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Coalitions running neck and neck, survey shows
Malaysian Chinese may drop Najib as fear of riot repeat ebbs
Mat Taib – a prize that comes at a price
A valley divided

Coalitions running neck and neck, survey shows

Posted: 25 Apr 2013 09:18 PM PDT

"It's very close, not more than 5 per cent. No party can say it will win," said the centre's director Mohammad Redzuan Othman, declining to say who was ahead or provide precise numbers.

Carolyn Hong, ST

THE ruling Barisan Nasional and opposition Pakatan Rakyat are running neck and neck in the lead up to Malaysia's May 5 polls, a survey by Malaysia's oldest university showed, as both sides raised their campaign tempo with nine days to go to the election.

The survey by University of Malaya's Centre for Democracy and Elections found both coalitions to have over 40 per cent support, with a slight margin.

"It's very close, not more than 5 per cent. No party can say it will win," said the centre's director Mohammad Redzuan Othman, declining to say who was ahead or provide precise numbers.

"There is a long way to go."

Besides, he added, things change too fast in an election to state with any certainty.

The survey, which polled 1,047 voters in Peninsular Malaysia from April 3 to last Saturday, found that 9 per cent said they were still undecided. They were mostly Malay civil servants and teachers who are first-time voters.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Najib Razak and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim criss-crossed Malaysia as the campaign intensified. Mr Najib was in his home constituency of Pekan in Pahang for the second day while Mr Anwar headed to Bentong in the same state to campaign for environmentalist Wong Tack, who is up against Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai.

Since Nomination Day on April 20, there has been a spate of violent incidents.

In George Town, Penang, police picked up three suspects in connection with a minor blast at a BN rally on Tuesday. The men were between 21 and 45 years of age.

In the Tuesday incident, a home-made bomb planted in a pile of garbage behind the main stage at a Gerakan event went off and injured a man.

In Perak yesterday, a molotov cocktail was hurled into a BN operations centre near Buntong.

Although both coalitions were neck and neck in the University of Malaya survey conducted a week ago, Professor Redzuan said things can change very rapidly.

In 2008, he said, it was only in the last three to four days - after a mega-opposition rally took place in Penang, that the PR gained the momentum that propelled it to unprecedented gains.

"Things are still very dynamic. A five percentage point swing can make a lot of difference," Prof Redzuan said.

More than 13 million people are eligible to vote in the May 5 polls.

Malaysian Chinese may drop Najib as fear of riot repeat ebbs

Posted: 25 Apr 2013 07:45 PM PDT

Chinese, who make up about a quarter of Malaysia's population, are growing intolerant of affirmative-action programs for Malays propagated by Najib's alliance of parties, the most recent national poll indicates. Any mass defection by Chinese voters raises the risk of the ruling coalition's first election loss since it was formed after 1969 race riots.

Daniel Ten Kate, Bloomberg

Malaysian businessman Stanley Thai says he's joining thousands of fellow ethnic Chinese citizens in abandoning support for Prime Minister Najib Razak and voting for the opposition for the first time in elections next month.

"Why are the Chinese against the government -- it's simple," Thai, 53, owner of medical glove-maker Supermax Corp. (SUCB), said in an interview last month. "We don't want our children to suffer what we suffered, deprived from education, from career opportunities, from business opportunities."

The violence of 1969 helped persuade many Chinese to back Barisan Nasional, which Najib has led since 2009, as they accepted racial preferences for Malays as the cost of peace. Thai said thinking changed when the government's electoral take sank in 2008 with little sign of renewed social unrest. "Everyone said, 'Wow, the time has come,'" he said.

Now, the opposition, led by Anwar Ibrahim, sees the end of race-based policies that have hindered companies such as Supermax as key to long-term economic growth. Najib counters that his gradual reform of the affirmative-action programs will assure stability and avert a slide in stocks and the ringgit that would accompany any opposition victory.

Vision Contest

"It's a contest ultimately about visions -- do you believe the country is Malay-centered or a state of all its citizens?" said Clive Kessler, emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, who has studied Malaysian politics for half a century. "Najib no longer has adequate non-Malay support," said Kessler, who estimates the ruling coalition must win about two-thirds of Malay votes to stay in power.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index (FTSEMIB), which has lagged other Southeast Asian benchmarks this year, gained 0.3 percent today to close at a record high. The ringgit advanced for a third day, the longest rally in three weeks, on speculation further monetary easing in Japan and Europe will boost demand for emerging-market assets.

Anwar's Group

About half of Malaysia's 29 million people are Malays, while roughly a quarter have Chinese roots and the rest are mostly ethnic Indians or indigenous groups. One in five ethnic Chinese think the country is headed in the right direction, compared with 75 percent of Malays, according to a February survey by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research, the most recent available.

In 2008, the ruling 13-party Barisan Nasional coalition won by its slimmest margin since it was formed, with three Chinese parties losing half their parliamentary seats. Anwar's own multi-racial coalition, which includes a Chinese-majority party and a mostly Malay party that advocates Shariah law in criminal matters, has pledged to eliminate race-based policies to fight corruption.

"What we're seeing with the implementation of the policy is enormous rent-seeking and patronage and corruption," said Edmund Terence Gomez, a professor at University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur who edited a book on the affirmative-action program. "The electoral trends clearly indicate that Malaysians are saying they've had enough of race-based politics."

Malay Preferences

In 1969, Malaysia suspended parliament for more than a year after race riots in the wake of a close election killed hundreds of people. Abdul Razak, Najib's father, then initiated the racial preferences in 1971 as the country's second prime minister.

The New Economic Policy sought to raise the share of national wealth to at least 30 percent for Malays and indigenous groups known as Bumiputera, or "sons of the soil," that make up about 60 percent of the population. They got cheaper housing and quotas for college places, government contracts and shares of listed companies.

While Najib has tweaked the policy for publicly traded firms and extended benefits to poorer members of all races, many other elements remain intact. Malaysia favors Bumiputera companies in awarding contracts from the government and state- owned enterprises, the U.S. Trade Representative wrote in a March report.

"We don't play the racial card -- we play a moderate Malaysia, an inclusive Malaysia and we're talking about power sharing," Najib said in an April 17 interview. "That's the kind of storyboard that we are trying to convince the Malaysian Chinese."

College Rejection

Thai, whose father fled China in 1949 during the Communist takeover, is dubious. After growing up on a farm with 13 siblings in Johor, which borders Singapore, he failed to gain entry to a university where Malays received priority and moved to Canada to get a college degree. On his return, he built a business aimed at exporting rubber gloves to avoid restrictions on selling within Malaysia.

Supermax, the nation's third-largest medical glove-maker, now exports 24 billion gloves a year, said Thai, whose holdings in the company are worth about $93 million. For years he and other Chinese entrepreneurs were wary of publicly speaking out about corruption in the 42-year-old affirmative action program due to concerns of reprisals.

Fear Factor

"We have been brainwashed from Day 1," Thai said. "We were born and bred with fear and threats by our own government."

Mahathir Mohamad, who ruled from 1981 to 2003 and was Malaysia's longest-serving leader, alluded to those fears in a blog post this month urging Chinese voters in Johor to back the government. An opposition win would undermine the racial balance the Barisan Nasional aimed to achieve, he wrote.

"An unhealthy racial confrontation would replace Sino- Malay cooperation which has made Malaysia stable and prosperous," Mahathir wrote.

Najib said in last week's interview that his pursuit of gradual change would avoid the upheaval that engulfed the Middle East after longstanding governments collapsed. An opposition win could trigger "catastrophic ruin" that would cause stocks and the currency to plunge, he warned.

'Still Complaining'

Chinese parties in Barisan Nasional are urging voters to stick with the government to promote social justice and warning that the Malay parties in the opposition will seek to impose Islamic laws. Malays and other indigenous groups owned 22 percent of share capital at limited companies in 2008, compared with 35 percent for Chinese, according to the most recent government statistics.

"The Chinese feel that the government has not done enough for them, but the same can be said of the Indians and the Malays," said Wilfred Yap, an official with the Chinese- majority Sarawak United People's Party, which is part of Najib's coalition. "They are still complaining that the Chinese still control a big chunk of the economy," he said, referring to the Malay and Indian populations.

Meantime, Anwar's alliance is emulating Barisan Nasional's original formula by promoting policies that seek to unite races and religions, according to Liew Chin Tong, a lawmaker with the Chinese-majority Democratic Action Party, one of three in the opposition coalition.

"They are suffering now because they are now only focusing on the Malay votes," Liew said in an interview last month, referring to the government. "With Mahathir playing the racist card, they are speaking to only the Malay audience in the hope to push the Malay vote up to 65 percent."

Mat Taib – a prize that comes at a price

Posted: 25 Apr 2013 02:50 PM PDT

Not all in PAS liked the idea of the controversial Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib joining the party but he has helped a lot of people during his time as Selangor Mentri Besar and he wins votes for PAS in rural seats.

The positive way of looking at it is that PAS is willing to forgive and accept its enemies. The negative take is that PAS is an opportunist and will do anything in its quest for power. But it is always good to look on the light side of things Mat Taib is the flavour of the month for PAS. The party will parade him around Selangor like a prized trophy from now until May 4 never mind if the trophy is somewhat chipped.

Joceline Tan, The Star

"MIKE Tyson" or Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib made his first appearance on the PAS stage in Shah Alam earlier this week.

The former Umno leader drew quite a big crowd because many people are curious about this once most powerful man in Selangor joining PAS.

His joining forces with PAS at this crucial political juncture has not been the knockout punch that PAS had hoped it would be, but it has been the talk of Selangor and it will have some impact.

Mat Taib, as the former Selangor Mentri Besar is also known, has appeared at PAS ceramah in several places in Selangor. Tonight, he is scheduled to speak in Tanjung Karang.

But those hoping to understand his actions will be disappointed. His speaking appearances at PAS ceramah have been bland, to say the least. At each of these ceramah, he spoke for barely 20 minutes and seemed anxious to make a quick getaway.

He has yet to subscribe to the PAS dress code of jubah and kopiah, but the once immaculately groomed man now looks a little out of sorts.

He turned up for a press conference at the PAS headquarters on Tuesday unshaven and looking a little uncomfortable because he is in unfamiliar territory. His hair has turned completely silver but he is still in good shape.

Journalists had flocked to the press conference hoping for answers. Mat Taib arrived with another former Umno politician Tamrin Ghafar and said that he had to leave immediately because he had an "emergency meeting" and quickly left. Tamrin was left to read out a press statement urging more Umno members to follow Mat Taib in joining PAS.

Until today, no one can quite explain why he is doing this. Had he been younger, it would have been explained as mid-life crisis or an attempt to reinvent himself.

But he is 65, extremely wealthy and has lived a life that most people could only dream of. His friends in Umno see it as the behaviour of a bitter old man.

In an exclusive interview with Sinar Harian on Wednesday, he came across as disjointed, unsure and lacking conviction about why he had quit one party for another.

But piecing together bits and pieces gathered from his ceramah and public statements, his action could be roughly summed up as wanting to unite and strengthen the Muslims and to be a beacon in Islam.

He is also unhappy about the liberal lifestyle he sees around him especially in Selangor. He is not interested in returning to politics or political posts and he wants to follow the right path in Islam.

Mat Taib dropped out of the political scene after losing in the contest for the Umno deputy president's post in 2009. His friends said he felt let down by the party and had decided to devote his time to religion, spending time in the surau.

He has certainly made a grand return into the public eye. News of his recruitment was timed to give PAS a much needed edge in Selangor.

It was PAS' way of telling Selangoreans that even this former Umno big gun regards PAS as the better party.

He has helped many people in the state and PAS is hoping these people would remember what he has done for them and give their vote to PAS. They believe Mat Taib can make a difference in marginal seats where PAS is struggling for the Malay vote.

"People in Tanjung Karang have been talking about him speaking there. There will be impact," said a Selangor PAS member.

Mat Taib was a popular Mentri Besar and also a controversial one. He eloped with a Selangor princess and his career crashed when he was detained in Australia's Gold Coast for not declaring a large amount of cash that he was carrying.

PAS and DAP had targeted him throughout his career, accusing him of everything from alleged corruption to cronyism. Not everyone in PAS is comfortable about their new friend.

Many in PAS have not forgotten the bad things their party leaders used to say about Mat Taib.

They think the party should be more discriminating and that recruiting him is a contradiction of what the party stands for. The more cynical said they would not be surprised if the party tries to recruit Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo next.

The positive way of looking at it is that PAS is willing to forgive and accept its enemies. The negative take is that PAS is an opportunist and will do anything in its quest for power.

But it is always good to look on the light side of things Mat Taib is the flavour of the month for PAS. The party will parade him around Selangor like a prized trophy from now until May 4 never mind if the trophy is somewhat chipped.

A valley divided

Posted: 25 Apr 2013 02:46 PM PDT

There are two clear sections in the Lembah Pantai parliamentary constituency where the approach taken by the candidates can either be appealing or inconsequential.

Lembah Pantai is a valley divided, just like the nation, as we begin the countdown to the big day. The fight is close and intense, and this is best illustrated at Kampung Kerinchi where the operations centres of both sides are just next to each other.

Wong Chun Wai. The Star

WARUNG Nasi Ayam Pak Ayub is a well-known stall at the Kampung Kerinchi low-cost flats. It is here that many of the flat dwellers, mostly working-class Malays, come to have their meals, especially at night.

The conversation these days is all about elections. In urban settings, it is generally acknowledged that the voters are more likely to side the Pakatan Rakyat.

But here at these low-cost flats, which are but a short distance from many high-end apartments that have come up over the years, Barisan Nasional candidate Datuk Seri Raja Nong Chik Zainal Abidin is the hero to the lower income group.

Kampung Kerinchi is the poor section of Lembah Pantai while the urbane, affluent and fashionable is on the other side of the constituency, Bangsar.

Many speak fondly of how the Federal Territories and Urban Wellbeing Minister has been able to help them buy the low-cost flats at only RM35,000 per unit.

In the past, many had to rent the units from the City Hall but through a rental-ownership scheme, the poor have now become proud owners.

Despatch clerk Mohamed Yusuf made it clear he would vote Barisan Nasional, saying that Raja Nong Chik had cleaned up the flats, tarred the roads, made the lifts work, and has a well-run service centre to help the people.

Puffing on a kretek cigarette, he said it was not easy to survive in Kuala Lumpur with its high cost of living, and he never imagined he could own a flat.

"Raja Nong Chik made it possible, so he is the hero. My friends ask me why I won't vote Nurul Izzah. Yes, she can speak well but I have never seen her face here once ... except her face on the big billboard along the Federal Highway," he said.

Ironically, Raja Nong Chik, in fact, is ridiculed by his opponent as the "Lembah Pantai MP" for spending his time in this constituency.

PKR supporters claimed that his high-handed supporters had stopped Nurul Izzah, the incumbent MP, from entering the flats.

"There is no level playing field here. The flats are filled with BN flags because many of us cannot even get past the gates," said a worker.

There are 72,533 voters in Lembah Pantai with the Malays in the majority at 55.3%. The Chinese (22.8%), Indians (20%) and others make up the rest.

This is one constituency that has shown a sharp increase of voters in the 2008 polls, the number of voters was 56,650, and Nurul Izzah won with a 2,895-vote majority, beating Wanita Umno chief Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil.

In an interview with Malaysian Insider, political analyst Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said bread-and-butter issues were more important to the working class than "hot air" issues like human rights, freedom and democracy that only appealed to middle-class and affluent Bangsar voters.

"It is the working and lower middle-class of Lembah Pantai who shall deliver him the seat," Dr Shamsul Amri told the portal.

"In the last five years, Nurul Izzah has been a fantastic good listener, but can't give or deliver anything. Raja Nong Chik wasn't the MP, but minister; he doesn't need to make any promise, just deliver. He has delivered," added the founding director of Institute of Ethnic Studies (KITA) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM).

It will be in this part of town, where the bulk of the votes reside, that the outcome of this hotly-contested constituency will be decided. Raja Nong Chik is now seen as a serious challenger and many think that an upset could take place here.

It will be a tough fight and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has been making regular appearances at ceramah to help his eldest daughter shore up support.

But over at the upmarket eateries and pubs in Jalan Telawi, Bangsar, it is a different story altogether with BN-bashing being the order of the day.

Paul Michael, who lives in the vicinity, said he does not even need to ponder who he shall vote for come May 5.

He said his mind had been made up long ago, and that he just wanted to see the present government changed.

"Nurul Izzah is pleasant, clever and articulate. It helps that she looks good, so my choice is clear," he said, over a mug of cold beer.

His friends, all professionals including lawyers and accountants, said they were eager to punish BN for what they termed as all the wrongs in this country.

Asked if he was bothered by PAS pushing for hudud law, Michael said he did not care as he was staying in Kuala Lumpur.

"I don't care what PAS wants to do in Kelantan but over here in KL, I am just going to party and have my beer here," the 35-year-old bachelor said.

His concerns are issues like corruption, human rights, democracy, justice and freedom, which he is passionate about.

His businessman friend, however, was more guarded, saying he was worried about the outcome of the polls.

"Look, I am a businessman. I need the economy to be smooth, I don't want to see people out in the streets after polling day because some people are not happy with the results.

"If this happens, my cash flow will be hit and I will need to use my savings to pay for the wages and bills," he said.

But his friends think it is a small price to pay for change.

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Jumaat, 26 April 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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