Politik, Legislatif, Dasar dan Tadbir Urus

DAP National Chairman Karpal Singh has made it clear that his party should follow the one candidate, one seat policy when coming to contesting in the next general elections. Karpal's reasons and justifications are very clear. DAP today is not the same as the DAP in the years before 2008. Prior to the year 2008, the total membership in the said opposition party is very little, there are also not many branches around the country at that time. However, the party enjoys the people's widest ever support and monetary contributions due to its struggle for the people, the nation and its efforts in combating corruption, power abuse and racism. In this situation, due to lack of capable members and leaders in the party at that time, candidates have no choice but to opt for two seats to contest. After the 12th general elections in March 2008, the membership in DAP continue to grow, following its outstanding performance that saw the party came into prominence when it formed the Pen...

In so many occasion, Umno often uses Islam as its subject to woo the Malay community back into its fold. In doing this, Umno leaders frequently accused Opposition leaders particularly Pakatan Rakyat of doing things that are degrading the religion, compromising with the other races and religions in order to sideline Islam, to Christianize the country, to make this country a republic, pro-Jewish and so on. Then, these Umno leader came up with a new idea in order to counter their "religious" arch rival PAS, by saying that "Malaysia is already an Islamic state" by virtue of its description in the Federal Constitution. The "Malaysia is an Islamic state" matter was later repeated by none other than an Umno supreme council member, who is also the minister in the prime minister's department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz in the parliament recently. According to Datuk Nazri, the Federal Constitution already said it all. Well, we would consider Datuk Nazri rea...

By Dr Kua Kia Soong Several former Operation Lalang detainees who have congratulated the BN government in profusion for repealing the Internal Security Act (ISA) should be advised to be more circumspect. Detention without trial still exists in the form of the two anti-terrorism laws with security provisions that are broad and vague and that will result in continuation of detention without charge and denial of basic rights. Also, the BN government has shown that its capacity for vindictive prosecution is undiminished. When the ISA was enacted in 1960, the government justified it by saying it would only be used against the “communists”. Liberals therefore concluded that they would not be affected. However, the mass detentions, such as those of Operation Lalang in 1987, demonstrated that no one, especially progressive Malaysians, were exempt from the clutches of the ISA. The new “anti-terrorism” laws have a familiar sense of deja vu about them. We should not be too quick to presume th...

The recent report made by the Auditor-General has been released. The report was actually being withheld from being released to the members of parliament. It was only released at the last minute when members of parliament complained of not getting the copies in time for their study and review. The Auditor-General's report had mentioned everything, from the various power abuses, mismanagement, corruption, missing funds, disbursement of allocations to shopping sprees. What next? Why hasn't the prime minister take the report seriously and initiate the necessary actions in order to curb such negative elements as soon as possible? Why isn't the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) take their initiatives to step in and take whatever action they could according to the law to book all those culprits to the law? MACC would definitely respond by saying that no report has been lodged and therefore an investigation file could not be opened to address all those misdeeds. So...

Sejak kebelakangan ini, para pemimpin utama Barisan Nasional (BN) asyik menghentam Pakatan Rakyat (PR) atas "kegagalan" mereka untuk membentuk sebuah kerajaan bayangan (shadow cabinet) di peringkat parlimen sejak berjaya memperkuatkan kedudukannya di parlimen pada tahun 2008. Malah, para pemimpin BN asyik menuduh para pemimpin PR yang tidak bersependapat sehingga pada hari ini mengenai isu "pembahagian portfolio" yang dipercayai telah menggagalkan pembentukan kerajaan bayangan tersebut. Nampaknya pembohongan BN itu berjaya mempengaruhi sejumlah besar rakyat yang sedang memerhati perkembangan politik semasa. Kita sememangnya berharap agar rakyat jelata tidak akan terus termakan dengan segala dakyah dan pembohongan yang dilakukan oleh BN selama ini. Kenapa PR tidak membentuk sebuah kabinet bayangan di parlimen, tetapi sebaliknya hanya berpandukan kepada jawatankuasa-jawatankuasa parlimen berportfolio (frontbench committees) yang dianggotai oleh 3 wakil daripada...

We were all wondering, why is it not wrong for Umno to smuggle RM40 million into the party's account in Sabah? Well, it was mentioned by Umno president Najib Razak that the RM40 million smuggling into Sabah Umno has no basis. Then the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) too confirmed that there's nothing wrong with the said questionable financial activity in Sabah Umno and therefore, no investigation papers needed. What is this? It is clearly a money laundering activity is going on in Sabah in order to help finance the state Umno's activities or whatever illegal channels over there. We are wondering why is the MACC saying that there's no case at all on such unlawful activity? Suara Inisiatif Sdn Bhd (Suaram) has been faithfully sending its annual reports to the Companies Commission of Malaysia (CCM) yearly and also dutifully paid its dues and taxes to the government every year. And yet Suaram is now being persecuted by various quarters such as the CCM...

At the start of the MCA annual general assembly, the party's placards are flying everywhere from the road leading to Wisma MCA then inside the building the party's message of hate (towards DAP) continues to flare blatantly. In what we saw some banners in blue saying that "MCA promotes peace" while the other banner which is in red states "DAP incites hatred". Who is actually inciting hatred over here? Looks like the MCA's general assembly which is ongoing is going to be another Umno-liked Pakatan bashing event instead of mapping out their party's program for our people to review and at the same time revealing their plans for the next general elections. Political bashing and hatred would not do MCA or any of its leaders any good. Just like the previous Umno general assemblies, all day round, speeches by the party delegates are full of bashing and hatred towards their rivals in the opposition front, instead of laying out their plans for the peo...

Recently, a Penang based Gerakan divisional chief had openly condemned DAP for its window dressing multiracial stature in the party, further alleged that Malay leader who are at the leadership hierarchy are merely for show. What is the big fuss over here? Gerakan wanted to claim that they are more multiracial than DAP? First of all, is Gerakan really that multiracial as claimed by its leadership? We doubt that certainly. According to that Gerakan divisional leader, Malays in the DAP are merely for window dressing. What about Gerakan? Are there any Malays in Gerakan's line-up? The answer is No! What about Indian representatives? Yes, there are only a few of them? We could also say the Indian members in Gerakan are also mere window dressing. About 95 percent of the branch chairmen in Gerakan nationwide are Chinese. State leadership, we cannot see any of those non-Chinese who are really leading role actively and outspoken against racism. At the divisional level, maybe there are...

Actually, there is no need for Pakatan Rakyat or any other political parties who are seated at the opposition bench to work out a shadow cabinet in order to perform its duties and responsibilities for the people. Yes, we all know that Najib Razak has been always harping on such issue and his latest statement sounds, "Do not talk about forming the government, form a shadow cabinet first". Najib is trying to get the general public to put an extensive political pressure onto the leaders of the opposition Pakatan coalition to name their shadow cabinet in order to prove their ability to govern the nation. This is one political trick mounted by Najib and his BN people in order to put Pakatan into a very difficult situation. There it goes, Najib did little success by getting some public pressure onto Pakatan on the issue of naming a shadow cabinet. We call on the opposition leader, NO need to be so overly concern about such issue or highlights. It is merely a political game...

Sejak daripada tahun 2008 lagi, Barisan Nasional (BN) telah melancarkan serangan politik bertalu-talu terhadap Pakatan Rakyat (PR) dengan tujuan untuk mengalihkan perhatian rakyat terhadap beberapa siri pencapaian PR yang memerintah beberapa buah negeri dan pada masa yang sama berharap agar rakyat jelata akan lupa dengan kelemahan yang ada pada BN dan pemerintahannya yang kucar-kacir. Serangan BN terhadap PR ini hanyalah bertumpu kepada memburuk-burukkan PR semata-mata tanpa memberikan penekanan terhadap kualiti pemerintahan, pembangunan dan kebajikan untuk rakyat jelata. Yang pihak BN tahu adalah hanya membuahkan isu-isu perkauman, kebencian, perpecahan, mengaitkan penderhakaan terhadap Raja-raja Melayu dan yang paling terbaru mengaitkan PR dengan elemen-elemen Yahudi dan George Soros serta yang terbaru, ada cubaan untuk mengkristiankan negara ini. Nafsu BN sememangnya amat buas buat masa kini. Selain daripada itu, BN juga sering menuduh PR yang kononnya gabungan pemb...

It is very clear that the water deadlock in the state of Selangor is the work of the Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders. Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) is not fully owned by the Selangor state government. The major shareholder of Syabas is Puncak Niaga Holdings Berhad (Puncak Niaga) who holds 70 percent of the total share in Syabas. The Selangor state government through Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Berhad only holds about 17 percent, while the other 13 percent is currently being held by the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOF Inc.) We all know that Puncak Niaga is a company owned by those who had close connections with the federal government, BN and Umno. Plus the other part which is currently held by MOF Inc., the total BN interest in Syabas is at 83 percent, which means the Selangor state government which has only 17 percent stake in Syabas is only a minority shareholder. In this case, what can the Selangor state government do as a minority shareholder? Certainl...

Recently, Umno vice president and defence minister "Dr" Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had outlined the newest formula for Penang Umno together with other Barisan Nasional (BN) component parties, such as MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP in order to recapture Penang in the next general election which is expected to be called next year. The formula, according to Zahid would be based on 3-3-3-1, which means, Umno which currently already had 11 seats would work on to add another 3 seats, while both MCA and Gerakan would strive for 3 seats each, MIC would go for only 1 seat and PPP would get nothing in the end. Such proposal forwarded by an Umno leader demonstrates their arrogance and "ketuanan" towards the other BN component parties which they had all along regarded them as subservient. The arrogance in Umno is still there. It is clear that Umno is demonstrating their arrogance to MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP  by putting up the 3-3-3-1 formula. When some MCA, MIC, Gerakan and PPP le...