The Final Leg Before The GE13 Finish Line

Malaysians expect the mother of all General Elections in the coming GE13. Both Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Rakyat (PR) are pulling everything out of their hats to build a strong perception amongst voters in a yet to be called General Election.

This is the longest unofficial campaign period ever in the history of Malaysia’s elections. Ever since PM Najib took over the reins from Pak Lah, he has hinted to seek a mandate but has never dared to call for one, even until now. We are staring at the end of April 2013 as the automatic end of Parliament if Najib does not call for its dissolution earlier. For now, Negri Sembilan has gone into caretaking mode with the rest of the state parliaments following suit over the next month or two.

So, what can we expect now?

1. Najib’s Strong Closing and Finishing

Being the incumbent although without the so-called mandate, Najib will always be poised to pose a very formidable close to his reign as the current PM. His so-called “State of the Union” address last was designed to spew all kinds of numbers and stats to generate a positive impression of his government’s work-in-progress in all areas of social, economic and financial development. Of course, much of the realities are yet to be felt by the man-on-the-street regardless of how much he elevates the country’s progress. In fact, people feel that they are well behind financially and economically.

So, how is it that our PM says everything is beautiful and the people says huh?

How Should We Now Vote, Malaysia?

MALAYSIANS DESERVE THE GOVERNMENT THEY VOTE FOR!

The Umno General Assembly is now over. The well coordinated and choreographed presidential meeting of Umno has done the job. Its members are feeling confused to what they swore, some feeling humored and most couldn’t figure out what they are supposed to swear on as the words came out of Umno President Najib’s mouth.

The final verdict seems to contend that Umno was trying to create a perception that it has changed, it is now more united under Najib, it can stand strong to fight in what is probably the mother of all General Election in Malaysia, it has stamped out dissent, it can show that Umno remains the backbone of BN and also the defender of the Malays, and the focus is on the enemy Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar.

Yes, that is what the media will want you to believe. It is what Umno wants you to believe and they did a rather good job at that. All the toned down rhetorics and crocodile tears shed along the way shows that Malaysian show business is not dead at all. And Umno is a natural at this gauging from the conduct over the past few days of the Umno General Assembly.

So kudos to Najib and the Umno leadership for the perception generated. Umno is ready for a bruising battle for sure.

But such attracts controversial comments from opponents like Lim KS, Anwar and Hadi Awang. Fear mongering, they say. No vision and substance to lead the country. No focus on what matters for the rakyat. Etcetera etcetera…

We watched the PAS Congress in November demonstrate that it is now stronger than ever and ready to tackle hard issues and people centric issues. PAS is focusing on a strong leadership display and invoked a controversial prayer on the failing of Umno in the coming GE13. That obviously drew disdain from Umno who retorted in the recent General Assembly.

But such is politics in Malaysia. Umno with its own recipe of rhetorics on race, religion and royalty against the opposition on economics, people well-being, eradicating corruption, better governance, lowering the economic burden, etc now resonate across the country.

Absurdities in Malaysia – Signs of GE13 round the corner

There are many absurd things happening in Malaysia that baffles the man on the street. Why are things that matter not being worked on? Like inflation, corruption, jobs, etc? Here is a round up of absurdities this week.

1. Lie Detector Test

MIC Welfare and Social Bureau deputy chairman R Ramanan was reported to have called for Penang MB Lim GE, his wife and a woman alleged by MCA that he had an affair with to take the lie detector test (read here).

What will politicans dream of nowadays? First, they make wild allegations in Parliament. Then it is presumed to be true by the MSM. The lie detector test is novel and perhaps all BN politicians should take it. Are we living in a “you are guilty until you prove your innocence“? And MCA Gan dare not repeat that allegation outside of Parliament. So who is the scardy cat now? Abusing the Parliamentary freedom of speech with unfounded allegations only for political mileage. Gutter politics is a sign of politicians impoverished of focusing on things that matter. At least

Vell Paari, who is also the party’s public relations and communications chief of MIC, had the decency to disapprove of Ramanan’s crap but stopped short of censuring him.

2. Polls Expenses from 40m to 700m

This must be the age of Malaysian Government printing money where our PM Najib is going around behaving like Santa Claus giving away RM100 there, RM500 here. Then the quarterly request for budget increase for 2012 over what was tabled last year, 30B here and there.

So the Election Commission must have caught the vision from Najib that they too can do the same. They have requested RM700m to conduct the next General Election, the most expensive in history. Obviously, poor Malaysians are not aware that the EC is trying to get into the Malaysian Guinness Book of Records for spending the most in Malaysian history. Malaysia Boleh! (read here).

Who stands to benefit from this out-of-the-world increase in expenses? EC should declare to all Malaysians because they are paying for this.

3. Crime Awareness on the Rise

Opposition Does NOT Have To Announce Shadow Cabinet

There are calls by many quarters for the Opposition to announce a shadow cabinet. These are foolish demands by vested interest parties who knows nothing of political parties setting up a cabinet.

I don’t believe the Opposition needs to do that for the federal cabinet or for BN to announce one for Selangor.

It is definitely too premature to announce a cabinet because we don’t know how the GE13 results will turn out. How many seats will each party win? Will the intended leadership personalities win their seats?

Why put the cart before the horse? Even in the US Presidential elections, the only known role is the so-called shadow Vice President, the presidential candidate’s running mate.

President Obama only appointed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State after he won the presidential election as with his “cabinet”.

So why is everybody clamoring for Pakatan Rakyat to announce a shadow cabinet? Maybe there are other parties that need to join forces to form the government. We shouldn’t think that there are only BN or PR only in the next GE13. We shouldn’t assume PR will win or BN will lose.

Hudud – For Muslims Only! Unless…

The curent uproar on the hudud issue must not distract the politics in Malaysia.

MCA wants to pull out of BN if Umno wants to implement hudud.

DAP wants to pull out of Pakatan Rakyat if PAS insist on implementing hudud as the Islamic state is not part of their present agenda.

The Christian community has come out saying that as long as it affects only the Muslim community with a guarantee that non-muslims constitutional rights are protected that hudud law implementation is not really a problem.

Seen another way, if the Muslim community wants to implement hudud as part of their religious practice that it is their constitutional right. Just make sure others are not affected in any which way, even unforeseen situations.

MCA Questions DAP but Never Umno

MCA has started a barrage of questions to undermine the Pakatan-led state of Penang, particularly directed at CM Lim Guan Eng from the DAP.

GEORGE TOWN, Aug 1 — MCA continued today to fire anti-Chinese accusations at DAP, this time asking if the Penang government’s decision to award only 0.2 per cent of state projects to Chinese contractors meant they viewed the community as “incompetent”.

“I want to ask (Chief Minister) Lim Guan Eng why, despite the many Chinese in Penang, only a mere 0.2 per cent of the total number of projects were awarded to non-Bumiputera contractors?

“Does the chief minister mean to say that Penang Chinese ‘tak boleh’? How can the Penang Chinese swallow this — that they are incompetent?” Penang Wanita MCA chairman Tan Cheng Liang charged in a strongly-worded statement today.

(Read here)

It is good for the MCA to play a good opposition party role to foster check and balance in Penang. But this has nothing of that sort. MCA only wants to make noise but perhaps that’s the only thing they can do today.

Have we ever heard the MCA voice such things in the BN Government they are a part of? Have they ever question PM Najib on the award of projects only to one community?

No, they dare not lest they be kicked out of the BN.

Whenever any of the BN component parties shout out their disgruntled dissent on the Pakatan-led states, it will do them well to first ask the same from the Umno-dominant BN administration.

Good check and balance is necessary to ensure proper governance but if the present Federal Government is not practicing then the country is in disaster mode already.

Let the MCA do their part to ensure good governance in the Federal Government, to question all questionable actions, to bring the country back on our feet.

Can the MCA do that? Or are they already a basket case?

Another Soi Lek Rant

MCA President Chua Soi Lek has a knack to say the darnest thing. Today, it was reported that he accused the DAP of fostering a 2-race political system instead of a 2-party political system.

Read the report here.

His trend of thought appears totally skewed and off tangent. Nobody saw that coming and is totally illogical.

Why is it that he must see things from a race viewpoint? He seems to feel that as an extrapolation of the recent Sarawak election results that the Chinese community is voting DAP and abandoned MCA but strangely MCA never stood for election at that time. How can this conclusion be made?

Why does he make such sweeping statements that ignore all non-Chinese voters who voted DAP and Pakatan Rakyat for that matter?

Did he not realise that Chinese also voted BN too or now that they are considered non-Chinese all of a sudden?

Soi Lek’s Strawman
Soi Lek loves to create the impression he is tackling a major issue where it is totally non-existent. It exists only in his skewed mind.

General sweeping statements are intended to cause friction and does not help in nation building.

If he thinks stirring this angle helps Malaysians vote MCA, then he must have his head in the sand. Look at all the Malaysians of all ethnic communities who voted MCA and BN. Why must it be Chinese vs Malay? This is very mischievious indeed.

His strawman that he is beating serves no benefit to the country and talking out loud of a myth doesn’t make it true.

His statements in this case belittles all Malaysian voters. There are no constituencies with only Chinese voters voting DAP. It just simply doesn’t exist but perhaps it can create a sensational topic for this MCA President.

Focus on Country Building Ideas to Swing Votes
Instead, Soi Lek should put his thinking cap on to tell Malaysians why they should vote MCA and BN.

It should be for the reasons they are more superior in ideas and execution to bring about dramatic growth and prosper all Malaysians.

It should be for the reasons that uphold justice and eradicate poverty and corruption.

Unfortunately, MCA has fallen prey to staging strawman arguments that drives voters away instead.

Bankrupt of Ideas?
MCA had lots of brilliant people or was that in the past such that they resort to racial slants?

Soi Lek should get himself a bunch of economic advisors who can prop him up as a country growth champion instead of saying such wild rantings and ravings.

MCA should look at how to help all Malaysians prosper instead of blaming one section of Malaysians for their failings.

He is much ado about nothing really!

Put an End to Racial Politics

When will the political leaders of Malaysia ever learn that all Malaysians must be taken care of at the same time regardless who is voted to represent them.

The ethnicity doesn’t matter at all. It must be true Malaysian leaders representing all Malaysians and no bias to any one group.

At the present state of our country, all political assessments are still along ethnic lines. After 53 years, this narrow view is deeper than ever before prompting PM Najib to come up with the 1Malaysia slogan for unity.

That chameleon slogan uttered even as a greeting like “Selamat 1Malaysia” has given rise to the most obscure meanings and now it means anything to anyone who makes any sense out of it. Meaningless at best.

No point arguing what it means because even PM Najib doesn’t even know himself it seems with conflicting words coming out from him as he plays to the gallery.

In anticipation to GE13, Umno will realise that if MCA is rejected, BN will not be able to regain the 2/3 majority. However, PAS has also pointed out that with an 8% swing in Malay votes to Pakatan Rakyat, BN will lose the election.

Strange that all analysis remains along ethnic lines but that’s not how Malaysian thinks anymore.

In most if not all constituencies, it is impossible for a mere single ethnic group to determine the win of a seat. You need Malaysians from all ethnic background to win seats.

Yes, there are still racial bigots who will vote along racial lines. They can’t understand the bigger country picture.

Then there are those who are party bigots. They will vote their party no matter what. However, we see a change in GE12 where party members abandoning their own parties to vote the opposition or spoiling their votes in protest, the latter being the foolish.

Ignore the rantings that ethnicity in the Government will be best to represent various groups.

In modern Malaysia in the 21st century, all leaders voted to power MUST represent the interests of all parties without fear or favor. It is the capability of the leader and the political group leadership that matters as they seek to serve all Malaysians especially those in need.

Let’s choose wisely for our political representation in the country’s government. It is not the ethnic background. It is the capability to represent us all regardless of ethnic background.

Listen to the voices of those who present themselves for our votes and hear clearly what they say. See through their charade and cut to the chase. What have they done and what more can they do to make our lives better. Not tell us how to vote.

Let Malaysians NOT be divided but united to face the world. We need each other to make this happen.

Vote MCA for Chinese Representation in the Government – Irrelevant

The recent rantings by Chua Soi Lek and PM Najib miss the mark altogether.

It is a fact that the Chinese support for MCA is now at a dismal state. But it didn’t have to do with Chinese votes.

It is also a fact that it is not only the Chinese that voted for MCA. There are Malays, Indians and other communities who also voted.

Generalizing and singling out the Chinese is absolutely wrong and is factually incorrect and also dismisses all others in the process.

When the call is for 1Malaysia, why does it matter on the call that Chinese representation in the Government will be affected if MCA loses Chinese votes?

In GE12, Chinese voted for MCA, MIC, Umno, etc. Not every seat is MCA. They also voted for opposition parties. They did not vote with the mind of having more Chinese representation in the Government.

Just as in the recent Sarawak election that not only Chinese voted DAP but also the Malays, Dayaks and Ibans.

Nothing Racial Please
On the contrary, they as well as many Malaysians from all communities voted for who they felt can lead the country for a better future. It didn’t matter what ethnic background was the candidate from. It was the bigger picture that mattered.

In fact, GE12 is a true reflection of 1Malaysia where voters voted for who they felt can best represent their future. There were no racial lines drawn except where politicians forced it.

So why did Soi Lek and Najib mislead Malaysians with such political blackmail as some has called it?

Political Fear
The general fear of losing support makes politicians act strangely. They fear their political powers subsiding and hence, such irrational reactions and rhetorics.

MCA is now down in the dumps and need to drum up general support as it gasps for political air for survival. They can see how Gerakan operates today. MCA can be just that or worse.

Did the MCA not realise their own members do not support them? Soi Lek must deal with them first and then to address the shortcomings of MCA in relation to Malaysians at large because all communities voted for or against them.

Think General Election, Think About All Malaysians
Malaysians do not really think racial lines when it comes to elections. Certainly, there are those diehard bigots who are partisan but most Malaysians vote for those who can make their lives better.

Of course, some may say this is naïve and many Malaysians do vote whoever gives them money.

We can’t change that overnight but hopefully that change can come soon enough.

The point we must make is for politicians to uphold 1Malaysia and speak about Malaysians at large, not by race but by NEEDS. Malaysians have needs that politicians must address. It affects all communities.

When it floods, we must help all affected by it.

When there is injustice, we must stand up against it no matter who it is.

When there is poverty, we must help them all regardless what race they are and who they voted for.

This is in essence a true 1 Malaysia. It is about giving help and hope to ALL Malaysians, not a particular group.

If all the politicians clamor is for particular groups, then let only those groups pay income tax and all others be exempted. That is fair.

Obviously, there’s fair and there’s fair depending on who executes the fairness. That is politics. But Malaysians are simple people who wants a better future for us and our children.

Focus on what matters to Malaysians, not the political parties. Then the voters will know what to do when their time comes.

Najib, Soi Lek Message has no meaning to Malaysians

Najib has declared that if the Chinese won’t support MCA that they will lose their representation in the Government.

Chua Soi Lek today came out to defend Najib and said that is the reality, not a threat, that should MCA fare worse in the next General Election that they will stay out of the government.

These statements and comments about them have made headlines and waves throughout the main stream media as well as on the net.

What difference will it make to Malaysians?

Rhetorical

The latest rantings appear to be rhetorical given that MCA had the worst election results in recent years winning 15 out of 40 parliamentary seats in GE12.

Yet they continued to remain in the cabinet with 4 ministerial positions.

Gerakan, who was almost cleaned out, had Koh Tsu Koon becoming a minister via a senatorship backdoor even after declaring not to accept it if offered. Now that is history.

The statements made appear mostly rhetorical and many construe them as threats to the Chinese community. However, the reality is that most people who read such political rhetorics have pooh-poohed or ignored them as mad rantings.

Can the government of the day ignore the needs of any community? The answer is a clear NO! So what are these statements intended for?

Waning Support

The analysis that MCA and Gerakan have lost the support of the Chinese community and that they have backed DAP instead appears to have sparked the maddening ravings.

This is a skewed view of BN and in attempting to sow seeds of discord and confusion in the political arena, BN has aimed at the Chinese community especially because of the recent DAP success in the Sarawak election.

The reality is that many Malaysians are losing patience on BN and have lost the respect for MCA and Gerakan. It is not just the Chinese community.

In every constituency are always mixed with multi communities. The seats that DAP won had Chinese, Iban, Dayak, Melanau, etc. and they voted against BN.

There are also Chinese, Iban, Dayak, Melanau, etc. who voted for BN. These statements by Najib and Soi Lek will be taken that these voters who voted for BN are irrelevant. Only the Chinese is the primary cause of the loss of BN seats. That is an absolutely narrow and extreme view to cast a blame and find a political scapegoat.

Instead of improving the weaknesses that voters perceive the BN had and to make amends to win their support, such rantings only confirm the feelings of voters to continue to vote against BN.

Soi Lek is sure to lose more support for the MCA with empty lip service.

Mature Malaysians

Malaysian voters are generally more mature and know how to weigh the words of politicians. The general feeling is not about how great the opposition leaders are but how bad they feel against the BN.

The opposition has successfully rode this tide of disenchantment against the BN and GE12 along with the recent Sarawak election has seen the attitude towards the opposition growing very positive.

It has been clearly seen that the issues the opposition raised are all things that affect all Malaysians. The weak economy, rise of inflation and petrol prices, stagnant wages, etc are real problems we all face and they attempt to show how they can resolve them if voted to power.

On the other hand, BN kept on with personal attacks on Anwar, “sex video” revelation and the writing off the opposition claims on how they can improve the lives of Malaysians by saying it will bankrupt the country actually puts off all Malaysians.

Najib can’t put up any decent initiatives to prove he can do the job of improving our lives. Publicity of the Government Transformation Programs have drawn more doubts than positive support. Malaysia losing FDI to countries like Indonesia and Philippines cannot be excused and Najib has remained erriely silent on this matter.

Malaysians Suffer

In reality, all Malaysians, not just the Chinese community, are suffering. The prolonged agony started in the late 90’s at the time of a global crisis and when Anwar was incarcerated. Malaysia never bounced back.

After the Mahathir era, the Badawi era saw no movement. Now the Najib era has seen only hot air publicity to talk up economic growth.

Malaysians are at their wits end now and no amount of positive spin by Najib and gang or such diversions on the Chinese community can change it.

Unless and until the general lives of Malaysians improve in a real way (not perceived), the sentiments against the BN will continue to grow and it has no communal lines.

Mere Distractions

Politics make strange bedfellows. MCA in BN means MCA supports all Umno stands for and Umno supports all MCA stands for, at least in appearance for as long as the tolerance of each other remains bearable.

Political diversions such as these racial statements will continue as long as they think the diversion works.

Malaysians will ignore them and sentiments against BN will grow until they show they care for all Malaysians by fixing things that affect our lives. GE13 is not that thing but if it takes GE13 to make a statement, Malaysians may just rise to the occasion.

Make the Change Now

BN, please do something to improve our lives. Political rhetorics and blame on any community means nothing to us! So far, it’s been nato – no action, talk only!

What difference will support of MCA mean to the Chinese community and all Malaysians who vote for them? What difference has MCA ministerial positions mean for them? So far, if voting MCA means more of the same, there’s really no upside to voting MCA.

Tell all Malaysians something different, something more definite, things that will improve our cost and standard of living now! Before many more Malaysians run away.

That’s what all Malaysians care about. Not useless politicking like picking on particular communities for BN failings. You had 53 years already. You should know what and how to do it.

Don’t wait until it’s too late!