I read recently that Selangor State Government is planning to rebuilt the controversial Kampung Jawa Hindu Temple which was demolished in 2007. It must be acknowledged that the demolition has lead to the Hindraf demonstration and is also one of the main emotional reason why Indian Malaysians chose to vote for Pakatan Rakyat in the 2008 General Elections.
Recent sentiments suggest that Indians have been slowly returning their support to Najib, rather than MIC and the fact that Pakatan Rakyat have not done much for the Indians has prompted some Indian leaders to take some race centric actions to shore up the support for Pakatan Rakyat as well as promote themselves as champions of the Malaysian Indians.
One of the easiest way to fool Malaysian Indians and get their support is to do any good for their Hindu Temples. Even if you are a well known crook or gangster, temple committees will welcome you with open arms as long as you donate to new temple building or maintaining temples.
Selangor Executive Councillor, Xavier Jayakumar knows this well and has taken full advantage. The generous Selangor state government reportedly allocated RM 4million grants to be distributed specifically to Hindu Temples in Selangor.
With cash in hand, there is no other easier way to shore up support and also promote oneself. Xavier, armed with a cheque book has been to every nook and corner of the state, visiting every other temple he could find and donate specific amount depending on the size of population and temple in a specific area. He has reportedly even provided grants to illegal temples in certain locations just to please the Indians.
Wherever he goes, he never fails to invite all 3 major Tamil newspapers with him. His face can be seen in all major Tamil dailies on a daily basis (this is no exaggeration). His face is even more popular and recognizable as compared to other BN or Pakatan leaders.
There are questions though over his conduct. If he is sincere enough in assisting the temples, he could have just allocated the RM 4million accordingly and distribute it at one go in his office or perhaps a function attended by MB Khalid and other Exco members. Why the need to go to every other temples and ensure that the whole press entourage is there with him if not for the reason of regular publicity.
Coming back to the proposed rebuilding of Kampung Jawa temple, there are many questions to be answered before the state government embark on building yet another Hindu temple in Selangor.
Personally, I do not agree with using tax payers money ( I am a rate payer in Selangor) to provide grants to temples for building of new temples or even for the purpose of maintenance.
As we all are well aware, the number of Hindu Temples in Malaysia far outnumber the mosques and churches or Chinese temples, though the population percentage of Hindus are less than 1.5 million.
It must be noted that unlike other religions, it is not a must for Hindus to go temples to pray. It is more of a objective of community bonding, therefore there is no need for temples to be built everywhere.
In Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, the number of temples is far more than sufficient and majority are hardly patronized unless there are some so-called religious events or festivals. You don’t have to go far, just drive along Jalan Ipoh where there are at least 5 temples or go to Batu Caves where there are at least 15 other temples of various sizes apart from the humungous Batu Caves temple.
Questions For The State Government
The first question a responsible government should ask is, aren’t there far too many temples in the state.
Why there are new temples continue to be built or rebuilt when there are sufficient temples readily available to the so-called pious Indians to pray.
Why should government allow new temples to be built if the temple committee have no funds or rather no clues on how the finance the building.
Why taxpayers money is being spent annually to upkeep the temples? Why built the temples in the first place if the temple committee or local residents has no clue on how to finance the upkeep of the temple.
Why aren’t the so-called devotees of the temples contributing to the upkeep of the temples. This is the usual case everywhere where, Indians want temples within the vicinity but refuses to even contribute RM 10 every month.
Don’t we know that contributing funds to temples will only result in temple committee and local residents becoming complacent and end up begging the government every year?
Why is there a need to rebuilt Kampung Jawa temple. Has the residents in the vicinity been deprived of opportunity to fulfill their religious obligations due to unavailability of temples?? Obviously the answer is no.
Is Xavier Jayakumar trying to stir up Indian or rather Hindu emotions and be their ultimate champion by rebuilding the kampong Jawa temple?
Has Selangor state government reviewed the existence of both legal and illegal temples in the state?
Has the state government acted against illegal temples in the state and taken some action to remove those temples?
Or are the State government and Jayakumar waiting for landowner of the illegal temples to raise eviction notices before they jump in to defend the temples, find altenative site and eventually turn themselves into the heroes of the Hindu community is the affected areas?
Where would the grants for the temples end up? It would be usually used completely for the temple annual celebrations, with no other benefits for the community. In another words, it will end as a sheer waste of money finished for a one day event. If they can conduct the annual celebrations without state government’s assistance before, why would they need it now?
Despite calls to utilize temples as community centres with activities for youth and children, very few temples do so. If this is the case, why should tax payers money is spent for the benefit of few temple committee members to spend and finish the funds for the annual celebrations?
Use the funds for Long Term Productive Purposes
The state government could well focus on uplifting the economic condition of the Indian community.
The RM 4 million could be well spent on assisting the community by providing loans for small businesses, single mothers and more importantly on youth whether in the form of scholarship or even technical training for secondary school drop outs.
Imagine how many students or youth could benefit from the RM 4 million annually? Imagine how many families could benefit in the long term if one of their family members are accorded scholarship or more importantly technical training.
Why can’t the state government and a learned Exco think wisely and act prudently with tax payers funds and use it for productive purposes which would provide long terms positive returns to the community.
Pakatan Rakyat and it’s Indian representatives continue to play the same BN tune and use the same strategies, which is to fool the community by playing religious sentiments without any long term benefits to the upliftment of the community.
Hindus and Indians needs leaders to inspire them to do the right thing, which is to focus on improving their educations levels of their children , attain necessary skills suitable at current times and viable businesses.
Indian leaders should scold, cajole and inspire Indians to invest in education and not on temples and unnecessary religious and non-religious events and celebrations that does not bring about any benefits to the Hindus.
It is a well known fact that Indians spends thousands on weddings, cultural events and celebrations but don’t even subscribe to any newspaper or books at home.
Has the hundred of years of building temples and worshipping them resulted in Hindus living above poverty line with reasonable living standards and known to be a respectable community?
The answer is obviously no? Hindraf blames BN, Pakatan also blames BN for the poverty and marginalisation of Indians. Why not blame the Hindu gods for not bringing about any improvement to the socio-economic well being of the community despite building thousands of temples and worshipping them for more than hundred years??
My anwer is simple, God do not help anyone who does not help themselves. Therefore Mr Jayakumar, do Selangor need more temples?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Stop Building Hindu Temples
Monday, September 13, 2010
One School For All - Remains A Distant Dream
With all the recent talk about, race, racist remarks, race based policies, racist politicians racist teachers, perkasa etc, one thing is quite clear, this debate will never end and only likely to tone down for a while until some groups or cetain individuals feel that they are losing popularity and want to be in the limelight again.
Not much is going to change, not in my lifetime, I guess. The only option or hope that we have to minimise this unnecessary friction between communities lies with our children. The current Malaysian adults, who mainly grew up and went to school mainly with their own kind are unlikely to change. They are so used to their own race, they don’t care and they do not have the time to understand other races, their cultures, habits, needs and wants. By the time they are released to mingle with other races, either in the universities or workplace, their minds is already tuned to look at things from their own racial perspective.
The only hope of bridging all the races closer is to start with the young and get them to go to the same school. Close all vernacular schools; there is no other way or no other options. 1Malaysia will remain sounding hollow if nothing is done to get all Malaysian children together which also means, integrating or merging Tamil, Chinese and National schools.
Whenever this suggestion of ‘One School For All’ is brought up, there are always opposition by various groups claiming that it is against the constitution to question the existence of vernacular schools. The Constitution is not caste in stone and there should not be any attempt to stop discussion on certain articles of the constitution that may be outdated and unsuitable for the future of this country and education in certainly one of them.
Recent debate between Nurul Izzah Anwar and Perkasa’ Ibrahim Ali ended with the latter highlighting that provisions of special privileges are not debatable. The same happened when MCA said that it is against the constitution to question the existence of Chinese or Tamil Schools.
Recent incidents also revealed that after 53 years, Many Malaysians are not fluent in the national language. I also noticed that many champions of Ketuanan Rakyat, Malaysian Malaysia and 1Malaysia are not fluent in the national language which beg a question, are they taught properly in the Tamil and Chinese schools? I notice the same with some of our sportsman who struggles to deliver a sentence when interviewed.
Apart from language fluency, we have politicians, political analyst, academics criticizing various forms of racism in schools and government departments including recent incidents involving teachers in the national school. But no one (except for few like Mukhriz Mahathir) appears to be brave enough to suggest that children of all races should go to the same school.
Intergration of all schools will certainly result in proportionate number of non-malay educationist and administrators in the single school stream. This itself would be a balancing factor and minimise occurrences of racism in schools. Apart from this, best practice of all these schools can be shared and chances are, quality of the merged schools will be better than before. Government can then finance all schools equitably.
The other issue is of course the language medium.
To defend their schools, vernacular school champion’s claims children are better taught in their own mother tongue. To support their theory, they came up with various studies which is skewed to favor the existence of vernacular schools. Chinese and Tamil schools champions claims that they would lose their identity when suggestions of sekolah Wawasan arose during the Mahathir years. What identity? Inability to speak Bahasa Malaysia?
If they have genuinely and seriously believe their own theory of children should be taught in their own mother tongue, they should have chased away close to 70,000 non-Chinese students who goes to Chinese Schools. Or at least, they should not encourage such enrollment in the first place.
Without the need for any academic studies, there is an excellent example nearby in Singapore, where the population breakdown is similar to Malaysia. There are no Chinese or Tamil Schools and everyone goes to the same school. Everyone is made or rather forced to learn their own mother tongue but more importantly the rest of the subjects are taught in English. This real and live example alone is sufficient to debunk the theory of our local vernacular champions that the young must be taught in their mother tongue.
Apart from this ridiculous theory, these champions appears to hide the facts that Mandarin and Tamil is not the mother tongue of significant population of non-Malays in the country. For example why not MIC champion the need for Punjabi, Malayalam or Telugu Schools, as these ethnic groups combined are as big as the ethnic Tamils in the country
While we cannot reason with MCA and MIC on the suggested abolishment of vernacular schools, it’s rather sad that the so-called government in waiting, Pakatan Rakyat fully supports vernacular schools. Pakatan Rakyat was also rallied against the teaching of Science and Maths in English. Do we want to hand the reigns of the country and future of our children to this non-forward thinking coalition? Who else can we depend on when it is for sure that BN is unlikely to change the status quo.
It appears that no one wants to think practically when it comes to national intergration. Malaysians with certain agenda have become too smart, they come up with various studies to prove that they are right at all cost. They resist change which is not in their favour or does not fit their agenda though it might benefit the society at large.
Practically, looking at the Singapore example, have anyone lost their identity, forget their mother tongue or their culture or even religion by going to the same school? Have race relations gone from bad to worse in Singapore when they started to go to the same school?
Whoever who thinks so must be some well read but poorly educated morons and looks like they are well represented in BN, Pakatan Rakyat and various race based NGOs and education groups.
If I am a prominent blogger or politician, I would have, in two or three days, be charged for sedition for questioning the constitution. Opponents to the 'One School for all' cannot and will not even bother to debate merits of of the proposal and will always cowardly hide behind the seditions act will calls to defend the constitution.
Not much is going to change, not in my lifetime, I guess. The only option or hope that we have to minimise this unnecessary friction between communities lies with our children. The current Malaysian adults, who mainly grew up and went to school mainly with their own kind are unlikely to change. They are so used to their own race, they don’t care and they do not have the time to understand other races, their cultures, habits, needs and wants. By the time they are released to mingle with other races, either in the universities or workplace, their minds is already tuned to look at things from their own racial perspective.
The only hope of bridging all the races closer is to start with the young and get them to go to the same school. Close all vernacular schools; there is no other way or no other options. 1Malaysia will remain sounding hollow if nothing is done to get all Malaysian children together which also means, integrating or merging Tamil, Chinese and National schools.
Whenever this suggestion of ‘One School For All’ is brought up, there are always opposition by various groups claiming that it is against the constitution to question the existence of vernacular schools. The Constitution is not caste in stone and there should not be any attempt to stop discussion on certain articles of the constitution that may be outdated and unsuitable for the future of this country and education in certainly one of them.
Recent debate between Nurul Izzah Anwar and Perkasa’ Ibrahim Ali ended with the latter highlighting that provisions of special privileges are not debatable. The same happened when MCA said that it is against the constitution to question the existence of Chinese or Tamil Schools.
Recent incidents also revealed that after 53 years, Many Malaysians are not fluent in the national language. I also noticed that many champions of Ketuanan Rakyat, Malaysian Malaysia and 1Malaysia are not fluent in the national language which beg a question, are they taught properly in the Tamil and Chinese schools? I notice the same with some of our sportsman who struggles to deliver a sentence when interviewed.
Apart from language fluency, we have politicians, political analyst, academics criticizing various forms of racism in schools and government departments including recent incidents involving teachers in the national school. But no one (except for few like Mukhriz Mahathir) appears to be brave enough to suggest that children of all races should go to the same school.
Intergration of all schools will certainly result in proportionate number of non-malay educationist and administrators in the single school stream. This itself would be a balancing factor and minimise occurrences of racism in schools. Apart from this, best practice of all these schools can be shared and chances are, quality of the merged schools will be better than before. Government can then finance all schools equitably.
The other issue is of course the language medium.
To defend their schools, vernacular school champion’s claims children are better taught in their own mother tongue. To support their theory, they came up with various studies which is skewed to favor the existence of vernacular schools. Chinese and Tamil schools champions claims that they would lose their identity when suggestions of sekolah Wawasan arose during the Mahathir years. What identity? Inability to speak Bahasa Malaysia?
If they have genuinely and seriously believe their own theory of children should be taught in their own mother tongue, they should have chased away close to 70,000 non-Chinese students who goes to Chinese Schools. Or at least, they should not encourage such enrollment in the first place.
Without the need for any academic studies, there is an excellent example nearby in Singapore, where the population breakdown is similar to Malaysia. There are no Chinese or Tamil Schools and everyone goes to the same school. Everyone is made or rather forced to learn their own mother tongue but more importantly the rest of the subjects are taught in English. This real and live example alone is sufficient to debunk the theory of our local vernacular champions that the young must be taught in their mother tongue.
Apart from this ridiculous theory, these champions appears to hide the facts that Mandarin and Tamil is not the mother tongue of significant population of non-Malays in the country. For example why not MIC champion the need for Punjabi, Malayalam or Telugu Schools, as these ethnic groups combined are as big as the ethnic Tamils in the country
While we cannot reason with MCA and MIC on the suggested abolishment of vernacular schools, it’s rather sad that the so-called government in waiting, Pakatan Rakyat fully supports vernacular schools. Pakatan Rakyat was also rallied against the teaching of Science and Maths in English. Do we want to hand the reigns of the country and future of our children to this non-forward thinking coalition? Who else can we depend on when it is for sure that BN is unlikely to change the status quo.
It appears that no one wants to think practically when it comes to national intergration. Malaysians with certain agenda have become too smart, they come up with various studies to prove that they are right at all cost. They resist change which is not in their favour or does not fit their agenda though it might benefit the society at large.
Practically, looking at the Singapore example, have anyone lost their identity, forget their mother tongue or their culture or even religion by going to the same school? Have race relations gone from bad to worse in Singapore when they started to go to the same school?
Whoever who thinks so must be some well read but poorly educated morons and looks like they are well represented in BN, Pakatan Rakyat and various race based NGOs and education groups.
If I am a prominent blogger or politician, I would have, in two or three days, be charged for sedition for questioning the constitution. Opponents to the 'One School for all' cannot and will not even bother to debate merits of of the proposal and will always cowardly hide behind the seditions act will calls to defend the constitution.
Friday, September 3, 2010
DAP's Double Standards
DAP to lodge complain with MCMC over doctored picture
By Yoges Palaniappan (Malaysian Insider)
September 03, 2010
GEORGE TOWN, Sept 3 — DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said today the party would send a letter to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) next week to complain about the doctored photograph purportedly showing party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng slaughtering a cow.
Pua said the photograph was a slander against Lim, the chief minister of Penang.
Lim has denied being involved in the slaughtering of the cow, calling it an attempt to defame him.
Pua said MCMC has the power to act on the issue.
“Recently, MCMC prosecuted a blogger for a satirical post although the posting clearly indicated that it was only a work of fiction,” he said, referring to blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman who was charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court yesterday with posting the article “TNB to sue WWF over Earth Hour”.
Irwan, popularly known as Hassan Skodeng, was accused of sending false comments in the article on the blog nose4news.wordpress.com with the intention to offend others.
Pua, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said the doctored photograph was a bigger crime and it deserved serious attention from the MCMC.
This reminds me of the incident 2 years ago when doctored pictures of Najib with Altantuya appeared on the net. It was found later that the pictures were doctored by PKR’s honourable Party Strategist, Tian Chua. DAP then did not make any noise or even reprimanded PKR to take action against Tian Chua. In the act of fairness, DAP style , they did not report the matter to MCMC.
There are hundreds of embarrassing or even naughty doctored pictures of both BN and opposition leaders in the net, why report only this and why now?. Tony Pua says that doctoring pictures is far bigger crime, so will an enlightened Tony Pua report the same on pictures doctored by Tian Chua?
The same selective methods has been employed by DAP in the support letter scandal. They appears just to take action at party level but refuses to report what they know from the scandal to the police or MACC. Why only sack the Klang councilor, why not DAP urge police or MACC to press charges against the councilor. Would they have behaved the same way if it would have been a BN councilor?
Read another glowing news on DAP today,
Letterhead saga: DAP sacks branch head, suspends deputy
By Clara Chooi
September 03, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — The Selangor letterhead saga continued today when the DAP expelled branch chairman Yap Hock Siew and slapped a two-year suspension order on his deputy, Ong Chai Huat, for allegedly using a support letter for personal gain.
DAP disciplinary committee chairman Tan Kok Wai made the announcement in a statement today, explaining that the duo had been found guilty of breaching party discipline.
“Both Yap and Ong were found to have committed direct conflict of interest which is in breach of party discipline when the former issued a letter of support under the letterhead of the Pandamaran Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) in favour of a business where both are partners,” he said in the statement.
Tan noted that Yap and Ong were both chairman and vice-chairman of the Pasar Pandamaran DAP branch respectively at the time of their alleged wrongdoing.
“They have 14 days from the date of the disciplinary action to appeal in writing against the decision to the party’s central executive committee,” he added.
Last month, the state government suspended Yap from his position as Pandamaran new village head for attempting to use the support letter to obtain a contract from the Klang Municipal Council for his company.
Both Yap and Ong were accused of having applied for a contract to maintain and clean river floodgates.
Yap had also admitted to issuing the support letter, but with the endorsement of Selangor state executive councillor Ronnie Liu, who has also come under fire for his involvement in the issue.
He was reported to have said that he had used the company to get the job for the Pandamaran JKKK to help pay the utility bills for village facilities.
The DAP had earlier let off Liu with a “severe reprimand” for failing to run his office professionally during the first letterhead scandal involving Klang councillor Tee Boon Hock.
Tee was accused of forging Liu’s signature to issue support letters to obtain contracts worth over RM1 million for 16 companies, one of which is co-owned by his son Chin Chin.
Tee has since been expelled from DAP and sacked as a councillor and Liu was found partially responsible for the actions of his former aide.
Since then, there has been mounting pressure from many DAP leaders calling for Liu’s resignation.
Why DAP did not refer this case to Police or MACC? Isn’t this a clear case of abuse of power, corruption or even criminal breach of trust (CBT). Isn’t this no different from UMNO’s various disciplinary action against those guilty of money politics?
I was about to end this before I read this
Why is that when something goes wrong with BN, they are first ones to rush to MACC or Police to lodge reports but when it involves their own members, internal investigation by disciplinary committee is sufficient. Is the disciplinary committee independent in the first place?
The same ‘sweeping things under the carpet’ strategy is used by Pakatan Government in Selangor. MB Khalid’s refusal to report the find of a spy camera in his office to the Police shows that they are afraid of their own shadows. MB Khalid, like DAP, says that they would undertake internal investigations before going to Police. How independent and transparent are these committees, as they used the blame BN for forming committees after committees for the same purpose.
I used to have some respect for DAP, especially their relentless and consistent drive towards exposing BN’s wrong doings. But now, I see them as no different from the BN and worse, never though they could be this bad after all those preaching of CAT.
Imagine what would DAP and Pakatan will do if they manage to take over Putrajaya!
By Yoges Palaniappan (Malaysian Insider)
September 03, 2010
GEORGE TOWN, Sept 3 — DAP publicity chief Tony Pua said today the party would send a letter to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) next week to complain about the doctored photograph purportedly showing party secretary-general Lim Guan Eng slaughtering a cow.
Pua said the photograph was a slander against Lim, the chief minister of Penang.
Lim has denied being involved in the slaughtering of the cow, calling it an attempt to defame him.
Pua said MCMC has the power to act on the issue.
“Recently, MCMC prosecuted a blogger for a satirical post although the posting clearly indicated that it was only a work of fiction,” he said, referring to blogger Irwan Abdul Rahman who was charged in the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court yesterday with posting the article “TNB to sue WWF over Earth Hour”.
Irwan, popularly known as Hassan Skodeng, was accused of sending false comments in the article on the blog nose4news.wordpress.com with the intention to offend others.
Pua, the Petaling Jaya Utara MP, said the doctored photograph was a bigger crime and it deserved serious attention from the MCMC.
This reminds me of the incident 2 years ago when doctored pictures of Najib with Altantuya appeared on the net. It was found later that the pictures were doctored by PKR’s honourable Party Strategist, Tian Chua. DAP then did not make any noise or even reprimanded PKR to take action against Tian Chua. In the act of fairness, DAP style , they did not report the matter to MCMC.
There are hundreds of embarrassing or even naughty doctored pictures of both BN and opposition leaders in the net, why report only this and why now?. Tony Pua says that doctoring pictures is far bigger crime, so will an enlightened Tony Pua report the same on pictures doctored by Tian Chua?
The same selective methods has been employed by DAP in the support letter scandal. They appears just to take action at party level but refuses to report what they know from the scandal to the police or MACC. Why only sack the Klang councilor, why not DAP urge police or MACC to press charges against the councilor. Would they have behaved the same way if it would have been a BN councilor?
Read another glowing news on DAP today,
Letterhead saga: DAP sacks branch head, suspends deputy
By Clara Chooi
September 03, 2010
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — The Selangor letterhead saga continued today when the DAP expelled branch chairman Yap Hock Siew and slapped a two-year suspension order on his deputy, Ong Chai Huat, for allegedly using a support letter for personal gain.
DAP disciplinary committee chairman Tan Kok Wai made the announcement in a statement today, explaining that the duo had been found guilty of breaching party discipline.
“Both Yap and Ong were found to have committed direct conflict of interest which is in breach of party discipline when the former issued a letter of support under the letterhead of the Pandamaran Village Development and Security Committee (JKKK) in favour of a business where both are partners,” he said in the statement.
Tan noted that Yap and Ong were both chairman and vice-chairman of the Pasar Pandamaran DAP branch respectively at the time of their alleged wrongdoing.
“They have 14 days from the date of the disciplinary action to appeal in writing against the decision to the party’s central executive committee,” he added.
Last month, the state government suspended Yap from his position as Pandamaran new village head for attempting to use the support letter to obtain a contract from the Klang Municipal Council for his company.
Both Yap and Ong were accused of having applied for a contract to maintain and clean river floodgates.
Yap had also admitted to issuing the support letter, but with the endorsement of Selangor state executive councillor Ronnie Liu, who has also come under fire for his involvement in the issue.
He was reported to have said that he had used the company to get the job for the Pandamaran JKKK to help pay the utility bills for village facilities.
The DAP had earlier let off Liu with a “severe reprimand” for failing to run his office professionally during the first letterhead scandal involving Klang councillor Tee Boon Hock.
Tee was accused of forging Liu’s signature to issue support letters to obtain contracts worth over RM1 million for 16 companies, one of which is co-owned by his son Chin Chin.
Tee has since been expelled from DAP and sacked as a councillor and Liu was found partially responsible for the actions of his former aide.
Since then, there has been mounting pressure from many DAP leaders calling for Liu’s resignation.
Why DAP did not refer this case to Police or MACC? Isn’t this a clear case of abuse of power, corruption or even criminal breach of trust (CBT). Isn’t this no different from UMNO’s various disciplinary action against those guilty of money politics?
I was about to end this before I read this
Why is that when something goes wrong with BN, they are first ones to rush to MACC or Police to lodge reports but when it involves their own members, internal investigation by disciplinary committee is sufficient. Is the disciplinary committee independent in the first place?
The same ‘sweeping things under the carpet’ strategy is used by Pakatan Government in Selangor. MB Khalid’s refusal to report the find of a spy camera in his office to the Police shows that they are afraid of their own shadows. MB Khalid, like DAP, says that they would undertake internal investigations before going to Police. How independent and transparent are these committees, as they used the blame BN for forming committees after committees for the same purpose.
I used to have some respect for DAP, especially their relentless and consistent drive towards exposing BN’s wrong doings. But now, I see them as no different from the BN and worse, never though they could be this bad after all those preaching of CAT.
Imagine what would DAP and Pakatan will do if they manage to take over Putrajaya!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Little India & Selfish Traders
I lived in brickfields for a while in the early nineties, paying RM 850 for a condominium at Palm Courts, a hefty sum back then. At that time, only professionals and well to do can afford to purchase a unit, costing RM 180K at Palm Courts.
Presently, Palm Courts is no longer a place Malaysians would like to either buy or stay as it has turned out to be a mini Andhra Pradesh (a state in Indian, just above Tamil Nadu), full of Telugu Indians mainly from Hyderabad. They are mainly IT professionals working in many MSC companies in KL, Teknologi Park and Cyberjaya.
However the condition of the place does not look anything like resided by professionals. It is poorly managed and there some ongoing disputes between the residents, owners and the Joint Management Body.
It used to be good to live in Brickfield, it’s proximity to KL, the central trains station, availability of cheap Indian, Chinese and Malay food and other amenities.
The current ongoing plans to renew, reorganise and develop Brickfields as a Little India of KL had many residents and traders up in arms with Federal Territory Ministry and DBKL. They are, if reports are found to be true, instigated by other quarters with vested political agenda.
The ministry has gone ahead to implement one way traffic dispersal system on Jalan Tun Sambanthan without building a suitable car park, claims the traders and residents. Visitors and patrons of shops also complained on lack of parking and also frequent summons by traffic police.
Although there are daily traffic jams caused by various roadworks along the main road , it does not really take long to reach either end of Brickfields as the traffic keeps moving. Traffic situation have actually improved over the days as people becomes more familiar.
Let me tell them something (which is applicable to other Malaysians as well). In my 17 years of visiting Brickfields for various reasons, I never had any problems parking there, either near the YMCA area or near Sri Kota and never in my lifetime have I ever parked at non parking area, double parked or parked at the road side. It just takes some driving around to find a parking lot at the back alleys.
These complaints of lack of parking are just lame excuses by traders and visitors. It’s no different from other KLites, who, if possible want a parking lot right inside the shops. They are just plain lazy to find a parking lot and walk to their intended shops.
The traders also claim that business had dropped by 80% recently. I doubt if this is true. They maybe affected but not as much as claimed. My recent visit proves that even if some of the stalls were relocated, loyal customers will still make an effort to find them, as I did. If business had dropped by 80%, most of them would have closed shop, but what I found at the temporary stall area is to the contrary. They just as busy as before.
The residents and traders cannot deny that, If compared to 90s, Brickfields, they have benefited tremendously from the development of KL Sentral, establishment of two 5 star hotels and also various up market condominiums and apartments. Currently there is another shopping centre coming up right in front of KL Sentral and few more upmarket buildings and residencies.
In my recent visit there, I found that hundreds or even thousand of office workers crossing the Jalan Tun Sambhanthan during lunch. Tell me that the business there has not increased many folds as compared to before and that property prices and rental rates had increased in tandem.
The government should just ignore these protests and move on with the project. The fact remains that most of the traders don’t live there, and more importantly, many of them do not pay much tax. If we chose to listen to them for the fear of losing votes, this project will never be completed as selfish traders and residents will continue to protest as they only look after their interest and theirs alone. These are some ungrateful traders who don’t wish to think about long terms benefits and returns of this project.
At times, while it’s good to engage key stakeholders for their inputs, there are times where these sessions turn into long drawn unnecessary championing of interest of some undeserving parties. There should be a breaking point and government must just move on. The residents and trader just need to bear with the inconvenience, not for long as this is a fast track project.
Without this redevelopment, Brickfields will look no different than the filthy and dusty streets of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The traders Association, instead of wasting time protesting, could well undertake initiatives to ensure their member traders commit to keep Brickfields clean.
The should focus on how to make their shops and stalls look clean and professionally maintained to improve the overall image of Brickfields. There is no point of spending millions to improve the infrastructure and amenities there if the traders and shops insist of maintaining their shops the old fashioned Indian way and more so when it is hardly maintained, aesthetically.
Presently, Palm Courts is no longer a place Malaysians would like to either buy or stay as it has turned out to be a mini Andhra Pradesh (a state in Indian, just above Tamil Nadu), full of Telugu Indians mainly from Hyderabad. They are mainly IT professionals working in many MSC companies in KL, Teknologi Park and Cyberjaya.
However the condition of the place does not look anything like resided by professionals. It is poorly managed and there some ongoing disputes between the residents, owners and the Joint Management Body.
It used to be good to live in Brickfield, it’s proximity to KL, the central trains station, availability of cheap Indian, Chinese and Malay food and other amenities.
The current ongoing plans to renew, reorganise and develop Brickfields as a Little India of KL had many residents and traders up in arms with Federal Territory Ministry and DBKL. They are, if reports are found to be true, instigated by other quarters with vested political agenda.
The ministry has gone ahead to implement one way traffic dispersal system on Jalan Tun Sambanthan without building a suitable car park, claims the traders and residents. Visitors and patrons of shops also complained on lack of parking and also frequent summons by traffic police.
Although there are daily traffic jams caused by various roadworks along the main road , it does not really take long to reach either end of Brickfields as the traffic keeps moving. Traffic situation have actually improved over the days as people becomes more familiar.
Let me tell them something (which is applicable to other Malaysians as well). In my 17 years of visiting Brickfields for various reasons, I never had any problems parking there, either near the YMCA area or near Sri Kota and never in my lifetime have I ever parked at non parking area, double parked or parked at the road side. It just takes some driving around to find a parking lot at the back alleys.
These complaints of lack of parking are just lame excuses by traders and visitors. It’s no different from other KLites, who, if possible want a parking lot right inside the shops. They are just plain lazy to find a parking lot and walk to their intended shops.
The traders also claim that business had dropped by 80% recently. I doubt if this is true. They maybe affected but not as much as claimed. My recent visit proves that even if some of the stalls were relocated, loyal customers will still make an effort to find them, as I did. If business had dropped by 80%, most of them would have closed shop, but what I found at the temporary stall area is to the contrary. They just as busy as before.
The residents and traders cannot deny that, If compared to 90s, Brickfields, they have benefited tremendously from the development of KL Sentral, establishment of two 5 star hotels and also various up market condominiums and apartments. Currently there is another shopping centre coming up right in front of KL Sentral and few more upmarket buildings and residencies.
In my recent visit there, I found that hundreds or even thousand of office workers crossing the Jalan Tun Sambhanthan during lunch. Tell me that the business there has not increased many folds as compared to before and that property prices and rental rates had increased in tandem.
The government should just ignore these protests and move on with the project. The fact remains that most of the traders don’t live there, and more importantly, many of them do not pay much tax. If we chose to listen to them for the fear of losing votes, this project will never be completed as selfish traders and residents will continue to protest as they only look after their interest and theirs alone. These are some ungrateful traders who don’t wish to think about long terms benefits and returns of this project.
At times, while it’s good to engage key stakeholders for their inputs, there are times where these sessions turn into long drawn unnecessary championing of interest of some undeserving parties. There should be a breaking point and government must just move on. The residents and trader just need to bear with the inconvenience, not for long as this is a fast track project.
Without this redevelopment, Brickfields will look no different than the filthy and dusty streets of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. The traders Association, instead of wasting time protesting, could well undertake initiatives to ensure their member traders commit to keep Brickfields clean.
The should focus on how to make their shops and stalls look clean and professionally maintained to improve the overall image of Brickfields. There is no point of spending millions to improve the infrastructure and amenities there if the traders and shops insist of maintaining their shops the old fashioned Indian way and more so when it is hardly maintained, aesthetically.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
NEM : Najib & Pakatan Rakyat’s Miscalculations
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.
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.
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.
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