Gan Pei Nei

Saw this nice little story about Gan Pei Nei, the new Rawang assemblywoman from PKR still using a kapchai to move around.

But, wasn't there another leader who also move around with a brand new bike, an expensive registration number (if he had paid for it) and without crash helmets during the recent election ?

DrM speaks up on Rulers and politicians

This appeared on The Sun online edition today.

PETALING JAYA (March 27, 2008): A Concerned Malaysian has expressed his worry over the role being played by Sultans in the appointment of the Mentri Besar.
His Royal Highnesses have clearly refused to take the advice of the Chief Minister i.e. the Prime Minister. Instead, they have chosen on their own a member of the state legislature to head the Government.

We hear a lot of opinions on the propriety of the action by the Sultan. Some say he has the right to do this while others point out that as a constitutional ruler, he could not do this.
The Constitution says that the Ruler or Head of State must choose the elected member who enjoys the support of the majority of members in the legislative body to be the Prime Minister or the Mentri Besar. Subject to this provision, the Ruler it is who chooses and appoints the Prime Minister or Mentri Besar.

The Prime Minister, as Prime Minister, has no role in the choice of the State Mentri Besar or Ketua Menteri. His naming of candidate who should be the Mentri Besar is purely a party matter. Obviously, if the State is captured by the Opposition Party, he cannot name the candidate.
However, if the Ruler chooses someone who does not enjoy majority support, he could be deposed at a sitting of the legislative body through a vote of "no confidence".

After that, another member can be appointed by the Ruler to take his place. But if for some reason, there is no other candidate or the candidate with majority support is considered unsuitable by the Ruler, a new Government cannot be formed. The Ruler may then dissolve the legislative body and a new election may be held.

This new election may lead to the same impasse. The Ruler may not like the member with majority support.

However, it should be noted that this kind of thing had never happened during the premiership of the four previous Prime Ministers. Concerned Malaysians should wonder why.
Is it just that the particular Ruler is being difficult, unwilling to accept the principles of democracy, wanting to return to feudalism and the absolute authority of the monarch?

I do not think so. There must be a reason why the Ruler refuses to accept the candidate named by the party. But the Ruler chooses not to reveal the reasons and indulge in public debates. He merely expresses his displeasure by refusing to do what normally the Rulers would do.
Concerned Malaysians must ask what has the particular candidate done which is so wrong that it incurs the displeasure of the Ruler.

There are lots of talks in the town. Terengganu is blessed with petroleum deposits. It should get 5% of the total earning from oil production. The Federal Government; fearing the previous PAS government might use this money wrongly had withheld payment.

But when the Barisan Nasional (BN) regained Terengganu the money, now called "Wang Ehsan", was lavishly spent by the Federal Government on Terengganu. It is not a small sum. Over these years "Wang Ehsan" totalled several billion.

We know that since the BN regained Terengganu in 2004, all kinds of projects have been developed in Terengganu. This includes The Monsoon Cup, luxury housing for sale to foreigners, Crystal Mosque and theme park, university, etc. Some of these projects are very good but many are totally unnecessary and wasteful.

But what the Terengganu people are saying is that all these mega projects costing billions of Ringgit have been contracted out to people outside Terengganu. Terengganu contractors got practically nothing.

But additionally, they say the contracts all went to one person and they are suspicious that behind this person are members of the first family.The rumours also say that the previous Mentri Besar was responsible for these things happening and of course, they think that he might have benefited financially.

The rumours went on to say that the Prime Minister might have influenced the Mentri Besar into doing wrong things. These are all rumours. It will be quite impossible to prove anything as the perpetrators are skilled in hiding themselves.

This is not good for a Government keen to abolish corruption and be transparent. To clear its name, an investigation should be made.

But the public is leery of investigations by Government agencies and departments. Even Royal Commissions are not highly regarded. The people believe, not true of course, that the Government has been interfering with the work of the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA), the Police and the Attorney General (A-G)'s Chambers. The say this is borne out by the results of investigations by these agencies.

When a Deputy Minister was accused of accepting money for the release of a detainee, the A-G said there was no case because the detainee said he did not give any money to the Deputy Minister. It is so easy. If you have a case involving someone, all the enforcement agencies need to do is to ask him whether he was involved. If he says "no", then there is no case.

For some reason, judges are finding that people accused of murder are not guilty because of insufficient evidence by the police. Yet people who are totally not involved in a case, who were not accused of any misdeeds and who did not appear in court at all and been given a hearing are found guilty and publicly condemned.

The public cannot be blamed for not having faith in Government agencies doing investigations. The public cannot be blamed for suspecting cover-ups by the Government or worse still the Government may be using these enforcement agencies to threaten people.

To clear its good name, the Government should get credible foreign agencies to do the investigation. Of course, they must be given full access to the documents etc.

Now my detractors are going to say I did worse things when I was Prime Minister. Well, if that is so, let us have the foreign agencies investigate me also. I am aware that people are looking into possible misdeeds by me during my 22 years so as to threaten me and ask me to shut up. So far they have not found anything.

Not only have I not taken anything that was not due to me while I was Prime Minister but I have given back to the Government and the people everything that I had received as gifts during my tenure of office.

The Government had offered me land in Kedah and Langkawi and I had refused to accept. I have a 5-acre plot in Putrajaya which I paid for even though the Government was offering it to me free.

Unless there is a frame-up, I think there should be nothing to pin on me. Even other accusations against me, including the dismissal of judges, were not my doing and I do not feel obliged to apologise. Ask the Tribunal to apologise.

The person asking that the Government should apologise for what happened to Tun Salleh Abbas may have forgotten that as President of the Muslim Lawyers Association, he fully supported the action that was taken. He castigated the Bar Council for condemning Tun Hamid Omar over the dismissal of judges. Now he wants to be more correct than correct. I wonder why.

T'ganu MB Tusle : Badawi Concedes Defeat

Another "lose face" scenario for Badawi after the Perlis MB saga. The score now is 2-0 to the royals. The Star has the news.

I'm thinking if this really good for the country in the long run ? I'm not a BN supporter but Badawi does have my sympathy in this. His chosen representative-Idris Jusoh is the democratically appointed leader but is being brushed aside by the royalty.

What would Dr.M have done if he had been in Badawi's shoe ? I'm sure as hell the score would have been a lot tighter.

People's power is greater than any other power, any time, any place.

Another group of NGOs ? Or are they ?

A so called group of "NGOs" had expressed their dissapproval (not that it matters) over the composition of the Perak EXCO. Read here .

Of course now being the season of UMNO operatives masquerading as NGOs to slam the Barisan Rakyat's governed states, I was compelled to google the two main names mentioned as the leader of the NGO pack, one Nonee Ashirin Mohd Radzi & one Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim. Well, what a surprise....they are not NGO after all.

Nonee Ashirin Mohd Radzi - Is a Kampar Wanita Umno committee member. Click here.
Datuk Kamilia Ibrahim - An UMNO member as well. She spoke the all too repeated "jangan bermain dengan api" catchphrase at the recent UMNO assembly. Click here.

When will these clowns learn.....sigh.

Azmi Sharom : BRAVE NEW WORLD

Azmi Sharom came out with a gem of on opinion letter on the Star. Some of it was quite hard hitting.

• Some still unable to come out and accept the verdict of the rakyat
• Khir Toyo, the temple terminator, being one the impetus for the change of S'gor Govt
• NEP was meant to help the poor and not meant to be corrupt, inefficient and wasteful
• There are also many malays for whom the NEP has not helped
• Umno members have shown the Barisan government that protesting really is part of our culture (my note:contrary to what Najib said earlier during Bersih/Hindraf rallies)
• This is the time for the opposition turned government to act like statesmen and not like rabble-rousers

Time to act as statesmen

It's a whole new type of politics out there and the new state governments and the country too need time to adjust to this change.
After the excitement of the election results (yes, I’m still writing about the election, apologies to those of you with insatiable appetites for the new and the “now”), certain unease seems to be creeping into the collective consciousness.
Headlines scream about cracks in the loose coalition of the Opposition, constitutional crises hang over the horizon of at least two states. Are things going to go tumbling down?
Well, a week is a long time in politics as they say, and by the time this article comes out five days would have passed since I wrote it, so I could end up with egg on my face.
However, I just want to say; cool it, chill out, relax, it's early days and the poor little politicians have no idea what hit them.
Some of them have never been out of power and some of them have never tasted it.
They are still stuck in their old mindsets. We, the people seem to have leaped forward but they are still trying to wrap their heads around this new world; poor dears.
For example, the Opposition leader in Selangor; after days of petulant silence he comes out with this grand plan to watch the new state government with beady eagle eyes.
They are going to register the old folks and the young ones and make sure they all get what the ex-Opposition promised them (healthcare and child care respectively). Well, good on you Khir!
I always said a strong opposition is what we need.
But, a word of advice to the handsome ex-Mentri Besar.
Accusing the new state government of being likely to be racially insensitive is rather rich coming from you.
If I am not mistaken, and I am not, some of the most publicised temple destruction that caused such anger and uproar in the Hindu community, and which was one of the impetuses to the heavy setback suffered by the Barisan, happened in Selangor; when you were in charge.
Besides, Khalid and co have not even managed to settle in their new offices. It’s going to take some time to clean up all those shredded documents.
Give them a while to settle in before you threaten to “take action.”
Meanwhile in Penang, Lim Guan Eng had barely sat down when he had to jump up again and put out a fire that is the NEP.
I watched the interview he gave on the NEP and he said that he wanted to weed out the corrupt, inefficient and wasteful aspects of the policy.
Nothing was said about marginalising the poor, of whatever race. Surely this is a good thing. Surely the NEP was meant to help the poor and not meant to be corrupt, inefficient and wasteful.
The NEP’s time is over. For the Malay professional classes, they should be able to stand on their own feet, and if they can’t, then they should not be in that position in the first place.
For the Malay poor, and there are many of them, making up as they do the vast majority of low income families, it would appear that a new approach is needed.
If a policy has been implemented for nearly 40 years and the main group it is aiming to help is still in the same position, it is high time to look at new policies.
The trouble with the NEP and the way it has been enforced is that it promotes Malay interest over national interest. Let’s take a look at public institutions for example; Malay people staff them overwhelmingly.
This is because non-Malays feel they don’t have a fair shot at promotions in the civil service. A worry that is quite valid.
We are too small a nation to shut out talent based on race. The country has to be run by the best people or we will all suffer and the Malay supremacists will then be the supreme masters of rubble.
Obviously not all Malays feel like me. Some were so angry at Guan Eng’s misquoted statement that they have taken to the streets of Penang and Shah Alam. I think this is super.
A democracy needs dissent as long as it is peaceful. The sight of Umno members thronging around Komtar warmed the cockles of my heart.
Umno members have shown the Barisan government that protesting really is part of our culture.
They made a mistake condemning the Bersih and Hindraf rallies. Malaysians do take to the streets when they want to express their feelings.
The country is on the cusp of a new type of politics. It is perhaps no accident that amongst the Opposition in Parliament, the one with the largest number of seats is a multi-racial party that calls for a non-racial method of affirmative action.
And the other two Opposition parties, although more mono racial in their make up are also making similar overtures.
It is odd therefore that the response to the election results by the Barisan component parties has been to reinforce the racial based policies and politics that a very large proportion of the citizens appear to have rejected.
It is also odd to see the old warhorses of the Opposition act like they are still in the Opposition. People, you are in charge of five states now. This is the time to act like statesmen and not like rabble-rousers.
Yes, there is a degree of uncertainty in our country after the elections, but at the end of the day we are going to need to give it some time before we press the panic button; time to see how the new state governments work; time to see how the Barisan reacts; and time most of all to let the old dinosaurs rant and rave using the language of race until they come to the realisation that for the future to be bright, outdated and outmoded politics must be discarded.
The country needs time to settle, let’s just hope the politicians do not take too long in doing so.

> Dr Azmi Sharom is a law teacher. The views expressed here are entirely his own.

badawi condemns umno street protests. (will he?)

full text here

full text here

people will flock back to us

The esteemed YB Muhyiddin Yassin has a simple answer on how to bring back the support to his party. Read it here .

Sadly, I believe he has yet to come out of his cocoon to realise that the RAKYAT is smarter now.

malaysia decides but some still can't accept ?

bitterly dissapointed

Two well respected figures in a northern & central region had a great oppurtunity to make a decision that would have shattered the racial divide theory, right from the top of the apex, but alas they also took the path that implies one race is indeed superior to the other.

One of them is a well read scholar has been renowned to talk about integration & unity and all functions that he attends to. The other didnt even bother to give the "good news" himself, rather asked a spokesman to do it.

Bitterly dissapointed.

remember this guy ?

The only word that this Zainuddin Maidin frequently shouted during his short lived tenure as Information Minister was the same one that the rakyat had in mind when they voted him out.

BAN

First

My first foray into the world of blogging....