Archive for category Gerakan

Invalid Islamic conversion of Indira’s three children – MCA/Gerakan should stop politics of opportunism/hypocrisy

MCA and Gerakan leaders have not learned the message of the March 8 “political tsunami” last year, when both parties were thrashed in the parliamentary and state general elections.

In the past 11 months, MCA and Gerakan have lost even more public confidence, which was why, according to the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, the Barisan Nasional only secured 11% of the Chinese votes in the recent Bukit Gantang by-election, causing Nazri to remark that Umno must go on its own to regain the support of non-Malay voters and not depend on other Barisan Nasional component parties.

Shared with Gerakan’s by-election efforts and giving MCA the benefit of the doubt as to who wielded greater influence with the Chinese voters in Bukit Gantang, this means that MCA could only influence at most six per cent, and Gerakan five per cent, of the Chinese voters!

Why is this so?

The answer is very simple – the people can see through the continuing hypocrisy and double standards of the MCA and Gerakan leaders.

The latest example of MCA and Gerakan’s continuing unprincipled politics of opportunism and hypocrisy is the recent Cabinet decision on “common religion” for children in controversial unilateral conversion cases – that the civil marriage has to be settled by the civil court and the religion of their children be the common religion at the time their parents were married at civil law. Read the rest of this entry »

28 Comments

Tsu Koon – Super Minister or Superfluous Minister in Najib Cabinet?

Gerakan Youth leader Lim Si Ping yesterday hailed the Gerakan President, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon as the “Super Minister” in the Najib Cabinet who is tasked with monitoring the performance of the other 28 Ministers.

Is Tsu Koon a Super Minister or Superfluous Minister in the Najib Cabinet?

If one is to strike out the most superfluous Minister in the 29-member Najib Cabinet without causing any ripples of having to find a replacement, it will be difficult to find another candidate than Tsu Koon and his portfolio.

How pathetic – to end up as a Superfluous Minister when he should be a Super Minister after 18 years as Penang Chief Minister, especially as he is the most senior Barisan Nasional government leader in the Najib Cabinet after the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyideen Yassin and Information, Communication, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Rais Yatim.

He is even more senior as Barisan Nasional government leader than the other Umno leaders including Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein, Defence Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Rural Development and Territories Minister Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal, International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Mustapha Mohamad and Minister in PM’s Department (Law and Parliament) Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, not to mention the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the MIC Minister for Human Resources, Dr. S. Subramaniam or the Minister for Agricultural Development and Commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok. Read the rest of this entry »

83 Comments

Wow factors of Najib Cabinet? Backdoor Cabinet, Parti Belakang

What is the Wow factor in the Najib Cabinet?

None on the positive side.

If any, there are the negatives, viz:

  • Najib’s “backdoor” Cabinet – the first Cabinet in the nation’s 52-year history with the most number of “backdoor” Senators, 11 in all and comprising mostly of candidates rejected by the voters in the political tsunami of last year’s general elections.
  • Replacement of one set of “old faces” like Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said but who have entered Parliamen by the front-door by a set of equally “old faces” like Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin who have to get into Parliament by the backdoor of the Senate as they had been rejected by the voters in last year’s general elections.
  • Parti Gerakan becoming “Parti Belakang” with its president having to sneak into Parliament from the backdoor.

Read the rest of this entry »

67 Comments

Gerakan has not risen above its infantile subservience to Umno

The first post-March 8 Gerakan national delegates conference is supposed to send out one message – that Gerakan has finally come of age as a political party as it has heard loud and clear the message of the political tsunami in the March general election seven months ago.

I had looked forward to such a Gerakan “coming of age” as a healthy development of Malaysian politics in the post-tsunami era.

But it is not to be and I am disappointed. It was very clear from yesterday’s opening session of the Gerakan conference that it has not risen above its infantile political subservience to Umno despite all the Gerakan posturing, “thunder and lightning” in the past seven month.

When Gerakan President Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon could call Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi the “Father of Democracy”, it was a most adverse reflection on the former Penang Chief Minister than on the Prime Minister. Read the rest of this entry »

65 Comments

Ousting of Abdullah as PM by next March – let MCA, Gerakan, MIC, SUPP, Sabah/Sarawak BN parties take a stand

In his speech to the Federal Territory (FT) Gerakan Wanita and Youth delegates conference yesterday, Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon rightly called for a meeting of the Barisan Nasional Supreme Council to discuss the candidacy for the Umno President.

Koh said that although Umno party elections and post allocations are internal Umno matters, as Umno is the backbone of Barisan Nasional and the UMNO President is the Prime Minister, there is a need for the Barisan Nasional component parties to participate in the discussion and to give input on this issue in order for a consensus to be reached.

I commend Koh for giving a correct analysis on what should be the respective positions of the other Barisan Nasional component parties vis-à-vis the power struggle in Umno.

This is not an interference in the Umno internal party affairs, as Malaysians as a whole have an equal stake and interest as to who will become the Umno President as he will also be the Prime Minister so long as the federal government comes from the Umno-hegemonised Barisan Nasional.

The position taken by Koh should be the position for all other BN component parties, whether Gerakan, MCA, MIC, SUPP or other BN parties from Sabah/Sarawak. Read the rest of this entry »

34 Comments

Over 60% of grassroots in Gerakan, MCA, MIC and over 80% of members of Sabah/Sarawak parties want to quit BN

The front-page headline in the evening edition of tomorrow’s Chinese newspapers is the speech by the Gerakan acting president Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon that at least 60 per cent of the grassroots in Gerakan want the party to leave Barisan Nasional (BN) to be “relieved of the heavy emotional burden of BN”.

Speaking at the opening of the Federal Territory (FT) Gerakan Wanita and Youth delegates conference this morning, Koh said the Gerakan Central Committee would undertake a more objective and rational analysis of the “quit BN” sentiments in the party.

I dare say without much fear of contradiction that if given the opportunity to voice out, it is not just over 60 per cent of the grassroots in Gerakan but also over 60 per cent of the membership in MCA and MIC would want their parties to leave Barisan Nasional – and the percentage will be even higher for many Barisan Nasional component parties in Sabah and Sarawak, easily exceeding 80%.

This is because the UMNOputra leadership, despite the major blow suffered by UMNO political hegemony in the March 8 general election by a multi-racial and multi-religious Pakatan Rakyat, has proved to be utterly insensitive, blind and deaf to the legitimate aspirations of all Malaysians, including ordinary Malays. Read the rest of this entry »

57 Comments

Gerakan somersault and Tsu Koon in sackcloth

After dropping a bombshell proposing that Gerakan quit the Barisan Nasional as UMNO had not learnt from the lessons of the March 8 “political tsunami” in continuing with its racist and communal politicking, Gerakan Wanita chief and deputy information minister Datuk Tan Lian Ho has done a somersault.

She was front-page Chinese newspaper headline banner news yesterday but within hours, she backtracked and clarified that the “quit BN’ call was not her suggestion but that of some Gerakan delegates.

Never mind that she had said yesterday that she was prepared to risk her post as deputy minister for speaking up, the question is why the somersault?

Backing her call yesterday, Gerakan national vice chairman and Perak Gerakan chief Datuk Chan Ko Youn said 80 per cent of the Gerakan delegates in Perak support the “quit BN’ call.

Gerakan Youth leaders have also told the press that at least half of the Gerakan Youth members support the party leaving the Barisan Nasional. Read the rest of this entry »

70 Comments