Pakatan Rakyat Online

Weather forecast: Tsunami in Sarawak to sweep BN away

2011-03-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

A political tsunami is expected to rock Sarawak in the impending elections as Chief Minister Taib Mahmud’s dirty linen has been washed in public too many times for voters to ignore.

“The rakyat are responding well to us. We are confident we will at least deny BN a two-thirds majority – at least 36 seats. The news of Taib’s squandering, the Bible issue and the Penan rapes will not go down well for him during the elections,” PKR MP for Ampang MP Zuraida Kamaruddin told Malaysia Chronicle.

The candidate set to contest against Taib himself in his stronghold is a woman, whom Zuraida said she hopes will put Taib to shame for his “rotten” treatment of ladies. She referred to the Chief Minister’s treatment of a female candidate in the previous election, where his bodyguards tried to physically block her.

Apart from the political slap in the face such a move was meant to be, PKR leaders also said it was meant pre-empt any undue and overly-harshly harassment against the Pakatan candidate by Taib and his men.

“We hope Taib will be more circumspect when he and his gang campaign against our candidate. If he wants to be rough and resort to violence, that’s his problem but we warn him it will backfire and expose him even more as a dark force that Sarawakians must reject at all costs,” PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

Riding the wave of anger
The anger of people over land issues among other things gives this elections an upbeat atmosphere said Pakatan’s Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh.

“Sarawakians are very angry with Taib, mostly over land issues and this puts BN in a very tight spot. For Pakatan, we are riding on the wave of the best elections mood so far,” said Fuziah.

However, they have to watch out for BN’s tactic of offering goodies to voters, especially those from semi-rural and rural areas.

Sarawak voters who were mostly below the poverty line are very dependent on the financial aid given to them and susceptible to BN’s tactics. BN might even be willing, to amend policies, to make the hopeful she said, adding this campaign proves to be a challenge for the Opposition as the duration is very short and logistics are tough.

“The Ibans and Dayaks are very loyal people. They will not ride on boats bearing BN flags to transport them to polling stations if they are Pakatan supporters. Since it is very difficult for us to get our boats inside, they will wait and wait until elections are over,” she quipped.

According to Fuziah, sentiments are high but it was difficult, to translate sentiments to votes, to predict how Pakatan will perform this season.

Machang MP Saifuddin Nasution said PKR will be announcing the seat allocations and the 10 to 12 focus areas, which it considers to be winnable. The identity of Taib’s contender will be confirmed, today, in the presence of PKR top guns in Kuching.

“They think they can fool people, especially those who live in the rural areas in Sarawak because of their poor living conditions. But what now, the relevant issue, related to these people is the land exploitation,” he told Malaysia Chronicle.

This was said in reference to Nazri Aziz’s comments that handouts and goodies in the form of financial assistance, to voters during elections cannot be considered as corruption. He has never before seen such a blatant misuse of government funding, Saifuddin said.

Tipping the scale for BN
Known to be the largest electorate in the state, Dayak voters accounted for 41 percent or 401,716 registered voters, followed by Chinese voters at 31 percent (303,737) and Malay/Melanau at 28 percent (274,343), it would be interesting to know if the Dayak will tip the scale in favour of Sarawak BN with the dirty laundry that is being washed.

As the smallest number, the Melanau was given the chance to lead when the Dayak was the one who should have led the state. Being rural voters, the Dayak community, is a challenge for the Opposition to break from the BN and get them to favour them. Thus far they have held 29 seats from the 71 state constituencies.

Having a loyal mindset they feel let down on the extent to which the government was able to develop rural projects and settling their traditional rights, which will determine the loyalty votes.

Political analysts believe BN would be able to retain most of the seats but in some areas it would find it difficult to defend the seats due to the delay in providing the much needed development in an area.

The Opposition could also play up the thorny native customary rights like the NCR land title ownership, to convince the people but it maybe too difficult for them. Some areas like Ba”kelalan, Balai Ringin or even Kedup are the “grey” areas the BN was predicted to have a tough time. Effective strategy to win the hearts and minds of the people had been providing clean water, tarred roads and electricity supply, now read as the Internet, to connect the towns and villages.

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) senior political science lecturer Dr Ahi Sarok told Bernama “It is safe for me to say that in some areas, the opposition will make significant inroads but not enough to win and in some Dayak-majority areas, the majority will be reduced.”

As far as the NCR land issue was concerned, he said, the question was whether the land owners were being paid compensation by the government based on the market value, including the Bidayuh villagers affected by the Bengoh dam project near here.

Dr Ahi said the issuance of NCR land titles on areas not affected by land acquisition for development purposes would have some positive impact, especially among the state BN coalition while the opposition might exploit the provisional native customary rights (NCR) land lease issue to their own advantage.

For Sarawak Dayak Graduates Association (SDGA) president Dusit Jusit, “Land issue is the heart of all issues.” A lot of rationalisation needed to be done depending on how effective both sides could penetrate these affected areas to resolve and rectify the issue.

It is commonly known the Sarawak Land Ordinance was utilised under the reason of development for the state government to seize, NCR land and allow companies to carry out plantation projects and logging related activities without the owners permission. However, Taib’s leadership did take measure to implement the perimeter survey for NCR land under the New NCR Initiative of the Tenth Malaysia Plan (10MP).

“Sentiment is one thing but translating it into votes is another thing,” Dusit, adding the people were better educated nowadays besides having access to information.

The youth was exposed to the world, where a lot of self and national developments motivated people globally especially in the political sphere. This bodes well for them to make informed decision when it comes time to exercise the right of freedom, to vote according to their conscience and liking.

Nominations have been set for April 6, and polling on April 16. The dissolved Sarawak state legislative assembly has 71 seats with BN winning 63 seats through Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu (PBB) (35), Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) (12), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) (8) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) (8).

Opposition party DAP has six seats while Parti Keadilan Rakyat and Parti Cinta Malaysia (PCM) account for one each. – Malaysia Chronicle

Opposition resolves Sarawak seat allocations

2011-03-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

Opposition resolves Sarawak seat allocations
Hemananthani Sivanandam

newsdesk@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR (March 28, 2011): Pakatan Rakyat’s Sarawak state leadership has finalised allocation of most of the 71 seats for the upcoming state polls, but 23 overlapping claims are still under discussion.

Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said DAP and PAS have been given 15 and five seats, respectively.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) deputy president Azmin Ali confirmed that PKR would be contesting at least 24 seats while discussions on the overlapping 23 seats with Sarawak National Party (SNAP) are ongoing.

SNAP thus far has announced its intention to field 27 candidates to contest in the state election. Azmin added that there are no disputes in four seats which will be contested by SNAP .

“PKR and SNAP have overlapping interest to contest in 23 seats. These seats are Iban majority seats,” said Azmin in a press conference after the Pakatan leadership council meeting in Parliament today.

DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and PAS vice-president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man were also present.

The division of the 23 overlapping seats is based on “winnability” and acceptance factor of the candidates.

“If SNAP can come up with stronger candidates, then we will be more than happy to allow SNAP to represent that particular constituency,” said Azmin.

He said although SNAP will be contesting in four seats, the PR leadership council has not endorsed it yet as negotiations are ongoing.

He added that Pakatan wants to finalise the whole process before the seats are endorsed.
He did not reveal the names of the seats, adding that an official announcement will be made at the end of the month in Kuching.

Azmin said the negotiations with SNAP are based on the premise that it will continue to work with and for Pakatan.

He added that negotiations with SNAP adviser Datuk Seri Daniel Tajem and secretary-general Stanly Jugoh have been “warm”.

Anwar said state-level discussions were held before the seat allocations were confirmed by the Pakatan top leadership.

“It was a lengthy process at the state level. We are proud as there has been a lot of patience in dealing with the different issues that were resolved,” he added.

Nomination for the 10th Sarawak state election is on April 6 while polling has been set for April 16.

23 Mei 2010 tarikh keramat, Pelancaran DHPP Peringkat Kebangsaan

2010-05-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

http://p111kotaraja.blogspot.com/2010/05/23-mei-2010-tarikh-keramat-pelancaran.html

Saturday, May 1, 2010
23 Mei 2010 tarikh keramat, Pelancaran DHPP Peringkat Kebangsaan

Kepada rakan bloggers - sila publish banner ini diblog masing-masing, terima kasih

Kuala Lumpur 1 Mei 2010 - Kelab Penyokong PAS selepas ini dikenali Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS mulai 23 hb Mei 2010 nanti, ia adalah sebahagian dari usaha susulan parti sebagai satu pengiktirafan tertinggi terhadap sokongan bukan Islam terhadap Parti PAS

Masyarakat di seluruh dunia dan Malaysia sedang menunggu dengan penuh debaran dan penuh perhatian akan kelahiran Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS (DHPP) ini dengan penuh debaran dan seribu pertanyaan bagaimana keajaiban boleh berlaku dimana puluhan ribu masyarakat non-muslim di seluruh negara boleh bersetuju untuk masuk kesebuah Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS)

Bagi yang terlibat menjayakan Pelancaran Dewan ini "You are part of history making".

Orang kuat disebalik pelancaran ini ialah Penasihat Program, YB Dr Mujahid, Pengarah Program, YB Dr Halimah Ali, Pengurus Event, YB Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud, Setiausaha, Pn Hajjah Kamariah Naris, Bendahari, YB Dr Ahmad Yunus Khairi, YB M. Zainuddin Mohd Yusof, YB Firdaus Jaafar, AJK Lajnah Perpaduan Nasional BPPNS (selaku tuan rumah), AJK LPN PAS Pusat, AJK LPN DMPP, AJK LPN DPPP, KPP, En Hu Pang Chow, En. Balasubramaniam, LPN PAS Kota Raja, Klang dan Shah Alam..

PAS pusat telah meluluskan perlembagaan khusus bagi sayap baru itu dengan Majlis Pelancaran akan dilakukan oleh YB Dato Seri Hj Abd Hadi Awang, Presiden PAS bertempat di Dewan Serbaguna Majlis Daerah Tanah Klang bermula jam 8.30 pagi hingga 2.00 petang.

Kira-kira 1000 orang jemputan akan hadir dalam majlis yang penuh gilang gemilang dan bersejarah ini. Para Perwakilan terdiri dari semua Ahli Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat, semua Ahli Parlimen dan ADUN PAS, Perwakilan negeri terdiri dari LPN dan KPP. Surat-surat jemputan kepada para perwakilan akan dikeluarkan oleh AJK Panitia Pelancaran Pn Hajjah Kamariah merangkap Setiausaha LPN PAS Pusat.

AJK Panitia Pelancaran DHPP bermesyuarat di Pejabat PAS pusat di Pengerusikan oleh Pengarah Program YB Dr Halimah Ali, turut hadir YB Dr, Siti Mariah, Dr Ahmad Yunus, YB Zainudin, Hu Pan Chow, Balasubramaniam, Vincent Lee serta AJK LPN BPPNS.

Kelab Penyokong PAS terdiri daripada lebih 20,000 ahli daripada kaum India, Cina, Siam dan Iban. Ia ditubuhkan pada tahun 2004.

Pengerusi Lajnah Perpaduan Nasional PAS Pusat Dr Mujahid Yusuf Rawa memberitahu, usaha mengiktiraf ‘kehadiran’ penyokong bukan Islam dalam bentuk “dewan” akan membolehkan mereka menjadi pemerhati khas dalam muktamar.

Mujahid berkata, perlembagaan induk membolehkan parti itu mewujudkan jawatankuasa atau dewan baru tanpa melibatkan pindaan pada perlembagaan induk PAS.

“Ini langkah awal untuk mengiktiraf penyokong-penyokong bukan Islam dalam PAS. Malah ini juga langkah susulan mengiktiraf selepas Kelab Penyokong PAS diwujudkan,” katanya.

Draf perlembagaan Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS, kata beliau, telah tiga kali dibincangkan di peringkat jawatankuasa pusat PAS dan telah diterima untuk diguna pakai.

Draf itu membolehkan Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS ditubuhkan di peringkat pusat, negeri dan kawasan.

“Tetapi tiada Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS peringkat cawangan,” katanya.

Mengulas lanjut mengenai ketiadaan hak mengundi, Mujahid yang juga anggota jawatankuasa pusat PAS berkata, peruntukan itu memerlukan pindaan pada perlembagaan induk parti yang kelulusan Pendaftar Pertubuhan juga akan mengambil masa yang lama.

Bagaimanapun apabila usaha terbaru ini diterima ramai langkah meminda perlembagaan induk akan dilakukan dalam jangka panjang, tambah beliau.

“Kami hendak menjalankan perubahan secara berperingkat-peringkat,” katanya.

AHLI JAWATANKUASA PANITIA PELANCARAN DEWAN HIMPUNAN PENYOKONG PAS

* Penaung & Perasmi : YB Dato Seri Tuan Guru Hj Abd Hadi Awang, Presiden PAS.
* Penasihat : YB Dr Mujahid Yusuff Rawa
* Pengarah Program : YB Dr Halimah Ali
*Timbalan Pengarah : En Khairul Faizi Ahmad Kamal, En Hu Pan Chow, En Balasubramaniam, En M. Shahriezan.
* Setiausaha : Pn Hajjah Kamariah bt Naris
* Penolong S/U : En Muslim Ismail
* Bendahari : YB Dr Ahmad Yunus Khairi
* Pendaftaran : AJK LPN DMPP & AJK LPN DPPP
* Tugas-tugas khas : En B. Balendran
* Jemputan : Pn Hajjah Kamariah & En Muslim
* Protokol : YB Zainudin Yusof & YB Firdaus Jaafar
* Event Manager : YB Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud
* Banner, Bunting
& Backdrop : En Razif Maslan (Kota Raja)
* T-Shirt Koporat : En Sujak (Kapar) & En. Razif (Kota Raja)
dan Imej
* Montaj & Gimik Pelancaran : En Shamsul & Adly Zahari
* Cenderahati : Dr Hamzah Jaafar
* Unit IT & Video : En Sujak, En Zul, En Shamsul Bharin
* Persiapan Tempat : En Razif Maslan (Kota Raja)
* Pengerusi Majlis : En. Prasad Hanif
* Persembahan : Citrawarna 3 budaya : LPN Shah Alam
* Jamuan : Pagi : En Azmi (Kota Raja), Tengahari : Jasni, LPN Klang
* Jasamu dikenang : YB Dr Mujahid
* Sidang Akhbar : YB Salehuddin Ayob

Disediakan oleh : En.Razif Maslan, Sekretariat Parlimen Kota Raja, merangkap AJK Panitia Pelancaran Dewan Himpunan Penyokong PAS (DHPP)
Posted by Sekretariat Parlimen Kota Raja at 11:43 PM

http://p111kotaraja.blogspot.com/2010/05/23-mei-2010-tarikh-keramat-pelancaran.html

PADANG SERAI

2010-04-30T08:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.mppadangserai.com/

Pengerusi DAP Sarawak calon Pakatan Rakyat di Sibu

2010-04-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

http://idhamlim.blogspot.com/2010/04/pengerusi-dap-sarawak-calon-pakatan.html

27 April 2010
Pengerusi DAP Sarawak calon Pakatan Rakyat di Sibu

12 Jamadil Awal 1431H.

SIBU: Pengerusi DAP Sarawak yang juga Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (Adun) Bukit Assek, Wong Ho Leng (gambar), diumumkan sebagai calon DAP untuk bertanding dalam pilihan raya kecil Parlimen Sibu.

Pengumuman rasmi calon DAP itu dilakukan Setiausaha Agungnya, Lim Guan Eng, pada majlis makan malam di Good Happiness Restaurant di sini, sebentar tadi.

Dicatat oleh DRS. KHALIL IDHAM LIM di 10:18 PM

Malaysia's opposition alliance puts house in order

2009-11-04T02:36:00.000-08:00

Malaysia's opposition alliance puts house in order

Wednesday, 04 November 2009 18:26
By EILEEN NG, Associated Press

Malaysia's three key opposition parties moved to formalize their coalition despite ideological differences by officially registering their alliance, senior officials said Wednesday.

The move comes as the three-party People's Alliance seeks to bolster unity and to counter populist measures instituted by Prime Minister Najib Razak to revive support for his ruling coalition since taking power in April.

The People's Alliance was first formed as a loose coalition among the multiracial People's Justice Party, the leftist and Chinese-based Democratic Action Party, and the religion-based Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party to compete in general elections last year.

It proved to be a winning formula when it captured more than one-third of parliamentary seats and gained control of several key states, handing the worst-ever electoral results to the National Front coalition, which had governed the country since 1957.

Tian Chua, a senior member of the People's Justice Party, said the People's Alliance submitted an application Tuesday to the Registrar of Society to become a formal coalition.

"This is a big step forward. It will make us more organized and structured" ahead of the next general elections in 2013, he told The Associated Press. Once approved, the alliance will call for a special meeting to elect its office bearers, he said.

It was not clear how long it will take to get the registrar's approval.

Another party official, who declined to be named, said the People's Alliance proposed the emblem of a rising sun, signaling a new dawn for the country as it seeks to unseat Najib's National Front coalition.

The move will be a moral booster for the opposition alliance beset by ideological spats, especially between the Democratic Action Party and Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who heads the alliance, was instrumental in bringing the three disparate parties together. But the alliance began to strain when some top members of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party began talking about uniting with the United Malays National Organization, the main component of the National Front.

The move threatened to split the opposition, but the Islamic party agreed last week to shut the door to any attempt for such talks.

Still, the People's Alliance faces a tough task in countering Najib who has taken steps to reach out to ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities that have long complained of racial discrimination and corruption.Najib has liberalized selected aspects of the services sector to tackle the economic slowdown. Last month, he also instituted radical reforms on the way leaders are elected in his ruling Malay party to make it more democratic.

SOKONGAN

2009-09-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

PAS calonkan Zulkefly

2009-09-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

Abdul Rahim Sabri
Sep 29, 09
11:59am

Pesuruhjaya PAS Negeri Sembilan, Zulkefly Mohamad Omar diumumkan malam ini sebagai calon PAS dalam pilihanraya kecil DUN Bagan Pinang 11 Oktober depan.

Pemilihan Zulkefly diumumkan oleh Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang di pusat penyelarasan DAP bagi pilihanraya kecil berkenaan dekat Port Dickson.

Petang tadi, Timbalan Presiden Umno, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin telah mengumumkan pemilihan bekas menteri besar Negeri Sembilan, Tan Sri Isa Samad sebagai calon BN.

Dewan Harian PAS bermesyuarat petang tadi untuk memuktamad pemilihan calonnya di Bagan Pinang.

Kerusi DUN Bagan Pinang kosong ekoran kematian penyandangnya, Azman Mohamad Noor dari BN yang menang dengan majoriti 2,333 dalam pilihanraya umum Mac tahun lalu.

Azman yang juga naib ketua bahagian Teluk Kemang, menewaskan Ramli Ismail dari PAS yang mendapat 4,097 undi.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/113794

ADUN BN Bagan Pinang NS meninggal

2009-09-04T08:54:00.000-07:00

ADUN BN bagi Bagan Pinang, Negri Sembilan, Azman Mohd Noor meninggal dunia di Seremban hari ini.

Beliau meninggal dunia pada jam 2.30 petang tadi di Pusat Pakar Seremban.

Dalam pilihanraya umum lalu, Azman, 54, menang dengan mendapat 6,430 undi, menewaskan calon PAS, Ramli Ismail yang mendapat 4,097 undi.

Dalam pilihanraya umum lalu, DUN Bagan Pinang mempunyai 14,192 pengundi yang 66 peratus Melayu, Cina (10.5%), India (19.9%) dan lain-lain (3.5%).

Ekoran itu, Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) akan mengadakan pilihanraya kecil dalam tempoh 60 hari ini.

Ia merupakan pilihanraya kecil kesembilan selepas pilihanraya umum tahun lalu.

Bagan Pinang merupakan kawasan DUN dalam Parlimen Telok Kemang. Empat lagi DUN dalam parlimen tersebut ialah Chuah, Lukut, Linggi dan Port Dickson.

Dalam pilihanraya umum lalu, Parlimen Telok Kemang dimenangi oleh calon PKR, Datuk Kamarul Baharin Abbas.

Manakala DUN Chuah pula dimenangi oleh PKR, Lukut (DAP), Linggi (BN) dan Port Dickson (PKR).

Azman juga merupakan naib ketua Umno bahagian Teluk Kemang.

Menurut Bernama, anak lelakinya Hairol Asfani, 22, berkata bapanya meninggal dunia akibat jangkitan dalam darah.

BN menguasai 21 daripada 36 kerusi DUN di Negeri Sembilan. Dalam pilihan raya lalu, DAP menang 10 kerusi, PKR (4) dan PAS (1).

Allahyarham meninggalkan seorang isteri Normah Zainal Abidin, 49, dan lima anak iaitu Mohd Khusairi, 23, Hairol Asfani, 22, Norsyazila, 19, Norsyafikah, 16, dan Norsyafitra, 13.

Hairol Asfani yang ditemui pemberita di hospital itu berkata bapanya dimasukkan ke hospital pada jam 3.30 pagi tadi akibat demam dan tidak boleh berjalan. "Ayah mengadu demam sebelum ini tapi boleh berjalan tetapi lepas berbuka (puasa) petang semalam ayah tidak boleh berjalan," katanya.

Beliau berkata semua anggota keluarga berada di sisi bapanya semasa allahyarham menghembuskan nafas terakhir pada kira-kira jam 2.30 petang.

Hairol Asfani berkata bapanya pernah menjalani pembedahan pintasan koronari pada Mei lalu.

Turut hadir di hospital ialah Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan dan bekas Menteri Besar yang juga Ketua Umno Bahagian Telok Kemang Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad.

"Allahyarham merupakan kawan lama saya dalam Umno, tambahan pula beliau adalah Naib Ketua Umno Bahagian Telok Kemang dan telah berkhidmat dengan baik. Saya berharap keluarga allahyarham dapat bersabar menerima dugaan ini dengan tabah," kata Mohamad.

Mohd Isa pula berkata pemergian allahyarham adalah kehilangan seorang tokoh Umno Bahagian Telok Kemang dan Negeri Sembilan.

Katanya allahyarham adalah seorang yang taat kepada parti dan komited dalam tugasan yang diberikan kepadanya.

Jenazah allahyarham akan dikebumikan di tanah perkuburan kariah Bagan Pinang malam ini.

Sementara itu, Speaker Dewan Undangan Negeri Sembilan Datuk Abdul Razak Mansor berkata beliau akan mengemukakan notis mengenai kekosongan kerusi DUN Bagan Pinang kepada SPR Isnin ini (7 September).

"Terpulang kepada SPR untuk menentukan tarikh penamaan dan pengundian bagi pilihan raya kecil DUN itu," katanya.

ADUN Lunas gugur, Kulim exco baru

2009-08-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

ADUN Lunas gugur, Kulim exco baru
Ogos 26, 09 4:34pm

Sultan Kedah memperkenankan ADUN Lunas, Mohd Radzhi Salleh, yang mengisytiharkan dirinya wakil bebas Ahad lalu, digugurkan daripada jawatan exco Kedah, berkuatkuasa semalam dan digantikan oleh ADUN Kulim dari PKR, Lim Soo Nee.

Titah perkenan Sultan Kedah itu juga diterima semalam, kata Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak.

"Perkara ini telah dimaklumkan kepada Mohd Radzhi melalui pembantu peribadinya kerana beliau tidak ada di pejabat, dan Timbalan Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri juga telah diarahkan untuk memaklumkan bahawa jawatan exco telah digugurkan mulai 25 Ogos," katanya dalam satu sidang media di Wisma Darul Aman, di Alor Star hari ini.

Ahad lalu, Mohd Radzhi yang juga exco pelancongan, pembangunan masyarakat dan sumber manusia, mengumumkan keluar dari PKR dan melepaskan semua jawatan dalam parti itu serta mengisytiharkan dirinya menjadi wakil rakyat Bebas selepas hilang kepercayaan terhadap pucuk pimpinan parti itu.

Sementara itu, Azizan berkata majlis angkat sumpah pelantikan Lim Soo Nee untuk mengisi jawatan exco yang kosong itu, akan diadakan minggu depan.

"Majlis angkat sumpah akan dilakukan minggu depan kerana ramai pegawai-pegawai masih berada di luar negara dan kita kena tengok masa Tuanku," katanya.P

ada 24 Ogos, Azizan menyembahkan surat kepada Sultan Kedah bagi memohon perkenan baginda supaya perkhidmatan Mohd Radzhi ditamatkan dan digantikan dengan orang lain.

Azizan berkata, pihaknya juga akan berbincang dengan Setiausaha Kerajaan Negeri sama ada akan melakukan penambahan atau perubahan portfolio exco berkenaan.

"Buat sementara, saya akan pegang portfolio itu (Pelancongan, Pembangunan Masyarakat dan Sumber Manusia), sebelum majlis angkat sumpah.

Sementara itu, Pengerusi PKR Kedah, Ahmad Kassim berkata pemilihan Lim untuk menggantikan Mohd Radzhi dibuat selepas mencapai persetujuan hasil perbincangan antara Menteri Besar dan Penasihat parti itu.

Katanya, pemilihan Lim juga mengambil kira faktor geografi kedudukan Lunas yang terletak berhampiran dengan Kulim.

Lim sedia terima

Sementara itu, Lim menyambut baik serta bersedia untuk menerima pelantikan sebagai Exco kerajaan negeri, walaupun tidak mempunyai pengalaman memegang jawatan penting seumpama itu sebelum ini.

Lim, 37, berkata, peluang itu akan digunakan sebaiknya untuk memperjuangkan hak-hak rakyat dan akan melaksanakan tanggungjawab berkenaan dengan penuh amanah.

"Saya sudah terima banyak panggilan dan SMS yang mengucapkan tahniah dan sangat menghargai kepercayaan menteri besar sertapenasihat parti yang memilih saya untuk menjadi exco negeri ini," katanya ketika dihubungi Bernama.

Lim juga berkata bahawa harapan beliau agar polisi yang diamalkan sebelum ini, iaitu sentiasa dekat dengan rakyat dapat diteruskan walaupun sudah memegang jawatan exco kelak.

"Walaupun saya tidak ada pengalaman jadi exco, saya akan tetap dengan polisi saya dan dasar-dasar yang tidak adil akan tetap saya bantah," katanya.

Sebelum majlis angkat sumpah diadakan minggu depan, portfolio yang dipegang oleh Mohd Radzhi akan diambil alih oleh Menteri Besar, Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak.

Dalam pilihan raya umum ke-12, Mac tahun lalu, Lim menewaskan calon BN, Lim Lee Choo dan calon Bebas, Khairul Anuar Ramli dengan majoriti 7,365 undi.

Lim, seorang kontraktor, mempunyai empat anak berusia antara tujuh dan 15 tahun hasil perkahwinannya dengan isteri, Woon Nyok Yen, 34. Bernama.

PAS menang, majoriti menurun

2009-08-25T08:29:00.000-07:00

PAS memenangi kerusi DUN Permatang Pasir dengan majoriti besar tetapi merosot beberapa ratus undi daripada keputusan yang dicapai parti itu pada pilihan raya umum tahun lepas.

Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) mengumumkan, calon PAS Mohd Salleh Man mendapat 9,618 undi, meninggalkan calon BN Rohaizat Othman dengan 5,067 undi. Majoriti yang diraih Salleh 4,551, kurang 882.

Bekas ADUN allahyarham Datuk Mohd Hamdan Abdul Rahman mendapat majoriti 5,433 undi - kemenangan PAS kali ketiga di kerusi itu sejak pilihan raya umum 1999. Jumlah mereka yang keluar mengundi merosot hampir 10 peratus kali ini kepada 73.1 peratus berbanding 82.6 peratus pada Mac 2008.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/111386

Apakah pandangan anda tentang ISA

2009-08-06T23:27:00.000-07:00

Nyatakan pendapat andi di laman web Kementerian Dalam Negeri (sebelum diberhentikan survey tersebut):

http://www.ikdn.gov.my/

Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA - GMI

2009-07-31T16:22:00.000-07:00

Tee Keat sedih Chua sertai PKR

2009-07-19T02:07:00.000-07:00

Presiden MCA Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat berkata beliau sedih dengan keputusan bekas naib presiden parti itu Datuk Chua Jui Meng keluar daripada MCA dan menyertai Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
Bekas menteri kesihatan itu, kata Ong, adalah seorang yang berpengalaman dan adalah diharapkan keputusan politik yang diambilnya itu adalah bagi kebaikan rakyat.
Bercakap kepada pemberita selepas merasmikan Konvensyen MCA Perak di Ipoh, Ong yang juga menteri pengangkutan berkata persahabatan beliau dengan Chua tidak terjejas walaupun selepas perebutan jawatan presiden pada pemilihan parti tahun lepas.
Ditanya sama ada tindakan Chua merugikan MCA, beliau berkata setiap hari ada orang yang menyertai parti itu dan juga keluar daripada parti, lapor Bernama.
Katanya, Chua telah membuat pilihan untuk menyertai pembangkang.
Ong berkata beliau ada berjumpa dengan Chua dua hari lalu tetapi enggan menggulas apa yang dibincangkan apabila ditanya pemberita.
Chua mengumumkan hari ini bahawa beliau keluar daripada MCA dan menyertai PKR kerana wawasan beliau untuk pembaharuan dalam manifestonya pada pemilihan presiden MCA tahun lepas, sama dengan wawasan Agenda Malaysia penasihat PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Beliau menyertai PKR dan keluar MCA tanpa sebarang syarat yang sepatutnya diberikan kepadanya oleh parti pembangkang itu, kata Chua ketika mengumumkan keputusan beliau itu pada persidangan akhbar selepas menghadiri Forum Awam PKR di Petaling Jaya.
Di Kuala Lumpur, Naib Presiden MCA Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai yang turut bersedih dengan tindakan Chua itu berkata bekas menteri kesihatan tersebut telah memilih hala tujunya sendiri.
Beliau berkata tindakan Chua itu tidak harus menggugat MCA sebaliknya anggota parti perlulah bersatupadu dan bekerjasama untuk mengukuhkan parti.
Di Kluang, Naib Presiden Umno Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein menyifatkan tindakan Chua menyertai pembangkang tidak akan menjejaskan perjuangan BN.
Menteri dalam negeri itu berkata tindakan Chua menyertai PKR bukan sesuatu perkara yang mengejutkan kerana beliau sendiri tidak mempunyai tempat dalam MCA."
Itu hak dia, beliau tidak ada tempat dalam parti MCA dan meluahkan kata-kata tertentu sebelum ini sebelum keluar daripada parti. Saya rasa bukan ganjil kerana ada bekas menteri sebelum ini juga pernah keluar dari BN dan masuk ke PKR," katanya kepada pemberita selepas program Polis Kemasyarakatan di Felda Ulu Belitong, di sini, hari ini.
Hishammuddin yang juga anggota Parlimen Sembrong berkata tindakan Chua itu adalah berkisar kepada masalah peribadi beliau sendiri dan menyerahkan kepada masa untuk menentukan sama ada tindakannya itu tepat atau tidak.
"Bagi saya ia tidak menjejaskan parti kerana perjuangan BN tidak berkisar kepada individu. Perjuangan itu lebih penting daripada individu dan puak tertentu," tegasnya.

Pakatan sepakat tolak k'jaan perpaduan

2009-06-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Pakatan sepakat tolak k'jaan perpaduan
Jun 22, 09 3:39pm

Pemimpin-pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat sepakat menolak perbincangan kerajaan perpaduan dengan Umno atau Barisan Nasional, demikian diputuskan dalam suatu mesyuarat petang ini.Pemimpin tiga parti tersebut PKR, DAP dan PAS mengulangi pendirian mereka untuk meneguhkan kerjasama dalam gabungan pembangkang dengan hasrat mengambil alih kerajaan persekutuan suatu masa nanti.Kenyataan bersama mereka ditandatangani oleh penasihat PKR Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, tokoh utama DAP Lim Kit Siang dan Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/106969

===============================================

http://siasahdaily.blogspot.com/2009/06/pakatan-rakyat-tolak-kerajaan-perpaduan.html

Pimpinan tertinggi Pakatan rakyat bermesyuarat di Parlimen

KUALA LUMPUR: Pakatan Rakyat mengambil keputusan menolak idea kerajaan perpaduan selepas Majlis Presiden Pakatan Rakyat mengadakan mesyuarat sejam di Parlimen hari ini.

Membacakan kenyataan selepas mesyuarat itu, Ketua Umum Pakatan Rakyat, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata:"Majlis Pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat menolak idea penubuhan kerajaan perpaduan dengan Umno-Barisan Nasional yang merupakan suatu fitnah dan tohmahan jahat serta tindakan terdesak Umno untuk menggugat kekuatan Pakatan Rakyat yang semakin mendapat dukungan rakyat.

"Kenyataan itu ditandatangani oleh Anwar; Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang dan Penasihat DAP, Lim Kit Siang telah dibacakan dalam sidang media di lobi Parlimen.

Anwar menambah, pada masa yang sama Pakatan Rakyat mengambil sikap terbuka dan bersedia untuk bertemu dengan pimpinan BN bagi membincangkan isu-isu melibatkan kepentingan negara dan rakyat seperti usaha pemulihan ekonomi.

Mesyuarat itu turut dihadiri oleh timbalan-timbalan presiden, naib presiden dan setiausaha agung parti komponen Pakatan.

10 wakil PAS tolak k'jaan perpaduan

2009-06-18T03:08:00.000-07:00

10 wakil PAS tolak k'jaan perpaduan
Jun 18, 09 5:22pm
Sepuluh ahli parlimen PAS tiba-tiba membuat kejutan petang ini - mengisytiharkan beramai-ramai penolakan kerajaan perpaduan dan sekali gus memberi mandat kepada mursyidul am untuk menangani isu tersebut yang sedang menggelegak dalam parti itu.
Dalam kenyataan ringkas tiga perenggan, mereka sebulat suara menegaskan bahawa idea kerajaan perpaduan seperti disarankan Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang "tidak pernah merupakan agenda PAS."
Kenyataan tersebut, bersama tandatangan sepuluh anggota Dewan Rakyat itu, diedarkan dalam satu sidang media di lobi Parlimen. Ahli-ahli parlimen PAS itu seperti berikut:

Dr Hatta Ramli (Kuala Krai),
Khalid Samad (Shah Alam),
Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad (Kuala Selangor),
Datuk Kamaruddin Jaffar (Tumpat),
Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff (Rantau Panjang),
Siti Mariah Mahmud (Kota Raja),
Dr Lo’ Lo’ Mohd Ghazali (Titiwangsa),
Mohd Hayati Othman (Pendang),
Taib Azamuddin Md Taib (Baling)
dan Mujahid Yusof Rawa (Parit Buntar).

Sementara itu di Kota Bharu, Nik Aziz merancang mengadakan mesyuarat khas yang hanya dihadiri pemimpin tertinggi PAS termasuk Abdul Hadi dan timbalannya Nasharudin Mat Isa.
"Saya sendiri akan menjemput Presiden PAS Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, timbalan presiden (Nasharudin) dan beberapa pemimpin PAS lain yang akan saya tentukan kemudian.
"Pertemuan ini saya namakan mesyuarat ukhuwah yang akan menyelesaikan isu kerajaan perpaduan ini."
Buat masa ini masa, tarikh dan lokasinya belum lagi dapat ditentukan sama ada di Kuala Lumpur atau di Kelantan, bergantung kepada kesesuaian masa tetapi akan diadakan secepat yang boleh," Nik Aziz dipetik berkata selepas mempengerusikan mesyuarat Dewan Harian PAS Kelantan hari ini.

PENANTI LIVE

2009-05-30T02:49:00.000-07:00

PENANTI LIVE

http://linasoo.com/penanti.html

Letter of Demand sent to Anifah Aman

2009-05-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

S N NAIR & PARTNERSYour Ref: Please AdviseOur Ref: SNN/DSAI/Anifah/09
Date: 18th May 2009
Y.B. DATUK ANIFAH BIN HJ. AMANBy Fax 03-8889 171703-8889 2816
Menteri Luar Negeri,
Certificate of Posting
Kementerian Luar Negeri,Aras 3, Wisma Putra, No. 1, Jalan Wisma Putra,
Presint 2,Pusat Pentadbiran Kerajaan Persekutuan,
62602 PUTRAJAYA.

YB,
Re: Libellous Statement
We act for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is the Former Deputy Prime Minister and is presently the Leader of the Opposition in the Malaysian Parliament.
We are instructed that on or about 16th May 2009, you uttered and or made a statement at the State Department in Washington during a joint press conference with US secretary of State Mrs. Clinton, that was published and/or caused to be published by Associated Press and was consequently carried by The Star Newspaper (and several local print and electronic media), which was captioned as “Anwar offered me the DPM’s post, says Anifah” which is reproduced in full and verbatim hereinbelow:
“Anwar offered me the DPM’s post, says Anifah
Washington: Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman has revealed that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had offered him the post of Deputy Prime Minister as bait to switch sides after the general election last year.
“Just for the information of the audience here, Anwar said he would form a government on Sept 16 but he has changed the dates many times. And he was trying to entice Members of Parliament.
“I was personally offered a very lucrative position, like a deputy prime ministership. These facts are not known to the world at large,” he said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which was packed with American and foreign journalists.
“And he has started trying to buy other legislative members. I think he has not accepted the result of the last elections.
“We (Barisan Nasional) have lost five states and we willingly accept the people’s verdict.”
A Reuters journalist had earlier asked Clinton whether she raised the Anwar issue at her meeting with Anifah as the State Department’s annual human rights report had mentioned that charges against Anwar were politically motivated.
Clinton replied that she had raised the rule of law issues and larger questions concerning institutional reforms that Malaysia had been pursuing.
Anifah, who was clam throughout, said he had faith in Malaysia’s judicial system, citing the case of Perak where the High Court had reinstated Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin as Perak Menteri Besar although it was a ruling made against the Federal Government.
Anifah said Anwar was tarnishing the image of Malaysia.
“It is our wish and hope that he will respect the democratic system in Malaysia.”
Anifah told another journalist that Malaysia would use the “good office” of the Asean secretariat to find a solution to the case involving Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who faces new charges less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after an American man swam across a lake and entered her home.
On improving US relations with Islamic countries, Clinton said that United States would seek out partners like Malaysia and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference for guidance.” (hereinafter called “the Impugned Article”).
Inter alia, the Impugned Article contained the following defamatory words uttered and or quoted by you about our client:
i. “Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman has revealed that Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim had offered him the post of Deputy Prime Minister as bait to switch sides after the general election last year.”
ii. “Just for the information of the audience here, Anwar said he would form a government on Sept 16 but he has changed the dates many times. And he was trying to entice Members of Parliament.”
iii. “I was personally offered a very lucrative position, like a deputy prime ministership. These facts are not known to the world at large,” he said during a joint press conference with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which was packed with American and foreign journalists.”
iv. “And he has started trying to buy other legislative members. I think he has not accepted the result of the last elections.”
v. “Anifah said Anwar was tarnishing the image of Malaysia.” (collectively hereinafter called “the Impugned Words”)
The Impugned Article and the Impugned Words were and are defamatory and or libellous of our Client and in their natural and ordinary meaning and or by implication mean, meant and were understood to, inter alia, mean that:
i) our Client is a dishonest person both in his private and official capacity;
ii) our Client is a liar;
iii) our Client is an untrustworthy person as well as an unfit politician;
iv) our Client is unfit to hold public office;
v) our Client is unprincipled and corrupt;
vi) our Client has committed a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment;
vii) our Client is unethical; and
viii)our Client wantonly abuses his position in public and private office.
By innuendo, the Impugned Article and the Impugned Words were and are defamatory and or libellous of our Client and were meant and were understood to, inter alia, mean that:
i) our Client is a dishonest person both in his private and official capacity;
ii) our Client is a liar;
iii) our Client is an untrustworthy person as well as an unfit politician;
iv) our Client is unfit to hold public office;
v) our Client is unprincipled and corrupt;
vi) our Client has committed a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment
vii) our Client is unethical; and
viii) our Client wantonly abuses his position in public and private office.
Inter alia, our client contends the following in that, the Impugned Article and the Impugned Words published by you in respect of our client:-
a) are bereft of any truth, vexatious, specious, fallacious and wholly uncalled for;
b) are and were grossly negligent, reckless, irresponsible, deliberate, malicious and aimed to lower our client’s esteem in the eyes of the public, both locally and internationally, and expose our client to public hatred, scorn, odium, opprobrium, contempt and ridicule;
c) are wholly untrue, motivated by malice, mala fides, distortion of facts suggesting moral and legal impropriety on the part of our client and are principally done in your pursuit of seeking cheap publicity /sensationalism for political and other purposes; and
d) are pre-mediated and calculated to tarnish, malign, defame and seriously injure the good name and character of our client.
We are further instructed that you have republished or caused it to be republished the abovementioned Impugned Article and Impugned Words and the libellous comments.
The Impugned Words uttered and published by you in respect of our client and the comments against our client by you, amounts to a very serious libel on our client and have caused our client considerable distress and embarrassment. These Impugned Words published by you in respect of our client and comments made against our client are false, malicious and your attack on our client is wholly unjustified.
We are therefore instructed to demand from you, which we hereby do:
1) An immediate and unequivocal public retraction of the Impugned Article and the Impugned Words and the removal and retraction of all the offending and defamatory comments, forthwith;
2) An apology in the terms to be approved by us as solicitors to be published in newspapers of our client’s choice.
3) An undertaking by you not to repeat the above allegations and comments such as the Impugned Words or the likes of the same.
Our client has also instructed us to demand damages of RM100 million from you for the injury caused to our client’s reputation.
Our client has also requested us to demand payment of all legal costs that has been incurred with regard to this matter.
This letter is written in accordance with the pre-action protocol prior to the institution of a libel action. We look forward to hearing from you without delay. If we do not receive a satisfactory reply within seven (7) days of the receipt of this letter, our instructions are to institute legal proceedings against you. In the meantime, our client reserves all our client’s rights in this matter.
Please acknowledge receipt accordingly.
Thank you.

Yours faithfully,
S N NAIR & PARTNERS

http://anwaribrahimblog.com/

ntv7 poll: An amazing 99% want fresh Perak elections

2009-05-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

http://anilnetto.com/malaysian-elections/ntv7-poll-99-want-fresh-perak-elections/

Himpunan dan Konvensyen Kelab Penyokong PAS Kebangsaan 2009

2009-05-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Himpunan dan Konvensyen Kelab Penyokong PAS Kebangsaan 2009

pada 30hb Mei 2009

jam 8.00pg ~ 2.00 ptg

di Dewan Serbaguna Majlis Daerah Klang.

Perasmian oleh YAB Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Aziz Nik Mat, Menteri Besar Kelantan merangkap Mursyidur Am Parti Islam Se Malaysia (PAS). Semua Ahli KPP, Lajnah Perpaduan Nasional Kawasan dan Negeri seluruh Negara dan Kelab Penyokong Muda PAS di Jemput Hadir

Infomasi : 016-3226159 Hjjh Kamariah s/u LPN PAS Pusat.

What RM25 million can buy, something that goes hee-haw (UPDATED)

2009-05-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/21594/84/

What RM25 million can buy, something that goes hee-haw (UPDATED)

Posted by admin
Friday, 08 May 2009 18:54
Do I hear a nationwide boycott in the making? Or are the Chinese still going to continue giving money to Vincent Tan and then blame the Malays for what happened in Perak?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Hee: I didn't use pepper spray

Hee described the sitting as a "nightmare" and claimed that her former DAP colleagues were out to harass her.

She also complained that she was negatively portrayed by press reports.

She said that the note thrown at her was a RM1 note, not a RM50 note as reported in the media.

To set the record straight, she said her former party colleague Thomas Su (DAP-Pasir Pinji) waved a RM50 in front of her but did not hand her the note.

"If I was given RM50, I will keep it and give it to someone in need. But he is a ‘kedekut' (cheapskate). He held on to it and waved it. I know he is 'kedekut'." she said.

On whether she had used the pepper spray against Yew Tian Hoe (DAP-Aulong), Hee said that she pointed her hotel key-chain, not a pepper spray canister.

"It is just a key-chain. 'Hati mereka ada hantu' (They have a guilty conscience)," she said, adding that she is suffering body aches from the scuffles.

However, a clip taken during the assembly yesterday did show Hee pointing what appeared to be a pepper spray canister at Yew (photo above).

An extract from Malaysiakini, 8 May 2009

Hee Yit Foong holding device at Yew Tian Hoe in the Perak State Assembly dewan
*************************************************
The Deputy Speaker of the Perak State Assembly, Hee Yit Fong, was not only the key person in allowing Barisan Nasional to grab power in Perak -- and she has been going around boasting about it; that she was the key person -- but was also the key person in getting V Sivakumar removed from the hall like a sack of potatoes. And she was paid RM25 million to cross over to Barisan Nasional.

Actually, it was DAP’s fault. For some time now she had been grumbling that she is not being properly treated and was not being given due recognition but the party leadership did not do anything about her grouses.

Some say it was an internal struggle within DAP, which is not uncommon for any political party, as many, if not most, of those in politics are in it for personal gain and not to serve the rakyat. DAP is not alien to internal squabbles. No political party is, whether it is Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat. In fact, these internal squabbles are ongoing even as you read this.

The straw that broke the camel’s back, or donkey’s back as many now call Hee, was when everyone was given a Camry except her. They argued that she is not able to drive anyway. So why does she need a car? Her reckoning is that she is a Deputy Speaker. So why can’t they also provide her a driver together with the car if she is not able to drive?

Whatever it may be, the thing that prompted her to abandon the party that no longer appreciated her services was the RM25 million that Vincent Tan of Berjaya paid her. Yes, she was paid a cool RM25 million in cash, more money than any Malaysia Today reader will see it many lifetimes.

Okay, so what are we going to do about it? We lament about her being a traitor. We label her a prostitute. We call her all sorts of names. But have we forgotten that there can only be prostitutes as long as there are clients who pay for the services of prostitutes. And in the case of Hee the client is Vincent Tan.

So punish Hee by all means. Call her all sorts of names if that makes you happy. But don’t forget to also punish the man who turned her into a prostitute, Vincent Tan.

How many of you still eat or shop or gamble at establishments owned by Vincent Tan? Is it not time we organised a nationwide boycott of anything and everything that Vincent Tan has an interest in. You know which establishments I am talking about. And aren’t Chinese the biggest gamblers and is not Vincent Tan getting rich with your hard-earned money which you are willingly and gladly handing over to him?
Stop grumbling. Start doing something. As Lee Iacocca said, “Don’t get mad, get even!” And it is time to stop getting mad and to start getting even.

Boycott, boycott, boycott! This must be the new name of the game. Vincent Tan gave RM25 million of YOUR hard-earned money to Hee. Stop giving him more money, which he will use to buy off more Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and State Assemblypersons.

Perak is only the first. It is not going to be the last. Vincent Tan is talking to more Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers and enticing them with RM10 million to RM25 million each to cross over. By the time the next general election is upon us, maybe only Kelantan will remain a Pakatan Rakyat state. Kedah, Penang and Selangor would probably go the way of Perak in time to come.

That is Najib’s grand design. And Vincent Tan is bankrolling the entire operation. Stop cursing the Malays, in particular the Umno Malays. The Malays would not achieve much without Chinese money. And only the Chinese can punish Chinese such as Vincent Tan because the Chinese are bigger gamblers than the Malays and the Malays do not have that kind of money to burn like the Chinese do.

Do I hear a nationwide boycott in the making? Or are the Chinese still going to continue giving money to Vincent Tan and then blame the Malays for what happened in Perak?

**********************************
Gaming & Lottery Management

*BERJAYA LAND BERHAD

BERJAYA SPORTS TOTO BERHAD

Sports Toto Malaysia Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Sports Toto (Cayman) Limited

Berjaya Lottery Mgt (HK) Limited

International Lottery & Totalizator Sys Inc, USA

*PRIME GAMING PHILIPPINES, INC Philippines

Gaming Mgmt.Corporation

Berjaya Intl Casino Mgt (Seychelles) Limited

Financial Services

BERJAYA CAPITAL BERHAD

Prime Credit Leasing Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad

(f.k.a Berjaya General Insurance Berhad)

Inter-Pacific Capital Sdn Bhd

Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd

Inter-Pacific Asset Management Sdn Bhd

Consumer Marketing, Direct Selliing & Retailing

COSWAY CORPORATION BERHAD

Singer (M) Sdn Bhd

Berjaya HVN Sdn Bhd (Selling children and educational DVD & CD)

Berjaya HVN (S) Pte Ltd

Direct Vision Sdn Bhd Cosway (M) Sdn Bhd

Cosway (Thailand) Co. Ltd

eCosway.com Sdn Bhd

Cosway Value Club (Australia) Pty Ltd

Country Farms Sdn Bhd (Organic products)

Countryfarm Organics Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd

Vacation Time-share, travel, hotel, resorts

BERJAYA GROUP BERHAD

BERJAYA HILLS BERHAD

(f.k.a Bukit Tinggi Resort Berhad)

*BERJAYA LAND BERHAD Avetani Sdn Bhd

INFORMATICS EDUCATION LTD, SINGAPORE

Berjaya Vacation Club Berhad

Berjaya Vacation Club (Cayman) Limited

Berjaya Eden Park Hotel, London, United Kingdom

Berjaya Vacation Club (UK) Limited

Berjaya Vacation Club (S) Pte Ltd

Berjaya Hotel Singapore

Berjaya International Casino Management (HK) Limited

Berjaya Redang Beach Resort Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Redang Golf & Spa Resort, Terengganu

Berjaya Redang Beach Resort, Terengganu

Berjaya Langkawi Beach Resort Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort,

Kedah Berjaya Beau Vallon Bay Beach Resort Ltd

Berjaya Beau Vallon Beach Resort & Casino, Seychelles

Anse Volbert Hotel Ltd

Berjaya Praslin Beach Resort, Seychelles

Berjaya Georgetown Hotel (Penang)Sdn Bhd -

Berjaya Georgetown Hotel, Penang

Dian Kristal Sdn Bhd-

Berjaya Times Square Hotel and Convention Center, KL

Recreation Development & Management

BERJAYA LAND

BERHADAmat Muhibah Sdn Bhd

Desa WaterPark, Kuala Lumpur

Berjaya Vacation Club Berhad 99.25

Berjaya Air Sdn Bhd

KDE Recreation Berhad

Kelab Darul Ehsan Indah Corporation Berhad

Bukit Banang Golf & Country Club,

Batu Pahat Staffield Country Resort Berhad

Staffield Country Resort, Negeri Sembilan

Bukit Kiara Resort Berhad

Bukit Kiara Equestrian & Country Resort,

Kuala Lumpur Berjaya Golf Resort Berhad

Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort, KL

Property Investment & Development

COSWAY CORPORATION BERHAD

Cosway (M) Sdn Bhd

Stephens Properties Sdn Bhd

Wisma Cosway, Kuala Lumpur

Berjaya City Sdn Bhd

Wangsa Tegap Sdn Bhd

Berjaya Central Park, KL

Bukit Pinang Leisure Sdn Bhd

*BERJAYA LAND BERHAD

Kota Raya Development Sdn Bhd

Kota Raya Complex, K.L.

Nural Enterprise Sdn Bhd

Plaza Berjaya, K.L.

Noble Circle (M) Sdn Bhd

KL Plaza, K.L.

Menara Berjaya, KL

Berjaya Land Development Sdn Bhd

Taman UPC, Ayer Hitam,

Johor Bandar Banang Jaya, Batu Pahat,

JohorSelat Makmur Sdn Bhd

Seputeh Heights, K.L.

Subang Heights, Subang Jaya,

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LIVE FROM IPOH

2009-05-06T19:10:00.000-07:00

IPOH DEWAN SITTING LIVE COVERAGE
by Anil Netto

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Umno to use cyberspace to woo young voters

2009-04-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

Umno to use cyberspace to woo young voters
Posted by admin
Saturday, 25 April 2009 20:11
(Bernama) - Umno information chief Ahmad Maslan said the party is aware of the important role of the new media in moulding the political minds of the young and will use cyberspace to attract voters.

"The new media has been very effective in influencing the young politically. We need to find new ways to engage the young in cyberspace.

"It must be done fast as studies showed that the Internet played an important role in influencing young voters," he said after opening the parent-teacher association meeting of Sekolah Rendah Ayer Baloi here today.

Ahmad said he would be meeting the Umno wings, academicians and non-governmental organisations to find effective ways to engage the young in cyberspace.

The Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Department said Umno would continue to hold meetings, talks and seminars and use the print and electronic media to disseminate information.

"We will use unconventional ways that will be appreciated by the people to show that we are here to serve," said Ahmad who spent a night in the home of a Felda settler in Kulaijaya last week.

He did not discount possibility that key performance indicators (KPI) be used on the party information machinery just like that implemented for ministers and deputy ministers.

"Umno information bureau at branch, division, state and national level may be asked to list their programmes for the month and year.

"I will also seek the view of former information chiefs Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib, Tan Sri Yusof Noor and Datuk Mustapa Mohamed," he added.

When justice is not administered according to law — N.H. Chan

2009-04-16T07:29:00.000-07:00

When justice is not administered according to law — N.H. Chan

APRIL 16 — The story unfolds with the application of three turncoat members of the Perak Legislative Assembly for a declaration that Speaker V. Sivakumar’s order, which was made in the Legislative Assembly, that their seats in the Assembly have become vacant because they have resigned was illegal. Here is the report from theSun newspaper, Thursday, April 2, 2009:

IPOH: The High Court yesterday dismissed the application by Perak State Assembly Speaker V. Sivakumar to strike out an original summons brought by the three independent assemblymen, seeking a declaration that Sivakumar’s order to declare their assembly seats vacant was illegal.

Justice Datuk Balia Yusuf Wahi set April 8 to hear the suit by the assemblymen Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu (Changkat Jering), Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Hee Yit Foong (Jelapang) against the speaker.

He also dismissed an application by three former Pakatan Rakyat state executive councillors … and three registered voters to intervene in the case, ruling that they are not interested parties as claimed.

Sivakumar had declared the three state seats vacant based on their pre-dated resignation letters as the three assemblymen were formerly from the ruling coalition. Their resignation from their parties caused the balance of power to shift to Barisan Nasional.

Sivakumar had informed the Election Commission (EC) to call for fresh elections for these three seats but the EC declined and said the seats were not vacant.

The three assemblymen then referred their suit to the High Court here for a ruling that they had not vacated their seats as declared by Sivakumar.

I don’t have to tell you how to judge the judge. You must know by now how to do it if you have read my articles in the Internet. You will know he is a bad judge if he behaves unfairly to one side as against the other. It is your perception as a member of the public that matters and not what the judge thinks of himself. A judge who does not appear to be fair is useless to the judicial process. As such he is a bad judge and is therefore unfit to sit on the bench. The other essential qualification of a judge is to administer justice according to law. That said, we can now judge this judge.

Article 72, Clause (1) of the Federal Constitution clearly states:

72. (1) The validity of any proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of any State shall not be questioned in any court.
Yet Mr Justice Balia Yusuf Wahi, who knew that the Speaker’s order which was made in the Legislative Assembly was a proceeding in the Legislative Assembly, dismissed the Speaker’s application to strike out the summons of the three turncoat assemblymen who were asking the court to question the validity of what the Speaker had done in the Assembly. As you know what the Speaker did in the Assembly, rightly or wrongly, is not to be questioned in any court. Isn’t what the judge had done by dismissing the Speaker’s application to strike out the turncoats’ summons, not administering justice according to law? The judge had gone against the Constitution of Malaysia which is the supreme law of the land. What do you call a judge who has defied the law of the land? A renegade judge?
There is another thing. Why did the judge dismiss the application of the three voters from the Behrang, Changkat Jering and Jelapang constituencies, who claimed that their rights were affected because they had voted for the DAP and PKR? They were not allowed to intervene because they were not interested parties ruled the judge. Why are they not interested parties? The voters have voted for them as their representatives in the Legislative Assembly because they were DAP and PKR candidates. Now the turncoats have reneged on the arrangement on which they have stood for election on a DAP or PKR ticket. Such an arrangement has formed the basis of an underlying assumption on which they have conducted the dealings between them. Therefore, they would not be allowed to go back on that assumption when it would be unfair or unjust to allow them to do so. In other words, it would be unfair or unjust to allow them to say that they are no longer DAP or PKR members but are independent members of the Assembly. The authority for what I have just said is so well known that I am surprised the judge had chosen to ignore it. The case is Boustead Trading (1985) Sdn Bhd v. Arab-Malaysian Merchant Bank Bhd [1995] 3 M.LJ. 331, F.C., where Gopal Sri Ram JCA sitting in the Federal Court gave the judgment of the Court. He said, p. 344:
The time has come for this court to recognize that the doctrine of estoppel is a flexible principle by which justice is done according to the circumstances of the case. It is a doctrine of wide utility and has been resorted to in varying fact patterns to achieve justice. Indeed, the circumstances in which the doctrine may operate are endless.
And at p. 345, he went on to say:
The width of the doctrine has been summed up by Lord Denning in the Amalgamated Investment case ([1982] 1 Q.B. 84 at p. 122; [1981] 3 All E.R. 577 at p. 584; [1981] 3 W.L.R. 565 at p. 575) as follows:
“The doctrine of estoppel is one of the most flexible and useful in the armoury of the law. But it has become overloaded with cases. That is why I have not gone through them all in this judgment. It has evolved during the last 150 years in a sequence of separate developments: proprietary estoppel, estoppel by representation of fact, estoppel by acquiescence, and promissory estoppel. At the same time it has been sought to be limited by a series of maxims: estoppel is only a rule of evidence, estoppel cannot give rise to a cause of action, estoppel cannot do away with the need for consideration, and so forth. All these can now be seen to merge into one general principle shorn of limitations. When the parties to a transaction proceed on the basis of an underlying assumption — either of fact or of law — whether due to misrepresentation or mistake makes no difference - on which they have conducted the dealings between them - nether of them will be allowed to go back on that assumption when it would be unfair or unjust to allow him to do so. If one of them does seek to go back on it, the courts will give the other such remedy as the equity of the case demands.” (Emphasis added)
So the judge Balia Yusuf Wahi had wrongly ruled that the three voters were not interested parties. The voters’ interest in the matter is that they have a right to insist on the persons whom they have voted to be their elected DAP or PKR representatives not to change sides by switching to the other political coalition Barisan Nasional. “When the parties to a transaction proceed on the basis of an underlying assumption on which they have conducted the dealings between them neither of them will be allowed to go back on that assumption when it would be unfair or unjust to allow him to do so. If one of them does seek to go back on it, the courts will give the other such remedy as the equity of the case demands.”
We know that the judge had adjourned the hearing of the suit by the turncoat assemblymen to April 8. But to our amazement we were told by the newspaper that the turncoats have also made two applications to the Federal Court on Friday, that was Friday, April 3, for two declarations, viz:
Whether, on a true interpretation of article 36(5) of the Laws of Perak Darul Ridzuan (Perak Constitution) read together with section 12(3) of the Election Act 1958, the Election Commission is the rightful entity which establishes if there is a casual vacancy of the state legislative assembly seat.
When a resignation of a member of the Perak state legislative assembly is disputed, is such resignation within the meaning as ascribed under article 35 of the Perak Constitution.
If they have applied to the Federal Court for a determination, then it is only proper to inform the High Court and the other side about it. So that what is pending in the High Court could be adjourned until the Federal Court has decided on the questions that have been referred to it.
Then on Friday, April 10, the New Straits Times carries this report:
PUTRAJAYA: The Federal Court has declared that three assemblymen who quit their parties are still members of the Perak state legislature. This follows an unanimous ruling by a five-men bench yesterday which ruled that the Election Commission had the authority to declare a seat vacant.
“The Election Commission is the rightful entity to establish if there was a casual vacancy in the Perak state legislature,” said Federal Court judge Tan Sri Alauddin Mohd Sheriff. Sitting with him were Datuk Arifin Zakaria, Datuk Nik Hashim Nik Abdul Rahman, Datuk Sen S Augustine Paul and Datuk James Foong.
Last month, Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi (Behrang) and Mohd Osman Jailu (Changkat Jering), together with DAP’s Hew Yit Foong (Jelapang), filed an urgent application for the Federal Court to decide their matter. The three wanted a declaration whether it was the Election Commission or the Perak Speaker (V Sivakumar) had the final say in determining a vacancy.
In February, Sivakumar, using resignation letters signed by the three, had declared the seats vacant. He informed the Election Commission, but the commission refused to hold by-elections on the ground that there was ambiguity over whether the assemblymen had resigned voluntarily.
Was the Federal Court right? Before you can judge the judges of the highest court in the country, it is necessary for me to appraise you of the law applicable which is found in the Constitution of Perak. Thus, the heading of Article XXXI of the Perak Constitution reads:
Disqualification for membership of Legislative Assembly
XXXI. (1) Subject to the provisions of this Article, a person is disqualified for being a member of the Legislative Assembly if-
(a) [he is of unsound mind]; (I have summarised the paragraph)
(b) he is an undischarged bankrupt;
(c) he holds office of profit;
(d) [he has failed to lodge any return of election expenses within time]; (I have summarised the paragraph)
(e) [he has been convicted of an offence and sentenced to imprisonment of not less than one year or to a fine of not less than RM2,000]; (I have summarised the paragraph)
(f) [disqualification involving election offences]; (I have summarised the paragraph)
(g) [he has acquired the citizenship of another country] (I have summarised the paragraph)
(2) [The disqualification of a person under paragraphs (d) or (e) above may be removed by the Sultan or ceased at the end of five years] (This is a summary)
(3) …
(4) …
(5) A person who resigns his membership of the Legislative Assembly of this State or any other State shall, for a period of five years beginning with the date on which his resignation takes effect, be disqualified from being a member of the Legislative Assembly of this State.
So that it is clear to all of us that Article XXXI, Clause (5) says that an assemblyman who resigns is disqualified from being a member of the Assembly for a period of five years from the date of his resignation.
And Article XXXIII, Clause (1) says:
XXXIII. (1) If any question arises whether a member of the Legislative Assembly has become disqualified for membership, the decision of the Assembly shall be taken and shall be final.
This means that whether a person is disqualified for membership of the Assembly is the decision of the Assembly. So that when a person has resigned he is disqualified from being a member of the Assembly for five years from the date his resignation takes effect.
You may want to know how an assemblyman can resign. Article XXXV states:
XXXV. A member of the Legislative Assembly may resign his membership by writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker.
So that a member can resign simply by writing to the Speaker. But whether the letter itself amounts to a resignation, as a resignation would disqualify him for membership of the Assembly, is for the Assembly to decide. Article XXXIII, Clause (1) says that the decision of the Assembly shall be taken on the disqualification if any question arises on it, which in the present context is the effectiveness of the letter of resignation. And the decision of the Assembly is to be final.
The above is simple enough for all of us to understand. But then, all of us are wondering how on earth the Federal Court could have decided that “(t)he Election Commission is the rightful entity to establish if there was a casual vacancy in the Perak state legislature”? Don’t you all feel superior to the judges of the Federal Court because you know the correct answer whilst the highest court gave a wrong decision. So you see, when you know how to judge the judges you would be able to separate the wheat from the chaff from among our judges. The chaff, you will discover, may not be up to your expectations.
What really happened was that with their myopic reading of the Perak Constitution they pick on Clause (5) of Article XXXVI and say that is the correct answer. This is what Article XXXVI, Clause (5) says — the article starts with the heading:
Summoning, prorogation and dissolution of Legislative Assembly
XXXVI. (5) A casual vacancy shall be filled within sixty days from the date on which it is established by the Election Commission that there is a vacancy.
A casual vacancy means an occasional vacancy which can be filled simply with a by-election. But the question whether the turncoat assemblyman have resigned or not will have to await the outcome of the decision of the Assembly which decision shall be final: see Article XXXIII, Clause (1). It is only upon receiving the decision of the Legislative Assembly will the Election Commission be able to establish that there is a vacancy. As it turns out the Federal Court has put the cart before the horse - in this case, just the cart without the horse - which is that the court has held that it is for the Commission to establish that there is a casual vacancy without waiting for the decision of the Assembly whether the three turncoat assemblymen have been disqualified for membership of the Assembly by resignation. — loyarburok.com

Justice N.H. Chan was a former Court of Appeal judge.

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/23485-when-justice-is-not-administered-according-to-law--nh-chan

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Comments (18)
Show/Hide comments
Is there any justice in Malaysia when comes to politic?written by Jujur, April 16, 2009
Can anyone answer my question? Yes, the answer is in next GE.

+0

UMNO owns the Malaysian Constitution - A Very Sad Day for Malaysiawritten by superyoga, April 16, 2009
UMNO owns Malaysian Constitution and use the Judicial Officers to do their biddings. They are then supported by the government agencies like Election Commission and the whole pariah UMNO Leaders and supporters - ALL FOR SELF-INTEREST BN component parties are also in collusion and worse is MCA President Ong Tee Kiat, Gerakan Koh Tsu Koon and Samy Vellu whom are spineless. They are now being blamed by UMNO for not even carrying their weight as BN partners for not winning votes but they 'humbly' accept positions by UMNO for Minister, Deputy Ministers and Exco Posts. Are positions like this really important? MCA, MIC and Gerakan will be rendered obsolete and send into oblivion for sure. The non-malay votes do not want spineless people who just accept positions for themselves and not positions to serve. We do not want to be told to be grateful, nor told the sacrifices of the non-malays - WE JUST WANT A CREDIBLE AND RESPECTED GOVERNMENT. Actually, Penang - Selangor - Perak are PR run government that have earned the respect of the people. How do we accept MPs, Chief Ministers, Ministers who manupilate the constitution for their own purpose. Does the BN component parties have NO Concience when they do things unethically and unconstitutionally? But with Najib who is the PM who initiate this and Muhiyidin who accuses the Non-Malays as 'not returning the favour' - shows the type of political leaders and credibility they have. The judges is now involved in wrong doing, the government agencies also, the Sultans involved... all to keep UMNO in power. I am sad, extremely sad for Malaysia. We do not need enemies in Malaysia, we have them and they are running the country. By being in government, they run their own fiefdom like Khir Toyo who uses the Selangor State Government funds like his piggy bank, Najib on MIC financial requests, etc. To NH Chan, I salute you for putting your views for people to learn what our Corrupted Political Masters are doing and we need more judges of integrity in Malaysia.

+12

I'm getting real mad.written by Paul, April 16, 2009
It's so troubling to see what is happening in our country. I just don't know how these judges sleep at night, or go about living as if nothing has happened. Thank you for highlighting these things to us. Let us not forget what they have done and use every opportunity we get to bring them down. All we are asking is for a fair and just decision.

+8

Justice N.H.Chan saidwritten by DON4672, April 16, 2009
Though your are retired I salute you for your sanity and respected comments.Malaysia and Malaysian are facing judicial decay each day.Personally I though I can put my hope to Malay Rulers to rectify the improprieties of our judiciaries lately but the hope was shattered into the drains. It keeps me wonder why most of Malaysia judges of these days are lack of intergrities?Dont they feel guilty by twisting the right to wrong decisions? I pray that Allah save Malaysian

+7

Power & Brute rule in the jungle!written by Penang Laksa, April 16, 2009
Ah...But you are talking about laws under the Constitution...Things are slightly different here where the law of the jungle rules...and state assemblymen can be prevented from attending state assembly meeting by the assembly secretary with the help of the police...different fields, different ball games...dulu lain, sekarang lain...those with power (money) and brute always rule in the jungle...constitution and laws are just for the civilized in a civilized society!

+4

Honourable judgement vs "Instructed" judgementwritten by Present Value, April 16, 2009
Dear Honorable Chan, Thank you and i appreciate learning some salient points on this case! Here in this case, it is very obvious that the judgement was "instructed" rather than based on what the learned judges up-hold, thus this leave me wonder how the present batch of judges can leave behind some good land-mark judgement? We have heard of the "contrarian" investors, now we are seeing "contrarian-judiciary" which will interprete the laws to the tune of their "instructors" to suit the flavour of the day!

+3

Tahu,lah.written by Ahmad, April 16, 2009
We all know the judge is just a puppet. Good job explaining it to us,Mr. Chan, but it was fairly obvious to the average Malaysian that we are watching the breakdown of not just the Legislative and Judiciary, but the Constitution itself. There isn't a major problem with the Constitution, just that at the end of the day, it is just a piece of paper against the corrupt and greedy BN. Dear Najib & Team 1Malaysia, Wait until after GE13, then we'll see what happens in a REAL court of law

+4

...written by highend79, April 16, 2009
Thank you N.H. Chan for explaing this clearly and it seem this is going against the doctrine of separation of power. The puzzling thing is why judges of these day are readily to disregard the constituition that they sworn to protect and base their judgement out of thin air.

+3

Justice my foot!written by Joel Chong, April 16, 2009
It is most saddening that blatant disregard of the constitutions of this nation is taking place right before our eyes, at the very cradle of justice itself, the courts! As a student, we read of separation of power between the three entities in this country - the judiciary, executive and legislature. To our simple minds then, at perhaps also now, this is elementary. It was a given that the three are distinct and independent of one another for a very simple reason, once anyone of those powers decide to sidestep or overstep into the others dominion, all hell breaks lose! The most prominent outcome is the realisation that now, the legislature - which is the father of all laws and legal provisions of the country - is subservient to the judiciary! The irony is, the judiciary is suppose to act based on Acts enacted by the judiciary! If I am in the legislature, I will immediately call for the parliament to enact a new law curbing future encroachment by the judiciary in the affairs of the legislature. And this time, make sure it is spelt out as lucidly and unambiguously as possible. Such drastic and desperate act is necessary to put a stop to this nonsensical drama that is playing right before our eyes from happening again. The recent court decisions simply tells that a few men's decision (judges) is greater than the voices of thousands who voted in the affected constituencies. So, it is just apt to proclaim, 'justice my foot!'

+3

..., Lowly rated comment [Show]
...written by pat ling, April 16, 2009
Dark clouds continue to hang over the heads of Malaysians. What is worse...more dark clouds are beginning to form and there is no sight of the end. SAD. A glorious country becoming like that.

+1

...written by Rage against the Machine, April 16, 2009
damn, i wish i was a lawyer.....ITS ALL SPANISH TO ME!!!!

-3

Crsytal clear laws..yet unsatisfactory judgementwritten by orang biasa, April 16, 2009
Crsytal clear laws..yet unsatisfactory judgement... was there really any reform in the judiciary???

+0

...written by zik, April 16, 2009
I summarized above artical..Justice in this country a mere crap!!!!!!

+0

What can we do?written by Koon Yew Yin, April 16, 2009
I must congratulate Justice Chan for giving us and the Fedral Court a good lesson in law. Since the Ferderal Court is the highest court in the country, what can we do? If someone can give this article to the Perak Sultan who should be able to see the injustice done, he can retifiy the situation. Do we have a volunteer?

+0

...written by X-B.End, April 16, 2009
Thank u Honourable Judge Chan on the explanation. Even Bar Council agreed that the decision by court is absurd. It doesnt take one to be a LAWYER or JUDGE to realised that Fed. Court has abused its judgement power.

+0

Facts are facts, logic is logicwritten by Local guy, April 16, 2009
Dear eddydaud, NH Chan has stuck his neck out to educate simple minded folks like you and I. I for one appreciate this discourse and revelation. NH Chan is not an ordinary retired judge. I have read his book and I encourage you to do so yourself. He was prescient. He spoke of certain judges even before the Lingam RCI circus. Let the public decide whether these latest judgement makes sense or not. I for one have decided who to vote for at the next GE13.

+0

Judiciary..of reforms and intergritywritten by orang biasa, April 16, 2009
This is asimple and a straightforward case. The judiciary cannot interfere in the proceedings of the state assembly...and going by this judgement all future proceedings in the state assembly or even in the parliament can be challenged in the court of law. How was this judgement arrived when there were many case laws both in Malaysia and other Commonwealth countries clearly separating the powers of the executive,judiciary and the legislative. It gives rise to ordinary citizens that something is not really right with this judgement.

+0

Blog Speaker DUN Perak.

2009-04-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

Blog Speaker DUN Perak.

"Tolong maklumkan kepada semua ADUN Pakatan Rakyat Perak dan maklumkan kepada umum mengenai bolog saya yang baru"

Demikian antara kandungan perbualan saya dengan Speaker DUN Perak, V. Sivakumar kelmarin.

Kini Sivakumar mempunyai blog dalam versi Bahasa Melayu untuk dikunjungi oleh semua.

Sila layari : http://speakforperak.blogspot.com/

HELP NEEDED BY MAFREL FOR BATANG AI BYE-ELECTION

2009-03-15T02:22:00.000-07:00

EXTRACT FROM The Might Of The Pen

http://sjsandteam.wordpress.com/2009/03/06/help-needed-by-mafrel-for-batang-ai-bye-election/

After some contacts are made with our previously trained volunteers in Sarawak we are now closer to what can be done for conducting an election observation in Batang Ai by-election: the limitation of resources (lack of funding, short time, resources stretched by 2 other simultaneous by-elections) means that we may adopt the following strategy:

* provide training to observers by sending 1-2 trainers to Batang Ai;
*provide voters education material to Batang Ai for mass circulation;
*arrange for SPR tags for trained observers to do observation inside the polling centres where the observers cast their votes;
* provide internet outlets for the reports they may send by phones/internet etc.

To raise the fund for conducting the observation mission we are calling upon generous Malaysians-whether from the Sarawak or Peninsular to donate generously towards the training session which is coming up on Mar 15th in Batang Ai itself. The isolation of the constituency means that more chances for breaches of the rules of free and fair elections to happen-thus the more need to keep the election operation under closer scrutiny. The political importance of the by-election-as a test of popularity of the current Sarawak state government, means that the election would be hotly contested - another factors that heighten the chance of `dirty politics’!

The training is aimed at empowering the observers to report regularly all the hanky panky that are likely to take place where few people can see.

Donation target:
* Airfare and incidental for 1 trainer to go to Batang Ai & back -about Rm1,000.00;
* Transport subsidies, communication and training material for trainees to attend the training session at Batang Ai -about RM 6000.00

So a very economic package for the observation mission. Please donate generously so we can send you precious reports from the ground with 8006 voters. Far as it may be from most Malaysians’ consciousness Batang Ai is as much a part of Malaysia as any other -thus our wish not to ignore the by-election, as we would not other by-elections. With many Sarawakian friends help secured in arranging the trip we hope that you can do your part in keeping the election under as close a scrutiny as we can manage.

Please contact us if you are interested to donate towards the mission: democracy4now@gmail.com 013-5900339 (Ong BK)

Many thanks in advance. Ong BK March 06, 2009 19:13 PM

==============================================

To all our readers: Please visit their website by clicking below. If you are not able to help, it is ok, but if you can copy and paste and email to many people as possible, this will also help them to overcome their problems. We are pleased to note that we are listed as one of top click website in their list of websites. Please also note that they have not requested any help from us in displaying this message. This is the main reason why we feel obliged.

http://mafrel.wordpress.com/

BATTLE LINES DRAWN: SARAWAK BLOGGERS TO THE FORE.

2009-03-14T07:57:00.000-07:00

Saturday, March 14, 2009

BATTLE LINES DRAWN: SARAWAK BLOGGERS TO THE FORE.

For the benefit of those who are unable to access Malaysiakini I produce a posting by Sarawakian SIM KWANG YANG who was the MP for Bandar Kuching between 1982 and 1995. He can be reached at kenyalang578@hotmail.com

This posting is to reinforce the groundwork already in place by the people who want back their Native Customary Land. It is also to inform Malaysians in peninsular Malaysia to establish contact, link and bond with our brothers and sisters over there.

The article:

Sarawak bloggers, your first big battle begins in Batang Ai

As the political sky over the fair land of Sarawak begins to heat up in anticipation of the Batang Ai by-election, the attention is suddenly focused on a new phenomenon - the political bloggers in the state.

Alfred Jabu, deputy chief minister and PBB deputy president, has in recent months been quite vocal in his criticism of the bloggers. A few days ago, he warned that "outsiders" must be careful in observing Iban adat when lobbying in the Batang Ai area. Dr James Masing, the PRS president and a state minister, also warned bloggers not to stir up negative feelings that could divide Dayak unity - or something to that effect.

The way they talk about "outsiders", one gets the impression that they mean the PKR leaders and bloggers from West Malaysia. In cyber space, the blogs are already buzzing with all kinds of speculation on when Raja Petra Kamarudin and his fierce army of Barisan Rakyat bloggers will descend upon Batang Ai. Some expressed the view that they may be banned from entering Sarawak.

The BN ministers' tirade against the bloggers is interesting. Since the bloggers seldom answer back in the main stream media, Jabu and Masing appear to be engaged in an exercise of shadow boxing against flickering ghosts.

Those Sarawakians who are alien to the world of the Internet will be scratching their heads in puzzlement. Who are these bloggers and what do they do to deserve such scathing attack from important Dayak leaders. Are they that powerful?

More freedom of speech
I too discovered to my great delight the presence of these Sarawak bloggers only in resent months. Obviously, they are much younger than me, and therefore Internet savvy to a fault. Many are pro-opposition, but there are some who are obviously pro-BN. As they say, this is a free country.

As bloggers, they do enjoy far more freedom of speech than the mainstream media. But many also take responsibility by mediating (meaning "editing and censoring") the postings on their blog sites. There is a great deal of garbage floating around in cyber space.

The latest news of people being charged in court for insulting the Sultan of Perak is a warning sign. I too commented on the sultan's decision, like thousands of others. As they say, there is nothing to fear but fear itself. But free speech does mean responsible speech, defensible in court.

Those who are familiar with Sarawak blogs will have known by now that Masing and Jabu are two of the most vilified names in Sarawak's cyber universe. I will not sleep easy if I know that I am so much cursed on the Internet. But of all the most cursed names, none draws such blind rage as Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

I just pluck out at random what a reader to Joseph Tawie's blog The Broken Shield said about Jabu in a recent posting:

"But then again, every thing that Jabu touches turns to xxxx. I see from today's Borneo Post he is now resorting to associating everyone anti-BN that they will cause death and destruction when they visit longhouses. Can you believe this idiot? What about those YBs and other pro-BN people who have moved on to the next life? Are they there because they support BN?"

"Someone should tell this anak Numpang that politcs and religion should not mix. He is too high on his pedestal that someone should knock him down a peg or two...or throw a shoe or two at him."

I would not write such virulent words about anybody, but that is the Internet for you.

Unprecedented in Sarawak!

The emergence of these Sarawak political bloggers is a new phenomenon that the BN leading lights are grappling with. In a state where the newspapers and radio stations are overwhelmingly controlled by the government, dissenting voices can hardly be heard in the mainstream media. Blogging allows commentaries on current events to surface on the Internet, from the bloggers themselves, and from their readers. This is unprecedented in Sarawak!

For the first time, public statements of important political leaders published on the newspapers are no longer accepted as absolute gosple truths. They are dissected by the bloggers, with readers contributing insight and exclusive little known background information. The monopoly of the BN leaders to narrate the Sarawak story has been broken forever.

I read them every day. Living in KL as I do, I can rely on them to catch a glimpse of the undercurrents and nuances that pulsate beneath the stultifying political surface of Sarawak. The expose there can really open your eyes. I am grateful to them.

In the context of the Batang Ai by-election, the presence of the Dayak bloggers is particularly damaging to the BN propaganda machine. This bunch of New Dayaks are pretty independent minded, and they offer a diversity of views on what a Dayak agenda must be like. Diversity and a clash of ideas are essential to the intellectual progress of any ethnic community.

Of course, like all bloggers elsewhere, Sarawak bloggers are by the nature of their lonely work, individualistic people. Sometimes, they clash with one another. This is quite natural, and somehow, they have been able to kiss and make up in the unique Sarawak tradition after a while.

Sarawak Head-hunter - one of my favourite bloggers - has recently launched an attack on Dominique Ng, the PKR state assemblyperson in Sarawak, to the shock of everybody else. But that seems to have subsided somewhat, to the relief of all.

Sarawak is a vast state with a small population. Kuching City is a small town. Everybody knows everybody else. Naturally, I get to know the true identity of most of these Sarawak bloggers, and their personal and political background, though I may not know how they look in person.

In Batang Ai, coverage for telecommunication and electricity supply is very restricted. I am told that the telecommunication tower there can provide for 200 mobile phone lines at any one time. The number of rural Iban farmers outside the main town of Lubok Antu there with a PC at home must be infinitesimal.

Citizen journalism

This is a land where 56 of the 108 longhouses can be reached by river transport only. Physical and telecommunication infrastructure there still remains in the dark ages of the 19th century. So much for politics of development touted by the BN!

So the Sarawak bloggers cannot campaign in Batang Ai like the Barisan Rakyat Bloggers did for the Pakatan Rakyat in West Malaysia. What they can do very well is to influence the urban middle class Ibans in Kuching and elsewhere to influence their relatives in Batang Ai. Blood is indeed thicker than water in the Iban community.

Naturally, if these Dayak bloggers can make frequent trips to Batang Ai and make on-the-spot reports about heartaches and dreams of the poor Ibans there with dramatic stills and video pictures to illustrate their point, it will be an invaluable service to the Ibans, to the nation, and to the entire world in fact.

Perhaps they are inexperienced in this aspect of citizen journalism. I do hope that RPK and his gang of Barisan Rakyat bloggers can make that trip to Sarawak soon. A meeting between bloggers from both sides of the South China Sea may be an opportunity for learning from each other and the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Unfortunately, RPK is caught in the battle for his life in the court. Judging from some recent judgement, to call our court a kangaroo Court is an insult to that harmless animal down under. With so much on their hands, there is serious doubt whether the Barisan Rakyat generals and soldiers can indeed go to Sarawak, what with the two Bukit by-elections held at the same time.

But I still value the contribution of the Sarawak bloggers. They are a new force, a digital civic society that accumulates social capital in Sarawak. As we know, civic societies and the social capital that they generate are the pre-condition for the democratisation and the opening up of closed autocratic societies all over the world. Taiwan is the most recent example.

Public engagement, social activism, and citizen participation in the political process in any form is to be applauded. Well done guys and girls in Sarawak! Your first big battle for a free Sarawak begins in Batang Ai.

Agi idup, agi ngeleban Raja Laut!

Go to links provided HERE. Visit them and give them all the support you can.
UPDATE AT 7:24PM

http://zorro-zorro-unmasked.blogspot.com/2009/03/battle-lines-drawn-sarawak-bloggers-to.html

This from a Sarawakian residing in KL now: Shiok Guy said...

Dear Bro I am from Sarawak but now work and stay in KL.. In order for PR to have any chance in Sarawak! We need the indelible ink.. seriously!

http://shiokguy.blogspot.com/2009/03/sarawak-needs-indelible-ink.html or anything that we can control the repeat voters

Shiok Guy
March 14, 2009 7:05 PM

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS, SARAWAKIAN BLOGGERS?

The Altantuya Foundation set up in Bangkok

2009-03-13T04:21:00.000-07:00

The Altantuya Foundation set up in Bangkok

Now, this is one foundation you may want to donate to:

An association of independent journalists based in Bangkok and coordinated by French Liberation correspondent Arnaud Dubus has set up a foundation to offer material support to the family of Mongolian Altantuya Shaaribuu, killed in Malaysia in october 2006. The Altantuya Foundation aims to bring concrete help to Mr Shaaribuu, the father of the deceased, and her two children, Altanshagai (five years old) and Mungunshagai (12 years old).

“When i met Shaaribuu in Ulan Bator in January, he told me he has not bought clothes for two years as he could not afford it. This sixty year old man has to work on two different jobs,to be able to take care of this two orphaned grand children”, says Arnaud Dubus. “I am a journalist, but i also have a heart. I could not help feel compassion for the Shaaribuu family”, he adds.

For transparency, the Fondation will be supervised by the Mongolian embassy in Bangkok. All donations will be given to the Embassy which will convey them directly to Mr Shaaribuu. The first donor was Danthong Breen, well known Thai human rights activist and Chairman of the Union for Civil Liberties. All donors receives an official receipt. Small contributions (as well as bigger ones, but not too big please) are very much welcome, as a small amount can make a huge difference for the life of the Shaaribuu Family. Foundation founders consider that it would be a wonderful gesture of human solidarity for people from different Nations, Asian and Western, to show their support for the family of this young interpreter savagely killed at the age of 28 years old.

For details, contact altantuyashaaribuu@yahoo.com
Information sent by: Arnaud Dubus, Foundation coordinator

National Speech "Ketuanan Rakyat" - 8 March 2009

2009-03-07T20:27:00.000-08:00

National Speech "Ketuanan Rakyat" - 8 March 2009
Host:
Pakatan Rakyat Selangor
Type:
Meetings - Convention
Network:
Malaysia
Date:
08 March 2009
Time:
15:00 - 19:00
Location:
MBSA Auditorium, Wisma MBSA

Description
On March 8th 2009 Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim will deliver a National Address on the one year anniversary of the 12th General Elections in which the Pakatan Rakyat achieved unprecedented gains.His speech will call for unity among the Malaysian people and declare a firm resolve on the part of the Pakatan Rakyat to work hard to face the challenges of the economic recession, create new jobs for Malaysians and improve access to quality education. He will also highlight the many successes achieved by Pakatan Rakyat governments in the five states to reduce corruption, increase investment and create jobs during a period when thousands of Malaysians have been left unemployed.

The speech, which will take place at the Majlis Bandaraya Shah Alam Auditorium, will be broadcast live on TV Antara.

It is the first National Address since the March 2008 elections.

Sunday March 8th, 20094:30 PM (GMT + 8)

Wisma MBSA, Shah Alam, Selangor

WATCH LIVE ON

TVANTARA.com

BUKIT SELAMBAU

2009-02-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

22/2/09 9PM

PADANG AWAM MDY

BELAKANG BALAI BOMBA

GUAR CHEMPEDAK, KEDAH

Forum “Perak Coup D’etat:What Say You?”

2009-02-14T23:19:00.000-08:00

http://votecharles.wordpress.com/2009/02/14/forum-perak-coup-detatwhat-say-you/

PERAK: P059 - Bukit Gantang dan KEDAH: N25 - Bukit Selambau

2009-02-10T19:58:00.000-08:00

PERAK: P59 - Bukit Gantang
Voters: 55,471

UMNO
Datuk Azim Zabidi
18,449

PAS
Roslan Shaharum
20,015
Majority: 1,566

IND
M Morgan
872

Racial Breakdown

Malay: 63.50%, Chinese: 27.10%, Indian: 9.10%, Others: 0.20%
State Seats / Polling Districts

N13 - Kuala Sapetang
Kamunting Station, Ayer Puteh, Jebong, Simpang Halt, Sapetang, Kampong Port Weld, Sungai Sapetang Kechil, Pekan Port Weld, Jalan Mangala, Kampong Jaha, Sungai Limau, Matang Gelugor, Sungai Mati, Bendang Siam, Changkat Ibol,

PERAK: N13 - Kuala Sapetang
Voters: 19,699

GERAKAN
See Tean Seng
6721

PKR
Tai Sing Ng
7285
Majority: 564

Racial Breakdown

Malay: 60.00%, Chinese: 32.10%, Indian: 7.90%, Others: 0.10%

N14 - Changkat Jering
Pengkalan Aor, Simpang Lama, Simpang Baru, Kawasan J.k.r, Larut Tin, Jalan Simpang, Ayer Kuning, Changkat, Changkat Jering, Jelutong, Bukit Gantang, Kampong Cheh,

PERAK: N14 - Changkat Jering
Voters: 24,864

UMNO
Datuk Mat Isa Ismail
8309

PKR
Mohd Osman Mohd Jailu
9411
Majority: 1,102

Racial Breakdown

Malay: 63.90%, Chinese: 26.10%, Indian: 9.80%, Others: 0.20%

N15 - Trong
Kuala Trong, Pasir Hitam Trong, Kampong Tebok Trong, Trong, Trong Barat, Bukit Gantang Selatan, Sungai Keluang, Ayer Terjun, Kampong Temerloh, Ayer Terjun Tengah, Padang Gajah, Padang Gajah Tengah, Sungai Tinggi, Permatang Raja, Batu Hampar, Sungai Rotan, Sungai Che Rahmat

PERAK: N15 - Trong
Voters: 10,908

UMNO
Datuk Rosli Husin
4212
Majority: 916

PAS
Nor Azli Musa
3296

Racial Breakdown

Malay: 69.50%, Chinese: 20.40%, Indian: 9.90%, Others: 0.20%

======================================================

KEDAH: N25 - Bukit Selambau
Voters: 34,977

Majority
MIC
S Krishnan
10863

IND
V Arumugam
13225
Majority: 2,362

Racial Breakdown

Malay: 50.20%, Chinese: 19.30%, Indian: 29.50%, Others: 1.00%

State Seats / Polling Districts

Kuala Sin, Kampong Sungkap, Bukit Lembu, Kongsi Enam, Sungai Lallang Luar, Sungai Lallang Utara, Bandar Laguna Merbok, Tasek Apong, Ayer Menideh, Jalan Badlishah, Taman Peruda, Taman Ria, Taman Ria Jaya, United Petani, Petani Para, Bukit Rusa, Pekan Bukit Selambau, Kampong Pokok Machang, Batu Belachan, Titi Panjang,

3.12pm: Najib to announce takeover of Perak at 4.00pm PC?

2009-02-03T23:55:00.000-08:00

MAFREL REPORT:
http://mafrel.wordpress.com/

3.12pm: Najib to announce takeover of Perak at 4.00pm PC?

04/02/2009 by democracy4now

There is a report that Najib will announce in a 4.00pm PC that BN will take over Perak State Assembly-after 3 PR Assemblypersons turned Independent in the last 24 hours. Latest to join the group is Assemblyperson Hee-confirmed by DAP.

If the 3 joined BN there won’t be any elections as BN would then have a slim majority to rule the State. The problem of instablity may still not be solved.

Inilah luahan hati isteri tahanan ISA.Malaysiakini.

2009-01-24T15:05:00.000-08:00

Inilah luahan hati isteri tahanan ISA.Malaysiakini.

Buku ini dihasilkan oleh 3 orang wanita iaitu Saudari Roha Hassan, seorang aktivis Jamaah Islah Malaysia(JIM), Puan Aliza Jaafar, isteri pada bekas tahanan ISA dua kali YB Saari Sungib, ADUN Hulu Kelang dan saya sendiri.

Kami bertiga telah mengumpulkan kisah benar dari beberapa orang isteri tahanan ISA untuk dikongsikan kisah mereka ini bersama masyarakat.

Tujuannya tidak lain hanyalah untuk memberi pengajaran dan peringatan supaya rakyat Malaysia sepatutnya menjadi rakyat yang celik dan faham tentang fitnah dan kejahatan akta zalim ISA ini.

Buku ini boleh didapati di Kedai buku Mehraj, Pasaraya Carrefour Wangsa Maju dan juga boleh beli secara langsung dari saya.

Harga RM15 sebuah.

Sesiapa berminat boleh sms saya di talian 012-6892608 dan saya akan hantar secara pos.

Sel N16 - Batu Caves: Amirudin Shari

2009-01-24T15:00:00.000-08:00

http://adunbatucaves.blogspot.com/

P008 - Pokok Sena: Mahfuz Omar

2009-01-24T13:17:00.000-08:00

http://gemasuara.blogspot.com/

MANSUHKAN ISA

2009-01-21T03:09:00.000-08:00

Voices

2009-01-18T18:57:00.000-08:00

Satu komen yang istimewa yang terdapat di dalam blog Dato Kadir Jasin:

Greenbottle said...
reading the post and some of the comments, it makes me wonder...why do the supporters of umno can't see that umno is beyond saving? umno dah terlalu rosak. rebranding ke, pembersihan ke will not do any good.

the only way out for the good people who support umno, is this: just leave and join PAS. DO THE RIGHT AND BRAVE THING. SIMPLY DISBAND AND JOIN PAS.

bagi kalangan yang dah rosak teruk, corrupt dan tak boleh baiki lagi tu...well, these people can form another parti. call it parti pak man telo.

PAS TAKES KT

2009-01-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

Abdul Wahid bin Endut ( PAS) won the Kuala Terengganu by-election P (36) today.
The official results are :
PAS : Abdul Wahid bin Endut 32,883 votes.
BN : Datuk Wan Farid bin Wan Salleh 30,252 votes.
Independent : Azharudin bin Mamat 193 votes.

PAS vice-president Ahmad Awang: “The win shows that Pakatan Rakyat is a viable coalition… This win is not just for PAS but for Pakatan Rakyat.”

‘Envelope journalism’ in KT?

2009-01-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

‘Envelope journalism’ is a term, popularly used in countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and elsewhere in Asia, to refer to the unethical practice of bribing journalists in the form of money, gifts or the use of facilities to journalists in an attempt to seek favourable media coverage.

It is rather very disturbing if such a practice did prevail in the run-up to the Kuala Terengganu by-election as reported below, and here too.

Such an attempt is especially disconcerting when it was alleged that it occurred at the state information department’s media centre, something that would run counter to the claim made by the Information Minister last year that there was no such thing as ‘envelope journalism’ in Malaysia.

Hat off to those journalists who were ethical enough to return the money that was offered to them.

Malaysiakini reports, among other things:

Journalists given money

In another development, RM300 cash was distributed to more than a dozen journalists at the state information department’s media centre in Kuala Terengganu.

Journalists were asked to list their names, the organisation they worked for and telephone numbers on a blank piece of paper by a media centre staff before being given a white envelope containing six RM50 notes.

Four Malaysiakini journalists wrote their details on the paper without knowing about the money.

The four later returned the envelopes with a total of RM1,200 to the media centre staff. Several other journalists have done the same.

The media centre staff could not answer when quizzed about the source of the money.
At 6pm, two journalists from Chinese-language online news Merdeka Review lodged a police report on the matter at the Terengganu police headquarters.

Information Ministry denies roleMeanwhile, according to a Bernama report later in the day, the Information Ministry denied making any payment to journalists covering the by-election.
Information Minister’s press secretary Hisham Abdul Hamid said the ministry had never directed any of its officers to do such a thing.

“This has never been the practice of the Information Ministry,” he told Bernama.

MERDEKAVIEW JOURNALISTS LODGED POLICE REPORT

Filed under: ARTICLES (LATEST) 17/01/2009, politics — sjsandteam @ 12:09 am
Tags: MERDEKAVIEW JOURNALISTS LODGED POLICE REPORT

KUALA TERENGGANU, Jan 16 (Bernama) — The Information Ministry today denied making any payment to journalists covering the Kuala Terengganu parliamentary by-election, polling for which is tomorrow.The press secretary to the Information Minister, Hisham Abdul Hamid, said the ministry had never directed any of its officers to do such a thing.

“This has never been the practice of the Information Ministry,” he told Bernama here. The Mandarin version of the Malaysiakini portal today reported that an Information Ministry officer had given envelopes containing money to journalists covering the by-election.

Meanwhile, two journalists of Merdekaview.com lodged a police report over an allegation that they had received a white envelope containing money from an officer serving at the media centre set up for the by-election. The report was made at 7.13pm at the Kuala Terengganu district police headquarters.

Will The K.T. Electorate Vote For Change?

2009-01-12T07:00:00.000-08:00

Will The K.T. Electorate Vote For Change? - Laman M@RHAEN By: Kim Quek Jan 12, 2009

In the most daring act to bribe the electorate of Kuala Terengganu (K.T.) to date, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak dished out 583 government contracts in a “lucky draw” fashion to each and every Class F contractor present at the Wisma Darul Iman in Kuala Terengganu on Jan 10, the fifth day of the K. T. by-election campaign.

These contracts (valued between RM 30,000 to RM 200,000 each), which were claimed to be for infrastructure works in the local township, were distributed in random by having the contractor to come on stage to click on the computer. And upon pressing the button, a contract would be awarded to the contractor, details of which – nature of works and contract price - would instantly appear in a big screen in the hall. Thus the contractor would walk home with his “prize” (a contract with a pre-determined price), with no question asked on his track record or suitability for the works assigned.

Najib Razak, who launched these innovative awards, proudly claimed this as “a world record”, saying that “In this lucky draw, everyone wins. Every one gets a contract.” He further added that if Barisan Nasional wins in the coming Kuala Terengganu by-election, there would be more and bigger such contracts, so that the Class F contractors (confined to Malays, for small contracts) would “continue to make money and the country’s economy would continue to grow”.

While Najib may be entitled to claim he has scored “the world’s first” for having satisfied every one of the hundreds of contractors present, few can share his pride over such bizarre method of disposing government infrastructure projects.

For a start, contracts for infrastructure works are usually awarded gradually over a period of time, as and when the needs for such works arise, as determined and initiated by the engineers and the local authorities. These contracts are never awarded in a torrent of hundreds within a single day any where in the world. Granted that this may be part of the stimulus package announced earlier to counter current economic hardship, there is no possible justification to cram such a staggering number projects in one go, especially when these are confined in a small township like Kuala Terengganu. Needless to say, massive wastages and redundancies will be the inevitable consequences.

Then, what about the track records and skill compatibility of the contractors with respect to the projects at hand? Without proper interview and scrutiny of the awardees, how can the government be certain that the projects are awarded to the right contractors?

Next, there is the question of price. Without tenders or negotiation, how can the government ensure fair pricing? In fact, over-generous pricing is expected, or else Najib would not have said: “I see everyone present here is jubilant and clapping his hands, every one has got a government contract, how can they be not grateful to the government and not strongly support Barisan Nasional?” (Sin Chew, Jan 11)

It is clear that this “lucky draw” award of contracts is an irresponsible act of public squandering aimed at inducing voters to support BN. For this move, BN was promptly condemned by the National Institute of Electoral Integrity as abusing government machinery to dish out financial benefits during election campaign.

Deplorable as the act is, this is but one of an endless series of similar monetary inducement amounting to tens of millions of ringgit in the form of cash payments and allocations handed out by BN in the K.T. constituency since the run up to polling which will be held on Jan 17.

In fact, on the same day (Jan 10) as Najib handed out the “lucky draw”, he also handed out RM 8 million to 20 religious schools, which are mainly located in Terengganu state.

Recognizing the minority 8,787 Chinese votes (11% of total) as pivotal in this election, the Chinese community has been bombarded almost daily with allocations and cash payments totaling no less than RM 12 million, such as:
RM 3.3 million for construction of a new community hall.
RM 2.8 million for furbishing a completed hall in a Chinese school.
RM 3 million for 10 Chinese schools
RM 2.7 million cash distribution to 9,000 Chinese for the coming Chinese New year (this annual payment was brought forward to reap the goodwill of Chinese electorate for the coming poll).
Miscellaneous payments to temples, guilds and other communal bodies.

All these financial bonanzas, handed out within the few days since nominations on Jan 5, are clearly intended to induce voters to vote in favour of the BN candidate, and therefore constitute “bribery” as defined in paragraph 10 of the Election Offences Act 1954, for which the culprits are punishable as prescribed in paragraph 11 of the same Act. Regrettably, the election commission under the new chairman Abdul Aziz Yusof, who vowed to ensure clean and fair election, has remained silent over these BN offences. Neither has the newly formed Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), which prides itself as a replica of the famed Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) of Hong Kong, appears to have been stirred by such glaring corrupt practices.

Such monetary assault on the electorate, combined with the daily brainwashing by BN’s propaganda machines, also known as the main stream media (local newspapers and TV channels), has once again made a complete mockery of our election as cornerstone of a democratic system of government.

With all the institutions tasked to uphold the rule of law either unwilling or incapable of fulfilling their constitutional roles, it is now left to the 80,000 electorate of Kuala Terengganu to play as guardians to uphold justice and democracy by disciplining the wayward ruling party with a negative vote.

In this connection, it is heartening to take note of how the neighbouring Kelantan state has valiantly fought off similar corrupt assault by UMNO/BN for the past two decades. Under the corruption-free administration of PAS, the people of Kelantan, who are almost completely Malay Muslims, have proven themselves to be people of high moral fibre as they have successfully overcome the persistent coercion and temptation presented by the UMNO/BN federal government through abuse of federal authority and improper monetary inducement. No doubt, their devotion to Islam, which abhors corruption as a grave sin, must have been an important factor that contributes to their moral courage.

Will the Terengganu Muslim constituents, who form 88% of the K.T. electorate, prove to have the same moral strength as their Kelantan brothers by rejecting the decadent values of UMNO/BN?

And will the minority Chinese constituents gaze beyond the immediate monetary gains to vote for change – a change that would mean the rejection of a defunct political power and one step closer to turning a new leaf for the nation?

Coming at a time of power transition following the political tsunami of the 8 Mar 2008 elections, the outcome of this K.T. by-election will have significant impact on the future direction of country’s political development. It is therefore earnestly hoped that the people of K.T. will rise to the occasion to make the right choice for the nation.

- Kim Quek
12.01.2009

Program Penamaan Calon PAS esok

2009-01-05T06:59:00.000-08:00

05 January 2009

ATURCARA PROGRAM BAGI CALON PAS HARI PENAMAAN CALON PILIHAN RAYA KECIL 0.36 KUALA TERENGGANU

7.30 Pagi - Berkumpul di perkarangan Pejabat PASTI Negeri di Jalan Pusara

8.00 Pagi - Solat Hajat

8.30 Pagi - Perarakan bermula dari Jalan Pusara menuju ke Jalan Sultan Ismail - Bulatan Ladang - Jalan Sultan Mahmud - Stadium Negeri

9.00 Pagi - Penyerahan borang pencalonan10.00 Pagi - Masa bantahan

11.30 Pagi - Pengumuman oleh Pegawai Pengurus SPR

12.00 Tgh - Bersurai

Umno & BN are splitting and breaking up instead

2009-01-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday, January 04, 2009
Umno & BN are splitting and breaking up instead

Posted by: viktorwong
In the most recent statement by the Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Muhamad Taib saying that the Pakatan Rakyat would eventually split due to the differences between the three parties mainly DAP, PKR and PAS in their respective principles and objectives.

We would like to remind Tan Sri Muhammad, these differences shown in the Pakatan Rakyat does not mean our coalition is splitting and would not last. The differences as demonstrated in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition reflects the true nature of democracy in practical which has been carried out by DAP, PKR and PAS in making known to the public of their differences and to prove that even so, we could still come up with joint resolution and work towards strengthening our opposition coalition.

The true democracy as shown by the Pakatan Rakyat also demonstrate the transparency nature of communications between all coalition parties which will also reflect to the people and voters that differences between partners can be debated and mutually discussed in order to provide and to gain better understanding amongst parties concerned. Therefore, in Pakatan Rakyat no parties are dominant and all coalition partners are treated equally.

The major differences here is Barisan Nasional (BN) even though a coalition of political parties consist of Umno, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, SPDP, PRS, PBS,UPKO, PBB, LDP and the rest, it operates like a secret society. All its issues and matter are discussed in a closed door manner and the people and the voters are not allowed to gain any information on the inside communication between them.

Umno, being a dominant party in the BN dictates and decides most of the coalition policies, where all its component parties are required to follow them strictly without any debates, discussions and so on. Whoever or if there are any members of MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, SPDP, PRS, PBS, UPKO, PBB or LDP who voted against or abstain on any policies or proposal tabled in the parliament or state assembly, the said member would be penalized or punished with suspension or possible expulsion.

So, is there democracy in BN actually? The simple answer is no, because Umno is dominant and the others would just listen and listen blindly without debating the disadvantages over the advantages. There are no real collective voice in the BN coalition when it comes decision making as a whole as every single move in the coalition has been decided by Umno and its supreme council.

BN is failing because of Umno is failing. The very reason behind these failures are because Umno is very, very much tainted for decades with corruptions, vote buying, money politics, factional fighting, and power tussles amongst top leaders from within. Every faction in Umno are fighting to take control of the party and encourage the other BN component party leaders who supported the respective Umno factions to do so. So, when Umno’s infighting starts, the other BN component parties will follow. For an example, when Abdullah retires in March 2009, then Najib takes over as both prime minister and Umno president, the pro-Najib factions in MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, SUPP, SPDP, PRS, PBS, UPKO, PBB or LDP will also make their moves to tussle with their respective leaderships.

Therefore, the fact here is Umno and BN are splitting and will fall apart slowly and painfully.

My blogsite http://huanghaichen.blogspot.com

http://blog.thestar.com.my/permalink.asp?id=20348

PERHATIAN!!!

2009-01-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

PERHATIAN!!!

KEPADA SEMUA PENGUNDI BAGI KAWASAN PARLIMEN P036 KUALA TERENGGANU DI KALANGAN PENYOKONG PAKATAN RAKYAT (PAS, KEADILAN & DAP), YANG MENETAP DI SABAH SEKARANG, SILA BERHUBUNG DENGAN SEKRETARIAT PILIHANRAYA KECIL PARLIMEN P036 KUALA TERENGGANU CAWANGAN NEGERI SABAH SECEPAT MUNGKIN!!!.

SEKRETARIAT PILIHANRAYA KECIL PARLIMEN P036 KUALA TERENGGANU
CAWANGAN SABAH
NO. TEL/FAKS PEJ. : 088-389 515
URUSETIA : 013-874 2232 (SALEH)

MEDIA NOTICE

2009-01-01T07:28:00.000-08:00

MEDIA NOTICE
This is to inform you that DAP ADUN, PJU DAPSY Chief Lau Weng San will be paying a visit to a 100-year-old folk at 76 Jalan SS 3/64 Petaling Jaya on 2nd January 2009 10:30am.
The old folk, named K S Narayana Iyer a/l Subramania Vadhyarm, is born in 1908 and is discovered as a 100-year-old citizen after the state government did a search under Mesra Usia Emas programme.
Your reporters, photographers and cameramen are very much welcomed to cover the event.
Thank you.
Lau Weng San, 016-323 1563.

Hi-Tea bersama Mohamad Sabu@ Putrajaya

2008-12-31T20:05:00.000-08:00

Hi-Tea bersama Mohamad Sabu@ Putrajaya

Takbir bergema di P36 Kuala Terengganu
Event Info
Host:
PAS Kawasan Putrajaya
Type:
Other - Ceremony
Network:
Global
Time and Place
Date:
01 January 2009
Time:
16:00 - 18:00
Location:
Pusat Kejiranan Precint 9
Contact Info
Phone:
0193355357
Email:
pas.putrajaya@gmail.com

========================
Datanglah beramai-ramai untuk Hi-Tea bersama Sdr. Mohamad Sabu di Putrajaya. Insya Allah, Takbir akan bergema lagi di P36 Kuala Terengganu, Allahu-Akbar.Tiket: RM10/ Seorang Hubungi: Yaheya 0176552307Rosidi 0193355357Sharudin 0123943397

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=51391492455

MEDIA NOTICE

2008-12-31T20:04:00.000-08:00

MEDIA NOTICE
This is to inform you that DAP ADUN, PJU DAPSY Chief Lau Weng San and DAP MP for PJU Tony Pua will be presenting gifts to old folks in Sungai Way Old Folks Home at Lot 13559, Jalan SS9A/20, Seri Setia, Sungai Way, 47300 Petaling Jaya 31st December 2008 10:30am.
Your reporters, photographers and cameramen are very much welcomed to cover the event.
Thank you.
Lau Weng San, 016-323 1563.

3,000 apply to join PKR By Peter Boon

2008-12-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

3,000 apply to join PKR By Peter Boon
SIBU: Ngemah assemblyman Gabriel Adit Demong received 3,000 new membership application forms to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) here yesterday.
NEW MEMBERS: Goh (right) hands over the membership application forms to Adit (second left) while Munan (second right) looks on at the launch of pro tem committees of PKR sub branches in the Dudong constituency.
Handing the application forms to Adit was Peter Goh, former deputy chairman of Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) Nangka division.
Goh joined PKR together with former chairman of PRS Pelawan division Steven Kalai, Bukit Assek division chairman Tuba Aga, and Bawang Assan division chairman Bajai Serang.
Speaking at the launching of PKR protem committees of sub-branches in the Dudong constituency, Adit said that support for PKR throughout Sarawak was growing as people wanted change.
The sub-branches are Aik Dee, Naman, Pak, Menyan, Dudong, Salim, Lada and Usaha Jaya.
Meanwhile, met after the launch, Jimmy Donald, former MP for Sri Aman, said that he expected at least 20,000 former PRS members to join PKR.
Jimmy also said they were joining PKR because they wanted a change.
Asked about his presence here, he said he was in Sibu to render support to Goh.
To a question, he relied: “I will join PKR shortly,” but did not give a specific time frame for such a move.
Earlier, Goh, who was also the organising chairman for the event said: “Today, we announce we join PKR with 3,000 members.”
According to Goh, Dudong constituency has about 24,000 voters comprising 50 per cent Chinese, 45 per cent Iban and five per cent Malay.
Besides giving weight to the on-going membership recruitment drive, he said they would be drawing up programmes and activities to further strengthen the party.
More than 400 PKR supporters attended the function.
Among those present at the function were PKR Sarawak deputy chairman Wan Zainal, vice-chairman Nicholas Bawin, former MP for Lubok Antu Jawah Gerang and Munan Laja.

90109 JAMUAN MAKAN MALAM TERBESAR BAKAL DIADAKAN DI KUCHING

2008-12-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

Monday, December 29, 2008
90109 JAMUAN MAKAN MALAM TERBESAR BAKAL DIADAKAN DI KUCHING

PKR Sarawak sedang giat merangka satu aktiviti bersejarah yang bakal dinobatkan Majlis Makan Malam terbesar pernah diadakan di Sarawak, atau mungkin pertama di Malaysia. Majlis yang akan berlangsung pada 9 Januari 2009 (90109) dijangka meliputi 510 buah meja.

Sebelum ini siri jamuan serupa telah diadakan di Sibu (320 meja) dan Miri (320 meja).

Majlis akan dihadiri oleh Ketua Umum Keadilan, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Turut hadir ialah YAB Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Menteri Besar Selangor serta beberapa MP Keadilan. Pemimpin PAS, DAP dan SNAP turut diundang. Kita berdoa agar tidak ada pemimpin PR yang dihalang masuk ke Sarawak kali ini.

Acara bermula jam 7.00 malam dengan siri ucapan pemimpin PKR tempatan dan wakil rakyat dari Semenanjung. DSAI dijangka bersama-sama lebih 5000 tetamu jam 8.30 malam.

Ahli dan penyokong PKR dan PR yang berminat hadir bolehlah membuat tempahan tempat duduk atau menghubungi saya dengan kadar segera. 014-886 0118, 082- 645 178 atau email pieeling@yahoo.com

Hukum Hudud – Jika UMNO tidak bersedia, mengapakah pula mencabar orang lain?

2008-12-27T07:06:00.000-08:00

Kenyataan media oleh Setiausaha DAP Selangor, Ketua Pemuda Sosialis DAP (DAPSY) Bahagian Petaling Jaya Utara dan ADUN Kampung Tunku Lau Weng San pada 27hb Disember 2008 di Petaling Jaya:

Hukum Hudud – Jika UMNO tidak bersedia, mengapakah pula mencabar orang lain?

Desakan dan cabaran yang dilemparkan ke atas parti-parti komponen Pakatan Rakyat (PR) untuk menerangkan pendirian parti masing terhadap Hukum Hudud oleh parti-parti komponen Barisan Nasional (BN) merupakan sesuatu yang sangat ganjil dan tindakan hipokrit.

PAS dipaksa untuk menyatakan kedudukannya berkenaan dengan perkara ini oleh UMNO di mana kedudukan PAS ini bukan sesuatu yang baru dalam arena politik Malaysia.

Apa yang menghairankan ialah apabila UMNO mencabar PAS untuk menerangkan pendiriannya tentang Hukum Hudud, adakah UMNO sendiri juga ingin melaksanakan Hukum Hudud?

Jika UMNO sendiripun tidak bersedia untuk melaksanakannya, mengapakah UMNO pula mencabar pihak lain untuk melaksanakannya? Adakah ini bermakna UMNO sendiri akan melaksanakan dasar ini dan yakin dapat mendapat sokongan dan kepercayaan daripada parti-parti komponen yang lain di dalam BN?

Apa yang sepatutnya ialah parti-parti komponen BN harus bertanya kepada UMNO adakah Hukum Hudud akan menjadi sebahagian daripada dasar BN sehinggakan UMNO sanggup bertarung dan berlumba-lumba dengan PAS untuk melaksanakan dasar Hukum Hudud?

Oleh itu, cabaran dan desakan yang mereka lemparkan kepada parti-parti komponen PR merupakan satu tindakan hipokrit yang bertujuan untuk memesongkan perhatian rakyat terhadap isu sebenar yang terus meyelubungi tanahair kita seperti kemelesetan ekonomi yang bakal bertukar lebih teruk selepas bulan Februari 2009.

Sesuatu dasar itu tidak akan menjadi dasar PR melainkan mendapat persetujuan sebulat suara daripada kesemua parti komponen PR. Dalam kes ini, DAP berpendirian teguh bahawa Hukum Hudud tidak bersesuaian dengan masyarakat majmuk Malaysia dan oleh itu ianya tidak sesuai dilaksanakan di Malaysia.

Lau Weng San

PELANCARAN KEMPEN JOMSERTAI PAS

2008-12-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

http://jomsertaipas.com/

PELANCARAN KEMPEN JOMSERTAI PAS
Written by webmaster
Pelancaran kempen "JOM SERTAI PAS" akan diadakan seperti berikut :

Tarikh : 27 Disember 2008 (Sabtu)

Masa : 3.00 Petang

Perasmi : YB Dato' Seri Tuan Guru Hj Abd Hadi bin Awang (Presiden PAS)

Turut Hadir : Ust Hj Ahmad Awang (Naib Presiden PAS)

YB Salahuddin Ayub (Ketua Pemuda PAS)

============================================
JOM SERTAI PAS
Written by rusli

Keputusan Pilihanraya ke-12 pada Mac 2008 membuktikan PAS diterima oleh rakyat pelbagai kaum di negara ini. Sokongan kepada PAS bukan sahaja daripada kalangan orang-orang Islam, malah terdiri daripada orang-orang bukan Islam.

Justeru itu pemuda PAS akan menggerakkan kempen "Jom Sertai PAS" yang bermula Januari 2009 sehingga Mac 2009.

Bersama dengan tema "Pas Untuk Semua", kami mengajak semua rakyat tanpa mengira jantina, agama dan bangsa bersama-sama dengan PAS, terutamanya golongan muda-mudi.

Melalui kempen ini, rakyat yang berminat untuk bersama dengan PAS boleh mendaftar menjadi ahli PAS. Pelbagai aktiviti dan program akan disediakan supaya rakyat dapat mengenali PAS dengan lebih dekat.

Kami mensasarkan 100,000 ahli PAS dan kelab penyokong PAS sepanjang tempoh Kempen ini.

http://www.jomsertaipas.com/

INVITATION TO ADUN KAMPUNG TUNKU CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE.

2008-12-24T03:46:00.000-08:00

24th December 2008

Dear All,

INVITATION TO ADUN KAMPUNG TUNKU CHRISTMAS OPEN HOUSE.

You are cordially invited to attend ADUN Kampung Tunku Lau Weng San's Christmas Open House on 26th December 2008, 7pm in MBPJ SS3/14 Community Hall. Please brings friends and family members.

Yours truly,

Lau Weng San
ADUN Kg Tunku

Voucher Kasut Sekolah Untuk Murid-Murid Keluarga Miskin

2008-12-24T03:43:00.000-08:00

Kenyataan media oleh Setiausaha DAP Selangor, Ketua DAPSY Petaling Jaya Utara dan ADUN Kampung Tunku Lau Weng San pada 24hb Disember 2008 di Petaling Jaya:

Voucher Kasut Sekolah Untuk Murid-Murid Keluarga Miskin

Oleh kerana kos sara hidup yang semakin meningkat, Pejabat ADUN Kampung Tunku akan mengedarkan voucher kasut sekolah untuk murid-murid keluarga miskin di kawasan DUN Kampung Tunku, iaitu mereka yang menduduki di Sea Park, Taman Paramount, Rumah Kos Rendah Taman Sri Aman, Kampung Tunku (SS1), SS3 dan Kampung Baru Sungai Way, bermula pada hari ini hingga 31hb Januari 2008.

Kami meminta supaya hanya isikeluarga miskin yang berpendapatan kurang daripada RM1500 membuat permohonan. Keluarga yang berpendapat melebihi RM2000 tetapi mempunyai tanggungan anak bersekolah melebihi 4 orang juga boleh memohon.

Mana-mana keluarga yang ingin memohon bantuan sila membawa bersama-sama salinan kad pengenalan, slip gaji atau boring E LHDN, surak beranak bagi kanak-kanak yang masih di bawah tanggungan ibubapa serta kasut-kasut sekolah yang lama untuk menuntut voucher ini.

Sila hubungi pejabat ADUN Kampung Tunku atas talian 03-78754724 atau layari laman web www.lauwengsan.com untuk maklumat lanjutan.

Lau Weng San

Kedai-kedai Bata Di Petaling Jaya:

IKANO
UNIT G8, GROUND FLOOR
IKANO POWER CENTRE
JALAN PJU 7/2,
MUTIARA DAMANSARA
Tel. 03-77253142

IOI MALL
G03 GROUND FLOOR
PUCHONG JAYA
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-58820268

SUNWAY PYRAMID
LL1.60-1.61, LOWER GRD FLOOR
SUNWAY PYRAMID
3 JALAN PJS 11/15
BANDAR SUNWAY
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-74929228

37, JALAN OTHMAN,
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-77829253

GIANT HYPMKT KELANA JAYA
G32, JLN SS6/12
SS KELANA JAYA
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-78042864

NO. 52, JALAN SS 2/67
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-78751105

THE ATRIA G.12,30-32,
JALAN SS22/23,
DAMANSARA JAYA TOWN CENTRE
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-77296690

NO. 7, JALAN 14/20,
PETALING JAYA
Tel. 603-79572442

PKR KUALA TERENGGANU

2008-12-22T23:11:00.000-08:00

PKR KUALA TERENGGANU

http://prkkualaterengganu.blogspot.com/

========================================

DAP TERENGGANU

2008-12-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

http://daptrg.blogspot.com/

MEDIA NOTICE

2008-12-22T23:03:00.000-08:00

MEDIA NOTICE

This is to inform you that DAP ADUN for Kampung Tunku Lau Weng San will call for a press conference on 24th December 2008 3pm in No. 77, Jalan 20/9, Taman Paramount, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor on free Bata shoes vouchers for Kampung Tunku poor children and various ongoing issues.

Your reporters, photographers and cameramen are welcomed to cover the event.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Lau Weng San
(016-3231563)

“DAP and PKR” making Inroads in Sarawak

2008-12-22T16:53:00.000-08:00

Oooh..!! ‘Kakus’ you better watch out we are coming. It seems that this Chrismas a lot of conversations will be on the inroads made by PKR and DAP into the interior and rural bastion of BN. This Malaysiakini report http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/95239 in which DAP largely seen as Chinese-based and Chinese-oriented, is moving into Dayak areas in Sarawak. Of course, its not a sudden decision as YB Wong Ho Leng ADUN Bukit Assek, who heads Sarawak DAP, said the plan was approved last month.

Now it seems that DAP is working closely with its partner in PKR as word has it that Anwar Ibrahim defacto leader of PKR will head SARAWAK as Chairman of PKR Sarawak and also oversees the selection of candidates in which DAP/PAS /PKR will go head on with BN Sarawak. There will not be anymore DAP/PKR/BN three cornered fight in any of the constituencies.

Now the internet will play a bigger role in the decimation of information to the rural areas. It seems that now PKR knows that the information technology will be used to inform the RURAL areas of the CHANGES happening in the world and ensure that the dayaks are no more ignorant of the FACTS. The TEAM has now looked into this strategy as all PKR information will be downloaded and PHOTOSTATED and DISTRIBUTED into the rural areas. Now with the influx of PKR dayak members into the fold these Valuable information will be an added PLUS. The PKR senior member sounds upbeat after talking to Natasha of audie61. “ALL IS AT A TOUCH OF THE BUTTON AND THE KEYPAD NOW”

When Wong said to Malaysiakini more DAP branches will be formed in rural areas in the coming months he is really looking at the bigger picture of working hand in hand not only with PKR/ PAS but also other local opposition parties in SNAP/STAR and yet to be registered MDC.”(This shows that) we are not (merely) content to work in Chinese areas. We are determined to go rural and to see improvement in the lives of all (communities), in particular the economically (challenged) Dayaks.

“These areas should have DAP Iban leaders to serve them. They should go for change (by booting out the Barisan Nasional).”Wong said the Iban leaders who addressed the branch meetings had dwelt on a common theme - that the state BN government has neglected their needs.

They also complained about “threats and intimidation by BN leaders” who have dissuaded them from joining opposition parties.

It seems that DAP has made their move and with the thought of Najib using the ‘HONEYMOON” period to call for the GE13 when he takes over as practised by former PM Mahathir and Abdullah, the DAP hierarchy has set their machinery into gear first in Sarawak. There seems to be a lot of activity in the opposition camps as after Anwar, Lim Kit Siang also descended into Miri last weekend.

The Pakatan group knows now that their archilles heels are Sarawak with 31 seats and 25 seats Sabah. If the GE 13 is called simultaneously with Sarawak the chances of Anwar and other leaders from the Pakatan group will not be able to lend a helping hand. They will be too involved in protecting and campaigning in their own seats in the Peninsula.

Will CHRISTMAS COME TOO EARLY for Malaysian Voters next year..? Read into the signals and Kuala Terengganu and Pensiangan Parliamentary seats will gives us all some indications. Anyway Sarawak elections are due to be called in 879 days. Will being too early backfire..??

==========================
http://audie61.wordpress.com/2008/12/22/dap-and-pkr-making-inroads-in-sarawak-ref-malaysiakini/

KUALA TERENGGANU - PAKAT UNDI PAS

2008-12-22T16:28:00.000-08:00

PAKAT UNDI PAS

http://prk036.pas.org.my/

888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888

Pen N35 - Batu Uban: V Raveentharan

2008-12-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

Pen N35 - Batu Uban: V Raveentharan

http://raveentharan.blogspot.com/

YB.Raveentharan

Adun Batu Uban N35 Pulau Pinang

================================================

Pen N37 - Batu Maung: Abdul Malek Abul Kassim

2008-12-13T14:51:00.000-08:00

Pen N37 - Batu Maung: Abdul Malek Abul Kassim

http://www.malikkassim.com/

==========================================================

P047 - Nibong Tebal: Tan Tee Beng

2008-12-13T06:22:00.000-08:00

http://media-nt.blogspot.com/
Following in dad’s footsteps

Tan Tee Beng

PENANG: One could say that Tan Tee Beng is merely following in his father’s political footsteps.

But unlike his father Datuk Tan Gim Hwa, who was once a prominent Penang Gerakan leader, the junior Tan will be contesting the polls under a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) ticket.

Tee Beng, 36, is slated to contest the Nibong Tebal parliamentary seat in the next general election.

He graduated in law from Middlesex University, London, and works as a remisier. He joined PKR in January last year at the urging of his friend Jason Ong, who is also the Penang PKR deputy chief.

His decision to join PKR was a matter of some controversy for the family and his father is still coming to terms with it.

Tee Beng said that although his father was very passionate about politics, he had tried to discourage him from going into full-time politics.

“He would say that politics is so unpredictable. But I think he is getting tired of trying to discourage me,” said Tee Beng.

Gim Hwa, now 70, was a founding member of Gerakan and served as the party chief in Penang for 12 years before giving way to Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr Koh Tsu Koon.

“I don’t really support his move but he has made up his mind. Besides, my wife tells me to let him decide what he wants. He has always been interested in politics even when he was studying in London. I remember he formed the Gerakan Club there,” said Gim Hwa.

Gim Hwa was as well known for his macho style of politics as he was for his shock of snowy-white hair and lanky frame.

He fell out with Dr Koh and was dismissed from Gerakan in 1999 after a party crisis of sorts. Tee Beng, who was then active in Gerakan Youth, was also dismissed at the same time.

Since then, Gim Hwa has completely retired from politics but Tee Beng has moved on to other pastures.

P047 - Nibong Tebal: Tan Tee Beng

======================================================

Neg N29 - Chuah: Chai Tong Chai

2008-12-11T07:46:00.000-08:00

http://dunchuah.blogspot.com/

==================================================================

SELANGOR: N36 - Damansara Utama - Dr. Cheah Wing Yin

2008-12-11T06:05:00.000-08:00

http://cheahwingyin.blogspot.com/

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Not the time to point fingers, says Anwar

2008-12-09T21:00:00.001-08:00

News @ AsiaOne

Not the time to point fingers, says Anwar

Anwar Ibrahim said all parties should not push the blame over the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide. -The Star

Wed, Dec 10, 2008
The Star

BUKIT MERTAJAM, MALAYSIA: Opposition Leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has called on all parties to stop the blame game over the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy.

He said the focus should be on finding out the cause of the tragedy and not point fingers.

"Now is not the issue of blame. We need to get to the bottom of the cause (of the tragedy) and the results of whatever findings should be made public for the people to judge.

"But instead, we now have an attempt to cover up by proportioning the blame to who is in charge now," he said to newsmen during a press conference at the PKR headquarters in Yayasan Aman yesterday.

The Permatang Pauh MP called the Government to launch a full and independent investigation on not only Bukit Antarabangsa, but also other hillside development projects in the country.

He said the Pakatan Rakyat government in Selangor had stopped approving all category three and four hillside development projects on Bukit Antarabangsa since March this year.

"For the last 15 years, the projects on Bukit Antarabangsa have been blatantly approved by the previous administration.

"Now, the Selangor Government has to scrutinise all 90 hillside development projects in the state that were approved by the previous government.

"It will be difficult for the current government to cancel the projects because it could lead to court cases," he said.

On the Kuala Terengganu by-election, Anwar said PKR and DAP would support any candidate PAS picked.

He was optimistic that Pakatan would make it in Kuala Terengganu if all its coalition parties worked hard to face the might of the Barisan Nasional machinery.

Anwar had a tight schedule yesterday when he visited sick constituents, distributed beef and attended kenduri Qurban at Telok Wang, Mengkuang Mak Sulong, Sungai Semambu, Kampung Paya, Permatang Rawa, Kampung Pertama, Sembilang, Tanjung Putus and Bukit Indera Muda.

Mujahid: Rift Does Exist Within PAS

2008-12-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

2008-12-09 17:59 KUALA LUMPUR: PAS national unity bureau chief Mujahid Yusof Rawa said, other than facing the challenges of ideological struggles between the reformists and conservatives within the party, PAS must also try to woo both Malay and non-Malay voters.

Mujahid, who is also the MP for Parit Buntar, said there were indeed two different factions existent within the party--one interpreting Islam in a more conservative approach while the other holding more open views. He said this had resulted in an ideological confrontation between the two differing camps.

Realistic issue arising from ban of alcohol

Mujahid said the more radical people are the grassroots, who fail to understand that the banning of alcohol will entail some real-life issues, as we must take into consideration the feelings and opinions of other people even if we were to ban alcohol, citing the example of the major controversies arising from Selangor PAS councillors' suggestion to ban alcohol.

"The party is also encountering a certain level of dilemma. While on the one hand we must take care of Malay supporters, we must also look into the needs of non-Malays on the other hand. As such, PAS has attempted to protrude its multiracial image through the setting up of the PAS Supporters Club, and outsiders will have no reasons now to criticise PAS as a political party for the Malays."

Adherence to religious principles

Mujahid is the PAS leader instrumental in the establishment of the PAS Supporters Club. During an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily, he said many PAS MPs, including the MP for Kota Raja Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud and MP for Kuala Selangor Dr Zulkifly Ahmad, have defeated BN candidates mainly because of non-Muslim voters, and they therefore must know how to please non-Muslims.

However he said he would not forego Islamic principles just to please non-Muslims. For example, he declined the invitation from a political leader to sponsor a beer party celebration after his election victory.

Pakatan foundation still frail

Mujahid said, although leaders from the three Pakatan Rakyat parties have signed a joint agreement, the foundation of the opposition pact remains weak, and no powerful unanimous stand has been achieved on many fine details.

He said PAS advisor Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP's opposition leader Lim Kit Siang and PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang agreed that the federal constitution has made Islam the country's official religion, and Malay as the official language, along with the statutory status of Malay rulers, Malays and bumiputras, when signing the joint agreement to establish Pakatan Rakyat.

"We still lack some solid substance, a common theme and principles that can be accepted by all, among the three parties."

He said, Pakatan Rakyat leaders have only agreed on the major directions, while many grey areas still exist, such as PAS does not agree to the setting up of multilingual road signs in Penang, as this will affect the status of Bahasa Malaysia as the country's official language. However he said PAS still accepted the decision eventually. (By LONG YAOFU/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily)

MySinchew 2008.12.09

Bitter vindication

2008-12-09T16:10:00.001-08:00

Bitter vindication
by Elizabeth Wong

ONE of the earliest policy decisions by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor government was to throw out any housing and building applications for Class 3 and Class 4 hillslopes to preserve environmentally sensitive areas and prevent landslides. This was decided at an executive council meeting on April 2.
Selangor became the first state in the federation to have complied with the Federal Town and Country Planning Department’s Total Planning Guidelines 1997 (2nd edition, 2001) which states that no housing development should be allowed on slopes with 25° and above gradients.

Developers thought it was a late April Fool’s joke. Since our ban, they have used all means – the media, blogs, lobbying by state reps and MPs etc to change our minds. We were vilified as "anti-business" and "anti-development". I have even had some of our Pakatan MPs asking us to make exceptions for Class 3 slopes.

I was told they particularly disliked me and called me "lan-si" (arrogant) just because during a public meeting of developers, NGOs, residents and the exco, one of the key developers questioned how the state government could stop hillslope development, and I answered, "Because we can…" And none were too happy when I had to repeatedly wave the Total Planning Guidelines book at them.

And every couple of months, we have had to repeat our policy decision. Even as recent as last month, developers were insisting that they had the right to develop hill slopes and some had told a couple of exco members that they were planning to sue us. One of them said we would have to compensate them RM330 million (25% of our state budget) for possible loss of profits. Imagine the pressure of a lobby group whose combined income and assets dwarfs the state government!

Saturday’s tragedy proves the correctness of the decision of the state government. But vindication which comes after the loss of four lives and more homes is unspeakably bitter. There are some 5,000 residents living in the vicinity of the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide who face uncertainty and may have to vacate their homes.

We ask that developers stop pursuing and pressuring us to review our policy, and instead thoroughly go through every single technicality of their existing hillslope projects.

While Ikram and the Public Works Department are responsible for pinpointing the cause of the tragedy, the state government will immediately review all approved hillslope projects by the previous administration, whether standing or partially built.

Those where there is no construction yet but approved before March 8 should not be allowed to proceed, especially along the same range of Bukit Antarabangsa and Hulu Kelang – which should include Taman Hijau and Bukit Melawati.

We had come too late. Many of the hillslope projects have been standing for a number of years, some were half completed when we came into power. Without proper maintenance of slopes and drainage on these private lands, tragedy will strike after many years, always after the period of indemnity is over. Those areas shown to be prone to landslides such as in Hulu Kelang, where the Public Works Department had flashed its red card in 2005, more stringent conditions will be imposed on existing projects.

All developers and private land owners have to protect and reinforce their own hillslopes if they want to continue to prosper, own property and do business in Selangor. We recently received complaints from Ampang, Kajang, Cheras and Pandan where private landowners and developers have neglected to protect hillslopes and there are already signs of wear and tear. Some have used plastic sheets and some said they were bankrupt and don’t have the funds to repair their slopes. Whatever. If they do not do the necessary, we will blacklist them.

We ask that "people" be put ahead of "profits".

We are heartened that finally, after eight months of battling the housing industry, the federal government has come to our side to give Selangor, both the moral and policy support it needs, with both the prime minister and deputy prime minister calling for all hillslope development permits to be cancelled.

We can only hope the federal government doesn’t forget Dec 6, 2008 - like what had happened to Highland Towers (1993); Taman Hillview (2002) and Kg Pasir (2006) - which was less than a kilometre from Saturday’s landslide. Lest the lives lost would be in vain.

The writer is assemblywoman for Bukit Lanjan and state executive councillor in charge of the environment. Comment: letters@thesundaily.com

How New Media Trumped Old Politics and the Road Ahead

2008-12-06T01:33:00.001-08:00

Keynote speech by YB Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad
Bloggers Buzz
Written by -
Saturday, 06 December 2008 10:00
How New Media Trumped Old Politics and the Road Ahead

by Yang Berhormat Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad
Seri setia state assemblyman / political secretary to Selangor Menteri Besar

5 december 2008

ASSALAMUALAIKUM AND GOOD EVENING, LADIES AND GENTLEMAN.

In May 2007, I was invited along with Tony Pua, Jeff Ooi and Soon Li Tsin to speak about blogging in Malaysia. I spoke about the battle between the New Media and Old Politics: how the old politics of divide and rule; command and control is unable to cope with the open nature of new media. The new media, I argued, with a combination of Web 2.0, greater functions and interfacing with mobile devices is becoming more powerful and potent than ever before.

PERSONALLY, I WAS INVOLVED IN THE INTERNET AS FAR BACK AS IN 1997, WHEN AS A 15-YEAR OLD I SET UP MY WEBSITE ON GEOCITIES. I STARTED WRITING IN MALAYSIAKINI IN 2001 FOLLOWING THE REFORMASI MOVEMENT, AND MY BLOG WAS UP IN THE SAME YEAR.

Of course, we have seen how effective NEW MEDIA has become across the globe. While Howard Dean failed in 2004, he paved the way for Barack Obama to make use of the Internet to emerge from being a junior senator with a funny name to the President of the United States. Closer to home, political consultant Douglas Schoen in Power of the Vote revealed how the netroots played an important role in the South Korean Presidential election as far back as 2002.

But we did not expect that it would play such a big role in Malaysia so soon that in less than a year after the function, Tony, Jeff and I all became Yang Berhormats. The 8th of March 2008 illustrated how new media has trumped old politics. It has changed how campaigns, even governments are run radically.

Before this, old politics reigned supreme. Since Independence, the majority OF Malaysians accepted the big tent of the Alliance Party and later Barisan Nasional as the one viable model of government for the country. This was considered ingenuous at that time: the Alliance leaders rejected Dato’ Onn Jaafar’s multiracial Independence of Malaya Party due to the perception that the country’s divided society was not yet ready for a truly malayan party. The Alliance allowed different communal parties to operate within the stratified structure; yet to convince the British administrators it provided for multi-racial co-operation among the elite.

This worked initially because the bulk of society lived separate lives, mixing but not combining – what JS Furnivall famously described as a ‘Plural Society’. This allowed the Alliance and their BN successors to perform feats of dubious duplicity in their discourse.

Their leaders appealed to communal sentiments when they operated at the grassroots level – in gatherings and through the vernacular media – but then spoke of unity and moderation to the wider public. It worked well, playing with our deepest fears and insecurities fostered by the huge inequality across racial lines that we inherited from our former colonial masters, while at the same time telling us that they were the only ones that could preserve our harmonious existence, even if it did not go beyond mere superficialities.

MEANWHILE, the Malaysian establishment maintained the colonial-era legislation that allowed for the muzzling of the press and suppression of public debate on what was called ‘sensitive issues’. Media ownership was narrowed and often in the hands of certain parties. This has contributed to the stagnant and limited nature of our press and public discussion.

This is why we see even the best and brightest of Malaysians believing that the status quo is the only route to power. This is why even the most honourable of politicians end up playing the politics of the lowest common denominator and pandering to age-old prejudices. This is why, they avoid promoting an enlightening and visionary brand of politics. As Tun Musa HItam once said: “a young Malaysian politician has to play the race card to the hilt even if there was not a single chauvinistic bone in his body.”Also, if Malaysians are susceptible to rumours and scare-mongering, it is because they do not have a free and open press to tell them otherwise.

But the emergence of a new media, amongst other factors, has changed the landscape. Here the ‘new media’ needs to be looked into its entirety, meaning not merely blogs and the Internet but also mobile devices and connectivity. Tiny, affordable mobile phones can take pictures, record videos and send out e-mails. The same content can be uploaded on the Internet at Starbucks to be shown on Youtube. This becomes a catalyst to viral communication as acknowledged by Jun E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim. In fact, the uproar over the 2006 UMNO general assembly has illustrated to us how those used to old politics fail to even understand the most basic technology: the satellite TV. This was apparent when some in the ruling party replied that the racial rhetoric at the assembly was typical, without realising that this was the first time the Malaysian public was exposed to its antics.

Not only was the conference shown live on Astro, but it then provoked an excited debate in the blogosphere. Previously, the government could manipulate or simply silence the fallout over gaffes like this. The mainstream media would downplay, even refuse to report the incident; while the few independent publications had too small an audience and too long a production time to have a major or immediate impact. Now, what used to be idle Mamak shop chatter has now made its way to the Web, for all Malaysians to consume and discuss.

In the same year, a government minister announced plans to require the registration of blogs. This was another gross misunderstanding of new technology. A Malaysian blogger can still host his blog overseas while making the content available in Malaysia. In fact a blogger can reside anywhere in the world and still reach Malaysians. Indeed, it is a technical possibility to prevent content from reaching the public, but this is difficult, messy and imperfect. Furthermore, various ways exist to circumvent Internet censorship - as countries such as China have found out.

By the time the 12th General Elections took place, blogs were a force to be reckoned with in the urban constituencies. I set up a campaign website that solicited donations and showed my campaign videos. Several mainstream journalists contacted me to cover my campaign, but little, if any of their stories ended up being published. Instead, my team organised a “blog for Nik Nazmi day” during the run-up to the election to hype up the campaign as well as launched a Friends of Nik Nazmi page on Facebook. Keadilan sent out SMSes to millions of voters, customised for each constituency to get our message across.

When the results trickled in on 8th of March, it was clear that the urban voters, especially the younger generation, voted against the BN in a big way. Clearly, the new media played a big role in trumping old politics. Of course, other factors also came into play: a united Opposition led by Anwar Ibrahim, rising costs of living and a weak government. But the new media definitely had a key role, in that it helped bring out voters by the thousands, many of whom were voting for the first time in their lives.

What next?

While we have established that the new media played an important role in trumping old politics, the next question is: “What next?”

Politically, it is clear that new media has changed campaigning in Malaysia. UMNO has also recognised this fact and many of their leaders have entered the blogosphere despite having denigrated it in the past. Khir Toyo, Muhammad Muhammad Taib and Ali Rustam have all started blogs. Even Najib Razak has set up his own website. While this is generally a welcome development, we cannot forget that their sectarian, divisive and backward message remains the same.

We need to realise that while the last General Elections has breathed new life into Malaysian democracy, more needs to be done. More needs to be done for new media to succeed. More needs to be done to end old politics once and for all. More needs to be done for democracy to be entrenched in the Malaysian landscape.

We need to push the envelope, to consolidate the gains we have made and make them a permanent feature in our national life. Those opposed to a multiracial and democratic Malaysia are attempting to turn back the clock with every old trick in the book. Their most potent weapon thus far has been sectarianism.

Racism is still rife, and as the establishment comes undone further due to the discontent on the ground, the racial rhetoric will become more apparent. Samuel Johnson once said patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel. In Malaysia racism is the last refuge of the politicians. The use of arbitrary force, including the ISA continues unabated as we have seen in the manifestly unjust detentions of Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Teresa Kok.

Ironically, the new media was very much involved in these arrests: Petra is of course the editor of Malaysia Today while Khir Toyo made some accusations against Teresa on his blog that was picked up by Utusan in an attempt to stir up Malay sentiment. Not long before Teresa was arrested, photos that purportedly showed her campaigning against Jawi signboards made its rounds over the Internet. Furthermore, the BN-controlled mainstream media has attempted to exploit what they believe to be divisions in the blogosphere.

But the nature of the new media means that those standing up for democracy can use it to counter the slander and the spin. This was not possible before due to the dominance of the government-controlled media, but ICT and its tools now allow us to get our side of the story out to as many people as possible at the lowest cost available.

In my mind, we can advance our cause through the new media by pursuing the following five points:

1. First, unity is essential. It is important that practitioners of the new media respond with a united voice against the arbitrary use of the law or other, more insidious attempts in order to silence, intimidate or control them. Also, attempts to split the progressive movement in the country along sectarian or even ideological lines must be exposed and resisted. The fact is that there are only two groups in Malaysia today: those who want to change the country for the better, and those who do not want this.

2. On the other hand, however, the netroots must always keep in mind that we have to practice what we preach. We too, must exercise the principles of independence, free speech and critical thinking on our blogs or websites. We must allow views different from ours a free hearing. We too must be willing to accept criticism and the fact that some people will not agree with us no matter what.

The great danger in these times of transition is that we become too frustrated and resort to uncouth or even extreme methods in opposing the old politics. We cannot do that. We cannot allow the reactionary forces in this country to claim the moral high ground on any point. We must ensure that the new media always remains an avenue for free and open discourse. If there is something we disagree with, it is always better and more effective to come up with a proper rebuttal to it rather than censor or deride the holder of those views.

3. There is also a need for us to continue to expand the netroots. The greater Internet penetration, and the more tech-savvy Malaysians are, the easier the process of democratisation becomes. Part of our activism must therefore go to ensuring that access to ICT is expanded across the board in Malaysia. Part of our agenda must ensure that the people in the places with the least access to such technology gets it, and more importantly – they are given the resources to use such innovations critically and well. It is no accident that in Selangor, BN seats only remain in the rural areas.

This is, however, more than just about politics. Giving underprivileged Malaysians access to the Internet, especially young ones, also helps close socio-economic gaps. Knowledge is power. Someone with Internet access in today’s globalised; knowledge-based economy definitely has an edge over someone who does not. Spreading ICT will help to resolve the great inequalities that exist in our society.

The Selangor state government has introduced a wireless service in Shah Alam and hopes to expand it to over 90 percent of urban areas by 2010. Currently there are over 13 million Internet users in malaysia, half of the total population. As Jun-E Tan and Zawawi Ibrahim wrote in Blogging and Democratisation in Malaysia: A New Covil Society in the Making, bloggers are the new thought leaders of the younger generation.

4. New media practitioners should also maintain the highest journalistic ethics and standards. Blogs, regardless of what they were originally created for, are now public documents that are in the public domain. This is especially true for socio-political blogs and websites. Its owners, therefore, must ensure that their writing receives the same duty of care and professionalism that goes into other journalistic mediums.

Take note, the last thing that is being advocated here is for bloggers to ‘watch what they say’. Overcautious self-censorship and the lack of courage will doubtlessly compromise the new media the same way it emasculated its mainstream counterpart. Rather, what is alluded to is the undeniable fact that being ethical, transparent and professional in ones blogging gives one’s writing credibility amongst ones audience that is unbeatable.

5. This may be controversial, but perhaps new media practitioners should explore forming alliances with certain members of the mainstream media. It is true, as alluded to earlier, that most mainstream media outlets in the country have regrettably been reduced to becoming mere tools of the ruling party. We need to acknowledge however, after 8th of March, there has been some shift in the mainstream media in trying to become more credible, perhaps with the exception of Utusan Malaysia.

While during campaigning it was difficult to get my story published in the mainstream media, on 9th of March, I received a call from one of the journalists who told me today she will cover my post-election activities and the editor has promised her it will be published this time around. True enough, it was published immediately the next day

But there are many restrictions that continue to exist, and that many journalists ‘still in the system’ are growing increasingly frustrated with the restrictions imposed on them and desire a free press just as badly as their new media counterparts do. We must never forget that our goal is not to supplant or destroy the traditional media, but to free it from undue political influence and complement it as channels of public opinion. The netroots should therefore reaffirm its commitment to campaign to support mainstream media journalists who continue to uphold the principles of integrity in their reporting.

The Selangor state government has formed a taskforce on the Freedom of Information to look into ways on how the state can get around the OSA to promote a more transparent and accountable government through a freedom of information enactment

Malaysia has already come a long way through the new media. If the latter continues to be fully utilised courageously and shrewdly, then our country can progress further still. But old media will not disappear, and it is crucial that we get the old media to advance our cause. Even now, we see some changes from the mainstream media, but more needs to be done for lasting change to become a reality.

The new media has provided new possibilities and unleashed new forces. The new media has trumped old politics. The new media can be the vanguard for a new Malaysia.

Thank you.

Sel N42 - Meru: PAS Abdul Rani Osman

2008-12-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

http://khidmatmeru.blogspot.com/

===================================================

A Letter To All Malays

2008-12-03T05:12:00.000-08:00

Letters
by Allan C

I am a Chinese Malaysian male with diverse groups of friends - Tamils, Malayalees, Sikhs, Jaffna Tamils, whites, Eurasians, and Babas and Nyonyas.

The problem is I have very few Malay friends.

Umno tells them I am a threat to them..

Umno tells them I am undeserving of equal rights.

They might even believe it, and since I don’t want to think any less of them, I prefer to keep my own counsel.

Generally I don’t talk much about anything important with Malays, and certainly not about politics.

I think meaningful friendships between Malays and non-Malays are becoming rare in Malaysian society.

There is not enough dialogue between Malays and non-Malays at the ground level. Umno speaks from both sides of its mouth - telling the Malays the non-Malays are a threat to them, and then turning round to tell the non-Malays that their rights will be protected.

At other times it may say the reverse, the key denominator being what it needs to say to win votes at the time, and the ethnic composition of the audience. After 51 years of Umno’s divide and rule, it is no wonder that race relations are a joke.

With Biro Tata Negara, Khir Toyo and Ahmad Ismail to lead the way, only a fool will think Umno wants good race relations. Umno leaders wants good race relations only when it will keep them in power. Power and money are the real motivations for Umno’s political leaders.

After the twisted judicial treatments and twisted sentences meted out to the likes of Lim Guan Eng, Anwar Ibrahim, Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamaruddin, I think we can safely rule out any semblance of a sense of right and wrong and common decency as a meaningful guide to Umno’s decisions.

There are a number of things I want to put across to my imaginary Malay audience in cyberspace - you - particularly if you believe every racist, inflammatory, bigoted, and demonised stereotype, opinion piece and fabricated news that Ahmad Ismail, Khir toyo, Utusan Melayu, and Biro Tata Negara tells you about me.

If I were a Malay leader, this is what I would say. The Malays totally dominate the aristocracy, cabinet, parliament, judiciary, police, military, and huge government bureaucracy. The Malays have the highest birth rates.

You have benefitted from the racial quotas in education, commerce, licenses, contracts, jobs and promotions - funded by non-Malays. Therefore if you are feeling aggrieved, if you are feeling angry, and if you are feeling insecure, you need to ask yourself why…

If Umno tells you that your culture, language, race and religion is threatened by non-Malays and non-Muslims, i would suggest you think critically before you act. Umno has destroyed any hope of English literacy amongst the Malay masses.

Without English literacy the professions are out of the question for you. High-paying jobs will be hard to find. You will be handicapped in your career and business. Umno tells you that the non- Malays have advanced economically at your expense.

Umno loves to say that the non Malays have used unfair means to advance by cheating you.

The truth is Umno leadership has advanced economically and socially at your expense by destroying your competitiveness but to cap it all, they have succeeded in making you blame the non-Malays for their mistakes.

Umno makes you think that the way for you to reach global competitiveness would be to oppress and hamstring the non-Malays with steep racial quotas for jobs, licenses, and university places.

The truth is that it is the competitiveness and grit of successful Malays and non-Malays who compete in the open market in open competition that acts to provide every Malaysian - you and I - with the best goods at the cheapest prices.

You could buy a good quality, long lasting, reliable Japanese car in any other country for what you pay for a crappy Proton in Malaysia . Meanwhile, the AP scam that gives select Malays a license to smuggle in thousands of cars without paying duty will never be awarded to anyone other than the most overly privileged, wealthy and connected Umno elite insider - and definitely not to you if you are an ordinary decent Malay.

With Umno’s wholesale corruption, and racist propaganda that scapegoats and demonises the non-Malays to play on your fears and anxieties, our beloved country will come to resemble the uneducated, unproductive, expensive, impoverished countries like Burma , Indonesia , Philippines and Zimbabwe .

Umno leaders will do anything to stay in power and wealth, and that includes to divide and rule with lies, judicial abuse, and more. In the beginning the NEP picked the low-hanging fruit so there was an easy prosperity for everyone but now the signs of terminal decay are everywhere.

Economic and political reality has come back to roost, and if you are still poor, you need to ask why filthy rich Umno leaders are telling you that the non-Malays continue to cheat you of your rights and prosperity. The truth is that the success of any Malaysian in the open market that is subject to open competition will benefit all Malaysians.

Businesses, academics and professionals who have succeeded because of their competitiveness, innovation, hard work and determination bring prosperity to all Malaysians. Non-Malays and Malays who compete in the open market, if they succeed, it is because they offer everyone - you and I - a better product at a lower price.

Businesses and businesspersons who have succeeded because of a government-sanctioned cartel or monopoly that denies others the chance to compete will make all Malaysians poorer - that is, except the lucky filthy rich Umno-BN leaders who gave themselves or family or cronies the cartel or monopoly - APs, Proton, UEM, Renong, Bank Bumi - in the first place.

If you are reading this letter, I can presume that just like me, you did not get the exclusive contract, license, cartel or monopoly either. The truth is you and I and everyone else have been made poorer by the system that Umno has created.

If the economy is heading for a downturn, and if the financial crisis affected your business, and you are wondering why people in other countries don’t work as hard as you, and still earn much more money, then you will begin to understand that they live in a superior system.

Their leaders do not rob and abuse their citizens as much as in Malaysia . If you drive a Proton and they drive a Japanese car for the same price, then you are never going to be as well off as them.

Advanced progressive modern countries have achievement- based values, equal rights, open competition, meritocracy, and legislate against racism.

Such countries will have wealthier and healthier citizens who are not any smarter than you, and who will not be working harder than you, but they will be better informed than you, their kids will receive a better education than yours, and they will be earning lots more money than either you or me.

Umno will tell you that advanced countries like Singapore have prospered at your expense. The truth is that Umno will never give you a superior system. It cannot reform because it has an addiction problem. Umno leaders are addicted to huge amounts of easy money - your money!

Umno will tell you that their addiction to your money is in your best interests. Umno will say they only take money from non-Malays. Umno will say it is your fault if you are addicted to Umno’s Ketuanan Melayu policies and bumiputera privileges..

The truth is that Umno is addicted to your tax money, and Umno will try to weaken your will to succeed on your own by getting you mentally addicted to their falsehoods. Unless Umno can make you feel addicted to your privileges, and make you feel unable to compete, and frightens you with the non-Malay bogeyman (or bogeywoman like Teresa Kok), and that he or she is a threat to your safety, finances, future, race, language, culture and religion, then Umno knows it will lose your vote in open competition to PKR and PAS.

The biggest obstacles to Malay progress are low standards and low expectations.

Umno tells you that you cannot compete with the non-Malays. Yet there are so many parameters to what is better or not that it is impossible to measure them all. It is illogical to think that someone else is better than you.

To believe that you cannot compete is a very low expectation that guarantees very low standards, and it is the last thing you would ever want to leave to your children. The solution requires guts and faith - in you. You must insist on open competition, meritocracy, equal rights, and an end to all forms of racism.

You are not inferior, you can compete, and you control your own destiny.

If you allow Umno to brainwash you, and your children, then low standards and low expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The NEP has inevitably deteriorated to become a scam whereby Umnoputras will get all the benefits and be laughing all the way to the bank and everyone else gets poorer funding their excesses - mansions, wives, fat bank accounts, licenses, contracts, monopolies, APs. You get nothing, and I get even less than nothing - blamed for being the pendatang.

PAS and PKR want to change the NEP so that it will help the poor of all races but since the Malays form the bulk of the poor, then the Malays will automatically benefit exceedingly, and no one will feel left out or despised.

We must create a superior system of government that will be efficient, productive, progressive, competitive, and meritocractic - one that can hope to outperform Singapore - if we are to hold our heads up high, in open competition, and without prejudice.

The Malays will still totally dominate the aristocracy, cabinet, parliament, police, judiciary, military and government but in a country that is progressive, meritocractic, educated, progressive, prosperous and respects equal rights, human rights and freedoms.

This would be real legacy worth leaving to your children.

Choose wisely . . . . .

DARI TOK PEKONG KE MELAWATI

2008-12-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Nostalgia Hisham Rais...

DARI TOK PEKONG KE MELAWATI

Saya masih teringat lagi majlis perasmian pergabungan Parti Keadilan dengan Parti Rakyat di Dewan Perhimpunan Cina pada 3hb Ogos 2003. Tiga hari sebelum majlis perssmian, Kumpulan Teater Bukan Teater telah di minta untuk memberi persembahan yang mengintpretasi makna dan tanda pergabungan. Tiga hari? Iya, kami hanya diberi masa tiga hari sahaja.

Kumpulan Teater Bukan Teater tidak menolak. Kami lakukan persembahan kerana kami di bayar dengan harga yang bagitu mahal sekali - kami di bayar dengan api dan semangat perjuangan.

Saya juga masih teringat Kongres Pertama Parti Keadilan Rakyat pada bulan Disember 2003 di sebuah Tok Pekong di Ipoh. Iya, di sebuah Tok Pekong, bukan di dewan hotel atau gedung mesyuarat yang mewah tetapi di sebuah Tok Pekong. Pada bulan Disember itu saya telah memastikan diri saya ke Ipoh untuk bersama sejarah.

Ketika di Ipoh saya dapat merasakan ombak dan semangat juang membakar terus. Apabila Kongres pertama PKR di adakan di rumah sembahyang Cina maka implakasinya cukup dalam. Inilah tanda-tanda permulaan retaknya konsep Ketuanan Melayu. Inilah juga tanda keberanian sebuah parti politik untuk memulakan politik baru – politik yang bukan berasaskan sokongan bangsa atau agama.

Di Tok Pekong ini jugalah Anwar Ibrahim untuk pertama kalinya berkemungkinan untuk hadir sama setelah bebas dari penjara.

Saya ke Kongres PKR bukan sebagai anggota parti. Saya ingin melihat siapa yang datang. Saya sebenarnya tidak mengenali ramai para pemimpin parti sama ada gedebe nasional mau pun gedebe dari negeri atau bahagian. Untuk saya mereka ini tidak penting. Apa yang ingin saya lihat ialah muka dan rupa betuk rakyat mana yang datang ke Kongres.

Ada satu pekara yang wajib saya perhatikan. Saya hendak melihat apakah ramai anak anak-anak muda yang turut sama merayakan kongres ini. Untuk saya ini adalah kunci. Kekuatan satu satu gerakan – gerakan apa sahaja pun jika tidak ada anak muda yang meminatinya pasti gerakan ini akan gagal. Dalam semua pejuangan merebut kuasa politik tanpa anak muda tidak mungkin ruyung dapat dipecahkan. Sejarah dan pengalaman menjadi guru kita yang terbaik

Pagi Sabtu 29 Novemeber 2008 ini saya ke Shah Alam. Saya amat jarang meninggalkan bilik di hari Sabtu terutama diwaktu pagi. Pagi itu saya memaksa diri saya bukan untuk mendengar ceramah dan ucapan yang gah-gah dari para politkus. Saya datang untuk mencari ambience dan suasana. Saya hendak melihat suasana PKR dan Pakatan Rakyat satelah berjaya menawan 5 buah negeri.

Bila saya melintasi pintu gerbang di sebelah Universiti Malaya dan meninggalkan Wilayah untuk memasuki Petaling Jaya Selangor saya mula ternampak bendera, banting dan iklan Kongres. Hebat. Sepanjang Lebuh Raya Peseketuan hingga ke Stadium Melawati iklan-iklan terpasang di sepanjang jalan untuk menjemput sesiapa sahaja datang merayakan Kongres Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

Selangor negeri terkaya di bawah Pakatan Rakyat telah menjadi Tuan Rumah. Kerajaan Selangor telah menyediakan abang-abang berbaju hijau dari pasukan Rela untuk membantu keselamatan. Pekerja majlis Shah Alam yang beruniform siap sedia mengarahkan para tamu. Saya jangka tidak mungkin ada sesiapa yang akan tersesat mencari tempat Kongres walau pun untuk pertama kali turun ke Shah Alam. Persediaan kelihatan lumayan dan tesusun.

Nah… ini amat jauh sekali dengan apa yang berlaku di Ipoh. Di Ipoh dahulu para polis trafik ditugaskan untuk menyaman sebanyak mungkin apa sahaja yang bergerak. Malah ketika para wakil bersidang polis trafik telah datang untuk menyaman kereta yang terletak di pinggir jalan. Polis bersenjata pula tercacak disana sini bukan untuk mengawal tetapi hadir untuk memberi tekanan dan menakut-nakutkan orang ramai yang datang ke Tok Pekong. Di Shah Alam semuanya berbeza.

Ketika saya masuk ke dalam stadium seorang politikus sedang berucap. Sambil memasang telinga mata saya ingin melihat siapa yang datang. Saya tidak ambil pot muka-muka siapa yang duduk di atas pentas atau siapa yang duduk di barisan hadapan. Mereka ini semua pastilah para gedebe.

Apa yang ingin saya lihat ialah orang yang duduk di bawah pentas. Saya kagum apabila melihat rakyat biasa yang memenuhi stadium di pagi Sabtu itu. Mereka tidak berbatik lengan panjang seperti budaya gerombolan. Mereka juga tidak berdasi dan bertali leher. Majoriti dalam stadium adalah rakyat biasa yang mukanya sering saya temui di pehentian bas, di warung-warung atau di pasar malam.

Yang lebih mengkagumkan ialah kepelbagian bangsa-bangsa yang hadir. Untuk saya ini bukan kongres Melayu, bukan kongres Cina, bukan kongres Islam, bukan kongres India, Dayak, Iban atau Kadazan. Kongres di Stadium Melawati dihujung minggu akhir November ini jelas memperlihatkan ke Malaysian - kongres rakyat Malaysia - rakyat biasa.

Saya tidak nampak muka Mak Datin atau muka Minah cun a la Umi Ufilda yang datang berbedak dan bergincu. Atau Mak Datin yang datang dengan tas tangan Prada atau lelaki gendut berbaju batik bercincin besar seperti Ahmad Ismail dari Bukit Bendera. Tidak juga ada kelihatan bentuk Abang Zak yang memakai kaca mata hitam Gucci.

Saya senang hati apabila melihat bahawa Parti Keadilan Rakyat masih lagi dimiliki oleh rakyat Malaysia. Parti muda ini masih dalam keadaan selamat belum menjadi barang dagangan - masih belum lagi ( sic).

Bila sesi persidangan berhenti rehat saya menebeng di tepi pintu untuk memerhatikan muka-muka yang berkongres dengan lebih rapat. Ada Mak Cik berbaju kurung, Pak Cik bersongkok berbaju Melayu, Nyonya dan Amoi memakai gown, wanita India bersari, Pak Lebai dan Punjabi yang berserban rapi. Ada juga yang memakai baju batik berlengan panjang, saya menganggap mereka ini seperti tersalah masuk Kongres.

Di luar stadium pula makanan telah disediakan. Tidak lagi nasi bungkus seperti di Ipoh. Kini mereka yang berkongres dan sesiapa sahaja yang datang mencari ambience seperti saya akan di pelawa makan. Ada masakan Melayu, ada masakan India, ada masakan Cina dan ada masakan sayuran untuk yang tidak memakan hidupan – malah ada banyak pilihan.

Makan tengah hari ini bertambah lumayan kerana satu kumpulan pemusik terus menghibur para tamu dengan lagu-lagu keroncong untuk merehatkan kepala sesudah mendengar ucapan-ucapan dari para pemimpin.

Ketika saya hendak beratur mengambil makanan , saya melintasi satu khemah khusus dengan empat meja besar. Kipas angin terpasang ligat. Sudu dan garpu tersusun rapi. Terhidang indah di meja ini ialah makanan yang pastinya untuk para gedebe.

Saya hairan kenapa para gedebe ini tidak beratur sama seperti orang biasa untuk mengambil makanan. Nampaknya hegemoni budaya gerombolan United Malays National Organisation itu telah menyerap. Ada garis pemisah yang amat jelas diantara para gedebe dengan orang biasa. Lalu saya teringat beberapa minit tadi pemimpin parti telah berucap mengatakan bahawa kemenangan 8 March yang lalu adalah kerana sokongan rakyat bukan kerana kekuatan dan jentera parti.

Nampaknya menyuarakan retorik politik baru ini cukup enteng tetapi melakukan budaya politik baru ini masih amat jauh dari hati para gedebe. Mungkin mereka tidak memahami politik baru juga wajib membawa budaya baru yang bukan budaya feudal.

Setelah makan saya meleser untuk melihat gerai-gerai jualan. Tidak banyak yang menarik. Malah hanya ada satu dua gerai yang berstatus keilmuan menjual buku yang lainnya hanyalah warung-warung biasa yang menjaja khazanah Reformasi yang sering saya temui di ceramah-ceramah besar.

Anak muda ? Mereka kelihatan berkeliaran. Ini seakan-akan pesta untuk mereka. Malah ada yang agak terlalu muda untuk tahu apakah yang sedang berlaku di dalam stadium. Mungkin kerana becuti sekolah, ada anak-anak sekolah kelihatan menjual beg biru untuk dibawa pulang sebagai tanda kenang-kenangan ketika berkongres di Stadium Melawati.

Lalu timbul persoalan - apakah api dan semangat perjuangan masih membara? Jawabnya iya dan tidak. Ketika mendengar ucapan pemimpin di dalam stadium masih ada laungan reformasi kedengaran. Tetapi laungan REFORMASI tidak mengegarkan stadium. Mungkin kerana Angkatan Muda sedang sibuk mengisi borang melamar kerja atau mengisi borang kontrek dari 5 kerajaan Pakatan.

Kongres tahun hadapan saya bercadang untuk datang lagi kerana saya ingin bertanya apakah Angkata Muda telah mendapat pekerjaan atau telah mendapat kontrek. Jika telah mendapat ‘yang diminta’ pasti tidak ada lagi laungan reformasi.(TT)

Sarawak N09 - Padungan: Dominique Ng Kim Ho

2008-11-26T08:37:00.000-08:00

http://ngkimho.blogspot.com/

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Anwar ”NO DEADLINE..What about Sarawak..??”

2008-11-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

http://audie61.wordpress.com/2008/11/26/anwarno-deadlinewhat-about-sarawak-malaysiakini/

When this was posted on Malaysiakini special reports http://anwaribrahimblog.com/2008/11/26/anwar-will-not-set-a-new-deadline-for-power/ Anwar told reporters that he would not explain why the PR alliance has not yet taken power at this weekend’s PKR party congress.“There is nothing to explain. It will happen,” Anwar said in Parliament. He did not set another deadline. Yesterday we extracted the article from Stanley Koh http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/93722 which was “Perfecting PKR”.

Today it seems that a NUCLEAR BOMB has just been dropped at the heart of PKR Supporters says a political watcher. More so, he said right at the heartland of Sarawak as the Pakatan supporters await the State elections in 900 days or thereabouts. Could this be just the perfect TIMING for CM or has Anwar just dangle the carrot..? Anwar has said this on November 15th 2008 at a dinner,”Sarawak, which has 30 members of parliament, holds the key to the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) government in the country.“When Sarawak changes its course, the Barisan Nasional government will collapse,” Seems that Anwar suddenly changed his own course while the Sarawak supporters are left to fend for themselves. Time to abandon PKR is it..?

We have failed to form the Federal government is in everyones thoughts. Sarawak No Problems for BN. The rural NCR land issues e.g. http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/93782 and other urban issues can be solved. Grievances and unhappiness are made up by POLITICIANS who are disgruntled and frustrated. The people will still vote for BN and the “dacing symbol” Pakatan is irrelevant to Sarawak and it will not have any impact on Sarawak shores. Could Complacency come into the picture for BN?

We have a close look at all the 71seats,the incumbents,the parties BUT we will leave the analysis to a later article. The voters represent the actual numbers during the 2006 Sarawak State Election. Why not make the necessary arrangements and if you are keen to contest you can choose any of the 71 seats. Remember it will be the NEW DUN BUILDING when you make your maiden speech.BE INSPIRED AND PUMP UP THE ADRENALIN..

N1 OPAR (7379) Ranum Ak.Mina (BN-SUPP)
N2 TASIK BIRU (14983) Peter Nansian (BN-SPDP)
N3 TANJONG DATU (7973) Adenan Satem (BN-PBB)
N4 PANTAI DAMAI (12073) Abdul Rahman bin Junaidi(BN-PBB)
N5 DEMAK LAUT (10080) Abang Draup Zamahari Rauf(BN-PBB)
N6 TUPONG (14787) Haji Daud Abdul Rahman (BN-PBB)
N7 SEMARIANG (13498) Sharifah Hasidah bte.Sayeed Aman (BN-PBB)
N8 SATOK (10835) Abang Johari bin Tun Abang Haji Openg (BN-PBB)
N9 PADUNGAN (24512) Dominique Ng Kim Ho ( PKR)
N10 PENDING (29503) Violet Yong (DAP)
N11 BATU LINTANG (24783) Voon Lee Shan (DAP)
N12 KOTA SENTOSA (18934) Chong Chien Jen (DAP)
N13 BATU KAWA ( 16237) Tan Joo Phoi ( BN-SUPP)
N14 ASAJAYA (12016) Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah (BN-PBB)
N15 MUARA TUANG (14303) Haji Mohammad Ali Mahmud (BN-PBB)
N16 BENGOH (20077) Dr Jerip Anak Susil ( BN-SUPP)
N17 TARAT (15171) Roland Sagah Wee Inn ( BN-SUPP)
N18 TEBEDU (11793) Michael Manyin Anak Jawong (BN-PBB)
N19 KEDUP (15994) Frederick Bayoi ak.Manggie (BN-PBB)
N20 SADONG JAYA (6917) Haji Wan Abdul Wahab bin Wan Sanusi (BN-PBB)
N21 SIMUNJAN (9846) Mohd Naroden Majais (BN-PBB)
N22 SEBUYAU (7549) Julaihi Narawi (BN-PBB)
N23 LINGGA (7545) Hajah Simoi Binti Hj Peri (BN-PBB)
N24 BETING MARO (7267) Haji Bolhassan Haji Di (BN-PBB)
N25 BALAI RINGIN (8244) Snowdon Lawan (BN-PRS)
N26 BUKIT BEGUNAN (7644) Mong anak Dagang (BN-PRS)
N27 SIMANGGANG (9849) Francis Harden anak Hollis (BN-SUPP)
N28 ENGKILILI (9477) Johnicol Rayong ak.Ngipa (Independent)
N29 BATANG AIR (7997) Dublin Unting anak Ingkot (BN-PRS)
N30 SARIBAS (7145) Dr Hj Wahbi bin Hj Junaidi (BN-PBB)
N31 LAYAR (7415) Alfred Jabu Anak Numpang (BN-PBB)
N32 BUKIT SABAN (6876) Robert Lawson Chuat ak Vincent Entering (BN-PBB)
N33 KALAKA (13379) Abdul Wahab bin Aziz (BN-PBB)
N34 KRIAN (10429) Peter Nyarok Anak Entrie (BN-SPDP)
N35 BELAWAI (8004) Hamden bin Ahmad (BN-PBB)
N36 SEMOP (9162) Mohamad Asfia Awang Nasar (BN-PBB)
N37 DARO ( 7411) Murni Suhaili (BN-PBB)
N38 JEMORENG (8545) Gani @ Abu Seman bin Jahwie (BN-PBB)
N39 REPOK (16750) David Teng Lung Chi ( BN-SUPP)
N40 MERADONG (14584) Ting Tze Hui (DAP)
N41 PAKAN (9034) William Mawan ak.Ikom (BN-SPDP)
N42 MELUAN (11169) Wong ak.Judat (BN-SPDP)
N43 NGEMAH (7849) Gabriel Adit ak.Demong (PKR)
N44 MACHAN (9966) Gramong Juna (BN-PBB)
N45 BUKIT ASSEK (26002) Wong Ho Leng (DAP)
N46 Dudong (21819) Dr Soon Choon Teck ( BN-SUPP)
N47 BAWANG ASSAN (16844) Wong Soon Koh ( BN-SUPP)
N48 PELAWAN (22559) Goh Chung Siong ( BN-SUPP)
N49 NANGKA (12973) Awang bemee bin Awang Ali Bassah (BN-PBB)
N50 DALAT (11423) Fatimah Abdullah @ Ting Sai Ming (BN-PBB)
N51 BALINGIAN (11326) Abdul Taib Mahmud (BN-PBB)
N52 TAMIN (10900) Joseph Mauh ak.Ikeh (BN-PRS)
N53 KAKUS (9417) John Sikie anak Tayai (BN-PRS)
N54 PELAGUS (13898) Larry Sng Wei Shien (BN-PRS)
N55 KATIBAS (8146) Ambrose Blikau (BN-PBB)
N56 Baleh (9731) Dr. James Jemut Masing (BN-PRS)
N57 BALAGA (6691) Liwan Lagang (BN-PRS)
N58 JEPAK (12049) Talip Zulpilip (BN-PBB)
N59 KIDURONG (23726) Chiew Chiu Sing (DAP)
N60 KEMENA (13338) Dr Rundi Stephan Utom (BN-PBB)
N61 BEKENU (10095) Rosey Haji Yunus (BN-SPDP)
N62 LAMBIR (11245) Aidan Wing (BN-PBB)
N63 PIASAU (17256) George Chan Hong Nam ( BN-SUPP)
N64 PUJUT (20098) Andy Chia Chu Fatt ( BN-SUPP)
N65 SENADIN (16925) Lee Khim Shin ( BN-SUPP)
N66 MARUDI (12425) Sylvester Entri Anak Muran (BN-SPDP)
N67 TELANG USAN (12793) Lihan Jok (BN-PBB)
N68 BUKIT KOTA (13328) Dr Abdul Rahman Bin Ismail (BN-PBB)
N69 BATU DANAU (6889) Palu @Paulus Palu Anak Gumbang (BN-SPDP)
N70 BA’KELALAN (6284) Balang Rining (BN-SPDP)
N71 BUKIT SARI (9373) Awang Tengah Ali Hassan (BN-PBB)

In 2006 Sarawak State Elections there was 54 Straight Fights,13 3-cornered,1 4-cornered,1 5-cornered and 2 YBS were returned unopposed. Are you ready to serve when you are called upon? Be the Peoples Representative and if you are Prepared the People will have no Qualms to choose you. Is it that SIMPLE…??

PERAK: N56 - Changkat Jong: PAS Mohd. Anuar Sudin

2008-11-17T08:33:00.000-08:00

http://intanhijau.blogspot.com/

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ked N31 - Kupang: Johari Abdullah

2008-11-14T05:15:00.000-08:00

http://pkwr-kupang.blogspot.com/

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Ked N25 - Bukit Selambau: V Arumugam

2008-11-14T05:02:00.000-08:00

Pusat Khidmat Wakil Rakyat DUN Bukit Selambau

http://pkwr-bukitselambau.blogspot.com/

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Ked N34 - Lunas: PKR Mohd Razhi Salleh

2008-11-14T04:46:00.000-08:00

Pusat Khidmat Wakil Rakyat N34 DUN Lunas

http://pkwr-lunas.blogspot.com/

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Ked N33 - Merbau Pulas: Ustazah Aishah Ghazali

2008-11-03T21:30:00.000-08:00

Ked N33 - Merbau Pulas: Ustazah Aishah Ghazali

http://pkwr-merbaupulas.blogspot.com/

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Ked N18 - Tokai: PAS Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul

2008-11-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ked N18 - Tokai: PAS Mohamed Taulan Mat Rasul

http://pkwr-tokai.blogspot.com/

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Ked N24 - Jeneri: PAS Yahya Abdullah

2008-11-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

Ked N24 - Jeneri: PAS Yahya Abdullah

http://pkwr-jeneri.blogspot.com

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Ked N10 - Bukit Pinang: PAS Md Roshidi Osman

2008-11-03T21:09:00.000-08:00

Ked N10 - Bukit Pinang: PAS Md Roshidi Osman

http://pkwr-bukitpinang.blogspot.com/

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Ked N04 - Ayer Hitam: PAS Abdul Ghani Ahmad

2008-11-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

http://pkwr-ayerhitam.blogspot.com/

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Ked N14 - Alor Mengkudu: Dr Ismail Salleh

2008-11-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

Ked N14 - Alor Mengkudu: PAS - Dr Ismail Salleh

http://pkwr-alormengkudu.blogspot.com/

Prk N12 - Selinsing: PAS Husin Din

2008-10-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

Prk N12 - Selinsing: PAS Husin Din

http://adunselinsing.blogspot.com/

Isu Pahang: Laman Blog, Masih Ramai Pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat Pandang Remeh !!

2008-10-04T15:24:00.000-07:00

http://pahangdaily.blogspot.com/2008/10/isu-pahang-keperluan-laman-blog-masih.html

05 October 2008
Isu Pahang: Laman Blog, Masih Ramai Pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat Pandang Remeh !!

Biarpun keperluan menyampaikan maklumat yang tepat dan terkini adalah perkara penting dalam memberi info kepada rakyat, namun Pahang Daily masih gusar dengan keadaan yang berlaku di Pahang. Setakat ini, pihak kami hanya mendapati hanya PAS Pahang sahaja yang mengambil iniseatif ini. Pimpinan PAS Pahang dilihat terlebih "advanced" dalam mendekati rakyat di era siber ini, berbanding dengan pimpinan PKR dan DAP. Justeru itu, kami amat kecewa melihat keadaan ini. Sedangkan semua pemimpin terbabit tahu akan kekuatan Pakatan Rakyat mutakhir ini adalah bergantung kepada internet laman-laman "Blog". Bahkan ini diakui oleh pihak kerajaan dalam pilihanraya umum Mac lalu. Namun, mengapakah perkara ini diambil "acuh tak acuh" dikalangan pimpinan Pakatan Rakyat di Pahang terutamanya yang melibatkan pemimpin PKR sendiri.

Lebih mengecewakan sekali, ada sesetengah pemimpin yang menganggap kekuatan mereka bukanlah bergantung kepada "blog" dan "internet". Kononnya, ia adalah hasil usaha dan kerja keras mereka sejak sekian lama. Inilah dia kenyataan "bangang" yang amat merugikan sekali. Sepatutnya mereka mengambil langkah awal untuk mendekati rakyat. Ini kerana "blog" bukan sahaja bertujuan untuk mereka menyampaikan amanat kepada rakyat. Tetapi ia juga adalah merupakan "Diari Online" yang boleh digunakan untuk memaparkan segala aktiviti berkaitan ceramah, program kebajikan dan sosial serta lain-lain yang melibatkan diri pemimpin terbabit. Disamping itu juga dengan blog mereka boleh memaparkan gambar-gambar penting segala aktiviti yang berkaitan. Ini secara langsung dapat memberi info yang berguna kepada rakyat bukan sahaja penyokong Pakatan Rakyat malahan juga BN sendiri.

Malahan, dengan adanya blog peribadi masing-masing, maka rakyat setempat lebih mudah untuk beriteraksi dengan pemimpin terbabit menerusi ruangan "borak siber" dan sebagainya. Bukankah ini memudahkan untuk mereka mendekati serta mendengar masalah dan rintihan rakyat. Jangan fikir dengan adanya blog ia hanya untuk "popular" semata-mata, lantaran itu bagi mereka populariti tidak diperlukan sebaliknya kerja yang penting. Itu semua adalah alasan yang tidak munasabah langsung. Sedangkan kini pemimpin UMNO/BN sibuk dengan blog masing-masing, tetapi masih ada pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat yang terlalu "jumud" berpolitik sehingga membelakangkan kepentingan dunia ICT seperti ini. Justeri itu, kami menyeru dan mempelawa kepada semua pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat yang belum mempunyai "blog peribadi" masing-masing agar membuat tindakan mulai sekarang. Bukan sahaja blog peribadi pemimpin terbabit, malahan mereka juga perlu mengadakan blog untuk bahagian atau pun cawangan sendiri. Mengapa memandang remeh keperluan ini, sedangakan ada pihak-pihak yang berminat untuk memberi tunjuk ajar perkara ini?.

Fuziah Salleh (Kuantan) dan Azan Ismail (Indera Mahkota)

Justeru itu dibawah ini dipaparkan statistik blog pemimpin yang ditemui dan tidak ditemui. Apatah lagi bagi pemimpin yang menjadi Ahli Parlimen, DUN, Ketua, Exco parti berkenaan. Bagi Ahli Parlimen Pahang, blog yang ditemui hanyalah YB Fuziah Salleh (Kuantan) dan blog yang tidak ditemui YB Azan Ismail (Indera Mahkota). Manakala bagi ADUN pula blog yang ditemui tiada, manakala blog yang tidak ditemui ialah kesemua ADUN berkenaan iaitu YB Leong Ngah Ngah (DAP Triang), YB Choong Siew Onn (DAP Tras), YB Tuan Syed Hamid Syed Mohamed (PAS Kuala Semantan), YB Tuan Syed Mohammed Tuan Lonik (PAS Beserah) dan YB Ho Yip Kap (BEBAS Tanah Rata). Kami gagal menemui blog pemimpin berkenaan setakat ini.

Lima orang ADUN Pakatan Rakyat & Bebas di Dewan Undangan Neger Pahang

I'M READY TO WHACK SOMEBODY

2008-10-04T03:16:00.000-07:00

Monday, September 29, 2008
I'M READY TO WHACK SOMEBODY

It's been a week since Syed Hamid Albar signed the sneaky order to transfer Raja Petra to Kamunting, effectively denying him the opportunity to be unconditionally discharged by the court on 23 September, simply because there are absolutely no grounds for Raja Petra's detention under the ISA to begin with. But everybody who's been observing the political soap opera unfold knows RPK has been firing too many torpedoes at Najib Razak's bid for prime ministership and must be silenced even at the risk of pissing off the entire nation.

Well, I'm telling you, Mr Pink Lips: it's no use keeping RPK locked up. You just don't cut it as prime minister - you are totally uninspiring and are saddled with too much karmic baggage. I shall pick up where RPK left off and continue poking holes in your Hindu anti-voodoo shield till you surrender your wife's ambitions to be First Lady and fade quietly into the sunset. And if I don't do it twenty other bloggers will... or two hundred!

Anyway, the very next day (24 September) we saw Anwar Ibrahim at the Sessions Court where policemen outnumbered all those who showed up in support. With all the dramatic shifts happening around the world - financial meltdowns and devastating hurricanes and regime change occurring wherever you look - the indefatigably evil Attorney-General persists in pursuing the non-issue of whether Saiful Bukhari Azlan had his anus enlarged by Malaysia's popular PM elect. I want to know how RPK found out about Saiful's secret meeting with SAC Rodwan Mohd Yusof in Room 619 (note the reverse 916 effect) of the Concorde Hotel at 2:30PM on 25 June 2008 (three days before the absurd sodomy accusation was filed) - and how come nobody seems to have confirmed or denied this startling allegation.

Meanwhile, vile and pernicious maneuvers by sore losers like former Selangor chief minister Khir Toyo to stir up racial shit via the ultra-jingoist Utusan Malaysia go unchecked, unreprimanded, and unpunished. And provincial Umno loudmouths like Ahmad Ismail continue to swagger around in their own swiftly evaporating mudholes, making laughing-stocks of themselves and accelerating the inevitable extinction of race-based political parties.

On Nomination Day of the Permatang Pauh by-election a couple of journalists were beaten up by thugs wearing PKR T-shirts. Police arrested a few people for questioning but we have heard nothing about the outcome. So were they proven to be PKR supporters - or Umno-sponsored Mat Rempits paid to discredit PKR?

And what about the buses transporting phantom voters intercepted by PKR's Gobalakrishnan and his sons - who got roughed up by the police and detained for performing a citizen's arrest? There has been no clarification or apology from the police. If phantom voters had been bused into Permatang Pauh, why has the Election Commission not taken action against the party responsible? These are serious issues that reflect on the integrity and professionalism of the police and EC. They cannot be conveniently forgotten.

More than two months ago Anwar handed the ACA documentary evidence that IGP Musa Hassan and AG Gani Patail were involved in falsifying evidence to convict him of sodomy in 1998. So what has become of the ACA's investigation? We don't hear a thing. Nobody has been sacked and both have disappeared from the radar screen. How about missing private investigator Balasubramaniam Perumal and his family? Are they still in self-exile in "a neighboring country"? Who's paying for their upkeep - and what actually transpired after Bala checked in at the Brickfields police station on the evening his sensational first statutory declaration was made public? Anyone remember Lingamgate? I certainly do... but I don't see anything being done about the terrible mess the judiciary is in.

Most of all, I'd like to know what's going on with all the parliamentarians ready to defect from Barisan. Are they terrified of the ISA? Are they are under 24/7 surveillance by the Special Branch? Have they been blackmailed or bribed? Will they rise above petty self-interest and save the country from Umno/BN under Najib?

I'm not the only one who would love to throw a whole bunch of banana peels in front of Syed Hamid Albar. And I'm sure I could raise a posse to capture Khir Toyo and tar and feather him. I'd like to see Najib Razak led away in handcuffs for being such a terrible liar and hypocrite.

As for all those Status Quoists who still think Umno/BN was "given a mandate" to rule for another four years - and who think Anwar should concentrate on strengthening the Opposition Coalition and administering the five states the rakyat reclaimed from Umno/BN - nothing short of the Japanese bamboo torture will suffice.http://magickriver.blogspot.com/2008/09/im-ready-to-whack-somebody.html

FREE ALL ISA DETAINEE'S NOW!!!

2008-10-04T01:54:00.000-07:00

FREE ALL ISA DETAINEE'S NOW!!!
THE DETAINEE'S:
Yazid Sufaat, Suhaimi Mokhtar, Dr Abdullah Daud, Shamsuddin Sulaiman, Mat Shah Mohd Satray, Abdul Murad Sudin, Zaini Zakaria, Zainun Rashid, Wan Amin Wan Hamat, Sulaiman Suramin, Sufian Salih, Mohd Khaider Kadran, Hasim Talib, Zakaria Samad, Ahmad Zakaria, Terhamid Dahalan, Abdul Rahman Ahmad, Mahfudi Saifudin, Mulyadi, Arifin, Mat Tarmizi Zakaria, Artas Burhanudin, Francis Indanan, Mohd Nazri Dollah, Mohd Arsad Patangari, Adzmi Pindatun, Idris Lanama, Aboud Ghafar Shahril, Jeknal Adil, Binsali Omar, Husin Alih, Yussof Mohd Salam, Ahmad Jamal Azahari, Pakana Selama, Kasem Dayama, Shaykinar Guat, Argadi Andoyok, Ng How Chuang, Ng Keat Seng, Mohd Azuan Aniffa, Mohd Faizol Shamsuddin, Zulfikli Abu Bakar, Zulfikli Marzuki, Amir Hussain, Mohd Nasir Ismail, Ahmad Kamil Hanafiah, Muh Amir Hanafiah, Tan Choon Chin, Mavalavan, Lian Kok Heng, Sundaraj Vijay, San Khaing, Shadul Islam, Abdul Sattar Sarjoon, Faycal Mamdouh, Mohamad Nakhrakhel, Muhammad Shuaib Hazral Bilal, Muhammad Zahid Zahir Shah, T Vasanthakumar, P Uthayakumar, R Kenghadharan, V Ganabatirau, M Manoharan and YM Raja Petra Kamarudin.

FT Gerakan members defect to PKR

2008-09-28T02:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 28, 2008
More Nation Heroz joining Pakatan=)

FT Gerakan members defect to PKR

PETALING JAYA: More than 20 Federal Territory Gerakan members have defected to Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) with “more expected in the coming weeks.”

Former Federal Territory Gerakan information bureau chief Gan Kok Keng said there would be at least 300 members from four divisions joining the opposition party soon.

The divisions involved are the Setiawangsa, Wangsa Maju, Bukit Bintang and Kepong divisions.

Gan, who had been with Gerakan for 24 years, said their desire to leave Gerakan stemmed from the inability of the party to play a meaningful role in Barisan Nasional.

“We have no decision-making powers and have been ignored and insulted many times,” he said.

Gan said what bothered him the most was the belief that the comments of former Bukit Bendera Umno chief Ahmad Ismail was not his own personal opinion but those of the party.

“Gerakan should not be appealing for action to be taken in any scenario but should be asking firmly instead,” he said at a press conference at the PKR headquarters here Sunday.

Also leaving Gerakan for PKR is their former Federal Territories Youth chief Tan Kang Ho, Federal Territories Economic Bureau chief Julian Leong, and Wangsa Maju secretary Azali Omar.

PKR vice-president and Subang Member of Parliament R. Sivarasa said the move by the Gerakan members to join PKR was something that was not easy to do.

“It is brave of them. There was also no offer of money and no discussion about positions in the party,” he said.

Earlier this month, former Segambut MP and Federal Territories Gerakan chief Datuk Dr Tan Kee Kwong also joined PKR.

http://hopemalaysia.blogspot.com/2008/09/more-nation-heroz-joining-pakatan.html

New Media more than blogs

2008-09-17T18:33:00.000-07:00

Thursday September 18, 2008
New Media more than blogs
Wikimedia
By OON YEOH

The Internet has become such a key component in the political battleground that any party which ignores its importance is likely to find itself handicapped.

RIGHT after the March general election, there was a sense of urgency amongst Barisan Nasional politicians to get aboard the New Media bandwagon.

There was talk of requiring current and aspiring MPs to set up their own blogs.

But harnessing the power of New Media takes more than just setting up blogs. It requires a sound understanding of how public opinion is shaped through online means and how political news and views are disseminated in cyberspace.

“The Barisan’s attitude towards bloggers, blogging and the blogosphere has been reactionary, erratic and inconsistent,” says political analyst Ong Kian Ming, who recently did a study comparing the use of New Media by Barisan and Pakatan Rakyat.

Barisan did get off on the right footing after the election, Ong notes. Information Minister Shabery Cheek declared that the Government would engage with bloggers and he even went as far as to invite some bloggers to appear on a TV interview show.

One of the first online personalities on this programme was none other than Raja Petra Kamarudin, whose website, Malaysia Today, was subsequently banned and then later reinstated.

Currently, he’s being detained under the dreaded ISA for stuff found on his website. “RPK’s case demonstrates the schizophrenic nature of the Barisan Government’s attitude towards bloggers,” says Ong.

Six months after the election, how much have the Barisan representatives responded to the call to set up their own blogs?

Not much, says Ong who found that of the 85 Barisan MPs in Peninsular Malaysia, only 13 of them currently have their own blogs (15%).

In contrast, 59 out of the 79 Pakatan MPs from the peninsula (almost three quarters of them) have their own blogs.

Note that he did not include independent MP Ibrahim Ali in his survey as he is neither with Barisan nor Pakatan.

Nor did he include East Malaysian MPs in his survey because blogs are not so important there.

In the past, the Barisan could rely on the mainstream media not to report or under-report any offensive remarks that may have been made by a Barisan politician.

Now, it is likely that such remarks would be picked up by online news sites or observant bloggers. Once such news leaks into cyberspace, the fallout is instantaneous.

And the mainstream media, which has already been emboldened since the election, will pick it up too. We’ve seen this phenomenon of blog scoops trickling into mainstream news happen in the United States and now it’s starting to happen here.

The Barisan is not used to playing the role of the underdog in the political sphere. But it is clearly outmanned and outgunned in cyberspace.

The number of independent blogs which can be categorised as anti-Barisan significantly outnumber the blogs which are supportive of the Barisan, says Ong, who adds: “It’s hard to name a single influential blogger who can be categorised as pro-Barisan.”

Barisan cannot overcome this disadvantage in cyberspace by throwing money at the problem. Even if it paid a whole army of bloggers to set up pro-Barisan blogs, it wouldn’t work as their credibility would be suspect straight away.

Mercenary bloggers just can’t match the passion of the ones who do it as a labour of love, who do it as a matter of personal commitment.

This is not to say that New Media is a lost cause for the Barisan. Even if it can’t get the blogosphere to support it immediately, it can set a good example by having its MPs and senior leaders maintain good websites or blogs.

They can start by emulating DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang who began embracing the Internet in the mid-90s.

He even bothered to learn HTML just so his party could have its own website and was one of the key drivers in continuously upgrading the party website, publishing the press statements and also encouraging its MPs to start blogs of their own.

Anwar Ibrahim’s website is very comprehensive and it has sections where one can make financial contributions, request Anwar to speak at events and view his past speeches and op-eds.

He also has a blog which has his public schedule, YouTube videos, related news items as well as press releases.

Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has joined the blogosphere with over six million visits to date, a remarkable achievement by any standards.

In stark contrast, no senior Barisan leader can claim to have the same kind of Internet presence or traffic.

The most vilified person in the Malaysian blogosphere, Khairy Jamaluddin, does have his own website and it includes a blog.

It will take more than having his own online presence to counter all the negative postings about him but Khairy did garner some attention recently when he criticised the MCMC’s decision to block access to RPK’s website.

Perhaps other Barisan MPs can follow his lead and be willing to express their views frankly and openly through blogs.

The online advantage that Pakatan enjoys does not guarantee them electoral success.

There is no replacing the ‘offline’ activities that are part and parcel of what political parties and politicians need to do – the constituency servicing, the face-to-face meetings, the ceramahs, and so on, says Ong.

“But the Internet has become such a key component of the political battleground that any party that ignores its importance is likely to find itself handicapped,” he adds.

> Oon Yeoh has been blogging since 2003. You can check out some of his postings at www.oonyeoh.com.

Opposition-led rule in Malaysia looking likely

2008-09-13T23:35:00.000-07:00

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Less than a year ago, Malaysians would have sniggered at any suggestion that former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, crushed by a sodomy charge in 1998, could make a political comeback.

Today, nobody laughs when Anwar claims he will become prime minister. He appears to be firmly on track to attract enough defectors from the ruling coalition ranks to secure a parliamentary majority and form Malaysia's first opposition-led government since independence in 1957.

Most analysts believe Anwar can pull it off, if not by his self-imposed deadline of Tuesday, then sometime next month.

It would mark another remarkable turnaround for a man once considered a star of Asian politics, only to be toppled 10 years ago and imprisoned on a conviction of having sex with a man, a crime in Malaysia. The conviction was overturned in 2004 but he now faces another sodomy charge. Anwar has strongly denied both cases, claiming they were intended to kill his political rise.

The ruling coalition has been weakened by dissent against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, and Anwar is capitalizing on that disarray. Abdullah lost much of his clout after presiding over the government's worst ever election results in March, plunging one of Southeast Asia's most stable countries into political turmoil.

Abdullah faced renewed public anger on Friday after his government arrested an opposition lawmaker, a journalist and an anti-government blogger under a law that allows indefinite detention without trial. Tan Hoon Cheng, a reporter for the Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew, was released Saturday after being questioned by police.

Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said the arrests were necessary to prevent racial conflict, but Anwar said they were meant to "engineer an atmosphere of fear and instability."

Anwar needs 30 defections for his People's Alliance to form the next government.

"His chances have increased by 100 percent," said James Chin, a political science professor at the Monash University in Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur. "Getting 30 to me is not a problem. I don't doubt they will jump if the conditions and benefits are the right amount."

Still, there are serious doubts as to whether Anwar can hold together his three-party coalition of leftists, Islamists and liberal freethinkers, or fulfill his sweeping promises including dismantling a controversial affirmative action program that favors the ethnic Malay majority in jobs, education, housing, business and a host of other areas.

Many Malays see the program as their birthright. Most ethnic Chinese and Indians see it as state-engineered discrimination.

The Malay-dominated National Front has ruled Malaysia — often hailed as a moderate Islamic nation — continuously for more than 50 years. The coalition has maintained its legitimacy by claiming it alone can share out the nation's resources in a way that satisfies all ethnic groups.

That myth was shattered in the March 8 general election when Anwar stitched together his unlikely coalition on a platform of equality for all races. Together they won 82 seats in the 222-member Parliament, up from 19, as well as control of five of Malaysia's 13 states.

If 61-year-old Anwar forms the next government, it would amount to a political earthquake.

He says he will restructure the affirmative action program to focus on the needy, regardless of race; free the judiciary and the media from government interference; and guarantee religious freedom and civil liberties.

"It is not very difficult to be a better government, to control corruption, to be more just. That is quite easy. The more challenging task is to change the course of the economy," he said in a recent interview.

A major shift promised by Anwar would be a change in the way the government awards public contracts. At present the contracts can only go to Malay-owned companies, but even there the decisions are made arbitrarily.

This has been an obstacle to a free trade agreement with the U.S., which wants the contract process to be transparent and open to foreigners.

But Anwar has set his sights very high, and some foresee not reform but instability. The political outlook has rattled investor confidence, weakening Malaysia's currency and stock markets.

Still, his promises strike a chord not just with Chinese and Indians but with Malays who feel the benefits of affirmative action have gone only to a well-connected elite.

The system was devised soon after Malaysia suffered spasms of racial violence in 1969 and was intended to keep the peace by making all ethnic groups dependent on government patronage.

But analyst Chin said Anwar would temper any resentment among his fellow Malays by giving them dominance in government.

"There may be isolated protests but it won't turn into a full-scale uprising by Malays," he said. "Anwar knows the game well."

=================================================

Malaysian Seeks End to Decades of Firm Rule

By Thomas Fuller, The New York Times

By the most obvious yardstick, this country of 25 million people is a democracy: Malaysia has held regular elections since independence from Britain five decades ago.

Yet during that time power has remained in the hands of one coalition, the media has remained slavishly pro-government, the courts have often hewed closely to the government line and critics of the country's leadership have been detained without trial in periodic crackdowns.

Now Malaysia may be on the brink of a liberal, more democratic era.

The governing coalition is facing the very real possibility of losing its grip on power to the opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, who says he has enough votes to bring down the government and might do so as early as this week.

Mr. Anwar promises that if he become prime minister, he would not only scrap laws that muzzle criticism, but also upend the father-knows-best style of government and end a longstanding policy that favored the country's majority Malays over other ethnic groups.

"I think we're on an irreversible trend of democratization because it's coming from the bottom up," said Sivarasa Rasiah, a human rights lawyer and one of many opposition members elected to Parliament in March.

If Mr. Anwar succeeds in taking over the government, his actions could have implications far beyond Malaysia.

A onetime Islamist student radical, Mr. Anwar has emerged over the past decade as one of the leading proponents of the idea that Islam and liberal democracy are complementary. He has cultivated friendships with leaders who share his views in Turkey and Indonesia, and he has built bridges to the West.

He once served as a catalyst for the increasing religiosity among Malaysia's Muslims. Today he walks the fine line between the secularism of the country's Constitution and the demands by some Islamic forces, including those in his own coalition, for socially conservative policies.

Mr. Anwar, a former deputy prime minister who once mingled with the very establishment he is now challenging, was re-elected to Parliament in August.

As he and his allies in the opposition gained increased political backing over the past several months, the government under Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has begun to strike back. In July, Mr. Anwar was charged with sodomy for the second time in his career in a case that a large majority of Malaysians surveyed in opinion polls say reeks of politics. And several newspapers have been warned about stepping out of line.

On Friday, a member of Parliament for the opposition, a newspaper reporter and a prominent antigovernment blogger were detained under the internal security act, which allows for indefinite detention without trial. Syed Hamid Albar, the home minister, told reporters on Saturday that the blogger and Parliament member had been detained for inciting ethnic tensions but that the reporter, who was released Saturday after 16 hours, was only questioned about her reporting on a recent controversy involving a member of the governing party.

The governing party has leveled accusations of corruption in the opposition's campaign to win over defectors: Khairy Jamaluddin, one of the party's most articulate members, has denounced what he calls "underhanded tactics," saying members of Parliament have reported being offered money and positions of power in a future government, a charge the opposition denies.

Last week, the battle between the government and opposition flirted with absurdity. First, the governing party dispatched about 50 government lawmakers to Taiwan for what it called an agricultural "study trip," which appeared to be an attempt to stop them from crossing over to Mr. Anwar's side.

On Friday, opposition lawmakers followed them to Taiwan, checking into the same hotel in the hopes of convincing would-be defectors to take the leap.

Mr. Anwar initially vowed to bring down the government by Tuesday, saying he had written commitments from enough lawmakers to force the government's collapse. But he now concedes that the governing coalition's move to send lawmakers to Taiwan could succeed in drawing off some support, forcing him to delay his bid for power.

The changes that Mr. Anwar has proposed could change Malaysia substantially and fast.

"All the draconian, oppressive laws must go," Mr. Anwar said in a recent interview.

He promises to repeal Malaysia’s toughest laws that give the government the power to detain opponents without trial, ban unauthorized protests, bar students from participating in politics and keep the news media in line by requiring newspapers and magazines to apply for annual publishing permits.

He would also free all “political prisoners.”

Perhaps most explosive, he said he would end many special privileges for his own ethnic group, the Malays, who are given a variety of advantages, including discounts on houses, exclusive rights to government contracts and a reserved quota of stock-market shares. The privileges have angered the country’s two other main ethnic groups: Malaysian citizens of Chinese and Indian descent.

It was that anger, directed at the ethnically mixed governing coalition, that helped the opposition win just under half the popular vote, by far the best showing for the opposition since independence.

Mr. Anwar contends, and many experts agree, that most of the special privileges are enjoyed by a minority of Malays connected to the governing party. Still, it remains to be seen whether Malays will accept Mr. Anwar’s proposal of policies based on need, not ethnicity. Ethnic tensions have flared in the past, notably in 1969 when at least 200 people were killed in race-related violence.

Mr. Khairy of the governing party argues that Mr. Anwar is moving too fast by proposing to scrap the country’s harshest laws: Malaysia needs them to guard against ethnic strife, he said in an interview.

“We are a maturing democracy,” Mr. Khairy said. “These issues, to me, still need a lot of debate. We need to continue the way the Abdullah administration has done it, which is to reform gradually.”

At least as challenging as balancing the rights of ethnic groups would be managing the struggle between those who prefer a secular government and those who want a wider application of Islamic laws for Muslims, who make up 60 percent of the population.

In a recent interview in his sparsely furnished office, Mr. Anwar apologized to a visitor for the heat and stuffiness; he keeps the air-conditioning off during Ramadan because fasting from sunrise to sunset gives him chills.

But he criticized the decision of the Prime Minister Abdullah to suspend Parliament during Ramadan. “He thinks he’s representing himself as a good Muslim,” Mr. Anwar said. “I think it’s reactionary.”

“If you want to fast, go ahead,” he said. “But go on with your life. If you fast and it causes productivity to drop there’s something wrong with that.”

Some Muslim groups have called for greater punishments for apostates, those who leave the religion, and stronger enforcement of social laws like keeping unmarried couples chaste.

While Mr. Anwar clearly has a strong following, many Malaysians, especially those in the elite who have much to lose if the opposition takes power, question his sincerity and wonder whether a leader who has gone through so many permutations in his career can be trusted.

Mr. Anwar rose to prominence as an Islamic student radical before joining the governing party and eventually becoming deputy prime minister. But he is perhaps best known for his sudden downfall in 1998 shortly after challenging the prime minister at the time, Mahathir Mohamad, for power.

Mr. Anwar was detained under the internal security act, beaten, given a black eye by the chief of police (who lost his job over the episode) and sentenced to 15 years for sodomy and abuse of power in trying to cover up the sodomy allegations. In 2004, the country’s highest court struck down the sodomy verdict and released him, citing faulty procedures by the prosecution, but the judge, in a highly unusual statement, said he believed that the sodomy allegations were true anyway.

Like the charges in the first trial, the latest charges of sodomy, which were lodged by a 23-year-old campaign aide, are considered highly politicized. The deputy prime minister, Najib Razak, a chief rival of Mr. Anwar’s, initially denied that he had anything to do with the case but then admitted that he had met with Mr. Anwar’s accuser before the allegations were made public.

Salehuddin Hashim, a high school friend of Mr. Anwar’s who is now the secretary general of his party, admits to doubts about Mr. Anwar’s past, especially his years in the governing party. Even the party’s leaders admit that money politics and corruption are rampant within the party’s ranks.

“Anwar wasn’t a paragon of justice or virtue,” Mr. Salehuddin said. “He was part of the racket.”

But he said that six years in prison changed Mr. Anwar and made him more sensitive to injustices in Malaysia, a relatively prosperous country with one of the highest levels of income inequality in Asia.

“It’s a credit to Anwar that he managed to galvanize people into focusing what they are unhappy about,” Mr. Salehuddin said. “He personalized injustice.”

Peralihan Kuasa Tetap Akan Berlaku Kerana BN Telah Gagal

2008-09-11T20:26:00.000-07:00

Pakatan Rakyat: Peralihan Kuasa Tetap Akan Berlaku Kerana BN Telah Gagal

Kepimpinan Pakatan Rakyat yang bertemu hari ini yakin proses pembentukan kerajaan baru yang berlandasan Agenda Reformasi sedang berjalan secara lancar. Kami percaya kerajaan Barisan Nasional akan diganti dalam masa terdekat.

Pakatan Rakyat yakin mendapat bilangan ahli Parlimen yang mencukupi untuk mempunyai majoriti dalam Parlimen yang membolehkan penubuhan kerajaan baru. Bagaimanapun tarikh sebenar penubuhan kerajaan mungkin terpaksa dilewatkan dari 16 September sebagaimana rancangan awal akibat beberapa ahli Parlimen telah dipaksa ke Taiwan.

Umum mengetahui negara kini masih dicengkam permasalahan politik, ekonomi dan sosial yang getir. Akibat kehilangan keyakinan rakyat terhadap kepimpinan UMNO dan BN, timbul percubaan mengalih pandangan kepada isu perkauman sempit.

Masalah perkauman yang diapi-apikan berterusan sehingga kini menunjukkan formula BN yang dihantui kebejatan rasuah dan korupsi gagal mentadbir negara ini. Api perkauman yang cuba dibakar akan mengancam kestabilan negara dan kebajikan rakyat. Kepimpinan BN yang semakin lemah juga menyaksikan parti tersebut semakin berpecah dan semakin hilang arah.

Melihat kepada perkembangan semasa inilah ramai Ahli Parlimen BN telah hilang kepercayaan terhadap kepimpinan BN dan memutuskan untuk bersama dengan Pakatan Rakyat. Pakatan Rakyat menegaskan bahawa kami tidak pernah dan tidak perlu membeli atau menyogok Ahli Parlimen berkenaan untuk menyertai kami. Mereka didorong oleh kesedaran sendiri serta memberikan komitmen menyokong agenda perubahan.

Kami yakin terdapat segelintir elit pemerintah BN yang diketuai UMNO bercita-cita untuk mencipta huru hara agar dapat membantut perubahan, melumpuhkan demokrasi dan merampas hak-hak rakyat Malaysia yang dilindungi Perlembagaan Persekutuan. Kami khuatir seandainya masalah sengaja dibiar merebak dan berlarutan untuk memberikan alasan kepada pemerintah bertindak keras termasuk penangkapan beramai-ramai menggunakan Undang-undang Darurat untuk membendung kemaraan rakyat yang menuntut pembelaan.

Kami menyeru kepada rakyat Malaysia termasuk penyokong UMNO untuk bertenang dan tidak terperangkap dengan retorik perkauman. Marilah kita rakyat Malaysia bersama-sama berusaha keras untuk memperbaiki keadaan ekonomi kita yang semakin teruk dan menyambut perubahan yang akan memberi harapan baru kepada kita semua.

Kami percaya apa pun jua usaha BN hanyalah dapat melambatkan proses pertukaran kerajaan tetapi tidak dapat menggagalkannya kerana formula BN telah gagal.

Dato’ Salehuddin Hashim
Setiausaha Agung PKR

YB Loke Siew Fook
Pengarah Pendidikan Politik DAP

YB Dato’ Kamarudin Jaffar
Setiausaha Agung PAS

Kita Menang! We Won!

2008-08-26T15:02:00.000-07:00

— KENYATAAN MEDIA —-

PERMATANG PAUH, MALAYSIA, 26 OGOS 20008

Alhamdulillah, Allah memberikan kita kejayaan. Kemenangan ini merupakan saat penentu dan bakal menentukan hala tuju negara ini.

Saya berkongsi kegembiraan yang dirasai oleh semua rakyat Malaysia pada hari bersejarah ini. Ianya merupakan kemenangan buat rakyat.

Pada 8 Mac rakyat Malaysia memilih Harapan Baru. Hari ini di saat kita bakal menyambut hari kemerdekaan, rakyat menyahut seruan tersebut. Dengan ini kita merayakant hari kemerdekaan sepertimana pendiri-pendiri negara kita inginkan-sebuah negara dan rakyat yang bersatu.

Berhadapan dengan cabaran yang getir, kita memilih untuk menumpukan perhatian kepada isu yang berkaitan dengan negara ini. Seruan kita agar negara ini bersatu, mulai mengamalkan urus tadbir yang baik dan memperkasakan ekonomi telah menguburkan kempen yang berbaur perkauman, cita-cita individu yang sering mendapat habuan hasil dari penyalahgunaan kuasa dan eksploitasi politik yang berasaskan ketakutan serta penipuan.

Kami telah menjanjikan satu lembaran baru untuk Malaysia dan kami pasti akan melaksanakan janji kami. Kami akan melaksanakan Agenda Ekonomi Malaysia untuk memulihkan keadaan ekonomi kita, membasmi kemiskinan dan membantu sesiapa sahaja yang terpinggir tanpa berasaskan kaum. Kami akan memulihkan intergriti badan kehakiman, memerangi rasuah dan membina sebuah negara yang bersatu.

Dan kami akan menjadi sebuah kerajaan yang komited untuk merealisasikan aspirasi rakyat.

Dengan kejayaan 8 Mac dan juga kemenangan malam ini saya berani untuk menegaskan kita mampu bersama-sama menghadapi segala rintangan di masa hadapan.

Kami tidak akan menang tanpa dokongan kukuh dari rakan-rakan kami dalam Pakatan Rakyat dan juga sokongan ribuan rakyat Malaysia tidak kira samada Melayu, Cina, India, Iban, Kadazan, yang datang ke Permatang Pauh, bekerja keras, memerah keringat serta mengirim doa demi memastikan kemenangan ini. Saya sangat menghargai keberanian, tekad dan kesungguhan kamu semua; saya mengucapkan tahniah terhadap komitmen saudara semua terhadap prinsip bersama sebuah kemerdekaan, keadilan dan demokrasi.

Langkah kecil buat Permatang Pauh hari ini akan memastikan perubahan besar buat Malaysia.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

————————
PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PERMATANG PAUH, MALAYSIA, 26 AUGUST 2008

We won! And our victory is decisive and overwhelming.

I share in the joy felt by all Malaysians on this historic day. This is a victory for the people. And it’s great to be back!

On March 8th Malaysians voted for a New Dawn. Today, on the eve of our independence day, we have reasserted that call. We celebrate our nation’s independence in the spirit that our founding fathers intended - a nation of one and a people united.

In the face of the greatest adversity, our campaign focused on the issues that matter to Malaysians. Our calls for national unity, good governance and a vibrant democracy have silenced the voices of racist chanting, those who profit from the abuse of power and exploit the politics of fear and deceit.

We have promised a New Dawn for Malaysia and we will deliver on our promise. We will forge ahead on our Malaysian Economic Agenda to revive the economy, and to uplift the poor and the marginalized of all races. We will restore the integrity of the judiciary, fight corruption and build a truly unified nation.

We will be a government that is totally committed to realizing the people’s aspirations.

With the success of the eight of March and tonight’s resounding victory, I daresay we are indeed ready to face the challenges of the future, together.

We could not have won without the firm, unwavering support of our friends in the Pakatan Rakyat and the tens of thousands of Malaysians – Malays, Chinese, Indians, Ibans, Kadhazans - who have come to Permatang Pauh to work hard for this victory. I truly appreciate your courage, conviction and valour; and congratulate your commitment to our shared principles of freedom, justice and democracy.

This may be one small step for Permatang Pauh but one giant leap for the people of Malaysia.

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Permatang Pauh and beyond

2008-08-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Permatang Pauh and beyond

Barring massive electoral fraud, Anwar is one by-election and two weeks short of returning to Parliament. When he does, he’d be the Opposition Leader of a second coalition. After that people would want to know if he’d really form a new Federal government in mid-September as he has declared, promised, or threatened.

If we don’t live in them but only notice them while we travel the old trunk roads or veer off the highways, our small towns will seem to be neither-here-nor-there places. They have neither the preserved charm of rural settlements nor the catching vibrancy of large cities.

One small town might be a shrine to a bit of history, like Baling, say, which hosted the abortive ‘peace talks’ of 1955. Another might fortuitously be associated with an unexpectedly prominent personage, rather like Kepala Batas, the hometown of Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

We rarely think of the small towns as repositories of deeply cherished tradition or cradles of consequential change. Truth be told, we seldom expect our small towns to rise above nondescript places that are inhabited by hicks whose lives are so parochial they touch or inspire few outsiders.

Small town, big waves
Perhaps that’s why many people are startled each time a small-town electoral constituency teaches us political lessons that resonate beyond its geographical and social boundaries.

Three such constituencies, each coming alive at a crucial moment in our recent history, readily come to mind: Tambunan (Sabah), Lunas (Kedah) and Sungei Siput (Perak).

The Tambunan by-election of December 1984 gave Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan a spirited triumph that heralded Parti Bersatu Sabah’s toppling of Datuk Harris Salleh and his Parti Berjaya four months later. Tambunan’s many-sided impact on Sabah politics remains to this day.

The Lunas by-election of November 2000, which ended Barisan Nasional’s 40-year control of the constituency, marked the furthest point of Barisan Alternatif’s 1999 sally as a second coalition. The result broke BN’s customary two-thirds majority in Kedah, in hindsight a harbinger of Pakatan Rakyat’s takeover of the state government five months ago.

On 8 March 2008, Sungei Siput spurned Dato’ Seri Samy Vellu after having returned him in eight consecutive elections starting in 1974. Without detracting from Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s tenacious grassroots work, Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj’s victory after two failures revealed the reach of a Hindraf-inspired Makkhal Sakhti (People Power) and the scale of the rout of BN’s non-Malay-based parties.

Whatever their differences, each of those contests supplied a critical lesson. When a small-town constituency concentrates in itself political issues that grip the whole nation, an out-resourced, harassed and otherwise disadvantaged opposition could defeat the BN machine by surfing a wave of sheer voter rebelliousness.

By-election in Permatang Pauh
On 26 August, there will be just such an election in Permatang Pauh, Penang – with a critical difference (from Tambunan, Lunas and Sungei Siput): the voter rebelliousness won’t be directed at a BN incumbent, but will support an old incumbent against the national BN machine.

The immediate reason for the by-election is the resignation of Datin Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as Member of Parliament barely five months after she won her third term since 1999. The most keenly anticipated aspect of the by-election is Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s return to electoral contest after an involuntary absence of ten years.

The basic outcome itself may not be remarkable. Almost everyone expects Anwar to win, after which the spin masters can go to work on the winning margin. Already some UMNO leaders belittle the significance of the by-election – just another by-election, according to UMNO Vice-President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yasin.

But were that so, there would be no need for Deputy Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak to lead the BN/UMNO campaign, or for the hotels in Bukit Mertajam and nearby towns to be fully booked, or for born-again foes of Anwar, such as Dr Chandra Muzaffar and Ezam Mohd Nor, to train their sights on the Pakatan Rakyat leader.

Startling results
Permatang Pauh which has 58,459 voters presently has been an interesting electoral battle ground.

Here in 1982, upon joining UMNO, Anwar won against the Parti Islam incumbent, demonstrating the huge electoral support Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad received when he led BN for the first time. (Thereafter, Anwar retained his seat against the challenges of other PAS notables, Mohamad Sabu and Mahfuz Omar.)

Seventeen years later, joining the Malay revolt against Mahathir and UMNO, Permatang Pauh responded to Anwar’s humiliation by electing his wife, Wan Azizah, in her contest against an erstwhile Anwar lieutenant, Dato’ Dr Ibrahim Saad.

Only Permatang Pauh was narrowly left standing in 2004 when BN’s unprecedented sweep cost Parti Keadilan Rakyat four of its five parliamentary seats.

Last March, however, any UMNO hope of seizing Permatang Pauh and wiping out Keadilan was dashed when Wan Azizah won her largest ever majority (while 30 other Keadilan candidates were victorious elsewhere).

Significant shifts
What can we infer from Permatang Pauh’s electoral record and its several startling results?

For the past 26 years, the constituency has been loyal to Anwar and Azizah. Crucially, though, its electorate has taken turns over several decades to support PAS, UMNO and Keadilan. In the heat of previous battles, the deeper significance of this willingness to vote in and vote out might have been overlooked. But such an attitude among the voters is precisely what’s necessary to liberalize the political system.

The present state-level balance of power is unusually equitable. Within Permatang Pauh, the State Legislative Assembly seats of Penanti, Permatang Pasir and Seberang Jaya are respectively held by Keadilan, PAS and UMNO. In other words, no party has a monopoly over local support. This situation may not gladden the hearts of party partisans. But it needn’t dishearten those who seek to pluralize the political system.

Moreover, the tripartite division of seats at state level suggests that this 69-percent-Malay constituency is barren soil for narrow appeals to ‘Malay unity’, UMNO’s constant refrain since Reformasi was first declared by Anwar in Permatang Pauh in September 1998.

And if a constituency such as Permatang Pauh, with its 31 per cent non-Malay voters, is also poor soil for BN’s ethnic politics, as shown by the March 2008 election, then the gerrymandering that long favoured BN against the stand-alone race-based parties has been undermined.

In short, this small-town constituency has quietly anticipated the shifts in voter attitudes and voting behaviour that now make a two-coalition system feasible.

Rebelliousness
The tenor of the by-election will surely be set by a persisting voter rebelliousness made up of four parts.

First, the 8 March voter defiance of BN remains. Abdullah Badawi’s regime has offered nothing meaningful to assuage non-Malay anger at UMNO, or to reverse Malay disenchantment with Abdullah’s leadership. For their losses in March, BN’s non-Malay-based parties blamed UMNO while large segments of UMNO blamed Abdullah.

Hence, the low or sharply reduced popularity and approval ratings for Abdullah, Najib, and BN in the Merdeka Centre polls of July and according to other less methodical soundings of public opinion. The ratings are indications that the regime has not won back disgruntled voters.

Inflation
Second, there’s the post-election anger at worsening inflation, most starkly represented by the 41 per cent and 100 per cent increases in petroleum and diesel prices respectively in June. By now, public resentment of inflation is part of a deeper loss of confidence in the Abdullah regime’s ability to manage what many fear is impending economic decline.

Indeed, at the Bankers Club Luncheon and Forum of 15 July, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah dismissed Abdullah’s various ‘Corridors’ as ‘stillborn projects’. Tengku Razaleigh described current economic policy as being ‘haphazard, driven by whims and special interest projects rather than by a cohesive design geared to shape areas of distinct national competitive advantage’.

Many voters would remember that Pakatan Rakyat’s New Malaysian Agenda stresses an urgent need for reform precisely to restore national competitive advantage.

The return of the sodomised
Third, there’s the collective disgust at Sodomy II (see ‘Conquering and vulnerable’, Aliran Monthly, 28, 5, 2008). The charges, based on Saiful Bukhari Azlan’s police report of ‘consensual sodomy’ performed by Anwar on him, will be tested in a court of law in September.

But with only 11 per cent of the Merdeka Centre’s surveyed respondents believing Anwar to be culpable, the court of public opinion has resoundingly rejected Sodomy II.

An electorate, and especially the Malay electorate, that painfully remembers Anwar’s 1998 sodomy trial is bound to regard Sodomy II as a politically-directed character assassination to preempt Anwar’s return to Parliament.

Political degeneration
And fourth, there is impatience over Abdullah’s undelivered promises of institutional reform. Politics in the country appears to have been reduced to a charade of allegations and counter-allegations, police reports and counter-reports, and statutory declarations and counter-declarations. Where have these led?

These have not clarified controversies such as the Shaariibuu Altantuya murder, Sodomy II, or the alleged roles of the Inspector-General of Police and the Attorney-General in alleged evidence-fixing during Sodomy I.

These have not allayed suspicions over the disappearances of private investigator, P. Balasubramaniam (who had made two opposed statutory declarations in two days, first linking and then delinking Najib from the Altantuya murder trial) and Hospital Pusrawi’s Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid (whose medical report on Saiful had indicated no sign of sodomy).

Such are the symptoms, to paraphrase Tengku Razaleigh, of ‘a crippling loss of confidence in our key institutions’ when ‘personality dominated politics degenerates’, leading to ‘the destruction of reputations, intrigues, spy scandals, succession plans and whatnot as stratagems to resolve leadership contests’.

Crowd at a ceramah
Against this political background, within and beyond the constituency of Permatang Pauh, Anwar spoke at the Ceramah Perdana Menuju Ke Putrajaya, held in a field at Taman Pauh on Saturday, 9 August.

The large crowd, 15,000 according to one media estimate, was predominantly Malay. The majority sat in orderly fashion on the fenced field. The rest milled about the perimeter of the field.

There were many elderly men and women, mostly dressed in casual kampong attire. There were couples with young children, a few mothers with infants, and a small number of children who were peddling balloons and snacks. A lot of young men sat on or stood by their motorcycles. From the nearby flats, some residents leaned out of their windows.

Along one side of the field were the stalls that regularly add a pasar malam (night market) air to the Pakatan Rakyat rallies. The stalls sold food, drinks, and the Pakatan Rakyat parties’ paraphernalia – stickers, photos of Anwar and Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat, DVDs of political speeches and events, and even ‘aic’ (Anwar Ibrahim Club) t-shirts.

The crowd very much recalled the gathering outside Anwar’s house in Cherok To’kun ten years ago when Anwar issued the original Permatang Pauh Declaration to launch Reformasi to a resounding reception (see ‘Wit and Wisdom’, Aliran Monthly, 18, 9, October 1998).

The world watches us
Several speakers spoke before Anwar, namely Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, Mohd Fariz Musa, Khairil Anuar Ahmad Zainudin, Tan Seng Toh and S. Kesavan, all leaders of Keadilan’s Angkatan Muda; Nga Kor Ming from Democratic Action Party; and Salahuddin Ayub from PAS.

Their presence and speeches underscored three points. Keadilan, itself a ‘youthful’ party, would heavily mobilize young voters who have always been drawn to Anwar’s charisma. All Pakatan Rakyat was united in defence of Anwar against Sodomy II and would spare no effort to secure his victory. And not just Malaysia but the world would be watching Permatang Pauh on 26 August.

New days
Then spoke Anwar.

It was 11 pm, not the time of night for shouting oneself hoarse. It was August 2008, not the time in Anwar’s career for demonstrating the desperate defiance of September 1998 when his days of freedom were numbered.

True, his days of freedom could be numbered again if, he said, a ‘correct, correct, correct’ judge presided over the Sodomy II trial. But now was a time to rally and reassure, and Anwar always did that with unmatched eloquence.

His tone was measured, his approach relaxed and comradely. The crowd was not a sea of anonymous voters, curious onlookers and itinerant stallholders. He addressed them as friends and neighbours which many of them were. Now he raised the pressing economic problems they faced; now he jested about the attempts on his reputation, derisively mimicking some of his detractors. On two occasions, he playfully broke into a few lines of song.

Son, not traitor
After all, this was Permatang Pauh, and he its favourite son. He wasn’t ever a sodomite; not then, not now. To charge him so was a conspiracy then and now.

He was no traitor to the Malays. Since his University of Malaya days he’d struggled for their interests. He was no one’s tool. But as Pakatan Rakyat leader he would be the instrument for uplifting all Malaysians. Before a crowd that was 90 per cent Malay, he didn’t hesitate. No more ketuanan Melayu: that was the slogan of corruption and cronyism.

He quoted Ibn Khaldun as if the Muqadimmah was meat and drink to his audience. Surprisingly, he also drew on Arnold Toynbee and Edward Gibbons to make a point about the rise and fall of civilizations and empires.

Anwar’s point was one that Mahathir had repeatedly taught: we have been sliding and sliding and we must catch up. But whereas Mahathir agonized over the decline of the Malays, Anwar was indignant about the decline of Malaysia.

The old doctor’s prescription was knowledge, work, discipline, and the New Economic Policy. His former ‘anointed’ successor’s solution was terse: Change the government!

Return to Permatang Pauh
Thus Anwar emphasized that his agenda was not personal. Permatang Pauh’s mission, come 26 August, was more than returning him to Parliament. This small-town constituency had to make a national choice. ‘If you want a small petrol price reduction, vote BN,’ he said. ‘But if you want real improvement to your lives, vote for a Pakatan Rakyat government.’

Barring massive electoral fraud, a qualification that even some observers indifferent to his fate have found it necessary to make in cyberspace, Anwar is one by-election and two weeks short of returning to Parliament. When he does, he’d be the Opposition Leader of a second coalition.

After that people would want to know if he’d really form a new Federal government in mid-September as he has declared, promised, or threatened.

But about that, don’t ask me, I wish I knew. Don’t ask Anwar either; he might just quote Hamlet to you.

Ask the Permatang Pauh voters: they may have something to do with it.

Aliran

Permatang Pauh Election

2008-08-17T16:13:00.003-07:00

Saturday, August 16, 2008
Permatang Pauh Election

The convoy of cars and SUVs which accompanied Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim and his wife, Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Ismail left his residence at Cherok Tok Kun, not far from Bukit Mertajam at 8.00 am sharp for the nomination center at the Tuanku Bainun Teachers College in Seberang Jaya.

By the time we arrived at the place 30 minites later, it was jam packed since very early morning with some 120,000 people from all walks of life, who have come from various parts of Malaysia as far as Sabah and Sarawak, to witness the official start of the by-election for the Parliamentary constituency of Permatang Pauh.

More than 95 per cent of those who braved the intense heat of the sun were KeADILan/Pakatan Rakyat supporters. They were energised by the sounds and beat of drums and percussion instruments of Indian and Chinese community and inspired by the winds of change which Anwar represents.

The UMNO-Barisan supporters were overwhelmed by the strong presence of “Anwar’s people”, a clear sign that public support for the ruling government was at an all time low. They were jeered by the crowd. The Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was not spared as the crowd greeted him with shouts of “pembunuh”(murderer) and “Altantuya!, Altantuya!”. Shahrizat “Jihad” Abdul Jalil, Mukhriz Tun Mahathir and UMNO Treasurer Azim Zabidi, among other BN and UMNO leaders, too received uncomplimentary remarks from the crowd.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders Tok Guru Nik Aziz, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, MB Selangor Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, and Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng of Penang , however, were warmly greated by the crowd. Special cheers were given to hometown favorite, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as his car entered the compound of the Teachers’ College.

Bloggers like Raja Petra and his wife Marina Abdullah, Sam Haris Ibrahim, Benard Khoo and members of Kuala Lumpur based civil society groups were present. They mingled in the crowd. The bulky and formidable Bala, a keen supporter of Nurul Izzah Anwar, our dynamic Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, was seen among a group of Makal Sakti/Hindraf supporters. Overall, it was a spectacle unseen before in the history of Malaysian elections.

To the credit of all concerned, especially the Officers and men of our Royal Malaysian Police and Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and marshalls of PKR and Pakatan Raykat, the crowd was orderly and well disciplined.

There is no doubt in my mind that this by-elections would be for the Pakatan Rakyat to lose. But given the Pakatan election machinery, PKR grassroots organisation in Permatang Pauh, and election strategists led by Party Vice President Azmin Ali which went into full gear following Datuk Seri Wan Azizah’s resignation in late July to make way for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the outcome may be a foregone conclusion, that is, Dato Seri Anwar will be in Parliament on August 27.

That said, PKR party officials led by Vice President Azmin Ali and Penang Liaison Chief Dato Zahrain Mohammed Hashim, the Pakatan Rakyat election oganisation and their workers and volunteers were not taking anything for granted, given the clearly demonstrated capacity of UMNO-Barisan Nasional political machine and official agencies of the government to cheat and bribe voters and use dirty politics.

When the formalities were completed at noon, the returning officer announced that there would be a three-corned fight (see the Malaysiakini report). Ten minutes later, the rain came down.–Din Merican

Kel N05 - Kijang: Wan Ubaidah Omar

2008-08-17T16:13:00.002-07:00

http://dunkijang.blogspot.com/

Kel N02 - Kelaboran: Mohd Zaki Ibrahim

2008-08-17T16:13:00.001-07:00

http://dunkelaboran.blogspot.com/

Pasca Penamaan Calon: ‘Alhamdulillah Semuanya Lancar’

2008-08-16T03:22:00.000-07:00

Alhamdulillah semuanya berjalan lancar sepanjang proses penamaan calon pagi tadi.

Say terharu tatkala mengenang kembali saat dipilih mewakili rakyat Permatang Pauh hampir 26 tahun yang lalu. Kini selepas 4 tahun bebas daripada penjara, diri kerdil ini terasa umpama sireh pulang ke gagang.

Saya terharu tatkala mengenang kembali saat dipilih mewakili rakyat Permatang Pauh hampir 26 tahun yang lalu. Kini selepas 4 tahun bebas daripada penjara, diri kerdil ini terasa umpama sireh pulang ke gagang.

Jutaan terima kasih buat Tuan Guru Nik Abd Aziz, Sdr Lim Kit Siang, Sdr Mohd Sabu, Sdr Karpal Singh, Sdr Husam Musa, Sdr Lim Guan Eng, Dr. Lo’Lo, serta teman pimpinan Pakatan lainnya. Komitmen Dr. Syed Husin, Sdr Azmin, Sivarasa, William Leong, serta pimpinan KeADILan seluruh negara yang berkumpul di Permatang Pauh sangat menyuntik semangat. Demikian juga buat puluhan ribu penyokong dan pendukung Pakatan Rakyat yang hadir menyatakan sokongan pagi ini.

Jentera kempen sudah dipersiap dan perlu kekal mantap selepas ini. Masanya telah tiba untuk kita semua berjuang demi masa depan Malaysia yang lebih gagah perkasa.

Gelanggang telah dibuka. Ayuh, kita gerakkan rakyat demi nusa!

ANWAR IBRAHIM

Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah is the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Permatang Pauh

2008-08-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

(The Star) Datuk Arif Shah Omar Shah is the Barisan Nasional candidate for the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat by-election.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak made the announcement in Permatang Pauh Wednesday night.

Arif Shah is the assemblyman for Seberang Jaya, which is among the three state seats under the Permatang Pauh parliamentary constituency.

The other two are Permatang Pasir, which was won by PAS in the March 8 general election; while PKR clinched the Penanti seat.

The Permatang Pauh seat fell vacant on July 31, when Anwar's wife and PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail resigned to make way for her husband to contest.

Nomination for the by-election is Saturday while polling will be on Aug 26.

In the general election, Wan Azizah retained the seat by obtaining 30,338 votes against Datuk Pirdaus Ismail of Umno, who garnered 16,950 votes.

As at July 31, 58,459 voters, 490 of them postal, were registered as eligible to cast their ballots in the by-election.

Except for Seberang Jaya, which is a cosmopolitan centre, the rest of the constituency is made up of villages and farmland, mainly paddy fields.

P025 - Bachok: Nasharudin Mat Isa

2008-08-09T03:24:00.000-07:00

http://nasharudin.com/

Muzakarah: PAS tidak sekali-kali masuk BN - Nasharuddin Mat Isa

2008-08-08T18:42:00.001-07:00

Khamis, 2008 Julai 31
Muzakarah: PAS tidak sekali-kali masuk BN - Nasharuddin Mat Isa

Bermula interbiu Presiden PAS dan kemudian pendedahan Perdana Menteri tentang adanya pertemuan Umno-PAS dan diperakui oleh Dato’ Seri Abdul Hadi Awang. Ia telah menimbulkan kekeliruan dan pro-kontra bukan sahaja di kalangan ahli PAS tetapi para penyokong Pakatan Rakyat. Bagi menjelaskan keserabutan itu, Harakah sempat mengejar Timbalan Presiden PAS, Nasharuddin Mat Isa dicelah kesibukan Sidang Dewan Rakyat bagi mendapatkan penjelasan lanjut. Ikuti interbiu eksklusif saya, TARMIZI MOHD JAM dan wartawan Harakah, ROY RASUL serta pemberita pelatih, NUHA RAHIM bersama beliau di lobi Parlimen baru-baru ini.

Harakah: Perdana Menteri telah mendedahkan tentang adanya pertemuan Umno-PAS baru-baru ini dan ia telah diperakui oleh Presiden, Dato’ Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang. Macam mana kedudukan PAS dalam Pakatan Rakyat apabila isu muzakarah ini sudahpun diketahui umum.

Nasharuddin: Namanya pun muzakarah. Bukan untuk membuat sebarang keputusan. Tidak ada apa-apa keputusan dibuat dalam muzakarah ini. Mengapa pula timbul persoalan kedudukan PAS dalam Pakatan Rakyat?
Sebab sebagaimana disebut Presiden PAS, Dato' Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang, tak ada siapapun yang boleh menghalang hasrat PAS untuk berbincang dengan sesiapapun termasuk Umno. Soal kedudukan PAS dalam Pakatan tidak berbangkit. Kita masih mengekalkan peranan kita dalam Pakatan. Kita masih bergerak di atas Pakatan itu. Cuma, kita juga tidak dapat menafikan ada timbul sedikit isu-isu yang bagi saya, ramai orang tahu yang melibatkan pentadbiran di negeri-negeri khasnya negeri Selangor dan sebagainya yang sekarang ini dalam proses untuk diperbaiki.

Maksudnya tiada sebarang keputusan dicapai…

Kita bermuzakarah bukan untuk membuat keputusan. Sebarang keputusan mesti dirujuk semula kepada parti. Soalan saya, salahkah kita untuk berbincang dengan sesiapa saja? Kalau kita salah, maknanya duduk dalam Pakatan Rakyat pun tidak boleh. Itupun salah! Kerana duduk dalam Pakatan Rakyat melibatkan perbincangan, melibatkan muzakarah. Jadi persoalan saya ialah salahkah kita berbincang atau muzakarah? Jika salah kita berbincang, maknanya kita terus tutup dan tidak boleh bertemu dengan sesiapa. Isu yang timbul ialah ahli-ahli dan semua pihak patut faham iaitu muzakarah dengan Umno ini bukan untuk membuat keputusan. Ia hanya perbincangan.

Sekarang telah heboh diperkatakan tentang muzakarah Umno-PAS ini. Macam mana perkembangannya setakat ini…

Kita tidak menafikan memang ada pertemuan dengan Umno. Ia telah diperakui oleh Dato’ Seri Presiden dalam kenyataannya. Semua pertemuan dilaporkan ke dalam Mesyuarat Jawatankuasa PAS Pusat dan Majlis Syura. Apa yang lebih penting sekali adalah mandat telah diberikan dan keputusan dipersetujui sebulat suara di peringkat Majlis Syura Ulama supaya kita membuat dan melangsungkan perbincangan dengan sesiapa saja. Mandat telah diberikan kepada Presiden, Timbalan Presiden dan Setiausaha Agung untuk terlibat dalam muzakarah itu.

Nama Ustaz banyak dikaitkan dengan pertemuan ini…

Sebabnya saya banyak terlibat dan mandat diberikan kepada saya selaku Timbalan Presiden. Saya menjalankan amanah sebagai ahli yang diberi mandat oleh Majlis Syura. Saya tidak boleh buat sebarang keputusan. Keputusan kena balik semula kepada parti. Kalau keputusan Majlis Syura itu sudah dipertikaikan, ini menimbulkan banyak persoalan juga. Kenapa dipertikaikan keputusan Majlis Syura itu?

Tapi, Musyidul Am PAS, Dato' Tuan Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat dalam kenyataan terbarunya mahu usaha muzakarah dihentikan.

Saya berpegang kepada apa yang Dato’ Seri Presiden PAS sebut dalam intrebiunya di Harakah dan beberapa kenyataan media sebelum ini. Pertamanya, ini adalah keputusan Majlis Syura Ulama. Keduanya, kita bersedia untuk melanjutkan muzakarah dengan sesiapa saja termasuklah Umno.

Mungkin satu penjelasan patut diberikan berhubung kenyataan Presiden PAS sebelum meninggalkan Institut Jantung Negara (IJN), tentang mengadakan pertemuan dengan Umno bagi membincangkan isu-isu Melayu dan Islam…

Bagi saya ini bukan satu kenyataan yang baru daripada Presiden PAS atau dari parti kerana sebelum daripada ini pun telah ada perjumpaan-perjumpaan sedemikian dan saya merasakan Presiden menyebut kenyataan itu berdasarkan landskap politik Malaysia yang semakin aktif dan semakin banyak berlaku perubahan.Bagi saya, Presiden sudah pasti mengamati perkembangan suasana yang berlaku dalam negara kita dan beliau melihat bahawa isu ini perlu diketengahkan.
Atas sebab dasar PAS itu sendiri yang merupakan Islam dan menjadi dasar yang akan terus kita pertahankan. Apa saja usul ke arah memperkukuhkan dasar itu, bagi saya perlu dipertingkatkan. Termasuklah dengan mengadakan perbincangan dan pertemuan dengan sesiapa saja. Termasuk dengan Umno.

Tadi Ustaz sebut dapat mandat dari parti, bukan peribadi… Macam mana idea ini boleh timbul?

Dalam beberapa majlis saya menyebut bahawa sebenarnya Majlis Syura Ulama yang bersidang pada 23 April (2008) lepas telah membincangkan perkara ini. Hasil daripada kertas kerja yang dibentang oleh Al-Fadhil Dato' Dr Harun Din (Timbalan Mursyidul Am PAS) yang bertajuk Tahaluf Siasi: Pasca Pilihan Raya Umum ke 12. Pada mesyuarat tersebut telah dibincangkan beberapa perkara yang berkaitan tahaluf siasi dan masa depan politik serta peranan PAS yang menyangkut tentang masa depan Islam, umat Islam dan orang Melayu.
Dalam mesyuarat tersebut telah capai satu keputusan dan saya bacakan di sini keputusan itu berbunyi: “Majlis Syura Ulama yang bersidang pada 23 April 2008 mengambil ketetapan bersetuju sebulat suara merestui Presiden, Timbalan Presiden dan Setiausaha Agung parti, bagi mempertingkatkan usaha yang bersungguh-sungguh untuk menyatupadukan umat Islam dan rakyat Malysia berlandaskan Islam”.
Jadi mandat diberikan Majlis Syura Ulama, institusi tertinggi di dalam parti dan di dalam Mesyuarat Majlis Syura yang terakhir, bukan saja perkara ini dipertegaskan kembali tetapi juga dikembangkan untuk membuat apa yang kita sebut “explorasi” (penerokaan) kepada pekembangan ini dengan mempertegaskan lagi keputusan ini. Jadi, ini merupakan satu mandat yang diberikan Majlis Syura Ulama kepada individu-individu yang telah disebut tadi. Dan saya memang tidak menafikan berlaku pertemuan-pertemuan dan perbincangan-perbincangan yang bagi saya normal. Orang berbincang di lobi parlimen dan sebagainya serta tempat-tempat lain untuk mulakan bincang isu ini.

Kita lihat keputusan Majlis Syura ini agak kontroversi jadi bagaimana PAS melihat isu ini. Tidakkah ia boleh menggoncang parti. Sebab kita tengok penerimaan akar umbi…

Saya tidak nampak kontraversi tentang keputusan ini kerana pada peringkat ini apa yang diputuskan adalah mandat diberikan untuk membuat explorasi. Bukan mandat diberikan untuk membuat keputusan. Ini kerana struktur di dalam parti kita, muktamar merupakan kata putus kepada perkara-perkara dasar yang hendak dibuat. Majlis Syura memberikan semacam satu ‘lesen’ untuk kita membuat explorasi itu dan ia sekarang sedang berjalan.Kita lihat pula selepas saja Presiden PAS membuat kenyataan dalam Harakah baru-baru ini tentang suasana politik terkini, hubungan dengan PAS dengan Pakatan Rakyat dan lain-lain, maka dengan ini timbul reaksi yang cukup positif.
Saya lihat sendiri kenyataan bertulis yang keluar dari Dewan Muslimat, Dewan Ulama dan beberapa pemimpin pemuda malah mewakili Dewan Pemuda beberapa buah negeri. Maklumat dan apa yang saya dengar diperingkat bawah (akar umbi), mereka memberi respon yang cukup positif tapi sudah pastilah ia memerlukan sedikit masa lagi untuk dibuat penerangan sebab perkara ini baru. Saya juga menerima respon cukup baik dan banyak daripada orang yang bukan ahli PAS.
Daripada golongan korporat, daripada pegawai-pegawai kerajaan, daripada orang-orang Umno dan pemimpin-pemimpin Umno yang menyatakan seperti mana yang dilaporkan oleh sebuah suratkhabar berbahasa Inggeris baru-baru ini, PAS merupakan ‘king maker’ dalam konteks politik. Isu ini bukan hanya sekadar politik 'for sale'. Isu yang ada di hadapan kita adalah tentang suasana masa depan Islam, orang Islam dan secara keseluruhannya di Malaysia ini.

Sebelum inipun, Musryidul Am PAS, nampaknya mengenakan syarat untuk mengadakan muzakarah itu. Mesti dengan Umno bukan dengan Perdana Menteri semata-mata. Itu peribadi, katanya. Boleh Ustaz jelaskan sedikit.

Saya bersetuju dengan kenyataan Yang Amat Berhormat Tok Guru. Ini kerana kita lihat bagaimana Tok Guru mencadangkan supaya benda ini sepatutnya datang dari bottom-up daripada bawah ke atas. Tapi, sudah tentulah sebagai pemimpin, bagi saya, pemimpin yang mencetuskan pandangan ini. Kita lihat bila saja Presiden PAS mencetuskannya, kita menerima respon yang cukup baik daripada Yang Amat Berhormat Perdana Menteri. Kita lihat, sudah banyak pihak mula respon. Jadi sudah ada. Isunya sekarang sudah ada maklum balas yang menampakkan satu perkara yang cukup positif untuk kebaikan negara. Saya melihat isu ini adalah untuk kebaikan agama, kebaikan Islam dan kebaikan negara.

Dari segi semangatnya, apa yang PAS harapkan selepas pertemuan atau muzakarah ini…

Seperti mana yang saya sebut tadi, peringkat sekarang masih lagi peringkat explorasi. Kita lihat, kita risik, kita bincang. Belum ada lagi sesuatu yang bersifat, keputusan. Bagi saya, apa yang kita harapkan sudah tentu sesuatu yang baik untuk Islam. Jadi, bagi saya sesuatu yang baik untuk Islam itu harus dijadikan asas kepada pertemuan ini agar ia menguntungkan Islam, umat Islam dan perjuangan kita. Itu yang menjadi asas.
Maknanya, kalau sesuatu yang baik untuk Islam itu tidak kita ambil peluangnya maka kita mungkin melalaikan tanggungjawab kita. Perjuangan kita selama ini, sejak tahun 1951 ditubuhkan, kita perjuangan Islam dan menggunakan politik sebagai salah satu wadah kita. Sekarang ini dengan suasana dan keadaan yang ada, kalau ini merupakan sesuatu yang baik untuk Islam, bagi saya kenapa tidak?
Tapi dengan jelas isunya bukan masuk Umno, isunya bukan masuk Barisan Nasional dan kita adalah sebuah parti yang punya kewibawaan kita sendiri. Kita ada atlamat perjuangan kita sendiri. Islam tetap menjadi dasar kita, asas perjuangan kita dan sudah tentulah pintu yang ada di hadapan kita terbuka luas untuk kita melihat sesuatu yang baik untuk perjuangan dalam parti kita.

Tadi Ustaz sebut bukan masuk BN. Bukan masuk Umno. Tetapi yang selalu dibangkitkan soal ‘bimbang’. Cerita 'pembulian' BN ketika PAS dalam komponen itu dulu, cukup menakutkan. Itu dalam konteks kerjasama. Kali ini muzakarah. Boleh Ustaz komen tentang rasa ‘bimbang’ yang dicetuskan banyak pihak ini.

Kalau menafikan ataupun menidakkan ruang untuk bermuzakarah dan berbincang ini, bagi saya itu bercanggah dengan dasar Islam itu sendiri. Kalau kita lihat dalam Al-Quran dan sejarah perjuangan para anbiya' dan hatta Firaun yang toghut itu pun, diperintahkan Allah SWT, nabinya sendiri untuk pergi berbincang dengan Firaun dan Nabi tidak pernah dalam kontek Rasulullah SAW menutup pintu hiwar. Hiwar ini atau perbincangan dengan sesiapa saja, perbicangan dengan musuh, dengan masyarakat, dengan ahli dan sebagainya. Saya melihat pintu ini tidak boleh ditutup. Kita mestilah membuka ruang yang luas untuk berbincang. Cuma kita kena jelas pendirian kita, kita kena jelas pendirian kita.

Kenyataan Presiden PAS dalam wawancara Harakah baru-baru ini telah menimbulkan pro dan kontra. Bagaimana Ustaz melihat beberapa isu yang ditimbulkan itu?

Bagi saya ini adalah sesuatu yang positif. Pro dan kontra biasa. Kitasebuah harakah ummah, sebuah harakah yang didokong oleh massa yang berbagai-bagai. Ini tanda kematangan. Cuma satu konsep yang perlu saya peringatkan kepada ahli kita, juga ada dalam parti dididik dengan konsep as-samu'ah wa ta’ah, yakni ketaatan, apa yang disebut sebagai wala' dalam keputusan yang dibuat oleh pimpinan dan sudah tentulah konsep wala' ini benda yang telah menjadi sesuatu yang telah dididik kepada ahli-ahli PAS. Kita tidak membuat sesuatu itu mengikut kehendak peribadi.
Dan kita lihat Tok Guru (Tuan Guru Abd Hadi Awang) membuat kenyataan ini bukan untuk peribadi beliau. Ini adalah untuk maslahah ummah. Dan bila kita sebut konsep maslahah, maslahah ammah, maslahah umum, hendaklah didahulukan daripada maslahah... maslahah individu. Ini maslahah untuk ummah, maslahah untuk agama, maslahah untuk negara yang saya lihat dalam senario politik masa sekarang ini sudah semacam sedikit perlu kita membuat satu tindakan dan langkah yang bijak untuk memastikan kesinambungan Islam dan ummat Islam.

Respon kepimpinan lain dan juga akar umbi…

Telah saya sebutkan tadi, kita lihat banyak kenyataan yang telahkeluar dari dewan-dewan. Misalnya Dewan Muslimat, Dewan Ulama'. Bagi saya, bila telah ada arahan daripada Majlis Syura yang menjadi sebagai badan tertinggi parti, itu adalah sesuatu penting. Respon daripada pimpinan sudah tentulah pelbagai. Kita sentiasa mengadakan perbincangan-perbincangan. Ini sudah tentu akan menghasilkan berbagai pendekatan, berbagai pandangan. Bagi saya, itu adalah sesuatu yang normal, nanti parti akan memutuskan, insya Allah.

Pakatan Rakyat will secure fundamental liberties

2008-08-08T18:42:00.000-07:00

PRESS STATEMENT - Pakatan Rakyat will secure fundamental liberties

08 August 2008, Petaling Jaya

I promise that under a Pakatan Rakyat government Malaysians will never again be subjected to such gross abuse of executive power as we are again witnessing today. Arbitrary arrest and detention, frivolous investigation and malicious prosecutions shall be a thing of the past. Police officers and prosecutors who launch conspiracies to defame and humiliate the innocent will be severely punished. The use of police powers as well the office of the Attorney General to persecute political opponents will be criminalized so as to ensure a healthy and vibrant democracy where dissent is not only tolerated but nurtured.In this regard every Malaysian’s fundamental liberties will be treated as sacrosanct and safeguarded by a truly independent judiciary guided by principles of utmost integrity and an adherence to the spirit of the federal constitution.
The politically motivated trial launched against me will, Insha’Allah, be the last of its kind. No Malaysian will suffer from this cruel injustice ever again.

Yesterday’s events confirm my innocence from the charges that recently surfaced. The medical report and statutory declaration by Dr. Osman Abdul Hamid of the Pusrawi Hospital that surfaced on Thursday shatter lingering doubts as to whether the alleged act ever took place. Dr. Osman’s statement also confirms what we have already stated regarding deplorable actions by the police to fabricate evidence in a manner identical to the manipulation of my case in 1998. Anything short of a thorough investigation into the mishandling of this investigation would further tarnish the credibility of the police.

The doctor’s personal safety is a matter of deep concern to us. Material witnesses in high-profile cases in Malaysia have gone missing in the past such as the PI Balasubramanian. I applaud those brave individuals who have demonstrated their commitment to freedom and justice by coming forward with important evidence, and call upon the authorities to ensure their protection.

Yesterday in court we learned that the prosecution’s case has, in a manner similar to the botched trials of 1998, shape-shifted from a charge of assault to one of a consensual act. The conspiracy launched against me in the final week of June 2008 is falling apart. There is a hasty attempt by some to patch up glaring holes in the complainant’s testimony. This will certainly fail given the preponderance of evidence confirming my innocence.

The Prime Minister has actively involved himself in this matter in an attempt to derail the process of transformational change in Malaysia and stave off his own political demise. But in soiling his hands with this sordid matter he has deepened the crisis within his own administration. His most ardent supporters among the Malays have also expressed their disgust with the matter. Furthermore Prime Minister Badawi now faces investigation by the Anti Corruption Agency for his involvement in corruption and money politics.

The shadow of corruption and mismanagement of the economy darkens the legacy of his Premiership. Prime Minister Badawi has still offered no convincing explanation over the huge profits reaped by his family in the Oil For Food scandal at the expense of dying Iraqis.

I advise those around him to leave the sinking ship of his leadership while there is still a chance to do so.

Pakatan Rakyat’s reform agenda is firmly back on track and the New Dawn for Malaysia is well within reach. We will mount a unified campaign to win in Permatang Pauh with a solid majority encompassing that constituency’s diverse population. I look forward to entering Parliament on August 27th with the support of my friends in the coalition.

ANWAR IBRAHIM