Archive for March 7th, 2010

Kit Siang: Pakatan to win big if Anwar is jailed

By Neville Spykerman | The Malaysian Insider

SHAH ALAM, March 7 — Veteran opposition leader Lim Kit Siang today predicted the Pakatan Rakyat will have an easier time at the next general election if the government jails Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy.

“If he is jailed, our motto will be free Anwar, vote PR!” said the DAP stalwart during the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) Convention.

Anwar, the de factor PKR and PR leader, is facing his second sodomy charge in more than a decade after he was sacked as deputy prime minister and later jailed for sodomy and corruption offences.

The next election is not due until 2013 but pundits expect Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to call for snap polls after the Sarawak state elections, which are due by July 2011.

The Ipoh Timor MP said the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government was courting trouble by continuing their persecution of the Opposition Leader, who has denied the sodomy charge and called it a political conspiracy.
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Cabinet on Wednesday should give “green light” for legislative action to allow state governments like Penang to restore local government elections

The Penang State Executive Council has made a historic decision to restore local government elections for Penang which was suspended 45 years on 1st March 1965 because of Indonesian Confrontation which ended in the latter part of 1966.

If elections to the two Municipal Councils of Penang, the Municipal Council of Penang Island (MPPP) and the Municipal Council of Seberang Prai (MPSP) are held at this time, it would be doubly meaningful because the last local council elections in Malaysia was held half a century ago in 1961.

In fact, there would be a triple significance as the first-ever elections held in the country was for the Municipal Council of George Town on Dec. 1, 1951 – marking the 60th anniversary commemoration of the start of the nation’s electoral history.

Following the historic decision of the Penang State Government to restore the third vote, with the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng writing to the Election Commission to conduct local government elections for the two municipalities in Penang, the Cabinet on Wednesday should give the “green light” for legislative action to be taken to allow state governments like Penang to restore local government elections.
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Kit Siang’s ‘biggest losers’ jibe riles Sabahans

Joe Fernandez | Malaysiakini

DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang has distressed BN leaders in Sabah no end with his Feb 28 statement in Kota Kinabalu that the KadazanDusunMuruts (KDMs) – the largest indigenous group in the state – are the biggest losers under the ruling coalition.

The reverberations are still echoing throughout the state and is likely to haunt BN in the run-up to the next general election.

Lim had also linked the biggest losers tag with the continued ban on the book, ‘Peter Mojuntin Golden Son of the Kadazan’, by former Malacca DAP leader Bernard Sta Maria. He has since initiated an online campaign to get the ban on the book lifted.

The book is about Sabah’s leader Mojuntin, who died in the plane crash together with a number of other top leaders including the state’s first chief minister Fuad Stephens in 1976.

Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman, a Pathan-Dusun, castigated Lim in no uncertain terms for being irresponsible. He was particularly upset that Lim pointed out that Umno had held the CM’s post for 11 of the last 16 years, the Chinese for four years and the KDM for only nine months.
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Cops crash DAP party

Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan up on stage to declare the party over. – Picture by Choo Choy May
Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan up on stage to declare the party over. – Picture by Choo Choy May

By Clara Chooi | The Malaysian Insider

KUALA LUMPUR, March 6 — Police put a stop to a dinner and ceramah organised by the Kepong DAP here tonight.

The function, which features star speakers from Pakatan Rakyat like Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Husam Musa, was called to an abrupt halt at 10pm when the police raided the premises.

About 1,500 people in attendance booed loudly when Sentul OCPD ACP Zakaria Pagan took to the stage and announced that the ceramah was cancelled.

He justified the action by pointing out that the function’s permit was only to organise a dinner and not a ceramah with political speeches.
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