Deciding Who To Vote For In the Next Election
Posted by Kit in Articles, Bakri Musa, Elections on Monday, 22 April 2013, 9:11 am
Downstream Analysis: Pakatan Victory Best Outcome
(Third of Four Parts)
The best outcome would be a decisive Pakatan victory. This is the only way to effect much-needed change, specifically to end the current culture of corruption, cronyism and rent-seeking that is enmeshed and fast becoming the fabric of our – specifically Malay – society. Again addressing those under the sway of Perkasa and Ketuanan Melayu, Malays will never advance until we get rid of this destructive culture, of which UMNO is the prime enabler.
I am heartened that more than half of PKR’s candidates are new, with a substantial number of young faces. We can only bring about change with new personnel. Najib considers recycled and rethreads as fresh. How can he ever hope to transform the country with the same tired, tainted, and tattered team? It is significant that he has resurrected Isa Samad, the character suspended from UMNO a few years ago for “money politics!” Truly scraping the very bottom of the barrel! Rest assured that tainted characters like him will be in Najib’s cabinet. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Malay voters need to support Kit Siang (2)
Posted by Kit in Martin Jalleh on Monday, 22 April 2013, 2:18 am
by Martin Jalleh
Why Malay voters need to support Kit Siang (1)
Posted by Kit in Martin Jalleh on Monday, 22 April 2013, 2:18 am
by Martin Jalleh
Looking forward to a gentleman’s fight in Johor
Pauline Wong
The Sun Daily
Posted on 21 April 2013
JOHOR BARU (April 21, 2013): The state of Johor is without a doubt, the state where all eyes are drawn – whether from the Barisan Nasional side, or from the Pakatan Rakyat.
Big names from the opposition have been parachuted to this southern state of Malaysia, where they hope that the 1.5 million voters here will cast ballots in their favour.
For the Barisan Nasional, the pressure is on to retain power in this birthplace of Umno, and they are more determined than ever to keep Johor in their grasp.
Even with so much at stake, the battle for Johor has taken off in a gentlemanly fashion, with fierce rivals going so far as to praise each other. Read the rest of this entry »
New BN, Umno faces but same old mindset
By Fikry Osman | APRIL 16, 2013
The Malaysian Insider
APRIL 16 — Barisan Nasional (BN) is putting out a refreshed and reshuffled list of candidates for the 13th general election, with a third new faces for Parliament and 49 per cent for the seats in 12 states.
Does it even matter if 100 per cent are new? Do the candidates matter more than the parties or coalition and the manifesto they put out days ago?
One has to understand something about BN and Umno. Their people subscribe to the same ideology and chauvinism as the old people they are replacing in the May 5 general election.
Is Rais Yatim’s replacement going to have an enlightened media policy or is he still going to offer a 10-minute slot to the opposition? What do you think?
All these new Umno candidates are products of the party mindset and thinking, the same thinking that gave us the Ibrahim Ali and Ridhuan Tee who blight our landscape.
Read the rest of this entry »
In Kit Siang, Pakatan gets unexpected boost to leap over Johor’s Malay wall
BY DEBRA CHONG, ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR | APRIL 21, 2013
The Malaysian Insider
JOHOR BARU, April 21 — As Lim Kit Siang captured the imagination of Johor’s Chinese at last night’s rally here, it was also clear that he meant to help warm the Umno birthplace’s Malay population towards Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in Election 2013.
Unlike some states to the north, the opposition parties have been repeatedly thwarted from gaining more than a toehold in Malaysia’s southernmost state.
“The Malay parties in the opposition have a tougher time trying to get support from the Malay community in Johor, so Kit Siang’s presence in southern Johor especially has tilted the situation,” said Ibrahim Suffian, the executive director of political research house Merdeka Center.
Johor’s resistance towards PAS and PKR, Ibrahim said, was historical. The highly-independent state had been used to running things its own way for a long time as it was among the last to be incorporated into colonial British rule.
It had built up a strong religious wall that did not give room for PR’s Islamist partner, PAS, to grow since Johor’s Islamic schools are well-funded and are state-run. In addition, PAS was seen as a northern influence, Ibrahim said.
But in the five years since Election 2008, a perceptible change has been felt in Johor.
Read the rest of this entry »
Pengundi-pengundi perlu berhati-hati dengan kempen fitnah cybertroopers pro-UMNO/BN yang memburukkan DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat
Pengundi-pengundi perlu berhati-hati dengan kempen fitnah cybertroopers pro-UMNO/BN yang memburukkan DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat. Ini adalah kerana kempen rasmi pilihanraya umum ke-13 sudah pun bermula. DAP bersama PAS dan PKR yang membentuk Pakatan Rakyat telah memulakan kempen secara bersih, adil dan telus. Ini adalah prinsip bersama kami ke arah membentuk Malaysia baru yang bebas dari rasuah, salah guna kuasa dan penyelewengan.
Saya sedar ada kempen-kempen kotor yang terus dilakukan oleh pihak-pihak tertentu, terutamanya oleh cybertroopers pro-UMNO/BN, yang menyebarkan fitnah dan pembohongan. Ini adalah kempen yang tidak sihat dan bersifat hasutan.
Namun, walaupun golongan ini terus memfitnah dan menyebarkan berta palsu, saya bersama DAP dan Pakatan Rakyat tidak akan putus asa untuk terus berkempen dengan cara yang baik dan terhormat sebagaimana yang kami telah lakukan sejak beberapa dekad yang lalu.
Saya harap rakyat Malaysia, terutamanya orang Melayu, tidak mudah terpengaruh dengan fitnah dan pembohongan, sama ada yang disebarkan melalui internet atau melalui ceramah. Fitnah amat berbahaya kerana ia boleh menimbulkan ketegangan antara kaum di negara ini.
DAP telah difitnah sebagai perti perkauman, parti cauvinis, parti anti-Islam dan sebagainya. Semua ini tidak benar dan bohong belaka. DAP adalah parti politik yang sah yang menghormati Perlembagaan Persekutuan. DAP menolak segala bentuk politik perkauman dan diskriminasi kaum, agama dan gender.
Read the rest of this entry »
14 Day Countdown to 13GE Polling Day – My chances in Gelang Patah have risen as a result of use of Rocket symbol but still an adverse 45:55 in favour of Ghani
The 13GE has proved to be the most historic of all general elections in the nation’s history, chalking up several new records on Nomination Day yesterday in including:
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No parliamentary or state seat returned unopposed – first time in history;
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A total of 1,900 candidates contesting parliamentary and state seats, highest ever;
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270 independents contesting, highest in history;
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132 parliamentary and 320 state seats see straight fights;
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90-multi-cornered fights for parliamentary seats and 185 for state seats;
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A seven-cornered fight in a parliamentary and state state seat; and
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There are 1,732 male and 168 female candidates contesting.
But the most historic dimension of the 13GE is that for the first time in the nation’s 56-year history, there could be a democratic transition of power with the establishment of a new Pakatan Rakyat federal government in Putrajaya, ending the 56-year rule of Umno/BN with Datuk Sdri Najib Razak as the last Umno/BN Prime Minister as predicted by the RAHMAN prophecy.
The first day of the 13GE has also highlighted certain political realities in Malaysian politics of 2013: Read the rest of this entry »
Gelang Patah battle full of variables
By LIM MUN FAH | 2013-04-18 14:38
Translated by KHEI YOK MAN
MySinChew.com
MCA’s loan of Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency to Umno is an anomalous move as well as a gamble.
Terming it an anomaly because DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang will meet Abdul Ghani Othman which was never thought of.
Gelang Patah was under MCA for the past four terms and it was hailed as MCA’s stronghold with majority votes once in excess of 30,000, a record created by Tan Ah Eng in 2004. The dissenting gale in 2008 didn’t swallow her although the majority votes fell to 8,851.
No one anticipated that MCA would swallow its pride by loaning the constituency simply to topple Kit Siang. Neither would anyone foresee BN’s strategic move to put the menteri besar on the table for an embattled sparring.
Neither Kit Siang nor Abdul Ghani Othman reckoned this.
How would this “Fray of Kings” end up? Both sides claim confidence, but in reality they are unsure. It is a risk-taking move to both PR and BN.
Read the rest of this entry »
Kit Siang wants to keep it clean
Terence Fernandez, Malay Mail
8:22AM Apr 21, 2013
“Ghani has brought a lot of achievement for Johor in the 18 years that he has been MB.”
That is not the kind of endorsement one would expect from a political rival on nomination day, but that was one of the first things Lim Kit Siang said at his first press conference yesterday as the official DAP candidate for the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat.
But it also set the tone of his ‘gentleman’s’ campaign in the next 15 days.
“No personal attacks and no dirty politics based on race and money,” he told The Malay Mail later when met at his ops centre here.
Lim said he had invited Ghani to form an accord that they will stick to the facts and avoid gutter politics. He’s still waiting for Ghani’s response.
“We just want to thrash out the facts, and I meant what I said that (his challenger) Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman had brought much progress to Johor.
So how is he supposed to expect voters to pick him over a proven candidate?
Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s RoS bullet
Posted by Kit in DAP, Najib Razak, Zunar on Sunday, 21 April 2013, 12:22 pm
By Zunar
Gerrymandering Malaysia
Written by Our Correspondent | Asia Sentinel
TUESDAY, 16 APRIL 2013
Home field advantage
The largest electoral district in Malaysia has 144,369 registered voters, according to the latest electoral roll. The smallest has only 37,390. They are both in Selangor, meaning the state’s largest seat is four times its smallest. The Kapar district, the biggest, was won by the opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat in the 2008 elections. The smallest, Sabak Bernam, was won by the Barisan Nasional.
The disparity between these two districts fits with the practice of corralling the largest number of potential opposition voters into a single district – as opposed to keeping pro-government districts as small as possible to multiply the number of pro-government seats.
Critics are using such disparities as fuel to allege that the Barisan Nasional government is putting a wide range of other electoral misuses in place in the effort make sure the opposition Pakatan Rakyat doesn’t take power after May 5 elections.
Ong Kian Ming, the director of the Malaysian Electoral Roll Analysis Project and an official with the opposition Democratic Action Party, told a forum at a Kuala Lumpur suburban library Friday, reported by the website for the KL-based publication The Edge, that the government is also packing voter rolls in crucial pro-opposition districts with pro-Barisan Nasional voters. Voter numbers in Selangor, the country’s richest state, have increased by 660,000 since the 2008 elections.
Read the rest of this entry »
Crossing the lines – BN’s early strategic mistakes
Bridget Welsh | 1:35PM Apr 19, 2013
Malaysiakini
In assessing any electoral campaign, it is essential to review the assumptions and implications of different strategic moves.
Three decisions on the part of BN in the last two weeks are leading to tectonic shifts within the electorate, and thus strengthen the opposition’s position nationally.
These are:
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The use of sex videos against PAS and possibly other opposition politicians.
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The fielding of Perkasa leader Zulkifli Noordin in Shah Alam.
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The action by the Registrar of Societies (ROS) in not recognising DAP’s central executive committee (CEC).
The combined effect of these moves have strengthened the opposition coalition and negatively impact the BN’s position with the electorate in the lead up to the May 5 general election.
Let’s take each of these in turn:
1. Smut videos Read the rest of this entry »
DAP’s Johor campaign begins, with loud cheers from Chinese for PAS
By Leslie Lau
The Malaysian Insider
April 21, 2013
JOHOR BARU, April 21 — That 72-year-old DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang was feted like a rock star by thousands of people cheering and blowing on air horns last night on the first day of campaigning here for Election 2013 was no surprise.
What was striking at a rally here for the Gelang Patah parliamentary constituency was the sight of the predominantly Chinese crowd holding aloft PAS flags along with those bearing DAP’s rocket logo.
And Kit Siang captured the mood of the thousands gathered here and perhaps that of the Chinese electorate throughout the country over the perceived fear of the Islamic agenda of PAS.
“They say a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS. Is that true? Yes it is. That is because a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS, PKR and Pakatan Rakyat.
“I say here tonight. This is the battle between the past and the future,” he said as the Chinese crowd cheered enthusiastically. Read the rest of this entry »
15-Day Countdown to 13GE Polling Day – 13GE: A battle between the future as represented by PR and the past as represented by BN
The 13th General Elections has shaped up to be a historic battle for Malaysia at the crossroads.
It is a battle between the future as represented by Pakatan Rakyat and the past as represented by Barisan Nasional.
All DAP leaders, members and supporters are relieved that today’s Nomination Day went off smoothly as far as the DAP’s Rocket symbol is concerned, with 51 DAP parliamentary and 103 State Assembly candidates filing their nomination papers and being permitted to use the Rocket symbol during the 13GE polling day on May 5.
The crisis over the use of the Rocket symbol which erupted less than 48 hours before Nomination Day, which completely derailed the DAP’s final preparations for the 13GE in the last 48 hours to Nomination Day, should not have happened at all.
Clearly, political forces were at work behind the Registrar of Societies’ letter refusing to recognise the DAP Central Executive Committee after the CEC had been elected for close to four months and over a complaint which had never been communicated to the DAP, whether internally by the so-called complainants or by the Registrar of Societies himself.
Be that as it may, there is always a silver lining to every crisis.
The crisis over the use of Rocket in the 13GE has highlighted the unity, cohesion and solidarity of Pakatan Rakyat five years after its formation. Read the rest of this entry »
DAP harassed and hounded unjustly
P Ramakrishnan on 19 April 2013
Aliran
Lim Kit Siang is rightly troubled that the DAP may not be able to contest in GE13 using the party logo – the rocket – because the Registrar of Societies (ROS) has issued a letter freezing the posts of all elected DAP leaders.
This sudden turn of events has very unfairly rendered the DAP secretary general incapable of issuing letters authorising selected DAP candidates to stand on the DAP platform using the party symbol.
This is clearly aimed at sabotaging DAP’s chances of scoring victories in the elections. Read the rest of this entry »
Latest – RoS on Rocket symbol in 13GE
RoS late last night sent letter by hand addressed to “Saudara Lim Guan Eng Setiausaha Agung Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP)” which among other things state:
“Pendaftar Pertubuhan juga tidak mempunyai apa-apa halangan untuk Parti Tindakan Demokratik (DAP) menyertai Pilihanraya Umum ke 13 dengan menggunakan simbolnya.”
16-Day Countdown to 13GE Polling Day: DAP use of PAS and PKR symbols in 13GE – a disaster in-the-making or a game changer that will propel Pakatan Rakyat to Putrajaya?
April 18, 2013 had been the most heart-rending day in my life, the day when the Registrar of Societies dispatched a letter to the DAP to knock out the Rocket symbol from the 13GE, with the Nomination Day less than 48 hours away, completely without any legal basis or plausible ground.
I was not the only one to shed tears yesterday as all over the country, many DAP stalwarts and supporters who are Malaysian patriots whose home and sole object of loyalty is Malaysia and do not know or recognize another country as their motherland, also cried at the injustice, oppression and iniquity of the ROS action , clearly at the behest of the political masters in UMNO/Barisan Nasional.
For 47 years, DAP had waged a patriotic, nationalistic but uphill battle to build a united, multiracial, just and democratic Malaysian nation with many leaders like Dr. Chen Man Hin, Ahmad Nor, P. Patto, Ibrahim Singgeh, Fadzlan Yahya, Peter Dason, Lau Dak Kee, Lim Cho Hock, V. David, Karpal Singh, Datuk Chian Heng Kai, Chan Kok Kit, Dr Tan Seng Giaw, Lim Guan Eng, Tan Kok Wai, Teresa Kok, paying a heavy personal price in their love, patriotism and loyalty to Malaysia, including losing their personal liberties enduring detention under the Internal Security Act, imprisonment and disqualification as MP and disenfranchisement of their civil rights such as the right to vote and to stand for elections for a period of time.
Read the rest of this entry »
Ubah The Partner-Sheep
by Allan CF Goh
Once there was a partnership,
Pledged to fight for people’s benefit.
Jointly, they steered the State-ship,
Gaining admiration to befit.
Theirs were once leaders who cared,
Who watched over the people’s real need.
Those ancient leaders who dared,
To stand up, speak the truth, as their creed.
Alas, they are now history;
This is the partnership’s sad story.
Read the rest of this entry »
