd Arshad Raji
Blog mind NO EVIL
Saturday, April 23, 2011

1 Bumiputra…………..that’s something new to my ears. Is it similar or different from 1 Malaysia?

From what I gather, the two are vastly at divergence in purpose and contradictory at best. The former being a Perkasa creation talks about uniting all Malay parties (an impossible proposition as at now), while the latter being PM Najib’s aspiration of wanting to create a one Malaysian society that is comprised of the various ethic Malaysian races. It is the divergence that compelled PM Naijb to distance himself from 1 Bumiputra, although Utusan Malaysia, an UMNO controlled print media is supportive of the 1 Bumiputra idea. Tun Dr. Mahathir despite being closely associated with Perkasa, has himself declared that 1 Bumiputra has disastrous consequences.

Perkasa seems to have a penchant for sloganeering, and each time a slogan is drummed up, it catches the very heart of the Malays. One does not need further exposition. Just swallow and nod to all the howling of the Perkasa leaders of which they are extremely proficient. No reasoning or rational thinking is required. They just want others to know that the Malays must be superior because they are the majority. And Ibrahim Ali is just ever willing to draw out his kris, and for what? Read the rest of this entry »

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Najib’s no match for wily old Taib

by Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz
Free Malaysia Today
April 28, 2011

The moment he got wind of Umno KL’s plans to replace him, he swiftly moved to consolidate his grip over Sarawak.

COMMENT

It’s time for the boys on our side to rethink what has happened in Sarawak. A victorious and accordingly emboldened Taib Mahmud is now a cause for more headaches to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Umno.

Let’s replay the behind-the-scene incidents on April 16. On that night, after making sure he already had the numbers, Taib called the house asking family members to get ready.

He warned them that much depended on speed and that there was no time to lose. Taib then called the governor informing the latter to get ready by 10.30pm.

He arrived 15 minutes past 10.30pm and was sworn in as chief minister, even before the people in Kuala Lumpur could savour the win.

Taib had got wind of rumours that he will be replaced by someone more docile and favourable to Umno. Read the rest of this entry »

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Most important ingredient for national unity

By: K.K. Tan
The Sun
Wed, 27 Apr 2011

DESPITE the debate on racial unity and attempts by the government to achieve it, there seems to be more disunity than ever. It appears that the silent voices of reason and moderation of the majority, who are in support of 1Malaysia, are drowned by the increasingly aggressive voices from a small minority of extremists.

Once again, the destructive and inflammatory proposal to punish a certain ethnic community in the post-Sarawak election blame game is being promoted to “force” a warped kind of national unity. I am not siding with any political party, but touching on a fundamental principle of democracy. Presumably, the punishment suggested would involve the denial of legitimate aid, funding and development to the areas concerned.

According to Newton’s third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Hence, the attempted punishment of voters by the Sabah state government in the Tambunan by-election of December 1984 backfired in April 1985 when the ruling party was routed and lost in the state election.

If such “punishment” didn’t work in 1984, it certainly will not work in 2011. These punishment promoters are effectively undermining 1Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »

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10 questions about 1Malaysia Email

Oon Yeoh | Apr 26, 11
Malaysiakini

There’s been a lot of negativity about the 1Malaysia Email project to be handled by Tricubes. Perhaps a big part of that has to do with the fact that there aren’t actually that many facts released by Tricubes or the government about this controversial project.

We’ve heard bits and pieces about it through news reports, and an interview on BFM89.9 has shed some light on the project. But many questions remain.

Here are 10 key question that, if answered properly by either Tricubes or the government, would probably go a long way towards stemming the tidal wave of criticism the project has attracted thus far.

1. Why is it called 1Malaysia Email?

Apparently, the registered and approved domain email address will be [email protected]. So why isn’t it called MyEmail instead of 1Malaysia Email? Besides, doesn’t Tricubes know that roughly half the popular votes in the last election went to Pakatan Rakyat? That being the case, isn’t it a foolish strategy to brand an email service with name that is so incredibly politicised that it would alienate roughly half the electorate? Read the rest of this entry »

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1Malaysia.con

Dean Johns | Apr 27, 11
Malaysiakiini

The 1Malaysia Email project is both a symptom and a symbol of the rotten Umno/BN regime. It’s as blatant a con as everything this god-forsaken government says and does, and clearly corrupt into the bargain.

Its pretext of providing “direct and secure communications between the citizens and the government” and a “one-stop centre for government services, providing value-added services such as social networking, checking bills online and payment” sounds as fishy – or, since it is an Internet scam, phishy – as all get-out.

It is clearly intended to provide the government with unchecked power to spam and snoop on Malaysian netizens in the present, and the option of forcing the people to do anything from conducting all their Internet communications and transactions to possibly even voting through this dodgy portal in the future.

This promises to be the final link in the web of deceit that Umno/BN has progressively woven to extend and defend its criminal misrule of the country, and ensnare the populace forever in its net.

And the manner of presenting the thing to the people has been as suspect as the project itself. Read the rest of this entry »

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