– Robert Chaen
The Malaysian Insider
May 26, 2014

Why are people making such a big deal about something irrelevant in the past?

“Yammy was involved but for few months; after that she left because she no longer believed in Perkasa,” Dyana Sofya said, about the involvement of her mother Yammy Samat, in Perkasa.

If you connect the dots properly, it shows clearly that Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali is the sneakiest person. His ultra-racist agenda was not revealed in the early months of the formation of Perkasa. Probably he conned many early members that they are fighting for Muslim Malay rights, when in fact, we all know that Ibrahim is the most negative Muslim.

Can anyone truly say that he is a true Muslim when he is spewing hatred, and calling non-Malays every evil word he can think of.

And now, Ibrahim has an even bigger competitor for the title of “The #1 most extreme negative Muslim in Malaysia”, Abdullah Zaik of Isma. Read the rest of this entry »

by Dr. Ong Kian Ming MP for Serdang
27th of May, 2014

Why would the DAP candidate, Dyana Sofya, be considered the underdog in a seat won by the DAP with more than 7000 votes in the 13th general election? Is it merely a ploy to gain more sympathy votes for DAP on the 31st of May?

There is no doubt in my mind that there is a very real possibility that Dyana and the DAP would lose this by-election. While her candidacy has been a breath of fresh air and has been applauded by various quarters at the national level, there are a few important factors which are at work against Dyana among the people who matter most in this by-election, namely the Teluk Intan voters themselves.

A whispering campaign has already started among certain quarters to appeal for Chinese voters to vote for a Chinese representative in Teluk Intan. This was always a challenge which was recognized by the DAP from day one – that fielding a Malay candidate in a non-Malay majority seat would cost the party some votes, especially among the Chinese voters.

At the same time, the fact that Dyana does not hail Teluk Intan would be used against her especially since the BN candidate, Dato Mah Siew Keong, is a local boy with an influential and well-known family backing him. We fear that the fact that Dyana relocated to Gelang Patah, Johor as part of her responsibility as Lim Kit Siang’s political secretary and that she would do the same if elected as the MP for Teluk Intan would be drowned out by this ‘local’ versus ‘outsider’ campaign message. Of course, lost in this message is the fact that NOT being local did not prevent two Perak born former MCA presidents – Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Ong Ka Ting – from serving as MPs in Johor for most of their political lives. Read the rest of this entry »

BY ANISAH SHUKRY | TMI
MAY 26, 2014

PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang toda‎y praised DAP’s Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud as “brave” for contesting on behalf of DAP, saying that such bravery was needed in an opposition lawmaker.

“We must vote in someone who is energetic, someone who is courageous. We consider Dyana as brave, as she is willing to become a candidate, a DAP candidate at that.

“I myself will not be willing to become a DAP candidate,” said Hadi in jest, prompting laughter from the crowd of about 100 PAS supporters at a hi-tea in Teluk Intan.

Hadi arrived in Teluk Intan today to join PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang, as campaigning gathers momentum ahead of polling day on May 31.

Addressing a predominantly Malay crowd, Hadi said the candidate’s character and what he or she stood for, and not race, was important in the by-election. Read the rest of this entry »

by Joseph Sipalan and Pathma Subramaniam
The Malay Mail Online
May 26, 2014

Running a smear campaign is arguably the best way to gain traction in a political contest, analysts say amid a storm of negative publicity muddying the Teluk Intan by-election campaigning.

Political analyst Prof James Chin said running down an opponent – typically through hired guns such as bloggers and cyber troopers – is an effective strategy to capture the public’s imagination.

“Whether we like it or not, in reality, negative campaigning works because it means we can’t stop thinking about it. It has a residual effect,” he told The Malay Mail Online when contacted.

“For instance, the bikini photo of Dyana. If someone asks you if you have seen it and if you haven’t, it would immediately trigger your attention to look for it and see it for yourself,” he said, referring to DAP’s Teluk Intan candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

“And it will always stick to your mind, it will affect the way they vote, though many may not admit that it affects them.”

Smear tactics have been a regular feature on the Teluk Intan campaign trail heading towards polling day this May 31, with Dyana Sofya bearing the brunt of it. Read the rest of this entry »

Kee Thuan Chye
news.malaysia.msn.
22nd May 2014

Without considering the ethnicity of the candidate, whom would you rather have represent you in Parliament – an intelligent, energetic, winsome 27-year-old woman with a pristine political record and a dream of bringing about racial unity in Malaysia, or a politically experienced 53-year-old man who has won twice and lost twice over four general elections in the same constituency he is now contesting yet again, been a deputy minister for one term, and is president of Gerakan, a Barisan Nasional (BN) party that has fallen by the wayside?

Next question: Of the two candidates, the victory of which would send out a more positive, significant and healing message to the entire nation? Which would bode better for Malaysia’s future?

Next question: If you were voting in the upcoming Teluk Intan by-election, would you vote for change and the potential for politics that transcends race, or would you vote for the same old brand of politics which somehow ends up being race-based?

Would you vote for the DAP’s Dyana Sofea Mohd Daud or BN’s Mah Siew Keong? Read the rest of this entry »

– Hamri Ibrahim
The Malaysian Insider
MAY 23, 2014

Keputusan DAP mencalonkan setiausaha politik Lim Kit Siang, Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud yang juga merupakan graduan undang-undang Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) pada pilihan raya kecil (PRK) Teluk Intan dilihat sebagai langkah strategik bagi meraih undi orang Melayu di Parlimen berkenaan.

Ia sekali gus diharap dapat mengembalikan kepercayaan orang Melayu dan mengubah persepsi negatif mereka terhadap parti berkenaan.

Persoalannya, mampukah strategi ini berjaya pada PRK Teluk Intan nanti? Read the rest of this entry »

(Media Statement in Teluk Intan on Saturday, May 24, 2014)

On the sixth day of the Teluk Intan parliamentary by-election since Nomination Day on May 29, there has been no let-up but intensification of the UMNO/BN campaign to break DAP/Pakatan Rakyat candidate Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud’s political will and fighting spirit with lies, falsehoods and calumnies.

BN candidate Datuk Mah Siew Keong talks about wanting to have clean and honest campaign but Dyana is being subject to incessant personal attacks and even character assassination, not only by UMNO Ministers and leaders, but also by Gerakan leaders like Chang Ko Youn and Liang Teck Meng.

These Gerakan leaders want to take the high moral ground of clean elections but they do not hesitate to indulge in gutter politics!

Even before Dyana’s candidature was announced, she was the target of a vicious attack on the social media, with several UMNO cybertroopers posting a photograph allegedly of Dyana in a pink bikini in an attempt to question her character with regard to being a Muslim and wearing such revealing outfits.

In actual fact, it was a photograph of Filipino actress Pauleen Luna. Read the rest of this entry »

(Media Statement in Penang on Saturday, May 24, 2014)

The voters of Bukit Gelugor tomorrow and the voters of Teluk Intan next Saturday should cast every available vote to defend democracy and reject in unmistakable and unequivocal terms the mobocracy advocated by political hooligans in UMNO who stormed the Penang State Assembly, the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur and the DAP Kuantan branch yesterday.

The various incidents of political hooliganism in the past few days, on the back of the rise racial and religious extremism in the past year since the 13GE last May, with unchecked increase in the volume and intensity of hate-speech and growing intolerance of a moderate approach and a plural society must be stopped immediately and powerfully before they destroy the very fabric of Malaysia’s multi-racial, multi-religious, multi-lingual and multi-cultural nation.

What all right-thinking Malaysians, whether in Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, whether in government, private sector or civil society, must unite and deplore in the strongest terms is the rise of political hooliganism and breakdown of civility in the political arena.

Clearly, Barisan Nasional leaders have lost the art of the founding generation of of Umno, MCA and MIC leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak, Tun Hussein, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan “to agree to disagree agreeably” – practise “gentleman politics” without resort to lies, falsehood and calumny or the most corruptive influence of the politics of money.

What is most deplorable is that there is official encouragement and even patronage of such political hooliganism, and the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassim has emerged as one of the patrons of political hooliganism when he said that it was “natural reaction” by UMNO Youth members to storm the DAP Hqrs in Kuala Lumpur when their party had been challenged. Read the rest of this entry »