Archive for 2012
The Police Must Act Against Perkasa
Posted by Kit in Lim Guan Eng, Perkasa, Police on Tuesday, 3 July 2012
Kee Thuan Chye
Malaysian Digest
02 July 2012
Pertubuhan Pribumi Perkasa Malaysia (Perkasa) is getting out of control. Its latest brush with Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng that resulted in a scuffle is testimony to its growing tendency towards verbal and physical violence. More than that, it seems to be presuming that it is above the law and can say and do what it likes with impunity.
It was reportedly holding a demonstration in Telok Bahang at the same place where Guan Eng was visiting the local residents. The scuffle broke out when the group of 50 Perkasa members threw anti-Guan Eng posters at him and his delegation, and then one of them reportedly charged at him.
Penang Perkasa leader Mohd Rizuad Mohd Azudin claims that the fracas was orchestrated by Guan Eng’s people to make Perkasa look bad to the Telok Bahang residents. But in the first place, why did Perkasa choose to hold the demonstration where Guan Eng would be? Why did they come armed with anti-Guan Eng posters and even paste them all over at least one of the shops there? Who was orchestrating what? Read the rest of this entry »
The last mile
Posted by Kit in Anwar Ibrahim, Elections, Mahathir on Tuesday, 3 July 2012
— Liew Chin Tong
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 02, 2012
JULY 2 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was today slapped with an additional charge in addition to two existing ones over the April 28 Bersih rally.
Fifteen years ago today, on July 2, 1997, the Thai government was forced to float the Thai baht after failing to defend it from attacks, sparking an unprecedented Asian-wide crisis. Contagious free falls in Asian currencies led to economic meltdowns and political crises subsequently.
Hence the start of the Malaysian epic tragedy of political and economic stagnation. It was the beginning of the end of sort for Barisan Nasional’s political monopoly. It exposed Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s emperor-with-no-clothes game.
After a painfully long 15 years, Malaysia is now a nation in waiting for change. And, we are walking the last mile of a long, tedious journey. Read the rest of this entry »
Under Najib, Malaysia is not only more corrupt than under the two previous Prime Ministers but is heading towards the dubious honour of being the only Asian-Pacific country to slip in both TI CPI ranking and score since 1995
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Monday, 2 July 2012
The CIMB Group chief, Datuk Seri Nazir Razak and younger brother to the Prime Minister hit the nail on the head when he told Financial Times that Malaysia must overcome corruption if it is to move up from being a middle-income economy.
In fact, Nazir could be faulted for erring on the side of caution and holding his punches for Malaysia, under Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s premiership for 39 months, is not only more corrupt than under the two previous Prime Ministers Tun Dr. Mahathir and Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, but is heading towards the dubious honour of being the only Asian-Pacific country to slip in both Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index(CPI) ranking and score since the introduction of the annual assessment 17 years ago in 1995.
In the first TI CPI in 1995, Malaysia was ranked No. 23 out of 41 countries or the 6th highest-ranked nation in the Asia-Pacific after New Zealand -1, Singapore – 3, Australia – 7, Hong Kong – 17 and Japan – 20, with a CPI score of 5.28. (10 stands for “highly clean” and 0 for “highly corrupt”)
Seventeen years later, after numerous anti-corruption campaigns, two major anti-corruption legislation, the “elevation” of the former Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) into Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), the National Integrity Plan, the 1Malaysia Government Transformation Programme with massive infusion of public funds and increase of staffing, Malaysia has now fallen to the lowest TI CPI ranking in 17 years in 2011, viz: No. 60 with the lowest CPI score of 4.3. Read the rest of this entry »
Felda listing: A ‘house of lies’
Posted by Kit in Felda, Najib Razak on Monday, 2 July 2012
Mohd Ariff Sabri Aziz | July 2, 2012
Free Malaysia Today
Felda Global Venture is a rush job and has all the hallmarks of becoming a minefield for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.
COMMENT
With a bottomless pit of scandals and irregularities, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak must be off his rockers when he says he will win 14-0 in the next election.
But I know, the only time he has to say something like that, is when he knows the chips are down.
We know when Najib says he will win 14-0, it means Umno and Barisan Nasional are finished. Otherwise, with a score of 14-0, Najib should have declared election yesterday.
Let’s talk about the Felda Global Venture (FGV) which was listed on June 28.
Najib wants to rake in RM6 billion to pay his way through the next general election.
But did you know that know that only 20% of Felda top management supported the idea of FGV’s initial public offering (IPO)? Some 65% of the FGV staff thought FGV simply isn’t ready to list. Read the rest of this entry »
Rebahnya BN kerana salah sendiri, bukannya kesalahan orang
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 02, 2012
2 JULAI — Insiden yang mengasari Ketua Menteri Pulau Pinang di Telok Bahang semalam membuktikan yang Barisan Nasional amat sengsara apabila kalah di dalam pilihanraya 20008 yang mengakibatkan BN jatuh tersembam di Pulau Pinang dalam PRU yang lalu.
Kerajaan Pakatan Rakyat yang di ketuai oleh DAP itu telah melakukan yang terbaik dan telah pun membuktikan yang sesebuah kerajaan itu boleh ditadbir dengan baik jika pimpinannya telus, jujur, dan sebenarnya rasuah boleh dielakkan.
Jika Pulau Pinang kini mempunyai pentadbiran yang hampir sama dengan prestasi BN, tentulah BN mempunyai peluang untuk kembali berkuasa di Pulau Pinang selepas pilihanraya yang akan datang.
Tetapi Lim Guan Eng dan barisan pimpinan kerajaan Pulau Pinang telah menunjukkan perbezaan ketara dengan membuktikan yang PR memang lebih berkemampuan untuk mentadbir dari BN yang telah menguasai Pulau Pinang dari 2008 dahulu.
Justeru kata-kata pemimpin-pemimpin BN yang mengatakan mereka (BN) akan mengambilalih Pulau Pinang di dalam PRU 13 ini hanyalah merupakan kenyataan untuk menyedapkan hati sendiri dan tindakan psikoloji sahaja. Keputusan PRU 13 sebenarnya sudah ditentukan. Pulau Pinang akan tetap berada ditangan PR, malahan lebih kuat lagi selepas PRU itu nanti. Read the rest of this entry »
Paying the price for a fiasco
Posted by Kit in public service on Sunday, 1 July 2012
— The Malaysian Insider
Jul 01, 2012
JULY 1 — Tan Sri Abu Bakar Abdullah is paying the price for the government’s New Remuneration Scheme that caused an uproar earlier this year. The ambitious scheme to reward the 1.4 million-strong civil service crumbled when unions pointed out that they were getting pittance while some 5,000 senior officers were getting stratospheric pay rises.
Putrajaya was forced to scrap the scheme, and in the process, also the move to get top people from the private sector to join the civil service at the top levels. After all, the new pay for the senior officials was benchmarked at the wages given for top white-collar professionals and managers.
While the Cabinet had approved the scheme and even announced it in Budget 2012 last year, they didn’t go through the proposals line by line. The resulting kerfuffle, to put it mildly, was squarely blamed at three men and one of them was Abu Bakar who is the Public Services Department (PSD) director-general.
It is understood the other two were former Chief Secretary to the Government, Tan Sri Mohd Sidek Hassan, and Treasury secretary-general Tan Sri Dr Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Abdullah.
Yet, Abu Bakar is the biggest loser. He was tipped to replace Mohd Sidek but the new pay scheme’s failure cost him that job. And he refused to go away quietly, sources said, insisting that if he was to be blamed for the salary fiasco, then so to must Sidek as it takes two to tango. And Wan Abdul Aziz for agreeing to the scheme. Read the rest of this entry »
Utusan Malaysia living up to its reputation as “lies-paper” when its Awang Selamat alleged that “LKS adalah antara orang kepercayaan Kuan Yew ketika dalam PAP” and that I was Kuan Yew’s press secretary
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Media, Najib Razak on Sunday, 1 July 2012
Utusan Malaysia is living up to its reputation as “lies-paper” when its Awang Selamat in Mingguan Malaysia today alleged “Lim Kit Siang adalah antara orang kepercayaan Kuan Yew ketika dalam PAP. Beliau juga adalah bekas Setiausaha Akhbar Kuan Yew sewaktu zaman muda nya.”
These are downright lies, as I was never ever involved in PAP during my years as a reporter in Singapore from 1961-1964, although I was active in Singapore National Union of Journalists, serving as its Secretary-General 1962-1963.
Furthermore, I was never press secretary to Kuan Yew although I worked for a period in the press section of the Ministry of Culture.
But more pertinent than Utusan Malaysia again proving itself to be a “lies-paper” instead of being “newspaper” is the intensification of the unscrupulous and unprincipled campaign of lies, falsehoods and demonization against DAP and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, especially with the realization by the UMNO leaders and strategists that UMNO/Barisan Nasional are not as confident of facing the 13th general election as they had once thought despite the recent boast by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak of a “14-0” BN thrashing for PR!
This has resulted in Najib further putting off the 13th general election date because of his worry that the “RAHMAN” political prophecy might come true – that RAHMAN stands for the first six UMNO Prime Ministers, namely Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Abdul Razak, Tun Hussein Onn, Tun Mahathir, Tun Abdullah and “N” for Najib also signifying the last and “the end” of the UMNO line of Prime Ministers. Read the rest of this entry »
Attacks against Guan Eng intensify ahead of GE13
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 01, 2012
UALA LUMPUR, July 1 — All eyes are now on the DAP’s Lim Guan Eng as the Penang chief minister struggles to fend off concerted attacks against him ahead of general elections due within a year.
The pro-Barisan Nasional (BN) mainstream media today published lopsided reports of the federal opposition leader’s run-in with members of Perkasa, a right-wing Malay organisation, at the Teluk Bahang market in Penang yesterday.
The reports, which related the incident from the viewpoint of the Perkasa members, appear to indicate a concerted effort by the ruling federal coalition to reclaim Penang, a key economic state under BN control until four years ago.
“The failure by police to immediately arrest Perkasa members involved in violence not just against members of the public and reporters but also make direct threats against my personal safety has only confirmed fears that Perkasa can do no wrong because they are supported by Umno and BN,” Lim said in a media statement today.
“[The] Police should review their hands-off approach towards Perkasa to avoid public perception that they condone the violent tactics by Perkasa to intimidate PR leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Pakatan Rakyat pact formed in 2008 after their landmark win in the polls. Read the rest of this entry »
Guan Eng: Cops failed to protect me from Perkasa
Posted by Kit in DAP, Lim Guan Eng, Penang Government, Police on Sunday, 1 July 2012
Malaysiakini
Jul 1, 2012
Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said the police have once again failed to protect him from Perkasa activist, who often hound him in public.
Refering to the incident at the Teluk Bahang markets yesterday, Lim said the police took action too late, thus allowing Perkasa members to hurl projectiles at him.
“The inaction by the police probably emboldened a Perkasa member to suddenly charge up behind me and succeeded in brushing hard against me.
“I escaped injury. But if not for a PR local leader bravely dragging the Perkasa member away, I could have been injured,” said Lim in a press release today.
Lim said that while it was bad that the police failed to protect him, it was more disappointing that the police did not arrest the would-be assailant.
“Just imagine how harsh police reaction would have been if this had involved the Prime Minister and not the Chinese Pakatan Rakyat chief minister,” said Lim. Read the rest of this entry »
Should we continue paying taxes?
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Sunday, 1 July 2012
— Lucius Goon
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 30, 2012
JUNE 30 — My wife and I pay our taxes on time and we are assessed at the highest tax bracket. We never avoided or evaded taxes and viewed it as a moral duty.
But let me put in a caveat. I believe the time has come for us taxpayers (and this excludes 90 per cent of civil servants, Umno politicians and their nominees as well as rent-seekers) to consider a campaign of civil disobedience against paying taxes until the government of the day can show that it can utilise this revenue in a responsible way.
I am not talking about the world record holidays/trips abroad taken by the prime minister and the first family or his cabinet ministers. I am referring to the over-the-top spending by the Barisan Nasional government to stay in power.
It seems like every day is Christmas for this prime minister. Tyres for taxi drivers, cash for Malaysians, a few million for this group and another few million for that group. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia after regime change
— Ooi Kee Beng
The Malaysian Insider
June 30, 2012
JUNE 30 — A dialogue about something as serious as regime change in Malaysia must examine at least two vast subjects.
Firstly, a thorough and open discussion about the historical conditions under which the Federation of Malaya, and then Malaysia, was constructed is vital to any deep and practical understanding of the strengths and failings of the political structure as it exists today.
Political solutions in times of inevitable change — as was the case in the region in the 1940s and 1950s — are about settlements between those wishing to cut losses and those seeking to maximise benefit. Those less able to make their voices heard were, simply put, left unheard. In such times, negotiations happen under threat, stress and duress; and the solution is a mixture of ad hoc measures and meticulous planning; and a blend of concession and conflict. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the electoral arithmetic in Malaysia does not allow the Chinese voters to be “kingmakers” in 13GE
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Saturday, 30 June 2012
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad seems to have reverted to his early years in politics when, to use his own words, he was fighting for the Malay cause per se when he was young and his thoughts were that of an inexperienced politician.
Mahathir made this open admission in a dialogue with the Malaysian Student Executive Council of the United Kingdom in September 1995, when making the case for a Malaysian rather than a Malay approach, arguing that to realize the goal of Bangsa Malaysia, Malaysians should start accepting each other as they are regardless of race or religion.
This was the fourth year of his promulgation of Vision 2020 and Bangsa Malaysia in February 1991.
Now Mahathir seemed to have gone full circle, repudiating not only Bangsa Malaysia and Vision 2020, but fighting only for Malay rather than Malaysian cause.
Yesterday, the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak called on Barisan Nasional members not to make statements that will hurt the feelings of other races or BN component parties.
But how many in UMNO will listen to Najib? Read the rest of this entry »
PM’s elegant silence on BN sniping
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Bersih, Najib Razak on Saturday, 30 June 2012
— Jaleel Hameed
The Malaysian Insider
JUNE 30 — Mr Prime Minister, sir, where is your sense of fair play and Malaysian-ness?
Why are you, sir, so limp-wristed in giving a rap on the knuckles of your Barisan Nasional colleagues who think they can say anything and get away with it?
Is this a sense of entitlement, sir? Because your government has been our only government since Merdeka?
Sir, I am referring to your wishy-washy, lukewarm comment asking BN people not to hurt other races. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib out-flip flops Abdullah with window for July GE closed after scuttling of polls date by Bersih 3.0 rally despite the bravado confidence of “14-0” BN thrashing for PR
Posted by Kit in Bersih, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Saturday, 30 June 2012
Confirmed!
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has out-flip flopped his predecessor Tun Abdullah Badawi.
The window for July for the 13th General Election has closed as Najib’s earlier plans for June or July to get his own mandate as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia has been completely scuttled by the disastrous government misjudgment and mishandling of the Bersih 3.0 rally on April 28.
In fact, public alienation over the government’s misjudgment and mishandling of the Bersih 3.0 had intensified and aggravated over time with the series of irresponsible and insensitive developments post-Bersih 3.0, including:
• Najib’s wild and baseless allegation that the Bersih 3.0 rally was an opposition coup attempt to topple the government;
• the ridiculous and unacceptable establishment of a purported “independent advisory panel” headed by former Inspector-General of Police Tun Hanif Omar who had publicly expressed his prejudicial views to find out what went wrong on April 28 when a peaceful gathering of hundreds of thousands of Malaysians regardless of race, religion, class, region, age or gender for a common national cause for a clean election could be marred by incidents of violence and brutality after 3 p.m that day;
• the shocking statement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in Parliament that “salt and plastic mineral water bottles” – which were all that some of the Bersih 3.0 protestors were “armed” with to defend themselves from reckless police firing of teargas and chemically-laced water cannon – could topple the Najib government; and
• the continued targeting, victimization and demonization of Bersih 3.0 organisers and Pakatan Rakyat leaders, in particular the Bersih co-chairperson Datuk Ambiga Sreenivasan – even to the extent of the demand in Parliament that Ambiga be “hanged” as a traitor when what had motivated her, the Bersih 3.0 organisers, the Pakatan Rakyat leaders and the hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who responded to the Bersih 3.0 rally were the highest and noblest sense of love and patriotism for Malaysia. Read the rest of this entry »
Bad start Mr Chief Secretary
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Lim Teck Ghee, public service on Friday, 29 June 2012
— Lim Teck Ghee
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 29, 2012
JUNE 29 — In his first public interview since assuming the position of Chief Secretary to the Government, Dr Ali Hamsa said all the politically correct and bland things that one expects from someone eager to show Malaysians that he is up to the challenge of a big job.
From being a cheer leader attempting to rouse the morale of his troops (according to him, the performance of the civil service has been “excellent”) to sounding patriotic and humble (“We need to continuously raise the bar to be among the best…”; “we can’t treat what we do as a job as what we do must benefit all Malaysians”), the orchestrated and carefully calibrated interview with the New Straits Times was clearly meant to impress and get Malaysians on his side.
Unfortunately, it failed to address the two most important failings of the civil service. Read the rest of this entry »
Implications of rebasing and revising our national accounts
Posted by Kit in ETP, Ong Kian Ming on Friday, 29 June 2012
— Ong Kian Ming
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 27, 2012
JUNE 27 — Something interested happened to our national economy in May 2012. Our per capita Gross National Income (GNI) increased from RM29,094 to RM29,661. Our GDP increased from RM853 billion to RM881 billion and our GNI increased from RM831 billion to RM859 billion.
And all of these are nominal figures for the year ending 2011. Did we suddenly grow richer without actually realising it? Did we discover some hidden loose change in the deep recesses of the nation’s glove compartment or underneath the car seat?
Sadly, we’re not going to find an extra RM567 in our bank accounts, BR1M notwithstanding. These revisions occurred as part of a larger “rebasing” of our national accounts, a regular exercise undertaken by the Department of Statistics, due to improvements in data collection methods and conceptual innovations in the way we measure economic activity.
For this particular exercise, the base year to measure real economic activity was changed from 2000 to 2005 (hence the term “rebasing”). Previous base years were 1970, 1978 and 1987. This means that data for real economic activity such as GDP and GNI have been revised upwards as has nominal economic data, as indicated in the opening paragraph.
There are a few reasons why these statistical revisions are important, especially for the readers of this paper. Read the rest of this entry »
Kingmakers in GE13 are not the Chinese voters but all Malaysian voters, whether Malays, Chinese, Indians, Kadazans or Ibans to unite and bring about peaceful transition of federal power to end corruption, cronyism and abuses of power
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak, nation building, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Friday, 29 June 2012
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is up to his past mischief yesterday when he played the race card to create racial suspicion, mistrust and fear in his effort to save UMNO and Barisan Nasional from being voted out of Federal power in the 13th general election and replaced by Pakatan Rakyat.
Saying that the Chinese voters are the kingmakers for the 13th general election, Mahathir said the Chinese voters will decide who forms the government after the general election as the Malays are divided among three parties.
He claimed that “the Malay majority has split itself into three and become the minority” and the opposition PKR, PAS as well as UMNO have “to cede to Chinese demands”.
As a result, “these three small Malay parties need the support of the Chinese in order to win the elections”.
He said: “Whichever party gets the support of the Chinese will win the elections.
“The fact is today all three Malay parties are trying to butter the Chinese electorate. So they become racial and cater to racial demands.”
What Mahathir said yesterday must rank as among his most irresponsible and mischievous statements, making nonsense of his Vision 2020 and concept of Bangsa Malaysia which envisioned Malaysians “ethnically and territorially integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership” by 2020. Read the rest of this entry »
Ambiga ‘ayam tambatan’ kepada transformasi pilihanraya negara
— Aspan Alias
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 28, 2012
28 JUN — Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan, Pengerusi bersama Bersih 3.0, sudah menjadi seorang yang paling popular dan beliau sudah pasti menjadi seorang yang “of consequence” dalam politik negara kini. Ambiga bukan seorang ahli politik dan beliau tidak bercadang dan terfikir untuk berkecimpung dalam arena yang beliau tidak pandai untuk turut serta.
Beliau merupakan ketua kepada sebuah NGO yang inginkan pilihanraya diadakan dan dilaksanakan secara bersih. Sebagai warganegara yang bertanggungjawab, beliau bersama rakan-rakan beliau dan disokong oleh majoriti rakyat yang inginkan satu pilihanraya bersih, secara tidak langsung beliau merupakan seorang yang paling berpengaruh dalam negara kita.
Perjuangan beliau di dalam NGO Bersih itu mendapat pengiktirafan antarabangsa dan beliau telah mendapat beberapa anugerah di atas peranan beliau dalam membina sebuah masyarakat yang “civil”. Beliau mendapat penghormatan untuk bertemu dengan Presiden Obama dari Amerika Syarikat yang tidak mudah di perolehi oleh ramai pemimpin negara kita. Dr Mahathir sendiri terpaksa menggunakan “lobbyist” ternama dan terpaksa membayar ber”million” ringgit untuk bertemu dengan Presiden Amerika Syarikat suatu ketika dahulu.
Tetapi oleh kerana Ambiga adalah rakyat Malaysia dan ditadbir oleh Umno Baru pula, Ambiga menjadi sasaran dan kecaman dari pihak pemerintah negara kerana di Malaysia ini, sesiapa yang tidak sehaluan dengan tindakan kerajaan, berpotensi untuk dihina dan dinesta. Yang terakhir sekali, seorang ahli Legislatif Umno Baru, Mohamad Aziz, telah meminta Ambiga digantung kerana bertindak mengadakan perhimpunan Bersih 3.0 pada 28 hb April yang lalu. Read the rest of this entry »
No more damning admission of double failures – Mahathir’s Bangsa Malaysia in Vision 2020 and Najib’s 1Malaysia policy
Posted by Kit in 1Malaysia, Bersih, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak, nation building, Pakatan Rakyat on Thursday, 28 June 2012
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad today chalked up a new record of sorts when his speech at a forum on business and politics could not be a more damning admission of double failures – firstly of his concept of Bangsa Malaysia in his Vision 2020 announced 21 years ago in 1991 and the current Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia policy proclaimed just more than three years ago.
In Vision 2020, Mahathir envisioned having only one “Bangsa Malaysia” in 2020 with the people “ethnically and territorially integrated, living in harmony and full and fair partnership” while Najib’s 1Malaysia envisaged a Malaysian nation where every Malaysian regards himself or herself as Malaysian first and his or her race, religion, region or socio-economic status second.
Both visions and objectives have been smashed into smithereens when Mahathir said that the next general elections, the second last to be held before the expiry of the 30-year Vision 2020, will centre on race as “Malaysia has become more racial than ever”.
Mahathir said:
“In this country, we are very racist, even more than before. The next election is going to be about race. Who gives what, who gets what based on race.”
Ever since the political tsunami of the 2008 general election, UMNO leaders and strategists have increasingly become more and more blatant and unscrupulous in playing the race and religious cards to try to wrest back political power, making a total mockery of the Vision 2020 concept of “Bangsa Malaysia” and Najib’s 1Malaysia objective. Read the rest of this entry »
The Malay middle ground: Pakatan has most to gain
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Thursday, 28 June 2012
— Liew Chin Tong
The Malaysian Insider
Jun 27, 2012
JUNE 27 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is writing Barisan Nasional’s political obituary by focusing on micro electoral targets while refusing to confront macro policy matters.
The window to call election before the month of Ramadan has come and gone. The next possible window, which starts from September, is small and very much constrained by the Hari Raya Haji celebration on October 26, Deepavali festival on November 14, and the subsequent annual year-end floods.
Having sounded the war drums for at least two years since 2010 and making it very loud since late last year, Najib was visibly scared to pull the trigger at last, to the chagrin of many Umno leaders who want to get over it and done with.
As Najib calibrates his perfect moments, which I believe have long gone and will never return again, the nation was left in a lurch with numerous policy paralyses, flip-flops, and stalemates. Read the rest of this entry »
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