In a few more hours, when Sibuans wake up from their sleep later, they’re going to decide who is going to be the next Sibu MP.
After more than a week of intense campaign, with so much of money promised before and some will be converted into real cash after the by-election (depending on the outcome), my pick is that, it’s going to be a very close fight and I’m afraid, the battle would be the BN’s to lose.
As much as I hope that PR is going to prevail as the winner, I’m quite concerned about the sentiment, of how the voters are going to vote with so much of promises. Some of the angpows are as good as 2 months of bonuses, and to them, that’s a lot of money.
I know some of us are going to blame them for putting a cross on BN, but as what they say, the western and eastern politics are different ball games all-together, and again, they’re not as well informed as us.
Not their fault, really.
To them, national issues are not a major concern. They just do not bother. It’s the three square meals that matter to them, in the exception of “Allah” as the only issue that will provoke them, as well as the fact that the Sarawak CM Taib Mahmud who has been in power for decades, without any sign of letting go anytime soon, hence, to conclude that the result of the by-election is going to taken as a show of approval of the PM Najib Tun Razak’s leadership, I don’t really think that’s the case.
Having said all that, even if BN is to win this by-election, there is nothing to shout for, as this battle should be a walk in the park, as many senior ministers were commenting earlier since Sibu has been BN stronghold for so many years.
However, if PR candidate Wong Ho Leng is capable to reduce the majority or to go as far as to spring a surprise by winning the battle, then SUPP, or rather BN in general, would have a lot of soul searching to do, especially when the state election in Sarawak is imminent and Taib Mahmud, together with the many over-confident BN leaders from west, would have a lot of sleepless nights, that’s for sure.
To all my Sibu friends, rise and shine tomorrow, then let’s vote with dignity.
Earlier this week, a 15-year-old Aminulrasyid Amzah was shot dead by policeman and almost instantly, this brutal killing opens up another bad chapter for the police force.
Both the Government and opposition camps are alleged to be tussling to act and represent the victim’s family, and like it or not, the dignity of the police force has once again becoming a contentious topic, hotly debated by Malaysians who’re concerned about the state of police force in this country.
According to a few reports from The Star today, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein was said to promise the public a thorough investigation while the IGP Musa Hassan assured that there will be no “cover up”.
Thorough investigation.
Sounds good.
No cover up.
Sounds fair.
But, here’s the caveat.
What really irked me is, we’ve heard of promises over and over again, with the much sought for Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC), which was recommended by the Royal Police Commission setup during the former PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s time and the significance of its establishment was completely ignored, here we’re again, debating about the same topic, and that’s after a few precious life were taken away!
Hence, when the public start to point fingers towards the BN, there are some opinions that it’s the wrongdoings shown by the police force, hence why put the blame on BN?
It’s also interesting to observe that some chose to accuse the opposition for politicizing the unfortunate event.
They say it’s the usual trait shown by the opposition to jump into conclusion and accuse the Government for not doing enough.
Here’s some simple questions.
Think about it, who recommends the appointment of IGP?
Who decides if IPCMC should be established?
Even if things are being politicized by the Opposition, the Government is reluctant to do real reform and at the rate the so-called reform is progressing now, what would you expect if no one bothers to highlight the dire situation we’re in?
How many more victims to succumb to death before the trigger-happy incidents to come to a complete end?
Or, are you expect the KPI Minister Koh Tsu Koon to tell you that the police has done a good job and that our IGP can get a score of 113.8% while crime rate has increased by 35.5% from 2004 to 2008 and that whatever crime cases you’ve heard of so far are “extraordinary” cases which is totally out of the police expectation and regardless of the police force does, there must be some innocent life to be sacrificed in vain?
Sick of telling the Government to do the right thing and feel even sicker of people who defended the police force or the Government, I guess Malaysians are a bunch of happy go lucky that shooting spree is all right, as long as their loves one are not affected.
I was in Hulu Selangor last weekend during the nomination day and it’s the first time ever I had an opportunity to be that close to the ground on nomination day, for most of the time, in previous events, I was in overseas for some official matters.
That was also the first time where I twitted the most (@skthew). I did my best to report what I saw on the ground, and whenever possible, I will take some interesting photos and published to be shared with the fellow netizens. Celcom worked fine, compared to other network providers which I heard experiencing intermittent inaccessibility due to heavy usage. Thumbs up to Celcom for the smooth experience of being a citizen journalist via the micro-blogging site.
While I’m not going to going to elaborate much the atmosphere of the event, I do have some concern with what I noticed on the ground.
No doubt a lot of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters and machinery were there to give the PR candidate Zaid Ibrahim the best ever supporte, however I can safely presume that more than 90% of them where “imported” elsewhere, around Klang Valley and as far as from Kedah. Even myself and my friends are part of the ‘imported” supporters too!
Likewise, I think it should be the same case too, where allegations are abundance they’re being paid to campaign for BN, anyway, this is the topic for another day.
Hence, although the numbers of PR supporters obviously outweighed the BN camp by a few folds, however this is not a good indication that PR enjoys the majority support from the local, afterall, Hulu Selangor has 65,000 eligible voters and the constituency is as big as the size of Melacca state. While the political tourists were happily chanting away, those that matter were working hard at palm oil farms or residing down deep in the jungle, where Orang Asli settlements can be found.
As for the local, where their votes are the most critical part to dictate who is the winner for this by-election, most of them obviously chose to stay back at their homes, prefer to peek from their windows instead of joining the carnival of sloganeering and took part in the marching to march alongside the candidate to the nomination center. Business activities were at brisk, never been that easy before and according to most of the owners, they’re not used to Kuala Kubu Bharu being turned into such a busy and crowded town.
Most of the time, when I approached them, they prefer to keep to their votes close to themselves and merely reciprocated with a smile. Who are they really going to vote for, we do not know, or not able to guess, to say the least, although camps from different sides claimed to have the upper hand.
But, one thing is extremely significant.
Today is the fifth day into the campaign and it’s already filled with so much smear campaigns. I think this is the dirtiest ever by-election I’ve witnessed so far.
Zaid was alleged to be a drinker, with doctored photos of him drinking chivas regal like he how he drinks barley making the rounds on blogs and alternative medias, followed by accusation of his “gambling habit” and god knows what is going to surface next. As usual, PR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim wasn’t spared too. He was accused of being a traitor, with banners of the accusation being displayed everywhere. Naked photos of assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong were making unexpected appearance too. Gutter politics, as what they say.
The smear tactic is so low that even Umno Youth Chief Khairy Jamaluddin denounced the campaign openly, after much chagrin from the fellow Twitters, who continue to prod him to imply the people’s voice to his party leadership. Even that, his advice wasn’t taken seriously by the grassroots members. Now, he is being implicated in a photo with interesting companions alongside him, which he furiously denied when being questioned by journalist.
Even though Umno via the Home Minister Hishamuddin Hussein denied Umno is behind the smear campaign, ex-Umno Youth Chief Khir Toyo gave a thump up to the campaign strategy so far and obviously, this move backfired when the BN candidate P Kamalanthan was accused of kissing the DPM Muhyiddin Yassin’s hand, implying that he as a MIC candidate, kowtow-ing to Umno.
He outright denied the allegation and that’s when Malaysia Today’s Raja Petra Kamarudin a.k.a RPK posted the photos of him doing just that on his blog, together with proof that he faked his academical record, which wasn’t found from the record of Edith Cowan University.
Having said all that, let’s not forget about 228 voters who are not eligible to vote in this by-election as they’ve been moved to the nearby constituency – Selayang and about 12,000 voters will find their polling stations moved elsewhere. As usual, the Election Commission (EC) denied the accusation of a dirty tactic to move them out of Hulu Selangor intentionally and did nothing much besides apologizing for not informing the voters earlier about the re-location. That’s it.
While there are still a few more days to go prior to the D-Day, we should embrace ourselves with more allegations, scandals and announcement of PR members defecting to the other side as part of the dirty tactic to gain the upper hand, as most of the voters in Hulu Selangor are semi-rural people, where internet and blogs are something new and newspapers are the only source of information and it’s the bread and butter issues that matter most.
After-all, this is the dirtiest ever by-election in this modern history and things can only gets worse until a final winner prevails. I certainly pray hard that quality candidate with PM material such as Zaid Ibrahim will not only win the by-election, but with a convincing majority to tell the BN that smear campaigns no longer work and what we, the electorate wants is nothing less than a real reform.
See you folks in Hulu Selangor this weekend, for a better Malaysia and do follow me on @skthew, for LIVE reporting from the ground zero.
Almost immediately after renowned Thai pathologist Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand was reported by Malaysiakini that she will not be testifying at the Teoh Beng Hock inquest when it resumes hearing on April 20 citing “political pressure” from the Malaysian government, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Azizjumped into a conclusion of his own.
“She is a liar! She lied in the inquest and she is lying now,” he said.
While many of us are surprised with the allegation by Nazri, as a minister who is charge of law affairs, it’s very unprofessional of him to accuse Pornthip as a liar.
Does he possess any evidence which we do not know of for him to come to the conclusion?
If yes, Nazri should have revealed all by offering himself as a witness at the inquest to prove his allegation that Pornthip has lied in court, otherwise, it’s imperative for the coroner Azmil Muntapha Abas to cite him for contempt as it’s a very serious allegation and putting Pornthip’s reputation at stake.
At the same time, the Government must initiate an investigation into the allegation of the “political pressure”, where she claims to receive “signals” from the Malaysian government through “informal channels” suggesting that her presence at the inquest later this month would not be welcomed.
Failing to do so is as good as putting more speculation towards the death of Teoh Beng Hock and not doing any good to uphold the reputation of the MACC and conspiracy stories will become even more rife. Government shouldn’t be stupid enough not to understand this, unless this is a desperate attempt to cover up the case.
Dream on.
To cover up the case in such a stupid manner is going to backfire, no two ways about it. I can already imagined how people getting riled up complaining about how TBH was killed for sure.
After months of crisis, MCA is now under the new leadership of the indisputable Chua Soi Lek.
He is not new to the local scene, indeed a household name even among those who are politically illiterate, due to his infamous sex DVD exposed a few years earlier, which later forced him to resign from all his governmental and party posts.
His story in MCA alone is more than a legend. Despite being humiliated by his own party members and his role being curtailed to the least as a party veteran, he steadily making inroad into the MCA grassroots ever since the Extraordinary General Election (EGM) in MCA last year, although his failed attempt to remove Ong Tee Keat was unsuccessful.
Just when we thought his political career was as good as over, due to the political greediness of the then VP Liow Tiong Lai and subsequently, broken pact with Tee Keat, Chua reconciled with Tee Keat and slowly plotting his next move from there, as soon as the likes of Tiong Lai and his camp urging the party to go for a new AGM to vote for new leadership.
Thanks to Tee Keat, who was seen as an arrogant leader and expects others to follow his way of doing things, he screwed it up, trailing last in the contest, whereas for Tiong Lai, I can only say that he is lucky enough to defeat Kong for the deputy president post, otherwise he would be defeated for good too.
Once again, it shows that patience is virtue in politics. Like it or not, MCA is now helmed by one of the main actor in sex DVD. Whether Chua is going to be an asset or a liability to the BN as a whole, the next by-election in Ulu Kelang would be the next biggest acid test for him.
If it’s a setback for the BN, like it or not, Umno will find an easy way out by pointing fingers towards the newly appointed president for tarnishing the BN reputation due to his tainted moral conduct.
Then again, even if he survives this round, there is no guarantee that he is going to do well in the next battles, externally or internally as the party is now split into 3 factions from his predecessors.
Though he has proven over the time that he can turn the situation into his favor and his flawless maneuver not to be underestimated, but one thing for sure, his sex skill will continue to be a hot topic and manipulated to its best by the PR in many battles to come.
Blame it on yourself, Chua Soi Lek, but let’s hail all the MCA delegates who voted him, for this, I thank them for that.
The frog Zahrain Mohd Hashim, who claimed he wasn’t part of the shit which PKR got rid of recently and he was being removed because he is clean, dropped another bombshell in the parliament today.
He alleged in the Dewan Rakyat that the MPs from Kalabakan (Datuk Abdul Ghapur Sallehs), Kimanis (Datuk Anifah Aman), Kinabatangan (Datuk Bung Moktar Radin), Tawau (Dr Chua Soon Bui), Sepanggar (Eric Majimbun), Batu Pahat (Datuk Dr Puad Zakarshi), Jerantut (Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Ibni Sultan Abu Bakar) and Gua Musang (Tengku Razaleigh) were set to cross over, as reported by The Star.
Anifah Aman is the current Foreign Minister while Tengku Razaleigh is one of the Umno veteran who recently spoke out against the federal government for the oil royalty payment to Kelantan state.
I like this.
Let’s us continue to prod Zahrain to reveal more, little by little for Malaysians love juicy stories, especially with topics with related to our latest political scene, which otherwise would be dull with the classic sodomy case and the many Malaysia sloganeering.
Recently, the Penang state government under the leadership of CM Lim Guan Eng has adopted the caring society concept such as giving RM100 rebate for water bills of poor families, aid for natural disaster including fire victims and micro-credit for petty traders.
Unfortunately, this populist move is not welcomed by everyone, when the Penang state Gerakan Youth wants the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC) to investigate the Penang government’s move to reward senior citizens with RM100 cash annually under its senior citizen appreciation programme.
The catch, which apparently infuriated the state Gerakan Youth chief was the fact that there was public perception that the handout was a form of corruption since the aid was only given to senior citizens who are registered voters in Penang.
In answering the allegation, the CM said the sole reason for such a requirement was that the state wanted to ensure that only Penang-based residents were entitled to receive the money and welcomes the MACC to investigate the state government.
“If we do not screen the applicants by ensuring that they are registered voters here, everybody can simply apply for it although they may not be based in Penang. They can just be working here but voting elsewhere,” he said.
Here you go, good enough to show how desperate the Gerakan is, hoping to recoup Penang in the next GE where its former president Lim Keng Yaik who headed the party for 27 years, believes that Gerakan has lost Penang for good.
Keng Yaik is right. If that’s the quality of leaders in Gerakan, let’s not even talk about the attempt to capture Penang, when even the survivability of the party within the BN coalition is a huge concern.
By the way, in case if Gerakan doesn’t know (after been helming Penang for a few decades!), as far as dollar sign is concern, to question the state government of giving out cash to the Penangites, is as good as committing political suicide, where I don’t even have to be in politics to understand this.
Chua Soi Lekannounced his resignation as the deputy president together with seven of his supporters in the central committee, in a move that will pave the way for fresh party polls.
Earlier, vice president Liow Tiong Lai led a team of 12 other CC members who resigned last December in a bid to push for fresh party polls.
With the new total of 21 resignations, or two-thirds of the central committee, it will now be enough under the MCA Constitution to trigger new elections which must be held within a month.
All hail the porn star, he is indeed a master tactician, after taking a free ride on MCA president Ong Tee Keat’s back.
The entire scenario merely proves that, in politics, regardless of the dire situation you’re in, patience is virtue and this is exactly one of the main character which Liow must learn to master if he intends to move up the rank within the party for many years to come, provided that he is not being power greedy and MCA remains one of the vital partner in the BN coalition.
In conclusion: CSL quits. OTK screwed. MCA kaput.
Nevertheless, doesn’t matter if this is for the party or their own self-interest, as far as I’m concerned, it’s definitely not in the interest of all anak bangsa Malaysia who happened to be borned as a Chinese in this country, who have stopped supporting the party since ages ago, besides feeling really ashamed by this ugly episode.
Bagan Serai member of parliament Mohsin Fadzli Samsuri has today announced his decision to quit PKR to become an Independent MP, as reported by Malaysiakini.
He decided to leave the party over his disagreement on the party’s stand on the ‘Allah’ issue.
“In the name of Allah, I would like to announce my resignation from PKR,” said Mohsin.
Here it goes, another piece of rubbish throwing itself into the dustbin over petty matter, or should I say, an excuse for more prosperity on another side?
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