Jed Yoong

UMNO has announced that it will punish saboteurs.

I think this goes against democratic principles as party members should be free to act. Sabotage is a just a bad word for protest.

For example, if I don’t like a leader ‘cos he says different things to different audiences, I may decide not to help out putting up party flags, if I am a party member. As a member of any political party, am I obliged to follow orders from anyone?

Let’s say I am a PKR member. Am I obliged to help out during elections? No, not really. There is no requirement in the constitution that says over the election I must be present at some location for at least X number of hours. In the spirit of democracy, if my particular branch or division leader is not particularly appealing, I don’t really have to support him.

But can I campaign on the other side to bring down the party? Will this be disloyal? It really depends how you see it. Some members may feel that by not campaigning or helping the opposition they are saving the party from such personalities. Why should they be punished? It’s a democratic freedom even within the party.

I am aware, please correct me if I’m wrong, that UMNO has a rule, fairly new, that says those who have campaigned for other parties cannot join or rejoin UMNO. Why not? People change their minds as they have more information, mature, etc. Why should being part of a party demand such extreme loyalty? Anyway, people cross parties all the time. Look at Kelantan, Ibrahim Ali was from UMNO and contested under PAS this time.

I feel it’s ridiculous to punish saboteurs. If the leadership can’t hold the party together, they should resign. Your members are telling you they rather WATCH TV than help your candidates.

AsiaSentinel.Com
Jed Yoong
07 April 2008

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi lashes back at his critics, who grow in number

Almost a month after Malaysia’s national election, the political battleground is getting bloodier inside the Barisan Nasional, the national governing coalition, particularly inside the United Malays National Organisation, the leading ethnic party in the coalition.

After the unexpected loss of its two-thirds parliamentary majority and of five state governments, UMNO is actually scrambling to survive, a stunning development after 50 years of nearly unchallenged dominance of Malaysian politics. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has been faced with a series of brushfire problems all over the place, including the refusal by two state sultans to seat his choice for menteri besar, or chief minister.

Probably the most important thing keeping Badawi in place is the relative weakness of his challengers, which may well keep him where he is until at least party elections in August or September. The contender getting most of the ink is Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, 70, the onetime finance minister and perennial challenger to former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The party’s other most prominent possible challenger, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Najib Tun Abdul Razak, has agreed to back Badawi, at least for now.

Continue reading @ AsiaSentinel.Com

Ha ha ha, couldn’t stop laughing when reading Khir Toyo’s latest post. He kept referring to us as “sahabat2 bloggers”. Ha ha ha.

An excerpt:

Saya yakin pada masa hadapan, soal hati dan perasaan ini akan menjadi ukuran utama yang akan menentukan kejayaan suatu parti dalam pilihanraya. Terima kasih kepada semua sahabat-sahabat blogger yang sudi menegur.

Masalah kenaikan barang telah saya sampaikan kepada menteri yang berkenaan, kaedah kawalan harga yang tidak relevan perlu diubah, lesen eksklusif untuk mengedar barang keperluan harian / asas seperti gula, tepung dan lain-lain juga perlu dimansuhkan. Dasar yang lebih inklusif perlu dilaksanakan, harga perlu ditentukan oleh pasaran. Tugas kerajaan mengawal harga perlu ditukar kepada tugas meningkatkan pengeluaran barangan. Saya yakin jika ada pemikiran kreatif dan berani melakukan perubahan, akan membawa manfaat yang baik kepada kita semua.

Artikel yang akan datang, saya akan berkongsi dengan sahabat-sahabat blogger dan rakyat, mengapa kita perlu reform dalam banyak polisi-polisi kerajaan andai jika kita ingin menjadi forward looking society. Hadapi cabaran dengan berani melakukan perubahan, hadapi kegagalan dengan penuh hikmah dan nikmati kejayaan dengan penuh syukur .. Kita akan berjaya

He also said: “Di sini, kita semua yang berkepentingan perlu menyatakan dengan secara jelas dan akan saya jadikan sebagai panduan sebagai pemantau di Dewan Undangan Negeri Selangor.”

ROTFL. Can’t take it man. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Where is Mike Tyson’s blog? Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

HA ha ha ha ha ha ha. What a morning! Ha ha ha ha ha. He is sarcastic too. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

He sounds worried:

Saya khuatir ketika kita sibuk berbincang soal kemelut dalaman parti, rakyat akan jemu dan kecewa dengan kita dan akhirnya kita kehilangan kuasa. Jika ini berlaku, semuanya tidak akan bermakna lagi!

More fun @ www.mohdalirustam.blogspot.com

Ha ha ha ha. He is really quite sarcastic. His character must have been totally lost in translation in the MSM. Well, I assume he is writing his own blog and replies to comments. Quite sporting also-lah. Does Muhd Taib know how to use the Internet? Talk about regression….

Some fun:

Saya juga mengalukan langkah kerajaan meneruskan usaha menyelesaikan masaalah projek terbengkalai,kerajaan lalu hanya berjaya menyelesaikan 30 peratus masalah tersebut,saya doakan mereka berjaya,pembatalan pembangunan lereng bukit klas 3 dan 4 telah menjadi polisi kerajaan sejak tahun 2004 lagi.terima kasih krn meneruskan polisi ini.saya harap kerajaan hari ini juga akan mengekalkan keluasan hutan simpan 30 peratus dari keluasan negeri selangor(600,000 ekar) spt yg telah ditetapkan dalam akta taman warisan 2006.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA H HA HA HA HA HA HA.

Anwar Ibrahim mungkin ada pelbagai kepincangan, tetapi kalau tidak licik berpolitik, tidak mungkin beliau dapat menghinggapi sebentar kedudukan Timbalan Presiden UMNO dahulu. Masuknya Kamaruddin Jaafar ke dalam PAS sebenarnya sebahagian dari usaha Anwar untuk memastikan pengaruh beliau tetap tegar dalam PAS mahupun UMNO selepas kejatuhannya.

Lihat sahaja betapa ramai kuncu-kuncu Anwar yang tidak lari dari UMNO, malah mengisytihar ‘taubat’ sekuat-kuatnya semata-mata untuk kekal menghendap di PWTC. Malah, ramai juga penyokong kuat dan ‘fan-club’ Anwar dari zaman reformasi yang kemudiannya menyertai UMNO, seperti Khairy Jamaluddin bersama-sama puak-puak yang kini dikenali sebagai penghuni Tingkat 4.

Read full post @ Tangents: Restless Musings Of A Malay Mind

Today is April Fools’ day. That was why I was a bit unsure if the Post-election Analysis organised by MYKMU.net was really happening. But I had earlier received an SMS from Mukhriz’s press officer, probably ‘cos I kept harassing him over the elections. But then it could still be a big joke.

I was actually quite impressed at the level of soul-searching demonstrated. I have to admit that these guys took the bull by the horns. Perhaps they were also spurred by the urgency of overthrowing Pak Lah and his much despised son-in-law and now Rembau Member of Parliament (MP) Khairy Jamaluddin.

Former Selangor Mentri Besar (MB) and now Opposition leader, Khir Toyo, announced yesterday that he was going for the UMNO Youth chief. This is probably a direct challenge to KJ, who is deputy chief now.

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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.

I think Sleepy Head can’t keep it together.

UMNO. ***KABOOM***

1. Radzi has resigned as UMNO secretary-general. Effectively telling Sleeping Beauty to f**k off.

2. Rafidah is on a rampage after being dropped. Despite her long tenure as International Trade and Industry Minister, a post that she held since 1986 when this writer was still in primary school, and the AP scandal, she is arguably among the best performing ministers. Like her deputy in UMNO Wanita Shahrizat, who lost the Lembah Pantai parliamentary seat to newcomer Nurul Izzah, Anwar Ibrahim’s eldest daughter. Rafidah has admitted to sending Pak Lah a 16-page letter on her views on the BN’s shattering defeat in the recent general election.

3. UMNO Youth. Mukhriz has escaped the usual banishment or expulsion meted out by UMNO for opposing the president. After some huh-hah from the wing’s chief, the keris-waving Hishammuddin, things have fizzled out.

4. Najib’s men all falling all over. Rumours flying around that things aren’t going well for our deputy prime minister. Has he been sworn in yet? More @ Malaysians Unplugged.

Meanwhile, Anwar is telling all and sundry that enough MPs are willing to cross over to allow Barisan Rakyat to form government. More @ Kickdefella and The Malaysian

Jed is enjoying a short break after the madness of elections and working on new stuff. Yes, Jed, you deserve this break to surf the net and play time-wasting games in Facebook, like hunting for Easter eggs on Fluff Friends.

Growl. Claw. Stab. Jab. Punch. Slap. In all directions.

Old enemies become friends to fight a foe that may lead the party to the brink of oblivion.

UMNO. PKR. PAS. Come over. Cross over. Go over.

Just 30 MPs. East Malaysian politicians are known for their fondness for hopping around. But with UMNO looking so weak, some in West Malaysia may volunteer to join the new rising coalition under Anwar Ibrahim.

The question is, if these UMNO-types join Barisan Rakyat, will they just contaminate the coalition? Maybe Zaid Ibrahim is acceptable. Generally the Kelantanese are better like Tengku Razaleigh, who should have been PM, I feel. Can you imagine the yucky ZAM joining PKR or PAS?

Anything is possible.

BTW, Khalid Ibrahim, the new MB for Selangor. He was also previously an UMNO man.

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.

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Press Statement by Anwar Ibrahim (SAT - March 15, 200 :

I am therefore deeply concerned with the attempt being made by certain elements to stoke the flames of racial hatred in the aftermath of the March 8th Malaysian elections. We have reason to believe that this vicious campaign is being orchestrated by a small number of very wealthy Malays and UMNO leaders who are themselves guilty of squandering and abusing the NEP to enrich themselves and their cronies at the expense of the general public. These people are now using the UMNO and government controlled media to incite fears among the Malays and deflect attention away from their electoral defeat and from UMNO’s historic failures to address the needs of all Malaysians including the poor and marginalised Malays.

I ask my fellow Malaysians to reject the desperate attempts by some UMNO members to salvage the remnants of a broken party by pandering to people’s fears and sowing divisions and disunity among the people of our nation. 

JY: Hmmmmm. Good statement. I thought he was overseas…..

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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.

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