‘GE-13 exposed elements of PKR being a US puppet’

May 16, 2013

Ruhanie Ahmad, trying to make a political comeback?

‘GE13 exposed elements of PKR being a US puppet’

by Aidila Razak@http://www.malaysiakini.com

The 13th general election has elements fitting the hypothesis that Pakatan Rakyat, or PKR in particular, is a foreign stooge working to change the regime for the benefit of the United States of America.

However, whether PKR is indeed on the US payroll to do its bidding can only be confirmed by the party itself.This is the argument put forth by blogger Ruhanie Ahmad (left) at a forum in Universiti Malaya today that discussed the way forward for the BN and Pakatan after GE13.

According to Ruhanie, who authors the socio-political blog Kuda Kepang, geo-political readings would make US interference not entirely surprising.

He told a packed lecture hall at the main campus in Petaling Jaya that this was because the US has been sore with Malaysia for blocking its control of the Malacca Straits.

“If they can control (the Malacca Straits), they can transport energy from the Middle East to East Asia.Control of sources of energy and transportation routes will make the US the ultimate superpower,” said Ruhanie, who is a doctorate candidate in geo-politics and security studies.

Malaysia’s Prime Ministers from Dr Mahathir Mohamad to Najib Abdul Razak have been clear that no global superpower will have a stake in the maintenance of the straits.

This makes Malaysia the last elusive jigsaw piece in the US bid to control the Southeast Asia maritime channels, after successfully forging agreements with the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia.

“I see the 13th general election as the climax to an attempt by a superpower to put its proxy against the ruling government. That is my initial assumption. Is it true?” asked the former BN backbencher.

Ruhanie said question marks over foreign influence also extended to NGOs such as electoral reform group Bersih, which has admitted to receiving funding from US sources.

He said that this argument was also put forward by “authentic” sources like socio-political portal Global Research writer Tony Cartalucci, who said that Wall Street was disappointed that its “proxy” lost in the Malaysian election.

“For the BN, this election exposes two security problems – national security and societal security – and this must be corrected by the BN as a government’s role is to safeguard security.”

Hypothesis failed peer review?

However, Ruhanie’s views were challenged by members of the audience, made up largely of post-graduate students and doctorate candidates.

One doctorate candidate from Akademi Tentera Malaysia Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (ATMA-UTM) – who stood up during the question-and-answer session – even went as far as saying that if he were Ruhanie’s supervisor, he would not give the former MP a passing mark.

“As a doctorate candidate, what framework did you use to come to that conclusion?

“The Global Research writer Cartalucci had also written that the Lahad Datu intruders were part of the Free Syria army, which is absolutely absurd,” the UTM student said.

To this, Ruhanie replied that he did not make a conclusion, but merely raised a hypothesis for further study.

“My hypothesis is based on the new classical realm… that everything that happens in a country is a causal effect of something else that happens outside the country,” he said.

Another postgraduate student also asked how was it that supporters of BERSIH and Pakatan have to often fork out their own expenses to attend events if the two groups were so flushed with cash.

However, the former Parit Sulong MP did not respond to this.To another question, Ruhanie admitted that he had been very supportive of BERSIH in 2007, but “the objectives and perceptions were different then”.

“The first BERSIH is not the same as the second and third BERSIH (rallies),” he said, admitting that he was also very critical of the Abdullah Administration, but that he was okay with the Najib Administration.

Also on the panel were Merdeka Centre Director Ibrahim Suffian and Keevan Sivarajah (left), who coordinated the Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) election observation mission.

In response to Ruhanie, both started their presentations by admitting that they are foreign funded.

Ibrahim said he received US$60,000 in foreign grants, while Keevan said the entire election observation mission was funded by foreign missions and most controversially, by the George Soros-funded Open Society Institute.

“We wrote to the Pakatan and BN governments, as well as the Prime Minister’s Department for funding, but no one wrote back,” Ibrahim said.

Although not taking Ruhanie head on, Ibrahim said one needed to truly question if funding of US$60,000 for Merdeka Centre and US$20,000 for BERSIH was as big a security threat as the thousands of foreigners flooding Sabah, as was revealed to the Royal Commission of Inquiry on illegal immigrants.

SHEER Arrogance: New Home Minister tells unhappy Malaysians to emigrate

May 16, 2013

Sheer Arrogance, Zahid Hamidi

Newly-appointed Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said Malaysians who are unhappy with the country’s political system should leave the country, stressing that loyal citizens should respect the Rule of Law.

In his first opinion piece printed in Utusan Malaysia since receiving the portfolio yesterday, Ahmad Zahid wrote that the illegal gatherings held across the country by Pakatan Rakyat was a form of escapism and the denial of the fact that it failed to take control of Putrajaya.

The Minister added that the Opposition was over-confident with the support it received from voters.

Despite the fervour shown by their supporters, some PR leaders acknowledge that no concrete change will manifest from continued rallies. — File pic Malaysian Insider

“Even if it is true that the Opposition had claimed a greater majority, the measurement used by the opposition had been manipulated to follow the list system or the single transferable vote system,” he said in column entitled “Perhimpunan haram sebab tak terima hakikat gagal kuasai Putrajaya.” (Illegal gathering because refuses to accept failure in controlling Putrajaya)

“Malaysia inherited the political system from the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries also use the first past the post system where political parties contesting in the election will only have one representative in each constituency with the principle of a simple majority of votes,” he added.

Malaysia inherited the political system from the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries also use the first past the post system where political parties contesting in the election will only have one representative in each constituency with the principle of a simple majority of votes !

He said opposition leaders, especially those from PKR and DAP, have been irresponsible in confusing young Chinese voters and their followers who are “politically blind” to dress in black to protest against the result of the 13th general election which they believe is for them due to the popular vote.

“If these people wish to adopt the list system or the single transferable vote used by countires with the republic form of government, then they should migrate to these countries to practise their political beliefs. Malaysia is not a country to translate their political beliefs, even if they are really loyal to this country, they should accept the political system and the existing system to form a government as enshrined in the Federal Constitution,” he said.

He said PR must recognise and accept that the voters have rejected their rule in accordance to the first past the post system.

“Illegal gatherings organised as roadshows are just an escapism by the opposition to run away from the fact that they have failed to capture Putrajaya. The Opposition was actually over confident with the support of the voters and manipulated the various issues with false promises in its manifesto that they know will not be able to implement,” he said.

He also pointed out that PAS President Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had already accepted the results  and disagreed with the illegal gatherings by PKR and DAP.

“People are getting fed up with the behaviour of a number of opposition leaders who are dragging in the young, especially those of Chinese descent, by fanning the flames of hatred and racism in a pluralistic society which has already fostered a sense of harmony. The Opposition is also questioning the authority of the Election Commission (EC) which had allegedly manipulated the votes. It is an outrageous accusation when the EC have observed most of their demands including the use of indelible ink that is only used by the third world countries,” he said.

Malaysian Cabinet formed but legitimacy crisis continues

May 15, 2013

Malaysian Cabinet formed but legitimacy crisis continues

By Anil Netto

PENANG – Large crowds have turned out in protests in major cities on peninsular Malaysia in response to a general election marred by allegations of irregularities and vote-buying. As the protests spread across the country, the Opposition coalition Pakatan Rakyat’s challenge has the potential to destabilize Prime Minister Najib Razak’s new government.

Despite winning less than half of the national vote, BN now controls 10 out of 13 federal states due to its careful carving of constituencies.

In the central state of Selangor, some 100,000 thronged a stadium in the first major protest three days after the May 5 polls. Thousands more attended a simultaneous protest at the Rusila Mosque in Terengganu on the peninsula’s east coast. These were followed by another large turnout of close to 100,000 at another stadium, in the northern state of Penang, on May 11.

On Sunday night, some 30,000 crammed into the streets of Ipoh, the capital of the state of Perak, for yet another rally. More rallies are expected this week, including in Johor Bahru in the south and Kuantan on the east coast of the peninsula. Smaller groups of Malaysians have congregated in cities abroad, including in Melbourne, Taiwan, and Singapore.

At all the rallies participants have dressed in black to symbolize a democracy “blackout”. The de facto Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leader Anwar Ibrahim and other coalition politicians have made several rousing speeches decrying fraud and irregularities at the polls. They have also made their case with international audiences, including in interviews with big global broadcasters.

In a campaign that highlighted rampant corruption and cronyism in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, the PR won almost 51% of the popular vote at the polls. But with constituencies gerrymandered to favor less-populated rural areas traditionally held by BN, PR won only 40% of parliament’s 222 seats. (BN captured 133 parliamentary seats to the PR’s 89.)

PR retained the state governments of Penang and Selangor, both developed states that it has governed since 2008, and the rural east coast state of Kelantan and lost narrowly in the northern state of Kedah.

Despite winning less than half of the national vote, BN now controls 10 out of 13 federal states due to its careful carving of constituencies. In Perak state, which PR captured in 2008 only to lose power after a few of its elected representatives defected, the BN won only 43% of the popular vote but still captured the state assembly, winning 31 state seats to the PR’s 28.

Subramaniam Pillay, a steering committee member of the civil society Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (BERSIH), notes that the last time constituencies were redrawn was in 2003, and that only a simple majority in parliament and the state assemblies is required to redraw electoral boundaries – though a two thirds majority is required to increase the number of seats.

PR’s three component parties are expected to challenge the results in some 30 parliamentary constituencies where the BN won with small majorities. They have 21 days from the date the results are officially gazetted later this month to submit court petitions.

They could also file more general suits relating to vote-buying and constitutional issues related to the conduct of a caretaker government. Bersih, which has staged massive street rallies in the past against BN’s perceived manipulation of the electoral system in its favor, has said it would set up a “People Tribunal” to investigate the allegations of fraud and irregularities.

Najib, for his part, claimed a “Chinese tsunami” (a reference to the ethnic Chinese who represent 25% of the population) voted down BN candidates in many urban areas. Utusan Malaysia, owned by Najib’s United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party, took the cue with a headline splashed on its front and back pages asking “What more do the Chinese want?”.

BN’s insistence on viewing the country’s fast-changing political landscape through a race-tinted lens is consistent with its old style of politics, which is theoretically based on power-sharing among race-based political parties in BN but in reality is dominated by the ethnic Malay-led UMNO.

The contrast with the PR’s self-proclaimed “new politics” could not be more pronounced. Multi-ethnic demonstrators have said they represent a “Malaysian tsunami” that wants good governance, clean and fair elections and an end to corruption, and an end to the BN’s practice of exploiting ethnic divisions.

“Some commentators here have missed the whole point: we are not saying the opposition will take over the government or whether the elections results can be verified and fraud detected,” said Jeremiah Liang, who left a comment on a blog. “No. The real change is that the people of Malaysia, from all races and mostly urban, starting with Selangor and then to other states, are saying to the incumbent government: You have lost the people’s mandate to lead and to govern.”

The Police have responded by threatening to investigate 28 speakers at recent rallies for sedition, an offense, punishable by imprisonment, that the BN has long used to stifle criticism of its rule. The organizers of the various rallies will also be investigated for allegedly violating the Peaceful Assembly Act, which requires they give 10 days notice to the police before staging rallies. Should the government make mass arrests, the situation could tilt towards instability, some analysts believe.

To what extent election fraud, including allegations of voting buying in the crucial North Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak, can be proven with sufficient evidence to overturn the results remains questionable. PR parties will face significant constraints to scrutiny in interior and difficult-to-access rural areas long controlled by BN politicians.

However, in one significant expose, the social reform group Aliran found people lining up for payments ranging from 150-200 ringgit (US$50-67) over the weekend in a few nondescript locations based on vouchers received before polling day. Some of those lining up for payments but who didn’t receive cash were told they would only receive payment if the BN candidate in their area won.

Others says the real source of fraud lies in the integrity of the electoral rolls. The BN’s granting of identity cards or citizenship documents to migrants in Sabah that allow them to vote had been the subject of a royal commission of inquiry but was postponed ahead of the election.

The Election Commission, meanwhile, has received flak for using indelible ink that disappears with mild scrubbing. With 260,000 military and police personnel eligible for early voting five days before official polling, the issue has raised concerns that BN-loyal security officials may have voted more than once.

The PR’s focus on electoral irregularities and gerrymandering may mask somewhat the coalition’s failure to deliver its clean governance message in grass roots rural areas. Many of the rural voters receive their news from television, radio and newspapers tightly controlled by the BN-led federal government, while few have access to more independent Internet-based news.

If PR did get its message across, it may not have resonated with rural voters as it did with urban ones. For instance, its pledges to reduce highway tolls, provide free higher education and usher in good governance lacked popular resonance in remote areas of Sabah and Sarawak where direct BN populist hand-outs maintained voter loyalty.

Among rural voters and some urban voters there were no doubt concerns that they would lose out if the BN’s affirmative action policies were replaced by the PR’s promise of more meritocracy in the distribution of state funds. While PR had indicated it would adopt a more needs-based – rather than race-based – approach, old insecurities remain.

Other weaknesses in the PR campaign included disputes over seat allocations among component parties that led to several multi-cornered contests that split votes in pro-PR areas. The late selection of PR candidates also gave them little time to familiarize themselves with the area and electorate in Malaysia’s short campaign period.

Despite these weaknesses, Anwar has announced plans to hold more rallies. While it still seems unlikely these will morph any time soon into a larger Arab Spring-like movement that overturns the result, the rallies and the allegations add to the pressure on Najib, who is clearly struggling to come to terms with the erosion of BN popular support.

Anil Netto is a Penang-based writer.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-150513.html

Malaysia’s Democracy Crisis-2013

May 15, 2013

by Justin Lim@http://www.nst.com.my

‘SILENT’ MAJORITY: In GE13, seven million eligible voters decided that democracy is not worth the effort

WITH the immediate dust of the 13th General Election having settled, life has resumed, for most, and many have written extensively and reflected critically on the significance of this election.

There is no doubt that this historic election has captivated the hearts, minds and the imaginations of many for what the future holds for us Malaysians as individuals, communities and the nation.

One issue that has escaped the attention of most is the existence of a “silent” majority of the electorate. These are eligible voters whom, although eligible, did not register to vote.

On the surface, their inactivity appears to be harmless, easily passed off as fence-sitters and almost oblivious to the political atmosphere. Delving deeper, however, shows that it is no trivial matter.

The number of votes garnered by both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan are approximately five million voters each, sizeable by any account. Consider, however, the size of this silent majority.

In mid-2011, four million voters that are eligible did not register. By 2012, these voters have grown to an estimated five million, despite the numerous countrywide registration campaigns held. However, a record breaking 2.2 million did register, which is certainly commendable.

But let us imagine that voting was made compulsory for all and that our ballots were initially, by default, crossed on a hypothetical I-Don’t-Care-Enough Party, whereby turning up on election day is the only way to reselect our candidates of choice. The no-show of these five million will, by default, choose the I-Don’t-Care-Enough Party.

This party is now in the same league as BN and Pakatan!With the additional two million who registered but did not turn up on election day — also choosing the I-Don’t-Care-Enough Party by default as a result — this party is now the real winner of GE13 with a popular vote of seven million voters!

But this I-Don’t-Care-Enough Party is an oxymoron; they are simply indifferent, interested but not committed, silent or unwilling to engage in the issues at hand. In other words, apathy and spectatorism is now the true Malaysian ideology.

Although this hypothetical scenario seems too far-fetched, it does not change the fact that these seven million strong are, unfortunately, the real majority of this election. In GE13, four out of ten eligible voters have decided that democracy is not worth the effort.

The study of economics is the study of how rational human beings — the extent of our understanding of rationality, actual or perceived, is debatable — make decisions.A cast vote is a decision made; an uncast vote is also a decision made.

The lack of engagement in the simplest form of democracy — representation through elections — though certainly not free from contamination — by such a sizeable portion of eligible voters is a crisis of democracy by any standards.

Certainly there are other countries, either Asian or Western, rich or poor, which have regressed in a similar manner. But our Voting-Age-Population (VAP) turnout of less than 60 per cent — ratio of those who voted to all eligible — is the lowest among our ASEAN neighbours, according to International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA).

And yet we boast of a historic election when seven million, which is also a record number, cast invisible ballots on election day.

As Malaysia still struggles to free itself from its colonial past, race, religion and class-based identity, and moves towards a nation based on shared values, it needs the engagement from all Malaysians and not just a passionate few to bring the country forward. Getting our hands dirty in the process is necessary.

History describes all too well that vice is not found in passionate and sincere patriotism, but in the lack of moderation which can only be tempered with the engagement by all quarters: the majority and minorities, the urban and rural, the have and have-nots, the zealous and of course the spectators in the process of building, or rebuilding a nation.

Pakatan Rakyat’s Task is Momentous

May 15, 2013

by Selena Tay@http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com

It cannot be denied that Barisan Nasional has won the 13th general election at all costs. And it also cannot be denied that they have obtained less than 50% of the popular vote. When all is said and done, this simply shows that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak is not that popular after all.

While Pakatan Rakyat will be filing election petitions to challenge the results of between 25 to 29 parliamentary seats, the results of the 13th general election at this point in time is definitely valid until the legal process takes its course.

Therefore the Pakatan MPs must now focus on the work of being the Opposition in Parliament. Their first task of course will be to bring up important issues in the new parliamentary session which will be held either end of this month or early June.

One of these issues of course will be the crime rate. People are being killed due to snatch thefts and violent shootings and these have been reported in the mainstream papers. Numerous other incidents of crime go unreported, especially the house break-ins in neighbourhoods and residential areas.

Another issue that should be brought up by the Pakatan MPs is the one-sided reporting practiced by the mainstream media. Not only before the 13th general election but also after the polls have been concluded. The mainstream media is still set in its ways in attacking Pakatan Rakyat.

DAP especially has been singled out to bear the blame for causing the so-called ‘Chinese tsunami’ when in fact many Chinese had also voted for PAS candidates.

Perak PAS strategist, Ustaz Idris Ahmad has vowed to bring up in Parliament the issue of lopsided mainstream media reporting and BN’s brand of divisive politics.

Said Idris, “Labelling the 13th general election as a ‘Chinese tsunami’ is BN’s Machiavellian method of staying in power at all costs because they have no wholesome ideas that can benefit the rakyat.” Idris also criticised the National Civics Bureau (BTN) for implanting malicious slanders against Pakatan in the minds of the civil servants.

“Even I myself won in the parliamentary seat of Bukit Gantang with the help of the Chinese voters. The Chinese only reject BN, not reject Malay,” stressed Idris who also mentioned that UMNO constantly tells the rural Malays that DAP is anti-Islam while at the same time instructing the mainstream media to blank out MCA’s insults on Islam, especially when it comes to MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek’s remarks that ‘Islam impedes economic progress’.

Idris noted that there is absolutely no proof that DAP’s Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng is a racist. Guan Eng had in fact increased the allocation for the Islamic religious schools and the salary of the religious teachers when he took over the post in 2008.

“In actual fact, UMNO is covering up for its own weaknesses by blaming others. And that is why Malays who can think and who are informed will reject UMNO. Malays need to think out the answer to this question: ‘Who is oppressing the people of Kelantan, the majority of whom are Malays?’. The Malays who can answer this question correctly will definitely reject UMNO,” remarked Idris.

Malicious Journalism

Malicious journalism which incites racial sentiments and misleads people is an evil practice that does nothing to enhance nation-building. In addition to that, there is also wrongful reporting by the mainstream press and Malaysian government paid journalists and analysts (youtube above).

A local English daily on May 13, 2013 reported that PAS candidate Wan Aishah Wan Ariffin who contested the Parliament seat of Jempol in Negeri Sembilan against BN’s Isa Samad had lost her deposit.

For the record, Isa obtained 31,109 votes while Wan Aishah got 22,495 votes. This shows clearly that she did not lose her deposit as only those who failed to obtain more than 1/8 of the total votes will lose their deposits. (For a parliament seat, the deposit is RM10,000.)

Idris took pains to stress that there has to be a fair election system and this is an issue that must certainly be raised in parliament. He brought up the example of Perak wherein for the state seats, Pakatan had obtained 625,710 (54.8%) votes while BN’s vote count was 506,947 (44.4%) and yet BN gets to form the state government!

There were three state seats in which Pakatan lost by a slim majority and they are Lubuk Merbau (53 votes), Manjoi (132 votes) and Manong (231 votes). In Manjoi, the loss was due to the postal votes wherein there should be no more postal votes in the this general election.

“The worst and most ironic thing is that the votes for the postal voting which took place earlier were counted only after all the ordinary votes have been tallied up and this issue definitely needs to be looked into for the umpteenth time and properly addressed,” said Idris.

For the parliamentary seats in Perak, Pakatan obtained 590,344 votes (51.7%) while BN obtained 546,451 votes (47.8%).

At the end of the day, BN has done many evil, malicious and wrongful deeds. All these shenanigans mentioned above and those not mentioned only go to show that all right-thinking citizens have a momentous task ahead to bring this nation forward by strengthening the bonds of racial unity.

We need perseverance, fortitude and wisdom in the struggle to make this nation great.

Selena Tay is a DAP member and a FMT columnist.

Post GE13: What Malaysians want

May 14, 2013

by Dr Kua Kia Soong (05-13-13)@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: In the aftermath of GE13, UMNO wants to know what BN detractors want. Malaysians have felt frustrated and sidetracked by their attempt at communalising the election results, something they have been doing even before Independence.

BN did their worst – did we do our best? Have dissident Malaysian voters been asking what they want in this election apart from “Ubah (Change)” and lowering the price of petrol? Anything But UMNO (ABU) is an ‘away from’ response. Have we listed out ‘towards’ demands?

With all the visible injustice and foul play in the GE13, there is understandably plenty of pent-up frustration and anger among those who have experienced being wronged. And we know that that the roots of that injustice are to be found in an electoral system that has for years been inherently flawed.

Having seen the videos of violence against migrant ‘voters’ during this election makes me wonder if such a reaction is at least in part, the result of misplaced expectations. If the BN government had listened to the demands by Malaysian civil society, they would not be asking us what we want after the election.

The following are some of our fundamental demands which call for an end to corruption, oppression and racism, and the reinstatement of justice, democracy and human rights:

1. One person, one vote

We have known about gerrymandering in the country for decades and yet there was the false hope that GE13 was going to overcome this major impediment to electoral fair play.

Notice that BERSIH’s eight demands are short-term and do not include this mother of all unfree and unfair aspects of Malaysian elections, namely, undemocratic constituency delineation.

The original Merdeka constitution provided that in drawing up constituencies, “there shall not be more than a difference of 15 percent in the number of electors of any constituency to the electoral quota.”

The “electoral quota” or national average, was defined as the number obtained by dividing the number of electors in the federation by the total number of constituencies. Section 2(c) of the Thirteenth Schedule had stipulated that “the number of electors within each constituency ought to be approximately equal throughout the unit of review.”

The constitution was amended in 1962 transferring the power to delimit parliamentary constituencies from the Election Commission (EC) to a bare majority of parliament.

A new Thirteenth Schedule sets out certain new features permitting a weightage of up to 2:1 in favour of rural constituencies, thus enabling differences of 100 percent between urban and rural seats.

A further constitutional amendment in 1973 took away altogether the original check in the Thirteenth Schedule on there being too great a disparity between urban and rural seats.

Today, the absurdity of constituency delineation in Malaysia is exemplified by the contrast between 10,000 voters at Putrajaya federal constituency and more than 100,000 at Kapar, a disparity of more than 10:1.

The Malaysian Chinese organisations, which endorsed the joint declaration before the 1986 general election, focused on this demand for fair constituency delineation as one of the main objectives for their civil rights committee. But they have not followed up on this demand since then.

Thus, this reform to the Malaysian electoral system should take top priority and not creating false hopes that lead to mobs beating up migrants.

2. End racism and racial discrimination

Racism in the form of Malay-centric ideology has been the main instrument of rule by the UMNOputras ever since they have been in power. Their “1 Malaysia” exists only as a slogan – how else can they justify blatant racial discrimination in the economic, educational and social sectors?

Thus, as soon as dissident voters show them what they think of the charade, the same trite rhetorical question is posed by their propaganda machines: “What more do they want?”

One would have thought that the leaders of Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) knew that.Furthermore, I have shared the same rostrum with some of these Hindraf leaders at forums where I have pointed out that state racism in Malaysia has taken a morbid turn toward victimising ethnic Indians, especially the poor and marginalised.

This is seen in the disproportionate number of Indians among the victims of Police shootings and deaths in custody. The implementation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) should have been Hindraf’s non-negotiable demand to the BN government.

I had assumed that the Hindraf leaders would understand this analysis of state racism in Malaysia and the requisite political practice that logically followed from that analysis.

Unfortunately, their theory and practice has followed the same backward example of “racial bargaining” typical of the MIC and the MCA. They have chosen to back the hegemonic oppressor and exploiter of the masses on the eve of the election by using the flimsiest excuse about being rebuffed by Pakatan Rakyat. But then such opportunism has been seen ever since careerist politics came into existence.

I stand to be proven wrong and will render an unreserved apology to these Hindraf leaders if they prove to be dedicated and selfless activists who refuse to accept any government or bureaucratic posts in this administration but operate as an NGO to monitor the implementation of their “blueprint”.

One would have thought that the abolition of the New Economic Policy (NEP) should have been the sine qua non for Hindraf in any tryst with the two coalitions since the NEP is the main perpetrator of racial discrimination in Malaysian society and the main obstacle to progress.

The actions of the Hindraf leaders seem to suggest that they condone the NEP as long as the Indians also get a slice of the cake –regardless of whether any slice is apportioned to the Orang Asli, the poor Chinese and others.

I might add that in their exuberance for “Ubah”, the dissident voters neglected to call for the abolition of the NEP which had a sell-by date of 1990.

Consequently, Pakatan got off easy with a manifesto that did not have to promise abolishing the NEP if they got into power. We have since been promised a mythical “withering away of the NEP” if Pakatan comes into power.

These are the nuts and bolts of racism and racial discrimination in Malaysia that reforming Malaysians should respond to instead of the knee-jerk reaction to the racism that underpins UMNO and that has not changed ever since the umnosaurus had spots.

3. Elected local government

We want this third tier of government to be elected by the people and not appointed by the state governments as prizes for toadies. Again, this vital democratic demand was not in the Pakatan manifesto and negligent “democrats” must take some of the blame for this oversight.

An elected local government should go hand-in-hand with the reform to decentralise government and empower people at the local level to take charge of education, transport, housing and even community policing.

4. End corruption

Corruption in Malaysia needs to be curbed effectively through:

• The setting up an Independent Anti-Corruption Commission answerable to parliament with the power to recommend prosecutions for all offences of corrupt practice;

• A Public Accounts Committee in parliament that is chaired by an opposition member of parliament and not by the ruling coalition;

• Tighter regulation to prevent money laundering and the outflow of illicit money;

• Eliminating opportunities for corruption by proscribing the “revolving door” opportunities between the civil and armed services and the private sector;

• Ensuring the government ministry or department head accounts for every discrepancy in the annual auditor-general’s report and pays for any negligence or corruption involved;

• Open tendering all privatised projects;

• For all wakil rakyat and heads of civil and armed services to declare their assets and those of their family’s.

5. Uphold the Rule of Law

The Rule of Law ensures that laws are enforced impartially and there is full protection of human rights, especially for minorities. This requires the existence of an independent judiciary, an impartial civil service, and an incorruptible police force.

The BN government has often confused the rule of law with rule by law, in which the law is a mere tool for the government that suppresses in a legalistic fashion.

Good governance to uphold the Rule of Law requires:

• Repealing all laws that allow torture, whipping, detention-without-trial and incommunicado detention;

• Abolishing the death penalty in Malaysia;

• Ratifying the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, the Convention against Torture and the Convention on Refugees;

• Implementing the IPCMC;

• Establishing a law reform commission to restore the independence of the judiciary;

• Reviewing the federal constitution and all laws that are unjust and violate human rights, and resolve the conflict of jurisdiction between civil and syariah laws;

• Establishing a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to solve once and for all the problem of citizenship for Malaysians, their foreign spouses as well as the problem of undocumented migrants in the country;

• Ensuring social justice for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgenders (LGBT).

6. Human rights of women, workers and indigenous peoples

Good governance requires:

• Respect for women’s human rights and dignity including incorporating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw) and its provisions into national law;

• Reviewing and amending all laws and constitutional provisions that discriminate on the basis of gender;

• Confronting sexism and prejudice based on gender stereotypes;

• Equal pay for women holding similar posts as men;

• Ensuring through competent national tribunals and other public institutions the effective protection of women against any act of discrimination.

Workers’ rights must be recognised by:

• Ensuring labour laws are compatible with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention;

• Encouraging and promoting workers’ unionisation;

• Legislating a progressive guaranteed minimum wage for all workers, including foreign workers;

• Abolishing the contractor for labour system and restoring direct two-party employment relationship between principal and owners of workplaces and the workers that work therein;

• Ensuring all workers are employed as permanent employees who enjoy all benefits, including maternity rights and an extended retirement age.

Recognise the right of the Orang Asal to self-determination, sustainable development and protect the native customary rights of the Orang Asal to their traditional lands and territories.

7. Freedoms of expression, assembly and association

Full participation in a democratic society requires the freedoms of expression, assembly and association to prevail.

The freedom of expression and information cannot prevail until we:

• Abolish the Sedition Act, the Official Secrets Act and the Film Censorship Act;

• Enact a Freedom of Information (FOI) Act at federal and state levels which is reflective of the peoples’ right to know, with the public interest as the overriding principle;

• Prevent the monopoly of ownership and control of the press and broadcasting stations by political parties or corporate bodies.

Media organs paid for by tax payers – including RTM and Selangor Times – must be independent and not be used as propaganda organs of the ruling coalitions.

Malaysians want a competent and efficient institutions.

Good governance relating to the freedoms of assembly and association entails repealing the Police Act, the Societies Act, the Universities and University Colleges Act (UUCA), Peaceful Assembly Act 2011 and other relevant laws which restrict these fundamental freedoms, and granting students of voting age the full freedoms enjoyed by other Malaysian citizens.

These were some of the fundamental demands of the Malaysian civil society in the GE13 together with those for a progressive economic, fiscal, defence, energy, environmental, educational, social and cultural policies.

The BN and Pakatan coalitions would do well to note what Malaysians want in the 13th general election.

Digest this and think about it: Who won GE-13?

May 14, 2013

It could have  gone Pakatan’ Rakyat’s way in the last General Elections. Can someone out in cyberspace explain this to me since I am wondering what the Election Commission did between 11.00 pm on May 5 and around 1 am on May 6 when the EC Chairman announced the results that the Barisan Nasional was the first to obtain 112 seats in Parliament. I watched him on NTV7 and his body language gave him away. Obviously he had done a good job for Barisan Nasional.–Din Merican

What’s Next for MCA and Gerakan?

May 13, 2013

by Joceline Tan @http://www.thestar.com.my

A big question hangs over the future of the two Chinese arms of Barisan Nasional which hit rock bottom in the general election as the Chinese votes abandoned them for the opposition.

IN Penang, they call it chiak kay nooi or “eat eggs”. It is the local Hokkien slang for “ending up with nothing” and that is the dramatic state of affairs for MCA and Gerakan in Penang and elsewhere in the country.

The two Chinese-based arms of Barisan Nasional were completely wiped out in Penang. It was the second time the two parties had been wiped out this way except that the losses were even more devastating this time around. The majority of wins especially by DAP and PKR doubled and even tripled in some of the seats.

To top that, the unthinkable happened – two MCA candidates in Penang lost their deposits.As one Barisan politician put it, the voters not only plunged in the knife but twisted it as well. MCA and Gerakan politicians have been completely demoralised. They thought they had hit Ground Zero in 2008 but the election results seems to suggest that there is no limit to rock bottom.

Penang Barisan chief Teng Chang Yeow did the right thing on Sunday night. Just hours after the crushing defeat, he called a press conference to announce that he was stepping down from all his political posts with immediate effect.

Some have objected to the use of the term “Chinese tsunami” but that was basically the case in Penang because only UMNO survived to fight another day, winning 10 state seats (one down from 2008) and three parliamentary seats (one up from 2008).

A similar scenario was seen in Selangor, the Federal Territory, Kinta Valley, Negri Sembilan and even Johor. DAP also achieved clean sweeps in Selangor and the Federal Territory.

It virtually broke down the door of the UMNO fortress in Johor, winning a total of 13 state seats and four parliamentary seats. On top of that, it now has bragging rights with two Malay MPs and one Malay assemblyman.

According to Rita Sim of the Cense think-tank, what happened was basically an urban wave with a Chinese skew to it given that the Chinese are the dominant group in urban centres. This, coupled with the young, first-time voters who voted for change, all built up to a tsunami that, however, could not reach Putrajaya.

“It is possible Barisan got only 10% of the Chinese vote in Selangor. In some places, it may have gone as low as 7%,” said Sim (left).

MCA won only seven out of 37 parliamentary seats it contested and only 11 out of 90 state seats. Gerakan did no better. It won a miserable one of the 12 parliamentary and four of the 31 state seats contested.MCA and Gerakan’s losses have been DAP’s gain. DAP increased its parliamentary seat count from 28 in 2008 to 38.

DAP also won a total of 95 state seats this time compared to 73 in 2008.A photograph in a Chinese newspaper on Wednesday spoke louder than words could say – it showed some workers on ladders removing a signboard for an MCA service centre in Mentakab, Pahang.

In Penang, Gerakan’s Goh Kheng Sneah was the first to “kam tiam” or close shop. In 2008, Goh lost the Batu Uban state seat by only 611 votes. This time, he lost by 9,857 to an elderly man with no track record.

It felt like someone had punched him in the solar plexus and it was probably more than he could take. He had continued running his service centre after the 308 tsunami. But he told party colleagues on Monday that he had “lost heart” and said he was closing shop because he has lost his customers. He said it would be more worthwhile to devote his time to his family.

Wong Mun Hoe of Gerakan, who lost in Pantai Jerejak, had presented a 24-page manifesto and a report card detailing his services to the community. His opponent from PKR, Rashid Hasnon, who campaigned with a one-page manifesto, beat him by more than 5,000 votes and is now Deputy Chief Minister I of Penang.

“I have no answers for what happened, I don’t even know what to think. What kind of message is the electorate sending? That they don’t care about service or candidate?” said Wong who is taking a two-month break after which he will decide whether to continue in politics.

One MCA candidate in Johor has been so down that he has not stepped out of his house since returning home in the early hours of Monday.

Parti Cinta Malaysia president Huan Cheng Guan who used to be in Gerakan and who contested as an Independent was less reserved about losing.

Played out

He posted on his Facebook: “This election is interesting, totally played out by the Chinese. When they need help for schools, temples, associations and others, they come to me. But when they vote, they vote for DAP. I have learnt my lesson. Now I will close down all my service centres. Will spend my time enjoying myself.”

Then, in a typical parting shot, he wrote in colloquial Malay: “Lu orang mati, lu punya pasai. Jangan cari saya lagi (If you people die, that is your business. Don’t come looking for me again).”

Losing is all part of politics and elections but the extent of the losses and the fact that it was a repeat defeat was probably too much for them.

The scary part of the Chinese contestation is the unprecedented level of violence. MCA’s Ng Chok Sin, who lost in a Selangor state seat, was shocked to learn that his father’s grave was desecrated somewhere along the campaign.

His shock has turned to anger but his family is fearful at the way a political contest has degenerated into vengeance against the living and disrespect for the dead.

In a hospital up north, a campaigner for a senior MCA politician is hovering between life and death after he was shot twice in the head shortly after the polls was over.

Following the 308 tsunami, there had been endless debates about why the Chinese were unhappy, why they turned against Barisan and what could be done to win them back.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak made it a priority to study what the Chinese wanted and went out of his way to reach out to them. He knew that he needed the Chinese support in order to win a strong mandate just as the opposition has no chance of winning Putrajaya if the bulk of Malay support goes with Barisan.

He persisted even when surveys showed that the Chinese mood was hard against Barisan. His party thought he was bending over too far backwards for the Chinese. Some in UMNO had told him that the Chinese were not going to yield but he did not give up, he wanted to try.

Najib is a moderate and accommodative Muslim leader and he genuinely wanted all the races to come along on his transformation policies. But it is no secret now that many in Umno now think that enough is enough. They want him to reassess the political scenario and get real.

“It is quite clear that Barisan feels let down by the Chinese. But it’s early days and feelings are still raw. We will get a clearer picture of how things will pan out once the temperature comes down,” said Cense’s Sim.

The most-asked question in the aftermath of GE13 has been whether this is the end of the road for MCA and Gerakan. Can they ever recover from this debilitating defeat or is it time for them to merge and emerge as a new entity?

All that, said Sim, will have to come later when the dust settles.Talking to all those who lost, it is evident they are hurt, angry, confused and worried. Some of them feel lost and hopeless, as though the world is about to end,

The calls for MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek to step down immediately has gathered steam. Dr Chua has said he will not be defending his president post and his supporters say that it would be irresponsible if he were to just walk away now. But the pressure is growing every day.

However, the bigger question facing MCA is whether the party should stick to its resolution not to accept any government posts, be it in the Cabinet or at any other level of government should they perform worse than in 2008. The party’s stand was that if the Chinese want to be represented in the government, it should support MCA and the other Barisan parties.

But Najib is believed to be keen that MCA reconsiders its stand because he does not want a Cabinet without Chinese representation.Should MCA go along with the Prime Minister or should it stand firm given the Chinese rejection?

One school of opinion is that MCA will lose even more respect if it backtracks on its decision. It will be seen as the party being unable to keep to its word and also send a wrong message to voters – that it is okay to reject MCA because they will still be in the government at the end of the day.

An overwhelming number who called in to a Chinese radio talk show a few days ago were not in favour and seemed to think that the Chinese had nothing to lose by staying out of the Cabinet.

Another school of opinion simply cannot imagine a government without Chinese input. It will not only be out of balance, but it will also cut the government off from the Chinese ground, thus hindering the recovery of Chinese support.

The question is unlikely to be resolved soon and Najib will just have to go ahead and form his Cabinet without MCA for now.

The Chinese landscape has changed and some said it has changed irrevocably. Pakatan parties have captured the imagination of a new generation of young Chinese voters in a way that Barisan has failed to.Najib has to find a way out of his Chinese dilemma.

Rallies replace riots in Malaysia

May 13, 2013

By Chin Huat-Wong

On May 13, 1969, the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was a living hell with vehicles, houses and the national consciousness set ablaze. Clashes between ethnic Malays and Chinese claimed 196 lives according to official police estimates. Independent foreign observers estimated the death toll as ten times higher.

Triggered by the outcome of the 1969 elections, that riot paved way for two years of emergency rule and a fundamental change in politics and society. The then ruling Alliance Party – a coalition of three communal parties representing Malays, Chinese and Indians and their regional allies in Sabah and Sarawak – found itself squeezed by Malay and non-Malay Opposition from both flanks.

In terms of popular votes in Peninsular Malaysia, the Opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) rose from 15% in 1964 to 24% at the 1969 polls, threatening the then ruling United Malays National Organization’s (UMNO) claim as ethnic Malays’ sole political representative. In contrast, the popular support for non-Malay opposition parties was constant at 26%.

Thanks to a first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system and strategic avoidance of multi-cornered electoral fights, non-Malay opposition parties saw their parliamentary seats rise from six in 1964 to 22 in 1969, while PAS increased its share only marginally from 9 to 12. The non-Malay opposition’s electoral gains were at the time conveniently interpreted as an ethnic Chinese challenge to ethnic Malays’ political dominance.

When UMNO’s junior partner Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), which suffered a major setback at the 1969 polls, decided to stay out of the cabinet to respect the popular verdict, this was unfortunately viewed as a Chinese decision to abandon communal power sharing with UMNO. The riot resulted in a transfer of power from Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to his Deputy Abdul Razak Hussein, the father of current Prime Minister Najib Razak.

In the wake of the riot, Abdul Razak implemented a series of pro-Malay policies, most significantly the New Economic Policy (NEP), and co-opted most of the opposition into Barisan Nasional (BN), an expanded version of the previous ruling Alliance. He effectively built an electoral one-party state which remained unassailable until 2008, when opposition parties that later came to form the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition made historic gains at the ballot box.

These historical facts are worth revisiting because history seems to have repeated itself in many ways in the general election held on May 5. Like in 1969, BN lost its majority in popular votes, polling only 47%, despite allegations of widespread irregularities and fraud. Nevertheless, malapportionment and gerrymandering of constituencies allowed the ruling coalition to maintain 60% of parliament’s total seats.

Najib’s first response to the poor popular showing was that BN’s electoral setback was due to a “Chinese tsunami”. Altogether, the PR opposition coalition won only 40% of parliament’s seats while notching a bare majority of 51% in popular votes.

Individually, popular support for the PR’s Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) rose from 14% to 16%, while PAS’s vote share also rose from 14% to 15%. The Malay-dominated centrist People’s Justice Party (PKR) won 20% of all votes cast, compared to the 19% it garnered five years ago.

Thanks to the first-past-the-post electoral system, DAP emerged as the largest party with 38 parliamentary seats, while PKR and PAS lost respectively one and two seats at 30 and 21 respectively, despite winning more votes than they did in 2008.

Following Najib’s cue, the UMNO-controlled Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia asked on its front page the next day “What more do the Chinese want?” – painting an unbecoming portrait of a greedy and insatiable minority. The following days saw more provocative headlines on the same theme. Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad joined the attacks, accusing the Chinese of “rejecting the Malays’ hand of friendship”. (Ethnic Chinese account for around 25% of the national population, while ethnic Malays account for around 60%.)

On May 12, a retired Appeal Court judge (left) and card-carrying UMNO member upped the ante by warning the Chinese of a Malay backlash against their “betrayal”. “When the Malays are betrayed, they will react and their wrath will be endless,” he said. The judge even called for an expansion of NEP-related privileges for ethnic Malays that “from today on, every business would have a 67% share ready for Malays to be taken up at any time”.

As in post-election 1969, the MCA has decided against joining the new cabinet in response to the popular will. With only seven Chinese members among BN’s 133 parliamentary delegates, the question of a lack of Chinese representation in the new government has already been raised in certain quarters.

Like UMNO’s relentless efforts to co-opt the Opposition after the 1969 polls, calls have been made for the DAP to join BN to represent the Chinese, or for a grand coalition government to include both BN and PR. The pro-BN Chinese daily Sin Chew misleadingly reported that DAP was contemplating the proposal of forming a coalition government with BN.

Unfortunately for Najib, the Malaysia he faces is vastly different from the racially-charged one his father took over in 1969. Malaysians’ knee-jerk reaction to speculation of possible race-based riots and political violence has virtually disappeared in the past five years. Post-election riots have not materialized, despite UMNO and BN stalwarts race-baiting public statements.

The 2008 elections saw PR take power in five out of Malaysia’s 13 federal states, including the comparatively prosperous states of Selangor and Penang. Significantly, Malaysians have grown more cohesive in their protest against electoral fraud and corruption under the BN. Even though political violence may break out anywhere anytime, the probability of it spreading along communal lines is almost nil.

Thanks to UMNO’s pro-Malay policies after 1969, the socio-economic status of many Malays has improved over the years, closing once yawning inter-communal gaps in wealth and income. After the Utusan Malaysia‘s provocative headlines, warnings have spread through SMS to the Chinese that they should refrain from any protests against election fraud to avoid becoming the target of another May 13, 1969 riot.

Despite those threats, the protest rallies organized by PR in Kuala Lumpur and the states of Penang and Perak have attracted tens of thousands angry citizens clad in black, the symbolic color for mourning, to lament the death of democracy after BN’s questionable victory on May 5. The rally participants have been multi-ethnic and youthful.

In the early 1970s, then Prime Minister Abdul Razak dismissed democratic participation in the name of communal harmony. “In our Malaysian society of today, where racial manifestations are very much in exercise, any form of politicking is bound to follow along racial lines and will only enhance the divisive tendencies,” Razak said.

Now, in 2013, young adults and even teenagers are marching in high spirits to the Opposition rallies, almost as if they are attending dance parties. Ironically, politics now unites Malaysians who yearn for change regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In the first black-clad rally held in Kelana Jaya, where some 120,000 reportedly attended, a group of Malays shouted “we are Chinese” in response to Utusan Malaysia’s racial hate-mongering.

Personified by the marching multi-ethnic youth clad in black, Malaysia has finally left behind the threat of ethnic riots after 44 years. Najib may believe that his party and coalition won the 2013 election, but anyone who has seen the recent rally crowds will conclude otherwise: they have lost a generation and the popular mandate to rule.

Chin Huat Wong is a Fellow at the Penang Institute, a think tank linked to the Penang State Government. He earned his PhD from the University of Essex on a thesis focused on Malaysia’s electoral and party systems. He is also a steering committee member of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0, also known as Bersih 2.0.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-130513.html#.UZDIXa5MxRw.twitter

GE-13: Massive Electoral Fraud

May 13, 2013

Quite Right To Fight!

by Sarawak Report, 11 May 2013

Symbol of BN’s GE13 election ‘win’?

BN should not expect Pakatan Rakyat to take their version of GE13 lying down.

After all Pakatan represent the majority of the voters by a very substantial and convincing margin!

Even after all the jiggery pokery with the electoral register, the bus loads of phantom voters, the mysterious additional ballot boxes that arrived during re-counts, the double voting that excluded numerous rightful voters from being able to cast their ballots, Pakatan gained almost 8% more of the votes in Peninsular Malaysia.53.29% compared to just 45.74% for BN .

Mathematical failure again?

Even when the despot votes from Taib and Musa Aman were chucked in from East Malaysia Najib roundly lost with only 46.8% compared to 50.8% of the electorate.

Malaysiakini’s figures from the Election Commission

So, it is quite preposterous for any police chief to suggest that they might arrest Pakatan leaders for ‘sedition’ for pointing this out.

Any such an arrest would in fact constitute the seditious act, as it would plainly undermine the wish of the popular majority of the state.

People have been threatened with ‘monitoring’ for wearing black!

Likewise, it is surely seditious for Police to attempt to harass people for wearing black in protest over jerrymandering by an Electoral Commission, which was stripped of its independence by BN and now sits in the PM’s own offices with a primary duty to make sure BN wins for ever and ever and ever?

What a load of outrageous nonsense to start talking of arrests!

Protest is a democratic right

If BN want to make an expensive public show of running a civilised democracy with elections (and GE13 cost billions, if mainly in bribes) then they must needs put up with the other key trappings of democracy.

These include public demonstrations, protests, banners, free speech on public platforms and the right to wear black, yellow or what ever other form of apparel expresses the inner views of the individual.

People don’t usually give up their Saturday afternoons, unless there is something extremely important that they are concerned about, and governments are duty bound to listen if they do.

In return, the people are required to act in a restrained and non-disruptive manner that does not upset any of the rights of other fellow citizens. The orderly rally in a stadium on May 8th was a perfect example of just such a gathering.

Keep it up – BN could never get a crowd like this to support them!

There should be many more such public expressions of dissatisfaction to remind BN that they lost their legitimacy in this election and that reform of their gerrymandering devices is required immediately.  Contested seats should also be properly adjudicated.

Waste of energy?

People who are saying that more rallies and protests are a waste of time tend to be jaded observers of Malaysia’s recent past and the corruption of the country by Mahathir Mohamed.  They feel there is no point, since everything is a sham.

However, in practice they are asking people to give up on demanding their rights. And if the people do not stand up for themselves now, BN will move swiftly to oblige and with a huge sigh of relief.

If marchers stop turning out, their energy sapped by bleak cynicism, the losers in this election will go as far as they dare to try and ban any expression of the popular will by calling rallies ‘seditious’ or ‘unruly’ or whatever they like.  Some are already doing it.

Instead, BN should just get used to persistent if polite marches and rallies until they put their house in order and conduct clean and fair elections.

BN have lost their confidence, don’t let them regain it undeservedly

This decades old coalition has rightfully lost its confidence as a result of this election drubbing and the people should not permit BN to regain it or to tell themselves that they won the election after all.

BN did not win the election, they lost it fair and square and in the full glare of international publicity.

Some have fallen lamely back on talk of the US in 2000 being won by a minority vote, but that is nonsense too.  In 2000 it was sufficiently contentious that Bush was able to claim victory with .5% less of the popular vote.

In Malaysia in 2013 Najib gained 4% less of the popular vote than Anwar (after cheating) and 7.5% in Peninsular Malaysia.

Time moves on

So, giving up is not an option.It is easy for people to become stuck in the past and to imagine that what happened before must always be.  In Europe the Berlin Wall was treated by many like a fact of life, as if it had always been there instead of just a few decades, like BN.

But in truth all empires collapse, everyone dies and nothing stays the same.  Therefore it is right that Malaysia’s young people should be active in determining a better future, rather than resigning themselves to more corruption and despotism.

Progress does happen when enough people put some effort into it.And no one should under-estimate the sea-change that did take place in GE13, when a massive turnout swept away all BN’s efforts to manufacture the sort of wins they got away with in the past.

BN lost their legitimacy on May 5

BN employed the full apparatus of the state into trying to ensure their win. The media talked up their ‘victory’ unceasingly and refused to publicise Pakatan wins until they were ‘over-turned’ by numerous dubious re-counts.

The Police were dragooned into escorting buses loaded with foreigners to election booths and state employees were bullied and pressured into voting for BN.

Yet, even so, to justify the figures the ballot box stuffers of the Election Commission were forced to announce an extraordinary and record breaking 80% turn out on the night, which next day they had to revise up to 85% to explain the numbers of votes that had apparently been forced into the various re-counts.

How could the turnout suddenly bounce up AFTER the election had been announced and yet other figures stay the same?

Think about it.  An 85% turnout in Malaysia?  This means that the extensively rural country with large numbers of very poor voters and around a million of its better off citizens unavailable abroad produced one of the highest turnouts in global election history!

42 seats more for BN, despite the less votes

Not even that explains the jiggery pokery behind the election commission’s figures, because even now their own figures still don’t tally.

The over all election vote, according to their separate figures was 27,403 more than the tally.

Does this mean 27,403 ‘spoilt votes’ on top of all the other outrageous jiggery poker?

Figures revised after the event!

27,403 spoilt votes is a very large number.  Especially when you look at the narrow margin of so many of BN’s wins, a good number of which over-turned original Pakatan wins after a recount.

According to our calculations, 5,827 votes represent the total majority of BN’s 10 most narrow wins!

20,067 represents the total BN majority in the most marginal 20 seats.  Another 3 seats come to 6,303 total majority, meaning that the number of spoilt votes alone exceeds the margin by which BN ‘won’ the election.

Individually, there has already been considerable evidence that in numerous seats the ‘spoiled votes’ outnumbered the BN majority by a considerable amount.

Analysis of BN’s election ‘win’ has only just begun, but the more that comes out the greater the smell

All this is virtually impossible for the shamed and embarrassed BN hierarchy to defend.  Who would want to be in their shoes day after day during the next Parliament when the majority leader (Anwar Ibrahim) challenges them on all these points and requires them to give way?

The problem BN faces is that time HAS ALREADY moved on and the crude practices that the likes of Mahathir could get away with as he sucked his country dry are no longer effective in a world of fast communications, video recorders and the internet all employed by an educated young population.BN are already a museum piece, like North Korea.

Don’t let them re-group

Open secret – ‘hard man’ Muhyiddin has been waiting in the wings, to let the more popular Najib lead BN in the elections and then take over after blaming him for BN’s losses

The worst thing would be to allow the dreadful old has-beens of BN from the Mahathir era to think they can turn back the tide of that history and that all that is needed is a ‘crack-down’ under some kind of ‘hard chap’, like Muyhiddin Yassin.

There are people who think that by reversing what reforms have taken place in past years they can restore past ‘glories’.

Such small brains forget that the reforms were conceded under pressure in the first place and they imagine that Malaysia can return to be a backward museum of sham democracy where people like them can continue to enjoy ruling the roost.

But they need to realise that what small state dictators got away with in the Cold War era, when the eyes of the electronic age had yet to be switched on, is no longer possible.

In their hearts they admitted it when they accepted that they needed to keep the more moderate and tolerable Najib as their leader during the election, since only a small angry minority of voters prefer the aggressive Mr Muhyiddin.

The UMNO extremist hope now is to replace their front man, Najib, with their hard man Muhyiddin and then defy anyone to say they didn’t win the election fair and square!

‘Has been’ without dignity – past politicians should go and do something else useful and not try to keep meddling.

This is too crude, too public and too playground ridiculous to wash on the world stage.

This weekend the British PM meets the Russian PM to decide on how to collaborate on sorting out Syria.

This is no longer the Cold War era and no government wants to be seen openly supporting a thug and BN cannot reverse this election with a crackdown and expect it to pass unnoticed as before.

BN have got to find a more dignified way out of this mess they are in and concessions, reform and gracious acceptance of the present popular opinion is the only route forward.

It may mean they will soon be out of power for some years.  But, it gives them the chance to come back.  If they ‘crack down’, go backwards, fight and oppress the majority then they will write themselves out of Malaysia’s future and blacken their names forever in Malaysia’s history.

Source: http://www.sarawakreport.org

New York Times: Malaysian Opposition Calls for Protests over Election Results

May 12, 2013

Post GE-13: Malaysian Opposition Calls for Protests

by Joe Cochrane (05-10-13)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — If there was a moment after the nail-biting national election on Sunday when Malaysians could envision a respite from five years of political turmoil, it did not last long.

Within hours of the election commission’s announcement early Monday that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s governing National Front coalition had won a majority in Parliament, Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader, declared that the voting was rigged, said he would contest the results and called for nationwide protests.

The Prime Minister’s office countered that Mr. Anwar was a poor loser stirring up unrest, while the police warned that the opposition leader and dozens of other people who spoke at a protest rally in a packed soccer stadium just outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday night could be charged with sedition.

Such tit-for-tat exchanges between the government and the Opposition were commonplace after the 2008 election and in the campaign for the vote last Sunday. But analysts say that the continuing political attacks and threats of protest this time are raising the specter of a potentially explosive showdown fueled by ethnic tensions laid bare again in the vote and longstanding animosity between Mr. Najib and Mr. Anwar.

“In a way, it’s escalated things,” said Simon Tay, the Chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “And with an escalation, you’re not sure of what the results will be.”

The election was itself something of a referendum on the ethnic-based politics that has prevailed under the National Front, which has led the country since its independence from Britain in 1957. Under that system, ethnic Malays have been given preferences in land purchases, bank loans and university admissions.

Voters were essentially given a choice between a semiauthoritarian government that has delivered economic development, albeit through ethnic-based political and economic policies, or a total change in leadership to a combative but untested opposition.

With a record 80 percent of registered voters turning out, the National Front won 133 of the 222 seats in the federal Parliament. But the tally represented a loss of seven seats compared with 2008 and, for the first time since 1969, the governing coalition took less than 50 percent of the popular vote.

While rural Malay Muslims tipped the balance to Mr. Najib, a higher-than-anticipated number of Chinese-Malaysians voted for the Opposition.

Mr. Najib, 59, said at a nationally televised news conference early Monday that he was surprised by the voting pattern, which he called a “Chinese tsunami.” This was repeated in comments in Malay-language newspapers that implied that Chinese voters had betrayed Mr. Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, which many Chinese supported in the past.

Analysts said that Chinese voters were upset that the government had not made more progress in rolling back official preferences for ethnic Malays.

While Mr. Najib has urged national reconciliation and called ethnic-based campaign politics “unhealthy,” some analysts said his “tsunami” comment only magnified the ethnic debate in Malaysia and exacerbated post-election tensions.

“The political divide in Malaysia is poisonous,” said Karim Raslan, a Malaysian newspaper columnist and political observer.

The weeks before the election featured vociferous attacks in the strongly pro-government mainstream news media, in which Mr. Anwar, 65, was labeled a divisive, pro-American agent, while another senior opposition leader was rumored to be gay. (Spreading such rumors has become a not-uncommon political tactic in a country where homosexuality remains illegal.) A number of sex tapes purporting to be of opposition candidates, including Nurul Izzah Anwar, 32 — the Opposition leader’s daughter, who successfully defended her seat in Parliament — were anonymously posted on the Internet.

The governing coalition “hasn’t learned anything from the voter backlash,” Ms. Nurul said. “I foresee the continuation of gutter, racist and hate politics.”

The Opposition’s campaign platform included allegations that the governing coalition perpetuated widespread official corruption and would expand the state affirmative action programs that favor Malay Muslims, who account for 60 percent of Malaysia’s 29 million people. The government has rejected such claims.

The roots of the current dispute are also extremely personal and date back to 1998, when Mr. Anwar, who at the time was a senior UMNO leader and Deputy Prime Minister, was ousted in an internal party struggle with Mahathir Mohamad, 87, the country’s prime minister at the time. Mr. Mahathir retains significant influence within the party.

Mr. Anwar was arrested and beaten while in custody and in 1999 was sentenced to more than five years in prison on corruption and sodomy charges, which he served. The charges were later dropped, but relations with Mr. Mahathir remained fraught.

“Certainly the level of dislike, disdain, of lack of respect for each other has gone up considerably in the last 10 years or so, especially since after 2008,” said Lim Teck Ghee, head of the Center for Policy Initiatives in Kuala Lumpur.

Last year, Mr. Anwar said he was “willing to forgive but not necessarily forget” his dismissal and imprisonment. Still, Mr. Lim said there remained widespread concern within UMNO that Mr. Anwar would open legal inquiries against Mr. Mahathir, Mr. Najib and other senior party officials should he ever become prime minister.

“It’s not simply concern about who is the next Prime Minister,” Mr. Lim said. “Mahathir’s very afraid that if Anwar and the opposition come to power, Mahathir’s place in history is going to be smeared, and I think he is fighting that very, very strongly, and this feeds into the politics of hate in the country.”

A version of this article appeared in print on May 11, 2013, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: After Malaysia Election, Political Attacks Continue as Opposition Calls for Protests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/world/asia/after-malaysia-election-political-attacks-continue.html?ref=asia&_r=0

GE-13 Results: Obama Administration gets Petition from Malaysians

May 12, 2013

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Malaysians have complained to the White House’s online petition site about election fraud in Election 2013, drawing more than 222,000 signatures within a week to become the site’s second-most popular issue, according to the Associated Press.

US President Barack Obama’s online petition page requires just 100,000 signatures for an official government response. According to AP, the Obama administration’s “We the People” site was started in 2011 as a project in open government for the Internet age.

Though clearly intended for US citizens, the guidelines on gathering online signatories remain broad enough to hearten activists overseas who — frustrated with their own governments — hope to raise the international profile of their cases, according to AP.

The site does not ask for one’s nationality.Individuals only need to be 13 or older and have a verified email address to create an account to initiate a petition or sign one.

The White House has said it will give equal treatment to petitions from overseas.The US government has not yet responded to the Malaysian petition.

Any hopes for US condemnation of the election results evaporated this week when the U.S. State Department recognized the polling results, while acknowledging allegations of irregularities, according to AP.

The petition “spoke out the dissatisfactions to the international communities successfully,” virologist and the petition’s apparent organizer, Kuan Ping Ang, said on her Facebook page as reported by AP.

Barisan Nasional (BN) won last week’s polls but lost the popular vote stakes to Pakatan Rakyat (PR).BN won just under 47 per cent of the votes while PR parties scored over half of all votes.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and PR parties have organised two mammoth rallies – in Petaling Jaya and Penang – this week to protest the election results which they claimed was rigged.

PR parties have complained about irregular voting patterns, suspicious handling of ballot boxes and other issues with both DAP and PAS mulling election petitions to contest the results. PR officials say they are disputing up to 29 election results and the rallies, which began in Selangor last Wednesday, is set to continue with the next one in Perak today.

Here You have it, Mr. Jaafar: The Malapportionment of Blame

May 12, 2013

by Tricia Yeoh (05-11-13)@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT In the past week, two Malay newspapers Utusan Malaysia and Kosmo! chose to have as their headlines controversial statements that could be considered incendiary in reference to the Chinese having rejected Barisan Nasional in favour of the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, following the results of the 13th general elections held almost a week ago.

Both former and current Prime Ministers Dr Mahathir Mohamed and Najib Abdul Razak (right) have said as much, creating the public perception that this election marked out the stark difference in voting patterns between the Malays and Chinese, especially in the latter’s reference to a ‘Chinese Tsunami’.

Malaysians have to caution against this ethnic positioning as an easy blame game, for several reasons. First, it is more accurate to state that the results saw a split between urban and rural voters, hence a spatial and class, rather than an ethnic, divide.

Pakatan strengthened its incumbent position by winning two-third majorities in Selangor and Penang, the two most industrialised and urban states, which together contribute to the almost 60 percent of the country’s GDP.

In Selangor, the only parliamentary seats won by Barisan were in the more rural or semi-urban areas such as Sabak Bernam, Sungai Besar and Tanjong Karang.

In Seremban, DAP candidate Anthony Loke would not have won with more than a 12,000 majority (and a 16,501 swing) had it not been for Malay support, where Malays constitute 44 percent of the seat’s population.

Flawed Argument gets nailed

The argument that Opposition gains were only due to Chinese swing is also not fully accurate, since Malay-majority seats such as Kuala Terengganu (89 percent Malay, 10 percent Chinese) were wrested by Pakatan with a 10,785 majority (and a 11,413 swing). Both are urban seats.

It is ,therefore, too simplistic to attribute the Opposition’s gains to racial polarisation, since one must equally examine class and geographical differences.

Second, the allegations of electoral fraud make it difficult for accurate analysis to take place.Pakatan has accused the electoral system of being rigged through a number of ways, such as providing identity cards for foreigners to vote, flying them into the peninsula en masse from East Malaysia, and Malaysians having their names either removed from the voter roll or registered without their knowledge, ‘indelible ink’ that was very easily removed, and vote-buying, among other discrepancies.

If the fraud is indeed as widespread as alleged, then this raises serious concerns as to the legitimacy of the election results, which has a direct effect on our reading of voter sentiment.

Out of the 24 parliamentary seats with a majority of less than 1,500, 17 of them were eventually won by Barisan – including Bentong and Kuala Selangor, where initial results saw the Pakatan candidates leading.

In many cases, the number of spoilt votes exceeded the majority, and the majority was less than 4 percent of the total number of votes, the latter of which would have required a recount although this was denied in Kuala Selangor.

Game of Statistics stripped

Barisan is now the federal government because it bagged 133 seats out of the 222 in total, giving it a majority of 22 seats.  However, a series of questions must be asked: Could the Barisan win at the federal level be attributed to the wins in these marginal seats, some of which had their results changed after the recounts?

If so, should the Election Commission not investigate the alleged fraud cases that could have affected the outcomes of the razor-thin wins of such seats, which in turn would have led to a very different result?

Finally, statistics are emerging that demonstrate the effects of malapportionment on the election results. Pakatan’s 89 seats had an average of 63,191 votes cast, compared with Barisan’s 133 seats which had an average of 39,381.

Simply put, Pakatan won in the seats with larger constituencies, while Barisan won in the smaller ones.  This explains the Barisan win, despite Pakatan having won the popular vote with 51.4 percent of the population’s support and Barisan with 48.6 percent.

Moving forward, both political coalitions – together with civil society – will have to reflect deeply upon what actions are needed to address these issues, as well as their mid to long-term implications.

Time to look at Naked Truth

There is an urgent need for Pakatan to craft messages that better target the low-income, rural and Malay voters, assuring them that their lifelines would not be cut off without Umno around.

Barisan has to take a good look at its coalition model, since its component parties MCA and Gerakan are effectively depleted. It will also have to examine the reasons for which urban, middle-class voters rejected their offerings so resoundingly.

In order for the alleged electoral fraud to be taken seriously, cases have to be systematically compiled and recorded.

BERSIH 2.0 has stated it would organise a People’s Tribunal to this end, while PKR has appointed newly elected Member of Parliament Rafizi Ramli for its compilation purposes. This will be in addition to the election petitions expected to be filed by Pakatan parties in 20 constituencies or so, in which the winning margin was less than 5 percent.

It is hoped that the lawsuits, which must be filed within 21 days after the results are gazetted, would be an effective recourse sought by Pakatan in seeking justice for what it considers an unfair elections.

Even if these efforts, accompanied by hard evidence, fail to ultimately impact upon the election results, they would still be crucial for the court of public opinion in the coming months, for historical record as well as valuable lessons learnt in order to better prepare for the 14th general election.

Why GE-13 should be toasted

Finally, it is clear that without genuine electoral reform, even an election which is the most fundamental form of democracy would not be conducted fairly, nor its citizens’ votes respected.

In a system where parliamentary seats are not fairly weighted nor apportioned, the party with minority support emerges the victor.  This is an unfortunate consequence of the way constituencies are demarcated at present, which can only be amended with a two-third majority support in Parliament.

Before political analysts deduce that this was an election that divided Malaysia racially, one must be cognisant that if not for these irregularities, a very different result would have emerged.

Coming to a conclusion based on the election results at merely face value would not be entirely accurate.  If anything, it must be pointed out that young urban-dwellers voted across ethnic lines for the opposition against a corrupt regime, a trend that will only continue given that urbanisation is expected to exceed 70 percent by 2020.

It is this that should instead be celebrated and not conveniently ignored, in the desperate need to explain the worst election performance in Barisan’s history as entirely due to the racial divide.

In the journey towards a more open, transparent and democratic Malaysia, the 13th general election has raised even more questions on electoral processes, which if not corrected, will have a permanent mark on all future elections.

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Ms Yeoh’s background

TRICIA YEOH is Research Director of Institut Rakyat, Parti KeADILan Rakyat. She previously served as Research aide to Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, Menteri Besar, Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Barisan Nasional should stop the blame game and get on with reforming itself

May 12, 2013

By Stephen Doss@www.freemalaysiatoday.com

BN will again refuse to acknowledge that the rot had set in years back, not 10 years back , not 20. Just like all political parties which have governed for years without interruption, arrogance, corrupt practises, cronyism, and nepotism have become second nature and barely been noticed among members.-Stephen Doss

There is a tendency after every election for winners to amplify their wins and take sole credit for their performance, and for losers to find convenient scapegoats.

It would be easy for anyone to look at the results of the 13th general election and classify the winners as Barisan Nasional and the losers as Pakatan Rakyat. Not so.

In actual fact there is much more for Pakatan Rakyat to be happy about than the Barisan Nasional, for one they are riding an uptrend in terms of total number of votes received, not to mention an increase in the number of seats both at the parliamentary and the state.

BN is expected to react the same way that they did after the 2008 general election, which is to look for a convenient scapegoat. For UMNO it was Pak Lah, for MCA it was Ong Tee Keat.Fast forward to 2013, already Najib Tun Razak and Dr Chua Soi Lek are now feeling the heat.

Unfortunately the BN will again refuse to acknowledge that the rot had set in years back, not 10 years back , not 20. Just like all political parties which have governed for years without interruption, arrogance, corrupt practises, cronyism, and nepotism have become second nature and barely been noticed among members.

The political parties loathe to change; most of them are forced to change, just like the LDP in Japan, the KMT in Taiwan and the Congress Party in India.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad did a grave disservice to UMNO and BN when he pinned the blame for the 2008 results on Pak Lah, and the BN lost a golden opportunity to reform itself and hence, they are now suffering from having to form a government with the humiliation of having lost the popular vote.

And those that think that by putting the blame solely on certain individuals are not going to change anything, are making the same mistake.

Even if there is a change in leadership within the BN, without recognition that brand BN has been damaged because of widespread corruption, concentration of wealth among the economic elite, arrogance of thought and action among the rank and file and a dearth of talent among its ranks, then the BN can expect to continue in its free fall, they should not be surprised if their share of the popular votes keep dwindling.

There are some within the BN who see the 13th GE results as opportunities to climb the ladder, nothing more. They deliberately try to avoid looking at the real reasons why they are now in a downward spiral.

If that is the case, good luck Barisan Nasional, you’re going to need it come GE14.

Stephen Doss is the Advisor to the Malaysian Social Media Chambers.

Post GE-13: Embrace Factions within Parties and Unite in Common Cause

May 11, 2013

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: Factions are endemic to the politics of democratic parties. A survey of party politics in the democratic world would confirm this to be true.

Even in nations facing grave peril to their national security, there are factions within parties that are in contention with rival parties for the right to rule their imperiled polities.

Hence wise is the leadership of democratic parties that seeks to co-opt factions rather than ostracise or ban them. “Come, come, let us reason together” would be a more constructive guide in the placation of party factions than a hortatory “You are out of order, so put up or shut up.”

The best way to tackle the latest irruption of factional politics in PKR is to allow deputy president Azmin Ali’s side a full airing of their grievances against the top leadership of the party and against the style and content of Khalid Ibrahim’s stewardship as Selangor menteri besar.

In fact, if it’s true that there was no consultation within Selangor PKR in the prior commendation of an MB to the Palace, it’s best to admit the fault and assure the aggrieved that there would not be a repetition in the future.

Rather than ignore the fault, or worse, deny that there was one, this admission would help douse the embers of inter-factional strife and reduce the chances of their being fanned to a renewed blaze in another irruption sometime down the road.

Astute acceptance of the inevitability of factions affords wisdom in how to co-opt, cajole and divert them such that their periodic and inevitable irruption in a democratic party does not capsize but is contained by them, rather.

Bloodless Coup in Kelantan

Witness how Kelantan PAS has neatly done in Husam Musa, the star performer in the state executive council for at least half of the 23-year reign of just-retired Menteri Besar Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

The faction jealous of Husam’s position – jealousy is ineradicable in democratic political party affairs – could not discharge their rancour while his patron, Nik Aziz Nik Mat, was around.

The Tok Guru was too charismatic for the envious to do anything about Husam (left) who was head and shoulders – intellectually and morally – above the rest of the state executive council.

They bided their time, waited until Nik Aziz helped Kelantan PAS win their sixth successive general election before he called it a day, the latter thereby implicitly refuting criticism that he would hold on to power forever.

Nik Aziz held on for such a long time (22 years and six-and-a-half-months) because only a leader of his aura was able to keep UMNO at bay.

Depend upon it that if new MB Ahmad Yaakob cannot find another Husam to refresh and rejuvenate the administration and policies of PAS in Kelantan, UMNO will be back in power in the state at GE14.

And why not? In a democracy, no party should be allowed to rule uninterruptedly for anything as long as a quarter of a century, as Kelantan PAS would have when it completes its current sixth term at the helm in Kota Baru.

It is in the nature of a democracy to refresh and replenish its leadership and the ideas that animate it periodically. Over-extended rule by one party is a negation of the democratic process.

The way the faction in Kelantan PAS that’s now in power did in Husam is a classic example of a bloodless coup. They dispensed with the courtesy of informing him of a meeting – that’s one hell-of-a-feat of cooperation or, as one might say, complicity – to appoint the members of a new state executive council under a new MB, and confronted Husam with a fait accompli of a new set-up without a role for him and then implied that it was the palace that did not want him.

Meanwhile, the Palace is keeping its counsel on the matter while Husam has discounted the story of Palace interference as inherently incredible.

A Display of Ingratitude

One can say that the way the victorious faction in Kelantan PAS has behaved towards Husam, to whom the party owes so much, is a finessed display of ingratitude.

But then wasn’t it the Greek philosophic writer, Plutarch, who observed that ingratitude towards their great leaders is a mark of strong peoples?

The Kelantanese are an extraordinary people; just their production of people like Nik Aziz (right) and Husam is enough to prove the point – that, together with their people’s tendency to cock a snook against the federal government, makes them a remarkable people.

The past 23 years they have constituted a faction against the federal government and in the past few days, a certain faction within that overall one has pulled off a putsch against one of their better products.

One is almost tempted to say that factions are the lifeblood of democratic politics; let’s have more of them. But no, that would not be wise or true. It’s merely that factions are inevitable and if some conduct themselves with as much panache as the one that blindsided Husam, well what can you say!

As for Husam, one of the bright lights of the Malaysian political scene the last 15 years at least, the man has been far too intelligent a politician not to go with the drift of things, and not to bow and accept the end of a season.

Khairy Jamaluddin–The Government Spinner?

May 11, 2013

http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin has been given the task of improving the Barisan Nasional (BN) government’s image abroad and his first job was to soft pedal the angry reaction by UMNO politicians towards Malaysian Chinese in the aftermath of GE13.

The government spokesman to the international media also attempted to put some distance between Utusan Malaysia’s rabid anti-Chinese rhetoric and the ruling party, saying that Utusan’s editorial stance does not reflect the views of UMNO’s top leadership.

In an interview with the Singapore Straits Times, Khairy, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s son-in-law, also said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak will roll out a 100-day programme to speed up existing programmes to reduce crime and corruption, and cap the cost of living.

“These are the top three issues that weighed heavily in the urban swing,” he said, adding that Najib will continue to improve the public sector and economy, and expand civil liberties.

Following BN’s poor performance in the polls, where it lost the popular vote for the first time and where it failed to regain the economic powerhouses of Selangor and Penang, many UMNO politicians lashed at the Chinese for voting in large numbers for the Opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

The Chinese were called ungrateful and gullible while Najib and other BN politicians dismissed the idea of a rural-urban divide.

BN only won 133 of the 222 federal seats, down from 140 when Abdullah helmed the coalition in the 2008 elections. This time around, it also lost 31 more state seats across 12 states although the coalition got back Kedah.

Khairy said that Najib was not blaming the Chinese. “He was stating a fact that many Chinese voted against us but he did tell the BN MPs that we are not to blame any community,” he said.

In the longer term, Khairy said, the government will set up a National Unity Consultative Council to work on issues like education without affecting the status of vernacular schools.

Most analysts have come out to say the rural-urban divide was a major factor in the BN vote slide, with a major swing among the multiracial urban and middle-class electorate against the ruling coalition.

“There were differences between the low-income and the middle-income areas, as well as between the urban and rural areas,” pollster Merdeka Center’s chief Ibrahim Suffian said.Ibrahim also said that several constituencies had shown marginal BN victories that reflected a tight competition between BN and PR.

Whither Pakatan?

May 10, 2013

by Nathaniel Tan@http://www.malaysiakini.com

ANALYSIS: So what now for Pakatan Rakyat? As for everyone else, it is a time of great opportunity for improvement.

Whether this opportunity is seized may not only be up to them, it may also be up to us. nstitutionally, Pakatan is not a strong coalition. Those privy to the inside workings of the Pakatan secretariat in the lead-up to GE13 may have some first hand experience of this.

Many worked hard, and many did their best, but I am not sure the top leadership did their efforts and willingness justice. Now is a good time to reverse that trend, and invest more resources, and more importantly, better leadership, into strengthening Pakatan as an actual institution, not a loose coalition.

Let us see what each component party faces, post-GE13.

Where are the Erdogans?

How tragic for so many of us to see the titans of moderation in PAS lose their seats: Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Mat Sabu, Husam Musa and Salahuddin Ayub, among others.

This may spark off a crisis in PAS, even as we speak, for PAS faces the realities ahead. Having not made significant inroads into the rural areas, some hardliners in PAS may start to reconsider their prospects in Pakatan.

They may fear that the current trends will only relegate them to junior partner status. I hope they realise, however, that they have a much higher chance of being a senior partner in Pakatan (as in Selangor) than they ever will in Barisan Nasional (BN).

UMNO and PAS share a core demographic base (rural Malaysia), one that is relatively alien to PKR and even more so to DAP.

Staying with Pakatan gives them hope of winning back that base one day, whereas UMNO is unlikely to dilute their own power by sharing it with PAS.

PAS will also lose all hope of winning urban seats if they join BN. Needless to say, the worst part of it is, if PAS were to move to BN, the already worsening racial climate in the country will just become worse.

For PAS, the core challenge will be finding an ideological ‘product’ that will appeal to rural Malaysia while steering clear of the bigotry of UMNO. It will be hard, but perhaps taking a more service oriented approach that emphasises building real grassroots bonds with the community may yield a better result than previous approaches.

Everything will pivot on PAS keeping the faith these next few days and weeks, and then after that, on PAS’ next party . I hope they will not read too deeply into the electoral losses of their key leaders, and instead stay their extremely admirable course.

Grace and Humility in Victory?

What a sweep for DAP – undefeated in Penang and Selangor state assemblies, for starters, and winner of the most seats in Parliament. Luckily, father and son Lim are not inclined to public haughtiness, and they seem to realise the potential minefield of their recent victories.

Perhaps there is not much to say regarding DAP save two short things. Firstly, follow the leadership’s example of humility in victory. At present, it will gain us nothing if DAP wins every seats it contests everywhere, while the rest of the coalition lags behind. Indeed, that may only serve to fan racial flames.

Of course, perhaps this need not always be the case. Granted, it remains to be seen whether DAP can shed its more negative connotations of Chinese chauvinism that go back decades.

Nevertheless, the second point is that all the evidence suggests that they must certainly try. Their new Malay elected representatives are an excellent start, and a trend that begs vast expanding.Imagine if DAP fielded more and more Malay candidates, while PAS fielded more non-Malay candidates? A new Malaysia indeed.

Reforming the reformer?

People like to say PKR is the weakest link. An MP once told me: “It is not the weakest link, it is the only link.” Anwar stated openly and in no uncertain terms that should GE 13 be lost, he will step down and make way for new blood.

If so, then an era of new possibilities for PKR will come to pass. Of course, while it can move in the direction of institutional strengthening and deepening its internal democracy, it can also move in the direction of UMNO style feudalism.

PKR has long been shaped by personalities. Perhaps the time has come for it to be shaped by a combination of grassroot-led determination and leaders who are more statesmen and stateswomen than ambitious politicians – people who realise the importance of building something that will long outlive them.

This may yet be the most involved post-GE13 front, but as a member myself (last I checked) I think it would be wiser for me to leave my commentary at that for now.