Ability to judge and assess something usually comes from experience, and often that experience comes from own poor judgement. Balan Kumar
Monday, November 29, 2010
OMG!! Pakatan Rakyat 2010, version 2.1
CAT, SELCAT and whatnot being separately announced and established by different Pakatan State Government. How common!
Support Letter Issue in Selangor – Internal Investigations for greater transparency! OMG!!, the real culprit freed’
Camera in MB’s Office – Internal Investigations for greater transparency! Until now, there has been no further news on the probe.
Sand mining corruption allegations – Internal Investigations for greater transparency! Until now, there has been no further news on the probe and MACC has stepped in.
PAS Aduns says PKNS is corrupt and mismanaged – MB Khalid as usual orders
Internal Audit Committee to probe. Nothing out of this probe yet.
Yayasan Selangor Lunch – RM 300 -800K about to be spent and the chairman & MB was not even aware about it. Though MACC has stepped in now.
Two more Hindu Temples to be built in Selangor with Pakatan government support despite nearly thousand other temples available and hardly patronized in Selangor.
Millions of ringgit channeled towards both legal and illegal Hindu temple by a publicity crazy State Executive Councilor which brings no tangible benefits to the community. Good example of how state resources are channeled towards unproductive projects.
2 no-plastic Bags day in 2011 (though experts around the world have said that this does not really help the environment) while No plastic bags at all in Penang in 2011 while it appears to be all day plastic bag week in Kedah and Kelantan. A good example of consistent implementation of ‘Common Policy Framework’.
RM 100 for senior citizens in Penang. I am still laughing at Lim Guan Eng’s TV interview when he mentioned that he did not know that Penang Turf Club had betting license. Then, what is horse racing all about, Guan Eng?? And your supporters think that gaffes and political comedy is exclusive domain of BN leaders. Not sure if such hand out is available in Kelantan, Kedah and Selangor.
Selangor speaker Teng’s explanation of ‘OMG, real culprit freed’ tweet provided the much need humour amid tense political situation in Selangor. He deserves best comedian award for year 2010.
Water rate increase in Penang – A good move (seriously)
Freedom of Information bill in Selangor – Please come clean on Ronnie Liu, KSSB and PKNS first! Penang to follow while 20 year old PAS government in Kelantan and New state government in Kedah are not even looking at it. Sounds more like ‘Freedom of Misinformation bill’ in the works. Another good example of how ‘common policy framework’ thrown down the drain.
No Announcement of any Major Economic Initiative by world renowned Selangor Economic Advisor, Anwar Ibrahim, who was busy criticizing APCO, NKRA, NEP, ETP, GTP etc, He was also busy finding ways to delay his trial and campaigning for his favourites candidates at PKR elections.
Khalid Ibrahim’s support for Greater KL plan (not sure if this is endorsed by his world renowned economic advisor) and his flip flop on support for Menara Warisan.
Continued ban on several mainstream media covering official state functions, meetings and now State Assembly by Penang and Kedah state governments while others invite mainstream media to only provide good news. A good example of media freedom.
Continued lies perpetrated by party held media such as Suara Keadilan eg, Felda, Perak MB Zambry issue etc. Another example Pakatan’s of free and fair media. Free and fair to them only and freedom to lie.
Increase in Bumiputra quota for Housing in Kedah – not sure how far if this is true, but can’t remember any other policy announced by the PAS led state government.
Rapid establishment of a Sin City (Kota Damansara)
Defections after defections from PKR, Zul Nordin to Wee Choo Keong further strengthens Malaysian democracy.
Introduction of various new methods and techniques of vote manipulations at PKR elections which also created a new world record in terms of voter turnouts, thus upstaging Bersih 2.0 with their own version of Free and Fair elections, Kotor 2.1.
No new ‘asset declarations’ by State Exco as promised by Selangor State Government. Previous ‘asset declarations’, or rather income declarations, has gone missing from the state government website. I guess this is in line with implementation of Freedom of Misinformation bill.
On the other hand, Lim Guan Eng appears to be still waiting for ‘asset declaration form’ from federal government. This elusive piece of form appears to too complex for anyone even as smart as Lim and his state government to create, hence Lim’s wait continues.
Others major highlights and learning points from Pakatan Rakyat in 2010
1. You can be a Deputy President and future Deputy Prime Minister or even Prime Minister with the support of less than 10% of your own party members.
2. You can start your own PKR branch and become a branch chairman with only one member, yourself.
3. A person who lies continuously, slanders others at will, attempted to grab power undemocratically, corrupt and abuses power are deemed as ‘gift of god’. So we have many ‘Gifts Of God’ amongst politicians in Malaysia.
4. It’s ok to call own PKR party member ‘Pariah’ and later give speech hitting out on BN about racism.
5. You are permitted to forge or create any documents as long as the party looks good in the eyes of law and public.
6. Those with experience in drafting and creating ‘Statuary Declarations’ out of nothing will be considered for ‘Information Chief’ post.
7. You can be DAP state chairman even if you only have 40% support of party delegates and the fact that there are 10 others who are far more popular.
8. Being a gangster is a good career prospect if you are residing in Hulu Selangor and Kota Raja.
9. Dish out funds recklessly to Hindu Temples and Schools, you can be the next ‘Sivaji the Boss’.
10. Free water continues to be enjoyed by the rich while the poor pays in Selangor as per Merakyatkan Ekonomi policy.
I am sure there are many other path breaking achievements that may have been left out. Feel free to create your own list.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
DAP and PKR – Why Not merge?
DAP elections in Perak ended in similar fashion as did in PKR albeit not as bad. By opening enough branches and voters on your side means you control the state, no matter whether the candidate or team is good and capable. It is quite baffling how these elections systems work. It's not that this does not happen in BN. ut Pakatan is supposedly superior and practises far superior demecracy, as they say.
At the end, no matter which party, only those with influence and resources win, not the candidate who is not corrupt, wise, smart and honest. The available post are rotated amongst select few and losers are given less powerful post just to pacify them, hence the fate of Kulasegaran.
Just before the Hulu Selangor by elections, I was invited by a PKR supporter, who is a local ethnic based organization leader, to join his proposed new branch. His main motivation appears to be a branch chairman and get any allocations funds that are made available. He says that his family, friends and relatives should make up the minimum number of members required to open a branch and urged me to join him or at least on a joint venture basis open one near my place.
He says that he will take care of day to day running and that I just need to show up when only necessary. He says not only PKR pays well, he can even get BN to pay him, especially during elections where he says he can get the money and there is no need to account for it at all, since no one knows who the members will vote. Now you know why there has been massive attempt to manipulate PKR elections, even at local branch level.
Back to DAP, even at national level, DAP is controlled by the same group. Losers in national level party elections are appointed to certain high level positions. Important post such as Chairman, General Secretary and Party advisers are usually rotated among a select few. Such unique brand of democracy in DAP.
What I don’t quite understand is what is the differences between DAP and PKR. Both claims to be multi racial and both espouses objectives which is not in many way dissimilar. Then why not merge these 2 entities. The same can be said on Gerakan and PPP in BN, why not merge?
As we all know, personality and not party ideology has been a mainstay in BN for a long time, so that’s an old story but what about DAP and PKR, who has been promising a ‘New Hope for Malaysia’, why can’t they merge and propose a more formidable opposition front to Malaysian.
I wonder why DAP has so far maintained ‘elegant silence’ on various blunders and foolish actions by Anwar and PKR but not quite with PAS. A certain race related pact between PKR and DAP, as alleged by Kulim MP makes a lot of sense. This may be part of ‘New Hope For Malaysia’, DAP maybe counting on PKR to deliver Malay votes while DAP can surely deliver non-malay votes. Hence, there is no specific reason to rely on PAS.
Could race and personality be the reason? I am sure it is. Party ideology and principles are not important, continued prominence and existence of certain race and personalities appear to be more important in both PKR and DAP.
Certain political leaders aspirations to be come Prime Minister and Deputy Prime minister could be the main motivation too.
If both PKR and DAP are merged, it is highly likely that some Deputy Prime Minister, Minister materials from DAP could be drowned out by even more power obsessed candidates from PKR, if they ever find their way to Putrajaya. So policies, social justice, democracy, reforms and constitution are secondary and simply tools to gain power
Monday, November 15, 2010
PKR - ‘A New Hope For Malaysia’
For example, if any other prominent leader in another country tries to do a Sept 16 government takeover and fails, he would have been now shunned by the populace and become a political deadwood by now.
But in Malaysia, a politician’s personality, charisma and oratory skill is seen far more important regardless whether the leaders lies continuously unabated, as in the case of Anwar Ibrahim, who would have been politically dead if he would have done the same (Sept 16) in another country.
Anwar is more of a celebrity rather than a principled politician who would have resigned if he fails to fulfill his high profiled (and life changing to many) promises. Like celebrities, he has more fans than supporters. Fans are unlikely to shun their favourite celebrities even if the famed ones lies, take drugs, cheats and even murders someone, unlike political supporter who are likely to shun such characters and look at other prospective leaders.
So if Anwar says something stupid, like his comments linking Zaid’s outburst to certain article in Utusan Malaysia and summing it up as another conspiracy in the works , his fans are likely to forgive him. If he promises another Sept 16, many fans would still be around to support Anwar’s dream project.
I am at loss that Zaid Ibrahim and many PKR supporters realizes the man Anwar is only now, even though the numbers many be still small, for now. I am also at loss on DAP and PAS continued support for Anwar as a leader of Pakatan Rakyat despite the Sep 16 event and also never commented on continuous blunders, foolish and childish comments made by Anwar.
The fact that Anwar has never acknowledged various discrepancies, money politics and manipulations at even the initial PKR branch level elections only shows that Anwar is in denial that his own party and it’s elections are in a mess. He choses to blame Trojan horses, UMNO, saboteur etc and never admitted that the PKR HQ and Elections committee are incompetent to handle elections at such a scale.
I am privy to what happened at Hulu Selangor PKR elections where various devious methods and techniques were used to manipulate the outcome of the divisional elections. This involved a senior state EXCO man aligned to a deputy president candidate, who in my opinion outdid MIC politicians in terms of use of gangsters and polls manipulations. 2 Busloads of thugs were employed to help manipulate the votes in their favour. The vote counting were held until midnight and stopped after protests from various quarters.
Many local PKR supporters there, which have tripled further to Hulu Selangor by-elections, have openly said that they have never ever seen manipulations of local elections in such a large scale. Many would have by now, resigned and returned to BN.
The elections have now been withheld and there is no news on what actions would be taken by the PKR HQ. From what has been reported so far, there has not been any decision taken on all those cancelled, withheld and postponed branch level elections and PKR HQ saw it fit to continue with their national level elections.
Turnouts for all branch & national level elections have been extremely poor except for some miraculous turnouts reported in Sabah. PKR and Pakatan leaders used to goad BN on actual number of votes obtained by BN in general elections and by-elections saying BN does not command support from half of the electorates. Does a less than 10% voter’s turnout in PKR elections legitimize an election and its elected leaders?
Worse, the self appointed democratic icon of Malaysia himself is not democratically elected as the head of his own political party. Even PKR members are baffled with this and no one including the current PKR President has offered any explanation.
With all this democratic mess, some PKR leaders had the cheek to comment on Bersih 2.0 objectives.
PKR is certainly provides a 'new hope for Malaysia' and Malaysians had the opportunity of previewing the best electoral practises in any democracy, ever.