Malaysia's Elections 2008 (Before, During & After)

[Chai]

Have you seen the underaged kid, found on the SPR website, was a registered voter? (based on the IC!)

[bslee]

Originally Posted by Chai

Have you seen the underaged kid, found on the SPR website, was a registered voter? (based on the IC!)

Ah!.. ironic we've to tolerate a FLAWED facility on the internet. Time check March 2008?.. still running on that Intel Pentium with mathematical flawed internals leh?
Anyway..are they (BN) not telling everyone not to believe things on the internet?.. another minister saying internet bloggers are a nuisance?..BTW, whats happened to our "multimedia corridor"?..gone fart and forgotten perhaps?.
DYKT: hardly anything regarding to IT is discussed in Parliament?..why?..because they're incompetant and zilch IT knowledge. How to go forward dah???? Instead they tell you, Kalau tak suka boleh .... or tutup mata saja leh!...

[Chai]

Originally Posted by bslee

Ah!.. ironic we've to tolerate a FLAWED facility on the internet. Time check March 2008?.. still running on that Intel Pentium with mathematical flawed internals leh?
Anyway..are they (BN) not telling everyone not to believe things on the internet?.. another minister saying internet bloggers are a nuisance?..BTW, whats happened to our "multimedia corridor"?..gone fart and forgotten perhaps?.
DYKT: hardly anything regarding to IT is discussed in Parliament?..why?..because they're incompetant and zilch IT knowledge. How to go forward dah???? Instead they tell you, Kalau tak suka boleh .... or tutup mata saja leh!...

Or Kalau tak suka, balik *insert your native country*.

[bslee]

Oh well.. We press the "BN" key (secretly its the Delete function key)

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by karhoe

I just came back from MCA ceramah + free supper (fake shark fin, fish, pork, duck, etc etc)

People were there just to eat, I pity that speaker who speak but no one seems to listen

Kar Hoe's Blog - Barisan Nasional free meal

Don't feel guilty. They are using our money. It's so obvious. It's actually illegal. According to what I know...

The law stipulates that parliamentary and state candidates may spend up to RM200,000 and RM100,000 respectively.

It's obvious that all these BN candidates are spending way in excess of RM 100K or 200K. In fact, there was a report that UMNO is giving at least RM 2 MILLION to each candidate to run their campaigns. Obviously, UMNO is above the law.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by bslee

I went to a DAP ceramah at USJ12 last nite. Despite the rain just before, and towards the end, people stuck on with umbrellas and there were 1000+ people. Its really encouraging and never before seen in SJ/USJ. There were many people whom I saw and I know WOULDN'T come out for this kind of event. BUT these folks CAME OUT!..and it CERTAINLY OF ISSUE when they come out. I'm guessing their decision IS NOT wrong this time and DAP rep said he personally felt happy the response IS GREAT for winds of change this time!
I'm certain BN factions are trembling in their pants...the hell with them anyway!...they've blown it for us all since 1999.
Folks!.. its doesn't matter...Vote for DAP/PKR/PAS/Inde. Deny, Deny 2/3 majority..THAT'S the objective.

There are always those who believe that their business or careers (government servants) will be affected if BN is not in power. Well, IMHO, BN will still be in power even if most of us vote for the opposition. Like it or not, their gerrymandering has more or less assured them the ability to form a government.

However, there is NO reason for them to ever have a 2/3 majority. No GOOD reason at least. Therefore, we must at least vote in enough opposition seats to ensure we have people who can fight against any misconduct by BN MPs.

For Penang people who always think they are clever by voting for the opposition in the Parliament seats but retaining BN in the State seats, well, that's plain stupid too. The lack of opposition in the State has resulted in the federal government (read : Badawi & SIL) running slipshod over the people of Penang.

Have you guys not heard of PGCC (Penang Global City Centre)? Even though it is illegal in so many ways, Badawi just came in and ordered the state government to expedite its approval, DESPITE numerous protests by the people. Is that the kind of state government you want? Don't be fools!

I'm a Penang-kia and I will be returning to cast my vote for the future of Penang. I don't see it in the BN government any more. Koh Tsu Koon has been squandering Penang's potential for years. It's time we send him and his people packing.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Chai

Have you seen the underaged kid, found on the SPR website, was a registered voter? (based on the IC!)

That's nothing. There are over 8000 voters who are over 100 years old! There are even two of them who are 128 years old.

BTW, check this out... DAP workers found at least 13 duplicates in a bunch of 2600 postal votes.

Today, at the Resident’s Office, the Election Commission (EC) officers in Sibu issued postal votes to the police and army personnel, and in the course of supervising the issuance, we caught 13 postal voters who were entitled to vote twice, for their names were registered twice on the electoral roll. They were to be given 2 ballot papers each. But the story did not end here.

We asked the EC officers to verify the duplicated voters by a computer. It had none.

All the ballot papers for more than 2600 postal voters in the police and army were contained in the envelopes and placed on the table. My election agent and workers had to use naked eyes to pick up the duplicity!

Credit to the EC workers in Sibu, they were very patient watching us do the checking, but is that the way to run an election?

From the morning till about 4p.m., my workers forgot their lunches and ploughed through the piles and piles of envelopes, looking for duplicated voters.

My workers were not provided with lunch by the EC.

The work to check for duplicity was supposed to be done by the EC as we were not supposed to even touch those envelopes. But we were told to do it. The EC officers just watched.

In the course of doing so, Robert Lau’s son and his agent also came to the Resident’s Office. The agent checked and handled the envelopes also. After about 30 minutes they left. The PKR candidate Lim Chin Chuang also came. He took a look, and left.

They all knew that with DAP going through the chores, things must be in good hands.

[Adrian Wong]

Here's a very good column by M. Bakri Musa. Please copy and forward to all your friends and relatives.

The Tale of the Rattlesnake
M. Bakri Musa

Spring comes early in my part of California. Already there are exuberant splashes of dancing daffodils on the hillsides. Soon the colorful California poppies will pop up. With the weather becoming warmer, the rattlesnakes too will soon emerge from their winter slumber.

Talking of rattlesnakes, I am reminded of the story of the kindly lady who saw one such weakling that was dying from the long cold winter. Taking pity on the poor critter, she took it home and nursed it back to health. One day while she was feeding the now robust creature, it took a swipe at her hand and bit her.

As she lay dying she asked the snake why it had done that. “You should have known better, lady! You knew I was a rattlesnake, you should have killed me back then!”

On March 8, 2008, Malaysia will have a general election, with Prime Minister Abdullah seeking a second term, having secured an overwhelming mandate back in 2004. This will be the voters’ collective judgment of what Abdullah did with that mandate.

If Barisan Nasional retains its supra-majority and Abdullah remains as Prime Minister, rest assured that he will continue the pattern he set in his first term. He will once again reward his cronies and family members with sweetheart mega billion contracts san competition, just as he has done during his first term. His excuse then was that he did not know that he was doing it! He will continue dozing off during meetings in the mistaken belief that Malaysians approve of such mediocre performances. Also, expect the bureaucracy to become even more bloated. This self-styled “number one civil servant’s” answer to every problem is to spend more money and employ more staff.

For Malays, expect more books on Islam to be banned and more raids by moral vigilante groups intent on keeping us on the 'straight path'. And expect this Imam of Islam Hadari to lead even more prayers in public, with the television cameras rolling on, of course.

For non-Malays, expect more temples to be torn down to make way for “community development,” more cash demands from their insatiably greedy Ali Baba partners, and more reasons to take their children out of national schools.

In short, Malaysians would be like that innocent lady who took pity on the emaciated rattlesnake. Malaysians took pity on Abdullah and gave him another chance. Unfortunately, true to form, this rattlesnake Abdullah Badawi will bite us back with a vengeance.

Who Should We Blame?

There is a little bit of that kind lady in all of us, of wanting to be helpful, and yes, also to be forgiving, of wanting to give someone especially our leaders another chance. We believe in the basic goodness of our fellow human beings. We are generous and believe that goodwill begets more goodwill. In short, we are not rattlesnakes.

Unfortunately, there are the small minority amongst us who are indeed rattlesnakes. No matter how kind we are to them, their basic instinct is to bite back.

When I find a rattlesnake near my house, I remove it away back to the hills. If it returns, then I will not hesitate to kill it. I give that critter only one chance; it is too dangerous to have a rattlesnake crawling around near my house.

Malaysians have been too kind and for too long to this rattlesnake of a leader, Abdullah Badawi. He interprets the huge mandate he received in2004 not as a trust given by citizens to lead them to greater heights, but as a license to indulge his private fantasies. He is not at all embarrassed by being endlessly feted, or of him and his adult family members jetting off to far away destinations in his newly acquired (at taxpayers expense of course) luxurious Airbus. Where and when did this grandson of a pious and humble village imam acquire his extravagant tastes?

When Abdullah was appointed Deputy Prime Minister back in 1998, this is what I wrote in my book The Malay Dilemma Revisited: “Abdullah is not known for his intellect or sense of mission. Nor is he very inspiring. . . . He would be Malaysia’s Jimmy Carter, an honorable enough man but totally ineffective leader.” I was wrong about the honorable part.

I also wrote, “Abdullah’s only redeeming quality was his humility; a fine enough tribute for a friend but an overrated quality in a leader.” As we now know, Abdullah has a lot to be humble about, to borrow Churchill’s quote.

Democracy: Self Correcting

The mistake Malaysians made was in giving Abdullah that massive mandate in 2004. That, however, was understandable, prompted no doubt by the kind lady instinct in us all. Unfortunately, it cemented in Abdullah the delusion that his many inadequacies were indeed virtues. Our intellectuals and pundits too were also taken in, mistaking Abdullah's silence for substance, his humility for wisdom. Had Malaysians been less generous and our intellectuals more critical, Abdullah would have a far less inflated sense of his own capabilities and virtues. Who knows, we might be spared his vulgar excesses.

Even Prime Minister Mahathir was fooled by Abdullah to appoint him as Mahathir's successor. At least Mahathir recognised his error of judgment (albeit belatedly) and is now working hard to remedy his greatest mistake.

The beauty of democracy is that citizens can (or at least are given a chance to) correct our collective mistakes, or even those of our leaders. In this upcoming election, voters in Kepala Batas could do a great national service if they were to boot Abdullah out. That would effectively remove him as Prime Minister. More significantly it would trigger a seismic shift in UMNO's leadership. With the party's ban on contesting top posts effectively circumvented, it would get a chance to preview many other candidates.

If Kepala Batas voters were shy in exercising this historic opportunity, then Malaysians could still teach Abdullah a lesson by substantially reducing his coalition's victories. That would also trigger a challenge to his leadership and we would have the same effect as the first scenario.

We Malays have a saying that sometimes we have to be unkind or even cruel in order to be kind. We may think that we are being kind by giving a five-ringgit note to a starving drug addict, but then he would just as quickly use that money to get his next fix.

In the social sciences there is the concept of an “enabler,” specifically referring to the battered wife syndrome, of the wife whose toleration of her husband's abuses encourages him to be even more abusive.

In this election voters will have to be cruel in order to be kind to our leaders, ourselves, and our nation. Malaysians must be wise enough not to be inadvertent enablers of corrupt and incompetent leaders. We must get rid of the rattlesnakes among our leaders before they bite us.

If Malaysians were to continue on with business as usual with this election, then we have only ourselves to blame. It would not be the fault of the rattlesnake if it were to bite us back, as surely it would.

[Adrian Wong]

And this is Raja Petra's take on the "Winds Of Change"!

Yes, the winds of change are blowing throughout Malaysia. Everywhere you go, people are talking about change. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is asking the voters to give Barisan Nasional five more years. But what Najib does not seem to comprehend is that the voters have already given Barisan Nasional the five years he is asking for. They gave it in March 2004. In fact, Malaysia has been having the same government for the last 50 years since Merdeka. But the five years since Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as Prime Minister in 2003 have come to nought. Abdullah did not deliver everything he promised in his 2004 Election Manifesto. In fact, he did exactly the opposite of what he promised. And don't think that the voters have not noticed.

Abdullah launched the Rancangan Malaysia Kesembilan (RMK9) or Ninth Malaysia Plan awhile back. But not one of his grand plans have taken off. Sure, some projects are being implemented. But these projects are mostly carry-forward projects of the RMK8. These are projects which were not completed in time during the last Malaysia Plan, the RMK8, and only now are seeing fruition. If anyone can be credited for these projects then it would have to be Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, as these were conjured during his tenure as Prime Minister. In that sense, it is Mahathir and not Abdullah who is developing Malaysia, in spite of the fact that Mahathir is no longer the Prime Minister.

Back in 2002, soon after Mahathir announced his retirement, I wrote that one day we will look back on the 'good old days' and remark that, on hindsight, Mahathir is by far the better Prime Minister. That, I added, would be a bleak day for Malaysia when even Mahathir begins to look better than Abdullah.

I have always been a Mahathir critic. I have never denied this and I make no apologies for it. But my criticism is based on my ideals of a transparent government, a civil society, freedom of choice, an unshackled and independent media, and all those which many would label as 'western' values. But there is nothing 'western' about these values at all. They are universal values which are compatible with Islam or any other religion for that matter. No religion in existence would dispute opposition to discrimination, oppression and repression. The very foundation of Islam and all the major religions is justice. So how could what I hold dear be considered 'western' when all the religions emerged in the east, none in the west?

Abdullah's RMK9 is going to cost RM200 billion. Where Malaysia is going to find the money to fund these RM200 billion worth of projects is not clear. Then, even before any of these RMK9 projects can see maturity, Abdullah criss-crosses Malaysia to launch his so many 'Corridors'. These so-called Corridors are going to cost the nation in excess of RM1 trillion. Abdullah, the Sixth Prime Minister, is going to spend more money than that spent by the first five Prime Ministers combined. What Abdullah is going to spend over ten years will far exceed what was spent over 50 years before this. But it is not Abdullah who is going to pay for this spending spree. It will be us, the Rakyat, who will be made to pay. And just as I am sure that my name is Raja Petra Bin Raja Kamarudin, I am equally sure that the Rakyat will certainly be made to pay.

Abdullah's landslide win in the 2004 general election has given birth to an arrogance. Never before has the ruling coalition performed that well. Even the great Mahathir was not able to duplicate this. This 92% mandate from the Rakyat is interpreted as a blank cheque with a 'Double Zero' licence, a licence to kill, thrown in. No country gives its government 92% of the seats in Parliament unless the Rakyat believes in it without question and with no conditions attached.

2004, however, is not an accurate yardstick to measure one's popularity or gauge the Rakyat's support. The people had had enough. They wanted change. And they gave Abdullah his 92% victory with change in mind. They wanted to see a new Malaysia. They wanted to see a different government. They wanted to see an improvement over 22 years of Mahathir. But this did not happen. Don't even talk about improvement. Even if things stood still, that in itself would have been bad enough but acceptable nevertheless. But in Abdullah's case, things actually went into reverse. Matters became worse, not just remained the same, and certainly very, very far from better.

The Rakyat's clamour for change is not enough to tip the scales though. Just because the Rakyat have had enough is not sufficient to influence the election results. Malaysia's Elections Commission has transformed vote-rigging and gerrymandering into an art form. Electoral boundaries and constituencies have been drawn up to give the ruling coalition an unfair advantage. Malays, Chinese and Indians never vote en bloc. So, in the absence of block-voting, one set of voters can be played against the other. When the Chinese swing to the opposition, the sentiments of the Malays can be played up and the Chinese 'threat' can be bandied about to 'unite' the Malays under Umno. This has always worked in the past and there is no reason it can't continue to work. The same goes when the Malays swing to the opposition like in 1999. Then the Chinese can be subtly 'persuaded' to vote government by constantly raising the spectre of 'May 13'. Then, to complete this very delicate 'balancing act', the Indians will deliver the crucial 'deciding votes'. Traditionally, 90% of the Indian voters vote ruling party. This has always been so and there is no reason to believe it can't continue to be so.

Along the way, however, something happened. And this something happened in November 2007. On 10 November, the Malays and Chinese got together under BERSIH to fight for clean and fair elections. Then, two weeks later, the Indians united under HINDRAF to protest the raw deal they had been getting over 50 years since Merdeka. No one expected the large turnout and mass support, not the BERSIH organisers nor the people behind HINDRAF. Somehow it just happened. The timing was right, though by accident rather than by design, and the Rakyat rallied behind BERSIH and HINDRAF.

Then the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) did something no one thought it would do. It sat down to discuss the possibility of offering the five HINDRAF leaders under ISA detention, now popularly known as the HINDRAF 5, seats to contest under its party banner. Two of the HINDRAF 5 are DAP members so DAP was not about to allow what are currently the most popular Hindu activists in Malaysia to get 'stolen' by an Islamic party. Before you could scream MAKKAL SAKHTI, the HINDRAF 5 were offered seats under the DAP banner. PAS had to be contented with having an Indian female lawyer as its candidate in Johor. In one swoop, PAS erased the negative image that the Barisan Nasional controlled media had been painting it with. This was not only a woman but a Hindu to boot and she was a candidate on the PAS party ticket.

Barisan Nasional was caught off-guard. The old strategy used in undermining PAS can no longer apply. Sure, it may be only one Hindu candidate, and one swallow does not make a summer. But, over the last few days, HINDRAF activists have been riding around town wearing PAS T-shirts and holding PAS flags high above their heads. Never mind that DAP and not PAS is contesting that particular seat. The HINDRAF supporters just want to demonstrate their love for PAS even though they are doing so at a DAP ceramah.

Barisan Nasional is now in a daze. Sure, they have gerrymandered the seats well. They have carved out the electoral boundaries to take into account the racial make-up. And they have also 'injected' new 'voters' and transferred postal votes to those constituencies where the opposition is strong. But this strategy only works if the margins are small and if the Malays and Chinese vote opposite to each other and if 90% of the Indian voters play their traditional role of 'king-maker'. If, however, the Malays, Chinese and Indians all vote opposition as one united voice, then many seats will be lost which may result in Barisan Nasional finally losing its two-thirds majority in Parliament, not to mention a few states thrown in as well.

But this, and this alone, is not enough. In 1969, the opposition garnered 55.1% of the votes but still the ruling party got in, though minus its two-thirds. In 1999, the opposition garnered 46% of the votes and still the ruling party got in, and with a two-thirds majority on top of that. Since 1969 and 1999, the Elections Commission has 'fine-tuned' the gerrymandering so that the opposition will need 60% of the votes to form the government, and even then it is not sure if it will form the government with a two-thirds majority. That is what the opposition is up against. So, even if the Malays, Chinese and Indians unite as a solid front, it will still not be enough. There must be one more factor thrown in, the faktor dalaman or internal factor -- the element of sabotage within the ranks of Barisan Nasional.

Annuar Musa is not going to be the Menteri Besar of Kelantan if Umno wins that state. Instead, Awang Adek will be that Menteri Besar. So Annuar Musa will do his best to ensure that Umno does not win Kelantan.

Idris Jusoh has dropped several Terengganu warlords. These warlords would rather see PAS win Terengganu just for the satisfaction of 'paying back' Idris Jusoh for dropping them. Hundreds of supporters of these 'retired' warlords have held demonstrations in front of Idris Jusoh's residence and the police had to be called in to break up these 'illegal assemblies' that, for this first time, were organised by Umno against Umno.

Shahidan Kassim was dropped from the candidates' list and thereby would have to retire as the Menteri Besar of Perlis as well. He stormed into Abdullah's office in Putrajaya and only after the seventh attempt was he able to meet the Prime Minister. Under immense pressure and Shahidan's threat of handing the state over to the opposition, Abdullah relented and reluctantly gave him back his seat. This upset Umno's Secretary-General who had been trying to get rid of Shahidan because of his many sex scandals, the latest involving a very young girl who was forced to have an abortion to get rid of Shahidan's baby she was carrying.

Shahidan retaliated by declaring that he would give the Parliament seats to the opposition “so that I would not have to see their ****ing faces for the next five years.” The about-to-be-killed-off aspiring Parliamentarians in turn want to make sure that Shahidan never gets to continue as the Menteri Besar of Perlis -- and, even if he does, it will not be for more than two years. And Najib's response to all this is that Umno will take action against all those Umno members who sabotage the election. What more could Najib say after declaring that he is just fed up with the infighting in Kelantan which has dashed Umno's hopes of winning back that state?

The Chinese voters in Penang want to give the Parliament seats to the opposition but they are not sure whether they should do the same with the state seats. Maybe the opposition should be sent to Parliament while the state is safely retained in the hands of Barisan Nasional. This is the dilemma facing the Penang Chinese. They are worried if they give the state to the opposition then Penang, for the first time, might see a Malay Chief Minister. Anwar Ibrahim has overcome this fear by promising that, if the opposition manages to grab Penang, the opposition will appoint a Chinese as its new Chief Minister.

But this still does not address the other fears. What about development? For sure Penang will face what Kelantan is now facing if the opposition forms the new state government. The opposition will now have to work very hard in convincing the Penang voters that Penang is already so developed, in fact overdeveloped, that maybe some of the development should be scaled down as there is a limit to what the island can support. Penang is already getting too congested because of the development that many now prefer to stay out of the city or out of the island altogether just to get away from the maddening crowd. What more development does Penang need? What it needs, instead, is a scaling down so that Penang can revert to being the Pearl of the Orient which it once was but no longer is.

In the other states as well the infighting is intense. Whether Barisan Nasional, in particular Umno, closes ranks these next six days is left to be seen. If it does, then the opposition will be given a run for its money. If not, then the opposition may yet come in with at least 60 Parliament seats plus a state or two. But the opposition would need 75 seats to deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in Parliament. How would it do this? I suppose many within Umno too would like to know the answer to that question so maybe I should stop here for now lest I reveal too much which will allow Barisan Nasional time to pre-empt our moves.

In the meantime, you voters should not worry too much. Just take a look at the two videos here and make sure you come out to vote come 8 March 2008.

(See video version 1 here) (See video version 2 here) (See video version 3 here)

[karhoe]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

Don't feel guilty. They are using our money. It's so obvious. It's actually illegal. According to what I know...


It's obvious that all these BN candidates are spending way in excess of RM 100K or 200K. In fact, there was a report that UMNO is giving at least RM 2 MILLION to each candidate to run their campaigns. Obviously, UMNO is above the law.

What about the enormous amount they spent on TVC and internet ads? I thought they have budget?