Isnin, 6 Mei 2013

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Anger and Hatred

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:59 PM PDT

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We are now at a point where it is so easy to accuse people of wrongdoings. In fact, we no longer accuse. We have already believed. 

Evidences, secondary. Sentiments, primary.

Fikri Fisal 

Heartbreak. Death of Democracy. Anger. Disappointment. Hatred.

I felt disappointed after Barisan Nasional was announced to have won simple majority in the parliament.

Not from the results, but from the reactions.

I see accusations flying from left to right, freely and guiltless.

I see a nation of anger and hatred.

This was what I feared.

This is what I fear. 


Apparently everyone has gone black now. To voice out their anger towards the clear and visible fraud occurring in the elections. 

But really? How clear and visible were the frauds?

-"My friend said he saw 23 trucks of ballot boxes coming in after the blackout".

-A picture of Bangladeshis (assuming they are Bangladeshis) queuing up.
- and a lot more of "my friend said that…"

I agree the Election Commission should have clarified some important things, such as the properties of the indelible ink. But that does not give us permission to lambast them blindly over stuff that are not true.

But what is the truth?

Exactly. Nobody knows. Unless you were the person who was involved yourself in these frauds, your statement is as valuable as a Zimbabwean dollar. For in Islam, "Slander is a greater sin than murder".

But that's not the case now, isn't it?

As long as there's a picture with a caption that says something about the picture, that is the truth already.
Hell, even an FB status is accepted as the truth.

The truth is, everyone wants their version of the truth to be the truth.

I'm not saying that the frauds did not happen. I'm not saying they happened either. But the fact that many people simplistically took these as their truth bothers me.

Are we that gullible?


The press conference held by our new Prime Minister was possibly the most troubling moment.

Didn't we subscribe to a system of democracy? Did we not agree that our say would be translated to electoral votes? And once the results are out we have to honor it?

But what I saw was a defeatist mentality amongst the masses. A victim's state of mind.

It is so easy to accept that the election was full of fraud to serve the ruling coalition but is it so hard to accept that the majority still wishes for the ruling coalition to be in power?

We didn't honor the results. We prefer to live by our truth. If this mentality is not eradicated, even a thousand clean elections will never satisfy us.

But that's the point of democracy, isn't it?

A system to satisfy the wishes of the majority. It can never satisfy everyone.

"But why should I honor the results if the election itself was rigged?"

Well to that, I respond with an example:

If the referee of a soccer match is biased, do the players stop playing and start whining? Think about it. 


I have no qualms over the Opposition Leader's decision to push for an investigation of the election results. In fact, it is a commendable move for the betterment of the nation.

But let's remind ourselves to do it in an honorable way.

And not through mindless portrayal of irrationality and insensibility.

We now don't even give a damn about our sovereignty. As long as we get what we want, we'll be more than happy to invite foreign powers to intrude.

Just like how the foolish Malay Sultans of old happily invited them to solidify their power.

I guess George Santayana's "Those who cannot remember from the past are condemned to repeat it" is true after all.

Don't take the law into your own hands, leave it be to the right people.

Don't volunteer yourselves to be the blind pawns of politicians. We're better than that.

I just hope you remember before doing anything,
Does it serve the nation? Or does it serve others? 


We are now at a point where it is so easy to accuse people of wrongdoings. In fact, we no longer accuse. We have already believed. 

Evidences, secondary. Sentiments, primary.

We believe people who volunteered to help the EC in the name of the country as people who are willing to perform unrighteous deeds for money.

We believe people who voluntarily sacrificed their private life for a public life as Menteris, to be people who only care to accumulate wealth and don't care at all for the people.

We believe honorable judges of the courts as money-crazy people who care naught for justice.

We believe people who voluntarily chose to live a dangerous, modest life as a policeman are no better than an "anjing kerajaan".

We believe that people who do not share our beliefs, are people who are embracing injustice and are contributors of electoral fraud.

We believe that democracy is a just system unless the results do not concur with our wishes.

And that ladies and gentlemen, is the death of democracy.

Even without the blackouts and the phantom voters,

Democracy is already dead. 


PS: "What we see in people is just a reflection of ourselves"

So, are we any better?


 

Surat terbuka untuk pengundi di Gelang Patah

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:50 PM PDT

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Surat terbuka kepada pengundi di Gelang Patah, Johor: Syabas kerana telah lantik Lim Kit Siang dan DAP sebagai wakil mereka. Harap mereka boleh terus majukan kawasan ini.

Adalah diharapkan juga bahawa pemimpin Barisan tidak akan masuk-campur dalam pentadbiran dan pembangunan kawasan-kawasan dan negeri-negeri yang dikuasai oleh parti pembangkan dan biarkan mereka laksanakan segala janji-janji dalam manifesto yang mereka telah beri kepada pengundi berkenaan.

Mansor Puteh

Pengundi di Gelang Patah telah buat keputusan untuk beri sokongan mereka kepada Lim Kit Siang dari Parti Tindakan Rakyat atau DAP dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-tiga-belas atau PRU-13 yang diadakan pada 5 Mei lalu.

Ini hak mereka. Dan mereka telah buat keputusan dalam PRU lalu yang mereka mahukan Lim Kit Siang dan DAP sebagai wakil dan pemimpin mereka.

 

Sebagai seorang yang dilahir dan dibesarkan luar dari kawasan ini ramai percaya beliau boleh melihat Gelang Patah dari kacamata baru untuk tahu apa yang baik untuk penduduk di dalamnya.

 

Inilah peluang yang beliau telah dapat untuk membuktikan tentang ketokohannya dalam mentadbir sebuah kawasan parlimen di sebuah negeri yang dikuasai oleh Barisan Nasional.

 

Manalah tau dalam masa yang terdekat peningkatan pendapatan purata semua penduduk di kawasan Gelang Patah boleh melonjak dan adanya banyak perusahaan bertaraf antarabangsa yang boleh beri peluang pekerjaan untuk setiap anak muda dalam kawasan ini supaya mereka tidak terdesak untuk pergi ke Singapura atau Kuala Lumpur untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan di sana.

 

Contoh yang paling baik ialah Kelantan yang mana telah ditadbir oleh kerajaan PAS yang mana telah memajukan negeri ini sehinggakan ramai anak negeri mampu dan mempunyai kelayakan untuk tinggalkan negeri ini untuk bekerja di Kuala Lumpur.

 

Dan di Pulau Pinang yang mana telah dikuasai oleh DAP sejak lima tahun lalu telah juga menampakkan kemajuan bilamana ramai anak negeri khusus yang berbangsa Melayu mampu untuk tinggalkan negeri Pulau Pinang untuk bekerja di Kuala Lumpur dan juga di Singapura.

 

Jadi, beban Barisan Nasional kepada mereka telah habis dan mereka kini boleh mengharapkan Kit Siang dan DAP untuk memajukan kawasan ini mengikut sesuka hati mereka.


Dan adalah diharapkan penduduk di kawasan ini akan terus dapatkan Kit Siang dan DAP untuk selesaikan segala masalah yang mereka akan alami dalam masa lima tahun sehingga PRU-14.

 

Sama juga seperti di kawasan-kawasan parlimen dan Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) yang mana telah jatuh kepada parti DAP, PAS dan juga PKR.

 

Ternyata pengundi di kawasan-kawasan ini telah membuat keputusan yang amat bijak untuk pilih mereka, yang mereka rasa boleh beri sumbangan yang teramat besar kepada mereka dan pembangunan dalam kawasan-kawasan ini, supaya ia boleh menjadi contoh yang baik kepada kawasan-kawasan dan juga negeri di mana Barisan Nasional berkuasa.

 

Adalah diharapkan juga bahawa pemimpin Barisan tidak akan masuk-campur dalam pentadbiran dan pembangunan kawasan-kawasan dan negeri-negeri yang dikuasai oleh parti pembangkan dan biarkan mereka laksanakan segala janji-janji dalam manifesto yang mereka telah beri kepada pengundi berkenaan.

 

Sebab tidak ada guna untuk Barisan masuk-campur dalam pentadbiran dan pembangunan dalam kawasan dan negeri-negeri yang dikuasai oleh parti pembangkan seperti Kelantan, Selangor dan Pulau Pinang, sebab pengundi di negeri-negeri ini telah buat keputusan untuk bergantung dari parti dan pemimpin mereka.

 

Adalah diharapkan Barisan juga tidak akan pedulikan Pulau Pinang dan biarkan negeri ini maju ikut sesuka hati penduduk dan pemimpinnya tanpa memohon sebarang dana dari mana-mana pihak, sebab kerajaan pusat harus tumpukan perhatian kepada negeri-negeri yang dikuasainya sahaja.

 

Kalau tidak, tidak guna diadakan pilihanraya umum untuk melantik pemimpin diperingkat kebangsaan dan negeri, kalau pihak yang menang itu khususnya di peringkat negeri tidak berbuat apa-apa dan mengharapkan dana dari kerajaan pusat yang mempunyai beban untuk mentadbir negeri-negeri yang mahu kepimpinan mereka.

 

Ramai orang percaya Kit Siang baik untuk Gelang Patah seperti yang dimahukan oleh pengundi di sana, dan rasa yakin beliau boleh memajukan kawasan ini ikut perancangan yang telah beliau susun, yang mana boleh memberi banyak faedah kepada penduduknya supaya Gelang Patah boleh jadi contoh yang baik untuk seluruh Negeri Johor dan juga Negara.

 

Yang benar,

Mansor bin Puteh

 

Ya Tuhan! Apakah yang orang Cina telah lakukan?

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:27 PM PDT

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSFZoHvQlN7dr8ApH2ykxitgrSWZ1QB1BoND11xD-DB1Ep9BsMS 

Bangsa penulis dijadikan senjata oleh Encik Najib dan ini sedikit sebanyak menimbulkan kerisauan dan ketakutan. 

Daniel Teoh Tzu Yong

Sejurus selepas mengetahui bahawa Barisan Nasional telah memperolehi bilangan kerusi yang cukup untuk membentuk kerajaan, Encik Najib bin Razak telah memberi analisis ringkas beliau terhadap keputusan Pilihan Raya 13. Ia cukup senang: tsunami Cina.

Mungkin ini kerana penasihat-penasihat beliau merasakan dua perkataan ini mampu mengekalkan beliau sebagai Presiden UMNO dan juga Perdana Menteri Malaysia. Kebetulan pula, parti DAP mendapat keputusan yang paling cemerlang dalam sejarah parti itu dan kini menjadi parti pembangkang terbesar dalam Parlimen.

Kita sedia maklum dengan tanggapan BN terhadap DAP: parti Cina chauvinis yang sentiasa mengkritik kerajaan (Melayu) di samping hanya mengangkat agenda-agenda Cina seperti pendidikan sekolah Cina.

Maka dengan dua perkataan ini, Encik Najib berharap mendapat anggukan setuju dan sokongan orang Melayu umumnya, dan ini bertujuan untuk mematahkan sebarang cabaran daripada dalam parti beliau sendiri. Beliau turut disokong oleh Presiden MCA, Dr. Chua Soi Lek yang memberi komen bahawa kini Malaysia mempunyai sistem dua-kaum(two-race system).

Penulis tidak mampu menberi pencerahan terhadap apa yang berlaku semalam, daripada segi pendakwaan amalan penipuan undi, atau kembalinya undi Melayu ke pangkuan BN. Sudah pasti topik ini menjadi bualan para penganalisis dan pakar sains politik dalam hari-hari akan datang.

Ramai kawan-kawan penulis yang berbangsa Cina kecewa dan marah selepas mendapat keputusan. Mereka begitu terkilan dengan komen 'tsunami pengundi Cina'. Bangsa penulis dijadikan senjata oleh Encik Najib dan ini sedikit sebanyak menimbulkan kerisauan dan ketakutan.

Jadi amatlah sesuai rasanya tajuk cerita ini. Apa yang orang telah Cina lakukan?

Dr. Mahathir pernah memuji kaum Cina sebagai lebih pragmatik dan praktikal. Penulis berterima kasih kepada Tun atas pujian tersebut dan akan cuba menjelaskan trend mengundi pengundi Cina, terutamanya yang muda.

Pengundi Cina disuap dengan pelbagai jenis berita rasuah dan salah-guna kuasa tiap-tiap hari di media sosial. Walaupun bukan semuanya betul atau tepat, malangnya kerajaan BN yang lepas ada juga mengaku atas tuduhan kepincangan pentadbirannya. Isu seperti skandal lembu NFC telah memberi persepsi buruk bahawa kerajaan (bukan parti) dipenuhi kekotoran dan memerlukan perubahan drastik.

BN tidak memahami sentiment anti-rasuah (bukan kerajaan Melayu) ini, maka mereka telah menggunakan taktik pendekatan yang amat salah. Cara seperti mempelawa Psy untuk menyanyi lagu ketika Tahun Baru Cina bukan sahaja tidak menyumbang kepada faktor 'feel good' terhadap BN, tetapi mengukuhkan lagi tanggapan pengundi Cina bahawa BN kaya sangat dengan hasil rasuah sehingga Psy pun boleh dijemput macam itu sahaja. Ketidakfahaman ini juga mengakibatkan Encik Najib menanyakan soalan yang 'memalukan' kepada hadirin-hadirin di Han Chiang itu.

Sebagai peringatan, BN wajar mendapat maklumat dan nasihat dari sumber yang lain daripada MCA. Kekalah teruk parti komponen itu telah menghantar mesej yang jelas lagi teru-terang.

Pengundi Cina juga tertarik dengan penawaran calon-calon yang berkaliber lagi menarik daripada parti-parti pembangkang. Kebanyakan calon-calon  ini merupakan orang yang relatifnya muda, profesional, dan tidak mempunyai bagasi politik. Kebanyakan mereka bersih dan berani untuk berdepan dan menjawab isu-isu yang dibangkitkan.

Calon-calon yang ditawarkan oleh MCA pula terkenal dengan nyanyian dan kelakuan yang memalukan. Malah salah satu calon profesional dari MCA – calon Parlimen Pandan Encik Gary Lim – dikatakan telah melanggar etika peguam dan surat-surat tunjuk sebab yang dihantarkan kepada beliau telah dibongkarkan oleh Rafizi Ramli.

Persepsi rasuah, cara pendekatan yang salah hasil ketidakfahaman aspirasi pengundi Cina, dan perbezaan kualiti antara calon-calon merupakan penjelasan penulis akan sokongan kuat yang diberikan kepada Pakatan Rakyat.

Wahai Encik Najib, apakah yang orang Cina telah lakukan?

 

Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:20 PM PDT

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Tetapi ternyata, mereka menjadi kelompok yang tidak tahu membalas budi.
Zulkiflee Bakar, Front page of Utusan

Masyarakat Cina gagal dalam usaha mereka untuk menumbangkan kerajaan Barisan Nasional (BN) yang orang Melayu menjadi terasnya.

Kegagalan itu sudah tentulah mengecewakan mereka yang amat berharap dalam Pilihan Raya Umum Ke-13 (PRU-13) ia menjadi medan untuk mereka 'menguburkan' UMNO melalui kejayaan pakatan pembangkang.

Biarpun mereka melakukan gerakan yang dilihat bersepadu di seluruh negara dengan memastikan hampir semua undi diberikan kepada parti cauvinis, DAP dan calon-calon pakatan pembangkang lain khususnya Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) namun ia belum cukup menumbangkan kepimpinan BN yang UMNO menjadi tonggak utama.

Justeru tidak hairanlah, semalam puak-puak yang dianggap tidak tahu mengenang budi ini melakukan tindakan yang memualkan apabila melancarkan apa yang dipanggil silent walk.

Program itu bertujuan menyatakan protes kononnya PRU-13 dijalankan secara tidak bersih dan mereka mahu rakyat bangkit melakukan protes berjalan secara senyap di kompleks-kompleks membeli-belah.

Malahan dalam laman Facebook dan Twitter tersebar gambar perbuatan biadab sekumpulan remaja Cina yang bergambar bersama Jalur Gemilang yang diterbalikkan.

Persoalannya apa lagi yang puak- puak ini mahu dalam bahasa mudah, 'apa lagi orang Cina mahu'! Tidak cukupkah DAP memenangi 38 kerusi daripada 51 kerusi yang parti itu tandingi dan seterusnya menjadikan ia parti dominan dalam pakatan pembangkang.

Mungkin kekecewaan mereka biarpun diberi layanan yang begitu istimewa oleh kerajaan BN kerana pakatan pembangkang gagal memerintah.

Mereka membuat percaturan jika pakatan pembangkang menang ia akan membolehkan Ahli Parlimen Permatang Pauh, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dilantik Perdana Menteri dan Ahli Parlimen Gelang Patah, Lim Kit Siang sebagai Timbalan Perdana Menteri Kedua.

Melalui cara itu, mereka berharap ia boleh dijadikan platform untuk membuat pelbagai tuntutan termasuklah mungkin menganggu gugat hak orang Melayu yang sudah termaktub dalam Perlembagaan.

Hakikatnya, masyarakat Cina sememangnya sudah lama menyimpan hasrat untuk memiliki kuasa politik yang kuat.

Berikutan kesediaan PKR dan Pas bekerjasama dengan DAP, masyarakat Cina melihat PRU-13 peluang terbaik, justeru mereka keluar habis-habisan mengundi dan memberi isyarat untuk menolak BN.

Segala kebaikan yang ditunjukkan Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak yang mempelopori gagasan 1Malaysia langsung tidak dihargai.

Malahan kesudian Perdana Menteri melayani dan mempertimbangkan serta bertemu dengan pertubuhan bukan kerajaan (NGO) cauvinis Cina, Dong Zhong turut dilupakan begitu sahaja.

Begitu juga dengan pelbagai program, projek dan tuntutan masyarakat Cina yang hampir keseluruhannya dilaksana dan dipenuhi oleh kerajaan BN.

Tetapi ternyata, mereka menjadi kelompok yang tidak tahu membalas budi. Mereka hanya bijak bersandiwara di hadapan pemimpin-pemimpin BN dengan tujuan memperoleh apa yang mereka hajati.

Apa yang mereka pohon diluluskan tetapi undi diberi kepada DAP. Kini mereka cuba pula hendak mencetuskan suasana tidak tenteram apabila melakukan pelbagai protes yang boleh membangkitkan kemarahan orang Melayu.

Kelompok seumpama ini perlu diperingatkan bahawa jangan sampai mereka dilihat terlalu melampau untuk membuat tuntutan politik mereka kerana kesabaran orang Melayu ada hadnya.

Dan apa yang pasti seperti mana kata bekas Ketua Menteri Melaka, Datuk Seri Mohd. Ali Rustam; ''... mereka kata orang Melayu rasis sebaliknya, kali ini mereka sangat rasis.''


 

Next battle: Staying on as party president

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:15 PM PDT

http://www.stasiareport.com/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20130507_NAJIB07_3645845e.jpg 

(ST) - EVEN as the dust settles from his victorious battle against Malaysia's galvanised opposition, Prime Minister Najib Razak might be heading for another fight - convincing warlords in his own party to keep him on as chief.

Umno is scheduled to hold its internal elections, held every three years, before the end of this year.

Some expect the Umno president to face a challenge from his deputy then.

Datuk Seri Najib's performance in the general election will be the main yardstick used by Umno leaders to decide whether to let the 59-year-old continue as president, or to allow Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 66, to mount a challenge.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won 133 parliamentary seats on Sunday, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) getting 89. In the previous general election, BN had won 140 seats.

So yes, under Mr Najib, the 13-party ruling coalition had won back Kedah and kept Perak. The latter was taken from PR a year after the 2008 election as a result of defections by several assemblymen; Mr Najib has now secured a mandate to keep it.

But were Sunday's results good enough? Analysts have mixed views.

"I don't think 133 is a bad number under the current state of politics," said Associate Professor Sivamurugan Pandian from Malaysia Science University in Penang. "He has won his mandate to do things his own way and to utilise his mandate."

Still, the murmurs in Umno about the looming leadership challenge to Mr Najib will not go away.

After all, he fell short of his own target of getting a two-thirds majority in the federal Parliament. And he did not win back Malaysia's wealthiest state Selangor, despite appointing himself as state election director.

What's more, conservative elements within Umno have long been unhappy with Mr Najib's assiduous wooing of the minority Chinese voters, including raising funding to Chinese schools and recognising the degrees of overseas Chinese universities.

Read more at: http://www.stasiareport.com/the-big-story/asia-report/malaysia-elections/opinion-blogs/story/next-battle-staying-party-president 

 

'Still work to be done', but next step is unclear

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:10 PM PDT

http://www.stasiareport.com/sites/straitstimes.com/files/imagecache/story-gallery-featured/ST_20130507_ANWAR07_3645844e.jpg 

(ST) - Just what his next step is is unclear, but he has called on supporters to rally tomorrow evening at a stadium outside Kuala Lumpur against electoral fraud.

BEFORE the elections, Malaysia's tireless opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said this was his best shot to wrest Putrajaya from the ruling coalition.

If he failed to topple the Barisan Nasional (BN), he said, it would also be his last.

But after the fiercely contested elections on Sunday saw the BN re-elected with a small erosion in its majority, he has had a change of heart.

Datuk Seri Anwar, who disputes the results and is alleging fraud, told the Malaysian online news portal Malaysiakini yesterday that there was still work to be done.

"This is maybe the worst-conducted elections we ever had," he said.

Just what his next step is is unclear, but he has called on supporters to rally tomorrow evening at a stadium outside Kuala Lumpur against electoral fraud.

Mr Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat (PR) alliance strengthened its presence markedly in Parliament, but it was not enough to oust the ruling BN coalition. It won 89 seats, up from 82 in 2008. The main winner in the alliance was the Democratic Action Party (DAP), which won 38 parliamentary seats this time, up from 28 before.

Both Mr Anwar's own Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) finished with fewer seats - PKR now has 30 MPs, one less than before, and PAS has 21, two fewer than before.

At state level too, PR improved significantly by winning 230 seats, up from 197 in 2008, but it lost control of the Kedah state government and managed to retain only Penang, Kelantan and Selangor.

Read more at: 

http://www.stasiareport.com/the-big-story/asia-report/malaysia-elections/opinion-blogs/story/still-work-be-done-next-step-unclea

 

 

MCA mustn’t leave the cabinet

Posted: 06 May 2013 12:06 PM PDT

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What kind of a cabinet is it if it does not have a minister from MCA for the first time ever, and a 1Malaysia Cabinet at that? 

Azman Ujang, The Sun Daily 

FOR the second time in a row, the MCA again ended up the biggest loser of the just-ended general election. If the Barisan Nasional's (BN) loss of its two-thirds majority in Parliament and four states in the 2008 election was attributed to a political tsunami, this time it was in the form of a massive swing of Chinese votes.

This fresh political tidal wave that swept the country on Sunday night saw the DAP scoring big wins, increasing its seats in Parliament to 38 from 29. With its two other partners in Pakatan Rakyat, PAS and PKR, the Opposition now has 89 seats, 23 short of a simple majority that would have enabled it to come to power in Putrajaya.

This is now all academic after the BN triumphantly returned to power in the hardest-fought election ever with 133 seats.

As MCA leaders start to lick the wounds of defeat a day after the polls, the attention is now turned to the making of the new cabinet by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak. Najib's task is not being made any simpler by an announcement by MCA president Datuk Dr Chua Soi Lek that the party is sticking to its decision not to accept any cabinet post now that it did not do better than the 2008 election.

Chua said the party EGM had passed a resolution that if it won less than the 15 parliamentary seats it obtained five years ago, none of its MPs would take up any government posts, including minister and deputy minister. The party fielded candidates in 40 parliamentary constituencies in 2008 but won only 15.

In reiterating that MCA would stick to this resolution, he said the party would have to go through another EGM if it wanted to revoke it.

After winning only seven of the 37 parliamentary seats it contested this time, its worst ever performance, the MCA surely now finds the idea of passing the resolution backfiring in its face. We all know that the objective of having this "threat" was to warn the Chinese electorate that the community would have no representation in the cabinet if the party did not win more MP seats. Gerakan, the other BN partner that put up Chinese candidates in the polls, was again wiped out in Penang and all its parliamentary candidates lost, too.

The question now is, should Najib be bound by this MCA's internal electoral strategy that had gone awry when he assembles his new cabinet, expected over the next few days?

What kind of a cabinet is it if it does not have a minister from MCA for the first time ever, and a 1Malaysia Cabinet at that? All the six Chinese candidates who contested under the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP) ticket, the other Chinese-based party in BN, also lost to their DAP opponents.

The cabinet would also be quite un-Malaysian without a Chinese minister. Now the MCA is still left with seven winning MPs, including incumbent Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and Deputy Education Minister Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong, among others, who could fill up the MCA's usual quota of four ministers.

The tsunami unleashed during this 13th general election also just goes to show that the Chinese electorate would have no hesitation whatsoever to vote for a change if they want to. The Opposition rallying call this time was "Ubah" (change) and the vast majority of Chinese had made up their minds to vote against BN long before polling day.

This time, the BN was saved from defeat largely by the support still intact from Sabah and Sarawak, as Pakatan Rakyat further entrenched its position in Selangor and Penang, two of Malaysia's richest states, by winning more seats.

How else would one explain the most surprising defeat of outgoing Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam? He had shifted from a state to a parliamentary seat and lost by over 6,000 votes majority in the process.

Ali Rustam has been chief minister for 13 years and widely acknowledged as the country's most hands-on leader of a state government and credited for Malacca being accorded a developed status in 2010.

As it turns out, Ali Rustam's Bukit Katil parliamentary constituency has 42 % Chinese voters and he lost because of them.

"I am completely disappointed with my defeat which is due to racial politics. It seems the people are ungrateful for all the government's efforts at developing Malacca into what it is today," he said in his first reaction to the defeat that scuttled his promising political career and plans to serve at the federal level.

Shortly after the BN obtained a simple majority that enabled it to be returned to power in the early hours of yesterday, Najib spoke of wanting to start the process of reconciliation to fight the growing trends of polarisation that emerged from the election.

He said his agenda was aimed at checking extremism and unhealthy racism and where policies would be based on the principles of moderation.

Because of the overwhelming and indisputable support given by the Chinese to the DAP, would it be conceivable to expect the prime minister at any time in the future to extend an olive branch to the party to join a government of national unity in line with his reconciliation agenda?

"Peace and racial harmony in the context of national unity are something which the BN values very much," said Najib.

Granted the swing of Chinese votes is a strong wave in favour of DAP and its Pakatan allies, the MCA itself went into this election with some highly questionable strategies especially relating to winnable candidates.

Ex-MCA president Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat initially had the personal backing of Najib himself and the prime minister took time off to attend an event in his Pandan constituency before nomination day in a show of support.

But he was unceremoniously dropped from the candidates' list in a move that could only be described as irrational, as was Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen, the outgoing minister of tourism, who was the first woman in MCA to have been elected party vice-president.

What now for this beleaguered party after being mauled at the polls? Does it still want to go ahead with being excluded from Najib's new cabinet line-up just to show that it means business in keeping with its promise?

Its leaders must put their egos aside to think again and think hard.

 

Fortress Johor stands

Posted: 06 May 2013 11:59 AM PDT

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd-cT_Emr-b-cujrMUGOfr9egfTeOLaFuGGkBc7F04BB_zIyqxfygZcQsGTYLmwDAS4seRXOjQZO9nxVVQXHnqiAfZ-dIsxxRmM-a-SIUuuNIeOQEBoysNcwZWUQSgK2y_JFFUL-w22Ag/s1600/kitsiang.jpeg 

The evidence, it would appear, is clear that the second-largest majority race in Malaysia will not support BN, which has continued to endorse extremist groups like Perkasa.

What then would this mean to the Chinese community in Malaysia? 

Pauline Wong, The Sun Daily

FORTRESS Johor has remained unbroken. While the Barisan Nasional (BN) performed worse in Sunday's polls than ever before in the southern state, the state rule and majority in parliamentary seats is still BN's to boast.

Johor, for all intents and purposes, has not changed – Umno's birthplace is still its pride, and loyalty to the ruling coalition remains at a high of 38 out of 56 state seats and 21 out of 26 parliamentary seats won.

But while the 'Johor way' remains unchanged, the ripple effect that this state may have on the rest of the nation could be staggering.

As much as racial sentiments are a bitter pill to swallow, for such sentiments should have no place in a multi-racial and multi-religious nation, it would seem quite overwhelmingly that the cracks are the fault of a 'Chinese tsunami', as mentioned by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak in his winning speech yesterday morning.

And this massive Chinese swing was arguably felt very strongly in Johor.

MCA candidates in Kluang, Kulai and Bakri were defeated by DAP, and the Chinese-majority seat of Gelang Patah (usually contested by MCA but swapped with Umno this time) also fell to DAP.

Labis was won by MCA's Chua Tee Yong by a hair's breadth of a mere 353 votes, and Tanjong Piai was lost by a 5,000-vote majority.

BN, even Umno, won with reduced majorities in many of the seats, some by just a few thousand.

It would seem the Chinese community has turned its back on BN and MCA, giving DAP the biggest Johor win its had in decades with a solid four out of six parliamentary seats it contested here, and 11 out of 12 state seats. DAP only lost the Paloh state seat, and that was by a whisker of 103 votes.

Nationwide, DAP also emerged to be the top performer of the three parties in the opposition coalition of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), winning 38 out of 51 parliamentary seats it contested (10 more than in 2008), and taking a clean sweep in all parliamentary seats contested in Perak, Negri Sembilan and Penang.

The evidence, it would appear, is clear that the second-largest majority race in Malaysia will not support BN, which has continued to endorse extremist groups like Perkasa.

What then would this mean to the Chinese community in Malaysia?

With MCA so far holding on to its 'threat' of not taking any Cabinet posts if it performed poorer than in 2008, what of Chinese representation in the government?

And since MCA has lost many of its much-needed seats in Johor – previously its fortress – does this mean the Chinese will have no place in the BN government?

Also, with the mostly-Chinese DAP now being the dominant party in PR, what would this mean to the coalition, which was previously dominated by the multi-racial PKR? A bitter pill to swallow, indeed.

But yet, we have to take a closer look, for first appearances are deceiving, and these questions may need never actually be answered.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the Chinese tsunami may be nothing more than a 'convenient' scape goat for the poor support of BN.

The ruling coalition also lost eight more parliamentary seats than in 2008, and some of its prominent names such as Malacca Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ali Rustam, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, Deputy Education Minister Dr Puad Zarkashi, Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Seri Donald Lim and Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Raja Nong Chik were defeated.

Perkasa leaders Datuk Ibrahim Ali and Zulkifli Noordin, who have been reported many times in the press making remarks which are deemed racist and insensitive, also lost in Pasir Mas and Shah Alam respectively.

Urban areas like Selangor and Penang were retained by PR easily, while urban seats in the mostly-rural Sabah and Sarawak were also won over by PR, and wherever there was a surge of young voters like in Selangor, PR swept easy victory.

So looking at it, the overall picture paints something quite different.

Malaysians began by turning up to vote in unprecedented numbers – Election Commission (EC) puts the voter turnout as over 80% for this GE.

Youth involvement in the election was overwhelming as social media was awash with updates, posts, discussions, debates and comments from this generation. Twitter and Facebook feeds were faster with updates than official sources like the EC.

The number of young voters, previously thought to be apathetic and apolitical, made up about 2.3 million of 13.3 million eligible voters, about 600,000 higher than in 2008.

Malaysians, overall, rejected candidates who are known to make racist and sexist remarks. Malaysians also voted out candidates who had supported policy decisions like the Automated Enforcement System (AES) in which its implementation had not been transparent.

Voters also showed that a government and officials consistently plagued by allegations of corruption and abuse of power would have to face the consequences unless it buckled down and took serious action.

Voters also proved that a state government that has not taken care of its people will be voted out.

In the end, on Sunday night, Malaysian voters proved that democracy is alive and well – not because the government of the day 'allowed' it, but because the rakyat willed it.

Hopefully, the prime minister hears the clarion message the people are telling via their voice in the ballot box, and introduces more initiatives to address their concerns, win back their hearts and check the sliding support for BN. 

FB user on pro-UMNO blog urges May 13 'slaughter'

Posted: 05 May 2013 11:30 PM PDT

Click image for bigger view

(Harakan Daily) - Several netizens have contacted Harakahdaily over a call by a Facebook user urging Malays to "slaughter" the Chinese on the coming May 13.

The extremely racist remark by Facebook user Shahrizad Mohd Diah has been posted on the website of UMNO's Papagomo at 7.56 pm this evening as a response to an equally racist ranting by the blogger today, in which the latter declared it is a "must" to fight the "DAP Chinese" even if it means spilling blood.

"aku cadangkan 13 mei ini org melayu bangkit merusuh dan bunuh semua cina keparat di malaysia ini. itu jua caranya. sembelih cina macam babi," runs a comment posted via Facebook by the user.

(Translation: "I suggest that on the coming May 13, Malays rise up to riot and kill all the Chinese in Malaysia. That's the only way. Slaughter the Chinese like pigs.")

On the user's Facebook details (www.facebook.com/shahrizad.diah), it is claimed that he is "Managing Director at MD Property Development Plc, Agency Manager at Ambank Assurance and Agency Manager at CIMB Wealth Adviser".

He also claims to have taught at the International Islamic University, and attended school at St. John's Institution, Kuala Lumpur and Malay College Kuala Kangsar.

Shockingly, his comments have even earned a few 'likes' from fans of Papagomo.

On the same page, the blogger among others posted what he claims is the Malay translation of a leaflet in Chinese calling for the community to take political control from the Malays. The blogger, who has no qualms of posting pornographic images on his blog, also claims that DAP is behind the leaflet, without showing any image of the original.

 

Understanding the “first past the post” voting system

Posted: 05 May 2013 10:55 PM PDT

Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said: "The Lib Dem vote is more concentrated than it was, because they have targeted certain seats. But it is still more evenly distributed than Labour and the Tories. They may get 30 per cent of the vote everywhere, for example, but one of the others will tend to get 40 per cent, and the Lib Dems will lose."

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 6th May 2010, to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.

None of the parties achieved the 326 seats needed for an overall majority. The Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, won the largest number of votes and seats but still fell twenty seats short. This resulted in a hung parliament where no party was able to command a majority in the House of Commons.

This was only the second general election since World War II to return a hung parliament, the first being the February 1974 election. Unlike in 1974, the potential for a hung parliament had this time been widely considered and predicted and both the country and politicians were better prepared for the constitutional process that would follow such a result.

The coalition government that was subsequently formed was the first coalition in British history to eventuate directly from an election outcome.

Labour garnered 8,608,517 votes or 29.0% of the popular votes and won 39.7% of the seats.

Conservative garnered 10,703,654 votes or 36.1% of the popular votes and won 47.1% of the seats.

Liberal Democrat garnered 6,836,248 votes or 23.0% of the popular votes and won only 8.8% of the seats.

As you can see, the ruling party then, Labour, won only 30% of the votes but 40% of the seats. Conservative, the opposition party, won 36% of the votes but 47% of the seats. Both parties did not win enough seats to form the new government. Hence Lib Dem, who won 23% of the votes but a mere 9% of the seats, became the kingmaker.

Conservative and Lib Dem then formed the government with a total of 59% of the votes and 56% of the seats.

Initially, Lib Dem was supposed to have gone with Labour (as promised before the election) but that would have given them only 52% of the votes and just 48.5% of the seats, not enough to form the government.

And that is what the "first past the post" voting system is all about, the same system that Malaysia has. And to understand why this is so, read the following article.

****************************************

UK General Election 2010: most votes may still mean the least seats (April forecast before the May general election)

The Liberal Democrats could get more votes than Labour or the Conservatives yet still win the least number of Commons seats.

The Telegraph, 2010

This is due to our "first past the post" voting system, which means a party's share of the national vote does not equate to the number of seats it wins.

It rewards the party whose supporters are most efficiently located around the country, which is not necessarily the party with the most supporters overall.

The Liberal Democrats suffer because their support is more evenly spread.

This was illustrated in the 1983 general election. The Liberal/SDP alliance, as it was then known, received 25.4 per cent of the vote to Labour's 27.6 per cent, yet won only 23 seats to Labour's 209.

Professor John Curtice, of Strathclyde University, said: "The Lib Dem vote is more concentrated than it was, because they have targeted certain seats."

"But it is still more evenly distributed than Labour and the Tories. They may get 30 per cent of the vote everywhere, for example, but one of the others will tend to get 40 per cent, and the Lib Dems will lose."

Anthony Wells, of the UK Polling Report website, said: "In areas they have not targeted, they now have too much of a mountain to climb."

Assuming the Lib Dem surge is spread evenly, they will hold their existing seats more safely, and pick up a handful from the Tories and Labour.

But because Labour piles up votes in safe urban seats, as the Conservatives do in safe rural seats, the swing to the Lib Dems will usually not be enough.

The system is more heavily biased towards Labour, as their safe seats tend to have fewer residents, who are also less likely to vote.

This is why Labour could come third in the share of the national vote and yet still win the most seats in the Commons.

 

GE13 and the 13 predictions that came true (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)

Posted: 05 May 2013 08:24 PM PDT

Many are waiting for my 'I told you so' article. No, I am not going to write an 'I told you so' article. Instead, I am going to remind you of the 13 predictions that were made for the 13th General Election that came true -- although there are actually more than 13 predictions that came true.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Prediction 1: About 80% or roughly 10.4 million of the 13 million or so registered voters would come out to vote.

What did happen: About 10.5 million Malaysians came out to vote on 6th May 2013.

 

Prediction 2: Barisan Nasional would win more than 130 parliamentary seats but less than the 140 seats it won in the 2008 general election.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional won 133 parliamentary seats.

 

Prediction 3: Pakatan Rakyat would not win more than 100 parliamentary seats, as what the bookies predicted, but more than the 82 seats it won in the 2008 general election.

What did happen: Pakatan Rakyat won 89 parliamentary seats.

 

Prediction 4: Barisan Nasional can still form the federal government with a simple majority in Parliament even if it won just 45% of the popular votes.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional is forming the federal government with about 46-47% of the popular votes.

 

Prediction 5: Pakatan Rakyat would need to win at least 55% of the popular votes to see a hung parliament and about 60% or so of the popular votes to take over the federal government.

What did happen: Pakatan Rakyat won slightly over 51% of the popular votes and still can't form the federal government.

 

Prediction 6: If Pakatan Rakyat retains Selangor there is going to be a power struggle for the post of Menteri Besar.

What did happen: Pakatan Rakyat still cannot decide who should be the Selangor Menteri Besar while all the other states (plus Parliament) are already swearing in their new governments.

 

Prediction 7: DAP would emerge the largest opposition party. 

What did happen: DAP is now the largest opposition party after winning 38 parliamentary seats versus 30 for PKR and 21 for PAS.

 

Prediction 8: Pakatan Rakyat would lose Kedah.

What did happen: Pakatan Rakyat lost Kedah.

 

Prediction 9: Perak is a 50:50 situation.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional won 31 state seats in Perak and Pakatan Rakyat won 28 (giving BN a 3-seat majority) with Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat each winning 12 of the 24 parliamentary seats (50:50).

 

Prediction 10: Terengganu is a 50:50 situation.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional won 17 state seats in Terengganu and Pakatan Rakyat won 15 (giving BN a 2-seat majority) with Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat each winning 4 of the 8 parliamentary seats (50:50).

 

Prediction 11: There are 165 parliamentary seats in West Malaysia and Barisan Nasional will win 83/85 with 80/82 going to Pakatan Rakyat.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional won 85 parliamentary seats in West Malaysia and Pakatan Rakyat won 80.

 

Prediction 12: There are 57 parliamentary seats in East Malaysia (including Labuan) and Barisan Nasional will win at least 45 seats and not more than 12 going to Pakatan Rakyat.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional won 48 parliamentary seats in East Malaysia and Pakatan Rakyat won 9.

 

Prediction 13: Pakatan Rakyat would see a reduced majority in Kelantan.

What did happen: Barisan Nasional increased its seats from 6 to 12 in the Kelantan State Assembly and increased its parliamentary seats from 2 to 5.

**************************************************

第拾叁屆大選的拾叁個預測

很多人都在等著我那篇"我已經告訴過你了"文章,但在此我想聲明我並不會寫篇那樣的文章。我只是想要提醒你我做出的13個預測都成真了----事實上,有多過13個預測都發生了。


原文:Raja Petra Kamarudin
譯文:方宙

預測壹:大約80%的選民,即1千3百萬所有選民中的1千萬名,會參與投票。
結果:大約有1千零50萬選民在5月5號出來投票。

預測貳:囯陣會贏得至少130席,但不會比上屆的140席多。
結果:囯陣贏得133席。

預測叁:民聯正如卜基所預測般不會贏多過100席,但會比2008年的82席還要多。
結果:民聯贏得89席。

預測肆:即使只是贏得45%的選票,囯陣仍然能以簡單多數議席執政。
結果:囯陣以46-47%選票組織政府。

預測伍:民聯必須贏得55%選票才有機會促使懸吊國會,而如果他們要執政的話他們必須至少贏得60%選票。
結果:民聯贏得51%選票,但仍無法執政。

預測陸:如果民聯成功保住雪蘭莪,那他們將會為誰會出任州務大臣而頭疼。
結果:民聯至今還未宣佈誰會出任雪州大臣一職,而其他州屬經已做出宣佈了。

預測柒:行動黨會成爲最大的反對黨。
結果:行動黨現在以38席成爲最大反對黨。公正黨與伊黨分別贏得30席與21席。

預測捌:民聯將失守吉打州。
結果:民聯輸掉吉打州政權。

預測玖:霹靂將會是5-5波。
結果:囯陣贏得31個州席而民聯贏得28個(囯陣以3席之差獲勝)。在囯席方面,他們各自贏得12席。

預測拾:登嘉樓將會是5-5波
結果:囯陣贏得17個州席而民聯贏得15個(囯陣以2席之差獲勝)。在囯席方面,他們各自贏得4席。

預測拾壹:在西馬165個議席裏,囯陣會贏得83/85席,民聯80/82席
結果:囯陣在西馬贏得85個囯席而民聯則贏得80個

預測拾貳:在東馬57個議席裏,囯陣至少會贏得45席,民聯最多12席
結果:囯陣在東馬贏得48個囯席而民聯則贏得9個

預測拾叁:民聯在吉蘭丹會失去議席。
結果:囯陣從以往的6個州席增至12席,囯席則從2席增至5席。

 

DAP backs Anwar as opposition leader, says Kit Siang

Posted: 05 May 2013 06:48 PM PDT

Boo Su-Lyn, TMI

The DAP is endorsing Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as Opposition Leader despite winning more seats than PKR in Election 2013, party advisor Lim Kit Siang said today.

The DAP won 38 federal seats in the country's tightest election in history, making it the second-largest party in Parliament; PKR and PAS took 30 and 21 seats respectively.

"We supported him as prime minister for a Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government, which was supposed to be formed on the fifth of May," Lim told reporters at the DAP headquarters here today.

"But since this didn't come about, the preparation and commitment for Pakatan Rakyat remains. That's why we propose that Anwar continues as parliamentary opposition leader and shadow prime minister," added the DAP advisor.

Lim also said the results in some constituencies could be challenged due to alleged electoral fraud.

"Pakatan Rakyat will look into these constituencies where fraudulent practices were committed and take the necessary steps to uphold the integrity of the electoral process," said the newly-elected Gelang Patah MP.

DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke pointed out that the DAP lost the Bentong, Cameron Highlands and Labis federal seats by fewer than 400 votes each.

"Many of these seats didn't provide 'Borang 14,'" said Loke, who was also at the press conference, referring to the form recording the total number of votes at each polling stream that must be provided to counting agents.

Anwar said earlier today that he would gather mass support to question the legitimacy of the newly-elected BN government, stressing that the "worst electoral fraud in history" had kept the coalition in federal government.

Election watchdog Bersih also said it would not recognise the BN government until it verified reports of vote-rigging.

BN won the 13th general election with a smaller majority, losing an additional seven federal seats to PR, besides failing to retake Selangor and Penang, the two most industrialised states in Malaysia.

BN and PR took 133 and 89 federal seats respectively, while the latter also significantly increased its number of state seats from 197 in Election 2008 to 230 in yesterday's polls.

Lim pointed out today that PR won the popular vote as well.

READ MORE HERE

 

Bersih 2.0 refuse to acknowledge poll results until irregularities are addressed

Posted: 05 May 2013 06:43 PM PDT

Anwar said Pakatan would challenge the results of seats in which its candidates lost by thin margins of 1,000 to 2,000 votes.

(The Star) - Bersih 2.0 has refused to recognise the newly elected government, until reports of irregularities and violations in the election process are addressed.

Bersih co-chair Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan told reporters that the coalition and its observer group Pemantau had found numerous instances of fraud, phantom voters and other irregularities during the casting and counting of ballots.

"Hence we are questioning the legitimacy of some of the results during the general elections and are withholding our recognition of the government until the reports are addressed," she said.

Ambiga also blasted the Election Commission over its use of indelible ink.

"They failed miserably during the election. Their explanation of why the indelible ink could be easily washed off totally defies logic. It also raises questions of why so much money, RM10 million actually, was spent on ink that doesn't stay on the finger," she said.

Ambiga called on supporters to wear an article of black clothing for a month as a symbolic response to the cries of election fraud.

"I also call for a boycott of media organisations that had aided and abetted the uneven playing field" she said.

Five Pemantau observers were arrested in Wangsa Maju for "wrongful restrain" and were allegedly refused access to lawyers.

Another two were arrested in Ayer Keroh, Malacca.

It said that observers were also chased out of polling centres in Pekan, Temerloh and Danau Kota, by groups they claim were Barisan supporters.

Barisan won GE13 yesterday by a simple majority of 133 parliamentary seats to Pakatan's 89.

Pakatan leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim however refused to accept the results, citing alleged instances of irregularities in the voting process, like advance and postal votes, the presence of foreigners in the electoral toll and delays by the EC in announcing results in certain key areas.

Anwar said Pakatan would challenge the results of seats in which its candidates lost by thin margins of 1,000 to 2,000 votes.

Netizens have also cried foul over the GE13 results, with photos and videos of alleged foreign phantom voters and claims of blackouts that swung narrow calls circulating on social media.

 

Who will be Selangor’s next Mentri Besar?

Posted: 05 May 2013 06:30 PM PDT

It's common knowledge that the younger generation of Pakatan supporters are split between Team Izzah and Team Azmin, further serving to fracture a party in an unofficial, sometimes-uneasy coalition. It's clearly a family spat, as PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, too, is said to have issues with Azmin.

(The Star) - Pakatan Rakyat has won 44 of 56 state seats in Selangor, allowing them to form state government. But Pakatan has not decided who will lead the state government - previously manned by PKR man Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim - and indeed, if he will come from PKR.

While both PAS and DAP scored 15 state seats each, PKR won one less with 14.

Khalid has assured the rakyat that Pakatan top leaders will make a decision within a week.

"The decision has not been made (yet)," he told reporters.

However, it isn't anyone's game - it's a simple battle between two men: the caretaker MB Khalid, and PKR firebrand Azmin Ali.

Azmin, who is PKR deputy president, is allegedly gunning for the position of MB and has been after it for years.

The highly-publicised spat between him and Khalid's political secretary Faekah Husin - who is fiercely protective of her boss - is touted as proof of the rivalry between Khalid and Azmin.

There was further furore last October when Azmin told a Malay daily that Khalid would be made a minister if Pakatan seized Putrajaya, vacating the MB position even if Pakatan retained the state.

Azmin is very much Anwar's man - whispers of resentful friction between him and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar only serves to add fuel to flames.

It's common knowledge that the younger generation of Pakatan supporters are split between Team Izzah and Team Azmin, further serving to fracture a party in an unofficial, sometimes-uneasy coalition.

It's clearly a family spat, as PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, too, is said to have issues with Azmin.

Rumours abound that Wan Azizah was not fielded for a candidacy in Selangor because of Azmin's dislike for Anwar's wife.

But because he has opposition Anwar's backing, Bukit Antarabangsa assemblyman Azmin may be able to punch above his weight class and take on the largely popular Khalid.

Behind closed doors, elected representatives and candidates make no secret of their allegiances.

A source close to Khalid said that Azmin had exploited his control of PKR Selangor to pick candidates he could control.

"He chooses his own people to make sure everyone is in his pocket. But Azmin needs to realise the rakyat accepts Khalid."

The source accused him of promoting candidates that were close to him and pushing them into safe seats, rather than "winnable" candidates.

The source said it was "an open secret" Azmin "frequently meddles" in Selangor matters for his own political mileage.

When Khalid, who won the Port Klang state seat in GE13, first entered the scene he was as a political novice but a seasoned corporate leader.

A member of the National Productivity Council, he was also chief executive of state-run investment fund Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) from 1979 to 1974 and CEO of what is now Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad from 1995 to 2003.

 

How The Malay Vote Was Lost

Posted: 05 May 2013 05:32 PM PDT

The Malays make up over 45% of the total population in Penang. However Malays make up only 35.7% of registered voters in Penang.  So even if all the 35.7% of voters who are Malays came out to vote, they will still lose to the Chinese. This is even more drastic in Kuala Lumpur.  Chinese make up 43.2% of the population of Kuala Lumpur. However 52.15% of registered voters in KL are Chinese. Malays on the other hand make up over 50% of the population in KL. However registered voters who are Malay make up 35.7% only.

OutSyed The Box

Before I forget allow me to write the conclusion to this blogpost first :  

The majority race of a State does not guarantee their victory at the Polls. The  success of any one racial group at the Polls depends on how many members of that racial grouping are :

i. registered voters 
ii. how many of them actually came out to vote on Polling Day.

Yesterday at about 3:30PM I blogged this urgently :  URGENT : PENGUNDI MELAYU KENA KELUAR UNDI SEKARANG

There was a reason for this. Yesterday at Bangsar there were thousands of Chinese voters. In the queue, Chinese folks were saying 'I spent RM400 to fly from Singapore to vote'. One guy said he flew his son in from Hong Kong to vote. Another person said he had come back from Australia just to vote. The Chinese were out in huge numbers to vote.

First of all we must congratulate the Chinese for their diligence, their commitment and also their faith in the electoral process. This is a democracy. We determine our fate through the ballot. That is the process that we have all agreed upon. So we must salute the Chinese voters for having so much trust in the democratic process. 

However who we vote for and why we vote for them is something else. Dont forget that the German people once voted for Hitler and the Nazis - also through the democratic ballot.  

Then I also noticed that there were very, very few Malay voters (in Sek Keb Bukit Bandaraya). After voting I received calls from a friend of mine who said the same thing. Chinese voter turnout was huge in Kelana Jaya and Shah Alam. The Malay voters were not as many. Then my friend said he was getting calls from Johor saying the same thing. Where were the Malay voters?

Two of my Malay staff who were supposed to vote did not do so for flimsy reasons ('kereta tak datang ambil' and 'ramai sangat tunggu queue'). That is when I decided to Blog the  URGENT : PENGUNDI MELAYU KENA KELUAR UNDI SEKARANG at about 3:30 PM yesterday.

I am sad to say that I did sms some folks who should have known better and who were in a position to do something about this. But the reply I received was "Not true".  

Now here are some interesting facts. Before May 5th, Helen Ang - a  most enlightened Chinese (in the Malaysian context, and  to avoid doubts, this is a compliment Helen) blogged the following graph and made an observation that has played itself out completely yesterday. Here is the graph from Helen Ang :
 

 
In this graph, the horizontal coloured bands (blue, red, yellow, green) represent the demographic proportions  (Malay, Chinese, Indians, Others). The percentages above the bands (beside the dots) represent the percentage of registered voters from a particular racial group. 

What is clear is that in most states listed above, the percentage of registered voters who are Chinese exceeds the percentage of Chinese in the state. For example in Terengganu, Chinese make up only 2.6% of the population. But they make up 3.55% of registered voters.

This means the Chinese are diligent in registering as voters.

In the West coast states with larger Chinese populations, this assumes a different picture altogether. In Penang for example, Chinese are only 45.6% of the population. Logically they cannot win the elections by themselves.  However in Penang, Chinese make up over 53.38% of registered voters.  

The Malays make up over 45% of the total population in Penang. However Malays make up only 35.7% of registered voters in Penang.  So even if all the 35.7% of voters who are Malays came out to vote, they will still lose to the Chinese.

So although the Malays are the majority race (or almost majority) in Penang, it is of no use to them politically because not enough Malays are registered voters to make them dominate at the Polls.  What is the use of being the majority race if your people are not registered to vote?  (Macam lelaki tak ada pelir lah). 

The Chinese in Penang are in the minority but because more Chinese are registered to vote (compared to Malays) this means for practical purposes the Chinese are the majority. Not the Malays. More Chinese than Malays can vote in Penang.

This is even more drastic in Kuala Lumpur.  Chinese make up 43.2% of the population of Kuala Lumpur. However 52.15% of registered voters in KL are Chinese. Malays on the other hand make up over 50% of the population in KL. However registered voters who are Malay make up 35.7% only.

So even before Polling Day, the registered Chinese voters have already outnumbered registered Malay voters both in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.  The Chinese have already won over the Malays even before Parliament was dissolved.
 

Soul searching time for BN & PR

Posted: 05 May 2013 05:22 PM PDT

It's not exactly 2008 all over again but it is pretty close to a status quo. There are a few key differences which will force both coalitions to do some serious soul searching. 

Oon Yeoh, The Sun Daily

THE results of the highly anticipated GE13 was not something either party will be happy with. Pakatan Rakyat (PR) failed in its bid to take over Putrajaya. Meanwhile, Barisan Nasional (BN) failed to win back key states and a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

It's not exactly 2008 all over again but it is pretty close to a status quo. There are a few key differences which will force both coalitions to do some serious soul searching.

Let's start with BN. Prior to the polls, it was widely commented by political observers and analysts alike that Prime Minister Najib Razak needs to win big in order to keep his job.

Specifically, he needs to win back Selangor and also secure a two-thirds majority control of Parliament. In other words, do much better than in 2008.

If he fails to achieve these two things, he might face challenges to his position as president of Umno. Well, Selangor is still in PR's hands and BN still does not have a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Does that mean Najib's position as prime minister is doomed?

If one looks at what happened to former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after BN's poor showing in 2008, that would be the natural conclusion. But at the end of the day, it all depends on Umno, for the president of Umno is traditionally the prime minister of the country.

Will there be internal party challenges to topple him? Or will his lieutenants and troops instead all rally behind him and help gear up for the next five years and GE14? What Umno has to decide is whether replacing Najib will improve BN's performance in the next election or will giving him the full backing to continue with his transformation programmes do the trick.

Umno's key partners in the peninsula failed to perform. MIC managed to win four federal seats, just like the last time around. It's not a great showing but it's better than MCA and Gerakan, who performed disastrously.

MCA saw its 15 parliamentary seats shrink to a mere five. Its president Chua Soi Lek had famously declared before the polls that if MCA did worse than before, as a matter of principle, MCA would not accept any positions in a BN cabinet.

If he sticks to this principle, there would be serious implications to both MCA and to BN. What would become of MCA if it's not part of the cabinet?

Any lingering relevance of influence it would have would be gone. But it's also a problem for BN for it would mean the BN cabinet would largely consist of Umno and East Malaysian parties. Is that a viable situation for a government whose slogan is 1Malaysia?

MCA needs to seriously consider its role in the coalition. In a way, its raison d'etre is already gone. If the 2008 results indicated that the Chinese had abandoned MCA, the 2013 results confirm it.

Should it transform itself into a multi-racial party instead? Or should it adopt an even more radical approach and instead of remaining a political party, become a Chinese NGO that focuses on commerce and education, for example?

Whatever the case, it can't do more of the same. It should forget about harping on hudud and warning that a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS. That simply does not work anymore. Warning Chinese voters that they would lose representation in the government if they don't vote for MCA doesn't work either. It needs to seriously think out of the box.

The same goes for Gerakan, which was completely wiped out in Penang, again. There is no hope for rejuvenation by doing more of the same. Like MCA, it needs to consider whether it should continue as a party and if so, what it needs to change in order to become relevant and appealing again.

Pakatan Rakyat parties had mixed results. DAP performed superbly, winning almost every seat it contested in. Both PKR and PAS did "so so". Both managed to wrest several seats from BN but both also lost a few to BN too. PAS however lost a state, Kedah, to BN.

In one of my pre-election commentaries, I mentioned that the most stable configuration for PR would be for DAP to have the most number of seats followed by PKR and then by PAS.

In such a scenario, DAP would be pragmatic enough to defer coalition leadership to PKR, which would be fully aware that it is not the dominant party. PAS in third place would not be able to insist on hudud. Such an optimum configuration allows for equilibrium in the coalition.

DAP has done well but its growth its limited as long as it remains a Chinese-dominated party. It needs to find a way to attract other races into the party, particularly the Malays.

This has always been a challenge for the party and it has not made much progress in that area. If it ever aspires to lead PR, it needs to be more multiracial.

PKR's Anwar has said that this would be his last election. The problem is that there is no clear successor. There is no senior party member that has his kind of gravitas or stature.

No one that both DAP and PAS can accept as their prime minister-in-waiting. His daughter, Nurul Izzah, is very popular but she is also very young. Her time will come but it won't be so soon. Its second-tier of leaders will need to step out of Anwar's shadows. It won't be easy.

In recent years, PAS saw a tussle between the hardliners and the progressives. The party is currently led by the latter but the former still wields some influence. Notice how the hudud issue flared up right before the polls.

This is something PAS needs to sort out. Its relatively poor showing, particularly its loss of Kedah, which was run by hardliners, should indicate to the party that progressiveness, not conservatism, is the way to go. But can its leadership accept that wholeheartedly?

Oon Yeoh is a columnist for theSun and editor of the book "Tipping Points – Viewpoints on the reasons for, and impact of, the March 8 election earthquake."

 

The strong wind of anti-ruling party in Chinese community

Posted: 05 May 2013 04:01 PM PDT

The BN is now facing a new political situation, in which Malay voters are still supporting it while Chinese voters have bid farewell to it. Would it continue its transformation policy, or shift back to the conservative racial line?

Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily

The strong wind of anti-ruling party in the Chinese community has made the DAP the biggest winner of the 13th general election. However, the strategy of trying to set off a political tsunami by fielding Lim Kit Siang to contest in Johor has achieved only partial success as it did not receive a positive response from Malay voters.

The anti-ruling wind in the Chinese community is even stronger than the one set off in the 2008 general election, causing a greater defeat to the MCA and Gerakan compared to the last election, particularly in Johor, the MCA's bastion.

PAS fails to win more Malay votes

Chinese voters have voted for Pakatan Rakyat without hesitation, resulting in a big victory for DAP in Penang, while helping Pakatan Rakyat to retain power in Selangor by winning 38 state seats.

The big victory of Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah showed that he has gained one-sided support from the Chinese. However, PAS and the PKR were unable to gain more Malay votes and as a result, Pakatan Rakyat failed to win the Johor state regime and set off a political tsunami.

In addition to the good result in Johor, the DAP also won big in Negeri Sembilan and Perak. Negeri Sembilan DAP won all the contested two parliamentary seats and 11 state seats, annihilating the state MCA and Gerakan. The Perak DAP also won all the contested 18 state seats.

Massive defeat for BN Chinese-based parties

Since most Chinese have voted for Pakatan Rakyat, BN Chinese-based parties have suffered a massive blow and many leaders have been defeated, including MCA secretary-general Datuk Seri Kong Cho Ha, MCA vice-president Datuk Seri Chor Chee Heung, Malacca MCA chief Datuk Gan Tian Loo, Penang BN chairman Teng Chang Yeow and SUPP veteran Datuk Yong Khoon Seng. Meanwhile, MCA deputy president Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai and MCA Young Professionals Bureau chief Datuk Chua Tee Yong won by a narrow margin in Bentong and Labis respectively.

Among the seven Chinese-majority seats contested, the SUPP is able to keep only the Serian seat, suffering the same setback of the 2011 state election.

Chinese votes tend to support Pakatan Rakyat from East Malaysia to Peninsula. The BN must review and reflect on it. Could it be because the transformation plans are not convincing enough? Or are there problems in its governance?

There were analyses about the mentality of Chinese voters earlier. What the Chinese want is fair governance and proper management. However, due to some political considerations, some measures have failed to be put in place, such as the UEC recognition issue.

Of course, we cannot deny that there are internal problems in BN Chinese-based parties, which is also why the Chinese have lost confidence in them. These problems include party crisis in the MCA and the SUPP, as well as the failure of Gerakan to reform.

1Malaysia Penang Welfare Club's disservice

In addition, there are also problems to the campaign strategy of BN Chinese-based parties. For example, the "carnival-style" campaign organised by the 1Malaysia Penang Welfare club has brought a negative effect and sparked public discontent while blurring the BN's policies and commitments in Penang.

Meanwhile, despite the great loss of Chinese votes, Malay votes have returned to the BN, enabling it to regain Kedah and keep Perak while forming a phenomenon that Umno alone is able to win many state regimes.

However, the return of Malay votes is not ideal in some areas, particularly in Penang.

Umno's performance in Terengganu is also not as good as expected and it can keep its state regime only by gaining a narrow victory, allowing PAS have gained a number of seats in the state.

The BN is now facing a new political situation, in which Malay voters are still supporting it while Chinese voters have bid farewell to it. Would it continue its transformation policy, or shift back to the conservative racial line?

If Umno wants to defend its regime, it cannot return to its old line, but must continue the pace of opening up, or a polarised situation might be formed.

In addition to winning back the confidence of the Chinese, the BN should also review on why urban voters have rejected it, causing defeats even to Umno ministers in Kuala Lumpur.

Voters have made their choices and what the BN should do now is to analyse the reasons.

 

The Morning After - Part 1

Posted: 05 May 2013 03:29 PM PDT

KTemoc Konsiders

Najib has finally got his 'mandate', though from PKR's view, under dodgy circumstances, wakakaka

A shocked and by now, broken hearted Anwar Ibrahim has cried foul as reported by TMI's Crying foul, Anwar disputes GE13 results and will not accept those damning election results.

It's also interesting to note than Pakatan has actually won the popular vote by amassing about 52% share of the total votes of GE-13 but was rewarded with only 40% of the shares of federal seats, whilst BN with 48% of total votes garnered 60% of the 222 federal seats. Only once before in Malaysia's political history has a party with the majority of federal seats lost the popular vote, to wit, in 1969.

But this is a result of a combination of 'first past the post' contest combined with gross gerrymandering where in one federal constituency, only 12,000 registered voters can elect a MP to represent them in parliament while in another constituency, as many as 120,000 voters may only vote for also one MP to represent them. The voter in the former has ten times the say in parliament compared to his/her sardine-zed fellow Malaysian in the latter, perhaps a 'lesser' Malaysian.

The job of a truly independent impartial Election Commission, which of course doesn't describe the Malaysian EC, would have endeavour to ensure the universal suffrage of 'one person, one vote' in a democracy, thus dividing the 222 federal constituencies into lots having an average of, say, 60,000 voters in each [some minor variations may be allowed but subject to justifications, etc]. Kapar would then be divided into Kapar East (or North) and Kapar West (or South) while Putrajaya doesn't deserve to be be a federal seat by itself and would be subsumed under another Wilayah contituency or combined with Labuan as one.

But that's only a pipe dream as the ruling party will never allow such impartial professionalism to come about for the EC. Let me share a very closed secret with you - the EC is in fact UMNO's real fixed deposit, not just some pro-UMNO states.

Nonetheless, I would say, notwithstanding suspicions of UMNO's alleged 'creativity' with the alleged help of the EC, Najib has done well not to let the BN lose and, what more, also in regaining BN's control of Kedah and retaining rule in the Silver State, the latter very much to my surprise.

It's a truism of politics that political parties lose elections, not win them.

While Najib was assisted by the master strategist and tactician, his mentor Dr Mahathir, in not losing the votes of the Heartland, he wasted previous federal seats in overindulging the extreme right-wing element of his party by allowing two losers in Zulkuifli Noordin and Ibrahim Ali to contest.

Ibrahim Ali was undoubtedly a concession to his mentor, but I wonder for the life of me why he had chosen Zulkifli Noordin, an automatic loser from the moment the religious bigot was nominated.

Then he compounded his mistake by marginalizing Ong Tee Keat just on the words of a loser like Chua Soi Lek, a MCA man who lacked objectivity, impartiality and coalition interests insofar as his intra-party chief political enemy is concerned.

Najib was lucky to not to lose despite wasting the 3 potential federal seats of Pasir Mas, Shah Alam and Pandan.

But f* gerrymandering and the popular vote because big business are elated with the BN victory. As TMI reported in its As results sink in, big winners are KL tycoons and Lynas as stocks rally:

Stocks surged as much as 6.8 per cent this morning and the ringgit jumped to a 10-month high, after Barisan Nasional (BN) extended its 56-year rule and fended off a strong opposition challenge that had unnerved investors.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index rose to a lifetime high of 1,808.90 by 9.02am in response to yesterday's general election, with stocks linked to the coalition and its favoured tycoons gaining handsomely, Reuters reported this morning.

Kowtim-ness has been preserved, wakakaka!

Ironically, in the midst of big business breaking open bottles of Dom Perignon, the biggest loser has been MCA, proving a point I made in another post that most Chinese business concerns have been bypassing MCA as they deem the Chinese political party as pretty useless in influencing the UMNO-led government on business and contracts.

And of course to some extent, a fellow loser to MCA is PAS, both of whom merit very little sympathy.

MCA has come to this nadir in its political life, again if I may add but worse than ever before, because of its own choosing. It's a bloody miracle it managed to secure 6 parliamentary seats when it could have lost both Labis and Bentong as well.

Be that as it may, Chua Soi Lek should not have indulged in merajuk-ing (sulking) fashion in attributing the disaster for his party into a disgraceful racial parting shot at its political nemesis, the DAP. It's not just sour grapes but poisonous langsat - indicating a bloody vindictive bangsat mindset.

The reason why MCA has lost so badly has been its reluctance to stand up for the community it claims to represent. As the post-election editorial in The Malaysian Insider said, MCA might as well dropped off the 'C' in its name. And MCA must suck on that!

MCA had believed it could continue to depend on the historically political passivity of the Chinese in Malaya-Malaysia for it to play an equally passive (and crumbs-begging cringing) role in the BN coalition, for the promotion and interests of its most influential lobby group, its crony the Chinese business towkays.

It failed and perhaps still fails to recognize that there is a new generation of Chinese Malaysians who aren't so beholden to the overseas Chinese doctrine of lying (politically) low and quietly working for the traditional 3 bowls of rice.

These new Chinese generation consider themselves first and foremost as Malaysians rather than Chinese and thus want a say in the affairs of this nation, as citizens of their own land. They resent being treated as pendatangs, but they resent even more an MCA which did nothing to prevent the humiliation of their classification as lesser Malaysians.

Needless to say, the new generation Chinese identifying themselves as Malaysians are loud, with some even vicious, vile and venomous, but that's the inevitable outcome of their pent-up feelings, right or wrong or somewhere in-between, of being humiliated, scorned and sneeringly dismissed for decades as pendatangs (and thus lesser creatures) and even children of prostitutes.

READ MORE HERE

 

GE13: Sounding more like a broken record

Posted: 05 May 2013 03:22 PM PDT

Politicians have been saying the same thing for the last five years and nothing a politician says can be fresh.

They don't realise that in the end a politician is a politician regardless of political affiliation. Politics is not black and white. It is not angels vs devils.

One Man's Meat by PHILIP GOLINGAI, The Star

BLAH blah blah blah blah..., blah blah blah blah blah..., vote for me."

On Monday, I was at a ceramah in a block of flats in Ipoh Barat parliamentary constituency.

After 10 days of listening to politicians since Nomination Day, they were beginning to sound like that.

Surrounded by about a 200 mostly working class crowd, I was getting bored listening to the speaker who is a nationally known politician. What he was saying was the same.

At the ceramah I felt as if I had died and ended up in a hell where I had to listen to Psy's Gangnam song over and over and over again for eternity.

Politicians from his political divide have been saying the same thing for the last five years.

Malaysia has been in politicking since the political tsunami of 2008 that nothing a politician says can be fresh.

The politician who took a holier than thou attitude sounded like my mother.

Instead of nagging me to attend Sunday mass, he nagged me to vote for his party.

Yawn. Yawn. Yawn.

Bored, I tweeted: "I'm at a ceramah. After 10 days of listening to politicians, they're beginning to sound like this: blah blah blah blah blah blah. #GE13".

About a dozen Tweeters replied, echoing my views.

A friend tweeted: "It is getting a bit boring. Politicians talking about the same stuff. I wanna hear something interesting."

Encouraged, I tweeted: "In the end, a politician is a salesman. He wants you to buy his dope and vote him to be a YB. #GE13".

That was the last ceramah I attended in peninsular Malaysia.

I attended a ceramah when I flew back to my hometown in Sabah on Friday.

I was in Papar town about 30km from Kota Kinabalu. There were about 50 people in a house in a village not far from town. And from the number of people attending the ceramah (they look like they were his family members and friends), I knew this assemblyman wannabe would not be a YB.

Though I sleep, eat and drink politics, I'm tired of the rumours that I've been receiving since parliament was dissolved.

Actually, social media rumours are quite entertaining.

What is tiresome is the people who believe them.

While Malaysians were casting their votes I received unbelievable messages.

For example, over 5,000 voters in constituency X had their finger smeared with indelible ink. It happened from 10pm to midnight. Every single smeared finger is worth RM6k!!! Please go out and vote so politician X will not lose.

I told the person, who sent the WhatsApp message to me, to do the math – RM6,000 x 5,000 voters is RM30mil.

"I also nyaris tertipu (I almost believed it)," he replied.

Want another example? I bet a few people believe this rumour as they really want to believe in what they want to believe.

Via WhatsApp, I received this: "Dr M has departed from Subang to Europe. Reason he seek medical treatment."

At around noon yesterday, The Star sent an SMS: "Former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad casts his vote at SK Titi Gajah, dispelling opposition claims he left the country last night."

Today, I'm sure I will receive more outrageous SMS, tweets or Facebook and WhatsApp messages.

If you ask me what I will not miss the last five years is how a segment of Malaysians have the "you are either with us or against us" mentality. They are so self-righteous that politics is like a cult to them.

To them, only their brand of politics is clean. To them only their politicians are clean.

I kind of laughed when some of these "clean" politicians ditched their party on nomination day and contested as Independents.

So how now? Before Nomination Day, these were "clean" politicians. But after Nomination Day, instantly like Maggi Mee, these politicians became "dirty".

They don't realise that in the end a politician is a politician regardless of political affiliation.

Politics is not black and white. It is not angels vs devils.

For the last one year I have lived a life postponed. I could not plan for a holiday.

Probably the most asked question in the last one year was "when is GE13?" About 99% got their prediction wrong.

Today, I'm hoping we will live in a less politically intense Malaysia.

I checked Twitter and there were Malaysians who were experiencing political fatigue.

For example, @Rekka86 tweeted: "Really can't wait to get over GE. I think I'm done hearing so much news, the uncountable number of flags, banners, posters, ads everywhere!"

But the prediction is we will not get back our life after GE13. It will be politics as usual. We have awakened, politically.

I wonder when is GE14.

 

GE13: Reeling from Chinese tsunami

Posted: 05 May 2013 03:15 PM PDT

Barisan Nasional keeps its hold on power thanks to the Malay breakwater that held back a Chinese wave that swept over the country.

Joceline Tan, The Star

A CHINESE tsunami swept over the country last night. It ripped through all the seats that had a significant Chinese electorate and devastated Gerakan and MCA in the peninsula and SUPP in Sarawak.

The tsunami was basically about the Chinese electorate going for change. The result was that the DAP emerged the big winner, making new gains everywhere, including in Johor.

But it was evident that the Pakatan Rakyat slogan of "ABU, or Asalkan Bukan Umno (Anything But Umno)" had also resonated with the urban populace in general because Pakatan regained Selangor with a two-thirds majority.

The Chinese tsunami also helped to carry many of the PKR candidates in many of the mixed seats.

However, the tsunami could not quite make it to Putrajaya.

At about 1am, a solemn-looking Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced that Barisan Nasional had a simple majority to form the government.

At press time, Barisan had attained 133 seats, still short of the 138-seat majority won by his predecessor Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Najib was clearly disappointed but he spoke in a calm and steady voice as he urged everyone to accept the election result as part of the democratic process.

The Malay electorate, especially those in the rural states, continued to back Barisan. It is a small consolation to Najib that the Malays have returned to Umno in a significant way.

The Malay wall held back the Chinese tsunami and Barisan won back Kedah. It also held on to Perak, which was a subject of speculation until close to midnight.

At press time, Barisan won Perak with 31 state seats against 28 by Pakatan. But Pakatan continued to dominate in Penang with an increased majority.

PAS managed to hold on to Kelantan with a much reduced majority, which showed that Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat's appeal as a religious figure still commands support in the state.

As predicted, PAS won the least seats among the Pakatan parties and DAP is now the dominant party in Pakatan with the most number of seats. It can also lay claim to having defeated a top Umno leader, namely former Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman in Gelang Patah.

The Pakatan wins also mean that Johor and Sarawak are no longer the fixed-deposit states for Barisan.

The zero sum game of politics means that DAP's gain is MCA's loss because both parties contested in Chinese-majority seats. MCA won only seven parliamentary seats, far short of the 15 that it won in 2008.

MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek tweeted late last night that the party would not be accepting any government posts.

This was in keeping with the pledge made that the party would not accept posts in the Government if it did not do better this time.

A big question mark hangs over the future of MCA as well as Gerakan and SUPP and they will have to do much soul-searching after this.

The Chinese rejection of Barisan is a big blow to Najib, who went out of his way to persuade them to come along on his economic and political transformation journey.

The Chinese have rejected a moderate and inclusive leader, who has made more overtures to the Chinese than any other Prime Minister before him, and Najib and his coalition will have to reassess all this in the months to come.

There will also be soul-searching on the part of PAS, given its loss in Kedah and the defeat of several of its top leaders, including its deputy president Mohamed Sabu in Kedah and vice-president Salahuddin Ayub in Johor. Another vice-president, Datuk Husam Musa, lost in Putrajaya.

One of the most disturbing aspects of the election result is that the ruling coalition is dominated by Umno and the Malays while the opposition Pakatan is dominated by the Chinese-based DAP.

The impact of this will become clearer as the dust settles over the most closely-fought election ever.

 

GE13 by State seats

Posted: 05 May 2013 03:00 PM PDT

GE13 by Parliamentary seats

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:59 PM PDT

The winners and losers of GE13

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:47 PM PDT

What is crystal clear is that many Malaysians want a system of check and balance.

The Malaysian Insider

Take a bow, Malaysians. You are the big winner from GE13, you have firmly entrenched the two-coalition system in the country. The days of Barisan Nasional (BN) having unfettered power are truly over. The result of 2008 was not a flash in the pan, it merely was the start of a trend. Yesterday, that trend continued and Malaysians gave Pakatan Rakyat (PR) 89 federal and 230 state seats and 51 per cent of the popular vote.

What is crystal clear is that many Malaysians want a system of check and balance.

Now the audition for the next polls begins. It is really up to BN to accept that despite the victory, much is wrong with the BN formula and that the non-Malays, especially Chinese, sought refuge with PR simply because the excesses of BN politics and overt racism in this beloved country have become intolerable.

For PR, today will be tough but the prized jewels of Selangor and Penang still remain in your clutches and your popular vote was some 240,000 over BN, despite facing a machine with billions of ringgit at its disposal.

But the fact remains that many Malays remain unsure about your policies and direction. And without the support of Malays in Malaysia, change is impossible.

All said, Malaysians take a bow. Activism is very much alive in this country and people were willing to speak up for their convictions and political ideals, stepping out of their comfort zones for what they believed. And turning out to vote in record numbers. That is true patriotism.

The other winners from GE13:

● Najib Razak

Though the BN performed worse than five years ago, Datuk Seri Najib Razak's (picture) position as the president of Umno is secure.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad suggested a month ago that Najib could come under threat during the Umno polls in November if he did not matchTun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's position but the simple fact is that Brand Najib carried Umno to victory this time around.

Yes, money was thrown around like confetti and populist policies were the norm in the run-up to the polls but it is arguable that without his stamina on the stump, Umno would not have won so many seats. Hard to see anyone rising to challenge him from within Umno.

● Nurul Izzah Anwar

Don't think there is a more loved politician than this woman of grace. Some tout her as a future prime minister but her rise and rise in Malaysian politics is testimony that you don't have to indulge in muck raking and negative politics to come up.

When Nurul speaks, she talks about hope, so unlike many Malaysian politicians who fear monger. She was carried across the line against the financial might and organisation of Senator Raja Datuk Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin by Malaysians who truly cherish her humility and inclusiveness.

● Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud

He thumbs his nose at the MACC and doesn't care what people think about his integrity or how well endowed all members of his family are. Why?

Because in Sarawak, he is king. Just before the Sarawak elections, Najib gave him a timetable to retire. Might as well junk that timetable.

He delivered big time for BN and sent a powerful message that he is truly formidable in Sarawak. Sad but true. No doubt helped by a fractured opposition. Any chance of the MACC visiting him soon? Don't hold your breath.

● Liew Chin Tong

This young man is the architect of the DAP's victory in Johor. He figured that PR might as well take the battle to the heart of Umno and BN rather than wait to be mauled and assaulted in their own strongholds.

He convinced a few party elders and rising stars to join him in Johor, and along the way, expanded the DAP's federal seats total to 38 with the combined multi-racial support of Johor.

If there ever was a Johor Way, Liew found it and showed the rest of Malaysia that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come.

● Khairy Jamaluddin

Five years is a long time in politics and it has been a boon for a young man who has matured into an astute politician in his quiet way.

The Umno Youth leader also tripled his majority from 5,746 votes in Election 2008 to 18,357 in the May 5 general election, showing that there are BN politicians whose popularity is real in his constituency and beyond.

He has shown his party that his appeal is beyond the core conservative right-wing elements and that he can reach out to most Malaysians his generation. Umno and BN would do well to keep rising stars like him in the front and centre of their future government and campaigns.

● Bersih

This organisation must take some credit for energising Malaysians to go out and vote. Messrs Ambiga Sreenevasan and others have done a sterling job in making Malaysians understand that voting is a civic duty of every citizen and highlighting the many weaknesses of the current electoral system.

The record voter turnout of 80 per cent and the largely peaceful elections are proof that civil society has a large role and place in Malaysia.

READ MORE HERE

 

Few PKR leaders see decline in majority

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:40 PM PDT

PKR contested 99 parliamentary seats and won 30 seats in this general election, compared to 2008 when it contested 95 seats and won 31.

Bernama

A few PKR top leaders saw a decline in their majority votes in the 13th general election despite the Pakatan Rakyat party winning four more parliamentary seats to take its tally to 30 compared to the seats held at the time of dissolution of the last Dewan Rakyat.

The four additional seats are Batu Pahat (Johor), Bukit Katil (Melaka), Penampang (Sabah) and Miri (Sarawak).

PKR adviser Anwar Ibrahim retained his stronghold of Permatang Pauh in Penang but suffered a drop in the majority vote to 11,721 from the 15,671 in 2008.

It was a similar story in the case of Anwar's daughter and PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah and PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, whose majority votes dropped in their retention of the Lembah Pantai and Gombak parliamentary seats, respectively.

Nurul Izzah beat Federal Territories and Urban Well-being Minister Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin by 1,847 votes. In 2008, she had defeated Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil by 2,895 votes.

Mohamed Azmin obtained a 4,734-vote majority compared with 6,867 votes in the 2008 general election.

Nevertheless PKR vice-presidents Tian Chua and Fuziah Salleh as well as supreme council member Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and Wanita chief Zuraida Kamaruddin increased their majority votes in the Batu, Kuantan and Bandar Tun Razak parliamentary constituencies, respectively.

PKR's new face, Mohd Rafizi Ramli, who is the party's strategy director, managed to capture the Pandan parliamentary seat with a majority of 26,729 votes against Lim Chin Yee of the Barisan Nasional and independent candidate Tan Yew Leng.

Elsewhere, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Chua Jui Meng and Dr Abdul Aziz Bari failed in the Kulim-Bandar Baharu, Segamat and Sabak Bernam parliamentary constituencies.

Saifuddin, the PKR secretary-general, was Machang MP; Jui Meng, who is PKR vice-president and Johor PKR chairman, joined PKR in 2009 while Abdul Aziz, a former law lecturer at the International Islamic University of Malaysia, was a new face.

PKR contested 99 parliamentary seats and won 30 seats in this general election, compared to 2008 when it contested 95 seats and won 31.

However, five PKR MPs quit the party and declared themselves Independent MPs, reducing the party's parliamentary seats to 26.

Pakatan Rakyat retained power in Selangor, Kelantan and Penang in the 13th general election.

PKR secured 14 state seats and nine parliamentary seats in Selangor, one state seat in Kelantan and 10 state seats and three parliamentary seats in Penang.

 

‘Najib may step down end of year’

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:34 PM PDT

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, still a powerful figure in Umno, told Reuters last year that Najib must improve on the 140 seats won in 2008 or his position would be unstable.

Reuters

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak could step down by the end of the year, ruling party sources said on Monday, after his coalition extended its 56-year rule but haemorrhaged Chinese and Malay voters in its worst-ever general election performance.

Najib, 59, was already under pressure from conservatives in his ruling party for not delivering a stronger majority in Sunday's election despite a robust economy and a $2.6 billion deluge of social handouts to poor families.

Najib's Barisan Nasional won 133 seats in the 222-member parliament, well short of the two-thirds majority it lost in 2008. Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat won 89 seats, up seven from the 2008 election but still well short of unseating one of the world's longest-serving governments.

"We could see Najib step down by the end of this year," said a senior official in the dominant Umno which leads the coalition.

"He may put up a fight, we don't know, but he has definitely performed worse. He does not have so much bargaining power," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, still a powerful figure in Umno, told Reuters last year that Najib must improve on the 140 seats won in 2008 or his position would be unstable.

Kuala Lumpur's stock market surged 7.8 percent on Monday to a record high on investor relief that the untested opposition had failed to take power. The Malaysian ringgit jumped to a 20-month high.

Ethnic Chinese who make up a quarter of Malaysians continued to desert Barisan Nasional, accelerating a trend seen in 2008. Alarmingly for Najib, support from majority ethnic Malays also weakened, the Umno source said, a sign that middle-class Malays are agitating for change.

"Malay unity is at stake here. Some of the Malays are rejecting Umno. That is obvious," the source said.

Anwar cries foul

Ethnic Chinese have turned to the opposition, attracted by its pledge to tackle corruption and end race-based policies favoring ethnic Malays in business, education and housing.

"We will work towards more moderate and accommodative policies for the country," a grim-faced Najib told a news conference after the majority was confirmed. "We have tried our best but other factors have happened … We didn't get much support from the Chinese for our development plans."

Barisan Nasional also failed to win back the crucial industrial state of Selangor, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, which Najib had vowed to achieve.

Voting was marred by irregularities, said Anwar, 65, a former deputy prime minister in the 1990s who was sacked after falling out with his former boss, Mahathir. His three-party opposition alliance had been optimistic of a historic victory, buoyed by huge crowds at recent rallies.

But as counting went late into Sunday night, it became clear that his fractious opposition had failed to pull off what would have been the biggest election upset in Malaysia's history.

After claiming an improbable early win, Anwar later rejected the result as "fraudulent". He had accused the coalition of flying up to 40,000 "dubious" voters, including foreigners, across the country to vote in close races. The government says it was merely helping voters get to home towns to vote.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economists expect the government to focus on fiscal consolidation after a string of populist pre-election handouts. They expect cuts to fuel subsidies in the second half and a consumption tax next year.

It cited some risks, however, including Umno elections in October and November when Najib may be challenged.

"Once the dust and excitement has settled, you will see that it's not only the Chinese which were siphoned off from Barisan Nasional. There was a mini-Malay wave in the urban areas against Umno," said another senior Umno official.

"In the next round of elections within Umno, you will see some dissidents emerging and asking for Najib to resign," said the official, who has held cabinet positions in government. He said Mahathir would be among those who back the dissidents.

Racial polarisation

The 2008 result signalled a breakdown in traditional politics as minority ethnic Chinese and ethnic Indians, as well as many majority Malays, rejected Barisan Nasional's brand of race-based patronage that has ensured stability but led to corruption and widening inequality.

Ethnic Chinese parties affiliated with Barisan Nasional suffered heavy losses in 2008 and were punished by voters again on Sunday. Its ethnic Chinese MCA party won just five seats, down from 15 in 2008.

That leaves Barisan Nasional dominated more than ever by ethnic Malays, who make up about 60 percent of the population, increasing a trend of racial polarisation in the country.

The benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index hit a lifetime high of 1,826.22, with stocks linked to the coalition and its favored tycoons gaining handsomely.

Malaysia's second-largest lender by assets, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, rose 8.8 percent. Its chief executive, Nazir Razak, is Najib's brother. Hospitals operator IHH Healthcare Bhd added 6.7 percent and energy services firm SapuraKencana Petroleum Bhd jumped 8.9 percent.

Australia's Lynas Corp Ltd, which is building the world's largest rare earths plant outside China in Malaysia, jumped 13 percent.

"There was a concern that the opposition would move fairly quickly against Lynas given that there were a number of groups actively protesting against the plant," said Michael McCarthy, chief market strategist at CMC Markets in Sydney.

 

DAP now the second largest party in Malaysia

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:29 PM PDT

(BERNAMA) - DAP secured over 70% of the total number of parliamentary seats it contested in the 13th general election, winning 38 of the 51 seats as party adviser Lim Kit Siang made an inroad into the Barisan Nasional's stronghold of Johor.

At the Gelang Patah parliamentary seat in Johor, Lim ousted former menteri besar Abdul Ghani Othman by securing a 14,762-vote majority.

Party insiders attributed this, among others, to the high voter turnout of 89.1% at the constituency compared with the nationwide estimate of between 70% and 80% announced by the Election Commission.

Lim's success was also due to the backing of the Chinese voters in the constituency.

Besides Gelang Patah, DAP candidates also won Kluang, Bakri and Kulai, but lost in Labis and Tanjong Piai.

In the 12th general election in 2008, DAP won 28 parliamentary seats.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng retained his Bagan parliamentary constituency with a 34,159-vote majority, Air Puteh state seat with over 7,700-vote majority. Penang Barisan Nasional chaiman Teng Chang Yeow announced his resignation within hours after poll results were announced by taking full responsibility over the failure to wrest the state from Pakatan Rakyat.

In Kuala Lumpur, DAP won all five parliamentary seats the party contested, namely in Kepong, Segambut, Bukit Bintang, Seputeh and Cheras.

In Perak, all its seven candidates won with a comfortable margin of votes in most of the Chinese majority parliamentary seats of Taiping, Ipoh Timor, Ipoh Barat, Batu Gajah, Beruas, Kampar and Telok Intan.

Selangor also saw DAP maintain its grip on Puchong (Gobind Singh Deo), PJ Utara (Tony Pua) and Klang (Charles Santiago). Newcomer Ong Kian Ming also managed to ward off BN's Yap Pian Hon.

In Malacca, DAP's Sim Tong Him retained the Kota Melaka parliamentary seat, but failed in its bid for Alor Gajah constituency via Damian Yeo Shen Li, while Seremban and Rasah remained in the party's grasp.

In Sabah, DAP won in Kota Kinabalu and Sandakan, but failed in Sepanggar and Putatan.

While voters in Sarawak, especially in Bandar Kuching, Stampin, Lanang, Sarikei and Sibu, picked DAP candidates as their representatives in Parliament, those in Mas Gading, Serian, Mukah, Kapit, Bintulu and Lawas constituencies chose the BN.

 

A politician under siege

Posted: 05 May 2013 02:22 PM PDT

For Najib, events that will come next will overtake him as he stands utterly alone, powerless and unable to do anything to save himself.

CT Ali, FMT

Najib Tun Razak's curse is that everything came too easy for him. Born with a silver spoon and into a life of privilege, he did not want for anything. He was the son of Malaysia's second prime minister and nephew of the third.

At the age of 23, with the memory of his father's recent death still fresh in the mind of all of us, Najib won election unopposed as MP for Pekan. At 25, he was appointed a deputy minister and at 29 became the Pahang menteri besar.

He married at the age of 23, divorced 11 years later and married again.

He became deputy to prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi because his name came up every time Pak Lah prayed for divine guidance in his choice for a deputy. Divine help for Najib if you insist!

Having become a deputy to Pak Lah, Najib profited from Dr Mahathir Mohamad's spiteful and relentless pursuit to oust Pak Lah.

Everything came too easily for Najib. At each juncture he was the victim of circumstances as events overtook him. He was never the master of his own destiny. Najib was always content to allow the tide to take him anywhere, and eventually the tide took him to Seri Perdana.

For Najib the alignment of the stars converged in April 2009 when a beleaguered Abdullah, having had enough of Umno's politics, handed the prime ministership to Najib without so much as a whimper.

Abdullah was a man for whom the giving up of political power was something he could do with ease because his commitment to Allah was greater.

So with no great effort on his part Najib found himself as the prime minister of Malaysia and by his side he had the formidable (both physically and in her determination to be the better half of their partnership) Rosmah Mansor: An asset to any man who would want his life partner to ride shotgun in his life's adventures.

Now after so much success in his life, Najib is about to find out that with great success also comes great failures. And like everything in his life, Najib is finding out that failure too comes easily to him.

Politics of opportunism

We are familiar with Najib's political trajectory. It peaked when he was picked by Abdullah as his deputy – not when he became prime minister.

I say this because after he was picked by Abdullah to be deputy prime minister, Najib did not conduct himself with honour as Pak Lah's deputy. Muhyiddin deserted Pak Lah in his hours of greatest need. Najib too did the dishonourable thing.

As in countless times before, Najib allowed himself to be carried away by the politics of opportunism. He allowed himself to be used by Mahathir to oust Pak Lah.

What he also now finds is that he is in a position where he must be the master of his own destiny.

He has run out of tides to ride, the sea is becalmed and he has to make his own waves if he is to be carried onwards towards his next destination after this slim, slim win yesterday.

It is quiet obvious that Najib is all at sea in trying to do this by himself.

Nothing in his time in politics had prepared him for what is to come. And it shows! For the millions of Malaysians what Najib need first to clarify beyond reproach is his involvement (or not) with the tragic death of Altantuya Shaaribuu. How did Najib deal with this?

READ MORE HERE

 

Malaysia's Barisan Ekes Out Diminished Win

Posted: 05 May 2013 01:48 PM PDT

Racial lines harden as corrupt electoral rules trump desire for change

Asia Sentinel 

Malaysia's ruling Barisan Nasional won a bitter and disputed election Sunday, taking 133 seats in the 222-member national parliament to 89 for the opposition Pakatan Rakyat while at the same time the three-party opposition appears to have narrowly won the popular vote by a 50-49 margin. 

As expected, gerrymandering and misallocation of seats provided the Barisan with its margin of victory in the parliament -- what William Case, a professor in the Department of Asian and International Studies and former director of the Southeast Asia Research Center at City University of Hong Kong, called "grievous forms of gerrymandering and malapportionment, a partisan use of civil servants and state resources, extensive vote-buying, off-the-cuff development grants, a badly distorted electoral roll, a pliable election commission, a misrepresentative first-past-the-post system, an absurdly abused media, and a worrying usage of goons."

Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim held a press conference following the vote, which recorded a historic turnout of more than 80 percent, to say "irregularities" had cost his Pakatan coalition numerous seats which it lost by narrow margins. There was considerable change as Anwar's coalition dominated urban areas, with Pakatan Rakyat picking up 21 seats from the Barisan but losing 15, an indication of the dramatic swing among Chinese voters away from the Barisan.

Anwar said he would refuse to accept the verdict unless the Election Commission deals with widespread complaints of voter fraud, which is highly unlikely since the election commission is a unit of the prime minister's office.

The Barisan took back the northern state of Kedah from the opposition on the strength of the candidacy for chief minister of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's son Mukhriz, and managed to defend itself in Perak, which the opposition won in 2008 but lost when three opposition party members switched to independent after the vote. That leaves Pakatan with three of the country's most populous and richest urban states, by a two-thirds margin in each. The coalition also made inroads in the UMNO stronghold of Johor, where venerable Democratic Action Party leader Lim Kit Siang won a seat.

The Barisan followed a strategy that exacerbated what was already a growing divide between majority ethnic Malays, who make up 60.1 percent of the population, and the wealthier, urban Chinese, who make up about 25 percent. In a word, the racial divide is now a chasm, with the country seemingly having abandoned the historic racial mix of ethnic Malay, Indian and Chinese parties that had ruled the country since independence for 56 years. And with the Chinese dominating private investment, outside government-linked companies, that raises questions where the private economy goes from here.

The question is now whether Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak can retain his seat at the top of the party and the government. Mahathir, who remains a kingmaker at age 87, told reporters earlier that Najib had to improve on the 140 seats the Barisan Nasional won in 2008. His protege, deputy premier Muhyiddin Yassin, has been widely rumored to be after Najib's job. It was Mahathir who in 2009 engineered the departure of Najib's predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, after the coalition's poor showing in 2008.

If Muhyiddin takes over, there are questions whether Najib's 1Malaysia Economic Transformation Program, which included doing away with some of the affirmative action programs that give privilege to ethnic Malays, will survive.

The election was dogged by charges of ghost voting, vote-buying and outright intimidation. Police recorded more than 2,000 incidents of various kinds of violence. In the waning moments of the campaign, Najib issued US$2.6 billion worth of handouts to his ethnic Malay base.

The two Barisan Chinese parties have almost totally collapsed, with the Malaysian Chinese Association seats in the national coalition falling from 15 to six. In an indication of just how badly the drubbing was, the MCA was contesting 37 national seats and 90 seats in state assemblies but won only 10. Gerakan fell to one seat from to two. By contrast, the Democratic Action Party, the ethnic Chinese component of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition, won 38 seats, up 10 from 2008.

The Malaysian Indian Congress fared somewhat better, taking four of the nine seats it contested.

The hoped-for surge of middle-class Malays for Anwar's Parti Keadilan Rakyat didn't happen, with the party taking 30, down one from the previous election. Parti Islam se-Malaysia's strategy to moderate its religious views also seems not to have much of an impact. PAS's total fell by two seats, to 21. In the state of Negeri Sembilan, where PAS was expecting to improve, it lost all 10 of the seats it contested.

The seven seats the opposition coalition picked up were all in the East Malaysia states of Sabah and Sarawak.

Read more at: http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5392&Itemid=178 

 

A stronger Islamic flavour after GE13?

Posted: 05 May 2013 01:33 PM PDT

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif7t4pLzKoh-QAtdYW52Zc7VFBPW1GrdKHcstACMif4yWGkbATu5QgYm1mZqV-p2IJWNcNpuwj9DKNlNQ-bH5B6aIoL3MmqAx1JgXTa7F7Shx38IegYCaGPg0q3wxy-1DrY8NhDMGSXdcx/s400/sinar.JPG

Contrary to popular understanding and believe, DAP and MCA are not the main obstacle to Malaysia turning into an 'Islamic State' –making Shariah supreme. It is UMNO.  

Anas Zubedy

Ulama Bukan Penentu
Tiada Jaminan Ulama Menang
Ulama Beri Saingan Sengit
Berkempen, Berdakwah
PRU 13 Satu Jihad Perkasa Islam
Calon Ulama Beri Kelebihan
Dekati Pengundi Masjid
Ulama Imbangi Pentadbiran
PRU13 Penentu Hala Tuju Akidah Umat Islam
Ulama Lebih Mendekati Masyarakat
Empat Ulama Bertanding di Perlis

The above are headlines taken from Sinar Harian 29th April, 2013. While the front page reads, " Ulama Bukan Penentu" and the editorial "Tiada Jaminan Ulama Menang", all the cover stories inside the daily suggest otherwise. I wanted to post this article earlier but each time I talk about Islam and politics in Malaysia many were quick to suggest that I do so because I want to scare away the non-Muslim voters. As such, I decided to post this letter only after the elections, today after 5 pm, May 5th.

That Malaysia will turn more and more 'Islamic' is a foregone conclusion. I will share two main reasons for this; one being local while the other, global.

In Malaysia today, the Muslim majority are giving birth more than the rest. Owing to this rate, by 2050 the Muslims should occupy about 70 % of Malaysia as compared to the current 60. A recent survey about young Muslims aged 15 to 25 years old in Malaysia published on the website of Merdeka Centre reports that more than 70% of them aspire to adopt the Islamic way of life as part of theirs and desire to see the society move forward in the same manner. These statistics I am putting forth are more than just numbers; they indicate where Malaysians are heading and how that journey is re-shaping our nation.

At the global front, while by the 80s and early 90s communism and nationalism being two of the forces obstructing world dominion by the USA were no longer in position to post any challenge to Washington, the Iranian revolution of 1979 thrust Islam to the fore both in national and international politics. A decade later, 1989 saw the Mujahideen's victory over Soviet Russia in the Afghanistan. This success showed that Muslim resistance by a small, organised, determined and united group of faithful can resist and defeat a superpower.

A new kind of confidence and consciousness were injected within the Muslim world.  Muslim revivalism that started in the nineteenth century experienced a new vitality.  Muslims especially the young re-thought, reflected, and brought back to life their rich and forgotten history into present memory rekindling the spirit of their own golden era.

Furthermore, events in the Middle-East especially the treatment of Palestinians by Israel and its allies and the double standard practice by the West towards Muslim nations serve as a constant fuel in increasing Muslim consciousness. Muslims today see and want Islam to be a possible alternative in managing people and the nation. Malaysian Muslims too share these ideals.

As Malaysia move slowly but surely towards Islam, we must ask ourselves what face of Islam do we want to create. Whether the Muslim direction is led by:
  1. UMNO in the current BN framework, or.
  2. PAS within the PAKATAN partnership, or
  3. Perhaps a new UMNO-PAS hybrid – led by UMNO,
  4. A new PAS-UMNO hybrid – led by PAS, or,
  5. A totally new entity in the future.
 
GE 13 and the various possibilities

The results of the GE13 can play a significant role in making the move towards 'Islam' is hasten or slowed. It will also determine which shade of Islam will colour the nation and which of the above 5 equations will evolve.

Read more at: http://letusaddvalue.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-stronger-islamic-flavour-after-ge13.html 

 

GE13: Chandra - Significant Chinese vote swing has implications

Posted: 05 May 2013 12:48 PM PDT

http://starstorage.blob.core.windows.net/archives/2013/5/6/nation/ge13-Chandra-Muzaffar-A.jpg 

"This is a great pity because we are a multi-ethnic society. No MCA representation in the government would be a setback to the multi-ethnic and kongsi (share) policies we believe in," he told The Star.

The significant swing in Chinese votes towards Pakatan Rakyat has several implications as the country moves forward in the aftermath of an extremely tense 13th general election, said Dr Chandra Muzaffar.

The International Movement for Just World (JUST) president said the overwhelming Chinese preference for DAP had resulted in a lack of community representation in the new Barisan Nasional government.

He pointed out that MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek had said the party would not take up any government posts if its performance worsened from the 2008 general election.

It had won 15 parliamentary seats in 2008, while at press time, the MCA won just eight seats this time.

"This is a great pity because we are a multi-ethnic society. No MCA representation in the government would be a setback to the multi-ethnic and kongsi (share) policies we believe in," he told The Star.

Dr Chandra believed that there would be a strong backlash from the Malay community as well, saying that many of them believed that Barisan chairman and Umno president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had "bent over backwards" to win Chinese hearts in the past five years.

He said this could in turn affect Najib's position within Umno itself, as his efforts to woo the Chinese had not yielded the hoped-for results.

Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute CEO Tan Sri Michael Yeoh said the big swing in Chinese voters towards DAP had occurred because they believed Barisan would be booted out of office.

Calling it a "Chinese tsunami", he said it was quite clear the results showed greater racial polarisation with the rural Malays moving largely back to Umno as well.

"What's important is that there has to be some form of healing for the nation. We must bring the people back together again in the next several months," he said.

International Islamic University of Malaysia professor Datuk Seri Dr Syed Arabi Idid hoped that MCA would not relinquish its representation in the Government.

He felt the strong Chinese swing was not so much about racial polarisation but was based on issues.

"Moving forward, Barisan should address some issues of national interest that cut across all political parties and resolve them together with the opposition," he said, adding that Najib's message of national reconciliation was a very positive stand.

 

In GE13, BN wins Malay heartland, Pakatan the cities

Posted: 05 May 2013 12:46 PM PDT

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/images/uploads/2013/may2013/bn-may6.jpg 

(TMI) - There are two Malaysias. One from the Malay heartland that swung back to Barisan Nasional (BN) on Datuk Seri Najib Razak's 1 Malaysia campaign to retake Kedah and run the country despite a smaller federal majority in Election 2013.

The other is a multiracial Malaysia that gave more votes, federal and state seats to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) especially in cities and towns, reflecting the growing rural-urban divide of a fast-developing nation.

The record 80 per cent turnout from the 12.9 million voters eligible to cast their ballots in yesterday's general election and close results in BN victories reveal hardcore support for either coalitions, firming the idea of a two-party system in Malaysia.

And the divided loyalties of the majority Malays between being grateful to BN that has developed Malaysia in its 56 years of unbroken rule or taking the promise of equity from three parties campaigning against cronyism and corruption that they blame on the ruling coalition. In the end, BN won 133 federal seats and Pakatan took 89.

"I think they were taken in by some of the undertakings given by the opposition... and that's why there was that swing.... and a lot of sentiments there, some of them racial in nature, that were being played up in this election, which is not very healthy for this country," Najib told reporters at the Umno headquarters early this morning, shortly after a simple majority victory cemented BN's place in Putrajaya.

"I expected it but I did not expect it to this extent. None of us expected it to this extent. But despite the extent of the swing against us, BN did not fall," he added.

Read more at: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/in-ge13-bn-wins-malay-heartland-pakatan-the-cities/ 

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

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