I understand the concern of a three corner fight which might dilute the chance of Pakatan in the next general election. However, the possibility of establishing a third force is not to side with the other two forces (BN or Pakatan). We are not contesting in the next genera election, not yet. But we must discount this option in the future if the politicians continue to ignore us for pure power crave and self gratification. When politicians from both sides collide, do they stop to listen to the people? Did BN listen to the people or are they still taking the 'we-know-best' attitude? Did Pakatan listen to the people and embark on the reforms we wanted or the newly minted? Or the coalition is too focused on its ambition to capture Putrajaya and forget those who stood by the roadside watching, supporting and cheering their stride towards national power? This third force role and responsibility is to ensure that the politicians and policy makers listen to us, the stakeholders. This c...

KEADILAN views with bewilderment Zaid Ibrahims recent incessant complaints to the press about the party and the ongoing party election, including an exclusive interview with Utusan Malaysia which he had once called a Gestapo paper. Has he forgotten that he was once the subject of Utusans dirty smear campaign during the Hulu Selangor by-election? Has he also forgotten Utusans relentless and vicious attacks against Pakatan Rakyat which caused Pakatan Rakyat to dismiss the newspaper? Zaid has also made unkind insinuations that certain leaders including Tian Chua and Gobalakrishnan had been prevented from contesting for divisional posts when they were in fact free to contest and campaign as they like. As a matter of fact, Tian Chua won the divisional chief post of Batu while Gobalakrishnan is contesting for divisional chief post at Padang Serai. Likewise, no one has prevented Zaid from contesting and campaigning for any post including the Presidency. We find it astonishing that he has freq...

KUCHING (Bernama) Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud is confident that the state Barisan Nasional (BN) will win with a comfortable majority in the upcoming state election. However, when asked by reporters to quantify it, Taib, who is also state BN chairman, said, Count the Bumiputera-majority seats. With the peoples support, I believe we will have quite a comfortable majority, but I will be very sad if we form the next government without strong Chinese representation, he said at an Aidilfitri celebration, here, today. More than 3,000 people, largely Chinese, attended the gathering and his address was translated into Mandarin. The Aidilfitri gathering was held at a hotel in conjunction with the opening of a new RM61.5 million dual carriageway from Stutong to the Sama Jaya Industrial Zone and Kuching International Airport. When asked by reporters if the Chinese would reject the Sarawak United Peoples Party (SUPP), one of the state BN component parties, in the coming state e...

If Perkasa guys like Ibrahim Ali follow the political developments in the US, especially those on the Tea Party, they should be happy like birds! Indeed, the Tea Party has stolen a lot of limelight of late. Some GOP rightists associated with the Tea Party have jostled out veteran Republicans to become the GOP senatorial candidates. The most astonishing is none other than Christine O’Donnell, a down and out political rookie known for her freak talks, including her advocacy of asceticism, objection to the use of condoms, etc. That said, she emerged victorious in the Republican primaries in Delaware, beating her moderate rival, to book her ticket for the upcoming state senatorial election. The same thing also took place in other states like Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Alaska, Kentucky and Florida. The Tea Party does not need to register itself as a political party. It has infiltrated right into the core of the Republican Party. Strictly speaking, the Tea Party is a social movement, not...

from Unplugged Quote "... Untuk menjadi seorang RAKYAT MALAYSIA, TIDAK semestinya ANTI-Melayu. ( To be a MALAYSIAN does not necessarily mean to be ANTI-Malay.) Mengapa tidak boleh saya menyifatkan ANDA sebagai RASIS, apabila anda kelihatan kecewa dengan pujian dan respons-respons positif yang saya terima daripada bukan Melayu dan cuba untuk meletakkannya sebagai negatif terhadap diri saya. ( How can I not dub you a racist when you seem to be upset with the praises and positive responses I got from the non-Malays and attempt to put it as something negative on me) . Adakah hanya komen dan pujian orang Melayu perlu diambil kira dan yang lain-lain pula diketepikan, atas alasan yang sendiri yang tahu. (Are the comments and praises of the Malays [the] only [ones that] count, and the rest can go to you-know-where?) Anda mempunyai perjalanan yang begitu jauh untuk menerima bahawa Malaysia adalah sebuah negara milik rakyat Malaysia yang terdiri daripada semua kaum, yang menzahirkan kes...

KEADILAN views with bewilderment Zaid Ibrahims recent incessant complaints to the press about the party and the ongoing party election, including an exclusive interview with Utusan Malaysia which he had once called a Gestapo paper. Has he forgotten that he was once the subject of Utusans dirty smear campaign during the Hulu Selangor by-election? Has he also forgotten Utusans relentless and vicious attacks against Pakatan Rakyat which caused Pakatan Rakyat to dismiss the newspaper? Zaid has also made unkind insinuations that certain leaders including Tian Chua and Gobalakrishnan had been prevented from contesting for divisional posts when they were in fact free to contest and campaign as they like. As a matter of fact, Tian Chua won the divisional chief post of Batu while Gobalakrishnan is contesting for divisional chief post at Padang Serai. Likewise, no one has prevented Zaid from contesting and campaigning for any post including the Presidency. We find it astonishing that he has freq...

Former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan tells a Pakatan Rakyat forum that time is running out and it needs to redouble efforts to bring more reforms to Malaysia. See What Barisan Nasional Gotta Say?

from KSTan Ambiga Sreenevasan, the President of Bersih and Bar Council President was on the Panel to critique and comment on the book Road to reform released by the Selangor PakatanRakyat. She laid down some of her wish list which the PR government have yet to accomplished since taking over the Selangor State government in March 2008. Her list included local council elections, legal aid, education policies, orang asli issues, inter-faith dialogue and redelineation exercise. The Book Launch was held at the Hotel Singgahsana in Petaling Jaya on 27th September 2010 and was officiated by non other than the Menteri Besar of Selangor YB Khalid Ibrahim The book focus on both the achievements and the enduring difficulties in delivering on Pakatan Rakyat’s ambitions. A total of 22 authors contributed to the contents of this book. Popout

Muhyiddin vs Najib - out in the openMalaysia Chronicle It looks like the much-speculated power tussle between Prime Minister Najib Razak and his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin is now out in the open, known and even reported in influential foreign research reports. According to the latest Economist Intelligence Unit report, Muhyiddin is poised to challenge Najib for the Umno presidency at the next party election in 2011 and this could create political instability in Malaysia. Umno tends to turn inward during leadership battles, ignoring the interests of other parties, and this is even more likely to happen at a time when its status is threatened, the EIU said in its latest country report. Under these circumstances, there will be even greater resistance to economic reforms, undermining the credibility of the prime minister, Najib Razak, and even placing his position as president of Umno (and thus his premiership) at risk. Who is stronger, who is weaker Indeed it has been obvious that Muhyiddin ...

KPI Minister & Pemandu CEO Idris Jala has dismissed the need for proficiency in the English language to achieve the Vision 2020 goal of becoming a high-income nation. "You can be a high income economy with the national language, said Idris at the CEO Forum organised by the Perdana Leadership Foundation. He cited examples like Korea and Japan that became high-income nations without mastering the English language. We need to remember that Korea became a high-income nation without using English. Japan went without that too, he added. As a KPI supremo in the Najib administration, it is a shame and a sham for Idris not to understand the underlying KPIs which had helped both South Korea and Japan to become industrial superpowers in the region. Language is merely a medium. What both the Japanese and Korean governments did right was to promote meritocracy, innovation and knowledge acquisition as something very crucial and critical to their national pride. It was not a question about l...

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala has denied reports that he is heading a government effort to convince Christians to stop using the word 'Allah'. The Kelabit Christian, however, fell short of negating the claim that he had indeed advocated that the word 'Yahweh' to be adopted instead. "I was never asked by the government to convince Christians...I get asked lots of things but today we talk about the economy," he said when pressed by reporters at an SME conference in Kuala Lumpur. "Church matters should be left in church. I hope whatever I say in church and my prayers will not be broadcast." NONEIdris (left) was queried following a media report which named Idris, a member of the prominent church Sidang Injil Borneo, as part of a group of Putrajaya-dispatched envoys sent to push the matter. According to the report, Idris had made the call to drop the use of the word Allah at a church conference last month, ruffling the feather...

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PUTRAJAYA (Star) - The Election Commission will meet on Oct 6 to decide on a date to hold a by-election for the Galas state seat, which fell vacant after the death of its PAS assemblyman Che Hashim Sulaima on Monday. EC public relations officer Sabri Said said Thursday the commission had received an official notification on the vacancy from the Kelantan Legislative Assembly Speaker on Sept 28. The Election Commission will hold a special meeting on Oct 6 to discuss on matters pertaining to holding a by-election for the Galas seat. This will be followed by a news conference by deputy EC chairman Datuk Wan Ahmad Wan Omar, he said. Che Hashim succumbed to cancer on Sept 27 at the Al-Islam Specialist Hospital in Kampung Baru in Kuala Lumpur after fighting the disease for six months. The 48-year-old made history in 2008 as he was the first PAS candidate to win a seat in the Gua Musang parliamentary constituency, defeating Saufi Deraman with a 646 majority. According to the last electoral rol...

Of late, the political scene has become dirtier and messy. It is undeniable that we need to usher in a new era of responsible and accountable politics and leadership. But post 2008, we have seen a greater use and manipulation of race and religion by politicians and political parties to advance their interest. Elected representatives have shown their true colour too. A host of them had betrayed the trust and mandate of the people by deserting their political platform. Their action had caused a collapsed of a democratically elected government and made elected representatives as pawns which can be bought over at the right price. This had worsened corruption and democratic reform in the country. At the same time, Malaysians are left to wrest with a host of critical socio-economic issues and challenges. World economy is expected to go through a tough recovery although a light at the end of the tunnel is not yet visible. The federal government has announced a host of initiatives but two ingr...

While Datuk Seri Najib Razak was urging all nations of the world to "choose moderation over extremism" to promote international peace and harmony in his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday 27 September 2010, it is surely shocking that back in Malaysia at about the same time, a senior civil servant spewed out one of the most extremist and venomous speeches against the Chinese and Indian communities. Federal Territory Biro Tata Negara (BTN) deputy director Hamim Husin referred to the Chinese and Indian communities as Si Mata Sepet and Si Botol when speaking at a Puter Umno function. “The Si Mata Sepet who has never gone to a mosque or surau only has one vote. The Si Botol who only knows how to go up and down Batu Caves only has one vote,” Hamim was quoted as saying, when talking about getting votes from the non-Malay voters. It surely is most malevolent and seditious for the senior BTN officer to use such a contemptuous, pejorative and derogatory term...

from KSTan At the launch of the Selangor Pakatan’s Road to Reform book in Petaling Jaya, panelist Ann Surin ( Founder and Editor of The Nut Graph) expressed her dissappointment over the Freedom of Information Bill enacted in Selangor State. In particular, she quoted six international best practices clauses which was proposed by Center for Independent Journalism but were deliberately left out of the Bill. She outlined the points which were proposed by the Centre for Independent Journalism. She openly asks what stopped the state government from providing the full freedom of information that the rakyat were looking forward to. Popout

KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysian Insider) A recent report by The Economist has singled out intrigues within Umno and the ruling partys determination to stay in power at all costs as the biggest threats to political stability in Malaysia. The Economist Intelligence Unit country report also suggested that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) would make gains, but was unlikely to garner enough parliamentary seats to form a majority government. Malaysias stability over the last five decades has depended on three steadying factors: Barisan Nasionals (BN) firm hold on power, Umnos tight control of BN and Malay majority support for Umno, said the magazines Intelligence Report on Malaysia for October. It noted, however, that all three were no longer a given, as shown by BNs poor showing in Election 2008 and the historic sweep by PR parties of five states and 82 parliamentary seats. The March 2008 general election showed that all three influences have weakened. As a result, these forces may prove unable to hold the cou...