Jed Yoong

Ishak has been my family driver since I was…erm…well, since I could remember. He is in his mid-60s.

On a car ride this afternoon

ON THE ELECTIONS

Me: (broken Malay) Wah, kalah besar kali ini. (Wah, lost big this time.)

Ishak: (quite energetically) Besar. Tapi sama-lah. You tengok nanti, nanti semua sama. Pembangkang ke, BN ke, dah duduk situ, sama saja. (Big. But it’ll be the same. You just wait and see, it’ll be the same. Whether Opposition or BN, once you sit at the seat (of power), you’ll be the same.)

Me: Tak sama-lah (Won’t be the same).

Ishak: Sekarang pembangkang pegang, tak boleh. Nanti you tengok. (Now the Opposition holds (the government), can’t. You wait and see.)

Me: Sekarang tak ada apa-apa hal. OK-mah. (Nothing is happening now. OK-mah.)

Ishak: Semua sama, dia pun akan sign tu tanah bagi kawan, keluarga. (All the same, he will sign the land to friends, family.)

Me: Tengok dulu-lah. (Wait and see first-lah.)

——————

ON KELANTAN

Me: Ishak ada pergi Kelantan, ar? (Ishak, do you go to Kelantan?)

Ishak: Ada juga. (Yes.)

Me: Tapi sana ok pun. (But it’s ok there too.)

Ishak: Mereka tak de apa-apa. Cuma kita takut saja. (They (PAS) are harmless. It’s just that we are afraid.)

Me: Ya-lar, saya jalan-jalan sana pun tak de apa-apa. Selamat. (Ya-lar. When I walked around there also nothing happened. Safe.)

Ishak: Ya, memang tak de apa-apa. Ini perasaan takut saja. Perasaan kita saja. Sana tak de apa-apa. Pun ok. (Yes, it’s nothing. Just the feeling of fear. It’s our feelings. It’s ok.)

FOOTNOTE: Hmmm, all these years, I’ve had the wrong idea of PAS and Kelantan. And WHAT ELSE BECAUSE OF MSM?

Anwar (left) with Lim Guan Eng, Penang chief minister and DAP secretary-general, when they were still FULLY in the opposition. /JYPix

Malaysian blogosphere’s greatest anti-Anwarista, KTemoc, is huffing and puffing that his most hated one, Anwar Ibrahim, may become prime minister after all. This is no doubt giving poor Uncle Kaytee sleepless nights as he twists and turns the knife into our former deputy prime minister.

Alas to no avail. Those who disbelieved the political powers of Anwar Ibrahim, including me, are still coming to terms that the puny political party born in the aftermath of the UMNO political “bloodshed” in 1998, PKR, is now the parliamentary opposition leader with 31 Members of Parliaments (MPs).

Anwar has successfully engineered the Barisan Rakyat’s (BR) electoral victory. Make no mistake, is it possible that Hindraf, Bersih and Lingamgate came one after another and so close to the recent general election? Hindraf shook the Indian votes, once a safe vote bank for the Barisan Nasional (BN) while Bersih and Lingamgate brought to the public consciousness our far from free and fair elections and the rot in our judiciary respectively. All three also challenged prime minister Abdullah Badawi’s leadership as they suggested that he wasn’t quite holding the country and the warring factions in Barisan Nasional (BN) together.

The crux of disapproval of BN leaders crossing over is whether the ideals of BR will be sacrificed. Founded upon a “New Hope” for the country, the post-election horse trading reminds many of BN’s previous enticements to Opposition politicians who jumped ship. Some detractors also feel that such methods are dishonest as the candidates contested on a BN ticket. Others worry that BR will be contaminated by the tainted BN MPs.

For the first time in history, another coalition is just 30 parliamentary seats to taking over the federal government. After much thought, I’ve concluded that it’s more beneficial to the country to seize the moment and ride the momentum.

Is it ethical for East Malaysian MPs to cross over? I believe it depends on whether you feel the two states have been fairly represented over the years. They are among the richest in resources yet the poorest in the country. What has former and longest serving premier Mahathir Mohamed done in his 22 years to develop the states? From a glance, I see nothing much in my last visit to Sarawak two years ago. Under BN, the only party that benefited was UMNO and its cronies. Why does Sarawak have to pay so much in royalties to the federal administration? For the army? What else?

As a voter, I am realistic. I want a government that will bring changes. One is replacing the much abused New Economic Policy with a fairer poverty eradication programme. Another is restoring our democratic institutions like our judiciary and the media. Both have been promised by BR.

The status quo is likely to be preserved under BN. Hence, we can afford to take a chance with BR.

Politicians are politicians, they are not gods and are only human. The fact is many ex-BN types are already in PKR and more may cross over.

Although I would prefer the perfect transition of power in which the ideals of democratic election are upheld, we may have to compromise and keep the bigger picture in mind.

So far, Anwar and co have made the right noises and moves. Let’s see where we will be in four years.

Tengku Razaleigh, or fondly known as Ku Li by Malaysians, still yearns to taste the power of being prime minister. Born in 1937, the former finance minister is now 71. But he has declared that he is still keen to fight for bangsa, agama dan negara (race, religion and country).

In one word, Ku Li is kolot-lah. Did you read his letter to prime minister Abdullah Badawi? He bemoaned that Penang has fallen to the “Chinese-based DAP”, Perak to “DAP despite that the mentri besar is from PAS” and Selangor which will be “dominated by non-Malay DAP and non-Malays from PKR despite that the mentri besar is a Malay”.

WOW! It doesn’t get any more racist than this I hope. OH NO! TANAH MELAYU telah jatuh dalam tangan kaum pendatang (Tanah Melayu has fallen into the hands of the immigrants)!

I’m surprised he didn’t add the favourite, “The Malays will always have political power.”

But in his two-page letter calling for an emergency meeting to discuss the party’s devastating performance, he warned that “Umno will not be able to represent the voice of Malays again”.

Well, in this case, I would prefer Abdullah as at least he said in the UMNO General Assembly in 2006 that UMNO was “for all”, suggesting that as the biggest party in Barisan Nasional, it had a duty to look after the interests of other “races”. This has yet to translate into policy except for the scrapping of bumiputera privileges in the Iskandar Development Region in Johor and opening up small loans to non-bumiputera small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

REFRESHER ON TENGKU RAZALEIGH and the RM2.5BIL BUMIPUTRA MALAYSIA FINANCE SCANDAL

Not directly related to him but one of Ku Li’s cronies, Lorrain Osman, who was a former BMF chairman. Notoriously known as the Carrian scandal in the early 1980s, the case involved murders, extraditions and glamorous personalities from London to Hong Kong. In the end, the alleged mastermind George Tan of the Carrian group was not convicted. Meanwhile, Lorrain is living in the very posh St. John’s Wood in London and was investigated in 2001 for some shady deals involving the Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern.

SO TAINTED-LAH. Can we have some FRESH FACES please? At least Anwar is not associated with financial controversies like Ku Li, Mahathir and Daim are.

Rumours are flying and intensifying that some kataks are going to jump. According to Anwar Ibrahim, they won’t be bought.

Questions.

1. If these politicians believed in BR, why didn’t they leap before the election?

2. What about those people who voted BN? The coalition still holds a majority and more importantly commands the popular vote of the Malays. Some people still vote for dacing blindly, regardless of the candidate.

3. What does BR stand for? To me, an ordinary rakyat, BR represents change — a “new hope” as PKR says. But this hope is slowly changing to the same-old-thing. Firstly, PKR is partly filled with ex-UMNO types. Secondly, more UMNO types will leapfrog aboard.

4. Isn’t Anwar the same Anwar of UMNO? Isn’t post-election wheelin’ and dealin’ something that Anwar is probably familiar with as it is well-known that non-BN elected representatives are invited to join the coalition if the need arises. It’s so bad that Pairin, according to Kalimullah Hassan, locked-up his state legislators and took away their mobile phones in a state election in the 90s till he was sworn in as Chief Minister of Sabah. This is to prevent the froggies from hopping over.

But it looks like Anwar has been endorsed by Lim Kit Siang, who is not DAP secretary-general anymore, and Hadi Awang, PAS president. I wonder what hardcore DAP and PAS supporters think of Anwar’s backdoor entry to government and the no.1 job. Well it doesn’t matter, ‘cos we can still vote him out. Lots of protest votes this time. And UMNO isn’t sleeping anymore.

I’ve read in blogs, Malaysiakini, etc saying that Pak Lah has no mandate to rule. Yoz, the BN still holds a majority-lah. Yes, much reduced. There are also rumours of our leap-frogging friends in East Malaysia being courted by the non-BN side (I think this is the safest way to describe the PAS, PKR and DAP group…).

So, Pak Lah now still has the mandate. At first glance at the seats won, it appears that the major cultural group still supports UMNO. On its own, the party has 79 parliamentary seats and 238 state seats, which is more than half of the seats in BN.

For simplicity, let’s assume that PKR and PAS are predominantly supported by Malays with PKR having more multi-racial support. I believe it’s safe to say that the overwhelming support for DAP is from non-Malays but there was some swing from Malays too.

PKR and PAS won 54 parliamentary seats (PAS: 23, PKR: 31) and 123 state seats (PAS: 83, PKR: 40). This means UMNO has 46 per cent more and almost double the number of parliamentary and state seats respectively.

It has also been reported that BN only received just under 50 per cent of the popular vote. But is this reduction due to the massive swing from the non-Malay votes?

According to political scientist Ong Kian Ming:

…the Indian vote swing against the BN in Peninsular Malaysia was approximately 35%, the Chinese vote swing was approximately 30% and the Malay vote swing was approximately 5%.

….the popular vote won by the BN among the various ethnic groups in Peninsular Malaysia - Malays (58%), Chinese (35%) and Indians (48%).

It is important to highlight that these vote swings are not uniformly distributed. For example, the Malay vote swing in the West Coast states, especially in Penang, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur was higher than the estimated 5% and was closer to 10% or even higher in certain constituencies like Balik Pulau, Gombak and Lembah Pantai. It would not have been possible for the opposition, PKR in these cases, to win without a sizeable swing in the Malay vote.

The largest swings against the BN came in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, at approximately 21% and 20% respectively, followed by Penang at 17.5%. These swings were across the board swings among Malay, Chinese and Indian voters though the swing among the non-Malays were probably greater than among the Malays. While the Malay vote did not swing much in Terengganu (a small swing of 1.2%), the swing was certainly felt in Kedah (12.7%), a state which is 75% Malay.

From the above, it shows that the Malay swing on average was small. Also Ong added that non-Malays were more willing to vote any Opposition party in this election compared to previous when Malays and non-Malays rarely voted DAP and PAS respectively.

In analysing Malay support, the redrawn constituencies hardly matter as if the Malays stop supporting UMNO, PAS and to a much lesser degree PKR will benefit.

In conclusion, although BN’s majority in popular votes, parliamentary and state seats have been drastically reduced, UMNO still commands the most Malay support. As Ong said, this election was won on the tremendous swing in non-Malay votes.

A country like ours whose people are still separated by archaic ideas of race and religion will need a coalition that represents the major cultural group. Politics is a numbers game. In the current system of segregation, the majority will always call the shots. And any perception of inequality within the majority can be a cause for instability and violence.

Politics is all fun and games in the comfort of my air-conditioned room or when I am snapping photos. But when it involves the lives of real people like your friends and family, it’s best to thread carefully and cut down the rhetoric.

The road never travelled
Star
Sun - Mar 16, 2008

INSIGHT By JOCELINE TAN

The knives are out…they are long and sharp ones.

The Prime Minister will have a lot of hard decisions to make in the aftermath of the earthquake that shook up the political landscape.

(more…)

No joke. Not alarmist. Well, it was confined to the North-South Highway. The Simpang Pulai Rest Junction, I think. It also had a Petronas gas station.

I was hungry, so I ordered nasi ayam (chicken rice). At first, of the four to five Malay staff there, all ignored me and it took a few times to take my order. And when my drink was late and I called the boy, he acted dumb till finally they brought my drink without a smile. Not to mention my chicken portion was almost half of that of the Malay men sitting next to me….My tomato and cucumber were also smaller. Am I being over-sensitive?

Anyway, I was quite annoyed with their attitude and service but sensed that they were trying to piss me off. I was there. Maybe another five Chinese. The stalls were manned by Malays. Some other travelers who stopped over were also Malay. And I don’t know.

But I was quite petrified and kept looking down on the ground. Never in my life have I been so scared around Malays. At that point and about 30 minutes after, I really wished BN had won Perak with UMNO holding the majority and the DAP in the Opposition as usual. Or at least PAS and PKR had more seats than DAP.

(more…)

Is Lim also playing some games by supporting Teresa Kok for deputy MB against Teng Chang Khim, four-term Sungai Pinang state legislator and a lawyer by profession? Teng was the Opposition leader in the state assembly for two terms (1995-1999 and 2004-2008).

Haiyah, suddenly this Teresa Kok becomes deputy MB? She holds two seats-lar: Kinrara state and Seputeh parliament. WOW. I know-lah, she is a superwoman and very popular. Now with three official posts, also probably has very high allowances. State is RM5,000; parliament is RM12,000; deputy MB, any pay? The rates are about here-lah but I didn’t check. Those who know better please let me know.

It’s no secret that Teresa is among Lim’s inner circle and maybe even pet-lah. But she deserves to be a favourite for her performance.

Is it wise to have her hold THREE official posts — MP, ADUN and maybe now deputy MB? Don’t be power-crazy-lah, Sister Kok. She is Catholic, I heard.

Is this meritocracy, DAP?

First, the Fong Po Kuan incident.

Now, this seemingly unilateral decree by Dictator Lim Kit Siang to Perak DAP. Ngeh Koo Ham, who is state DAP chairperson and Sitiawan state legislator, has signed the submission of the three candidates to the Palace. So, I suspect Perak is also pissed off with Lim Kit Siang.

Also read on Husam Musa’s blog that DAP and PAS have worked things out and DAP (probably state) has accepted the PAS MB.

Why not just let UMNO, who has a clear majority as a party, form the Perak state government?

OOOga OOOga OOOga.

Sorry-lah brothers. IF you can’t keep the peace and act like you are in government, which includes working with the Istana and catering to Muslims via PAS, then too bad-lah.

Now, PKR also berdrama-drama. Please-lah. Already two weeks of all this drama. Just form government and fulfill your election pledges, if you can’t then let UMNO rule again. Then crybaby Tajol Rosli can continuing staying at the Mentri Besar’s official residence-lor. Stop crying-lah Tajol, maybe you become MB again!

A Mentri Besar from PKR. No way-lah. Please-lah. I understand there isn’t a suitable candidate and Nizar from PAS is most qualified. So all you champions of meritocracy, why cannot accept this?

And it was published in the Asian Wall Street Journal. For a guy who can barely string sentences together when speaking to the media, this opinion piece is truly a ground-shattering achievement in good writing. Unfortunately, it is still more wishy washy mythos.

Malaysia will heal her divisions

By DATUK SERI ABDULLAH AHMAD BADAWI

WHILE I am honoured to have been re-elected as Prime Minister of Malaysia and to have received a 63% majority of the 222 seats in Parliament in our just-completed general election, I am also disappointed that we fell a few seats short of the two-thirds majority we were hoping for.

JY: I believe with just barely half of the popular vote.

(more…)

We all think BN is courting PAS and PKR. But could UMNO have upset the Perak BA via DAP in exchange for Penang? This is just my conspiracy theory which is TOTALLY BASELESS and a result of my OVERACTIVE WILD IMAGINATION. But this would explain the totally random behaviour of LKS….Who knows. I mean with PKR or the election statistics may show that there is some swing in Malay votes but DAP’s core support is from the non-Malays, as per Ong Kian Ming’s analysis. Haiyah, maybe I find out in Ipoh on my way back to KL.

Malaysiakini reported:

When contacted for an immediate reaction, Nizar said: “We believe that as a coalition government, all decisions will be collective.”

“We would not respond to comments being made outside the new coalition government,” he added.

JY: That’s the way-lah. Government-lah. Not Opposition…I wonder if DAP leaders will still speak to me after this. Am supposed to try to catch the swearing-in of the state exco in Dewan Sri Pinang tomorrow….Ha ha ha ha ha

***UPDATE***7.51PM

From Uncle Kit’s blog:

No DAP CEC mandate for PAS Menteri Besar in Perak

The decision to appoint a PAS Assemblyman Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin as Perak Mentri Besar has caused shock and consternation to DAP leaders, members and supporters.

The DAP Central Executive Committee, at its emergency meeting in Penang on Sunday, 9th March 2008, had given approval for the formation of a Perak coalition government comprising 18 DAP Assembly members, seven PKR Assemblymen and six PAS Assemblymen.

DAP is prepared to accept DAP chairman and Assemblyman for Sitiawan Ngeh Koo Ham or PKR Behrang Assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi as Perak Mentri Besar.

As the appointment of PAS Assemblyman for Pasir Panjang Mohamad Nizar Jamaludin as Perak Mentri Besar representing the third and smallest political party in the proposed coalition has not received the mandate of the CEC, DAP Perak Assemblymen will stay away from the swearing-in ceremony for Perak Mentri Besar scheduled tomorrow.

JY: What’s happening. Am gonna go makan now. Sigh. Life goes on. Remember peace is more important than power.

***UPDATE***7.30PM

Spoke to my source. Bless him. He maintains that Ngeh was supposed to be the first Christian MB in West Malaysia and attributes the change to “horse trading”…..

I think it’s better for the peace that the MB is Malay and Muslim. Politics is about perception…

***UPDATE*** 7.01PM

Actually Raja Petra of Malaysia Today thought Perak would go to DAP too…

Tomorrow, we should see the Selangor and Perak state governments getting sworn in. PKR will lead Selangor and DAP, Perak. That would mean two states would be led by PAS, two by DAP, with one for PKR.

So I think my source is right. Something might have happened. Maybe after Guan Eng’s drastic move to abolish pro-Malay policies in Penang scared ‘em Perak royals.

ORIGINAL POST 

OOOoooooPPPPppppSSSssss. I am not using that DAP source anymore, who is usually reliable. Malaysiakini’s report here.

What a boo-boo. Apologies to all.

Congrats to PAS. Thank God, someone who can keep the peace and speak Malay…..

Susan Loone asks if Mukhriz has cheated.

Marina posted a video that shows the returning officer announcing the results in Jerlun. The SPR website seems dodgy.

Related: Mukhriz won Jerlun, Voter turnout 99.85%