Najib’s disappointing start
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Wednesday, 15 April 2009, 12:59 am
by Bridget Welsh
Guardian
Tuesday 14 April 2009
After appointing a lacklustre cabinet, Malaysia’s new prime minister refused to answer questions from the media
Malaysia’s sixth prime minister, Najib Tun Abdul Razak took office earlier this month, replacing Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. In Najib’s first week, he failed key tests that show he can be his own man. He lost important by-elections, failed to address persistent scandals and selected a cabinet of lacklustre appointees that has not evoked confidence. He ran away from the press, declining to address basic questions about his government.
This poor beginning raises serious questions about his leadership and calls into question his ability to deliver on the reforms that are critical for Malaysia’s future. Read the rest of this entry »
Education of the new Education Minister
Posted by Kit in Media, nation building, UMNO on Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 5:12 pm
Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has resorted to the classic but contemptible ploy of unprincipled politicians of blaming the press for twisting his words when he should have been honest and humble enough to own up and apologise for making what former Penang Gerakan Exco member, Dr. Toh Kin Woon, had rightly described as “insulting” and “distasteful” statements in the Mingguan Malaysia interview about the role of the Malaysian Chinese voters in the Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-elections and the “new political scenario”.
Muhyiddin had compounded his mistake and now owes a second apology – the first apology for the most retrogressive, racist and offensive remarks about the Chinese in the Mingguan Malaysia interview and the second apology to the Chinese media, for wrongly blaming them for distorting what he had said in the interview.
Even worse, he had dragged the MCA President and Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Kiat into the cauldron who should also make a public apology.
It has been reported that Muhyiddin today hit out at the Chinese papers for twisting his words and putting him in a bad light among the Chinese community. Read the rest of this entry »
8 tests for Najib Cabinet
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Crime, Economics, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 12:41 pm
Open Letter to Prime Minister and Cabinet
YAB Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Cabinet Ministers, Putrajaya.
YAB/YB,
Firstly, let me start by congratulating Datuk Seri Najib Razak for his appointment as Prime Minister and all the Ministers of the first Najib Cabinet.
The Najib Cabinet saw the removal of seven Ministers in the old Abdullah Cabinet, namely Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar (Home); Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Tourism), Senator Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib (Rural and Regional Development), Senator Datuk Amirsham Abdul Aziz (Prime Minister’s Department), Datuk Ong Ka Chuan (Housing and Local Government), Datuk Mohd Zin Mohamed (Works) and Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique (Federal Territories).
No one shed any tears for the dropping of the seven Ministers in the Abdullah Cabinet.
However, Malaysians are outraged at the new set of Ministers in the Najib Cabinet, for they are not only another set of “old faces” but include 11 new Ministers or Deputy Ministers who entered Parliament from the backdoor of the Senate.
Worse still, they include “political rejects” like Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin who were trounced by the electorate in last year’s political tsunami in the March 8 general elections, making the Najib Cabinet even more unrepresentative and unpopular than the second and last Abdullah Cabinet.
As a result, no new Cabinet in the nation’s 52-year history could have got off with a worse start than the present one.
Perak power grab – PR setback in Federal Court
Posted by Kit in Constitution, Perak on Tuesday, 14 April 2009, 10:44 am
Newsflash
The Federal Court has just dismissed the preliminary objection and ruled that it has the authority to hear an application seeking to lift the suspension of usurper Perak Menteri Besar Zambry Abd Kadir and his exco members from the state assembly.
The suspension was made by Perak State Assembly Committee of Privileges and announced by Perak Speaker V Sivakumar after Barisan Nasional had formed the state government in February without the assembly being dissolved.
The usurper MB was suspended for 18 months and his usurper Exco members suspended for one year.
The Federal Court will now decide on the merits of the application by Zambry and his Exco.
“Najib, 1 Malaysia & 2 Bukit Tsunami”
Posted by Kit in Announcement on Monday, 13 April 2009, 3:42 pm
Public Forum:
“Najib, 1Malaysia & 2 Bukit Tsunami”Date: 14 April 2009 (Tue)
Time: 7pm
Venue: Chin Woo Hall, IpohSpeakers include:
MP Lim Kit Siang, MB Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, MP Ngeh Koo Ham, MP M Kula Segaran, MP Nga Koh Meng, and others[Enq: Chris 016-2090545]
Q&A session included. All are welcome!
Najib’s 1Malaysia – does it mean “Ketuanan Melayu”?
Posted by Kit in nation building, UMNO on Monday, 13 April 2009, 12:30 pm
The interview given by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in Mingguan Malaysia yesterday “Kuasa penentu Melayu hilang jika terus berpecah” may be appropriate coming from the Umno Deputy President but clearly unsuitable, most shocking and even offensive coming from the Deputy Prime Minister of a plural Malaysia after more than half-a-century of nation-building and national unity efforts.
The following Q & A is one good example:
Q. Tetapi bukankah setiap kali pilihan raya kecil, permintaan kaum bukan Melayu dipenuhi, malah di Bukit Gantang walaupun peruntukan RM1juta diberikan tetapi kaum Cina tidak juga menyokong BN?
MUHYIDDIN: Ya, kadang-kadang kita berasa terpedaya juga kerana zahirnya nampak macam ‘ok’, sambutan dengan tepukan gemuruh tetapi mungkin sudah ada tertanam dalam hati iaitu sesuatu tidak mudah hendak berubah, pokoknya masalah isu Perak terutamanya di kalangan masyarakat Cina yang mungkin telah dipengaruhi dengan sentimen simpati kepada Datuk Seri Ir.Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, kononnya dia ‘dijatuhkan’, lepas itu kononnya dasar memberi pegangan tanah selama 99 tahun dilihat dasar yang menguntungkan.
Ini yang mungkin menyebabkan sukar BN mendapat sokongan walaupun kita fikir bila mereka hendak sekolah Cina dibantu, kita bantu, sepatutnya mereka membalas budi. Pada waktu itu, kita pun tidak berharap sokongan kaum Cina akan meningkat 40 peratus dan sebagainya cuma kita berharap ada peningkatan sedikit tetapi apa yang berlaku ia mencatatkan penurunan, macam tidak ada penghargaan terhadap apa yang kita lakukan.
Oleh itu kita kena kaji psikologi apa yang menyebabkan masyarakat Cina tidak bersedia untuk berubah, pada zaman dahulu tidak begitu.
Persoalannya apakah mereka melihat dalam konteks senario politik baru ini, selepas kerajaan BN tumbang di lima buah negeri, mereka sudah menjadi kuasa penentu? Orang Cina rasa sekarang, walaupun mereka kumpulan minoriti, merekalah menentukan kerana kelompok masyarakat Melayu sudah berpecah tiga kumpulan. Masyarakat Cina tidak berpecah mereka bersatu, setidak-tidaknya dari segi semangat apabila bersama-sama membuat sesuatu keputusan.
Dalam keadaan ini, mereka boleh menentukan keputusan sesuatu pilihan raya dan apabila kesan itu dapat dilihat dalam pilihan raya umum lalu dan beberapa pilihan raya kecil, mereka fikir sekarang mereka lebih ada kuasa penentu, bukan sahaja Cina malah masyarakat India pun begitu, apa tah lagi apabila mendapat kedudukan dalam kerajaan yang ditubuhkan pakatan pembangkang dengan menjadi Timbalan Ketua Menteri, Speaker dan exco kerajaan negeri, jadi ini bagi mereka seolah-olah tawaran yang diberikan oleh pihak sana lebih baik daripada kita pernah tawarkan dalam konteks BN, jadi ini kita harus teliti.
Muhyiddin’s interview has been carried in the Chinese newspapers today, with headlines like “Muhyiddin – Chinese ungrateful to BN” (Sin Chew); “Chinese fooled Barisan Nasional. Muhyiddin – Get benefits but do not vote in support” (Nanyang); “BN feels tricked. Muhyiddin – Satisfy Chinese demands still no support” (China Press) Read the rest of this entry »
The Last UMNO Prime Minister
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa on Monday, 13 April 2009, 11:01 am
By M. Bakri Musa
Newly-sworn Prime Minister Najib Razak created buzz when he released 13 prisoners detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and lifted the ban on Harakah and Suara Keadilan, publications of the opposition parties. He also promised “a comprehensive review” of the ISA, a statute long abused to silence the government’s critics.
Malaysians long yearning for a change applauded him. There were skeptics, of course.
Alas that was last week. This week the hopes of those citizens were cruelly crushed when they saw the real Najib with the announcement of his new cabinet. Far from being a team that would wow Malaysians, Najib’s cabinet was, as Tunku Aziz put it, “a team of recycled political expendables.” And a bloated one at that!
The skeptics were right; Najib’s earlier act was nothing but a big and cruel tease.
This roster of “political expendables” was the best that the man could offer, from a leader who only a week earlier warned his party that it should “change or be changed.” When given the ultimate freedom to choose his own team, Najib stuck to the tried and true, or what he thought to be so. So this was Najib’s brave version of “Berani Berubah!” (Dare to Change!). Read the rest of this entry »
Tsu Koon – Super Minister or Superfluous Minister in Najib Cabinet?
Posted by Kit in Gerakan, Najib Razak on Sunday, 12 April 2009, 11:57 am
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 »
BAD Telekom service in LAHAD DATU, SABAH
Letters
(Barisan Nasional Sabah leaders are the biggest winners in the Najib Cabinet. But the people of Sabah do not share in this largesse, as seen by the following letter from Lahad Datu. Where is the Najib slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now”?
I’m Pang, currently running my own business. my phone number is 089-883033, register under publix pharmacy. My phone line has been dead for the past one week and no action has been taken.
when i go telekom and complain to the manager, SAHABUDIN, he told me to call 100 to complain, my phone no tone how to dial up? He ask me to go telekom and call 100. Come on, we are doing business, every second count, my fax all cannot go out, my customer can’t even reach me. When i call this number, is normal, just that no tone from this side, phone no ring at all.
When i tell this SAHABUDIN, no tone cannot call all the problems. He just told me, ‘I tak tau’, as a manager how can you tell me ‘ I tak tau’, you as a manager must solve the problems. Every month i did pay my bill, my biz need the phone. I’m wonder what telekom is doing, the only landline provider also can do such lousy job. Read the rest of this entry »
Wow factors of Najib Cabinet? Backdoor Cabinet, Parti Belakang
Posted by Kit in Gerakan, Good Governance, Najib Razak on Saturday, 11 April 2009, 10:59 am
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.
An untalented team lacking integrity
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Saturday, 11 April 2009, 7:04 am
by Tunku Abdul Aziz
The Malaysian Insider
11th April 2009
APRIL 10 — If you want my honest opinion, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s People’s Cabinet is totally uninspiring and insipid to boot. And that is being charitable. What a sad commentary on the paucity of proven talent and integrity within the ranks of Barisan Nasional that all Najib has succeeded in putting on offer is a team of recycled political expendables, many with personal records of integrity that will not bear close scrutiny.
Najib has done nothing more than a bit of tinkering. Is this the clean and honest team that he has promised the nation? Instead of calling it a Cabinet, a more accurate and honest name for it is surely “baggage room” because most of those who are our new ministers, including Najib, unfortunately, are perceived to be carrying oversized baggage into office. If this had been a team chosen by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, I should not have been surprised.
But subjecting his ministers to the discipline of the KPI or key performance indicators is an idea whose time has come. However, the danger with management tools like Long Range Strategic Forecasting and Management by Objectives, now long forgotten, and the new panacea, the KPI, is in the distinct possibility of their being more honoured in the breach than in the observance. That being said, let us see whether the new broom can keep up with a mountain of bureaucratic trash that has been generated in the corridors of Putrajaya. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s first task is to get rid of the corrupt in his Cabinet whether Minister or Deputy Minister
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Najib Razak on Friday, 10 April 2009, 2:16 pm
The first task of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak is to get rid of the corrupt in his new Cabinet team – whether Minister or Deputy Minister.
He should seek an appointment with former Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, who though praised the new cabinet as “more or less graft-free” nonetheless qualified his praise when he said that Najib “did very well by dropping most of the people who have been accused of corruption, although one or two slipped in”.
“One or two” corrupt Ministers or Deputy Ministers succeeded in slipping through the integrity scrutiny and firewall to get into Najib’s first Cabinet?
This is clearly unacceptable if Najib is to lead a clean and incorruptible administration with zero tolerance for corruption.
As Prime Minister for 22 years, Mahathir had shown great tolerance for corruption – as demonstrated by the fact that in the last seven years of his premiership, Malaysia’s ranking on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index fell from No. 23 in 1995 to No. 37 to 2003 – which could only mean that more than “one or two” corrupt Ministers and Deputy Ministers had got onto his government without any protest or action by the longest-serving Prime Minister of the country!
If by Mahathir’s very lenient attitude towards corruption – after all, it was the new Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who a decade ago had stood up as Umno Youth Leader at the Umno Youth General Assembly in 1998 to denounce Mahathir as the “father” of Malaysian KKN, corruption, cronyism and nepotism – he could still talk about “one or two” corrupt members of the new cabinet, a more stringent integrity standard would have faulted many more members of the Najib Cabinet. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib Cabinet – dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami and two Bukit by-elections
Posted by Kit in Good Governance, Najib Razak on Friday, 10 April 2009, 10:44 am
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claims that his cabinet announced yesterday is not only a new team with a new face, but also a new approach to administer the country better in a more responsible and transparent manner that focuses on the people.
This is not the perception and reaction of the Malaysian public who find the Najib Cabinet dominated by old faces, old ideas and old approach rejected by Malaysians in the March 8 political tsunami last year and the Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-elections on Tuesday.
Most of the media headlines screamed “28 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers” when actually it should be “29 Ministers, 40 Deputy Ministers”.
How could Najib, with his new slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” make such a small yet colossal mistake?
Has Malaysian educational standards fallen so low after five years of Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein as Education Minister, that the government is incapable of the most simple calculations?
What “Performance Now” when the Najib premiership cannot even count whether there are 28 or 29 Ministers in the Cabinet?
Malaysians were promised a “lean” Cabinet but Najib has 29 Ministers, only two less than the 31 Ministers of Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi when the fifth Malaysian Prime Minister submitted his resignation to the Yang di Pertuan Agong last Thursday and two more than the last Cabinet appointed by the fourth Prime Minister, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad after the 1999 general elections!
If Najib is serious about a lean and smart Cabinet, he should have trimmed the Cabinet by one third to have not more than 20 Ministers when in contrast, the United Kingdom has a Cabinet of 23 full-rank Ministers, Australia a Cabinet of 20 Ministers and France 17 Ministers. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib Cabinet not “lean”, may be “mean” – announcement overshadowed by ghost of Altantuya
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Thursday, 9 April 2009, 6:00 pm
Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s Cabinet failed to live up to the hype of “lean” though it may be “mean”, setting a dubious Cabinet record of using the “back door of Parliament” to bring into the government the biggest crop of defeated candidates in the previous general election – namely Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Datin Paduka Chew Mei Fun and Datuk Dr. Awang Adek Hussin which does not speak well for the government’s commitment to accountability and democracy.
If Najib wants the Cabinet to be really “lean”, he should have slashed the 32-strong Abdullah Ministers by at least one-third!
All the blurb about downsizing Abdullah’s second 67-strong Cabinet (32 Ministers and 35 Deputy Ministers) has not really borne fruit, as Najib has produced a bigger 68-strong Cabinet with 28 Ministers and 40 Deputy Ministers although there are four Ministers less.
Najib has appointed even more Ministers and Deputy Ministers than Mahathir’s last Cabinet after the 1999 general election, when there were only 27 Ministers and 27 Deputy Ministers, together with 15 Parliamentary Secretaries.
Najib’s unveiling of his Cabinet has set another record, being the worst public relations (PR) disaster in the nation’s history.
Najib’s P.R. advisers should be sacked for it was completely overshadowed by the ghost of murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu after the morning’s High Court conviction and death sentence for policemen Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar for her C4 murder. Read the rest of this entry »
Death for Azilah/Sirul – intensify demand for RCI into allegations of Najib’s involvement in Altantuya C4 murder case
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Thursday, 9 April 2009, 11:00 am
The end of the murder trial of the century in the Shah Alam High Court this morning, with policemen Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar found guilty and sentenced to death for murdering Mongolian woman Altantuya Shaariibuu, and then blowing up her body in a jungle clearing on Oct 19, 2006, is not going to end public fixation with any Altantuya-Najib nexus in national and international circles.
The question that is inevitably asked is who could be behind the two Bukit Aman Special Action Squad (UTK) cops’ C4 murder of Altantuya.
Those who had thought that the end of the Altantuya murder trial, with the conviction and death sentence pronounced on Azila and Sirul, would end national and international fixation with any connection of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak with the Altantuya murder case cannot be more wrong.
While Azilah and Sirul would appeal against the mandatory death sentence upon conviction under Section 149 of the Penal Code, their conviction and death sentence have not lessened but intensified public demands and necessity for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into swirling allegations of Najib’s involvement in the Altantuya’s C4 murder case. Read the rest of this entry »
Pakatan’s rising hills, Najib’s declining slope
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Pakatan Rakyat on Thursday, 9 April 2009, 9:41 am
by Bridget Welsh
Malaysiakini
Apr 8, 09
The results are in, and the 2-1 victory shows that both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional held onto their original seats. But the final tallies do not suggest a status quo. Far from it.
The larger majorities for the opposition indicate serious obstacles for Najib Abdul Razak and BN. Voters have decisively rejected his new leadership less than one week into his tenure. The debate will not only centre on the numbers, but around the factors that contributed to BN defeats.
Allow me to point out 10 factors that stand out.
1) Leadership credibility – Najib has a serious public image problem. Despite hiring public relations firms, his reform-oriented speeches and calls to give him a chance, the new premier has yet to win over the support of a majority of Malaysians. The results show that this problem is across races (even among the Malays), classes and generations. Read the rest of this entry »
Malaysia– After the Battle on Bonkers Hills
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Pakatan Rakyat on Thursday, 9 April 2009, 8:14 am
by Azly Rahman
Two Hills were won – Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang.
I still remember when I was a child; the name “Bukit Gantang” is associated with a “panglima” or a warrior of fierce look and disposition equipped with the keris, Steroid-pumped up body and a tanjak (headgear). Hence Panglima Bukit Gantang. “Gantang” is a unit of measurement used to calibrate the amount of rice. A bigger unit than “secupak”. The more powerful one is in society, the more gantang one gets. The lower the rakyat is in rung of the “dog-eat-dog world”, the less “cupak” one gets. That’s the ugly side of the language of power/ideology/class of the people of “semangat padi”.
I still remember the word “selamba”, close to the sound of “Selambau”. I know what selamba means — “poker-faced” and no shame in playing dirty games. Selamba saja muka dia … That’s from a Johor dialect I grew up with. Now, “lahabau” is a bad/unacceptable/inappropriate/cuss word used by my friends from Melaka. It mean “jackass”, or worse, maybe. It is actually an affectionate greeting. Truly the Melakkans are good at ‘gangsta-use” of language. They would curse good friends secupak segantang ( a “truckload” of nasty words) when the meet friends who they have not met for months, years, maybe — wondering where this “lahabau” have been all these years. That explains my fear of meeting my friends from Melaka. Fear of being called “lahabau” or “hamlau” or “cilaka kau” in the process of being greeted! Yes– they are the fierce Vikings of Malaya, those modern Melakkans. Read the rest of this entry »
Second political tsunami – double ‘no confidence’ vote on Najib and Zambry
Posted by Kit in Elections, Najib Razak, Parliament, Perak on Wednesday, 8 April 2009, 1:16 pm
The impressive victories by Pakatan Rakyat candidates in Bukit Gantang parliamentary and Bukit Selambau state assembly (Kedah) by-elections yesterday is a second political tsunami in Malaysian electoral politics in 13 months.
They are a double “no confidence” vote on Datuk Seri Najib Razak four days after being the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia as well as on Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir as the illegitimate and usurper Perak Mentri Besar following the undemocratic, unethical, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak two months ago.
The Bukit Gantang and Bukit Selambau by-election results, with increased majorities for the Pakatan Rakyat candidates as compared to last year, are a clear and unmistakable endorsement of the March 8, 2008 political tsunami telling the nation and the world that what happened in the 12th general elections in March last year was neither accidental nor a fluke, to disappear like fireworks in the skies, but a major political paradigm shift representing the deep-seated and widely-held aspirations of Malaysians regardless of race or religion for democratic change.
Furthermore, that such fundamental political change is here to stay!
Malaysian Elections: A Case of Too Little, Too Late for the Government?
Posted by Kit in Elections, Farish Noor on Wednesday, 8 April 2009, 2:22 am
By Farish A. Noor
The by-elections in Malaysia this week have demonstrated in many ways the fact that Malaysia’s political landscape has changed very little over the past year: The ruling Barisan Nasional (National Front) that is dominated by the UMNO party won the by-election in East Malaysia, but lost both by-elections in the West Malaysian states of Perak and Kedah. In the case of the latter, the results of the elections have shown that the prevailing political mood in West Malaysia remains in favour of the opposition made up of the parties of the Peoples’ Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat), which won a majority of the votes in the Peninsula during the general elections of March 2008.
Political commentators and analysts will now set about dissecting the results of these elections and engage in the arcane art of political predictions: Not least for the simple reason that the by-election results will be seen as the peoples’ verdict on the standing and popularity of the country’s new Prime Minister, Datuk Najib Razak.
Sworn in as the country’s sixth Prime Minister less than a week ago, Najib Razak hails from one of the oldest elite families that have dominated the internal politics of UMNO – and by extension Malaysia – for more than half a century now. Son of the country’s second Prime Minister and connected to several of the aristocratic families of the country, Najib ironically cuts a curious figure in the context of Malaysia’s new and increasingly complex politics. In the 1950s and 60s he would have been seen as a prime candidate for the office of Prime Minister thanks to his elite background and Western education. But today Malaysia is witnessing the emergence of a new society that is infinitely more complex compared to the Malaysia of the 1950s. Read the rest of this entry »
Bukit Selambau results coming in
Official Results
| PKR | 12,632 |
| BN | 10,229 |
| Majority | 2,403 |
—————
PKR wins with higher majority of 2,396
—————–
This is results coming in via SMS from Pooi in Bkt Selambau
9.06 pm
| PKR | BN | |
| Bkt Balacan | 256 | 338 |
| Tmn Ria Selatan | 882 | 578 |
————
9.01 pm Read the rest of this entry »
