Archive for March 22nd, 2009

Malaysians Say Corruption is UMNO’s Worst Flaw

Angus Reid Global Monitor | March 21, 2009

Many people in Malaysia say the governing party’s main problem lies in corrupt practices, according to a poll by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research. 35 per cent of respondents cite corruption as the most serious flaw of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO).

Being out of touch is second with 15 per cent, followed by having weak leaders with 12 per cent, having weak economic managers with 11 per cent, being arrogant also with 11 per cent, and being racist with 10 per cent.

UMNO—the biggest party in a coalition of 12 political factions known as the National Front (BN)—has formed the government after every election since the Asian country attained its independence from Britain in 1957.
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Parliament should be extended for another week/a special sitting in April to debate confidence motion on new PM

The countdown has been reduced to four days for Datuk Seri Najib Razak to be anointed as UMNO President in the UMNO General Assembly, as he has been nominated uncontested for the top Umno post.

The countdown for his ascension as the sixth Prime Minister will be slightly longer as guestimates are that the Prime Ministerial hand-over will take place either on April 2 or 3.

Except that there is growing and unprecedented nation-wide disquiet and even dismay that Najib would become the next Prime Minister despite the many unresolved allegations hounding and haunting him raising serious questions about his fitness, integrity and legitimacy to occupy the highest political office of the land, to the extent that it had found expression in the public domain by concerned and patriotic Malaysians – a completely new political phenomenon in the nation’s 52-year history as this had never happened before during the tenure of the first five Prime Ministers of Malaysia about their ordained successors.

The latest voice to join the increasing chorus of doubters, sceptics and cynics about the propriety, suitability and legitimacy for Najib to become the next Prime Minister is none other than Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah who, when asked in a Malaysiakini interview about the recent call by the former Law Minister, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, that the Yang di Pertuan Agong should reject Najib if Umno puts him forward as Prime Minister to replace Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, said “it is possible for the Yang di Pertuan Agong may not appoint Najib as Prime Minister despite being Umno president”. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ai-yo-yo Samy

Nobody would have been surprised by the following newsflash:

Samy Vellu retains MIC president’s post uncontested

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu retained the post of MIC president uncontested for the 11th consecutive term at the close of the party’s presidential nomination in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, according to sources.

The nomination papers of his challenger Datuk M. Muthupalaniappan were rejected.

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