Bukit Gantang results coming in
OFFICIAL RESULTS
Perak MB Nizar wins
| PAS | 21,860 |
| BN | 19,071 |
| Independent | 62 |
| Majority | 2,789 |
| Voters turn out | 75% |
Tri-election breaking news
Breaking news : BN winning in Batang Ai
7.50pm Batang Ai OFFICIAL RESULTS
BN’s Malcolm Mussem Lamoh (3,907 votes) has beaten PKR’s Jawah Gerang (2,053). The majority is 1,854.
Update 2
Unofficial results – at 5.50 pm., BN majority in Batang Ai widens to 1,609 votes
Already 21 streams counted out of 25 polling streams.
| BN | 2901 |
| PKR | 1430 |
| Majority | 1415 |
Najib Cabinet – can it pass the test of being clean and the slogan of “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”?
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 4:25 pm
The country is inundated with rumous and speculations about the first Najib Cabinet which may be unveiled tomorrow.
According to one report, as many as 10 Umno Cabinet Ministers may be dropped and among those named in this category are Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shahrir Abdul Samad, who has already tendered his resignation, and Second Finance Minister Datuk Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, Tourism Minister Datuk Azalina Othman, Energy, Water and communications Minister Datuk Shaziman Abu Mansor, Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Zulhasnan Rafique, Rural and Regional Development Minister Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd Taib, Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khalid Nordin and Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Chik.
The Najib Cabinet is expected to be leaner than the Abdullah Cabinet.
MCA is reported to be demanding that a new post of a Chinese Deputy Prime Minister be created while MIC wants to have a second Cabinet appointment.
The first Abdullah Cabinet appointed after the Barisan Nasional landslide general election victory in March 2004 was a great disappointment – laying the seeds of the failure and downfall of the Abdullah premiership. Read the rest of this entry »
The “Democracy Tree” DVD that the Police finds offensive
This is the “Democracy Tree” video for which DAP Perak State Assemblyman for Tebing Tinggi, Ong Boon Piaw was arrested by the police on Sunday, 29th March 2009 purportedly in violation of the Film Censorship Act 2002 for “manufacturing, circulating, distributing, displaying” a DVD without first getting a B certificate from the Film Censorship Board.
Boon Piaw, who is out on police bail, will know on April 13 what the authorities propose to do in the case.
In his speech at the MPI-Petronas Malaysian Journalism Awards 2008/Malaysian Media Nite 2009 yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak called for a “free, vibrant and informed media empowered to report without fear of consequence and holding governments and public official accountable”.
Read the rest of this entry »
Mahathir – the Empress Dowager of Prime Minister Najib
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak on Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 12:03 pm
The Bukit Gantang by-election has shaped into a battle between one Mentri Besar vs two Prime Ministers.
The Mentri Besar is Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, the popular and legitimate Perak MB and not the illegitimate usurper Datuk Zambry Abdul Kadir.
Ranged against him are the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak who had orchestrated the unethical, undemocratic, illegal and unconstitutional power grab in Perak and plunged the “silver state” into a political and constitutional stalemate in the past two months and the former Prime Minister of 22 years, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
I had described Mahathir as swiftly taking his place as the eminence grise in the Najib premiership with the quick repudiation of whatever there is of the Abdullah legacy in Umno and the fifth premiership in the country.
For Mahathir’s role in the national affairs of state under Prime Minister Najib, there are blog visitors who prefer to summon up the image of Empress Dowager Cixi, who became the de facto ruler of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, ruling over China for 48 years from her husband’s death in 1861 to her own death in 1908. Read the rest of this entry »
Principled governance the only way forward for Najib
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak, Tunku Abdul Aziz on Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 8:47 am
by Tunku Abdul Aziz
Malaysian Insider
April 6, 2009
Every head of government, whether elected or not that I know of, begins his or her term of office by making some dramatic gesture or other. In a repressive regime such as ours, releasing political prisoners and other prisoners of conscience from detention camps in which they have no business being incarcerated in the first place, is de rigueur.
For a leader such as Tun Mahathir Mohamad, adopting this practice as a public demonstration of his overflowing compassion for the people of Malaysia was certainly not out of character.
The resultant public euphoria went as fast as it came when hundreds were later detained under the ISA in the Operation Lalang crackdown. I am naturally disappointed that Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak has allowed himself to freefall into the pits of cynicism by announcing the release of the ISA detainees days before the by-elections; one each in Kedah, Perak and Sarawak.
You, Najib, have missed a great opportunity to show us that you are different! Read the rest of this entry »
What’s wrong with non-Muslims quoting Quranic verses?
Posted by Kit in Azly Rahman, Islam on Tuesday, 7 April 2009, 2:59 am
by Azly Rahman
April 05, 2009
I read the following troubling Malaysiakini newsstory. It happened in Malaysia:
‘Belittling Islam’ – police report against DAP leader
by Jimadie Shah Othman | Apr 5, 09 11:52am | Malaysiakini
A police report has been filed against Perak DAP secretary Nga Kor Ming for allegedly belittling Islam during a ceramah in the campaign for Tuesday’s Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election.
The report was filed by Malay Unity Action Front president Osman Abu Bakar at the Taiping district police headquarters this evening.
According to him, Nga – who is also the Taiping MP and Pantai Remis assemblyperson – made the disputed remarks during a ceramah in Changkat Jering two days ago, the contents of which were also published on Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s blog.
In his report, Osman accused the DAP leader of belittling Islam by reciting Quranic verses from the Surah Al-A’ raf for campaign purposes. Furthermore, he said the holy verses were recited improperly. Read the rest of this entry »
Mahathir’s coronation as eminence grise in Najib premiership
Posted by Kit in Mahathir, Najib Razak on Monday, 6 April 2009, 3:18 pm
Many Malaysians must have very mixed thoughts about Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s appearance at the Bukit Gantang by-election hustings this morning and in particular at the 90-minute live telecast by TV1 of the entire event.
The first thought is that the Najib premiership has made no real difference with the continued unchecked and blatant abuse of government power and resources for Umno and Barisan Nasional purposes, the shocking lack of integrity in the inability of those in power to make the important distinctions among government, party and self which is the root cause of rampant corruption and abuses of power in a government dominated by Umno hegemony.
How can a government channel, TV1, give a live telecast to what is clearly a by-election campaigning by Umno/Barisan Nasional? TV1 is no different from RTM1, what it was known previously, which I had described as Radio/Television Mahathir in the 22-year Mahathir administration.
However, what must have occurred to many who happened to watch the live telecast was that they were not just watching Mahathir campaigning for Umno/BN in Bukit Gantang by-election after rejoining Umno, but a “coronation” of Mahathir as the eminence grise in the Najib premiership and the formal burial of the Abdullah legacy in Umno and Barisan Nasional! Read the rest of this entry »
Ganabatirau/Kengadharan still “unfree” after ISA release
Posted by Kit in Hindraf, Human Rights on Monday, 6 April 2009, 2:11 pm
Although Hindraf leaders V.Ganabatirau and R. Kengadharan have been released from Internal Security Act detention after 15 months 23 days – 46 hours after the new PM’s announcement – and have returned home to their families in Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya respectively, they remain “unfree Malaysians” with the host of draconian and undemocratic restrictions imposed on their ISA release.
Instead of full and unconditional release from ISA, Ganabatirau and Kengadharan remain unfree, exchanging incarceration within the four walls of the Kamunting Detention Centre for an invisible incarceration without walls but equally repressive and undemocratic in depriving them of their fundamental rights as Malaysian citizens and the human rights entrenched in the Malaysian Constitution.
The undemocratic and draconian conditions for the release of the Hindraf duo denied them human rights and fundamental liberties in substance, time and space, depriving them of the citizenship rights to take part in political and public activities, the human rights of freedoms of speech and expression, as well as requiring them to report regularly to the police as if they are big-time criminals.
Ganabatirau is not allowed to leave Shah Alam and Kengadharan to leave Petaling Jaya, and must be home by 7 pm every night, exchanging detention in Kamunting Detention Centre to a larger geographical space of Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya respectively – the mark of unfreedom and continued incarceration! Read the rest of this entry »
UMNO’s Incompetent Disciplinary Committee
Posted by Kit in Bakri Musa, UMNO on Monday, 6 April 2009, 3:48 am
by M. Bakri Musa
Now that UMNO elections are done with, the raging controversies over its Disciplinary Committee’s decisions will soon be forgotten, until the next election season. It is a sad commentary that the party’s attempt at eradicating corruption succeeded in only creating more problems and aggravating existing ones.
It reflects poorly on members of the Disciplinary Committee, made up supposedly of the party’s distinguished elder statesmen. Its chairman for example, was a former foreign minister. They were given a major task and they bungled it.
Their botched performance reflects a more general theme: the dearth of competence and talent in the party’s upper reaches. That, together with pervasive corruption within the party, is what ails UMNO.
The internal affairs of UMNO would not ordinarily interest me except that the party still represents a major (though fast diminishing) segment of the Malay community, and UMNO leaders are also the leaders of our country. Until this reality is altered by voters, what happens in UMNO should interest all Malaysians. Read the rest of this entry »
Disgraceful 45-hr police “cat-and-mouse game” on Ganabatirau and Kengadharan’s ISA release
Posted by Kit in Human Rights, Najib Razak, Police on Sunday, 5 April 2009, 5:11 pm
As of now, Sunday, 5th April 2009 at 5.10 pm, the two Hindraf leaders V. Ganabatirau and R. Kenghadharan,have still not regained their freedom 45 hours after the new Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had announced in his maiden speech to the nation over television on Friday night at 8 pm that both of them, together with 11 other Internal Security Act detainees, would be “immediately released”.
Also despite the belated assurance by the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan yesterday that the ISA detainees will be allowed to leave Kamunting Detention Centre today, saying
“They cannot be released immediately. The documentation process has to be completed first. We will release all of them tomorrow after the documentation process has been completed.”
The families of Ganabatirau and Kengadharan were made to wait for hours under the hot sun yesterday and today and have not been allowed contact to see them. Read the rest of this entry »
Do Mahathir A Favour: Ignore Him
Posted by Kit in Tunku Abdul Aziz on Sunday, 5 April 2009, 11:56 am
By Tunku Abdul Aziz
in MySinChew
UMNO succeeded brilliantly in putting on a well-orchestrated monologue carnival on the universally fashionable twin-theme of change and reform at their just concluded annual political jamboree. They succeeded in the event of mesmerising themselves into a frenzy. Talking change is easy, but “walking the change” is when the uncommitted falls by the wayside.
By all accounts, UMNO, of all political parties in Malaysia, is a most unlikely candidate for change. It is stuck in a time warp. Its leadership, never known for its ability to focus on critical national issues and respond quickly to the needs of the moment, more often than not, has absolutely no clue where to begin the process.
Blaming the opposition for things that do not go according to plan is well and good, but it would be more helpful and constructive for UMNO to accept and digest a simple fact of life which stipulates that the external pressures acting on you are only as influential as your internal weaknesses. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib fails “Performance Now” test within first 24 hours – 13 ISA detainees still not free despite “immediate release” last night
Posted by Kit in Hindraf, Human Rights, Najib Razak on Saturday, 4 April 2009, 4:17 pm
I had said at a media conference in Ipoh this morning that the Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar and Deputy Home Minister, Datuk Chor Chee Heung, should resign from their Cabinet positions for the three-month suspension of Harakah and Suara Keadilan as one of first decisions of Datuk Seri Najib Razak on being sworn in as the sixth Prime Minister yesterday was to immediately revoke their ban which had entered into its 11th day.
Now, I say that Hamid and Tan Sri Musa Hassan should be sacked as Home Minister and Inspector-General of Police respectively for failing within 24 hours of Najib’s premiership one of the three Najibian thematic slogans – “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now.”
It is most disgraceful and testimony of gross incompetence and ineptitude that although Najib announced in his maiden address to the nation over television last night that his government had decided “with immediate effect” the release of 13 detainees from ISA detention, none of the 13 could be released today and the earliest they could regain their freedom is tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »
Suspend ISA detention-without-trial powers for 2 years pending “comprehensive review”
Posted by Kit in Hindraf, Human Rights, Najib Razak on Saturday, 4 April 2009, 12:05 pm
Among Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s first decisions as the new Prime Minister yesterday were the immediate removal of the three-month suspension of Harakah and Suara Keadilan, the release of 13 detainees from ISA detention including two Hindraf leaders V. Ganabatirau and R. Kengaharan and the conduct of a comprehensive review of the Internal Security Act.
While these three measures are welcome, they are clearly not adequate and do not indicate that far from signalling a new Dark Age, Najib is ushering in a new era of democracy, freedom, justice and accountability for the country.
This is one of the SMS I received after Najib’s first official address to the nation last night as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia:
“If anything, the release of more than a dozen of ISA detainees announced by the newly sworn-in sixth Prime Minister marked the return of Mahathirism as this was exactly what Mahathir did when he became the Prime Minister.”
The sender of this SMS is very right in more senses than one. Read the rest of this entry »
Najib’s first test as PM on his “One Malaysian” concept – halt Umno’s irresponsible, destructive by-election campaign labelling majority of PR voters as anti-Sultan
Posted by Kit in Najib Razak on Friday, 3 April 2009, 2:45 pm
Datuk Seri Najib Razak has been sworn in as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia, fulfilling the most famous political prophecy of RAHMAN on the first six Prime Ministers, although time will tell whether Najib will be the shortest-serving Prime Minister marking the end of the line of UMNO Prime Ministers in the country.
What is incontrovertible is that never before in the nation’s 53-year history has the ascension of a new Prime Minister in Malaysia been surrounded by so many questions, doubts and allegations raising serious questions about his suitability, credibility, integrity and legitimacy as in Najib’s case, not only among Malaysians transcending race, religion, political affiliation or region, but also internationally.
For the past month, Najib’s ascension as the new Prime Minister has been reported extensively in the international press and foreign countries, but there has not been one serious write-up which had not referred to the grave allegations hounding and haunting Najib, in particular the serious allegations about the C4 murder case of Mongolian woman Altantuya Shariibuu and the French submarine mega-defence commission.
These personal dilemmas of Najib have from today become national nightmares as they concern the honour of the highest political office of the land and that of the nation.
Is Najib just going to ignore these serious swirling doubts and allegations about his suitability, credibility, integrity and legitimacy as Prime Minister and soldier on regardless or is he finally going to end his denial and address these issues in a credible manner as by setting up a Royal Commission of Inquiry to put these doubts and allegations to rest, once and for all?
The timing of Najib’s takeover as Prime Minister could not have been worse, coming hours after Malaysia had been placed in the four-nation blacklist of non-cooperative tax havens by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) for breaching international tax standards – as Najib had taken over the finance ministry since last September.
With the country facing the worst global economic crisis in a century, Malaysia needs a Prime Minister who can rally and mobilise Malaysians as one people to tide through a grave recession looming in the months ahead. Read the rest of this entry »
Kit Siang: Najib should clear his name first
Posted by Kit in Corruption, Crime, Election, Najib Razak on Thursday, 2 April 2009, 5:48 pm
Malaysiakini
Athi Veeranggan | Apr 2, 09 12:58pm
Never before has a premier designate’s credibility to assume the country’s top job has come under such intense public scrutiny as in the case of Najib Abdul Razak.
Veteran opposition parliamentarian Lim Kit Siang said Najib therefore should first address the unprecedented phenomenon of Malaysians doubting his integrity in taking over the premiership.
“Najib must first come out clean from all the public accusations and allegations against him before assuming the country’s top job.
“He cannot assume the premiership with a tainted character and frail credibility. He must first clear his name,” said Lim in his Bukit Selambau by-election campaign speech at a rally in Sungai Petani last night.
The DAP supremo opined that it would be “morally and politically incorrect” for Najib to become the country’s sixth prime minister tomorrow when the jury was still out on whether the newly-elected Umno president was the ‘right man’ to helm Putrajaya.
Read the rest of this entry »
Pak Lah’s “kick at the pack of snapping hyenas around him”
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Najib Razak on Thursday, 2 April 2009, 11:32 am
Politics enters turbulent waters as prime minister retires
By Jonathan Manthorpe
Vancouver Sun
March 30, 2009
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is known as a courteous gentleman, ill-fitted for the brutal and violent world of his country’s politics.
But even the tolerant and spiritual Abdullah could not resist a kick at the pack of snapping hyenas around him when he retired last week after nearly six years as everyone’s fall guy.
Unless, he warned, the United Malays National organization (UMNO), the party that has dominated government since independence from Britain in 1957, stops silencing its critics, jailing its opponents and discriminating against minorities, it is on the fast track to political oblivion.
It was a harsh judgement, but a just and alarming one for a country which until recently has been seen as one of the great economic and political success stories of Southeast Asia. Read the rest of this entry »
Islam “more repressive….narrow and parochial”
Posted by Kit in Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Corruption, Islam, nation building on Thursday, 2 April 2009, 11:19 am
I was struck by one Q & A in Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s final interview as Prime Minister on 31st March 2009, as published by The Star yesterday, viz;
Q: You talked about progress Muslims made in earlier years and how we must emulate their efforts. But we must examine the Islam practised then. It was so free, lots of freedom to research, to think and implement. When you introduced Islam Hadhari, I thought this would bring it back to that era. But under you, Islam has gone to be more repressive. Just look at the lectures given by the ustaz on RTM1, they are so narrow and parochial.
A: It is a big problem – overseas the idea is welcome. Even Indonesia. But here it is all in a mess. Because we are fighting each other politically. Some PAS members do not like the idea. It is a battle that goes on. Changing of the mind. To do anything like that is not easy.
I have given myself that role. When I talk about democracy and freedom of discourse, it is not an easy job to do. But you have to allow people to enjoy it.
When people like it, the freedom, they think it is very nice. But I would have managed it better. I think up to now, nobody can silence the papers anymore. I don’t like the word takut (scared). Takut is not the way. Being reasonable is very important as well as being correct. Scaring does not work.
No denial whatsoever from Abdullah that under his Islam Hadhari, “Islam has gone to be more repressive…so narrow and parochial”. Read the rest of this entry »
Everybody knows her name
Posted by Kit in Election, Najib Razak, Perak on Thursday, 2 April 2009, 10:20 am
By Shannon Teoh
The Malaysian Insider
2.4.09
SUNGAI PETANI, April 2 — Opposition speakers continue to creatively work around the Home Ministry ban on mentioning Altantuya Shaariibuu at their election ceramahs with Lim Kit Siang last night proving that most people were aware of the Mongolian beauty.
The DAP stalwart questioned the suitability of Datuk Seri Najib Razak as prime minister merely by asking the Bukit Selambau crowd “Who? From where?” when bringing up the Umno president’s alleged links to her murder.
The crowd got their answers right on both counts.
Two nights ago when opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim began his triple by-elections campaign here, he showed the breadth of topics he could address in attacking Barisan Nasional by bringing up a different deceased — that of suspected car thief A. Kugan in police custody.
Lim last night highlighted the sheer ludicrity of banning the mention of a name and “that of a non-citizen,” calling it undemocratic.
He said the Altantuya murder, without mentioning her name, coupled with allegations of abuse of power including an RM500 million commission in the government purchase of submarines, raised doubts over Najib’s impending premiership in “35 hours”. Read the rest of this entry »
Zambry is not a very smart man
Posted by Kit in Election, Martin Jalleh, Perak on Thursday, 2 April 2009, 9:45 am
by Martin Jalleh
BN-appointed menteri besar Zambry Abd Kadir thinks he is very slick and smart. Sadly, he has shown himself to be very shallow and slow.
He had very gleefully posed what M’kini called a “pertinent question” to the Menteri Besar of Perak Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin. He had thought he had delightfully delivered a body blow, damned his rival, and driven him to the ground.
Zambry claimed that Nizar had stated his position as ‘Pasir Panjang assemblyman’ and not as ‘menteri besar’ in his nomination papers filed last Saturday, to contest the Bukit Gantang by-election on April 7.
“All this while, he has been telling the whole world he is the lawful menteri besar. So why didn’t he address himself as the menteri besar in the nomination papers?” exclaimed Zambry, much to the delight of the crowd comprising mainly women and the elderly. (M’kini)
The answer is very simple and it reflects how astute a politician Nizar really is. He has taken into account the politicial realities that he has to contend with — realities that appear more and more grotesque with each passing day in Bukit Gantang. Read the rest of this entry »
