Archive for category Gerakan

Najib should be given another 48 hours to make his statement on the stand of UMNO/BN MPs on Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation in Kelantan

MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Liow Tiong Lai seems to be having the “shivers” causing him yesterday to urge all to give the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak more time to make public the government’s stand on the PAS President and MP for Marang, Datuk Seri Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill on the implementation of hudud laws in Kelantan.

What is clear is that Liow is no more the confident self six days ago when he gave “exclusive leaks” to the media that Najib would announce the UMNO/BN’s stand on Hadi’s private members bill last Friday – and six days have come and gone, and Najib continues to suffer from “labour pains” without any sign that Najib would be opening his “golden mouth” on this issue.

In the past week, Malaysians have been told that the 13 Barisan Nasional component parties last Thursday and the Cabinet last Friday have reached a consensus to oppose Hadi’s private member’s bill on hudud implementation as it is against the Federal Constitution, unsuitable for a multi-racial and multi-religious nation like Malaysia and would have an adverse impact on the nation’s economy, foreign investment and development.

Why have the confidence expressed by the MCA and Gerakan Presidents and leaders that Najib would come out with a statement declaring UMNO/BN opposition to Hadi’s private member’s bill suddenly evaporated in the past week? Read the rest of this entry »

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MCA’s hudud stand – the mouse that squeaked

By Koon Yew Yin
Malaysiakini
Mar 21, 2015

COMMENT Why is it that politicians in Malaysia finally talk some sense when they become ex-politicians? I am referring to Dr Chua Soi Lek, former MCA president, who since his departure from the leadership position, has been talking more sense than before.

In fact, so much so that some Malaysians may even reconsider their negative opinion on him. His latest public skewering of MCA is well worth disseminating.

According to Chua, MCA should not be pointing fingers at the DAP but should prevent UMNO from supporting PAS’ parliamentary hudud bill. In his statement, he pointed out that “if Umno MPs support PAS’ private bill in Parliament, MCA cannot continue to ignore the elephant in the room and blame others for supporting PAS hudud in Kelantan.”

Further, he noted that “to continue issuing statements condemning DAP is an exercise of futility. The Malaysian community expects more from MCA and it is time for MCA leadership to rise to the occasion.” Read the rest of this entry »

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MCA and Gerakan are only half a step from allowing their State Assembly representatives to vote in support of hudud after they have agreed to Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen voting in support of hudud in Kelantan State Assembly

MCA and Gerakan are only half a step from allowing their State Assembly representatives to vote in support of hudud in the various State legislatures after they have agreed to Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen voting in support of hudud in Kelantan State Assembly in the next few days.

When UMNO Kelantan State Assembly representatives vote in support of Kelantan PAS hudud law in Kelantan in the Kelantan State Assembly on March 18 or 19, it will the D-Day for MCA, for it will be something the MCA and Gerakan founding fathers like Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu would never imagine would have happened in MCA and Gerakan – to agree directly or indirectly, explicitly or in a tacit manner, that Malaysia is not a secular state.

When MCA and Gerakan open the breach to agree to UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen supporting PAS on hudud implementation in Kelantan, MCA and Gerakan would have set the precedent to allow UMNO State Assemblymen in other states to agree to hudud law and implementation.

If MCA and Gerakan can agree to UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen voting to support PAS on hudud implementation in Kelantan State Assembly, it will be a precedent for MCA and Gerakan agreeing to UMNO State Assembly representatives in other states agreeing to hudud law and implementation.

We are then only half a step to MCA and Gerakan State Assembly representatives themselves voting in support of hudud law and implementation in the various State Assemblies. Read the rest of this entry »

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Gerakan and MCA reacted even more ferociously than PAS and UMNO to my suggestion of postponement of bill on hudud implementation in Kelantan State Assembly because they have completely lapped up UMNO plot to use the issue to break Pakatan Rakyat

Yesterday, I suggested the postponement of a bill to amend the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code which is scheduled to be presented to the Kelantan State Assembly meeting beginning on March 18, as up to date, the bill has not been presented to the Pakatan Rakyat Leadership Council for study, as was decided by all the Pakatan Rakyat leaders from DAP, PKR and PAS at the meeting of Feb. 8.

This is to give adequate time for the Pakatan Rakyat parties to study the proposed amendment bill, but even more important, not to provide Prime Minister and UMNO President Datuk Seri Najib Razak and UMNO strategists the political life-line and the opportunity to further their “UG” (unity government between UMNO and PAs) and “hudud” political games solely to save themselves and to destabilize, divide and destroy Pakatan Rakyat unity and remove the challenge to replace UMNO/BN in Putrajaya in the 14th General Elections.

I am not really surprised that the strongest objection to my postponement proposal has not come from either PAS or UMNO, but from Gerakan and MCA. Within hours, the Gerakan reacted in outrage at the suggestion.

Why? This is because MCA and Gerakan leaders had been salivating at the prospect of Kelantan State Assembly passing an amendment bill by the PAS Kelantan State Government to the 1993 Kelantan Syariah Criminal Code with the support by Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen, because they planned to use the Kelantan State Assembly passage of the hudud bill to launch a publicity offensive to attack the DAP. Read the rest of this entry »

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MCA and Gerakan have degenerated to be the most unprincipled parties in their history – even backing UMNO’s “UG” conspiracy and supporting Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen to vote for PAS hudud implementation in Kelantan State Assembly

Malaysian politics is going through one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation’s history – there is not only convulsion in UMNO, but also convulsion in PAS largely instigated by UMNO leaders and strategists with a two-pronged objective to distract attention from UMNO’s political turmoils as well as to divide and split PAS and Pakatan Rakyat with the false lure of “UG” government and hudud implementation in Kelantan.

This is the first time in Malaysian politics where political turmoils are taking place in UMNO and PAS at the same time. In the past, such political turmoils in UMNO and PAS had never coincided at the same time.

This time, the whole picture is also muddied with UMNO pro-actively instigating divisions within PAS and Pakatan Rakyat with the false lure of “UG” “unity government between UMNO and PAS) and UMNO support of PAS hudud implementation in Kelantan.

A new factor in the current political turmoil in the country is that Barisan Nasional component parties, in particular MCA and Gerakan, have degenerated to their most unprincipled stand in their party history – to the extent that MCA and Gerakan could even back UMNO’s “UG” conspiracy and support Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen to vote for PAS hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly later this month. Read the rest of this entry »

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I never knew it is so easy to trap MCA and Gerakan leaderships into admitting their unholy subservience to UMNO by giving blank cheque agreement to UMNO Kelantan Assemblymen to support PAS hudud implementation in Kelantan State Assemby next month

I never knew it is so easy to trap MCA and Gerakan leaderships into admitting their unholy subservience to UMNO by giving blank cheque agreement to UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen so support PAS hudud implementation in Kelantan State Assembly next month, although this will be a fundamental deviation from their founding party principles and the commitments of their founding fathers.

But first of all, let me express my amusement at the response of MCA and Gerakan leaders to my pre-Cabinet email Open Letter to the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong, asking whether they would notify the Cabinet that their resignations from Cabinet would instantly come into effect when the Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen support PAS hudud legislation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month.

Without any sense of shame or mortification, one MCA national leader asked me to “show some guts” to emulate the late Karpal Singh.

No emulation of the past or present MCA or Gerakan Presidents?

How sad indeed! Even before they are dead, the MCA and Gerakan Presidents have ceased to be “avatars” even to the present generation of MCA and Gerakan leaders, and it has not occurred to any MCA or Gerakan leader to ask anyone to emulate anyone of the past MCA or Gerakan Presidents, whether Liow Tiong Lai, Dr. Chua Soi Lek, Dr.Ling Liong Sik, Tan Koon Swan or Dr. Koh Tsu Koon and Mah Siew Keong!

It is entirely different in DAP, for the late Karpal Singh continues to be the icon and standard for all DAP leaders to benchmark themselves – and the reason why the DAP had been able to stand tall in the Malaysian political arena despite five decades of trials and tribulations, ups and downs, is because DAP leaders are all as one, like Karpal, in our dedication and loyalty to our political principles and commitments.

I had previously offered the MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders a free tuition course in their party headquarters if they have difficulty understanding the political and constitutional implications of Kelantan UMO State Assemblymen supporting the PAS hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month. Read the rest of this entry »

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Will Liow Tiong Lai and Mah Siew Keong notify the Cabinet today that their resignations from Cabinet would instantly come into effect when the Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen support PAS hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month?

Open Letter to MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong
25th February 2015 8 am

This is my third pre-Cabinet Open Letter for this month of February, but unlike the first two pre-Cabinet Open Letters to all Cabinet Minsiters, this is addressed specifically to the MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, the Transport Minister and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department.

It is clear that the UMNO/BN strategists are taking full advantage of a possible change of political dynamics in Pakatan Rakyat with the death of Tuan Guru Nik Aziz and the imprisonment of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to refurbish and launch a devilish political plot to destabilize, divide and destroy the Pakatan Rakat which it rightly regarded as the greatest threat to the credibility and survival of the ruling coalition.

This latest UMNO/BN political plot has two phases, firstly and immediately to entice the PAS Kelantan State Government with UMNO support for the implementation of hudud legislation in Kelantan; secondly, the lure of “unity government” between UMNO and PAS.

This UMNO/BN political plot is a two-faced double prong one: on the one hand, UMNO promising and delivering support of UMNO Kelantan State Assemblymen to PAS Kelantan State Government in the Kelantan State Assembly on the implementation of hudud legislation in Kelantan next month; while on the other, MCA and Gerakan launching an intensive three-week publicity war against the DAP and PKR for “betraying the rights of non-Malays and non-Muslims” in supporting PAS Kelantan State Government in hudud implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month.

Top MCA and Gerakan leaders have started the political offensives and the MCA and Gerakan will intensify in the coming three weeks, focusing on the Kelantan PAS State Government’s stand in the Kelantan State Assembly on hudud implementation in Kelantan while totally ignoring the support of the Kelantan UMNO Assembly members to hudud implementation in Kelantan. Read the rest of this entry »

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Let MCA and Gerakan Presidents explain whether MCA and Gerakan had agreed to Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen supporting PAS’s hudud legislation in Kelantan State Assembly next month as part of the UMNO strategy to break up Pakatan Rakyat?

The MCA President, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President, Datuk Mak Siew Keong should explain whether MCA and Gerakan had agreed to Kelantan UMNO State Assemblymen supporting PAS’ hudud legislation for implementation in the Kelantan State Assembly next month as part of the UMNO strategy to break up Pakatan Rakyat?

Suspicion of such an agreement has been caused by three developments:

• firstly, the sudden increase in the number of speeches and statements by all levels of MCA and Gerakan leaders on this issue in the past few days;

• secondly, the sudden two-hour meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council last Friday night within 24 hours of the death of Tok Guru Nik Aziz on the night of Thursday, 12th February, necessitating the holding of a by-election in the Chempaka state constituency; and

• thirdly a statement by a UMNO Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department and Deputy Umno Youth leader Razali Ismail on Tuesday, 17th February that “despite the death of PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, UMNO will continue to support the Islamic party on the implementation of hudud in Kelantan”.

So is the stage set for a “big drama” from the Barisan Nasional component parties for next month’s Kelantan State Assembly, with Kelantan UMNO State Assemblmen voting in support of hudud implementation in Kelantan but ignored by MCA and Gerakan leaders and publicists who will concentrate on their attacks on the DAP and PKR for “selling out the rights of the non-Muslims in Malaysia” because of PAS Kelantan State Assemblymen and women voting for implementation of hudud in Kelantan?

In the uproar and din of multi-party attacks and counter-attacks, accusations and counter-accusations, the inability of the Kelantan State Assembly to implement hudud unless Parliament authorizes it will be temporarily forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »

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December 29 Kelantan State Assembly special sitting to implement hudud will be a point of no return for both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat

The December 29 Kelantan State Assembly special sitting to implement hudud will be a point of no return for both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

The stand of the first three Prime Ministers, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn were crystal clear, that hudud laws are at variance with Malaysia’s Constitution that Malaysia is a secular state.

This was also the position of the other MCA and MIC founding fathers of the nation, Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin and Tun V.T. Sambanthan – as well as Tun Dr. Lim Chong Eu who was the second MCA President in 1958 and subsequently left MCA and became the second President of Gerakan from 1969 – 1980.

Indisputably, this was also the position of all the founding fathers of Malaysia from Sabah and Sarawak.

If the Kelantan UMNO Assemblymen are allowed to vote in support of the proposal to implement hudud at the Kelantan State Assembly special sitting on Dec. 29, the whole character and basis of Barisan Nasional would have undergone its most radical transformation in the history of the ruling government coalition in the country.
Read the rest of this entry »

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The ‘pendatang’ label and Gerakan’s ‘wayang’

– Koon Yew Yin
The Malaysian Insider
23 October 2014

At Gerakan’s recently concluded national conference, the public was treated to a lone voice from the party who stated his view with regard to the birth place of the various racial groups in the country.

According to Johor delegate Tan Lai Soon, the Chinese and Indians were not the only pendatang (immigrants), but the Malays were also not natives of Malaysia as they had emigrated from Indonesia.

Tan said he wanted to explain the position of Malaysians in the country, as the original Bumiputeras were the Orang Asli and natives of Sabah and Sarawak.

“Except for the natives of Sabah and Sarawak and the Orang Asli, everyone else in Malaysia is a pendatang.”

Tan noted that “when Umno members say that the Chinese are pendatang, they obviously forgot that they were also pendatang from Indonesia,” he said.

This view is one which many Malaysians hold – whether in public or privately. But it is one which Umno, Perkasa, BTN and “ketuanan Melayu” supporters do not like to hear about and are trying to suppress as it delegitimises the special privileges that they are addicted to. Read the rest of this entry »

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Nancy Shukri has become the template for MCA and Gerakan Ministers seeking to deny the truth instead of facing up to harsh realities

The Minister in the Prime Ministers’ Department, Nancy Shukri, who was in the eye of a national storm for a whole week for her parliamentary answer to the Penang Chief Minister and Bagan MP, Lim Guan Eng, why Perkasa President, Ibrahim Ali was not charged over his threat to burn the Malay-language Bible seems to have become the template and model for MCA and Gerakan Ministers and leaders seeking to deny the truth instead of facing up to harsh realities.

The storm over Nancy’s outrageous reply why Ibrahim Ali was not charged will not end unless and until Nancy faces up to the harsh reality that neither common sense nor the law of the land can accept the defence of Islam or Federal Constitution Article 11(4) as valid reasons to justify threats to burn the Malay-language Bible or any sacred religious scripture enjoying immunity and impunity from lawful prosecutions or sanctions.

Have Malaysian lawlessness reach a stage where the threat to commit crime, subversion or even terrorism can be justified on the ground of defending the sanctity of any religion or the Constitution?

Nancy still owes Parliament and the nation a full apology for her shocking reply and subsequent explanation over why Ibrahim was not charged for his threat to burn the Malay-language Bible. Read the rest of this entry »

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No one would expect the three new MCA/Gerakan Ministers will fail their make-or-break test in their first week in Cabinet

No one would expect the three new MCA/Gerakan Ministers will fail their make-or-break test in their first week in Cabinet.

Firstly, no one expected the Deputy Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to put them in a bind by making his May 13 threat at a Ramadan event in Pagoh on Friday night.

Secondly, instead of reprimanding or at least dissociating themselves from the May 13 threat, both the MCA President Datuk Liow Tiong Lai and the Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong sought to sanitise Muhyiddin’s May 13 threat by describing it as a “reminder” to Malaysians to stand united.

Muhyiddin was of course not making any such reminder as his reference of another May 13 was solely in the context worsening ethnic relations arising from the Malays and Islam in Malaysia under increasing attack, painting a false picture of Malays and Islam under growing attack by non-Malays and non-Muslims, which is not only untrue but utterly irresponsible coming from a Deputy Prime Minister as there is no basis for such political scenario. Read the rest of this entry »

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At their first Cabinet meeting, will the three MCA/Gerakan new Ministers insist on Jamil Khir retracting two parliamentary statements for flouting BN consensus and established policies or choose to keep quiet to keep their Ministerial posts?

The Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikkhism and Taoism (MCCBCHST) has issued a most timely statement to point out that there are no historical document to contradict the fact that Malaysia was intended to be a secular state all the way back to Merdeka in 1957 and the formation of Malaysia in 1963.

Contradicting the recent parliamentary statement of the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia was not a secular state, MCCBCHST president Jagir Singh said historical evidence and provisions in the Constitution dispel any doubts that the nation’s founding fathers had intended the nation to be a secular, not an Islamic state.

He cited historical documents such as the Alliance Memorandum submitted to the Reid Commission in 1956, and the white paper issued by the British government in June 1957, to contradict Jamil Khir’s claim that Malaysia was not intended to be a secular state.

For instance, the Alliance Memorandum jointly submitted by Umno, MCA and MIC to the Reid Commission specifically stated that they wanted a secular state, although the religion of the state was to be Islam. Read the rest of this entry »

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Let Liow and Mah prove MCA and Gerakan will be Umno’s equal in government by restoring original BN consensus and getting their first Cabinet meeting to disown Jamil Khir’s parliamentary statement that “Malaysia is not secular state”

After the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s announcement of his re-appointment as Cabinet Minister on Wednesday, MCA President Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai declared that MCA and UMNO share equal roles in the Barisan Nasional (BN) framework, as well as in the government, in accordance with the BN’s traditional system of consensus.

Liow said MCA will not play second fiddle to UMNO in the Cabinet.

This is also the stand of the Gerakan President, Datuk Mah Siew Keong.

Just “as the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, let Liow and Mah prove that MCA and Gerakan will be UMNO’s equal in government by restoring the original BN consensus and getting their first Cabinet meeting to disown the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Jamil Khir Baharom’s parliamentary statement that “Malaysia is not a secular state”. Read the rest of this entry »

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Call on Najib to reduce his bloated jumbo-size Cabinet to about 20 Ministers in keeping with his Government Transformation Programme and the policy of “minimum government, maximum governance”

The first casualty of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet expansion yesterday, adding three Ministers and three Deputy Ministers to an already bloated Cabinet and government, is Najib’s Government Transformation programme and “people’s first, performance now” policy.

If other parliamentary democracies can have leaner and smarter Cabinets, like United Kingdom (22 Ministers), Australia (19 Ministers) and India (24 Ministers) – including the Prime Minister – why must Malaysia continue to have one of the most bloated Cabinets in the world?

We also have the dubious distinction of having the most number of Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department, increasing from eight to ten with the appointments of MCA Deputy President Datuk Seri Wee Ka Siong and Gerakan President Datuk Mah Siew Keong yesterday – although Najib is still at a loss as to what portfolios to give them.

Even now, after more than a year’s appointment after the 13th General Elections in May last year, there is confusion galore as to what the eight Ministers in the Prime Minister’s Department are really doing and in charge of in the Najib administration.

With the addition of Wee and Mah to the present battalion of eight Ministers in the PM’s Department, there is going to be even more confusion galore as to what are their respective responsibilities, functions and roles if any.

Wee and Mah will get a chair, table, office, car, staff and other Ministerial perks but they will have no ministries or portfolios to take charge! Read the rest of this entry »

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MCA and Gerakan cannot dismiss Jamil Khir’s “Malaysia is not secular state” statement in Parliament as a personal view but must demand a retraction and a clear Cabinet and BN Supreme Council pronouncement that Malaysia is a secular state with Islam as official religion

After more than a week, both the MCA and Gerakan Presidents have finally come out with a position today on the parliamentary statement by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Jamil Khir Baharom that Malaysia is not a secular state, but both have tried to evade the issue by dismissing it as merely Jamil’s “personal view”.

The excuse that a Minister is giving his “personal opinion” might be used if the Minister is speaking outside Parliament, but it is completely unacceptable when a Minister makes a speech or a statement in Parliament.

There is no such thing as a “personal view” when a Minister speaks in Parliament, whether in speeches or in replies to parliamentary questions, as whatever the Minister speaks in Parliament is in an official capacity on behalf of the Barisan Nasional Cabinet which binds all Ministers under the doctrine of collective Ministerial responsibility. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Way Forward

— Joshua Wu
The Malay Mail Online
June 2, 2014

JUNE 2 — I could not agree more with the newly-elected Member of Parliament for Teluk Intan, Mah Siew Keong when he said that the future of Malaysian politics is in multi-racial parties instead of single race entities.

However, he seems to be preaching to the choir. What he should be doing is addressing this to his partners in Barisan Nasional (BN). After all, UMNO, MCA and MIC are race based political parties.

After 56 years (approaching 57 years of independence), one has to wonder if race based political parties can still propel the country forward or have been contributing to the significant division between the many races in Malaysia.

Political parties like DAP, PKR, and Gerakan are multi-racial parties which best represent the new generation of Malaysians who see themselves as Malaysians before identifying as Malays, Chinese, Indians, or others.

In the past, Dato Seri Onn bin Ja’afar called for Umno party membership to be opened to non-malays and for the party to be renamed the United Malayans National Organisation.

However, the idea was shot down by many. He then left Umno to form the Independence of Malaya Party, and subsequently, Parti Negara. Read the rest of this entry »

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UMNO Vice Presidents and Ministers will be even more irresponsible and reckless if their attack on Teresa Kok’s video as anti-Malay and anti-Islam is based on the video sub-titles which provide no cause whatsoever for such a rampage

I was yesterday reminded of the Chinese saying: 此地无银三百两(cǐdì wú yín sān bǎi liǎng), i.e .“there are no 300 pieces of silver here”, when I read a response to my statement that UMNO Ministers had been misled by Chinese BN leaders to spearhead the demonization campaign against Teresa Kok falsely accusing her video “Onederful Malaysia CNY 2014” as being anti-Malay and anti-Islam.

The Chinese saying came from an interesting story.

There was this man named Zhang San(张三) who fancied himself to be clever, but he really was somewhat dull. He managed to collect 300 taels of silver. He didn’t want this tidy sum of money to be stolen, so he had to figure out what to do with it. After considering various plans, he decided to bury the silver in a corner of a wall behind his house. Of course, he did when it was dark so he could evade detection. After the silver was buried, Zhang San was concerned the silver would be discovered. So, he thought he arrived at what was a brilliant plan! He made a sign that said 此地无银三百两 “No 300 taels of silver buried here” at the precise location where he buried the money.

I thought of this saying when I read of the tweets by the Gerakan national youth chief Tan Keng Liang yesterday: Read the rest of this entry »

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8-Day to 13GE Polling Day – Tsu Koon invited to Gelang Patah daily press conference at 11.30 am tomorrow and I will explain to him my stand on hudud

New Straits Times today carried the following report: “Tsu Koon throws challenge to Kit Siang and Guan Eng on hudud”.

Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon, who is Gerakan President, “threw a challenge” to me and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng “to make a formal stand on hudud, the Islamic law”.

Koh said both DAP leaders “had not made it clear whether they supported or opposed PAS’ stand on hudud or left the matter to the party’s national chairman, Karpal Singh”.

I am surprised by Koh’s statement, as he has got a Ph.D and having been Penang Chief Minister for nearly two decades, he should be more knowledgeable and literate than ordinary Gerakan and Barisan Nasional leaders and members. Read the rest of this entry »

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Presidents of MCA, GERAKAN and SUPP have lost their political and moral legitimacy to lead

For the first time in Malaysian history, at least three incumbent Presidents of BN component parties will not be standing as candidates for their respective parties. They are MCA President Dr Chua Soi Lek, GERAKAN President Dr Koh Tsu Koon and SUPP President Peter Chin. They may be joined by a fourth – PPP President M.Kayveas.

Their non-candidacy is yet another indication of the emasculation of the BN component parties under the ‘rule’ of ‘Big Brother’ UMNO. Not only has UMNO forced other BN component parties to ‘return’ seats such as the Grik parliamentary seat (GERAKAN) and the Kuantan parliamentary seat (MCA) and the Pasir Panjang state seat in Perak (MIC) to ‘Big Brother’, there are strong indications that even more seats would be given to UMNO including Wangsa Maju in the Federal Territories (MCA) and the Gelang Patah seat in Johor (MCA) which I will be contesting in for the upcoming General Election.

If this trend continues, the Barisan Nasional (BN) might as well change its name to UMNO Plus since it will comprise of an over-dominant UMNO plus a number of powerless component parties helmed by Presidents whose candidacies are decided by the UMNO President.

Furthermore, by not contesting, these leaders have lost all legitimacy to lead their respective parties within the BN. They will not represent the BN in parliament or in the cabinet unless they take the ignominious road of being ‘back door’ Ministers via the Senatorship route which some, including Dr. KohTsu Koon, have shamelessly done. They will be sitting at the BN table as non-elected representatives while being surrounded by UMNO leaders who are elected representatives.
Read the rest of this entry »

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