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

[Adrian Wong]

I'm pretty confident BN will cheat in this general elections. It just doesn't make sense for the EC to cancel the use of indelible ink just FOUR days before the elections.

I don't think you can just buy indelible ink even if you have the money. Besides, the opposition does NOT benefit from using indelible ink to cause chaos.

If the reports are true, then the police should look into it and bring the perpertrators to justice. There's NO reason why the EC should cancel the use of indelible ink. After all, even war-torn Afghanistan has no problem using it.

[Dashken]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

WTH... How can they prevent him from going to Penang island? It's a free country what.

He's the nephew of a Raja ma.. must take care a bit.

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Dashken

He's the nephew of a Raja ma.. must take care a bit.

So? My brother's friend is also a Raja what... That doesn't mean he has no right to go to Penang island...

[Adrian Wong]

Here's more insider info on how the government cheats / wastes our money.

By Little Bird

Well, we are just two days away from casting our ballots. Here are two more stories to help you decide how to vote.

The Pharmaniaga Scam

There is a company that imports medicines from India and sells it to Government hospitals. India is now a major pharmaceutical power in the world and they manufacture high quality drugs but very cheaply. This particular company buys the drugs in India at a cost of about RM10.00 per pack. They say that if they can sell their imported medicine directly to the Gomen hospital, they will charge the Gomen about RM15.00 per pack - which means they slap on a 50% markup to cover transportation, expenses and of course some profit for them.

But the drug is actually sold to the Gomen hospital for RM45. Here is how it happens. The importing company cannot sell the drugs directly to the Gomen. They must go through Pharmaniaga Bhd which we all know is an UMNO company. Its Directors include UEM boss Dato Ahmad Pardas Senin, failed outsourcing guru Dato Azman Yahya and UMNO henchman Dato Raja Nong Chik.

But even here the company cannot sell the drugs directly to Pharmaniaga at RM15. They first have to sell their drugs to yet another crony company which is "connected" to Pharmaniaga. So the crony intermediary buys the drugs first at RM15.00 and then sells it to Pharmaniaga at a mark up of say RM30.00.

The interesting thing is this is just a paper transaction. They may not even take physical possession of the drugs. They may just tell the importing company to deliver the drugs direct to Pharmaniaga. They just bill Pharmaniaga and cream off the difference. Now kawan-kawan, this has been going on for donkey years since Pharmaniaga was set up in the 1990s.

Then Pharmaniaga finally sells the drug to the Gomen hospitals for RM45.00 a pack. And who pays for all this creaming off? Its you and me Encik Taxpayer. We are the suckers.

Air Asia Creaming Off More Money

Here is a follow up on the Air Asia story that appeared earlier. When Air Asia took over the Sabah and Sarawak routes, they also took over seven airplanes from MAS. But when they returned the routes to MAS about a year later, only one plane was in flying condition. The other six planes had been cannibalised for parts or were under serious repair. Air Asia saved tens of millions of Ringgit (RM50 mill or so) from this underhand business tactic and simply passed the cost of repair back to MAS. Everything was approved by Badawi the Finance Minister and his Deputy Nor Mohamed Yakob. But this is not the end of the story.

The Finance Ministry official who gave me this news said that when Air Asia first took over the hinterland routes in Sabah and Sarawak they also demanded compensation from the Gomen. They told the Gomen that Sabah and Sarawak air routes were not profitable and had to be subsidised. Ok but how much? RM70 million per year!! And Air Asia wanted to be paid upfront! And they got it. The Gomen paid them the RM70 million subsidy up front, signed off by Nor Mohd Yakob.

To be fair MAS has also been paid subsidies by the Gomen to operate the Sabah & Sarawak routes but the Finance Ministry official says that throughout the entire history of MAS, the highest subsidy paid by the Gomen to MAS was a maximum RM14 million only. And the subsidy was always paid to MAS at the end of the financial year, after MAS had finalised its audited accounts. And during the years when MAS was profitable no subsidies were paid to MAS by the Gomen. Subsidies were only paid in those years when MAS made slim profits or suffered losses.

But here we have Air Asia getting an upfront subsidy of RM70 million. Who paid for that ? Err thats our money lah Encik Taxpayer. And ony Fernandez gets all the fantastic 'entrepreneur' awards! Pi-dah mabuk!

After the BN loses the elections lets have another Royal Commission of Inquiry ok?

[Adrian Wong]

Here's a piece by Dr. Azmi Sharom, whose views I have always respected.

Why I will vote opposition
Dr Azmi Sharom

My eight year old boy and his nine year old cousin were in deep conversation last weekend. Very serious stuff because they chased me out of the room and demanded privacy. It turns out that they wanted to establish a political party and they were writing their manifesto. After a bit of poking around, I found out that the manifesto is pretty much limited to one point: my nephew wants to be Prime Minister. My son on the other hand does not seem to have any idea what is going on.

Normally, this would be the time when I make a, oh so witty, comparison between the 12th Malaysian General Elections and the exploits of two primary school boys. Unfortunately, I can’t think of anything and I just put this little anecdote in because, well, I think it’s cute and funny and I know the rest of this article won’t be.

So, elections are here again and on Saturday, I shall be going to the polling station with that merry tune running in my head. You know the one; mari lah mari, pergi mengundi, jangan lupa kewajipan, pada negara.

Who to vote for then? Well for one thing, it won’t be for the politician who promises to clean up the drains of Petaling Jaya. That’s not what my MP or my State Exco Member is supposed to do. That is the job of the Local Authorities, in my case the Petaling Jaya City Council and I have nothing to do with those guys. I should of course. I should have the right to vote for the men and women who deal with such important matters like my huge contributions to the MBPJ football team via all those parking fines I’ve paid. But I don’t.

Now the candidate who promises me that he will try to reintroduce Local Authority elections, he will have my attention. But really, wild dogs roaming the streets and poor street lighting should not be what an MP is primarily concerned about. They are elected so that they can be part of the law-making machine we know as Parliament and they have bigger issues to fry, like corruption, the state of the judiciary, governance, racist supremacy ideology, fundamental freedoms, etc.

Ideally, I would look at the individual candidates and try to figure out where he stands. But this is not very practicable because these candidates are not really individuals; they are the human faces of their political parties. So, what about the parties then? Perhaps I can find one that matches how I think. Frankly, I don’t think there are any that truly reflect my values and aspirations.

Besides, aren’t the constituencies arranged in such a way that one party is more likely to win anyway? When one looks at the way our electoral system is managed, when you can win almost forty percent of the votes and yet only get ten percent of the seats, it is easy to get cynical. Does this mean that voting is a waste of my time? Indeed not.

Elections are a cog in the machinery that is democracy. They are an important cog, but just a cog nonetheless. Of course it is nice if the candidate you choose wins, but even if he or she does not, there is still reason to vote. Because Malaysia uses the first past the post system and because each constituency is not equal (some constituencies are tiny and so each vote counts more), there is a tendency to view everything in terms of seats won.

Of course this is important, because a party without a two-thirds majority has much less freedom to do what it wants to. A major factor here is the ability to change the constitution. Without a two thirds majority a ruling party does not have the freedom to change our main source of citizens’ protection according to their whims. Of course the number of seats won is important.

However, personally I think the percentage of votes is the true indicator of what the people think and want and it is just as important as the number of seats won. This is because the battle for democracy does not happen only once every four or five years. It takes place every single day. And knowing that a large group of the population feel that issues like good governance, honesty, integrity equality and civil liberties are important gives momentum and strength to that day to day battle.

It is with that thought in mind that I will go humming and skipping to the polls, come Saturday. And no matter what the results are on Sunday, I know one thing for sure, if democracy and human rights are important to me, then the quest to ensure my country respects both will continue on Monday, as it will for as long as I draw breath. The only thing that elections determine is who makes up government. Whether we are free or not, is up to us the people to fight for. Always.

[Adrian Wong]

And this is a REALLY FUNNY story about BN supporters getting chased off. LOL!! We love Pak Lah club. Obviously, many more people do NOT love him!!! LOL!!!

A routine trip to the Permatang Pauh market to hand out Barisan Nasional souvenirs developed into an ugly shouting match today. A convoy of 10 cars from the 'We Love Pak Lah' Club was caught in an altercation when an unidentified man accused the supporters of blocking traffic in front of the market.

Club members present, comprising mostly young women, were taken aback when the man suddenly appeared on the scene and began shouting obscenities at them.

"You're blocking the road, get out of the way," he shouted at them. The man, dressed in a navy t-shirt with a red collar, began swearing at them, telling the women they were wasting everyone's time.

Group leader Ani Mayuni said male club members accompanying them stepped out of their cars and tried to calm the man down. "They apologised to him and tried to explain that we were simply trying to distribute BN campaign souvenirs to the public but he kept shouting."

The situation became tense when a group of other men converged upon the group and joined in, verbally abusing the women.

"These men tried to block our cars and open our doors,” said Ani, who was clearly affected by the incident. “Someone even took off his shoes and threw them at us.”

"That was the most frightening incident for us in the 12 days we've been campaigning for BN in Penang," she added.

The fight ended when the convoy eventually drove off half an hour later. By then, the unidentified man who had started the argument had disappeared.

"We came here just to support BN and to distribute badges, stickers and fans, that's all,” Ani said. "We didn't expect to be caught in such a situation." - NST

[Adrian Wong]

More evidence of vote rigging??

There are 46 Ismail Ibrahims - all born in the year 1962 but registered as having different identity cards (IC) and living in 46 different localities - who have been registered to vote in various places throughout the country.

Similarly, 14 Ismail Jusohs, all born in the year 1966 but hold different identity card numbers (IC) and registered as living in 14 different localities, have also been slated to vote.

There may perhaps be many Ismails whose last names are also Ibrahim or Jusoh, conceded Malaysians for Free and Fair Elections (Mafrel) chairperson Abdul Malek Hussin.

"(But) that’s why we need mathematicians to help us come up with the (statistical) probability of male voters with same name and date of birth. What is the statistical probability of that?" he asked in jest during a press conference in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Abdul Malek said there is a total of 195 incidences of postal voters, including those referred to above, who have been registered several times under the same first and last names and born in the same year.

"We’re not saying all these Ismail Ibrahims are the same person. We’re just saying this is an issue that (leads to) serious doubt," he said further.

[belikethat]

"Melayu Umno bodoh!"

"I have no problems if they wish to withdraw my citizenship. They can even withdraw my Melayuship as well if they want to.

There is, after all, some small blessing in losing your citizenship, Melayuship and Islamship. I would automatically lose my bodohship as well."

Malaysia Today: Your source of independent news - Melayu Umno dan Cina DAP bodoh

an article by Raja Petra

[Dashken]

Came back from Han Chiang College (DAP Gathering). There were easily 60k+ people attended the speech. Instead of the stadium, this time they used the field instead.

Even with the rain, everyone stayed! Yeah!!! God must be sorry for us, the rain stopped about 1/2 way through the session.

First time I saw so many people, whole field full! Guan Eng asked us to shout, show Badawi how many of us here... and to mahathir for his support.

It was electricfying!!!

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by Dashken

Came back from Han Chiang College (DAP Gathering). There were easily 60k+ people attended the speech. Instead of the stadium, this time they used the field instead.

Even with the rain, everyone stayed! Yeah!!! God must be sorry for us, the rain stopped about 1/2 way through the session.

First time I saw so many people, whole field full! Guan Eng asked us to shout, show Badawi how many of us here... and to mahathir for his support.

It was electricfying!!!

Man, I really hope the turnout translates into real votes. God knows the Opposition will need all the votes they can get.

BN will definitely attempt to rig the votes, so EVERY VOTE COUNTS!!! Let's go out there tomorrow and vote BN OUT!!!!