Archive for category Elections
When will regional and international magazines front-page Malaysia for being “lucky country” and for “low-crime”?
Posted by Kit in Crime, Elections, nation building on Tuesday, 20 August 2013
The cover stories of two international magazines in the past month should have given considerable food for thought for Malaysians to ponder as to what has happened to Malaysia, more than 100 days after the recent general elections and which is to celebrate our 56th National Day in eleven day’s time.
The first is the 20th July 2013 edition of The Economist “The Curious Case of the Fall in Crime”, reporting that “The rich world is seeing less and less crime, even in the face of high unemployment and economic stagnation”. Read the rest of this entry »
The general election surprise: younger Malays too went to Barisan
The Malaysian Insider
August 16, 2013
Here’s what was expected: Pakatan Rakyat (PR) comfortably won the battle for first-time and younger voters in Election 2013. Here’s what was not expected: Barisan Nasional (BN) snared more Malay votes in this category of voters.
Going into the elections, the general line was that PR would obtain the bulk of the first-time and young Malaysian vote because its focus on a range of issues, including corruption, would be attractive to younger voters.
Also, the Opposition had a stronger slate of young politicians like Rafizi Ramli, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Liew Chin Tong who found support among young Malaysians.
But Ibrahim Suffian of Merdeka Center sounded a note of caution for the opposition pact on this thinking. He noted that the majority of first-time Malay and young Malay voters gave their support to BN, suggesting that the Opposition has not done enough to convince young Malays that their future was secure with PAS, PKR and DAP.
And Ibrahim noted that this segment is only going to get larger in coming elections, due to the higher birth rate among Malays. Read the rest of this entry »
Putrajaya blew over RM500m on pre-polls ad offensive
The Malay Mail Online
August 15, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 ― Putrajaya spent over RM500 million in its advertising blitz ahead of Election 2013 ― as much as the next four advertiser categories combined ― to dominate the list of top spenders for the first half of the year.
According to a report on local advertising growth by Vizeum Media, an international media-buying agency, the next closest contender was women’s beauty products, which laid out RM163 million or less than a third of the RM530 million spent by the government.
“[The General Election] drove government spending to a historical high of RM531 million, accounting for 9 per cent share of the advertising market or one-third of ADEX within the top 10 spending categories in 1H 2013,” Vizeum said in its July report.
The amount was a 160 per cent increase over the same period last year.
Of the over half-billion spent, the Prime Minister’s Department took up the lion’s share with an outlay of RM264 million for the first six months of the year or five times more than it did in 2012.
“Jabatan Perdana Menteri accounted for 50 per cent share of all government spending during the same period,” the report continued.
The sum was enough the make the PM’s Department the country’s second-largest single advertiser, losing out to multinational consumer goods firm Unilever Malaysia which spent RM286 million. Read the rest of this entry »
Did Umno really scare up strong Malay support? Not quite, shows study
The Malaysian Insider
August 13, 2013
Umno’s election strategy of ratcheting up fear among Malays over the loss of political power actually yielded only a slight increase in Malay support in the past general election.
In contrast, right-wing rhetoric, unresolved issues of race and religion as well as the belief that Pakatan Rakyat should be given a shot at running the country saw a 20% swing of Chinese voters and 5% swing of Indian voters away from Barisan Nasional, compared with 2008.
In fact, what really did help Umno tap the rural vote was its strong political machinery there as well as the villagers’ continued dependence on government aid and services. Cash handouts under BR1M also played a part. Read the rest of this entry »
The greatest PM we never had
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 13 August 2013
Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Aug 12, 2013
Malaysian prime ministers display fascinating quirks and characteristics; Dr Mahathir Mohamad assumes the role of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who leads the children (Malays) to a catastrophic end; Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is like Rip van Winkle who slept when he should have been working to improve the nation; and Najib Abdul Razak appears to act like Nero who fiddled while Rome burned.
Najib’s entry into politics is a lacklustre, predictable story which might explain his inability to inspire the nation. His role in undermining Malaysian democracy is pivotal.
He places more emphasis on sound-bites and slogans, than on sound policies. Najib is English educated, and a well travelled man. Some consider him a roué but he comes from a family with an impeccable political pedigree. The reason he failed as PM is simple.
Najib lacks leadership. Read the rest of this entry »
Barisan would have lost without postal, advance votes, says Merdeka Centre
The Malaysian Insider
August 12, 2013
Numbers tell a story and the startling story that has emerged from studying the past general election results is this: Barisan Nasional could not have gone back to Putrajaya without the controversial postal and advanced votes system.
These votes alone gave BN victory in 22 parliamentary seats, which made all the difference. Without those 22 seats, BN would have tied with opposition Pakatan Rakyat at 111 seats.
Without those key postal and advanced votes, MIC would be without the two Cabinet ministers Datuk Seri S Subramaniam (Segamat) and Datuk Seri G. Palanivel (Cameron Highlands).
Several seats in Johor and the Federal Territory would have also fallen to Pakatan Rakyat. Read the rest of this entry »
100 days after GE13: Moving on with public wisdom
Saifuddin Abdullah
‘Second Sphere’
Opinion
fz.com
August 8, 2013
THIS Aug 13 marks the 100th day of the completion of GE13. Even though to some politicians, analysts and pundits, the debate on its result will carry on, perhaps endlessly, but to most people, it is time to move on.
This is the time where, we the people, no matter how diverse our views and standpoints are, and regardless which part of the house we are seated in, make the best out of what has come out of GE13.
We can, though admittedly it is not going to be easy, if we are genuinely passionate about making Malaysia a better nation.
This is an opportunity to engage ourselves around public issues (not politics) that are fundamental (not because they are viral) in ways that generate a coherent and shared voice of ours, infusing the democratic process with common sense and guiding intelligent decision making.
We must continue the new conversation that has started prior to GE13, with the aim of discussing what needs to be taken into account in order for us to produce long-term inclusive benefits.
This process should include new approaches in doing things, for example, more consultation, participation and deliberation, and should move beyond partisanship.
Tom Atlee calls this process “institutionalising the power of public wisdom in our government”. I call it “New Politics”. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s Not About the Chinese, Syed Ali!
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, Good Governance, Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 5 August 2013
By Kee Thuan Chye
Yahoo
August 1, 2013
If Umno Cheras division chief Syed Ali Alhabshee thinks he’s reaching out to the Chinese by asking them to tell Umno why they did not support the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) at the 13th general election (GE13) and what they are unhappy about, he’s still missing the point. The rejection of BN at GE13 is not about the Chinese. It’s about governance.
Good governance and an end to corruption are among the things every caring and intelligent Malaysian wants. Why does he single out the Chinese?
True, many Chinese care about the country and therefore want it to do well, and they don’t think that under BN rule, it will, so they voted for a change of government. But then so did a few million others comprising Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans who also care about the country and want a better government.
If Syed Ali can grasp this basic idea, he should instead be telling his own party’s leaders that they need to do much, much better to deserve being in government – in fact, to change. And change drastically. He should be telling them to stop playing the same old politics they are still playing, like exploiting the issues of race and religion to divide the people.
He should tell Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to take back what he said on July 31 and even apologise for it: “Muslims do not insult the religion of non-Muslims such as Christianity and Hinduism. But non-Muslims are insulting our religion.” That’s the kind of inflammatory remark we can expect from an extremist, not from a deputy prime minister. Read the rest of this entry »
BN must stay in tune with the middle class, says Musa Hitam
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Najib Razak, UMNO on Monday, 29 July 2013
The Malaysian Insider
July 29, 2013
The Malaysian middle class is “no pushover”, and the Barisan Nasional (BN) must seriously address its concerns such as corruption and misuse of power, former deputy prime minister Tun Musa Hitam told The Straits Times.
“When Malaysians are critical, it shouldn’t be dismissed as them being destructive or negative. We should respect them. The middle class today thinks very differently, and the challenge for the leadership is that it should be one step ahead but it has not even kept up,” the Singapore daily quoted him as saying in the republic.
“That is the problem. We (the government) have provided education to them, but yet, we’ve become less educated and haven’t changed our mindset,” he told The Straits Times in an interview on Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia does not have a Chinese dilemma but a Mahathir dilemma
Posted by Kit in Elections, Mahathir, Pakatan Rakyat, UMNO on Sunday, 28 July 2013
The author of “The Malay Dilemma” has tried to coin a new complex, “The Chinese Dilemma” which he defined as “whether the Chinese in Malaysia should make a grab for political power while dominating economic power or to adhere to the principle of sharing which has made this country what it is today”.
Former Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is making history in coining a complex which exists only in his febrile imagination, as it does not afflict any single Chinese in Malaysia – whether in Pakatan Rakyat or Barisan Nasional!
I will like to know whether there is any Chinese in Malaysia who will stand up and state that Mahathir is right that there is such a “Chinese dilemma” in Malaysia!
Only an inveterate racist like Mahathir could interpret the 13th general elections as a “grab for political power” by the Malaysian Chinese, when it was in fact the historic moment when Malaysians regardless of race, religion or region rallied behind the Pakatan Rakyat parties of PKR, PAS and DAP in pursuit of a common Malaysian Dream in an effort to bring about a change of Federal government in Putrajaya, for the first time in the nation’s 55-year history. Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO/BN must thank Election Commission for fixing polling day on Wednesday for its slight majority in the Kuala Besut by-election
UMNO/BN must thank the Election Commission for fixing polling day on Wednesday for the slight UMNO/BN majority in the Kuala Besut by-election, which resulted in a lower voter turnout of 1,193 voters or 79.78% compared to 87% in the 13th general election on May 5.
The Umno/BN candidate Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abd Rahman secured 8,288 votes as against PAS candidate Endot@Azlan Yusuf, who polled 5,696 votes – a majority of 2,592 votes which is an increase of 158 votes from the 2,434-vote majority secured by Umno/BN in the recent general election.
UMNO Deputy President and Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has claimed that BN’s inability to achieve its 4,000-vote majority target in Kuala Besut was due to overconfidence among BN supporters who did not turn up at the ballot box.
He also attributed the 7 per cent lower voter turnout than the last general election to the slower pace of life during the month of Ramadan.
However, the opposite is more likely to be the case, as the lower turnout is the result of the polling day being fixed on a working day, causing many outstation voters not returning to cast their vote. Read the rest of this entry »
MACC, election panel must answer on money politics
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections on Monday, 22 July 2013
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Josie Fernandez
Malaysiakini
Jul 22, 2013
COMMENT At the launch of a book on Reforming Political Financing in Malaysia in 2010, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief commissioner Abu Kasim Mohamed said, “Political corruption is the mother of all corruption. The MACC Act 2009 is clear about the offence of using public office for any form of gratification.”
And for Wednesday’s Kuala Besut by-election in Terengganu, PAS has circulated a list of projects announced by the BN, which include RM343,000 upgrade to Masjid Haji Ishal in Kampung Dengir and the construction of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Alor Peroi, Tok Saboh, which will cost RM28 million.
PAS has claimed that rival BN is pouring cash on the constituency in a bid to cover up the weaknesses of its candidate, Tengku Zaihan Che Ku Abdul Rahman.
The claims of PAS on the pouring of cash and announcement of projects worth millions of rinngit for the Kuala Besut constituency during this by-election period surely requires an investigation by the MACC, which claims to be independent.
PAS is right in asking BN to declare the sources of the money being poured into the small fishing town of Kuala Besut during the by-election campaign period. The Election Commission (EC) should be in the forefront raising this question, not PAS.
It is the responsibility of the EC to act on the use of money in elections. It is funded by taxpayers’ money and entrusted with the role of running free and fair elections, without bribery and use of money to garner votes.
For too long, the Election Commission has claimed that it is unable to act on the use of money, gifts and projects to garner votes during elections in the country. The EC continues to claim that it is powerless to do anything about widespread vote buying under the current Election Offences Act. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Wayang kulit’ elections
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Elections on Sunday, 21 July 2013
— Ravinder Singh
The Malay Mail Online
July 21, 2013
JULY 21 — The game plan was simple. Malaysia is supposed to be a democratic country. That was the foundation on which it was born. The Federal Constitution is there to prove it.
On the other hand, after the time of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the Umno-dominated Alliance (changed to Barisan Nasional later) felt that it should remain in power all the time, for reasons best known to it.
However, this had to be done in a “democratic” way to show the world that democracy was alive. A simple way to do this was to move the goalposts from election to election. A game plan was mooted to do this constitutionally. Using its two-thirds majority in Parliament, which is needed to amend the very same constitution, the plan was put into action. First, the 15 per cent difference allowed in the number of voters in the different constituencies was changed to 50 per cent.
A further amendment was made some years later which removed the 50 per cent figure and left only the words “approximately equal” for the Election Commission to interpret as it chose fit. This resulted in some constituencies becoming umpteen times bigger than others. It was no co-incidence that these huge constituencies were pro-opposition voters.
This game of changing the goalposts had to be further refined to make it easier to accurately identify the sentiments of small pockets of voters. This was done by changing the vote-counting system. Instead of taking all the marked ballots to a central counting station, where a different group of election workers would do the counting, the counting was now to be done in the very room that the ballots were cast, by the same election workers.
This ballot counting in the balloting rooms was a very well disguised operation for spying on the voters. Read the rest of this entry »
Quo Vadis Malaysia
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Elections, nation building on Tuesday, 16 July 2013
The boastful declaration by the Barisan Nasional MP for Kinabatangan, Bung Moktar Radin in Parliament yesterday admitting that UMNO division leaders demanded contracts from the government and anyone who did not do so were cowards is the latest outrageous statement from Barisan Nasional Ministers, leaders and supporters in the past six weeks since the 13th general election results on May 5, 2013.
Other instances of such outrageous statements by BN Ministers/leaders/supporters in the past six weeks include:
• Deputy Agriculture Minister Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman’s desecration of Ramadan politics on Sunday night by spouting the most irresponsible and reckless lies in the Kuala Besut by-election campaign alleging that DAP is anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-Malay Rulers, out to abolish the system of constitutional monarchy and the Sultanate so as to establish a republic with Karpal Singh as Malaysia’s first President;
• Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Shahidan Kassim’s interview with Sin Chew Daily last month where he gave the gratuitous and misguided advice that the Chinese in Malaysia should break away from the “extreme racism” indoctrinated by the DAP so that “Malaysia would one day have a Prime Minister of Chinese ethnicity”. Shahidan was doubly wrong as DAP had never indoctrinated the Chinese in Malaysia with any “extreme racism” and secondly, the issue of a Chinese Prime Minister was never on the radar of any Malaysian Chinese as the issue had never been whether a Chinese can be Prime Minister but whether the country has a Prime Minister for all Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan’s uphill GE13 battle in the courts
The Malaysian Insider
July 15, 2013
The simple summary of Pakatan Rakyat’s suit in court today is that it did not get a fair election. The question now is, what can and will the courts do?
No matter how you slice or dice it, it is tough for Pakatan to win its suit against the Election Commission (EC) because courts here are loath to disturb anything to do with elections. It is even rare for election courts to overturn polls results.
What more nullifying the whole Election 2013.
Also, Malaysian courts have in recent years not demonstrated a willingness to confront the government of the day on various issues – be it conversions of minors to land matters.
That said, it is remains important for Pakatan to thoroughly detail its cases in which it believed fraud prevented it from winning on May 5, 2013. In dispute are at least 43 seats before the courts.
But what is quite clear is that the EC’s handling of the indelible ink over the past five years would have made the Keystone Kops proud. Never have we seen a commission blunder and make a hash of things the way it has. Read the rest of this entry »
Launch on “Water Ubah” in Penang in keeping with Malaysian Dream to have a united nation where Malaysians regard themselves as one people despite diversity of race, religion, culture and region
Posted by Kit in DAP, Elections, nation building, Politics on Saturday, 13 July 2013
The launch of “Water Ubah” in Penang this morning is in keeping with the Malaysian Dream to have a united nation where Malaysians regard themselves as one people despite the diversity of race, religion, culture and region in the country.
In fact, some 50 years ago, on July 9, 1963, the Malaysian nation was conceived when the Federated Malaya, North Borneo (Sabah), Sarawak and Singapore signed the Malaysia Agreement which gave birth to the new Malaysian federation two months later, and this is why the presence of the DAP Iban Central Executive Committee member Dr. John Brian at the ceremony today is particularly pertinent apart from the fact that the Ubah mascot is inspired by the hornbill in Sarawak.
Credit must be given to Ooi Leng Hang, the “father of Ubah” and his team of creative artists and publicists in conceiving the Ubah mascot for “Change” and capturing the imagination of all generations of Malaysians, regardless of time, place, age or gender.
As signified by the launch of the “Water Ubah” today, we must have the conviction and courage to continue to dream of a better Malaysia for ourselves, our children and children’s children, and to do our part to create a Malaysia:
• which is the model of democratic freedoms and human rights, good governance and public integrity with low levels of corruption in public life;
• where there is the best education for all children, from primary, secondary to university level; and
• which is greener, cleaner and safer, where the people are not haunted by high crime rate and live in fear of crime, so that Malaysia and Malaysians can be internationally competitive with the focus on our competitiveness with the rest of the world instead of Malaysians versus Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
“Red Bean Army” – UMNO/BN’s RM350 million fatal obsession!
The Red Bean Army is again in the news in Parliament.
Home Minister Datuk Seri Zahid Hamidi told Parliament during question time yesterday that “the Red Bean Army and its ilk” will face criminal and civil action for spreading lies through the Internet.
Many questions come to mind.
Firstly, does the Home Minister with his intelligence and background really believe that a “DAP-funded Red Bean Army” of 3,000 cybertroopers really exist, and is this belief backed up by the Police? Will the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar speak up?
Secondly, why the government has not taken any action for the principal lie that the DAP funded the so-called Red Bean Army of 3,000 cybertroopers with a budget of RM100 million to RM1 billion in the past six years, as it should not require much professionalism for the cyber-cops to expose the quackery and buffoonery of this tall tale of fiction, especially as Concorde Hotel, which is the haunt of top UMNO/BN leaders, had been pinpointed as one of the major centres of operation of this mythical cyber-army?
This was why last week I led a team of DAP MPs to visit Concorde Hotel, and all we found was the place crawling with UMNO leaders and operatives and the only discovery was that there was not only no sign of Red Bean Army, but the exorbitant ice-kacang in Concorde Hotel had no red beans at all! Read the rest of this entry »
Red Bean Barmy
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak on Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Dean Johns
Malaysiakini
Jul 10, 2013
Lying by the BN regime seems to get more radically ridiculous every day, and nothing better illustrates this than persistent allegations that the opposition has been funding a 3,000-strong ‘Red Bean Army’ to spread its message in cyberspace.
As many have commented before me, there is no way that the DAP or any other Pakatan Rakyat party would have hundreds of millions of ringgit to spend on such a ludicrous exercise even if they wanted or needed to.
And of course there is no need whatever for them to pay their cyber-supporters so much as a single sen, as there are countless Malaysians who are more than happy to take the time and trouble to cyber-criticise BN and cyber-support Pakatan at their own expense, and out of their sheer love of truth and loathing for lies.
In other words, while there is no such thing as an organised and opposition-funded ‘Red Bean Army’, there is certainly a massive, volunteer force that could justly be dubbed the Rid-BN Army. And with the 51 percent popular vote for the opposition in the May 5 general election, it won a momentous moral victory.
If ever there as a telling demonstration of the proverbial wisdom that ‘the truth will set you free’, it was this triumph of countless unpaid, individual voices over the might of the publicly-funded regime propaganda machine. Read the rest of this entry »
Perak’s Stolen Election: The Second Time Round
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Elections, Perak on Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Koon Yew Yin
10th July 2013
Many Malaysians are aware of the first time when the people of Perak had their state election results in which they had chosen the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition to govern the state overturned by trickery and deceit. At that time in 2009, three state legislators elected on PR tickets defected to the Barisan Nasional (BN) in a move which was masterminded by the Prime Minister, Najib Razak, as head of Perak’s BN.
Subsequently, the Sultan of Perak refused Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin’s request to dissolve the state assembly and call for new elections. Instead, Barisan Nasional (BN), with support from the three defecting assemblymen, formed the new – and in the minds of Perakians – illegitimate state government.
Close State Election Results Favoured BN
In the recent 2013 elections, history has repeated itself. This time the election appears to have been stolen with more conventional methods. According to the official tally, BN won 31 seats to the PR’s 28 in a closely contested race. But on close analysis of the results, we find that BN won 8 of the state seats (and 2 parliamentary ones) with wafer thin majorities. State seats that BN candidates won with very small margins can be seen from the table below Read the rest of this entry »
National reconciliation: Nuremberg revengeful justice or RTC restorative justice?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Monday, 8 July 2013
– Sakmongkol
The Malaysian Insider
Jul 08, 2013
I have to put up a caveat: this is my personal opinion as a writer and blogger. It is not Pakatan’s official position.
PM Najib spoke about national reconciliation in parliament. Yes- he is becoming quite well-known for coining big slogans. He started with all the GTP, ETP, EPP, NKRA, PDP etc. it must have become an addiction.
Now is national reconciliation. Unfortunately his people in parliament take the national reconciliation proposal as a means to do a Nuremberg kind of justice. Impose the victor’s justice on the opposition representing 51 per cent of the voting population. Move on means accepting BN victory and be quiet about it and allow the winner do what it pleases.
This time, Najib needs help from the opposition to ensure that his national reconciliation isn’t turned into another of his useless slogans. We are 89 strong.
He has only given but one precondition- that the results of GE13 must be accepted by everyone. My reading of this is that he is willing to sit down and sort out contentious issues and to engage the opposition to hear out matters they feel strongly about.
I think we should engage him. But then he has to offer something in return. Is he offering us a victor’s justice/the Nuremberg kind of justice? Read the rest of this entry »
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