Archive for category Mahathir
Malaysia’s ‘Berlin Wall’
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Police on Tuesday, 11 June 2013
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Jun 10, 2013
Dataran Merdeka is symbolic. It is our metaphorical Berlin Wall and its significance cannot be exaggerated.
Umno Baru leaders and the police have refused to allow the use of Dataran Merdeka for the ‘Black 505’ rally in Kuala Lumpur on June 15.
Etched in the memories of older Malaysians is the lowering of the Union Jack and the raising of the Malayan flag at midnight, at the Selangor Club padang as Dataran Merdeka was then known. The younger generation would have learnt about its historical role.
When the 154.5km Berlin Wall – a concrete structure built by the East Germans to divide the east from the west – came down, the city of Berlin was reunited, communist rule in eastern Europe fell and the process of re-unification of East and West Germany started.
If the opposition coalition were to hold this rally at Dataran Merdeka, it would score a great moral victory, just as Bersih did. The violence during the Bersih 3.0 rally was perpetrated by the police. A weak regime is one which does not know how to use arguments and discussion as weapons, but resorts to violence.
If the place that is connected with Merdeka and the Tunku were to become the focal point for the ‘Black 505’ rally, attention would be focused on the reasons for the rally, and Umno-Baru would be forever linked with cheating in elections. Umno-Baru is desperate to deny the opposition the publicity. Read the rest of this entry »
Dr. Mahathir should look within himself and within his own party UMNO to discover who the real ‘racists’ are
In Dr. Mahathir’s chequered career as a politician, he has always looked for ‘bogeymen’ in order to divert attention from his own shortcomings and that of UMNO as well as the Barisan Nasional coalition. It seems that he has now come full circle by once again blaming the Chinese and also the DAP for increasing racial polarization in Malaysia and for being ‘chauvinists’.
One can only guess if Dr. Mahathir’s post-GE13 barrage against the Chinese and the DAP is driven by his own blind prejudices or by fears that his true legacy will be revealed for all to see if Pakatan wins power in Putrajaya or by growing senility or perhaps all of the above.
What we do know is that his accusations that DAP is a chauvinist party that plays on racial sentiment to draw Chinese support away from the BN is nothing but a pack of lies that is totally divorced from reality.
The fact that Dr. Mahathir can say that ‘When it (DAP) held elections to its Central Committee recently other than Karpal Singh all the members elected were Chinese’ shows his utter disregard for facts in his crazed attempts to ‘brand’ DAP as a ‘chauvinist’ party.[1] A simple ‘google check’ would have shown Dr. Mahathir that M.Kulasegaran (current MP for Ipoh Barat), Gobind Singh Deo (current MP for Puchong) and Zairil Khir Johari (current MP for Bukit Bendera) were all elected into the Central Committee. The records will also show that DAP has had Indian and Malay leaders elected into the Central Executive Committee (CEC) in every single party elections since the formation of the party in 1966.
If Dr. Mahathir had bothered to examine the current DAP leadership line-up on our website[2], he would see that we have Malay, Chinese, Indian, Iban and Kadazan members in our Central Executive Committee. Rather than pointing the finger at the DAP, Dr. Mahathir should ask himself how many non-Malay leaders have been elected or appointed into the UMNO Supreme Council to answer the question of who the real racists are. Read the rest of this entry »
Prize for “Political Gaffe of the Month” or “Putting one’s foot in the mouth” will be a toss-up among three competitors, Wan Ahmad, Muhyiddin and Mahathir
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Muhyiddin Yassin, Pakatan Rakyat, Zahid on Monday, 10 June 2013
The prize for “Political Gaffe of the Month” or “Putting one’s foot in the mouth” will be a toss-up among three competitors this month – Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Tun Mahathir, viz:
• Election Commission deputy chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar in asking why he and the Election Commission Chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof should resign when they have done their job of running an election, completely blissful of the national and international uproar over 13GE for failing to meet the most basic criteria of being a clean, free and fair elections as to cause for the first time in the nation’s 56-year history widespread doubt about the legitimacy of Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the Prime Minister.
• Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s threat that the 47% BN minority government will penalize and discriminate against 51% majority of popular vote for supporting Pakatan Rakyat and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in contrast to the 47% popular vote for Barisan Nasional and Datuk Seri Najib Razak – starkly raising the question whether Najib and the BN Government are Prime Minister and Government for only 47% of Malaysians or for all Malaysians.
• Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s latest racist vituperation alleging that the 2013GE outcome is proof that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays and to dominate Malaysian politics highlighting the falsehoods and moral turpitude he is prepared to indulge in to perpetrate his racist objectives .
Mahathir should be a model Malaysian and not be a stereotypical racist in the evening of his days
Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has shocked and outraged many Malaysians with his recent conduct where both during and after the 13GE, he had been one of the most extremist and racist voices in the country.
In the evening of his days, Mahathir should be a model Malaysian instead of being a stereotypical racist, seeking to pit the Malays against the Chinese.
Immediately after the May 5 general election results, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak talked about the need for a programme of “national reconciliation” but if there is an independent study and investigation into the speeches and statements made during and after the 13th General Elections, I have no doubt that it would be found that all the racist and chauvinist utterances, inciting racial conflict and hatred, emanate from the Umno/Barisan Nasional side whether from the UMNO/BN leaders or from their mouthpieces whether official or unofficial, like Mahathir himself.
If all the racist and chauvinistic appeals, trying to incite communal distrust and discord, whether during or after the 13GE, emanate from the UMNO/BN side, how can the UMNO/BN leaders have the temerity of trying to put the blame of worsening racial relations on Pakatan Rakyat?
In the 1999 general elections, it was the Chinese voters who saved Mahathir and UMNO from the Barisan Alternative comprising DAP, Parti Keadilan, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and PAS when Anwar was first sacked as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister and jailed in Sungai Buloh prison. Read the rest of this entry »
Mahathir trying to be King Canute a thousand years ago to stop the rise of the tide in the way he is trying to foment racial conflict and tensions when the tide is for the end of race politics
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Malaysian Dream on Saturday, 8 June 2013
Former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is trying to be King Canute a thousand years ago to stop the rise of the tide in the way he is trying to stem the new tide in Malaysian politics after the 13th General Elections – growing support from Malaysians regardless of race for an end to the politics of race, corruption and abuses of power and their replacement by the politics of the Malaysian Dream rising above race, corruption and cronyism.
It is most shocking and outrageous that after 22 years as Prime Minister and after fathering Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia, Mahathir should return to his racist roots during and after the 13th General Elections to foment racial conflict and tensions.
His latest racist fulmination that the 13th General Election is proof that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays and to dominate Malaysian politics is totally outrageous, reckless and irresponsible, and most unbecoming and unworthy of a person who had been Prime Minister for 22 years – and worst of all, a person who fathered Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia.
Mahathir was already at his racist worst during the 13th General Elections when he made the preposterous and baseless allegation that I was contesting in Gelang Patah to create a “racial confrontation” and that I was inciting the Chinese to hate the Malays. Read the rest of this entry »
Should one cry or laugh at Mahathir’s latest and most preposterous racist fulminations about Chinese wanting to oust political power of Malays and dominate Malaysian politics?
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak, nation building on Friday, 7 June 2013
Should one cry or laugh at Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s latest racist fulminations, making the preposterous claim that the 13th General Election is proof that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays and to dominate Malaysian politics?
Cry because a former Prime Minister could be so racist, reckless and irresponsible as to continue to try to set the Malays against the Chinese, outdoing his preposterous claim during the 13th General Elections that I was contesting in Gelang Patah to create a “racial confrontation” and that I was inciting the Chinese to hate the Malays.
There was not an ounce of truth in Mahathir’s allegations, but what is significant is that Mahathir’s allegations failed to make any impression on the voters, particularly the Malay voters, as I could not have won Gelang Patah with a majority of over 14,000 votes without the support of the Malay voters.
Was Mahathir’s failure to make an impact on the 13GE with his racist fulminations the reason why he has upped the ante to make even more racist and most preposterous fulminations that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays so as to dominate Malaysian politics?
Laugh that a former Prime Minister could go to such desperate lengths because his racist message is facing a diminishing market among the Malays that he had to concoct such wild lies that the Chinese in Malaysia are out to oust the political power of the Malays so as to dominate Malaysian politics! Read the rest of this entry »
Dr M: Umno attracting fewer talented leaders
by Sean Augustin
fz.com
Jun 04, 2013
Umno’s decreasing capable leaders have had negative consequences on the party and the government, writes former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his blog.
In a critical blog posting entitled Umno, then and now, the former prime minister said that unlike in the past, the party attracts fewer selfless and capable leaders, who instead tended to join its political rivals.
This, he said, resulted in fewer eligible candidates in a general election, while promising members fielded as parachute candidates for seats would be defeated.
Mahathir said the impact of having fewer talented people in the party was that it leads to a government made up of incapable people.
He said current leaders, from the division leaders up, are reluctant to allow new talents to come in, fearing they could pose a threat to their positions. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s deep divides
Posted by Kit in Articles, Court, Elections, Human Rights, Judiciary, Mahathir, Najib Razak, Police, Post-13GE on Wednesday, 29 May 2013
by John Berthelsen
Asia Sentinel
May 29, 2013 10:49AM UTC
National elections on May 5 haven’t cooled political and racial tensions, writes Asia Sentinel’s John Berthelsen
Any hope that May 5 national elections in Malaysia would cool the political atmosphere appears to have been misguided, leaving a country entangled in deepening racial problems and creating the risk of a real threat to the legitimacy of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s reign.
While not calling for Najib’s removal, the prime minister’s most potent critic, former Premier Mahathir Mohamad, damned him with faint praise, telling Bloomberg News in an interview in Tokyo last week that the United Malays National Organization will continue to support him “because of a lack of an alternative.” Read the rest of this entry »
Umno Baru ‘takut MATI’
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, UMNO on Wednesday, 29 May 2013
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
May 27, 2013
It is simply ironic; Umno Baru’s Najib Abdul Razak, has urged the BN coalition to adapt so that it can maintain its relevance in the future – but behind closed doors, all the Umno Baru politicians fear change.
Why? They fear that Umno Baru will cease to exist because of Meritocracy, Accountability, Transparency and Integrity (MATI) – qualities which no Umno Baru politician displays or can ever hope to attain.
It is alleged that Umno Baru politicians laugh at this MATI joke because they realise the significance of adopting the MATI principles, as MATI means ‘death’ in Malay.
Umno Baru tyrants have exploited the rakyat for their own ends, but anyone who has met Najib or former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad (left) will be struck by their apparent friendliness and kindly manner. They will be surprised that despite what is written about them; their alleged arrogance and the alleged corruptions carried out on their behalf, they are very different in person.
That is why it is important for members of the rakyat, to understand that the public persona of these men is just a facade. Behind the public masks, lurk other people – men who are responsible for dividing the rakyat and plundering the nation. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno Baru’s hidden agenda
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 20 May 2013
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
May 20, 2013
When Ahmad Zahid Hamidi – the new home minister – told disgruntled opposition supporters that they should migrate if they were unhappy with the results of GE13, he had unwittingly confessed that Umno Baru has a hidden agenda.
This little-known plan is Umno Baru’s mass immigration policy and is a deliberate ploy fuelled by political self-interests. Asking people to emigrate will ensure that Malaysia is populated largely by Umno Baru-putras and selected foreigners.
Zahid reluctantly acknowledged that the rakyat was disappointed with the rigging of the polls, but at the same time, he revealed the fears of Umno Baru leaders. The cheating did not go as smoothly and secretly as they had intended.
Zahid possesses neither charisma nor intellect. His oft repeated line is for people to shape up or ship out. With each new political appointment, he stuns us with his ability to set new standards for boorish behaviour.
In 2008, he was appointed a minister in the Prime Minister’s Department of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi with a portfolio which included religious affairs and agencies like the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim). He caused controversy when he warned officers that they had to support the government’s policies, or leave.
When Abdullah resigned and Najib Abdul Razak took over in 2009, Zahid was made the defence minister. He invited criticism when he said that the low percentage of non-Malays in the armed forces showed that they lacked patriotism. Read the rest of this entry »
Why, Prime Minister?
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Media, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, nation building, UMNO on Sunday, 19 May 2013
by Zaid Ibrahim
May 14, 2013
I have never seen as many vile and seditious statements invading the public sphere as I have in this past week. We’ve had Utusan Malaysia provoking the Chinese for rejecting the Barisan Nasional and UMNO leaders labeling non-UMNO Malays as greedy and easily misled. An academic suggested the abolishment of vernacular schools to encourage unity among the races and an old “historian” said that the Chinese are not actually keen on unity. To cap it off, a retired Court of Appeal judge practically made a call for “restoring” Malay rights and dignity by whatever means.
I never realised that retired judges are also involved in part-time politics, although I believe this case to be a serious aberration. In the meantime, have we heard anything from the Prime Minister expressing regret for these statements? Perhaps a promise to take some action to stop this dangerous game of provocation? None whatsoever; in fact, he defended Utusan by saying Chinese newspapers are playing the same game.
Is this the kind of Prime Minister we want? Certainly not. I have been very patient with him, as have so many Malaysians. We have always given him extra room to breathe because we thought he was surrounded by the worse ultras in UMNO. We allowed him to dabble in “double speak” because we thought it was necessary for him to maintain his equilibrium as UMNO President. But enough is enough. This man has to go. He is afraid to do the right thing for the country. His 1Malaysia is a sham. I blame him for allowing this mad, racist frenzy to pander to UMNO delegates so he can retain power at the party elections at the end of the year.
His conduct is inexcusable. Read the rest of this entry »
After Malaysia Election, Political Attacks Continue as Opposition Calls for Protests
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 14 May 2013
By JOE COCHRANE
New York Times
May 10, 2013
JAKARTA, Indonesia — If there was a moment after the nail-biting national election on Sunday when Malaysians could envision a respite from five years of political turmoil, it did not last long.
Within hours of the election commission’s announcement early Monday that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s governing National Front coalition had won a majority in Parliament, Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader, declared that the voting was rigged, said he would contest the results and called for nationwide protests.
The prime minister’s office countered that Mr. Anwar was a poor loser stirring up unrest, while the police warned that the opposition leader and dozens of other people who spoke at a protest rally in a packed soccer stadium just outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday night could be charged with sedition.
Such tit-for-tat exchanges between the government and the opposition were commonplace after the 2008 election and in the campaign for the vote last Sunday. But analysts say that the continuing political attacks and threats of protest this time are raising the specter of a potentially explosive showdown fueled by ethnic tensions laid bare again in the vote and longstanding animosity between Mr. Najib and Mr. Anwar.
“In a way, it’s escalated things,” said Simon Tay, the chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “And with an escalation, you’re not sure of what the results will be.” Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia elections: Next battle: Staying on as party president
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Reme Ahmad in Alor Setar
The Straits Times
Thu, May 09, 2013
PM Najib Razak has to convince warlords in his own party to keep him on as chief.
MALAYSIA – Even as the dust settles from his victorious battle against Malaysia’s galvanised opposition, Prime Minister Najib Razak might be heading for another fight – convincing warlords in his own party to keep him on as chief.
Umno is scheduled to hold its internal elections, held every three years, before the end of this year.
Some expect the Umno president to face a challenge from his deputy then.
Datuk Seri Najib’s performance in the general election will be the main yardstick used by Umno leaders to decide whether to let the 59-year-old continue as president, or to allow Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 66, to mount a challenge.
The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won 133 parliamentary seats on Sunday, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) getting 89. In the previous general election, BN had won 140 seats.
So yes, under Mr Najib, the 13-party ruling coalition had won back Kedah and kept Perak. The latter was taken from PR a year after the 2008 election as a result of defections by several assemblymen; Mr Najib has now secured a mandate to keep it.
But were Sunday’s results good enough? Analysts have mixed views. Read the rest of this entry »
Losers discover too late Mahathir no more an asset
Daily Express
Friday, May 10, 2013
Kuala Lumpur: Election 2013 has laid bare the declining influence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as a political force, an analysis of where and how he campaigned showed.
The former Prime Minister campaigned incessantly but Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates whom he backed or shared his ideals – such as the controversial Zulkifli Noordin and Ibrahim Ali – all lost.
In Kedah – where his son Mukhriz is now Mentri Besar on the back of a BN victory – local politicians and observers have pointed out that voters gave PAS the boot because of poor governance by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) party.
Brand Mahathir did not win Kedah for BN, but it was rather a case of PAS losing the state, one senior Umno politician in Kedah said.
Dr Mahathir’s attempt at painting the battle for Gelang Patah in Johor as a Malay versus Chinese battle also failed miserably.
Many analysts and BN politicians have said that his incessant playing of the race card for the Election 2013 campaign saw support for him deplete.
“He still has his niche group of supporters in the Malays, they wouldn’t simply demonise leaders whom they feel have been there for them long enough.
“But yes… at times, it may be true that his time is over.
What he says, how he says it, may not have traction among the younger generation, in the urban areas. But let us not forget – he is not the PM of the day,” Sabah Umno secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said. Read the rest of this entry »
Umno’s reactionary GE13 ‘victory’
by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
May 12, 2013
COMMENT
The May 2013 general election was a potential transition election in which the BN governing coalition held onto power.
The majority of the Malaysians supported an alternative government, but the incumbent Umno elite, supported by vested interests and years of constructing an electoral system in its favour, won out.
Even with yet another multi-ethnic national swing in electoral support towards Pakatan and more Malaysians voting than ever before, the incumbent elite in power held on, thwarting democracy.
Earlier, I pointed to some of the specific questions surrounding the electoral roll, the placement of voters, the conduct of the election itself and the character of the results, highlighting many of the unanswered questions of GE13.
The process of evidence gathering has begun and in the months ahead many of the irregularities in the polls will be illustrated and investigated. Read the rest of this entry »
The 2013 Election Results: Back to the Drawing Board for Both Coalitions
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Lim Teck Ghee, Mahathir, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Friday, 10 May 2013
by Dr. Lim Teck Ghee
Finally the general election is over. For politicians and analysts, the work of number crunching, deciphering the results and trying to understand the choices made by voters is just beginning.
Some conclusions are easy to arrive at. Firstly, despite a skewed electoral playing ground and the rolling out of more than RM2.6 billion worth of financial and other incentives to voters, the BN could not improve on its 2008 performance. Although it regained power in one state and has a comfortable majority at parliamentary level, its share of state and parliamentary seats has been substantially reduced. Had a fair election prevailed, it would have been consigned to the opposition benches. In fact BN lost the popular vote count by a substantial margin nation-wide. In most if not all electoral systems found in the world, it would have been booted out of office. In our case, it came dangerously close to it. Read the rest of this entry »
Election 2013 results expose Dr M’s decline as a force
BY CLARA CHOOI AND MD IZWAN
The Malaysian Insider
May 09, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Election 2013 has laid bare the declining influence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as a political force, an analysis of where and how he campaigned has shown.
The former prime minister campaigned incessantly but Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates whom he backed or shared his ideals – such as the controversial Zulkifli Noordin and Ibrahim Ali – all lost.
In Kedah – where his son Mukhriz is now Mentri Besar on the back of a BN victory – local politicians and observers have pointed out that voters gave PAS the boot because of poor governance by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) party.
Brand Mahathir did not win Kedah for BN, but it was rather a case of PAS losing the state, one senior Umno politician in Kedah told The Malaysian Insider.
Dr Mahathir’s attempt at painting the battle for Gelang Patah in Johor as a Malay versus Chinese battle also failed miserably.
Many analysts and BN politicians have said that his incessant playing of the race card for the Election 2013 campaign saw support for him deplete. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia’s Najib: Jump or be Pushed
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Thursday, 9 May 2013
by John Berthelsen
Asia Sentinel
Wednesday, 08 May 2013
Election aftermath could soon claim its real loser, the current PM
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, having been instrumental in driving his successor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from power in 2009 after a poor electoral performance, now may be poised to try to do the same thing to the current prime minister, Najib Tun Razak.
It may depend on whether Najib jumps or is pushed, however. The premier is said to be disillusioned and discouraged and may leave the premiership at the United Malays National Organization annual general meeting in October, handing over power to the current vice president Muhyiddin Yassin, sources say – if he lasts that long. Najib led the Barisan Nasional to its lowest vote total since independence at 46.66 percent of the popular vote to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition’s 50.1 percent, taking a diminished 133 seats in the parliament to Pakatan Rakyat’s 89 – amid allegations of voter irregularities that put the Barisan over the top.
“I am told that Najib will hand over to Muhyiddin in October,” a lawyer with close contacts to UMNO said. “The change may finally come but voluntarily between Najib and Muhyiddin. We’ll have to let it play it out some more.”
That could foreshadow months of instability inside the UMNO leadership as a weakened Najib hangs on to power in the face of a wing of the party that wants to double down on the policies that have led to diminished returns in the last two elections. Toppling him now for Muhyiddin could well lead to costly party rifts, as it did in 2009 with the Badawi faction of the party. A change would probably signal that UMNO will steer to the conservative right, counterintuitive to what the electorate appears to have been saying. It was UMNO moderates such as Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahrir Samad who profited in the election while Malay nationalists Ibrahim Ali and Zulkifli Noordin were soundly defeated. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib Tun Razak, Chua Soi Lek, Ali Rustam, M Saravanan and Dr Mahathir should stop racializing the 13th General Election results and focus instead on Revamping the Electoral System, starting with asking for the members of the Election Commission to resign
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Thursday, 9 May 2013
BN leaders should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to racialize the GE13 election results. This is thoroughly unbecoming of their status as national leaders and statesmen. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak continues to irresponsibly racialize the GE13 results when he refused to condemn the reprehensible and thoroughly disgusting headline of Utusan Malaysia yesterday on the 7th of May which read “Apa Lagi Cina Mahu?” (What more do the Chinese want?). Instead, his response which alluded that the Chinese papers were writing the same thing makes a mockery of his election night statement that he wanted to embark on a program of national reconciliation.
Dr Chua Soi Lek too has refused to apologize for making the remark that the country is now on a ‘two-race’ system. This is pure stupidity since 50 out of the 89 Pakatan MPs (or 56%) are non-Chinese (39 Malay, 10 Indian, 1 Kadazan).
Ali Rustam should also offer his profuse apologies to not just the Chinese voters in the constituency of Bukit Katil but also the Malay voters, who make up 53% of the voters in this constituency, and also the Indian voters, who make up 6% of the voters in this constituency for exercising their democratic right to choose their candidate of preference, which happens to be his opponent, Shamsul Iskandar, from PKR.
M Saravanan should also apologize for agreeing with Utusan Malaysia and with Ali Rustam by saying that the Chinese were ungrateful since I am sure that many of the 12743 voters who voted for his opponent (or 38% of the total vote) included Malay and Indian voters.
Do both of these leaders also mean to say that all those who voted against the BN, including almost half of the voters in the 95% majority state of Terengganu, are also ‘ungrateful’ voters?
The worst culprit of this race baiting is none other than Dr. Mahathir himself who continues to outdo his younger self in polarizing and dividing the country when he accused the Malaysian Chinese community of ‘rejecting the hand of friendship’ extended by the Malays. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s hollow victory
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Elections, Mahathir, Mariam Mokhtar, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Thursday, 9 May 2013
by Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
May 6, 2013
It is widely believed that a happy and contented Singaporean is one who has achieved the 5Cs – cash, credit card, car, condominium and country club.
In neighbouring Malaysia, the victorious Umno Baru leader is defined by the 6Cs; corruption, chaos, cheating, cronyism, cowardice and concubine.
BN head Najib Abdul Razak injected many millions of ringgit into the country to secure a victory, and unleashed a violent campaign of ‘blood, sweat and tears’ to defend Putrajaya. In the end, he only managed a ‘win’ by a handful of seats.
For many Umno Baru leaders, the effort has been worthwhile because the alternative is a long spell behind bars.
Ironically, the worst damage inflicted on Najib and BN, was Najib’s own ‘1Malaysia’ slogan.
Malaysians are fairly reticent people and not known for outward displays of public-spiritedness, but yesterday, in the true spirit of ‘1Malaysia’, Malaysians of all races were united in defending their polling stations against foreign ‘phantom’ voters. Read the rest of this entry »
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