Umno in turmoil?

A series of unbelievable events have turned the table on an otherwise steady BN, particularly Umno.  Starting with the Hindraf movement (outlawed in 2008 ) then followed by Bersih in late 2007, they were generally accepted as a precursor to a tide turning 12th General Election in 8 March 2008.  The BN conceded defeat in [...]

The Day After

As the dust settles, there’s a lot of soul searching and possibly blaming that is going on amongst the BN and Umno leadership.  At the same time, PAS and other Pakatan Rakyat parties are on a celebratory mood going into a summit.  Not forgetting the bloggers and other non-political personalities.
We shall be reading a lot [...]

Sarawak is Pivotal to BN and PR

Ever since Anwar won the Pematang Pauh by-elections, Pak Lah has kept Taib close to him.  Pak Lah knows Sarawak is the last bastion for the BN that cannot shake lest it sounds the death knoll for 50 over years of rule.
It was rumored that Pak Lah flew from Penang to JB to meet with [...]

Can’t Ignore Economic Challenges – Is there a Bipartisan hope?

Although the Rakyat in Malaysia has been feeling the strain from the inflationary pressures largely impacted by the global financial challenges as well as the unnecessary large fuel price hike in June, our cost of living has skyrocketed and our standard of living has plummeted.
We feel the pinch (correction: punch) of the economic contraction on [...]

Wake Up Call – Mathias Chang

In an excellent recent article by Mathias Chang entitled “Flip-Flopping Fairy Tales – Malaysia Will Not Have 3.9% Growth In 2009 – Accepting Reality Is Not Pessimism, Giving False Hopes Is Not Optimism” , he challenges the nation’s leadership’s position of ostrich economics.
Surely, his grave warnings may sound like doomsday prophecy and may be brushed [...]

Najib’s Rise Amidst Allegations Uncleared

Najib is now the only nomination for the Umno President post and come next March at the Umno AGM, Najib will be officially named the next Umno President to succeed Pak Lah.  It appears that the passage for Najib is safe, for now.
Can there be anything that can throw off his equilibrium, detract him from [...]

Obama and Pak Lah – What a difference

November 5 saw Barack Obama voted as the next President of USA.  His acceptance speech continues to demonstrate his charimastic and inspiring skills to stir the masses.  He has since separated himself from other leaders previous to this by his consistent message of change and appeals to most of America as shown by the votes [...]

Malaysia Most Risky in Weathering Financial Crisis

UPDATED: Anil Netto wrote an excellent article entitled “Malaysia’s Ostrich Economics” much along the same lines of this posting (read here).  It was originally posted at Asia Times Online.
The Straits Times (Singapore) reported today (read here):
On a scale of zero for the least risky to 10 for the most, Singapore scored 2.76, followed by Australia [...]

Economic Problems Felt, Umno Politics Takes Front Seat

Today’s NST front page:
KL Composite Index loses 3.6% to 859.11 … analysts say the markets haven’t seen the worst yet … the Malaysian market is not an exception.  The shares are oversold.  They no longer reflect their values.  We now have plenty of cheap, quality and undervalued stocks … but expect it to fall further [...]

Can Pak Lah Be PM and not Umno President?

Cheeky thought indeed.  A fellow blogger had posted a similar thought here.  After all, we had assumed that when Pak Lah announced he wasn’t defending his Umno Presidency.  We assumed the next Umno President will traditionally be the BN Chairman and then the PM of Malaysia.  And that person perhaps may be Najib himself.
What Pak [...]