Following up with the ending paragraph of my recent article, With all the recent debate on race, one thing is quite clear, Malaysia is not ready to do away with racial policies and politics.
Post 2008 Elections : False Sense of Realisation
Further to 2008 Tsunami, I did write that Pakatan Rakyat won because Rakyat was angry with BN and Pak Lah. Each community (read RACE) had their own grouses with the government of the day, hence BN lost 5 states, and not because Malaysians are ready to do away with race based policies or politics.
Pakatan Rakyat leaders and some liberal analyst went to town claiming that Malaysians are ready for change and Pakatan will bring an end to racial politics. Anwar then launched his Sept 16 drive (this day has now been made a Public Holiday) which he sold ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’ as an alternative to ‘Ketuanan Melayu’, which Pakatan Rakyat’s leaders claimed as racist.
Anwar said many time that if Pakatan Rakyat takes over Putrajaya, policies would be changed to reflect needs based affirmative action policies rather than race based. Perkasa had few members then, so not many made much noise. DAP were ecstatic but PAS was silent in agreement. Like Pah Lah, Pakatan is also prone to flip -flop statements.
There was also a time went all Pakatan Leaders called up press and announced that they will respect the constitution in terms of Bumiputra rights and privileges. But calls for equality and reforms on NEP continued in most Pakatan rallies, some of which I attended.
Post 2008 elections with many pro-opposition Malay bloggers supporting the dismantling of NEP associated policies, there were some sense of realisation amongst politicians that Malaysians are ready to do away with raced based policies and politics.
In BN, Gerakan sounded warning that BN raced based parties have to change. At one point even threatening to leave BN if there are no reforms. MCA & MIC were also taken in by all the noise in the blogsphere by numerous calls for their members to serve all races rather than representing and supporting their own race. UMNO and UMNO Youth were also advocating services to all races. PPP went further by suggesting that BN coalition to be merged into one party.
At one point, Malaysian public were also led to believe that we are ready for change, influenced by small number of arm-chaired, well to do, prominent political critics and analyst writing their rather skewed opinions in their blogs.
Post 2008 Elections : Reactions
Then came One Malaysia blog by Najib, just before he took over from Pak Lah. Najib’s One Malaysia concept appeared to be his reaction to calls to do away with racial politics and NEP. I knew at that point that he was wrong and that Najib was another victim of online onslaught on NEP and raced based politics. Will touch on Najib later.
There were also several incidents which tested Pakatan’s ‘Ketuanan Rakyat’ resolve. The were huge protest over Selangor MB Khalid’s suggestions to open up UiTM to non-Malays. Though the issue lasted just for couple of weeks, it was actually a message to Pakatan that Malays are not willing to do away with all these.
There was also protests over increased bumiputra quota imposed by the Kedah government on housing projects in the state. This time it was the opposite, non-malays, at the politicians protested and the issue had died down since. Note that the so-called liberal Malays did not make any noise.
There was also severals protest by villagers, mostly Malay over relocation of pig farms in Selangor. There were some issues as well with exhumation and relocation of Indian cemetery in Kedah. No non-Indians were seen protesting along with Indians. These incidents itself had proven that we Malaysians still will look at everything from the racial angle first and foremost.
Authorities now even afraid to demolish any illegal, largely not patronized, individual owned, ill-maintained Hindu temple just because’ it is a sensitive issue’. So race takes precedence over law of the land. Even Pakatan Rakyat will not uphold the law and demolish any temple because certain race will get offended, no matter that the illegal Hindu temple stands in way of some far more useful infrastructure that will benefit large number of constituents, such as roads or hospitals.
Emergence of Perkasa & Najib’s Miscalculations
With the emergence of Perkasa as an alternative voice for the Malays, my doubts has been proven. Najib promotion of 1Malaysia has prompted UMNO’s leaders to tone down their race based rhetorics. Some UMNO leaders actually wanted to wait and see if Najib’s 1Malaysia, New Economic Model (NEM) will gain support from the masses, especially the Malays and were reluctant to speak up.
Perkasa took the opportunity and has been vociferously vocal on defending Malay rights and privileges. With membership now said to number 300,000, they can be said to be bigger than most of BN member parties and even DAP and PKR. Ibrahim Ali’s rhetorics, joined by Majlis Perundingan Melayu (MPM) , with the support of Tun Mahathir has riled both UMNO and Opposition.
They have been lashing out at both BN and Pakatan based on several small incident including the so-called marginalization of Malays in Penang and calling BN stupid for being too generous with non-Malays, the recent ones being donations to Chinese schools in Hulu Selangor and Sibu.
Post 2008, influenced by the need to be in touch with the seemingly influential online community, Najib took the initiative to be more inclusive and promoted his 1Malaysia. The 1Malaysia catchphrase and sloganeering has been, his own words, fairly successful and as famous as McDonalds.
While he has managed to reach out to the young and those who are more inclined to believe what is on the net, he forgot that large number of Malays still those who are conservative where Malay culture, privileges, subsidies and government assistance are still important and relevant to them. This is where Najib has miscalculated the sentiments of conservative Malays. While too busy trying to reach out to the young and largely urban voters, he forgot UMNO’s traditional supporters, who are now the main supporters of Perkasa and MPM.
The last straw for Perkasa and MPM came with the introduction of New Economic Policy by Najib. Perkasa and MPM organized a forum and slammed NEM and openly, inNajib’s presence, pronounced that NEM is a threat to Bumiputra rights and privileges.
Najib has been check mated and responded with assurance that bumiputra rights and privileges would be restored, which directly contradicts his own NEM. Najib had since never recovered and details of NEM implementation has not been forthcoming. His speech at MCA Economic Congress had no mention whether NEM would stick to his earlier miscalculated promise of market based reforms which includes liberalization of various economic sectors, which also means doing away with NEP.
Recent survey by Merdeka centre also revealed that Malays still favour NEP.
Pakatan Rakyat : False Promises of Change??
Ok, fine, let’s vote out Najib and BN and let Pakatan Rakyat take over Putrajaya. Will they be able to make a difference?
While Mr Lim Kit Siang and other opposition leaders has been mocking 1Malaysia concept, criticizing Najib lack of follow up on NEM and Najib’s about turn on market reforms, Pakatan Rakyat is actually doing the same mistake as Najib by promising equality and meritocracy to potential voters, when large number of Malay conservatives are still in favour of the old NEP
How sure is Pakatan Rakyat that they will do away with NEP when they take over Putrajaya. Will Anwar stick to his words that he will replace NEP with his version of Affirmative Action based on needs rather than race, which effectively mean doing away with Malay rights and privileges?
Why there was a silence from DAP and PKR when PAS President Hadi Awang opposed to doing away with housing discounts for bumiputra. Hadi went on to say that we should uphold bumiputra rights and privileges. Where was Lim Kit Siang then ??
Will Pakatan Rakyat do away with various race based institution such as Mara? Can Anwar open UiTM to non-malays keeping in mind that the same suggestion by Selangor MB Khalid met with street protest. Will DAP economic advisor dare to ask all race based institutions and business cartels such as Chinese Chamber of Commerce, it’s Indian and Malay equivalent to merge? Will a future DAP Minister of Finance dare to implement open tender process for all government contracts?
What is Anwar, Lim Kit Siang’s strategy against PAS seemingly reluctance to do away with NEP. How will Anwar and DAP face protest from Perkasa and MPM in their pursuit of market reforms and needs based affirmative actions when even Najib is unable to take the heat?
Improve NEP Implementation, Not Abolish, At Least for now
Until and unless there are marked presence of Malay in businesses and equity ownership across the board, doing away with NEP at this stage will be impossible. With Chinese dominance of almost all sectors, they should learn to share the cake and focus on growing globally rather than focusing on the small market in Malaysia.
What interested party, BN or opposition should do is remove corruption, cronyism and nepotism and ensure meritocracy within the share of whatever allocated to bumiputras, eg scholarship meant for bumiputras should be only provided to poor Malays rather than son a Malay millionaire.
In summary both Najib and Pakatan Rakyat leaders have miscalculated the sentiments on the ground and no matter who is at helm in Putrajaya, NEP is there to stay until Malays have a respectable (not majority or significant) share of the nation’s wealth, at least that is what Malays want.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tales Of 2 Taxi Drivers
Apa lagi mereka ni mau??
That’s what a driver told me minutes after I got into a taxi after quite a long gap. I left my car at a service center and took a cab back.
The middle aged driver with a scull cap went on without even a hint on stopping to ask my opinion, never mind that I would rather listen than debate or support his piece. It’s good to listen from the man in the street rather than gleefully believe what’s written by the so-called opinionated intellectuals in the blogs.
He was expressing his anger on Chua Soi Lek’s speech at MCA’s Economic Congress. He also berated Najib’s brother, whom he claims was seen as supporting the Chinese entirely, though we know that Nazir Razak’s speech was more focused strength of harmony and diversity that put Malaysia on better platform when operating regionally or even globally.
I would attest to this as when I was working in a MNC which also operates similar global centres in numerous Asian cities, most of our counterparts were comfortable dealing with Malaysians but colleagues in the other countries, eg People in Hong Kong were quite at ease with the Malaysian Office but often complains about the Indian office and vice versa.
It is our exposure to various cultures and ways of doing things that put us in a comfortable position when dealing with foreigners and other cultures in general. We do get quite a balanced exposure and worldview as our media is quite balanced in terms of local and foreign coverage as well as due to our direct exposure with multi-ethnic society. If you read an English newspaper in India, you do not get the same amount of information as you get from Malaysian English daily, except for maybe, the Sun.
I also noticed this directly when I was in Hyderbad and Bangalore, the Silicon Vally of India. Most of the employees in the global centre were MBA holders but their general knowledge was pathetic, they only know everything Indian, most of them have never put of a foot outside their state and most never ventured elsewhere, therefore dealing with people from Hong Kong and British was tough as their way of doing things, they way they communicate (try this with Indian nationals, Gobind Deo is nothing) is completely different, hence they find it difficult to work with others as compared to Malaysians.
Back to the taxi driver. He was practically asking ‘what else do the Chinese community wants? He went on saying that almost the entire economy is controlled by them. Isn’t it fair that they share with the others, instead of asking for more.
He also asked have we ever heard Chinese companies offering Malay or Indian companies to participate in their ventures. He also claimed that Mahathir helped the chinese more than he helped Malays. He also went on to say that Malays are corrupt because of chinese were greedy and they want everything in short cuts, hence fuelling corruption.
He went on saying that his son works as an officer in a Chinese company for many years with no opportunity to move up the ladder as the top management was entirely Chinese. He said that his son is now working in an MNC and got promoted twice earning more than his previous supervisor. He kept on repeating that he has many Chinese friends along the way insisting only the rich Chinese are greedy unlike his fellow Chinese taxi driver whom he found to be reasonable.
He found that Chinese has become more demanding ever since DAP made strong gains in 2008. He claims to be a PKR supporter but he says he can’t agree with Chinese demanding for more. His assertion is similar to what we think of MCA, that Soi Lek is just trying to make MCA look more relevant to the Chinese community by demanding for fairness, equality etc. He also said that MCA is ungrateful.
Thankfully, he was not in favour of Perkasa, whom he claimed only making Malays look weak, stupid and rude.
Later in the same evening, I hoped on to another taxi collect my car and this time, the driver was an Indian. Noticed a Star paper, a tamil paper and a Makkal Sakhti cap (which got me excited) on his dashboard. He started conversing in reasonably good English, by complaining about the price hike, (apparently not realising that my own short journey to the car service cost me 30 percent more than last year), claiming that Malaysia is becoming too expensive for people like him.
He went on to say that he has heard nothing his application for individual taxi permit offered by Najib last year. He claims that most of it went to Malays though he said one of his Indian friends got it.
I took the opportunity to ask whether he was a Makkal Sakthi member. He shrugged it off saying that Indians are stupid as they are often fooled by equally stupid leaders. The forty plus looking guy said that he lost his previous job as a clerk in a legal firm mainly due to his own doing. He claimed to have joined the Hindraf movement and had many absences from work. He got many warnings from his Indian employer and when there was an offer to drive taxi, he lapped it up, claiming it was better to be his own boss.
He went further by saying that Indians are quick to praise and support leaders without appraising their track record or quality. This he claimed is the reason why majority Indians voted for Pakatan. He says that he no longer believes politicians as he claims that many promises thrown during the campaign rallies, which he claims he religiously attended due to the ‘Makkal Sakhti’ phenomenon, were never fulfilled.
He was also sore that nothing was done to help the Indians. He says that there is no point of donating over millions of ringgit to Hindu temples in Selangor as they are going to go to waste. He suggested why not Selangor State government sponsors a taxi for those who are genuinely unable to get a job or even people like him who is paying a hefty daily rental to the permit holder. Quite a sensible idea indeed.
The driver also says that the State Exco member is simply seeking publicity by going to every other temple and handing over donations when he can actually do it all at one go in his office. I never thought about that.
MIC is seen as useless to him but he is certainly not pleased with Pakatan Indian leaders who he claims has become too loud and no action to speak of giving an example of deputy Chief Minister of Penang meddling in Bkt Jalil estate worker issue. He asked, where has Prof Ramasamy been for all these years. It was very apparent that he was also sore with Pakatan on the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
Towards reaching the service centre, he mentioned that he just returned from Pilgrimage in India (gosh and he claims it difficult to survive as a taxi driver) and proclaimed that life is certainly better here in Malaysia.
It is certainly worthwhile to listen to the normal man in the streets. My various similar interactions tells me that race remains important in the mind of people here as opposed to various opinions by largely liberal, well to do Malaysians who claims that we are ready to do away with racial quota, racial politics etc.
My only long term solution to improve race relation is to have only one school stream, bet it Malay or English medium. Having Tamil and Chinese schools are never good if we are seriously concerned over deteriorating race relations. But when even the so-called multi-racial political parties such as Gerakan, PKR and DAP are not prepared to support one school system, we are doomed.
Though politically, opinions from the taxi drivers do not sound good for either BN or Pakatan, it is quite evident that the number of fence-sitters is on the rise, which gives a rather bleak outlook on the possible outcome of the next general elections.
That’s what a driver told me minutes after I got into a taxi after quite a long gap. I left my car at a service center and took a cab back.
The middle aged driver with a scull cap went on without even a hint on stopping to ask my opinion, never mind that I would rather listen than debate or support his piece. It’s good to listen from the man in the street rather than gleefully believe what’s written by the so-called opinionated intellectuals in the blogs.
He was expressing his anger on Chua Soi Lek’s speech at MCA’s Economic Congress. He also berated Najib’s brother, whom he claims was seen as supporting the Chinese entirely, though we know that Nazir Razak’s speech was more focused strength of harmony and diversity that put Malaysia on better platform when operating regionally or even globally.
I would attest to this as when I was working in a MNC which also operates similar global centres in numerous Asian cities, most of our counterparts were comfortable dealing with Malaysians but colleagues in the other countries, eg People in Hong Kong were quite at ease with the Malaysian Office but often complains about the Indian office and vice versa.
It is our exposure to various cultures and ways of doing things that put us in a comfortable position when dealing with foreigners and other cultures in general. We do get quite a balanced exposure and worldview as our media is quite balanced in terms of local and foreign coverage as well as due to our direct exposure with multi-ethnic society. If you read an English newspaper in India, you do not get the same amount of information as you get from Malaysian English daily, except for maybe, the Sun.
I also noticed this directly when I was in Hyderbad and Bangalore, the Silicon Vally of India. Most of the employees in the global centre were MBA holders but their general knowledge was pathetic, they only know everything Indian, most of them have never put of a foot outside their state and most never ventured elsewhere, therefore dealing with people from Hong Kong and British was tough as their way of doing things, they way they communicate (try this with Indian nationals, Gobind Deo is nothing) is completely different, hence they find it difficult to work with others as compared to Malaysians.
Back to the taxi driver. He was practically asking ‘what else do the Chinese community wants? He went on saying that almost the entire economy is controlled by them. Isn’t it fair that they share with the others, instead of asking for more.
He also asked have we ever heard Chinese companies offering Malay or Indian companies to participate in their ventures. He also claimed that Mahathir helped the chinese more than he helped Malays. He also went on to say that Malays are corrupt because of chinese were greedy and they want everything in short cuts, hence fuelling corruption.
He went on saying that his son works as an officer in a Chinese company for many years with no opportunity to move up the ladder as the top management was entirely Chinese. He said that his son is now working in an MNC and got promoted twice earning more than his previous supervisor. He kept on repeating that he has many Chinese friends along the way insisting only the rich Chinese are greedy unlike his fellow Chinese taxi driver whom he found to be reasonable.
He found that Chinese has become more demanding ever since DAP made strong gains in 2008. He claims to be a PKR supporter but he says he can’t agree with Chinese demanding for more. His assertion is similar to what we think of MCA, that Soi Lek is just trying to make MCA look more relevant to the Chinese community by demanding for fairness, equality etc. He also said that MCA is ungrateful.
Thankfully, he was not in favour of Perkasa, whom he claimed only making Malays look weak, stupid and rude.
Later in the same evening, I hoped on to another taxi collect my car and this time, the driver was an Indian. Noticed a Star paper, a tamil paper and a Makkal Sakhti cap (which got me excited) on his dashboard. He started conversing in reasonably good English, by complaining about the price hike, (apparently not realising that my own short journey to the car service cost me 30 percent more than last year), claiming that Malaysia is becoming too expensive for people like him.
He went on to say that he has heard nothing his application for individual taxi permit offered by Najib last year. He claims that most of it went to Malays though he said one of his Indian friends got it.
I took the opportunity to ask whether he was a Makkal Sakthi member. He shrugged it off saying that Indians are stupid as they are often fooled by equally stupid leaders. The forty plus looking guy said that he lost his previous job as a clerk in a legal firm mainly due to his own doing. He claimed to have joined the Hindraf movement and had many absences from work. He got many warnings from his Indian employer and when there was an offer to drive taxi, he lapped it up, claiming it was better to be his own boss.
He went further by saying that Indians are quick to praise and support leaders without appraising their track record or quality. This he claimed is the reason why majority Indians voted for Pakatan. He says that he no longer believes politicians as he claims that many promises thrown during the campaign rallies, which he claims he religiously attended due to the ‘Makkal Sakhti’ phenomenon, were never fulfilled.
He was also sore that nothing was done to help the Indians. He says that there is no point of donating over millions of ringgit to Hindu temples in Selangor as they are going to go to waste. He suggested why not Selangor State government sponsors a taxi for those who are genuinely unable to get a job or even people like him who is paying a hefty daily rental to the permit holder. Quite a sensible idea indeed.
The driver also says that the State Exco member is simply seeking publicity by going to every other temple and handing over donations when he can actually do it all at one go in his office. I never thought about that.
MIC is seen as useless to him but he is certainly not pleased with Pakatan Indian leaders who he claims has become too loud and no action to speak of giving an example of deputy Chief Minister of Penang meddling in Bkt Jalil estate worker issue. He asked, where has Prof Ramasamy been for all these years. It was very apparent that he was also sore with Pakatan on the Kampung Buah Pala issue.
Towards reaching the service centre, he mentioned that he just returned from Pilgrimage in India (gosh and he claims it difficult to survive as a taxi driver) and proclaimed that life is certainly better here in Malaysia.
It is certainly worthwhile to listen to the normal man in the streets. My various similar interactions tells me that race remains important in the mind of people here as opposed to various opinions by largely liberal, well to do Malaysians who claims that we are ready to do away with racial quota, racial politics etc.
My only long term solution to improve race relation is to have only one school stream, bet it Malay or English medium. Having Tamil and Chinese schools are never good if we are seriously concerned over deteriorating race relations. But when even the so-called multi-racial political parties such as Gerakan, PKR and DAP are not prepared to support one school system, we are doomed.
Though politically, opinions from the taxi drivers do not sound good for either BN or Pakatan, it is quite evident that the number of fence-sitters is on the rise, which gives a rather bleak outlook on the possible outcome of the next general elections.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Useless Malaysian Tamil Newspapers.
While the politicians from both divides are busy debating the NEP and NEM, Tamil Language newspapers appears not in the know of the whole discussion and debate. For the benefit of many of my non-Indian readers, this write up is to provide some information on Tamil dailies in Malaysia.
I only buy Tamil Newspaper in weekends and I finish it within 15 minutes as there are usually no interesting contents except for politicians slamming and slandering each other. The main reason for my weekend habit of buying all mainstream newspapers (including Utusan but not the Chinese newspaper – I can’t read) is to keep in touch with the language and also follow latest issues and happening within the community. I do read online version of Sin Chiew and others.
Tamil newspapers in Malaysia have extremely low circulation and read mainly by the working class. There are 3 main newspapers, Tamil Nesan, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai. There were attempts to bring some others to the streets but they eventually die a natural death due to low circulations.
Despite all the negatives, these 3 newspapers are among the 15 surviving main Tamil language dailies in the world, the others mainly based in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. For those who are not aware, Tamils are the buggest ethnic group within the Indian Community in Malaysia with population at around 1.2 Million. The rest are mainly telugus, malayalees and small number of Ceylonese, Punjabis and northern Indian ethnic groups.
Tamil Nesan is owned by Samy Vellu, where his son Vell Pari is the Managing Director while if I am not mistaken, his wife Indrani is the advisor.
The initial purpose if this newspaper is promote the image of the MIC, it’s president, his wife and of course, to make money.
Samy Vellu, despite his serious demeanor and strong language, used to write poems every Sunday in the main page. It was so popular that it was taken off the page last year. For many, the poems, despite it’s language prowess, lacks in substance and proved to be a source of laughter. The contents are usually for community building, leadership, respect etc, but proves something contradictory to the behaviour of the MIC leaders themselves.
On the other hand, His wife occupies half a page of the last page. News reports appear almost daily on her activities, usually social or charity events graced by her.
The second page belongs to maverick writer, Tamil Mani, once a fierce Samy Vellu critic turned friend In need.
His contribution, or rather non-contribution are clearly exemplified here
It must be recognized that post March 2008, the newspaper underwent many changes and surprisingly they now provide positive coverage on opposition party leaders, some of whom had openly derided Samy Vellu before. Despite attempting to become more independent and open, circulation remained low.
Makkal Osai is closely linked to Datuk S,Subramaniam (ex-Deputy Minister). Despite being reasonably popular in the past, the paper has lost it’s shine ever since they went into various rows with Tamil Nesan.
It appears that the sole purpose now is to promote Subra and his allies while providing extensive coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Malaysia Nanban was founded by Dato Sikandar Bacha, a prominent Indian Muslim businessman in the 80s. Nanban is seen as more independent and neutral in it’s coverage throughout the years.
Nanban is brave enough to criticise or support both BN and Pakatan when it matters to Indian community although it had made some blunders in the past resulting in delays to renewal of their annual permit. They were also once warned for going to the extremes in reporting Sri Lankan civil war where their reports were more in support of rebel Tamil Tiger leader, Prabakaran of LTTE, which is labeled as a terrorist group by UN. More on Malaysian Tamils affinity with Prabakaran here
Similarities between the 3 newspapers
All 3 papers have only about 20 pages every day except for Sunday where they provide a leisure supplement.
All 3 dailies provide at least one page coverage on issues affecting the Sri Lankan Tamils. It used to be 4 pages during the civil war.
All 3 papers provide at 2 least 2 page coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and India. Most of the news are from the same syndicated source. They target Indian National living in Malaysia as well as Malaysian Tamils who are still fond of what some of them call, their motherland. (As them to go and live there, they never will)
All 3 newspapers provide extensive coverage on event involving MP, ADUNs or Indian VIPs depending on their political leaning although all 3 attempts to cover both BN and Opposition.
All 3 papers have limited advertisements hence their main source of revenue depends on number of copies sold.
All 3 papers provides inconsistent one page sports coverage, with no follow throughs the following day or week.
Tamil Nesan and Makkal Ossai of recent, are more fond of sensational headlines, usually associated with MIC political rivals.
All 3 newspapers hardly provide any information of how to get assistance of government agencies for various needs such as getting aid for the hardcore poor, resolving identity card issues and other common problems associated with the community.
All 3 news papers hardly provide regular coverage on business opportunities or business loans or funding available to the community.
None provide regular coverage of stock market, business news or investment opportunities.
None has active online presence. Online version of Nanban is not promptly updated and at times not at all.
Differences
Not much except for more neutral and independent Nanban where there are semblance of nation building editorials every day.
Malaysia Nanban is also favoured by Najib, who graced their SPM students prize giving event for last 2 years.
Summary
All 3 newspapers have not done much for community where it matters most, let alone nation building.
I have the opportunity to mingle with working class people whose source of news are solely from Tamil newspapers. They appear to be lost when informed of latest happenings in the country, political or non political. That’s how shallow the information that they get from these dailies.
They are also not aware of many aid and assistance available from many government and state agencies due to lack of coverage in the dailies.
They also have less knowledge of history, therefore do not appreciate country progress in politics, economy and socially throughout the years. This is also one of the reasons for their support for Hindraf, who received extensive coverage in Nanban and to a certain extend, Makkal Ossai.
All the mud slinging between Makkal Ossai and Tamil Nesan even invited the reprimand from PM Najib during the recent MIC AGM. Despite the reminder not to use newspapers for own political agenda, both papers have continued the ugly fight till today. Read here for more.
It would not be a loss for the tamil community if any of these dailies are out of business or even shut down by government. Both Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai should just shut down their operations so that Nanban can thrive to become more authoritative independent voice of the community.
Perhaps a dual language (Bahasa and English) equivalent should be introduced to cater for the non-Tamil reading/speaking group within the Indian community.
I only buy Tamil Newspaper in weekends and I finish it within 15 minutes as there are usually no interesting contents except for politicians slamming and slandering each other. The main reason for my weekend habit of buying all mainstream newspapers (including Utusan but not the Chinese newspaper – I can’t read) is to keep in touch with the language and also follow latest issues and happening within the community. I do read online version of Sin Chiew and others.
Tamil newspapers in Malaysia have extremely low circulation and read mainly by the working class. There are 3 main newspapers, Tamil Nesan, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai. There were attempts to bring some others to the streets but they eventually die a natural death due to low circulations.
Despite all the negatives, these 3 newspapers are among the 15 surviving main Tamil language dailies in the world, the others mainly based in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka. For those who are not aware, Tamils are the buggest ethnic group within the Indian Community in Malaysia with population at around 1.2 Million. The rest are mainly telugus, malayalees and small number of Ceylonese, Punjabis and northern Indian ethnic groups.
Tamil Nesan is owned by Samy Vellu, where his son Vell Pari is the Managing Director while if I am not mistaken, his wife Indrani is the advisor.
The initial purpose if this newspaper is promote the image of the MIC, it’s president, his wife and of course, to make money.
Samy Vellu, despite his serious demeanor and strong language, used to write poems every Sunday in the main page. It was so popular that it was taken off the page last year. For many, the poems, despite it’s language prowess, lacks in substance and proved to be a source of laughter. The contents are usually for community building, leadership, respect etc, but proves something contradictory to the behaviour of the MIC leaders themselves.
On the other hand, His wife occupies half a page of the last page. News reports appear almost daily on her activities, usually social or charity events graced by her.
The second page belongs to maverick writer, Tamil Mani, once a fierce Samy Vellu critic turned friend In need.
His contribution, or rather non-contribution are clearly exemplified here
It must be recognized that post March 2008, the newspaper underwent many changes and surprisingly they now provide positive coverage on opposition party leaders, some of whom had openly derided Samy Vellu before. Despite attempting to become more independent and open, circulation remained low.
Makkal Osai is closely linked to Datuk S,Subramaniam (ex-Deputy Minister). Despite being reasonably popular in the past, the paper has lost it’s shine ever since they went into various rows with Tamil Nesan.
It appears that the sole purpose now is to promote Subra and his allies while providing extensive coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and plight of Sri Lankan Tamils.
Malaysia Nanban was founded by Dato Sikandar Bacha, a prominent Indian Muslim businessman in the 80s. Nanban is seen as more independent and neutral in it’s coverage throughout the years.
Nanban is brave enough to criticise or support both BN and Pakatan when it matters to Indian community although it had made some blunders in the past resulting in delays to renewal of their annual permit. They were also once warned for going to the extremes in reporting Sri Lankan civil war where their reports were more in support of rebel Tamil Tiger leader, Prabakaran of LTTE, which is labeled as a terrorist group by UN. More on Malaysian Tamils affinity with Prabakaran here
Similarities between the 3 newspapers
All 3 papers have only about 20 pages every day except for Sunday where they provide a leisure supplement.
All 3 dailies provide at least one page coverage on issues affecting the Sri Lankan Tamils. It used to be 4 pages during the civil war.
All 3 papers provide at 2 least 2 page coverage on politics in Tamil Nadu and India. Most of the news are from the same syndicated source. They target Indian National living in Malaysia as well as Malaysian Tamils who are still fond of what some of them call, their motherland. (As them to go and live there, they never will)
All 3 newspapers provide extensive coverage on event involving MP, ADUNs or Indian VIPs depending on their political leaning although all 3 attempts to cover both BN and Opposition.
All 3 papers have limited advertisements hence their main source of revenue depends on number of copies sold.
All 3 papers provides inconsistent one page sports coverage, with no follow throughs the following day or week.
Tamil Nesan and Makkal Ossai of recent, are more fond of sensational headlines, usually associated with MIC political rivals.
All 3 newspapers hardly provide any information of how to get assistance of government agencies for various needs such as getting aid for the hardcore poor, resolving identity card issues and other common problems associated with the community.
All 3 news papers hardly provide regular coverage on business opportunities or business loans or funding available to the community.
None provide regular coverage of stock market, business news or investment opportunities.
None has active online presence. Online version of Nanban is not promptly updated and at times not at all.
Differences
Not much except for more neutral and independent Nanban where there are semblance of nation building editorials every day.
Malaysia Nanban is also favoured by Najib, who graced their SPM students prize giving event for last 2 years.
Summary
All 3 newspapers have not done much for community where it matters most, let alone nation building.
I have the opportunity to mingle with working class people whose source of news are solely from Tamil newspapers. They appear to be lost when informed of latest happenings in the country, political or non political. That’s how shallow the information that they get from these dailies.
They are also not aware of many aid and assistance available from many government and state agencies due to lack of coverage in the dailies.
They also have less knowledge of history, therefore do not appreciate country progress in politics, economy and socially throughout the years. This is also one of the reasons for their support for Hindraf, who received extensive coverage in Nanban and to a certain extend, Makkal Ossai.
All the mud slinging between Makkal Ossai and Tamil Nesan even invited the reprimand from PM Najib during the recent MIC AGM. Despite the reminder not to use newspapers for own political agenda, both papers have continued the ugly fight till today. Read here for more.
It would not be a loss for the tamil community if any of these dailies are out of business or even shut down by government. Both Tamil Nesan and Makkal Osai should just shut down their operations so that Nanban can thrive to become more authoritative independent voice of the community.
Perhaps a dual language (Bahasa and English) equivalent should be introduced to cater for the non-Tamil reading/speaking group within the Indian community.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Pakatan Rakyat – Epitome of ‘Competency, Accountability & Transparency’
The recent Pakatan Rakyat related scandals in Selangor, convinced what neutral critics and political analyst (active and those armchair analyst ) suspected when Pakatan came to power in 4 or rather 5 states, that nothing much is going to change and reforms remains in the lips of politicians from the Opposition and never really took off.
The worst, Pakatan are repeating the same blunders committed by BN, going to the extend of imitating BN way of doing things, despite all those reformist chants and sloganeering in the statements and ceramahs.
Being a resident in Selangor, I have not seen much change for more than 2 years now. The honeymoon period was long over. The honeymoon period should have been the time where Pakatan should have done a comprehensive review of the state government workings, policies and make necessary changes or in their own words, reforms.
Agreed that there were several feel good Rakyat friendly policies in place but ‘merakyatkan ekonomi’ really means nothing, when it comes to real policies or opportunities benefiting the Rakyat at large, economically.
The recent reports, counter reports, sacking, accusations, tweets or rather mistweets over supports letters only goes to show that Pakatan politicians are no different from BN. I remember that during the PKFZ scandal, the opposition went to town accusing Minister of transport, Chan Kong Choy of corruption and abuse of power for issuing support letters to companies involved in the project to secure loans and contracts.
As usual, there were noises from Mr Lim Kit Siang calling for Royal Commision of Enquiry on PKFZ. What about Selangor support letters issue? It was said that support letters were issued to contractors to win contracts worth millions. That is what was reported, what about those which went unreported or undeclared. Lim Kit Siang should seek appointment with Sultan of Selangor and demand for a Royal Commission of Enquiry. Why the silence when Kit Siang slams BN over any thing that goes wrong in this country, the next moment it happens.
When talking about reforms, if this issue was not reported (initially there was accusations that the MCA owned newspaper, The Star , was simply making up stories to destabilise the DAP powered state government), nothing would have been done to change or eliminate issuance of ‘support letters’ , because there was no intention to reform in the first place. MB Khalid was jolted when The Star headlined the story, admitting that investigation has been going on for 2 weeks ( about a month now, with no new updates) with no one asked to go on leave or suspended, inviting accusations that there were attempts to cover up the issue and gross lack of transparency over the whole affair.
Even the appointment of councilors were chaotic. Until now no one know how the selection process works and it turns out, they did another BN, no transparency whatsoever and in usual Malaysian style, the appointments were made late and changes were made in the last minutes. Even their ally, PSM was left bewildered with the omission of their own candidate.
Sand theft and illegal mining also shown the that the state government has learnt how to make money and contribute well in advance towards high income economy. Never miond that it benefits a small group of people working for the state government company, KKSB, which does nothing but works as a middleman between the actual sand mining companies and the state government. KKSB is nothing but a poor imitation of BN held state government companies which do nothing but act like blood sucking middlemen.
What would be the role of the Jabatan Tanah in all these, watch your newborn (KKSB) mint money and pay their staff 6 months of bonus over a year. KKSB’s contribution towards high income economy is 10 years ahead of the Najib’s plan. And very few companies around the world pay 6 months of bonus within a year of operations. As far as I know, only some lucky Skim Cepat Kaya companies have achieved that feat.
What has the state government done with the apparent mismanagement of sand mining activity and also the state government’s company’s role in it? The SELCAT hearing, completed in record 3 days, did not even ask for full fledged investigation to be carried out neither did they invite MACC to investigate. Evidences offered by own PKR MP, Manikavasagam was rejected due to some silly technicalities. Aren’t they interested in getting to the bottom of the issue, I don’t think so. Perhaps members of SELCAT, were worried some of them would have been dragged into the issue as perhaps, they would have issued supports letters to related companies which they can't even remember now.
Not much information has been much has been forthcoming ever since. No one knows if anyone was penalized or changes forthcoming in the company, except for statements blaming BN for even bigger scams during their days in power. Didn’t the Rakyat sent BN packing for all their misdeeds? What is the point of blaming BN again and again.
Now the state government plans a 15Million Ringgit information(or propaganda) blitz to give Rakyat a clearer picture of state governments workings, policies and achievements. I don’t know how this benefits the Rakyat. In Selangor where, broadband and internet access are reasonably high, nobody really reads mainstream media or watches RTM for example and with the fact that all Pakatan Parties’ newsletters or bulletins are readily available in the market, is this spending necessary. Kelantan, with lesser access to the net, Astro and even newspapers have managed to hold Kelantan for so long.
And finally, look at the behaviors of the key ADUNs and EXCO members. Their denials, counter denials, accusations, tweets, statements and media play only proves that every one of them are only interested to safeguard the own position. They are not even worried about repercussions and party image when about going public defending themselves. Where are the party dicipline and party media communication procedures?
Where is CEO, sorry, should be MB, Khalid in all these, only the EXCO members know. He is apparently not in the know of most of the things happening around him and he appears to be as confused and indecisive in the mould of Abdullah Badawi.
How all these resonate with ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency, I really don’t know? Maybe the architect of CAT, Emperor Lim Guan Eng has the answers and perhaps he, in his own arrogant style, can lecture some of his DAP comrades what those principles are in reality, if it was ever practiced in the first place.
By the way, Penang State Government promised that their leaders would undertake Asset declaration exercise. They delayed it claiming that standard form was not provided by federal government. If I am not mistaken, that was slightly more two years ago. Yet Mr Guan Eng’s government still appears not to have the ‘Competency’ to come up with a simple ‘Asset Declaration’ form and do not feel ‘Accountable’ to the promise that they made to the Rakyat. No one actually asked for it then.
Perhaps they now feel that the there is no need to practice ‘Transparency’ as their Pakatan counterparts in other states, after more than two years of governing, do not believe in those slogans anymore.
The worst, Pakatan are repeating the same blunders committed by BN, going to the extend of imitating BN way of doing things, despite all those reformist chants and sloganeering in the statements and ceramahs.
Being a resident in Selangor, I have not seen much change for more than 2 years now. The honeymoon period was long over. The honeymoon period should have been the time where Pakatan should have done a comprehensive review of the state government workings, policies and make necessary changes or in their own words, reforms.
Agreed that there were several feel good Rakyat friendly policies in place but ‘merakyatkan ekonomi’ really means nothing, when it comes to real policies or opportunities benefiting the Rakyat at large, economically.
The recent reports, counter reports, sacking, accusations, tweets or rather mistweets over supports letters only goes to show that Pakatan politicians are no different from BN. I remember that during the PKFZ scandal, the opposition went to town accusing Minister of transport, Chan Kong Choy of corruption and abuse of power for issuing support letters to companies involved in the project to secure loans and contracts.
As usual, there were noises from Mr Lim Kit Siang calling for Royal Commision of Enquiry on PKFZ. What about Selangor support letters issue? It was said that support letters were issued to contractors to win contracts worth millions. That is what was reported, what about those which went unreported or undeclared. Lim Kit Siang should seek appointment with Sultan of Selangor and demand for a Royal Commission of Enquiry. Why the silence when Kit Siang slams BN over any thing that goes wrong in this country, the next moment it happens.
When talking about reforms, if this issue was not reported (initially there was accusations that the MCA owned newspaper, The Star , was simply making up stories to destabilise the DAP powered state government), nothing would have been done to change or eliminate issuance of ‘support letters’ , because there was no intention to reform in the first place. MB Khalid was jolted when The Star headlined the story, admitting that investigation has been going on for 2 weeks ( about a month now, with no new updates) with no one asked to go on leave or suspended, inviting accusations that there were attempts to cover up the issue and gross lack of transparency over the whole affair.
Even the appointment of councilors were chaotic. Until now no one know how the selection process works and it turns out, they did another BN, no transparency whatsoever and in usual Malaysian style, the appointments were made late and changes were made in the last minutes. Even their ally, PSM was left bewildered with the omission of their own candidate.
Sand theft and illegal mining also shown the that the state government has learnt how to make money and contribute well in advance towards high income economy. Never miond that it benefits a small group of people working for the state government company, KKSB, which does nothing but works as a middleman between the actual sand mining companies and the state government. KKSB is nothing but a poor imitation of BN held state government companies which do nothing but act like blood sucking middlemen.
What would be the role of the Jabatan Tanah in all these, watch your newborn (KKSB) mint money and pay their staff 6 months of bonus over a year. KKSB’s contribution towards high income economy is 10 years ahead of the Najib’s plan. And very few companies around the world pay 6 months of bonus within a year of operations. As far as I know, only some lucky Skim Cepat Kaya companies have achieved that feat.
What has the state government done with the apparent mismanagement of sand mining activity and also the state government’s company’s role in it? The SELCAT hearing, completed in record 3 days, did not even ask for full fledged investigation to be carried out neither did they invite MACC to investigate. Evidences offered by own PKR MP, Manikavasagam was rejected due to some silly technicalities. Aren’t they interested in getting to the bottom of the issue, I don’t think so. Perhaps members of SELCAT, were worried some of them would have been dragged into the issue as perhaps, they would have issued supports letters to related companies which they can't even remember now.
Not much information has been much has been forthcoming ever since. No one knows if anyone was penalized or changes forthcoming in the company, except for statements blaming BN for even bigger scams during their days in power. Didn’t the Rakyat sent BN packing for all their misdeeds? What is the point of blaming BN again and again.
Now the state government plans a 15Million Ringgit information(or propaganda) blitz to give Rakyat a clearer picture of state governments workings, policies and achievements. I don’t know how this benefits the Rakyat. In Selangor where, broadband and internet access are reasonably high, nobody really reads mainstream media or watches RTM for example and with the fact that all Pakatan Parties’ newsletters or bulletins are readily available in the market, is this spending necessary. Kelantan, with lesser access to the net, Astro and even newspapers have managed to hold Kelantan for so long.
And finally, look at the behaviors of the key ADUNs and EXCO members. Their denials, counter denials, accusations, tweets, statements and media play only proves that every one of them are only interested to safeguard the own position. They are not even worried about repercussions and party image when about going public defending themselves. Where are the party dicipline and party media communication procedures?
Where is CEO, sorry, should be MB, Khalid in all these, only the EXCO members know. He is apparently not in the know of most of the things happening around him and he appears to be as confused and indecisive in the mould of Abdullah Badawi.
How all these resonate with ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency, I really don’t know? Maybe the architect of CAT, Emperor Lim Guan Eng has the answers and perhaps he, in his own arrogant style, can lecture some of his DAP comrades what those principles are in reality, if it was ever practiced in the first place.
By the way, Penang State Government promised that their leaders would undertake Asset declaration exercise. They delayed it claiming that standard form was not provided by federal government. If I am not mistaken, that was slightly more two years ago. Yet Mr Guan Eng’s government still appears not to have the ‘Competency’ to come up with a simple ‘Asset Declaration’ form and do not feel ‘Accountable’ to the promise that they made to the Rakyat. No one actually asked for it then.
Perhaps they now feel that the there is no need to practice ‘Transparency’ as their Pakatan counterparts in other states, after more than two years of governing, do not believe in those slogans anymore.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
Tamil Nesan, MIC and Samy Velu
In Their Own Pandora
One word sums up it all. Both the party and it’s leader is irrelevant, a word made famous during sodomy 1 trials by Judge, the late Augustine Paul.
MIC and Samy appear to live in their own world. While I know for sure that the GAS movement will not have impact on him, I am baffled that Samy is ignorant of numerous show of disgust by fellow Indians in the country. Only someone with thick skin can endure such abuses and insults throughout the country, not just by Indians but also by other races who are equally baffled that this unwanted leader is still around, helming the party when most of his contemporaries have retired and even some are resting in peace.
What is more baffling is that MIC members, who appear to share the same planet as Samy, still believe in Samy and still thinks MIC is relevant to the Indian community.
When Kamalanathan won the Hulu Selangor parliament seat, it make them big headed and more convinced that MIC is relevant when everyone knows that the Indian votes had hardly returned to BN. It was the Malays who won it for Kamalanathan.
Samy Vellu’s claims of 600,000 membership of MIC are all a sham. MIC branch leaders open branches by getting copies of identity card of Indians all over their area. Branch leaders pay the membership fees and maintain the records to keep their branches active.
Only the old guards, who have benefited directly from Samy Velu are still supporting and worshipping him, perhaps also due to the fact that Samy also means ‘God” .
My estimate is MIC has only about less than 50,000 hardcore supporters or rather Samy cult followers.
Tamil Nesan
Since the emergence of GAS movement, MIC’s family owned paper, Tamil Nesan, went on the offensive with numerous declaration of support for Samy Vellu by various state, divisional and branch chairman, who appear to revere Samy as a king or even god.
Numerous lies are propagated by the newspaper, whose Managing Director is none other than MIC’s prince, Vel Paari. Even on Monday, 31st May, the front page had a huge picture of an almost empty hall in Mines, where the GAS event was held. The report says that hardly 2000 people turned up and most of whom who turned up was Indian Nationals and Indonesians who works for Klang based businessman, Ohms Thiagarajan.
A quick glance at other newspapers in newsstands tells you a completely different story. The hall was full at about 4pm and even one can see a full turnout from the prime time news in TV. Who is Tamil Nesan trying to fool. Tamil Nesan thinks that the Indians are an ignorant lot and will believe what it says. The newspaper is now helmed by a reporter who was jailed before for defaming Samy Vellu. Now this man is using Tamil Nesan to slam Samy’s detractors. How ironic and things change when people develop thick skin like Samy. Maybe money and survival make people work for their one time enemy.
Tamil Nesan also published several sponsored full page advertisements of Birthday wishes for Samy’s wife Indrani. If anyone reads the wishes narrated, one would believe that Indrani is bigger than Queen Elizabeth or Mother Theresa combined. Never before I have seen people sucking up to irrelevant leaders and their wifes in such a way. Indrani has been described as 1st lady, model mother (to Vel Paari, yucks), model woman, holier than thou person etc. It was sickening to read such things when the whole of Malaysia knows that Indrani is nothing but another politician wife.
Tamil Nesan has no worthy news to offer, their front pages are either dedicated to glorifying MIC leaders, Samy or his son Vel Paari, or their partner in crime, youth leader or rather Youth ‘liar’, T.Mohan. Front page are also often dedicated to slam ex-deputy, Dato S. Subramaniam and other critics. It has the lowest circulation amongst Tamil dailies and I believe only hardcore Samy supporters buy the paper.
Other MIC Leaders
I am equally baffled with the silence from other MIC leaders. They should know by now that nobody supports MIC and their leaders. Either they are deaf or dumb enough not to realise this. Their leaders have also not learn their lessons. During the Hulu Selangor by elections, MIC leaders have yet to fulfill many of their promises. Some tried to misappropriate funds given by BN, some gave worthless cheques while some purposely wrote incorrect names in the cheques, causing cheques to be returned. People in Hulu Selangor is more disgusted with MIC now.
This is a one man party and most of those in CWC owe Samy a lot for their current position in the party, therefore most do not want to go against their King. It appears that in their minds, never mind what the Rakyat says, Samy is more important than anything else in their Pandora.
Samy purported successor, Palanivel does not enjoy widespread support and seen as weak. Only Minister Subramaniam enjoy has some respect among Malaysians. Will he speak up and do something. Nobody thinks he will as he owe both Samy and Palanivel for his post now, both in Cabinet and the party.
So nothing is going to change even if Palanivel takes over. Najib should realise that he can’t rely on Samy’s party. In the hindsight, as suggested by T.Mohan, MIC should just leave BN or UMNO should find ways to expel MIC. Only then MIC will realise that they are nobody without BN’s support.
Samy Vellu’s Biggest Achievement
Dr Mahathir urged Samy to call it a day many times over, sarcastically highlighting Samy’s record breaking tenure. Apart from this record, Samy will be remembered as the who caused Indian community to split. There was no other Indian political party before Samy took over MIC. Now we have almost a dozen of Indian based political parties and hundreds of Indian based NGO, just because MIC is ineffective. All because of his grip on MIC and his inability to face dissent in his own party.
On a lighter note, his other achievement and potentials are listed here.
One word sums up it all. Both the party and it’s leader is irrelevant, a word made famous during sodomy 1 trials by Judge, the late Augustine Paul.
MIC and Samy appear to live in their own world. While I know for sure that the GAS movement will not have impact on him, I am baffled that Samy is ignorant of numerous show of disgust by fellow Indians in the country. Only someone with thick skin can endure such abuses and insults throughout the country, not just by Indians but also by other races who are equally baffled that this unwanted leader is still around, helming the party when most of his contemporaries have retired and even some are resting in peace.
What is more baffling is that MIC members, who appear to share the same planet as Samy, still believe in Samy and still thinks MIC is relevant to the Indian community.
When Kamalanathan won the Hulu Selangor parliament seat, it make them big headed and more convinced that MIC is relevant when everyone knows that the Indian votes had hardly returned to BN. It was the Malays who won it for Kamalanathan.
Samy Vellu’s claims of 600,000 membership of MIC are all a sham. MIC branch leaders open branches by getting copies of identity card of Indians all over their area. Branch leaders pay the membership fees and maintain the records to keep their branches active.
Only the old guards, who have benefited directly from Samy Velu are still supporting and worshipping him, perhaps also due to the fact that Samy also means ‘God” .
My estimate is MIC has only about less than 50,000 hardcore supporters or rather Samy cult followers.
Tamil Nesan
Since the emergence of GAS movement, MIC’s family owned paper, Tamil Nesan, went on the offensive with numerous declaration of support for Samy Vellu by various state, divisional and branch chairman, who appear to revere Samy as a king or even god.
Numerous lies are propagated by the newspaper, whose Managing Director is none other than MIC’s prince, Vel Paari. Even on Monday, 31st May, the front page had a huge picture of an almost empty hall in Mines, where the GAS event was held. The report says that hardly 2000 people turned up and most of whom who turned up was Indian Nationals and Indonesians who works for Klang based businessman, Ohms Thiagarajan.
A quick glance at other newspapers in newsstands tells you a completely different story. The hall was full at about 4pm and even one can see a full turnout from the prime time news in TV. Who is Tamil Nesan trying to fool. Tamil Nesan thinks that the Indians are an ignorant lot and will believe what it says. The newspaper is now helmed by a reporter who was jailed before for defaming Samy Vellu. Now this man is using Tamil Nesan to slam Samy’s detractors. How ironic and things change when people develop thick skin like Samy. Maybe money and survival make people work for their one time enemy.
Tamil Nesan also published several sponsored full page advertisements of Birthday wishes for Samy’s wife Indrani. If anyone reads the wishes narrated, one would believe that Indrani is bigger than Queen Elizabeth or Mother Theresa combined. Never before I have seen people sucking up to irrelevant leaders and their wifes in such a way. Indrani has been described as 1st lady, model mother (to Vel Paari, yucks), model woman, holier than thou person etc. It was sickening to read such things when the whole of Malaysia knows that Indrani is nothing but another politician wife.
Tamil Nesan has no worthy news to offer, their front pages are either dedicated to glorifying MIC leaders, Samy or his son Vel Paari, or their partner in crime, youth leader or rather Youth ‘liar’, T.Mohan. Front page are also often dedicated to slam ex-deputy, Dato S. Subramaniam and other critics. It has the lowest circulation amongst Tamil dailies and I believe only hardcore Samy supporters buy the paper.
Other MIC Leaders
I am equally baffled with the silence from other MIC leaders. They should know by now that nobody supports MIC and their leaders. Either they are deaf or dumb enough not to realise this. Their leaders have also not learn their lessons. During the Hulu Selangor by elections, MIC leaders have yet to fulfill many of their promises. Some tried to misappropriate funds given by BN, some gave worthless cheques while some purposely wrote incorrect names in the cheques, causing cheques to be returned. People in Hulu Selangor is more disgusted with MIC now.
This is a one man party and most of those in CWC owe Samy a lot for their current position in the party, therefore most do not want to go against their King. It appears that in their minds, never mind what the Rakyat says, Samy is more important than anything else in their Pandora.
Samy purported successor, Palanivel does not enjoy widespread support and seen as weak. Only Minister Subramaniam enjoy has some respect among Malaysians. Will he speak up and do something. Nobody thinks he will as he owe both Samy and Palanivel for his post now, both in Cabinet and the party.
So nothing is going to change even if Palanivel takes over. Najib should realise that he can’t rely on Samy’s party. In the hindsight, as suggested by T.Mohan, MIC should just leave BN or UMNO should find ways to expel MIC. Only then MIC will realise that they are nobody without BN’s support.
Samy Vellu’s Biggest Achievement
Dr Mahathir urged Samy to call it a day many times over, sarcastically highlighting Samy’s record breaking tenure. Apart from this record, Samy will be remembered as the who caused Indian community to split. There was no other Indian political party before Samy took over MIC. Now we have almost a dozen of Indian based political parties and hundreds of Indian based NGO, just because MIC is ineffective. All because of his grip on MIC and his inability to face dissent in his own party.
On a lighter note, his other achievement and potentials are listed here.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Hulu Selangor : No Winners
Now that the battle is over, various armchair analyst and critics from both ends have provided their take on the Hulu Selangor by-elections. Let me provide my view now.
Having been to some of the campaigns as well as talking to mostly Pakatan Supporters throughout the campaign period, the results came as a shock. I was constantly told by Pakatan Supporters that Zaid is very likely to win although from the events that unfolded during the campaign period, I reminded them that it was still 50:50.
Pakatan Supporters, some of whom are local PKR leaders in Serendah with contacts in other small towns like Batang Kali, Kuala Kubu Baru, Sg Choh etc , were confident that PKR will definitely win over Chinese and Indian votes. This is despite Millions that were thrown around by Najib and the BN battalion. They were also confident that Indians will still vote for PKR despite the candidate being another Indian.
They were largely correct. Indians and Chinese took whatever BN gave and still voted for PKR’s Zaid although there is a marginal shift in Indian votes towards BN. Character assassination on Zaid did not really work amongst the non-malay voters. Chinese and Indians still remember Zaid as a man of principles.
So what actually went wrong for Pakatan.
1. As for the candidate, for once Pakatan looked quite arrogant as compared to BN. Kamalanathan did his walkabout in simple attire and running shoes while Zaid went about in his luxury car, says a friend of mine. Perception matters, have we heard enough on this about UMNO leaders before. It appears that PKR is also muda lupa..
2. As for the campaigns, there were largely not interesting. While Chinese can appreciate national issues, the malays and Indians did not. Who cares about APCO when the state government can even resurface the road next to my house, says a Pakatan Supporter. Stolen jet engines, Submarine, Teoh Beng Hock , Kugan etc did not resonate well with the Malays. This is where they lost.
3. Anwar’s association with Jewish leaders were already well known, therefore Malays did not buy his APCO argument.
4. Who will buy your argument when you have people like ‘lori sampah’ Gopalakrishan of Padang Serai talking nonsence half the time. Issues were not carefully chosen to suit the audience.
5. Campaigns were ad-hoc, not well coordinated and at times, the speakers were either not on time or never turned up.
6. PAS campaigns were more focusing on defending Zaid. ‘Allah menyanyangi orang yang bertaubat’ goes one of the sentence. PAS talking about lack of development in Hulu Selangor since independence till Pakatan took over in the last elections does not hold water. Hulu Selangor is far more developed than Kelantan.
7. Local PKR leaders were too demanding, especially Indians. These leaders were holding their sponsors (upper PKR leaders) to ransom. First they were given RM 10,000 to run their operations centre (Bilik Gerakan) and also persuade voters in that particular area, then when Zaid’s drinking issue came about, they went on to demand another RM 10,000 claiming that it would be difficult to persuade voters.
8. Some local PKR leaders were also involved in negotiating with MIC and even Makkal Sakhti party, seeking cash in return of support, even after claiming their dues from PKR sponsors.
9. Some PKR Indians supporters claimed money from both Pakatan and BN for putting up posters around their towns. Talk about party loyalty.
10. PKR and Pakatan Rakyat state government did not do much in Hulu Selangor since the last general elections, despite promise of change for better during the campaign. Being a regular visitor there, even the basic infrastructure was not maintained.
11. Giving out land titles and funds to schools and temples, while were accepted by the residents in Hulu Selangor, they were thought to be no different from BN in terms of vote buying since they are only seen during the elections.
11. Pakatan Rakyat state government did not bother to do anything about the land issue in Felda Sungai Buaya, despite promising to do something in the last general elections. Here they lost about 700 votes to BN.
12. MB Khalid hardly visited this area since taking over the state government. He came to Felda Sungai Buaya for the first time ever on Saturday Morning, asking residents to be cautious and not sign any documents. The same afternoon, Najib came and gave out compensation to some residents and more importantly a plan to develop the land, something viable now since a new highway exit will be constructed by PLUS nearby.
13. PKR Indian leaders were more involved in the Ceramahs rather than site and house visits while MIC leaders were more hands on and were more on the ground, despite facing hostile and sometimes abusive crowd.
14. Pakatan Rakyat and it’s economic advisor did not have any plans on improving the living standards, investments and more job opportunities in Hulu Selangor. They were mostly interested in politicizing everything in their campaigns.
BN on the other hand, in my opinion, did not win anything. Votes for them that really made the difference were from Felda Sungai Buaya (700 votes) and also postal votes, another 700. Other than this, there was no significant shift in votes.
BN is still the champions in the Felda area, however they have failed to win over the Chinese and Indians in the townships. Throwing around millions should have resulted in at least 7-8,000 majority. It didn’t, therefore BN should learn that money can’t buy votes any longer. The Chinese community, despite benefiting millions, did not favour BN at all. Their anger towards UMNO and their leaders are still present.
Najib’s various initiatives such as Government Transformation Plan, New Economic Model, walk about may have brought about a feel good factor but the Chinese appear to want concrete results, more than mere rhetoric. They are also clearly offended with various slip of the tongue and racial slurs by UMNO leaders.
As for the Indians, they are generally still anti-MIC, although they are warming up to Najib. Most of them in Hulu Selangor are blind Pakatan Supporters who are now complaining about Pakatan Rakyat state governments failure to live up to their promises.
Only the PKR ‘Mandore’ Xavier Jeyakumar is popular for giving out funds to various temples and schools. But there were general discontent that that is not what they actually want. They want a better living standard and more job opportunities, something that is not very evident in Hulu Selangor since Pakatan Rakyat took over. One disappointed hardcore Pakatan Rakyat supporter from Felda Sungai Buaya lamented that the comments from one UMNO leader on ‘Indian being beggars’ was proven during the elections when many Indians took money from BN and voted blindly for them (BN).
In the end, this is no vote of confidence for Najib and certainly not for his deputy not this is a victory for Pakatan Rakyat in many areas as claimed by their supporters. Both parties have to remember that during the general elections, they will not be able to have such resources to go around with in the first place. They will also not have all their heavyweight leaders around for all ceramahs around the country within the traditionally short campaign period.
Therefore what they do between now and the next elections matters. If anything, the clear winners were Kamalanathan, who can hold his head high for a very decent debut while Hulu Selangor residents were the main beneficiary from the goodies thrown at them by opposing sides.
Having been to some of the campaigns as well as talking to mostly Pakatan Supporters throughout the campaign period, the results came as a shock. I was constantly told by Pakatan Supporters that Zaid is very likely to win although from the events that unfolded during the campaign period, I reminded them that it was still 50:50.
Pakatan Supporters, some of whom are local PKR leaders in Serendah with contacts in other small towns like Batang Kali, Kuala Kubu Baru, Sg Choh etc , were confident that PKR will definitely win over Chinese and Indian votes. This is despite Millions that were thrown around by Najib and the BN battalion. They were also confident that Indians will still vote for PKR despite the candidate being another Indian.
They were largely correct. Indians and Chinese took whatever BN gave and still voted for PKR’s Zaid although there is a marginal shift in Indian votes towards BN. Character assassination on Zaid did not really work amongst the non-malay voters. Chinese and Indians still remember Zaid as a man of principles.
So what actually went wrong for Pakatan.
1. As for the candidate, for once Pakatan looked quite arrogant as compared to BN. Kamalanathan did his walkabout in simple attire and running shoes while Zaid went about in his luxury car, says a friend of mine. Perception matters, have we heard enough on this about UMNO leaders before. It appears that PKR is also muda lupa..
2. As for the campaigns, there were largely not interesting. While Chinese can appreciate national issues, the malays and Indians did not. Who cares about APCO when the state government can even resurface the road next to my house, says a Pakatan Supporter. Stolen jet engines, Submarine, Teoh Beng Hock , Kugan etc did not resonate well with the Malays. This is where they lost.
3. Anwar’s association with Jewish leaders were already well known, therefore Malays did not buy his APCO argument.
4. Who will buy your argument when you have people like ‘lori sampah’ Gopalakrishan of Padang Serai talking nonsence half the time. Issues were not carefully chosen to suit the audience.
5. Campaigns were ad-hoc, not well coordinated and at times, the speakers were either not on time or never turned up.
6. PAS campaigns were more focusing on defending Zaid. ‘Allah menyanyangi orang yang bertaubat’ goes one of the sentence. PAS talking about lack of development in Hulu Selangor since independence till Pakatan took over in the last elections does not hold water. Hulu Selangor is far more developed than Kelantan.
7. Local PKR leaders were too demanding, especially Indians. These leaders were holding their sponsors (upper PKR leaders) to ransom. First they were given RM 10,000 to run their operations centre (Bilik Gerakan) and also persuade voters in that particular area, then when Zaid’s drinking issue came about, they went on to demand another RM 10,000 claiming that it would be difficult to persuade voters.
8. Some local PKR leaders were also involved in negotiating with MIC and even Makkal Sakhti party, seeking cash in return of support, even after claiming their dues from PKR sponsors.
9. Some PKR Indians supporters claimed money from both Pakatan and BN for putting up posters around their towns. Talk about party loyalty.
10. PKR and Pakatan Rakyat state government did not do much in Hulu Selangor since the last general elections, despite promise of change for better during the campaign. Being a regular visitor there, even the basic infrastructure was not maintained.
11. Giving out land titles and funds to schools and temples, while were accepted by the residents in Hulu Selangor, they were thought to be no different from BN in terms of vote buying since they are only seen during the elections.
11. Pakatan Rakyat state government did not bother to do anything about the land issue in Felda Sungai Buaya, despite promising to do something in the last general elections. Here they lost about 700 votes to BN.
12. MB Khalid hardly visited this area since taking over the state government. He came to Felda Sungai Buaya for the first time ever on Saturday Morning, asking residents to be cautious and not sign any documents. The same afternoon, Najib came and gave out compensation to some residents and more importantly a plan to develop the land, something viable now since a new highway exit will be constructed by PLUS nearby.
13. PKR Indian leaders were more involved in the Ceramahs rather than site and house visits while MIC leaders were more hands on and were more on the ground, despite facing hostile and sometimes abusive crowd.
14. Pakatan Rakyat and it’s economic advisor did not have any plans on improving the living standards, investments and more job opportunities in Hulu Selangor. They were mostly interested in politicizing everything in their campaigns.
BN on the other hand, in my opinion, did not win anything. Votes for them that really made the difference were from Felda Sungai Buaya (700 votes) and also postal votes, another 700. Other than this, there was no significant shift in votes.
BN is still the champions in the Felda area, however they have failed to win over the Chinese and Indians in the townships. Throwing around millions should have resulted in at least 7-8,000 majority. It didn’t, therefore BN should learn that money can’t buy votes any longer. The Chinese community, despite benefiting millions, did not favour BN at all. Their anger towards UMNO and their leaders are still present.
Najib’s various initiatives such as Government Transformation Plan, New Economic Model, walk about may have brought about a feel good factor but the Chinese appear to want concrete results, more than mere rhetoric. They are also clearly offended with various slip of the tongue and racial slurs by UMNO leaders.
As for the Indians, they are generally still anti-MIC, although they are warming up to Najib. Most of them in Hulu Selangor are blind Pakatan Supporters who are now complaining about Pakatan Rakyat state governments failure to live up to their promises.
Only the PKR ‘Mandore’ Xavier Jeyakumar is popular for giving out funds to various temples and schools. But there were general discontent that that is not what they actually want. They want a better living standard and more job opportunities, something that is not very evident in Hulu Selangor since Pakatan Rakyat took over. One disappointed hardcore Pakatan Rakyat supporter from Felda Sungai Buaya lamented that the comments from one UMNO leader on ‘Indian being beggars’ was proven during the elections when many Indians took money from BN and voted blindly for them (BN).
In the end, this is no vote of confidence for Najib and certainly not for his deputy not this is a victory for Pakatan Rakyat in many areas as claimed by their supporters. Both parties have to remember that during the general elections, they will not be able to have such resources to go around with in the first place. They will also not have all their heavyweight leaders around for all ceramahs around the country within the traditionally short campaign period.
Therefore what they do between now and the next elections matters. If anything, the clear winners were Kamalanathan, who can hold his head high for a very decent debut while Hulu Selangor residents were the main beneficiary from the goodies thrown at them by opposing sides.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Hulu Selangor : Pakatan's Personal Attacks & Hypocrisy
I am again bemused with Pakatan supporters. When put on a defensive mode, they suddenly turn into some right thinking clean and positive supporters. They have the cheek to call others hypocrites.
They have forgotten that they were equally bad, naughty and ugly before. Who started all these name calling, blatant accusations and personal attacks in the first place.
No less that Malaysian’s mudah lupa, Don’t we remember how they ostracized Dr Mahathir when Anwar was sacked. All kind of accusations were made up without any shred of evidence. Some of It includes that he has a Chinese wife, another wife in Singapore, Israeli Bank Accounts and many more.
And even in the recent past, who were accusing Najib and Rosmah of murder. Have they forgot that a little napoleon MP from Pakatan Rakyat super-imposed Najib Image seen to be seated along side Altantuya. What was that then? Was he punished for his misdeeds? No..
Name calling and personal attacks are a norm in Pakatan Speeches during ceramah. Even the ones I attended recently were full of nasty name calling and personal attacks. That was just during a normal “Selamatkan Pakatan Rakyat” (actually it was ‘Selamatkan Malaysia” road show. I remember the same happened in many of the ceramah during the last general elections.
It is just that Zaid is being accused of many un Islamic habits, Pakatan Rakyat supporters were put on defensive mode mainly because they are unable to defend him. They demand that campaign must be clean and ethical. Have they ever been ethical in the past ? and even present, where they have started publishing some other minister seen drinking in their blogs.
Even Zaid has started his personal attacks today, claiming that UMNO guys are avid gamblers, not sure if this includes him and his de facto leader, Anwar. Anwar on the other hand, is an expert in this, just that his fanatical supporters are blinded by his rhetoric to realise the difference between fair comments and personal attack.
Have Pakatan bloggers ever been ethical and polite in the past. I reckon that it is about time they reap what they sow. they started it all, and they started this way back in 1998. Some of the accusations were really ridiculous, mainly designed to fool the least educated Malays, condemn UMNO and inadvertently to boost opposition’s Islamic credentials.
Pakatan Rakyat is even fast losing their grip on the web. More and more BN friendly blogs have emerged and has become even more popular than hard core Pakatan Blogs, the statistics shows it all. Anwar even begged his facebook friends to bring in more members while his arch enemy, Dr Mahathir has far more facebook friends without making any effort or even being active on the political front.
People like me have become increasingly tired of all these lies propagated by Pakatan and BN to a certain extend that they are not likely to believe what they read and see all that are available in the internet. Although a large number of Pakatan Rakyat supporters still believe in lies propagated by their leaders and condone personal attacks on their enemies, rational thinking Malaysians, who are not necessarily BN supporters, are equally large in numbers out there.
They can see who are in the right or wrong and who the hypocrites are. In this current game of personal attacks, Pakatan Rakyat is clearly the world leader for decades while their fanatical supporters are the biggest hypocrites now.
They have forgotten that they were equally bad, naughty and ugly before. Who started all these name calling, blatant accusations and personal attacks in the first place.
No less that Malaysian’s mudah lupa, Don’t we remember how they ostracized Dr Mahathir when Anwar was sacked. All kind of accusations were made up without any shred of evidence. Some of It includes that he has a Chinese wife, another wife in Singapore, Israeli Bank Accounts and many more.
And even in the recent past, who were accusing Najib and Rosmah of murder. Have they forgot that a little napoleon MP from Pakatan Rakyat super-imposed Najib Image seen to be seated along side Altantuya. What was that then? Was he punished for his misdeeds? No..
Name calling and personal attacks are a norm in Pakatan Speeches during ceramah. Even the ones I attended recently were full of nasty name calling and personal attacks. That was just during a normal “Selamatkan Pakatan Rakyat” (actually it was ‘Selamatkan Malaysia” road show. I remember the same happened in many of the ceramah during the last general elections.
It is just that Zaid is being accused of many un Islamic habits, Pakatan Rakyat supporters were put on defensive mode mainly because they are unable to defend him. They demand that campaign must be clean and ethical. Have they ever been ethical in the past ? and even present, where they have started publishing some other minister seen drinking in their blogs.
Even Zaid has started his personal attacks today, claiming that UMNO guys are avid gamblers, not sure if this includes him and his de facto leader, Anwar. Anwar on the other hand, is an expert in this, just that his fanatical supporters are blinded by his rhetoric to realise the difference between fair comments and personal attack.
Have Pakatan bloggers ever been ethical and polite in the past. I reckon that it is about time they reap what they sow. they started it all, and they started this way back in 1998. Some of the accusations were really ridiculous, mainly designed to fool the least educated Malays, condemn UMNO and inadvertently to boost opposition’s Islamic credentials.
Pakatan Rakyat is even fast losing their grip on the web. More and more BN friendly blogs have emerged and has become even more popular than hard core Pakatan Blogs, the statistics shows it all. Anwar even begged his facebook friends to bring in more members while his arch enemy, Dr Mahathir has far more facebook friends without making any effort or even being active on the political front.
People like me have become increasingly tired of all these lies propagated by Pakatan and BN to a certain extend that they are not likely to believe what they read and see all that are available in the internet. Although a large number of Pakatan Rakyat supporters still believe in lies propagated by their leaders and condone personal attacks on their enemies, rational thinking Malaysians, who are not necessarily BN supporters, are equally large in numbers out there.
They can see who are in the right or wrong and who the hypocrites are. In this current game of personal attacks, Pakatan Rakyat is clearly the world leader for decades while their fanatical supporters are the biggest hypocrites now.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Hulu Selangor : Vote Buying Endorsed By Pakatan Rakyat??
As expected, PM Najib and his cabinet members descended upon Hulu Selangor as soon as the pervious MP was laid to rest.
Although campaigning should not start until the nomination day, both BN and Pakatan has started lobbying hard for votes. Their understanding of campaigning rules is limited to not putting up posters and banners until the nomination day. Everything else is not forbidden.
BN leaders, who has to attend parliament and also other commitments managed to make frequent ad-hoc visits to Hulu Selangor. MB Khalid on the other hand, relocated his whole Exco team to Hulu Selangor in order to campaign and work at the same time. He is using Kuala Kubu Bahru district office as his own, so does his team members.
BN, with Najib’s visit, has, as expected, playing Santa Claus, throwing in the goodies for the local voters, with the announcement of a housing project for Felda Settlers. Not to be outdone, Selangor State government announced land grants in various forms (lease, TOL) etc for the local folks.
Not surprisingly, the Santa Clause appointed to dish out the goodies are based on their race, more than anything else, except for those with high position like PM Najib or MB Khalid. Despite the regular claims and utterances of ‘multi racial, ‘inclusiveness’, ‘Malaysian First’, both Pakatan And BN’s campaign strategy is very much based on race and nothing else.
PKR Indian Mandore (title given by Uthayakumar’s Hindraf ) Xavier Jeyakumar, has been busy. He is the most popular Indian PKR leader in the country. Not a day goes by without news reports of him dishing out grants for Tamil Schools and Temples around Selangor. Even MIC owned Tamil Nesan, which in recent months has been trying to revive it’s flagging circulation, provides regular coverage on Xavier's activities. Xavier, two days ago, presented mock cheques, few millions in value, to various schools and temples in Hulu Selangor. This received wide coverage in the Tamil Newspapers.
Hindraf had for many months dismissed Xavier’s tokenism and asks Pakatan to provide land for Tamil School and Temples. Strangely, Pakatan, despite State Governments power over land matters have not been doing this. A friend pointed out that what the Indians want is not only land but permanent annual grants, not piece meal handouts that is being dished out by Xavier.
A case to point is Johor State Government providing the state Hindu Sangam a land for their office and RM 200,000 grant for next 7 years. With these, there is no need to beg the state government every year.
Samy Vellu & Palanivel, on the other hand has been going to similar places visited by his Pakatan Counterparts, often ridiculed and shouted at. There was also a local man almost beaten up by MIC members for questioning Samy openly during a gathering at Sg Choh last week. A temple there even refused Samy’s pledge for funds, saying that they have been taken care by PKR.
Indians here claims, at least from what I hear from an influential local PKR leader in Serendah, that local leaders are being enticed by both PKR and BN with money, promises of grants, contracts, lands etc. He says that PKR is of no short of funds for the campaign. When asked for the source of funds, he says both State Government and PKR has ‘enough’ funds to run a campaign in equal measure with BN, although we all know that they cannot match BN’s federal government promises on projects.
The consensus amongst Indians here, apart from some hard core party loyalist from both sides, take whatever that is being dished out, no matter who is giving them but vote for who you like. Sounds like a good idea.
Before the last general elections, Pakatan Rakyat cried foul over massive indirect vote buying by BN. I am astounded that MB Khalid openly says that he wants and is doing exactly the same. No one from other Pakatan component parties denounced such indirect vote buying practices. Such hypocrisy!! Another case of Malaysians muda lupa..
I am quite bewildered with the silence from the Election Commission. After the announcement of the nomination and by-election date, there has been a complete silence from them. Why aren’t they chastising both BN and Pakatan over early campaigning and indirect vote buying?
Whatever happened to Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (BERSIH) Why don’t they take to the streets condemning the vote buying by both sides. Why also a silence from all those ‘credible’ NGOs such as Aliran, Suaram and like minded BN critics and bloggers?
Why Lim Kit Siang did not post an article in his blog with a kilometer long title ‘ SPR SHOULD REQUEST THE KING TO FORM ROYAL COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY TO INVESTIGATE MASSIVE VOTE BUYING ACTIVITY IN HULU SELANGOR BY BOTH BARISAN NASIONAL AND PAKATAN RAKYAT’ Kit Siang or rather Anwar (who is an expert now in writing to the King) should write to the King on this or might as well admit that he is such a hypocrite, unlike MB Khalid whose honesty deserved either praise or condemnation, depending on which side your are aligned to.
Perhaps, Pakatan’s candidate, Zaid Ibrahim should explain if the vote buying before even the nomination day is a common policy adopted by Pakatan Rakyat!! As for the Hulu Selangor residents, it cannot be a better time to celebrate and enjoy the goodies and still vote for whom they like.
Although campaigning should not start until the nomination day, both BN and Pakatan has started lobbying hard for votes. Their understanding of campaigning rules is limited to not putting up posters and banners until the nomination day. Everything else is not forbidden.
BN leaders, who has to attend parliament and also other commitments managed to make frequent ad-hoc visits to Hulu Selangor. MB Khalid on the other hand, relocated his whole Exco team to Hulu Selangor in order to campaign and work at the same time. He is using Kuala Kubu Bahru district office as his own, so does his team members.
BN, with Najib’s visit, has, as expected, playing Santa Claus, throwing in the goodies for the local voters, with the announcement of a housing project for Felda Settlers. Not to be outdone, Selangor State government announced land grants in various forms (lease, TOL) etc for the local folks.
Not surprisingly, the Santa Clause appointed to dish out the goodies are based on their race, more than anything else, except for those with high position like PM Najib or MB Khalid. Despite the regular claims and utterances of ‘multi racial, ‘inclusiveness’, ‘Malaysian First’, both Pakatan And BN’s campaign strategy is very much based on race and nothing else.
PKR Indian Mandore (title given by Uthayakumar’s Hindraf ) Xavier Jeyakumar, has been busy. He is the most popular Indian PKR leader in the country. Not a day goes by without news reports of him dishing out grants for Tamil Schools and Temples around Selangor. Even MIC owned Tamil Nesan, which in recent months has been trying to revive it’s flagging circulation, provides regular coverage on Xavier's activities. Xavier, two days ago, presented mock cheques, few millions in value, to various schools and temples in Hulu Selangor. This received wide coverage in the Tamil Newspapers.
Hindraf had for many months dismissed Xavier’s tokenism and asks Pakatan to provide land for Tamil School and Temples. Strangely, Pakatan, despite State Governments power over land matters have not been doing this. A friend pointed out that what the Indians want is not only land but permanent annual grants, not piece meal handouts that is being dished out by Xavier.
A case to point is Johor State Government providing the state Hindu Sangam a land for their office and RM 200,000 grant for next 7 years. With these, there is no need to beg the state government every year.
Samy Vellu & Palanivel, on the other hand has been going to similar places visited by his Pakatan Counterparts, often ridiculed and shouted at. There was also a local man almost beaten up by MIC members for questioning Samy openly during a gathering at Sg Choh last week. A temple there even refused Samy’s pledge for funds, saying that they have been taken care by PKR.
Indians here claims, at least from what I hear from an influential local PKR leader in Serendah, that local leaders are being enticed by both PKR and BN with money, promises of grants, contracts, lands etc. He says that PKR is of no short of funds for the campaign. When asked for the source of funds, he says both State Government and PKR has ‘enough’ funds to run a campaign in equal measure with BN, although we all know that they cannot match BN’s federal government promises on projects.
The consensus amongst Indians here, apart from some hard core party loyalist from both sides, take whatever that is being dished out, no matter who is giving them but vote for who you like. Sounds like a good idea.
Before the last general elections, Pakatan Rakyat cried foul over massive indirect vote buying by BN. I am astounded that MB Khalid openly says that he wants and is doing exactly the same. No one from other Pakatan component parties denounced such indirect vote buying practices. Such hypocrisy!! Another case of Malaysians muda lupa..
I am quite bewildered with the silence from the Election Commission. After the announcement of the nomination and by-election date, there has been a complete silence from them. Why aren’t they chastising both BN and Pakatan over early campaigning and indirect vote buying?
Whatever happened to Coalition for Free and Fair Elections (BERSIH) Why don’t they take to the streets condemning the vote buying by both sides. Why also a silence from all those ‘credible’ NGOs such as Aliran, Suaram and like minded BN critics and bloggers?
Why Lim Kit Siang did not post an article in his blog with a kilometer long title ‘ SPR SHOULD REQUEST THE KING TO FORM ROYAL COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY TO INVESTIGATE MASSIVE VOTE BUYING ACTIVITY IN HULU SELANGOR BY BOTH BARISAN NASIONAL AND PAKATAN RAKYAT’ Kit Siang or rather Anwar (who is an expert now in writing to the King) should write to the King on this or might as well admit that he is such a hypocrite, unlike MB Khalid whose honesty deserved either praise or condemnation, depending on which side your are aligned to.
Perhaps, Pakatan’s candidate, Zaid Ibrahim should explain if the vote buying before even the nomination day is a common policy adopted by Pakatan Rakyat!! As for the Hulu Selangor residents, it cannot be a better time to celebrate and enjoy the goodies and still vote for whom they like.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Hulu Selangor - 50:50
I have been to Hulu Selangor, Felda and Bandar Sungai Buaya to be precise for the last 3 general elections since my wife is a voter there. I do have many relatives and friends there.
Like everywhere else then, rural areas like Hulu Selangor are bastion of BN. The MIC candidate, G Palanivel has been the MP for 4 terms before he lost marginally in the 2008 elections. BN on the other hand won all three state seats in Hulu Selangor, but not without a tough fight with Pakatan Rakyat.
Palanivel used to gloat that Hulu Selangor constituency is huge and difficult to manage. He always says that Hulu Selangor is bigger than Perlis. Actually, there is nothing much to show in his 4 terms there. Much of the development in the area is attributed to former Selangor MB, Muhammad Taib.
Palanivel, I was reliably informed, was arrogant, at least his assistants were. Since he claimed that Hulu Selangor was bigger than the smallest Sultanate (Perlis) in the country, he behaved like a Sultan. He distanced himself from the populace and busy with his government post and left constituency work to his arrogant assistants.
Even after the last elections, Palanivel did not bother to continue his service. Only when the news trickled in that the incumbent PKR MP was seriously ill, Palanivel sprung into action and reactivated his service centre. His motives are evident, more so after winning the deputy president seat at the MIC elections.
Apart from hard core MIC supporters, Indians in the Hulu Selangor do not support him. Despite the huge campaign for him in the party mouth piece, Tamil Nesan, the fact remains that he does not enjoy the support of both Indians and Malays in the area.
Indians who has turned their support to Pakatan Rakyat in the last elections are confused. A large number of them no longer have faith in Pakatan Rakyat since they do not see much change in their area under the Pakatan Rakyat government and an absent MP.
However, on the other hand they see that their option is limited to their most hated personality, Samy Vellu and his proxy crony Palanivel. Most of those in this category, have somewhat embraced changes that PM Najib is trying to implement for the good of all, but they cannot forgive Samy Vellu and his cronies for their past misdeeds. They might still vote for Pakatan if BN candidate is from MIC.
This has led to emergence of at least 5 hopeful independent candidates, most of whom are ex-MIC local leaders, who was once close ally of Palanivel. These developments are surprisingly not reported in English or Malay dailies and news portals.
The declaration on intent to contest in the Tamil Newspapers by these independents were mainly to harass Palanivel and pressure BN to change their candidate, although at least 2 of them might actually contest. There were also allegations in Tamil Nesan, MIC’s mouth piece that former Deputy President, Dato S. Subramaniam, is behind these candidates with the intention of splitting the Indian votes, which could become crucial. Subra denied the allegations reiterating that he has no intention to cause BN to fail. These are some of fights that take place in the sidelines where old foes have a chance to be in the limelight once again.
If one where to go to some of the towns within the constituency, only the blind would not be able to see various banners, posters hung around towns on Rawang, Serendah and Batang Kali opposing Palanivel’s candidacy.
In Bandar Sungair Buaya, where majority of the Felda settlers had their land robbed by a developer which had since been folded, their message is clear ‘ Solve our land issue if you want our votes’ These settlers had enough of both BN and Pakatan’s failure to solve their felda land problem. Read here for more of this particular issue.
Pakatan Rakyat Indians supporters on the other hand are banking on an Indian candidate to be fielded so that Indians votes will definitely favor them should Palanivel is fielded. Selangor Exco Francis Xavier has been to this constituency many times, often to provide state government grants to Hindu Temples, one of the piece meal initiatives ‘ala BN’ of the Selangor State Government.
Xavier appears in the Tamil Newspapers (including Tamil Nesan) almost everyday, to the extend that Hindraf accuses him of being publicity crazy PKR ‘Mandor’. Hindraf is not convinced of the state government’s piece meal efforts and has been pushing for permanent land and grants for temples and Tamil Schools.
Despite all these, the sentiment in the ground is that if Palanivel is fielded, Pakatan Rakyat candidate, provided he/she is a local is sure to win. Although Anwar’s popularity has taken a dip, some local leaders do have some support, so does the Chinese, who have not be taken in by Najib’s various promises. They are still likely to vote for Pakatan Rakyat candidate. Pakatan will have slim chance of winning if they field any ‘parachute’ candidate such as Zaid Ibrahim, who does not appear enjoy the support of the Malays.
BN’s chances are definitely higher is they field any other young MIC candidate and even candidate from UMNO. But their trump card may lie with another huge personality in the state.
If ever, former MB, Muhammad Taib is fielded, Pakatan might as well withdraw from the contest. Muhammad Taib is still hugely popular with all the communities, who still remember him for his service as Batang Kali Adun and also Selangor MB. Unlike Palanivel, Muhammad Taib is humble, easy going and has done a lot for all races there.
I was told that even hard core Pakatan Supporters in the constituency are willing to vote for him.
Najib has announced that the candidate would be from MIC. He chose not to announce Palanivel as the candidate, chances are he might have others in his mind. Recent visits by Samy Vellu and Palanivel to various areas in Hulu Selangor has not been well received, in fact one of the visit to Sg Choh ended up with a fight (again not reported by English or Malay media, mainstream or portals). These news might have reached Najib, hence his refusal to name the candidate yet. We’ll wait and see..
Like everywhere else then, rural areas like Hulu Selangor are bastion of BN. The MIC candidate, G Palanivel has been the MP for 4 terms before he lost marginally in the 2008 elections. BN on the other hand won all three state seats in Hulu Selangor, but not without a tough fight with Pakatan Rakyat.
Palanivel used to gloat that Hulu Selangor constituency is huge and difficult to manage. He always says that Hulu Selangor is bigger than Perlis. Actually, there is nothing much to show in his 4 terms there. Much of the development in the area is attributed to former Selangor MB, Muhammad Taib.
Palanivel, I was reliably informed, was arrogant, at least his assistants were. Since he claimed that Hulu Selangor was bigger than the smallest Sultanate (Perlis) in the country, he behaved like a Sultan. He distanced himself from the populace and busy with his government post and left constituency work to his arrogant assistants.
Even after the last elections, Palanivel did not bother to continue his service. Only when the news trickled in that the incumbent PKR MP was seriously ill, Palanivel sprung into action and reactivated his service centre. His motives are evident, more so after winning the deputy president seat at the MIC elections.
Apart from hard core MIC supporters, Indians in the Hulu Selangor do not support him. Despite the huge campaign for him in the party mouth piece, Tamil Nesan, the fact remains that he does not enjoy the support of both Indians and Malays in the area.
Indians who has turned their support to Pakatan Rakyat in the last elections are confused. A large number of them no longer have faith in Pakatan Rakyat since they do not see much change in their area under the Pakatan Rakyat government and an absent MP.
However, on the other hand they see that their option is limited to their most hated personality, Samy Vellu and his proxy crony Palanivel. Most of those in this category, have somewhat embraced changes that PM Najib is trying to implement for the good of all, but they cannot forgive Samy Vellu and his cronies for their past misdeeds. They might still vote for Pakatan if BN candidate is from MIC.
This has led to emergence of at least 5 hopeful independent candidates, most of whom are ex-MIC local leaders, who was once close ally of Palanivel. These developments are surprisingly not reported in English or Malay dailies and news portals.
The declaration on intent to contest in the Tamil Newspapers by these independents were mainly to harass Palanivel and pressure BN to change their candidate, although at least 2 of them might actually contest. There were also allegations in Tamil Nesan, MIC’s mouth piece that former Deputy President, Dato S. Subramaniam, is behind these candidates with the intention of splitting the Indian votes, which could become crucial. Subra denied the allegations reiterating that he has no intention to cause BN to fail. These are some of fights that take place in the sidelines where old foes have a chance to be in the limelight once again.
If one where to go to some of the towns within the constituency, only the blind would not be able to see various banners, posters hung around towns on Rawang, Serendah and Batang Kali opposing Palanivel’s candidacy.
In Bandar Sungair Buaya, where majority of the Felda settlers had their land robbed by a developer which had since been folded, their message is clear ‘ Solve our land issue if you want our votes’ These settlers had enough of both BN and Pakatan’s failure to solve their felda land problem. Read here for more of this particular issue.
Pakatan Rakyat Indians supporters on the other hand are banking on an Indian candidate to be fielded so that Indians votes will definitely favor them should Palanivel is fielded. Selangor Exco Francis Xavier has been to this constituency many times, often to provide state government grants to Hindu Temples, one of the piece meal initiatives ‘ala BN’ of the Selangor State Government.
Xavier appears in the Tamil Newspapers (including Tamil Nesan) almost everyday, to the extend that Hindraf accuses him of being publicity crazy PKR ‘Mandor’. Hindraf is not convinced of the state government’s piece meal efforts and has been pushing for permanent land and grants for temples and Tamil Schools.
Despite all these, the sentiment in the ground is that if Palanivel is fielded, Pakatan Rakyat candidate, provided he/she is a local is sure to win. Although Anwar’s popularity has taken a dip, some local leaders do have some support, so does the Chinese, who have not be taken in by Najib’s various promises. They are still likely to vote for Pakatan Rakyat candidate. Pakatan will have slim chance of winning if they field any ‘parachute’ candidate such as Zaid Ibrahim, who does not appear enjoy the support of the Malays.
BN’s chances are definitely higher is they field any other young MIC candidate and even candidate from UMNO. But their trump card may lie with another huge personality in the state.
If ever, former MB, Muhammad Taib is fielded, Pakatan might as well withdraw from the contest. Muhammad Taib is still hugely popular with all the communities, who still remember him for his service as Batang Kali Adun and also Selangor MB. Unlike Palanivel, Muhammad Taib is humble, easy going and has done a lot for all races there.
I was told that even hard core Pakatan Supporters in the constituency are willing to vote for him.
Najib has announced that the candidate would be from MIC. He chose not to announce Palanivel as the candidate, chances are he might have others in his mind. Recent visits by Samy Vellu and Palanivel to various areas in Hulu Selangor has not been well received, in fact one of the visit to Sg Choh ended up with a fight (again not reported by English or Malay media, mainstream or portals). These news might have reached Najib, hence his refusal to name the candidate yet. We’ll wait and see..
Friday, March 26, 2010
PR 'Selamatkan Malaysia' Roadshow 22nd March - A Review
I had the opportunity to attend Pakatan Rakyat roadshow with the theme ‘Selamatkan Malaysia’ at Selayang Stadium on 22nd March.
Pakatan Rakyat were confidently expecting 10,000 people, but there were actually only about 3,000 people gathered there, perhaps they would have attracted more if it was held on weekend. When I arrived at the entrance of the stadium, a 4 page leaflet was handed to me. The contents were an opening statement by PKR Secretary claiming conspiracy on Anwar’s sodomy case.
The 2nd and 3rd page is all about Pusrawi Hospital medical report indicating the accuser, Saiful was not sodomised, no matter that no one has verified if the reports were in fact authentic and true . I think that is for the Doctor concerned to testify, if he is called for the trial and also the judge to determine if indeed the medical report was true. For PKR to distribute these leaflets, some say it is contempt of court, I see it as a desperate attempt to win public opinion. More so when there’s hardly anyone bothered to show support during the recents court hearings.
Segambut MP, Lim Lip Eng was on the rostrum when I arrived. He spoke about lost jet engines, which he claims to be worth millions, together with the allegation that it should be been more people involved citing that it would have been impossible for two people to carry the 2 engines, weighing probably a tone each, out of the warehouse.
As far as I know, the trial of the 2 individuals charged for the theft has yet to start, but the Segambut MP, despite being one of the more hardworking Pakatan MPs, chose to politicise and speculate on the incident. Can Pakatan Rakyat guarantee that there will be no theft of such assets when they are in power one day. I don’t think so. These allegations and speculations will one day definitely backfire on them when it happens under their watch.
He also spoke about the non diving Submarine, which he claims he saw in Sabah on his recent visit. He says that the government did not test the submarine before purchasing it, citing analogy of routine test drive that we undertake before we purchase a car. The MP has conveniently omitted the fact that the submarine actually dived all the way without a hitch from France before developing problems in Malaysia. He also failed to enlighten the crowd that the same submarine is already used by Spain, Brazil, France and Chile. Good example of how to manipulate issues to your advantage.
Dr Hatta Ramli came next, harping on the One Malaysia, One Israel issue which needs no further elaboration. He was bent on claiming that APCO was headed by Jewish stakeholders, therefore it was unIslamic and demanded that the government terminate their contract. No one spoke about One India campaign, which started was back in 1997. Why only one Israel, what else if not for scoring some political points. His speech was however, rather inaudible, but I do not think he spoke anything significant apart from the One Malaysia, One Israel issue. It’s not that we expected him to speak about some national or international policies!.
Ronnie Liu came next, with the MC introducing him that someone who was alleged to be corrupt but there are no case against him by police or MACC. Hmm.. how come MACC is made to sound credible here… Ronnie went on saying that in the cabinet line up, none of the Ministers are clean, at least none of the Ministers have declared that they were clean, he says. No evidence or even a hint was provided to back his claims.
This reminded me on the ‘Asset Declaration’ circus by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor where an ‘income declaration’ rather than asset declaration was published. The ‘Income Declaration’ is now not available at the state government website, or at least I can’t find it despite a through search of the website. As far as I can remember, the MB did not declare his shares in Guthrie on that statement. Other Pakatan State governments have chosen to ignore this promise as per their standard of ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency”.
Can Mr Ronnie Liu declare that all Pakatan Rakyat MPs are clean? He can’t and he never will, as Pakatan Opposition leader himself appears to have wealth beyond his means. Mr Ronnie should have harped on other issues. He also spoke about Middle Malaysia, Pas For all and One Malaysia. His idea of One Malaysia is equality for all appeared not well received by the Malay majority crowd.
Ronnie also made a false statement. He claimed that the country petroleum reserves will be depleted in 3-4 or 5 years time. Recent report says that our reserves will be depleted in 2017 if no new reserves are found. This is probably a genuine mistake on his part but when he kept on quoting the same figure over and over again, I had the impression that he is deliberately trying to mislead the crowd. His main argument was that the government is bankrupt of ideas on how to survive without the petroleum money.
Teresa Kok came next, introduced as Senior State Government Exco with muted response from the audience. She spoke about all state government’s programs which amplified ‘Merakyatkan Ekonomi’ theme. She also spoke that he water bill is so low due to the ‘free water’ policy by the state government.
What she failed to highlight that the free water is not actually reaching the poor and other target groups residing in flats and apartments. I myself have not paid water bills for months as the bill is still in the negative due to the policy. I do not need the subsidy while a friend of mine in an apartment nearby continues to pay in full as the apartment does not have individual water meters. The state government shown no interest to solve this while continuing to trumpet that the free water benefits the poor when it is actually not.
She also spoke about various freebies and handout initiated by the State Government, some which are no different than what BN has done in the past. She also spoke about the 50 Million Micro-Credit fund, apparently created by the recovery of dues from Talam Corporation. There are various disputes and issues of transparency on the Talam debt and recovery. The state government has yet to respond to it, but yet they chose to publicise the Micro Credit fund more than explaining how the fund will come about. No other details or mechanism of the fund was revealed.
She also spoke about Investments brought in by the State Government. The figures are also currently being challenged by the state opposition. Teresa spoke glowingly on their achievement, ignoring the fact that they did not achieve their own target.
The were round of applause though when she mentioned that the State government is close to resolving issues faced by Bukit Botak residents, not without blaming the previous BN state government for the source of the problems.
I left when Teresa was mumbling about BN was corrupt of ideas etc. I wonder how the crowd lasted that long, the speeches were boring and unenthusiastic. It was unlike the ones held early last year at the same venue with MB Khalid present where the crowd were bigger, more responsive and enthusiastic.
I can summarise by saying that actually the Selangor State Government, while maybe more efficient and transparent selectively, they are equally bankrupt of ideas. TheMP who took the stage manipulated issues to their advantage and deliberately chose not to explain issues and disputes challenged by BN and others. I must say that the ‘matured’ and gullible crowd may yet believe them. Overall, the quality of the arguments, explanation and information were poor and pathetic, so was the crowd response.
This campaign should be now renamed as ‘Selamatkan Pakatan Rakyat’ instead, looking at serious allegations against their past conduct, being revealed in installments by their ex-members and not really BN.
Pakatan Rakyat were confidently expecting 10,000 people, but there were actually only about 3,000 people gathered there, perhaps they would have attracted more if it was held on weekend. When I arrived at the entrance of the stadium, a 4 page leaflet was handed to me. The contents were an opening statement by PKR Secretary claiming conspiracy on Anwar’s sodomy case.
The 2nd and 3rd page is all about Pusrawi Hospital medical report indicating the accuser, Saiful was not sodomised, no matter that no one has verified if the reports were in fact authentic and true . I think that is for the Doctor concerned to testify, if he is called for the trial and also the judge to determine if indeed the medical report was true. For PKR to distribute these leaflets, some say it is contempt of court, I see it as a desperate attempt to win public opinion. More so when there’s hardly anyone bothered to show support during the recents court hearings.
Segambut MP, Lim Lip Eng was on the rostrum when I arrived. He spoke about lost jet engines, which he claims to be worth millions, together with the allegation that it should be been more people involved citing that it would have been impossible for two people to carry the 2 engines, weighing probably a tone each, out of the warehouse.
As far as I know, the trial of the 2 individuals charged for the theft has yet to start, but the Segambut MP, despite being one of the more hardworking Pakatan MPs, chose to politicise and speculate on the incident. Can Pakatan Rakyat guarantee that there will be no theft of such assets when they are in power one day. I don’t think so. These allegations and speculations will one day definitely backfire on them when it happens under their watch.
He also spoke about the non diving Submarine, which he claims he saw in Sabah on his recent visit. He says that the government did not test the submarine before purchasing it, citing analogy of routine test drive that we undertake before we purchase a car. The MP has conveniently omitted the fact that the submarine actually dived all the way without a hitch from France before developing problems in Malaysia. He also failed to enlighten the crowd that the same submarine is already used by Spain, Brazil, France and Chile. Good example of how to manipulate issues to your advantage.
Dr Hatta Ramli came next, harping on the One Malaysia, One Israel issue which needs no further elaboration. He was bent on claiming that APCO was headed by Jewish stakeholders, therefore it was unIslamic and demanded that the government terminate their contract. No one spoke about One India campaign, which started was back in 1997. Why only one Israel, what else if not for scoring some political points. His speech was however, rather inaudible, but I do not think he spoke anything significant apart from the One Malaysia, One Israel issue. It’s not that we expected him to speak about some national or international policies!.
Ronnie Liu came next, with the MC introducing him that someone who was alleged to be corrupt but there are no case against him by police or MACC. Hmm.. how come MACC is made to sound credible here… Ronnie went on saying that in the cabinet line up, none of the Ministers are clean, at least none of the Ministers have declared that they were clean, he says. No evidence or even a hint was provided to back his claims.
This reminded me on the ‘Asset Declaration’ circus by the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor where an ‘income declaration’ rather than asset declaration was published. The ‘Income Declaration’ is now not available at the state government website, or at least I can’t find it despite a through search of the website. As far as I can remember, the MB did not declare his shares in Guthrie on that statement. Other Pakatan State governments have chosen to ignore this promise as per their standard of ‘Competency, Accountability and Transparency”.
Can Mr Ronnie Liu declare that all Pakatan Rakyat MPs are clean? He can’t and he never will, as Pakatan Opposition leader himself appears to have wealth beyond his means. Mr Ronnie should have harped on other issues. He also spoke about Middle Malaysia, Pas For all and One Malaysia. His idea of One Malaysia is equality for all appeared not well received by the Malay majority crowd.
Ronnie also made a false statement. He claimed that the country petroleum reserves will be depleted in 3-4 or 5 years time. Recent report says that our reserves will be depleted in 2017 if no new reserves are found. This is probably a genuine mistake on his part but when he kept on quoting the same figure over and over again, I had the impression that he is deliberately trying to mislead the crowd. His main argument was that the government is bankrupt of ideas on how to survive without the petroleum money.
Teresa Kok came next, introduced as Senior State Government Exco with muted response from the audience. She spoke about all state government’s programs which amplified ‘Merakyatkan Ekonomi’ theme. She also spoke that he water bill is so low due to the ‘free water’ policy by the state government.
What she failed to highlight that the free water is not actually reaching the poor and other target groups residing in flats and apartments. I myself have not paid water bills for months as the bill is still in the negative due to the policy. I do not need the subsidy while a friend of mine in an apartment nearby continues to pay in full as the apartment does not have individual water meters. The state government shown no interest to solve this while continuing to trumpet that the free water benefits the poor when it is actually not.
She also spoke about various freebies and handout initiated by the State Government, some which are no different than what BN has done in the past. She also spoke about the 50 Million Micro-Credit fund, apparently created by the recovery of dues from Talam Corporation. There are various disputes and issues of transparency on the Talam debt and recovery. The state government has yet to respond to it, but yet they chose to publicise the Micro Credit fund more than explaining how the fund will come about. No other details or mechanism of the fund was revealed.
She also spoke about Investments brought in by the State Government. The figures are also currently being challenged by the state opposition. Teresa spoke glowingly on their achievement, ignoring the fact that they did not achieve their own target.
The were round of applause though when she mentioned that the State government is close to resolving issues faced by Bukit Botak residents, not without blaming the previous BN state government for the source of the problems.
I left when Teresa was mumbling about BN was corrupt of ideas etc. I wonder how the crowd lasted that long, the speeches were boring and unenthusiastic. It was unlike the ones held early last year at the same venue with MB Khalid present where the crowd were bigger, more responsive and enthusiastic.
I can summarise by saying that actually the Selangor State Government, while maybe more efficient and transparent selectively, they are equally bankrupt of ideas. TheMP who took the stage manipulated issues to their advantage and deliberately chose not to explain issues and disputes challenged by BN and others. I must say that the ‘matured’ and gullible crowd may yet believe them. Overall, the quality of the arguments, explanation and information were poor and pathetic, so was the crowd response.
This campaign should be now renamed as ‘Selamatkan Pakatan Rakyat’ instead, looking at serious allegations against their past conduct, being revealed in installments by their ex-members and not really BN.
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