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Time to elect servant leaders
The end of Machiavellianism (WITH CHINESE TRANSLATION)
Pakatan out to create a bigger tsunami
Pakatan still can't shoot straight on dissolution day
Anwar needs 20 seats, will Sabah deliver?

Posted: 05 Apr 2013 03:24 PM PDT

It is obscene that our poverty income level is set at around RM800 for an average family of 4.5 persons. We would seriously like to see politicians and their families live on RM800 a month. Many of our leaders live on RM800 a day! A meaningful assessment of poverty in our country will place the poverty income level at RM1,500-2,000 for a family of 4-5 persons. From government figures, this would mean that 30 per cent of our population are still living in poverty.

Amar-Singh HSS and Lim Swee Im, TMI

Most of us are tired of politicians. In a real and honest world a politician is one who represents the people, a very high calling, a noble profession. These are individuals willing to sacrifice much to represent the average person on the street. They are willing to forego their own interests to meet the needs of the many. They are prepared to speak up when injustice is done and to make decisions which benefit the majority of the people. These are the persons we elect, not just the party they represent, but persons of integrity.

Unfortunately, the reality is that politicians have become self-serving individuals out to get as much power and material gain as possible. Willing to subvert basic human rights and compromise on vital issues just to meet party or personal needs.

The shame of Malaysia is that despite the vast riches of our land and more than 50 years of independence, the average person is still poor. The authorities want to continue to show nice statistics on poverty reduction but those of us who work on the ground know the immense struggles of the people in the bottom 20 per cent of our society.

Our transformation plans are great for the rich and upper-middle class but are not going touch the poor. The poor in Malaysia are neglected and thrown crumbs while the rich and powerful continue to exploit them. The gap between the bottom 20 per cent and the top 20 per cent of our population has widened considerably in the past 50 years. It is obscene that our poverty income level is set at around RM800 for an average family of 4.5 persons. We would seriously like to see politicians and their families live on RM800 a month. Many of our leaders live on RM800 a day!

A meaningful assessment of poverty in our country will place the poverty income level at RM1,500-2,000 for a family of 4-5 persons. From government figures, this would mean that 30 per cent of our population are still living in poverty.

It is sad that only a tiny minority of our leaders can be said to inspire us with their lives. The majority live such lavish lifestyles that it is impossible to identify with them or appreciate that they are working for the people. That they are helping their family and friends is without a doubt. It is almost impossible to find a poor politician in power or a poor family member of a politician. That a single son of a leader can have RM1,000 million in assets is mind boggling.

In our time there are few leaders who inspire us, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the King of Bhutan (and his father before him), Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi stand out as examples.

At his installation as leader, Khesar said these remarkable words: "Destiny has put me here. I will protect you as a parent, care for you as a brother and serve you as a son. I shall give you everything and keep nothing. This is how I shall serve you as King." And, unlike our local leaders, he has lived by these words. A man of humility and one who serves, not lords it over the people; a true "servant leader".

We are not pessimistic but realistic about our situation, a situation that is not unique to Malaysia. But we are writing to ask that we move forward. Away from working for the poor in the community only when the elections are around the corner. Away from communal politics and self serving interests.

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 06:27 PM PDT

I believe that many doubts have been cleared with Najib's recent declaration (that BN won't cling on the power should they lose). The people should now be able to vote as they please without feeling threatened and stressed. And since BN has made its promise, PR should in turn make the same promise that if they lose in their states they will ensure a smooth transfer of power (especially to control some of their fanatical, over-obsessive supporters who have the potential of causing troubles).

Original text by Tay Tian Yan, Asst. Chief Editor, SinChew Daily
Translated text by Gilbert Yeoh-Tan

"Should Barisan National lose in the coming election, will they surrender their power peacefully?"

For a long time, this problem has acted like the scalpel that is left in the body of the patient after a surgery; The patient can swear that something is wrong with his body, and the surgeon can find no word to explain the situation.

If we are to remove the scalpel, we need to undergo another surgery with attached risks. And if we don't, the patient will feel the ongoing pain with possible future complications.

This is a very obvious taboo in Malaysia's politics. Nonetheless, this problem needs to be exposed to the light of democracy.

Just like many, I have more than once discussed this topics on several occasions. To tell you the truth, many will say 'no, BN will not,' whereas I am the few (maybe the only one) who will say "Yes, BN will."

Many think that BN will take all the necessary steps, including playing dirty tricks, to remain in power. According to a friend who is 'very experienced' in Malaysian politics, he stated without hesitation that BN's power in Malaysia, if not exceeds, equals that of Communist Party of China (CPC) in China. CPC is a tri-combination party, politics, and military powers, whereas BN is a penta-combination of party, politics, military, police, and economy powers.

He further argued that BN will not want to lose this cross-layer power that can in turn allow BN to win more political power even without election. This argument is based on Machiavelli's theory on powers, in which he theorized that the thirst for power would overwhelm all others and that in order to grab power politicians will do anything necessary.

This is indeed a dreadful and dangerous theory.

Many people, including politicians, may not know who Machiavelli is; some might even think that Machiavelli is a kind of Italian pasta. But, for some, Machiavelli's gene and ideas have already deeply rooted in their belief system without them knowing.

I myself am not a Machiavellianism partisan. Ever since I first started immerging myself in politics I have been resistant towards that theory. If Machiavellianism holds true, we would not have seen philosophers such as Robespierre, Baron de Montesquieu, John Milton etc. leading the fight for democracy and political freedom.

And I have always believed in the power of democracy and the function of election. The people make their final decision through election, and no authorities, including that from those who command powers, can overrule that final decision.

Democracy in Malaysia has a somewhat solid foundation. Though our election system is far from perfect, after half a century of trial, it still commands certain credibility and is an important cornerstone of our democracy.

For those who wish to challenge the people's power, they must be prepared to pay a heavy price. Just look at what Arab's spring did to the autocratic Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Ben Ali of Tunisia; though once being very powerful, they too had to bow in front of people's power.

Furthermore, Malaysia is an open country that involves heavily in international trading. So, should the government overturn the election result they will hurt the economy. And for those who benefit financially from their political powers, this will be a blow that they cannot withstand.

Hence, I believe that Machiavellianism has already left Malaysia's politics sometime ago with the stepping down of Mahathir.

For over 50 years Malaysia has been a civil government with minimal interference from the military, and this tradition must not be changed. Perhaps it is Anwar's lack of confidence in our democracy system that makes him naming several retired military figures as PKR candidates in the coming election, but I think that this is absolutely unnecessary.

I believe that many doubts have been cleared with Najib's recent declaration (that BN won't cling on the power should they lose). The people should now be able to vote as they please without feeling threatened and stressed. And since BN has made its promise, PR should in turn make the same promise that should they lose in their states they will ensure a smooth transfer of power (especially to control some of their fanatical, over-obsessive supporters who have the potential of causing troubles).

Only when both parties can make and deliver the promise will the people be free of doubt, and only by then can we take a step closer to a better democracy.

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郑丁贤‧马基维里的终结

"一旦国阵输了大选，它是否会和平交出政权?"

一向以来，这个问题，彷佛是医生动手术之后，在病人体内留下手术刀。

病人觉得不对劲，医生又难以启齿。

要取出来，得多动一次手术，不无风险；不取出来，难受之外，还要面对并发症。

这俨然是大马政治的一个禁忌。

然而，终究要摊开来，照一照民主的阳光。

我和许多人，过去多次在各种场合辩论这个题目。

不瞒你说，多数人都认为"不会＂，而我是认为"会＂的少数，或是唯一。

多数的辩者认为，国阵会尽一切的手段，包括非和平的行径，来捍卫它的政权。

一位政治阅历算是丰富的朋友振振有词说，巫统的权力组织接近中国共产党，甚至有过之无不及。中共是党、政、军的三合一，而巫统是党、政、军、警、经（济）的五合一。

这种一层叠一层的权力交错，使巫统不能失去权力，而也有能力通过非选举手段，巩固执政权。

这种观点，是以马基维里的权力理论为基础，权力的需求高于一切，政治人物为了权力，可以不择手段来达到目的。

这是一种可怕而危险的政治论述。

尽管许多人，尤其是从政者，搞不清楚马基维里是一种意大利面，还是一个意大利政治理论家；但是，马基维里的基因，却已经活潜伏在他们的价值系统。

我不是马基维里的拥护者，从接触政治理论开始，就很抗拒这种论述；如果大家都追随马基维里，那么，今天的世界应该还停留在独裁威权的时代，不会有卢骚、孟德斯鸠、弥尔顿带领民主和自由思想的诞生。

而我总是相信民主的力量，以及选举的功能。人民通过选举的决定，是最后的决定；没有其他力量，包括强势权力，可以抗拒。

大马的民主已经有一定的基础，选举制度虽然不完美，但经过半世纪的考验，有一定的公信力，也是民主进程的基石。

任何一方要否定人民力量，肯定要付出更加惨重的代价；像是茉莉花事件的人民起义，强悍如埃及的穆巴拉克，突尼西亚的本阿里，也必须俯首。

更何况，大马是一个对外开放的国家，经济依赖对外贸易和外来投资；一旦否定选举，将导致经济上的重创；而对既得利益者而言，这是他们不能承受的打击。

马哈迪之后，马基维里在大马的传人也应该告终。

大马独立超过半世纪，向来是文人政府掌权，没有军队和武力介入，这种深厚传统不容改变。

或许安华对民主缺乏信心，而引进了几位退休军方将领出任公正党的候选人，实在是没有必要。

随着纳吉的宣布，疑惑获得了解答，人民能够在没有压力，不受威胁的情况下，凭自由意志来投票。

国阵做出了承诺，同样的，民联执政的州属，如果发生政权更迭，也要确保和平转移；特别是阻止狂热分子的冒进和破坏。

双方作出承诺，信守承诺，人民解开了这个心结，民主就跨进一步。

Pakatan out to create a bigger tsunami

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 04:16 PM PDT

There are about 37.7 per cent Chinese votes in Perak and most of them support Pakatan Rakyat. However, Pakatan Rakyat needs to fight for the 48.59 per cent Malay votes to win the state and more parliamentary seats. And Anwar is the ace to attract Malay votes.

Lim Sue Goan, Sin Chew Daily

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he intends to leave Penang and contest in Perak, showing that Pakatan Rakyat has made a careful deployment for the focal states in the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

There was an announcement earlier saying that DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang will leave Perak to contest in Johor. The move was intended to create a momentum and set off a tsunami from the southern peninsula. And there must be important leaders in the north to make the deployment sound.

If Pakatan Rakyat is able to seize Johor, PAS vice-president Salahuddin Ayub is expected to be the candidate for state mentri besar.

Pakatan Rakyat has no preferred chief minister candidate in Malacca. In Negri Sembilan, however, PAS and the PKR have their respective preferred candidates, namely Seremban PKR deputy chief Dr Mohamad Rafie Abdul Malek and PAS central committee member Dr Rosli Yaakob.

Although there was a rumour earlier saying that PKR president Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail would contest in Selangor, she later decided not to contest for any seats. However, PKR deputy president Azmin Ali will continue contesting in Selangor.

After Lim Kit Siang left Perak to contest in Johor, Anwar shifted to contest in the state to stabilise the situation and fight for Malay votes, with an attempt to take revenge on the BN for seizing the state administration in February 2009.

If Anwar contests in Perak, he can help improve the winning odds of some parliamentary seats. With more parliamentary seats, there will be a greater chance to seize Putrajaya.

It is generally predicted that since Anwar is going to contest in Perak, PKR would then be Pakatan Rakyat's leading party in the state. If Pakatan Rakyat is able to win the state, the mentri besar should then be a PKR member. However, it is impossible for PAS grassroots to give up the post.

In the Perak regime change, the relationship between former state Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin and the Malay Ruler has changed and thus, it is difficult for him to be the mentri besar again.

In Penang, half of the total voters are Chinese. It is not a big problem for Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng to keep the regime.

In Kedah, Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak's performance is poor and has been receiving resistance from the state's grassroots. Therefore, it is rumoured that PAS would field its vice-president Datuk Mahfuz Omar to contest in Kedah to pave the way for the replacement of the mentri besar.

Pakatan Rakyat also has preferred mentri besar candidates in Perlis and state PAS deputy president Mohd Anuar Tahir receives the greatest support.

In a recent interview with Sin Chew Daily, Lim Kit Siang predicted that Pakatan Rakyat would be able to seize another two state regimes in the 13th general election, namely Negri Sembilan and Perlis.

Therefore, the focal states in the west coast of peninsula, together with Kelantan, Pakatan Rakyat is trying to build a "Great Wall" and if they are linked together, it might trigger a larger tsunami.

One thing that should not be forgotten is that during the 2008 general election, Anwar and Pakatan Rakyat leaders focused their election campaign activities in the west coast of the peninsula in the last few days before polling day and it resulted in a tsunami, causing a regime change in Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah, while winning 10 of the 11 parliamentary seats in Kuala Lumpur.

And now, Pakatan Rakyat is using the old trick with more energetic candidates and a more sophisticated deployment.

It seems like Pakatan Rakyat's plan to seize Putrajaya is not limited to an empty talk. The election campaign is expected to be more and more exciting.

Pakatan still can't shoot straight on dissolution day

Posted: 04 Apr 2013 03:54 PM PDT

CYNICAL fools hounded and pounded the Prime Minister for years with inane and insane bunk on why he should dissolve the Dewan Rakyat prematurely – to the Opposition's advantage of course.

Nevertheless, the misanthropic guesswork that preceded yesterday's dissolution was diabolical: Opposition leaders goaded the PM to announce D-Day on almost every quarter since 2011, hoping an earlier snap election could convert their March 8, 2008 concessions into bigger gains.

Azmi Anshar, NST

But Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak dismissed the contemptuous bait-and-switch tactics by focusing on an unstoppable momentum to further advance the nation's socio-economic fortunes that has defined his administration.

So, it was easy for him to ignore the Opposition hogwash that whined incessantly about a dissolution that didn't arrive to their convenience and one that went beyond the emblematic March 8 date.

But when he finally did yesterday, it was Najib's sentimentality that guided the decision – the live telecast to announce Parliamentary dissolution also marked the fourth anniversary of his swearing-in as PM. Who would have thought?

When Najib refused to even nibble their bait, the opposition denounced him "cowardly" but when it was obvious that Najib would look beyond March 8, his March 8 snub was "shameless."

Despite the constitutionality of his actions, Najib still endured claims of illegitimacy, no less than by the biggest cynic of them all, Lim Kit Siang.

Lim's sneers was hypocritical: if illegitimacy and not legality was the imperilled issue, then he should have ensured that the Pakatan Rakyat state governments of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan and Selangor dissolve on March 8 as a mark of "virtuous principle."

Was it a surprise that he didn't? Lim blasé argument that Najib had lost moral legitimacy and credibility after March 8 was as flaccid as his jowls. Wouldn't the status of his son the Penang chief minister and the other Pakatan mentris besar be just as morally illegitimate and incredible?

The response to Lim's cynical calculation was whooping incredulity that recognised Lim's familiar theatrics cannoning off cynical hyperbole in sound-bite loops that repeats itself to fit his self-preservation.

Like his son, Kit Siang would forever – even if he unthinkably ever held Federal power – assumed the bunker mentality of paranoid victimology that suspects lurking dissenters in every nook and corner desperate to sack them from their hypocritically dynastic high horses.

However, in the father-son tag team, their paranoia is actually valid: everywhere you go, conscientious DAP state and branch leaders have rebelled so greatly that Guan Eng will now realise that Penang is no walkover and Kit Siang risks political seppuku in Gelang Patah.

But why would Lim Kit Siang and son, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his Pas' ilk, these people bray for rule of law, hyperventilate at the thought of a Government optimising its five-year constitutional tenure?

Simple: this longest stint recorded is as long as the rope that the PKR, DAP and Pas used to hang themselves as they bicker, backstab and undercut in such juxtaposing bedlam, chronicled assiduously in 30 ways by Anwar's former lawyer, Datuk Zulkifli Noordin, in his blog.

Just a sample of Zulkifli's censure of Pakatan's daft potboilers leads to another cynical theme: anything less than the takeover of Putrajaya will deem GE13 as being fraught with fraud and irregularity.

Anwar and his minions have harped on the idea of uncontrollable street demonstrations if Pakatan fails to grab Putrajaya on the delusion that majority of Malaysians will vote for them.

In the euphoria of that delusion, Pakatan entered into a paradox of sorts when they proclaimed in their Hail Mary general election manifesto that they will ensure a free and fair election once they win Putrajaya.

Hold on! If they win, then wouldn't the general election conducted by the Election Commission be more than fair! So why keep carping on a fraud poll?

Other than Pakatan implying that they will win elections which themselves rigged, such incontinent self-flattery is the textbook excuse to justify their continued existence even after the majority voted them out fair and square.

But for the likes of Pakatan Rakyat's scandal-prone, infirmed, cynical and uncouth leaders, losing objectively and equitably is a nightmare that will truly expose their Orwellian characters and hurtle them down the road to oblivion and, heaven forbid, retirement.

Anwar needs 20 seats, will Sabah deliver?

Posted: 03 Apr 2013 03:39 PM PDT

The only person standing between Anwar Ibrahim and the Prime Minister's chair is Musa Aman.

Selvaraja Somiah, FMT

Today, the only state which stands between Anwar Ibrahim and the Prime Minister's chair is Sabah.

And the person who can "stop" Anwar from becoming the Prime Minister is Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman.

Anwar needs at least 20 parliamentary seats out of the 25 in Sabah for him to achieve his dream of becoming Malaysia's seventh premier.

But Musa controls the bulk of the parliamentary seats in Sabah. In the 2008 general election, he steered the Barisan Nasional coalition to win all but one parliamentary seat and that too without calling in any central leader from the party to the campaign trail.

Anwar-led Pakatan Rakyat and its major and minor cohorts in the media have carefully indulged in systematic campaign to character assassinate Musa.

One of the easiest slurs to assassinate the character of the person is by branding him corrupt and a womaniser.

But the argument that Musa is corrupt is shallow and the opposition front is aware of this fact.

Historically, corruption in Malaysia has always been connected to both government and opposition. Both sides are equally corrupted. But they repeatedly use the corruption card for obvious reasons.

In the present day, using the same card to discredit Musa has become over-played, and if we allow such divisive politics to succeed, we can only shudder at the future of this nation.

Victorious Musa

According to a Pakatan strategist, the coalition is pulling no stops and has created an entire "stop-Musa" machinery by roping in all sorts of activists, media persons and disgruntled Umno Sabah elements.

But if Sabah BN wins a majority of the state seats and Musa is returned as chief minister, then let no doubt remain that this will be the biggest danger to Pakatan and local players Sabah Progressive Peoples Party (SAPP) and the State Reform Party (STAR).

READ MORE HERE

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Sabtu, 6 April 2013

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

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